It’s the devil’s music I tell ya! DEVIL’s MUSIC! Well, we at RockRevolt don’t discriminate upon faith…body odor yes, faith, never. Music is music, regardless of inspiration, and when it’s good, we listen intently; which we did with Acheron’s latest Kult Des Hasses. Yes – we were impressed. It had that old school metal that you just want to listen to over and over again until your ears bleed out – and that guitar! Take me Devil, TAKE ME NOW! After giving the album 666 spins, we decided it was time to dig in deeper and start up a conversation with the man himself…Vincent Crowley, founder of the one and only, ACHERON.
You just posted a review from someone who didn’t like the album that you just released. I didn’t read that review, because I really like your album—but what were your thoughts on their opinion? Why did they not like it?
Well, the one thing about the media in general, you have to have a pretty tough skin in this industry, if you can’t take getting ripped on or cut down you shouldn’t do it, because that’s gonna happen somewhere down the line. Actually, the higher you get, the more frequently you’re going to get it by other people. That was just someone who didn’t like the fact that this album we wanted to really bring something to the table that sounded like it should have came out in like early 90’s or late 80‘s but didn’t date itself, something that had modern influences here and there but it had the feel that you had with albums back then, not the overproduction and stuff that a lot of bands do today, not the fake drums and all that kind of crap. We wanted to get a very organic sound and a raw sound, yet make it sound very good like some of the early Death Metal stuff that came out. He basically said that us old bands don’t evolve with the times, he’d rather hear the new Morbid Angel album than our album. If you’re familiar with the new Morbid Angel album, no one in the underground really likes that fuckin’ album. So…I didn’t really take it that seriously, because it is just someone’s opinion. I don’t expect everybody to like our stuff, obviously there’s top 10 musicians that I don’t like, and to each their own, no big deal.
Well, I liked it, I gushed on and on about it!
Well thank you!
I read in your press releases that this album took longer than anticipated. Were you working on this when you and I met?
No—the last album came out in 2009. What happened was: the label we were on didn’t give us any support at all. Our contract said they were supposed to do ad campaigns, this, that and the other thing, and their idea of an ad campaign was posting ads on internet blogs, and we were like—it’s called magazines, it’s called media and they didn’t do any promotion for us at all. That album was really a good album too, we put a lot of time, worked with some good people, and it just kind of didn’t go anywhere because no one was doing anything. Well, that kind of took the wind out of our sails. My drummer started to do another project—he did a little movie project, and I was working with some people we were going to do some live stuff, and stuff just wasn’t clicking … and so it got to the point that I dealt with so many scumbags in the fucking record industry I was just like, I’m done. And I basically broke the band up, had a falling out with the other drummer, and basically just left the fucking whole scene for a while.
It must have been like six or eight months, me and the drummer after little jabs at each other, had to confront each other and basically sit down and say, “Hey! Are we really going to let the industry destroy something we like?” So we talked things out, and we said—you know what? Fuck the record labels right now, let’s just go out and play and start liking being in a band again. We took a couple years off and all we did was do shows. We didn’t do a ton of them, we just did them when we could – went to South America, we went to Europe. We didn’t do a bunch of shows, but we did enough to get things interesting again. About two and a half years after that, I started to write songs for the next thing, kinda noodled around, then we demo’ed the songs, and that’s when I really started to write. So actually, the album’s only been written, completely written, only about a year before we actually started recording.
That was a long story, but that gap—it wasn’t a matter of us sitting around coming up with a bunch of ideas. We needed a bit of distance from the industry for a minute, which helped with the song range. When you don’t pick up your instrument for a year, you can come up with some really good ideas when you get pumped again.
Absolutely. I’m sure there is some level of burnout.
Yeah. People don’t really understand—I’m in contact with people every day, and to this day there are people who think: you’re in a band, you do albums, you go tour sometimes, you know, you don’t work a job. It’s like, no—all of us—I don’t know many bands that don’t work jobs. They don’t understand that we have to balance that whole lifestyle. Usually when we’re doing shows we’re taking time off our jobs to do that. It’s not like this easy life where we fucking make a bunch of money and we act like fucking rock stars and shit—it’s nothing to do with that. We bust our ass to do what we do, we love this music.
What made you decide to go with that 80’s/90’s sound?
Well, that’s when we came out, so it’s basically sticking to our roots. That’s always been my style anyways. I grew up with Celtic Frost, and Venom and Destruction and The Creator, and Soddom, those are the bands that really influenced me. But, I also lived in Tampa, and Acheron was out the same time as the DSI, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse and all those bands. We were all friends with all these guys. They weren’t an influence on us; they were our peers. A lot of people say: “Were you influenced by DSI?” actually we came out the same time as DSI, so no! I just wanted to keep that—I didn’t want to sound like Sodom or Destruction, or whatever—I just wanted to have that natural feel. Nowadays there are some good bands out there, but everybody is trying to blaze a thousand-mile-an-hour blast speeds, and everybody’s trying to be super technical. I like straight-forward stuff—I like everything from Venom to Danzig that kind of stuff that kind of sticks in your head that you can remember, not necessarily blazing a thousand-miles-an-hour where you can’t remember what fucking riff is what.
And how do you make them sound different when you are going that fast? They all kind of start to blend together!
Right! I mean, it’s great, a lot of the musicianship is incredible, and it’s all fine and good, but I always thought it was more powerful to have somebody driving in the car and fucking have the song in your head, than “Wow, that guy can really play his guitar real well!”
What do you feel today’s metal lacks?
I think there are people that pave the road and then there are other ones that just jump on it. Every genre has it: black metal started getting big—then everybody started wearing corpse paint, everybody started doing this, and it kind of gets over-saturated. I think the big problem is—even though the internet is a good medium for getting your band name out there, anybody can do it. Bands like us, that have been around where you had to get a fucking label, you had to get someone to send you to the studio, to pay for your album, to do all this stuff. Now you can get a program on your computer, set it up in your fucking second room and make your own little album and boom, you’re a band! To me, there’s not that passion there used to be. There’s not that going to the record store, “Wow! This is a cool cover. This is a cool name,” and trying to figure out what you want. Now it’s like I’m going to listen to this fucking song before I even think about it, you know? Like I said, it’s progression, but it’s not too. It kind of took a little of the mystery of metal out.
Yeah, I remember you used to go to the record store, and it was like a whole process—you waited for that album to show up, then you’d go buy it, and you’d have to have it in your hands…and now its just, it’s on email, you get it emailed to you, you download it, and you kind of miss that whole physical presence.
I did that last year, or was it this year, with the new Black Sabbath. I wasn’t very keen that Bill Ward was not playing on the album, but I was like, “you know what? This album is coming out, it’s going to be on fucking CD, I heard the “God is Dead” song, I haven’t heard anything else, I’m not going to try to listen to anything, I’m going to wait until the day it comes out in stores, I’m going to buy it at fucking Best Buy with the bonus shit—like I did in the old days!” It was awesome!
Did it have that new album smell?
Naaah. I wish! I wish it had that!
Everything seems to lack that new album smell; it’s a little upsetting.
Absolutely. But you know, everyone asks what new bands do you like? Not to be a grumpy old fart, I honestly listen to more of the stuff that I used to listen to when I was younger, now. I listen to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, and a lot of the metal bands, even though I’m not playing that genre. Another thing I think the Acheron guys, they don’t want to classify themselves as just one style “They’re just death metal.” No, we’re not just death metal, we have elements of black metal, death metal, thrash, doom, and even heavy metal—I think there’s a lot of heavy metal influence in our stuff; it’s kind of what you listen to. The new stuff today? I haven’t really grasped on to anything, and I’ve even put online—Hey, you guys know any new stuff? Let me know? I’m always looking to check out something that’s good that’s new, but nothing’s really super impressed me.
I’m going to quote you on being a grumpy old fart…I’m going to put that together, and italicize it and gussy it all up, and put your name underneath that!
Mmm hmm!
You and I may be not of the same religion, and I mean I’m practically a religious eunuch. I really don’t subscribe to a whole lot of any of it. Your lyrics are replete with anti-Christian messaging, so I’m certain that due to your religious views and messages you might acquire “anti-fans.” How do you deal with this?
One thing about this band: there’s so much history to it. The first decade of this band I was actually part of the Church of Satan. I worked with Anton LaVey and did all that, blah, blah, blah. It was a great time, but after he passed, and things went on, that group ended up turning into exactly what I was against; it turned into an organized religion. That’s why I resigned in 2000. From that point on, I really followed my beliefs. Satanism is more like a philosophy or a lifestyle; it’s not a religion. You’re not worshiping a god. You’re not bowing down to anything, you don’t acknowledge a devil or a god. Satan is an archetype, a fictional character that you resonate to. At that point, I was like—I’m anti-religion, period. You’re sitting there in front of some fucking devil fucking statue bowing down, saying “Praise Satan, I am your servant” To me—you’re just as bad as the guy praying that way to God. There is a difference with what we do, and we get kinda smacked from both sides—there’s Christians that hate what we’re doing, there’s Muslims that hate what we’re doing, and there’s devil-worshipers that don’t like us. They’re like, “Oh, you guys are fake. You don’t believe in the devil. You say Hail Satan but you don’t mean it like we do.” No—its very symbolic the way we do it, just like an Odinist says “Hail Thor, Hail Odin”—I don’t think most Odinist’s fucking believe Thor is in the sky in Valhalla, you know?
I always like to poke people, I like to cause controversy at times, I won’t lie. I love making people think, I love to piss people off that are closed-minded and during the early decade, I was looking for shit. I got death threats. I did shows that got me in the eye, the public’s eyes. It was pretty intense. Now, you get shit—people are a lot more open-minded now, and I just want people to open their minds, I don’t care if you’re a Christian, I don’t care if you’re fucking whatever religion you are, as long as you respect me, I’ll respect you. But, you have to understand, I have no respect for your religion, and I don’t care if you have respect for my views or not, but as long as we can talk to each other without crossing that line, I have no problem with people. You know, in our first decade, I was a lot more closed-minded I think.
So you’re a religion eunuch like I am.
A little bit, you know—I really had to get away from that word religion, because I don’t need a religion to get through the day. I told someone recently, the difference between me and you is—you can take Satan way from me, and I still exist. You take away God, and you’re lost. That’s the difference.
“Daemonum Lux” pays homage to Aleister Crowley and the encounter that he had with Choronzon. Have you had any demonic encounters?
Oh, absolutely. That’s where people don’t understand—if you don’t believe in God or the Devil, what’s all this demonic shit? My personal beliefs, the occult part of my life is: I think things are out there, I think there’s forces out there, I think obviously things you can tap into, but I don’t think of them as little horned fucking creatures ready to poke you with a pitchfork or that kind of shit. I think of them as almost crafty kind of concepts. Things are in maybe different realms or different dimensions—could be scientifically explained somewhere down the road you know, not some fucking weird hell or tales like that. I definitely think—I’ve had quite a few encounters like that.
I divorced mine.
Nice! I exorcised mine.
Is there a song on the record that Christians may take more offense to than others?
Um yes. “Jesus Wept”.
That’s what I thought! That is the one I put in parentheses next to this question.
There’s always a reason behind why people go certain paths. My parents were very good parents, they put a roof over my head, fed me, put me through school, you know, they were very good parents. But, they were very Christian, and they were very overbearing in that department. Back when I was growing up, church three times a week, and I was not the kid that just kind of went with the flow, I was always asking questions, getting in trouble, being considered the problem—and all I was doing was asking questions, you know? And that really caused a rebellion against that whole concept. To this day, I always say with my art, the way I write I might not mentally believe in Jesus or all this stuff, but I manifest that into a reality in my head, and exorcise all my hatred through my writing. So, even though Jesus doesn’t exist to me, he did in my song, and he does in a lot of things I do, it’s almost like going to a therapy session and beating a pillow, is what I’m saying. There’s so much religious hatred in me, that song’s basically just, night after night, having dreams of torturing the fucker and giving him back what basically I feel I had to put up with growing up. People might not get that, but that’s where it comes from.
Got ya. See, I kind of take mine out by eating chocolate, but whatever works!
Whatever it takes!
In reading some of the press releases that were coming out, I think it’s kind of ironic that you have song “Whores and Harlots” that pays tribute to ladies of the evening. So, why would you pay tribute to whores and harlots, and are there any ladies that you’d pay tribute to that are not whores and harlots?
Well, “Whores and Harlots” doesn’t specify in the song as much, but it basically kind of about the holy people that indulge in them, and then they talk down to them and talk this and that to them. They’re almost like talking out one side of the mouth now and later the other. Man’s Cardinal Lust needs to be fed, and obviously they’re there to feed certain people and they’re almost doing their little devilish work, but they’re also doing what they want. So, as much as they hate these ladies, they need them. I don’t know if many people got that. Or they thought it was me going—hey yeah, prostitutes are awesome! No, that was not the case. I don’t really care about prostitutes; I don’t waste my time with them.
Is there a song in there that you feel could be easily misconstrued or misunderstood?
Actually, probably a LOT. “Thy Father Suicide”, some people are asking me is that like pro-suicide song? Are you trying to get people to kill themselves? I was like—well, its basically a song about the reaper singing his hymn to these people that are considering it, I think if anything, if there’s a message, the message is you’d better be sure, it’s your decision, it’s your life, it’s your choice, but you better make sure you understand the consequences because once it’s done there’s no turning back and that’s it. So, it’s not condemning or praising someone for doing it, that’s just a fact—when you’re dead you’re dead. So if you think life sucks that bad, better make sure before you end it.
Acheron “Thy Father Suicide”
You’ll be doing a mini-tour with Incantation in late July, so that’s kind of exciting and something to look forward to. What can you tell us about that?
It was good, ‘cause we hadn’t done too much in the stuff in the States at the time. Incantation, we’re all like family—Kyle, our drummer, he plays for them too and we’ve been friends with those guys for years, and we’ve done multiple shows with each other and stuff, and been in the scene the same amount of time and stuff. I know them real well, I thought you know, it was a really good time, we got to meet some really cool people, we actually got to play with some really cool bands, so everything’s very successful.
I read that you enlisted Jacob Shively to fill the slot of second guitarist, is he permanent now, or are you still trying him out?
Right now he’s a hired gun, but we’re definitely considering him. We’ve learned not to just—you’ve seen the track record for people in this band, there’s a lot. The last probably 14 years, me and Kyle, the drummer, have been solid thing, but we’ve run through a lot of guitar players.
Maybe that’s what your “Whores and Harlots” song is about—you just go through these people!
Yeah! It’s weird, people are like—I don’t know what’s the matter, do you just fire people? Not necessarily. Some people think you jump in our band, you quit your job, it’s going to be smooth sailing, it’s like it’s a pain in the ass. To be perfectly frank, it’s a pain in the ass. I mean, I love the band to death, but it’s like a bad wife you stay with.
Acheron, the Bad Wife You Stay With!
There are lots of good things and times, but man, when you fucking hate it, you just want to fucking throw it out the door!
What else is on tap for you?
I’m also getting ready to work on a solo project. That’s kind of my next little thing to do. We’re still working on Acheron stuff, but I’ve been wanting to do a solo album for a while with some people I know.
Are you going to do indie stuff, or are you going to go label on it?
Label stuff, we’re definitely going to shoot for label, we’re going to shoot for doing shows and stuff. I want to do a big stage show production, it’s going to be more based on fictional horror-type writings, but with that whole occult flair to it. Acheron is pretty serious in that nature, I want if I write a song about somebody cutting people up with an axe, it’s not going to be—Oh, is that what you preach? Cutting up people with an axe? I want to have a band where I can write whatever the fuck I want, and they’re not going to fucking critique every philosophical import I put into the band.
For my last question, when and where are we getting together for lunch! It’s been a year, literally a year!
Next horror convention, absolutely.
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By: Alice Roques, RockRevolt Magazine Co-Founder and Managing Editor
