Interview with L'Antre des Damnés
Answered by Deacon D.
1) Greetings!!! The band now known as Hetroertzen was brought to light in the unholy year of 1997 under the name Hhahda which at the time was considered as the solo project of Kæffel. What is the meaning of such an uncommon word? For what reasons did you decide to change it into Hetroertzen four years later? Same question as previously: which symbols do you hide behind this name?
1997 was the year Hetroertzen was born as my solo project beside Horns. In the year 1999 Hhahda was born as another parallel band which later just changed name. l wanted to avoid so much side projects so I took the name of my personal project and decided to continue as a band instead. I found both names in fantasy books about mythical creatures and places.
I know, nothing really special if you think about it, but even so with a dark character behind and some extra meaning at least for what l do now.
2) The band initially originates from Puerto Varas in Chile. How come you ended up living in Sweden now? Anything to do with the fact that Christianity does still have a huge influence on the Chilean society?
Christianity was not something we took so much care about, it is considered harmless and weak everywhere, at least nowadays. The reason we decided to leave our country was because we got tired of it, simple and direct, everything was hard for us when it came to our Art. Here in Sweden, things are much better and we can do what we like without limitations. Another reason we decided to move to this country is because of its powerful culture and its beautiful historical background, nothing that can be compared with our "home-country".
3) Let us speak a word about the line-up now: the band has experienced many musician changes since its beginnings… Now it only consists as a duo: Kæffel and Åskväder. Has this configuration been the strongest and the most powerful one in the history of the band?
Me and Åskväder are the founders of the band and yes, we have experienced many changes concerning the line up. Now there is a new member, Sevekh on guitar. With him, our Egregore is more complete. Garghuf is also an important part of the band when it comes to live ceremonies, a good drummer and a serious person.
4) Your fourth and latest album, Exaltation of Wisdom, was recently rereleased by both Lamech Records and Barghest in a very esthetic digipack version. Initially the album had been released in 2010 as a 12" deluxe LP limited to 500 copies. Nowadays it seems quite surprising to release an album in a vinyl version only… Which relation do you have towards vinyl? Why did you decide to release a numeric version now? Does the release date (11/11/11) have an important signification for you?
The vinyl was released on may 26, you know the number 26 is the numeric combination of the name of yhvh and by choosing this date we are (symbolically) eradicating his power upon this world by breaking fear and superstition with a single action…
We have chosen the Vinyl format initially to avoid so much movement on internet and make it a bit difficult to get. It felt somehow more special. Anyway, after a couple of years we found ourselves in the need to re-release this Opus on CD for many reasons.
The CD version was released in 11/11/11, just because the number 11 (as some others) got a special meaning for the Brotherhood of the Serpent. Three times repeated is three times more powerful, alchemically three times "magnanimous" just like the Archangels. That's all.
5) Furthermore the CD version has been remixed and remastered by Kæffel in April 2011. Were you no more satisfied with the initial production?
Not really, you see, we got so little time to create that album and record it, only three months! Of course the final result did not satisfy us at all, but considering the little time we got and not the best resources either, we managed to make it sound decent. For the LP version it's quite ok. When we decided to re release it on CD, we made it together with Barghest and it became much more beautiful in all senses! I came back to the mix and started almost from 0, without spearing one single detail. Of course the album was re-mastered in a proper way this time.
6) I must admit that when I listened to your musical art for the very first time I was really astonished by both the intensity and the hypnotic and ritualistic vibe that come from it. What about the composition process? Is there some space for improvisation in Hetroertzen’s art or is everything planed in all details? I suppose your state of mind is primordial when you write lyrics or compose music for the band… Do you have conscious musical influences while composing?
Thanks for your words! Yes, we have quite a lot of improvisation while recording, at the last minute many things could happen and if they are great things we should accept them.
I don't think is the best idea to proceed 100% systematically while recording an album.
Is always good to put the best, all at once including new ideas even at the last minute.
When I write my texts I use to be in solitude since this is a very basic thing when it comes to writing and of course with a pleasant environment. Is important to have nice music and to feel as much comfortable as possible. Concerning music, nothing is better than having classical stuff, I don't necessarily mean metal music, but classical composers such Mozart or Bach between others. I use to listen to church organ music, Opera and some Russian orthodox "basso profundo" chants.
They work well for us when we compose and share ideas. Of course we don't ignore the best spices of the Heavy metal music like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Mercyful fate.
7) Hetroertzen’s lyrical content is more than important in this project, maybe even more than music itself. I hope I don’t make any mistake but one could say that it deals foremost with Luciferian beliefs and magic. We will try to go deeper into this philosophy in the next questions but could you explain at first the big lines of your system of thoughts? Do you consider Hetroertzen only as a tool to promote these beliefs thanks to music?
Music as the other arts are ways to manifest our feelings like a crystal and share some of the experience we have achieved with Art and Magic with the ones who have eyes to see and ears to hear, we don't want to "promote" what we think and even less, try to convince people about our way to see the world. We don't see this kind of music as a tool either, I mean; what for… People interested in our path, will find us, we are not running after them.
The line will never break, so…
Most of the people will not even care about others beliefs. They have their own, you know.
8) The figure of Lucifer, known as the Light Bearer, is often described within a Christian context but it was also seen as the Morning Star (Venus) in the Roman time and as a God of Light and Knowledge in the Ancient Greece. In the Christian tradition it is presented as a powerful and overproud Archangel who challenged God and then was dethroned. In your texts you often mention some elements taken from the Christian imagery such as God, the Christ or Cain. You also appear on some pictures bearing inverted crosses. Hence my question: does Lucifer belong to the Christian tradition only or do you see him in a more universal perspective, beyond time and space? Is it necessary to believe in the existence of God to be into Luciferian magic?
When we talk about God, we don't mean Christianity at first place…
The word itself is bearer or/and bringer of light meaning knowledge, to achieve wisdom and know God directly. That is the finality, but first people should know humanity and the world. The main idea of this is to collect experience and develop gnosis. We don't involve any religion at all since we have freewill, everything is inside us and we got the right to chose if we wish so. Now the allegory behind the name are many, depending on where you seek the word or where you take it from… Of course all of the meanings you have previously mentioned are close. All I wrote now might sound christian, catholic or whatever, but the pure concept comes much before them and if you think about it, there is not much difference between the "Fallen" and the "Christ".
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
Now referring to the use of crosses (inverted or not), the symbolism is the same, we wear the suffering of the spirit in this world of misery; The cross represents the four elements of the creation or matter and the man crucified symbolizes the spirit.
Witches and pagans decided to invert the crosses just as an act of rebellion against the church, but inverted crosses are also part of christianity. Now the image brought to this era, I mean, the man crucified is not other than the Greek God of wine and ecstasy Dyonisious. The word Dio (God) derives also from it.
For the true Luciferianism, there is something in the beyond, out of this place, out of the created. That origin we call "the consciousness", the primal thought, the "All" or God is far away of our understanding. To be Luciferian is to believe in it.
Atheism is negation and is pride also, and pride is the reason why Yhvh created men; Gaining the (uncreated) sparkle of those who worship him or condemning all those who ignore him. Enslavement in all its senses. But men is not only body and soul, but also spirit. We are not empty.
9) To go on with the Christian tradition, Lucifer is very often associated or even assimilated to Satan, the adversary of God. What is your vision about that? According to you, to what extent does Luciferism differ (or not) from Satanism?
We do not believe in Lucifer being Satan, For us Satan is the opposer of the true Father and God far beyond the created who is NOT Yhvh… Satan rebelled (with pride) against the Father to be worshiped in his veil of tears, this material world. Not to be confused with the old myth.
Pride is the mother of all sins and it is basically the fear of death. There was no sin or evil before pride. There was no fear before pride.
He (Satan/yhvh) created men on his own image so men will vow down before him. That is why he says to his fellows rebels "thou shall worship no other god before me"… Satan/yhvh was not alone in the creation of this world and the prove of this is in Genesis; when he says to the other six rebel archangels; let us create the man in our image, let us create a woman for him… Behold, man has became as one of Us knowing good and evil… let us hide the three of life so he could never eat from its fruit and live forever. The fact that they were seven leaders (of course the fallen were many) is related in the book of Enoch. As you know, this cannot take part in the bible, torah or koran since they are books of abrahamic roots and the truth of their origins must be hidden for obvious reasons.
Another fact that make us never be afraid of yhvh and never obey his rules is because he is clearly powerless. A god must be omnipotent and omnipresent, now the question is why he got sick and about to die when Lilith gave him a brewage with poison of snakes and the only chance he got to survive was to reveal her his true name "Shem-ham-forash", name which exposed his true nature before Adam… After she wanted to rule (sexualy or not) over him. Challenged by his own fellow rebel. What a shame.
And if he is so omnipresent why was he asking to adam where he was, when he decided to hide himself beneath the trees after the "sin". How not to find one single man!
Yhvh only sees through the eyes of all those who worship him! Think about the agents of the Demiurge; Police, the church, politics, education, etc. It is not related with religion only.
So why did he get so worried after we took the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Because we realized the truth about his creation as something impure and full of misery and shame. To realize (when they were naked in the garden for example) is to gain the sparkle of the true god who sent us the spirit to free us. If we ever took the fruit from the tree of life we would have had the power to face them (the fallen) and eradicate their power upon us.
The Illustrious angel was sent to the realm of earth to instruct mankind and show them the ways from darkness to light, obtain wisdom and know the true God.
Now in the other hand we are satanic if we rebel against "god" the creator and that is why Lucifer as a bringer of light for humankind is satan (the opposer) in this world.
Both fell from Heaven to earth, one to create this world and men to submit them and the other to set them free… Through the development of our Spirit.
11) As I read through your lyrics I understood that you glorify the power of the spirit and that at the same time want to see the flesh eradicated. What relation do you have towards the body? Do you live a form of ascetic life? Is there space for fleshly pleasures in your life?
Of course we have space for our "fleshly" pleasures. As I said it is very important to have fun while living, we cannot just ignore the things we like. You bow to nobody. Everything is already condemned indeed and most of the things you see are illusory. I mean the system they have created; Moralism, education, politics, religion, family, works, money, etc… Since this (fucked up) world need that chain to continue like the crap it is now, and we cannot do anything to change it; we can chose whether to shot at ourselves with dignity or take advantage of this situation while at the same time we develop what we need for our journey far beyond "Death" as they call it.
The body must be sacrificed at the end, in the proper way, but first we have to complete the different energetic centers without these, our "corpus" is like an empty church.
12) In the text of the song The Final Breath of Mankind we find mentions of Ea and Anu, among others. Does it have anything to do with the Annunaki prince and his father who are meant to have founded "The Brotherhood of the Snake"? More generally the references to the Snake/Dragon are numerous in your texts as well as in the illustrations of the album. Which significance does hide behind these figures?
The meaning is Royalty. The "Drako" is the King of all ancient civilizations. They brought light to Humankind, raised them from the mud to a temple. Their offspring are everywhere. They were in the beginning. They will be here at the end of this era.
They represent wisdom in the noble sense, It is described in the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as the Melusine, the serpentine angel of God. And it is also referred as the Zephirous of Kether which is a Crown of fire whose kingdom expand beyond the firmament; "I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven and I will be like the most high"… said Lucifer the Christ to Jehovah. For He (Lucifer) is part of God and God itself.
13) You write that "There is no Good and Evil, But the Quest for Light that will set us Free!" Does that mean that you don’t follow any moral code…?
Moral does not exist. If people stop talking about moral, everyone will start to discover new things and forget about this silly and empty word. It is a vicious circle and nothing more, one of this black magical lines made by the one who want to step upon you, it is a way to submit the weaker. Moral code is a psychological structure towards the pride of men. Some sort of "plug" that make us feel as part of our social system.
When I said "there is no Good and Evil" I mean once you have reached the power to balance both of them; Positive and negative, you find yourself with a "third" choice which is both concepts in one, reunited as their origin, this is the way to recreate Daath. By not seeing limitations in what you do. Ritual sexual activity and submission are obviously very powerful ways to realize this point clearly. By breaking fear, shame and most important; Taboo. Now "The quest for light that will set us free" is no other than the discovering of this mysterious knowledge to reach the "Crown" and travel towards the "Sky" (Ain Soph). Without the illusion of Good and Evil. No longer separated as two different bases, but conjoined as only one. The path to become like the gods as the serpent said unto Eve.
14) You long for absolute Darkness, Nothingness and Void. Does this mean end of all life on a physical level or does it also imply the death of all consciousness? One can see as something rather negative… Can you explain how you see it in a positive way?
When I mean absolute darkness I refer to "Ain Soph", the great darkness which was in the beginning and will surely be at the end. this mean PEACE above all. Positive point.
Nothingness is the ceasing of the created "Demiurge" and all abominations it includes.
Consciousness will never die. It should be only one, single and perfect, instead of many "tongues of fire" breathing everywhere… This is Luciferianism. Another very positive point I think.
It is very naive to think that one can break that primeval consciousness as a sign of rebellion, just because it cannot be understood. The origin could never disappear.
15) What is the ultimate goal in Luciferism? You often mention the notion of Peace in your lyrics… What does Peace represent for you? Light is a word that regularly appears in your texts… To what extent does Christian Light differ from the Light of Lucifer?
The true ultimate goal for the Luciferianism is the Sacrifice of the Innocence and the Exaltation of Light above all. Innocence is ignorance in the whole sense and fear to the unknown. A very bad thing if you think about it.
We see Light as the Knowledge that eradicates the shadows of that ignorance (superstition and fear to death / God the creator).
It is also the way to Illuminate Mankind and raise them over their animal rank.
Peace is the ceasing of all suffering, misery, decease, bloodshed and death. Peace on earth is the cutting of all boundaries established in the society. The stop of its influence.
The Christian light does not differ so much from Luciferian Light, of course I do not see Jesus as the christ, neither the Christian church as Christianity. Lucifer, Krist and the Holy ghost are all in one. What people often follow is the one who place himself between the son and the Father and the name of that impostor is YHVH; yahveh, jehovah, allah. The criminal God of the jews, christians and muslims. The one who likes the continuous bloodshed and the smell of the burning flesh specially from women and children.
Poor and empty those who follow him.
"Unless you have not eaten from the flesh of Christ and drunk from his blood, there is no life in you."
16) Some say that we currently live in the Kali Yuga or "Iron Age", a period of time when mankind spiritually degenerates and where all values get inverted… Do you have an opinion about the society and the so-called modern world we live in? Do you believe, as some say, that the earliest times of mankind were a spiritual Golden Age? Lately we hear a lot in the medias about the day of December 21st 2012… Any comment?
We must see society as a feast and humankind as a cocktail. The fact that they are going backwards is good for the one who have knowledge to observe and study them before the conquest. In this world there will always be hunter and prey and if they are acting the way they do now, it should be because "cattle" will be needed, for some reason.
In ancient times there was another way to see and perceive things, since "magic" or mysticism was well balanced with high science and this made the ancient societies advance furthermore in a proper way.
They say often 12/12/12. It sounds amazing! I am looking forward to that with the hope to see something interesting… But I can assure you nothing will happen, I mean, so many dates through history, so many prophets, so much paranoia, obsession, and you see… Nothing! only mass/collective hysteria.
When people loss fear, freedom is gained and that is what they are afraid of. Have a clue.
17) Åskväder, you are also involved in a black/folk metal project named Myling whose concepts deal with Dark Germanic Heathenism. Do Myling and Hetroertzen share some philosophical and spiritual visions about life and death?
Of course both bands possess a similar perception of the Spiritual, otherwise I wouldn't spend my time in a band that doesn't explore the unknown as we do in both hordes. Myling is a band formed some years ago meant to create dark folk music but further than that, we created it to explore the dark side of Germanic religion within the Scandinavian folklore. I don't follow exactly that path, but I respect what was practiced in the old times on these lands, so I am pretty comfortable with my participation in Myling.
18) You recently performed a live show in Sweden at Arosian Black Mass. The aim of the festival was to go far beyond a simple black metal event; it was meant to be an esoteric event with all participants (musicians or artists) playing key roles. What about your own live performance? Did it match all your expectations? I noticed that you used many things on stage like masks, outfits with different colors, incense, candles and so on… What did you want to create on stage? It was your very first show in a five-year period. Now that you’ve hired the drumming mercenary Garghuf, do you plan to do more shows? Would it be meaningful for you to embark on a one-month tour or do you prefer isolated gigs?
Our live ritual was quite Ok, still some details that need to be fixed for the next step, but after more than 5 year without playing is like start from the very beginning.
The use of ceremonial tools is basically meant to reach an aura which allow us to enter a state of pleasure and play with joy connected with our Egregore.
We don't need to play in tours. For us is enough to play a couple of times in a year rather than feel that we are "selling" ourselves to people who do not necessarily understand what we do. We already got tired of it long time ago.
19) Exaltation of Wisdom is now 18-month old… Have you started to work on some new material?
Indeed. We have been working on that. I don't know when the new stuff should be ready, time will tell.
20) The interview is getting close to its end. Thank you for the time you spent on answering my questions. If you have anything to add, feel free.
Let go of your Ego. Remove your masks… Be free.
Thanks to you for the interest.
Hail Lucifer!