Cursed Christ is a legitimate representative of that old school Black Metal vintage that has stayed true to its 90s roots, exhaling the necrounderground through its pores, distilling its hatred and blasphemies for nearly three decades in a raw, harsh and edged sound , as the style always asked. With a new album “Unholy Ritual of Death” released recently, it’s time for BLACK METAL TERROR to have a chat with Unholy Death Avernoth, mentor of this grandiose horde:
Its an honor to us interview Cursed Christ. How has the band’s trajectory been If we do a panorama since 1993?
I am immensely honored for your support, consideration and interest in Cursed Christ, it’s an immense satisfaction to be in these bloody pages.Honestly, the band’s trajectory is a source of great pride for me, since it was founded in 1993 with the name Blasphemous Attack, in 1995 the band was renamed Cursed Christ, we had a lot of line-ups, we recorded a lot of demos, splits and live presentations, and our two albuns “Via Negativa” and “Unholy Ritual of Death”
Cursed Christ represents a foundation of national Black Metal andhas its own identity in its music. What has been influencing Cursed Christ in recent times?
Thanks for the words, I sincerely see Cursed Christ as an extension of my life, despite being a black metal worshiper would not be interesting to sound like so many other bands, but our influences are inevitable, from the old cult bands like Bathory, Celtic Frost and Venom and also band as Beherit, Impaled Nazarene, Profanatica, Mayhem, Dark Throne, Hades, Grand Belials key, Burzum, Rotting Christ… among many others that influenced a whole generation in the 1990s, when Cursed Christ came into being. Nowadays I hear a lot of bands that express hate and brutality in their songs, I’m not a trend-following guy, but in terms of Cursed Christ I like also listening to bands like Absurd, Ad Hominem, Der Sturmer, Evil, Satanic Warmaster, Archgoat, Marduk, RMC , These would be some names thinking about more extreme bands, but personally I like many other bands from Heavy, Thrash, Brutal and Satanic Death Metal and the pure and most hateful Black Metal… I could you put a big list of underground and well unknown bands here, as I’ve mentioned many already known, but anyway… its some bands that I listen to and even influence me,but when composing, I just follow my feelings…
The band had a drastic lineup change. What happened to the old members and how did you get to the current line up?
Avernoth: The band really went through a very significant line-up change, Malekiavel, who had been playing with me since 2003, was already going through a series of personal situations and told me that after the concerts we did at the Yperborea event, in 2019, he would leave. .. Maycon who had been playing drums since 2016, replacing our drummer Bruno who had moved to another city in 2014, had personal problems in 2019. For a short period I found myself alone in the band… I had only one option at that moment, invite new members. I have a deep friendship with Holokhaosto (RMC, Evil, Hammergoat, Die Human Race, Dethroned Christ, etc…) and Herr Akhvan (RMC, Combate SP, Grimo, Alem-Man, etc…). I remember that on the occasion of the second edition of Yperborea, when Der Sturmer/Wodulf secretly performed here, we met at this event and there we signed an alliance to follow up on all unfinished projects and create other releases.
Speaking of releases, there is a brutal partnership between Opus Bélico, your parallel band, and Ravendark’s Monarchal Canticle which resulted in a Split CD in 2019 , Can we expect any more news from Opus Bélico in the near future?
Really the guys at RMC have been my personal friends for over 20 years, we shared the stage numerous times and we had already released a ‘4 way split tape’ between Cursed Christ and RMC titled “Sadistic Hordes of Destruction” in 2006, and nothing would be more memorable than a split CD between the RMC and Opus Belico and we had great reviews with this work that for me was particularly hateful, Both in the graphic part, with the lay out and the front cover being done by Allan, as in the songs ; a killer album worth getting and that was released in a very limited copies. About Opus Belico we also had a loss, our other guitarist decided go in his own way and we are now just four members in the line up and we decided that we’re going to go like that. We have plans for the future, recordings and concerts and as soon as everything is decided and finalized you will be the first to know.
Some time ago there was a Cursed Christ show with Profanatica in Brazil and also a band’s participation in YPERBOREA in 2019 alongside renowned names like EVIL… How were these performances for the band?
Honestly when I received the invitation to play with Profanatica it was one of the most memorable moments in my life and in the history of the band, Robson from Storm Productions that organized everything and I can say that it was a unforgettable night in São Paulo to have the opportunity to play with a legend and one of my biggest influences , I have this event in my memory as if it were yesterday, the guys from Profanatica are very receptive, they are an amazing and very professional band, they also made an astonishing show and many people from various regions of South America was there and I must also emphasize the presentation of Hammergoat which is a fucking awesome band with members of other well-known bands and Slaughtbbath from Chile which for me was a killer band!!! About Yperborea it was something that many years ago we had been talking about doing an event of these proportions, there were two dates with the presence of Evil, Cursed Christ, RMC and Opus Belico, the first appearance was at an event more reserved in the city of São Paulo and the second was here in the city of Franca where we welcome many necrounderground allies… honestly an event that will be at story…
The national underground has very characteristic features and elements that make us different from the European matrix that many artists and musicians are used to. How do you see the national underground today?
In Brazil we have many bands that were also influences for many of these bands not only from Europe but also from other parts of the world, I really like the sound of Brazilian bands and we are friends with many of them, I could mention many hordes that I admire and for me in terms of Brazil today they are equal to the level of others in the world, but in order not to extend myself I can only say that in Brazil we have the most perverted and insane black arts worshipers. The bands here are investing more and more in their professionalism and sonority and this can be seen in their releases and shows and in their work, Brazil will always be the cradle of bands of great reference and brutality, even if some say otherwise… Hail to the unholy ones!!!
The year 2019 was marked by the cancellation of shows such as Watain, Rotting Christ, Nokturnal Mortum, Mgla etc. And it was also reported on social media about the cancellation of an event with Cursed Christ as well. How do you see these manifestations of people that cause and motivate these cancellations.
Haha… “If we’re bothering others so we’re on the right path…” Particularly Cursed Christ doesn’t express any political terms in their lyrics, posture or ideology, even though I like some bands that can follow these lines it doesn’t mean anything … we were really pissed with this cancellation, the bands that were supposed to be present in the cast are my friends and it would be really cool to play with them, the organizer even tried to keep the event, but the owner of the pub was also corrupted by these guys that lurking behind keyboards and cellphone apps are like cancerous metastasis… particularly I didn’t receive any message or threat either on the band’s page or on my personal page, but they used a poster image and the band name and some photos forcing fascist parallels to our image… which doesn’t match the band’s posture at all haha dozens of nasty comments came and honestly this only strengthened our proposal and ours alliances… one time or another other events will happen, they don’t have the courage to show up themselves even at the door of the show… Anyway, they deserve the gutter of life and we the necrounderground throne!!! F..k off scum and rats!!!
Cursed Christ’s first album “Via Negativa” was released a decade ago on “Hammer of Damnation” and brings a strong rescue to the band’s own past. How did you come to this partnership with HoD? How did you reach this balance between new tracks and re-records and why this sound rescue? How were the recording sessions of “Via Negativa”?
Exactly 10 years have passed since the release of Via Negativa, a very significant and important album for me. First, I had been in contact with Warlord since 1995, at the time of the tapetrades and zines by mail, I remember that in 2008 or 2009 I received an email that you my Avernoth: Exactly 10 years have passed since the release of Via Negativa, a very significant and important album for me. First, I had been in contact with Warlord since 1995, at the time of the exchange of tapes and zines by mail, I remember that in 2008 or 2009 I received an email from Warlord that you yourself my brother intermediated this project and partnership helping us and with this invitation we started building what became our first Full-Lenght. We decided that it would be perfect to use songs that portrayed our entire history of those first 15 years and along with new songs we closed this set list that featured a revisited song by Blasphemous Attack (Hail Satan), along with a special song from each demo… Consecrate…, Cursed Christ, Three Bloody Nails, Almight Emperor, Malignant Soul and Satanic Majesty and to complete the album, the previously unreleased songs: Via Negativa, Wolf Among the Sheeps and Rise of the Antikristus king (Antichristian Supremacy). I remember that the recording sessions were very important moments for us, we looked for a studio here in Franca, we rehearsed every weekend and one or two recording sessions in the studio during the week for a period of 4 months until we got the songs and mixes… I really like a lot the album, maybe some mistake due to lack of experience, something in the mix or even in the sound captures that years later ,for knowledge, we came to feel… but even so created a nostalgic atmosphere and faithfully portrays the 90s, so we bring back the feeling of the album… For me it was perfect to have this album released by HOD and I hope we can work together again one day.
The time that separates “Via Negativa” from the new album “Unholy Ritual of Death” was exactly a decade even though the new album was already announced ten years ago in the booklet of the first one. Why did this release take so long?
In fact the album Unholy Ritual of Death had already been announced in the booklet of our first full length Via Negativa, we already had riffs, lyrics and ideas for this stuff, but between 2011 and 2013 we did a series of shows and ended up not completing anything from this album and in the same period I went through a serious health problem which took almost a year away from everything, in 2014 our drummer Bruno Pesce moved to another city and we are sorry about his absence until in 2016 we invited drummer Maycon to play with us… we didn’t record anything official with Malekiavel, Maycon and I in the line up, but the band was active playing in some live presentations and composing, unexpectedly in 2019 the departure of both as already mentioned and in that same year the entrance of Holokhaosto and Herr Akhvan looking for new directions and works.
Before the release of the new album you released a demo “The Dark Times are Calling” as a preview for “Unholy ritual of death”. Tell us more about this demo and the reasons for its release. Looks like it was re-released with extra tracks this year, right? Tell us more about it.
Exactly, this demo was essential to present the new lineup, to know how we would sound playing 400km away and how the final work would be on the first unreleased songs and also the re-recordings with new clothes… the official version has three sounds, being two unpublished and one re-recording, we made a print run of 100 copies that sold out in a few days. This year 2021 the labels Acta Non Verba and Unholy War Prod re-released 50 copies with three different sounds from a rehearsal as a bonus… this stuff is killer!!!
Musically speaking “Via Negativa” and “Unholy Ritual of Death” are very different even though they keep the same north. To what extent did the time between the albums and the line-up changes contribute to this differentiation? Have there been changes in the writing process? In your opinion, what are the main differences and similarities between both albums?
I believe that time has only done us good, getting to know our instruments better and how working in the studio reflected in our songs, the lineup change was also essential at this point, fresh blood flowing in our veins, the same goal and determination were also factors fundamental. I think time only allowed us to produce an album with much more intensity and in just two or three months we did the whole process of recording, mixing and mastering. Some songs were written between 2013 and 2019 but most were written in 2020, the fact that we live about 400km away was remarkable for us to use resources never before imagined to play together, for example, by video conference, I composed the riffs around here, I would send them by video there, we would arrange our rehearsals by conference and then we would define the songs, something unprecedented in our history. They are different due to the time they were written and recorded, the line up among other things, but I say that one album is a sequence of the other, but there is a big distinction, the question is there… but the result for me was amazing for both!!!
Lyrically speaking, apparently the band changed the focus a little, going from themes that addressed Satanism and anti-Christianity in a raw and direct way to something somewhat more elaborate, something noticed in titles like “Katharsis of the Black Aura” and “In the Morbid Loneliness of the Night” suggest. Was there really a shift in lyrical focus? Lyrically, how do you see and compare the new compositions with the old ones?
I would say that all of this happened naturally and according to the reality of each time, the band was created at the height of Black Metal in the 90s and it was natural for our lyrics to deal with themes of anti-Christianity, due to our way of seeing morality pious, Satanism due to what we were transcending as dogmas… Unholy Ritual of Death is an album that addresses more spiritual issues, for example Katharsis of the Black Aura is about our little chapter called life and our memories in imposing shadows, our anger and hate, anxiety and despair that are normal feelings of every human being, but in catharsis for those who believe in a transition. In the Morbid Loneliness of the Night is a lyric that deals with a very personal meaning, the darkness has always been enveloping, penetrating into the night like an emissary of silence, denying faith and hope, in the morbid solitude of the night. We also had an amazing experience with the song Peste Negra/Black Death, that was a suggestion of the new members and because their original bands were sung in our native language, it was suggested that we make a song like that, I thought that within the concept of the album a song that was about the current moment we are living would be primordial, human destiny is miserable, we are the black plague, the human in us has died, we are the wound of the world, there will be no dawn for our time… and I would also quote the song title Unholy Ritual of Death that has a message probably far beyond what humanly could understand… we practice dirty rituals of hate, we conspire in our rituals, so that we are guided in our steps, in this life and in the next, consecrated is the fidelity and devotion to highest occult knowledge…
Do you have other side projects besides Opus Bélico? Tell us about your musical trajectory today.
I was part of another Black Metal band two decades ago, it was a very important and expressive phase for me, but nowadays only Cursed Christ and Opus Bellico.
What are Cursed Christ’s inspirations for compositions? Are there any national underground bands you would recommend to readers?
My inspiration in songwriting moments is based on old Black Metal bands, an affronting and profane spirit, lyrics that exalt our experiences and beliefs, shadows, blood and darkness, madness and worship of the dark side… I could recommend dozens of new bands, but I recently got the LONEHUNTER Mcd and I really like it… the guys’ music is very good and I recommend it.
I know there are plans for a CD compilation of old tracks that will be called “MEMORIAL”, let us know the details of this release, in fact let us know what the near future holds for Cursed Christ (new unreleased album, shows, etc, etc.
I’m really working on a release, probably a double cd containing some demos, songs that were recorded in other versions, live songs with some guests who are references in the underground, some sounds we made at the time the band was still called Blasphemous Attack and new sounds… the album will be called “Memorial” (25 Years of Pure Hellish Torment) we are still seeing partnerships with labels for this release, the goal is that this stuff is ready in this year of 2021. I’m already writing lyrics and writing new riffs and we plan a new album with a title that is still provisional, but I already tell you: Centurions of the Apocalypse (Consumatum Est). We also look forward to the return of the shows so that we can present the new face of the band and the new songs.
Thank you so much for the opportunity! I leave this space for you to leave us a.message!
My comrade, I would like to thank you so much for your support and respect, no doubt you who do interviews like this one are the biggest perpetuators of a long-forgotten movement… the Necrounderground!!! This is where we are and this is where we belong!!! Hail to the Unholy ONES!!!
“Via Negativa” the first CURSED CHRIST album can be found HERE.
