This German Black Metal hellion was bestially formed in 1992 and have now released their fifth and greatest disc yet, ‘Kodex V’. Atmospheric and raw, the keyboards have taken their leave and a new guitarist has joined their evil ranks. Unlike many of the Black Metal bands that formed in the nineties, these guys have kept the corpse paint, disregarding and not caring about the choices made by other bands. Vocalist Isegrim invokes the powers of Astaroth, Eurynome, Bael and Amducias and answers some questions about the new album and the band…
How are you doing?
Hi, I’m doing fine, thanks.
I’ve read that you were uncertain as to what type of music to play in the beginning. So why pick Black Metal? Has your relationship with Black Metal today changed from then, or just strengthened or weakened?
When we founded our band in the beginning of the 90s we were inspired by several occult Death Metal bands like Acheron, Morbid Angel, Deicide and so on. In the very beginning we didn’t really know where our musical expressions would lead us to. We couldn’t play any instrument, so we just started to make some music. This time was also the great era of the rising of Black Metal. Soon we were very interested in new bands like Samael, Mayhem, Darkthrone and Burzum. The atmosphere and the satanic-influenced scene were more fascinating to us than the dying Death Metal scene. From a certain point in time this music ran like blood in our veins and we decided to veil our ideas into Black Metal and up till today it is still like that. Our decision to play Black Metal has been strengthened through the years. I’m sure that we won’t take any other direction. However, we create music on instinct and not in the way people want to hear or what’s in.
Also, how are you feeling now that you’ve just released a new album? Has it turned out the way you expected from when you first started the recording process?
Now, after ‘Kodex V’ is released, I feel very good. We invested much work and know that the result is a good Black Metal release. Everything on this album developed like we imagined and that’s a reason to be proud of this opus.
Do you think there is more of a chance that you will gain new fans with this release as opposed to past ones, now that your sound is no longer so symphonic?
Unfortunately you can’t satisfy everyone, which is also not our intention. Some scream because we handle too few symphonic parts, others say that it’s not allowed to use keyboards in Black Metal. I don’t know if we will gain new fans with ‘Kodex V’ or maybe lose old fans. I only know that we wrote the music we imagined. Of course our compositions changed a little after our last keyboarder left the band. After that happened our primary goal was to write new songs, but at that point we didn’t decide to change our sound. We simply started to write new material based on guitars only. We recognised that the keyboard will have an inferior role from now on because we also wanted to play the new songs live without recruiting a new band member. That’s it. I don’t care if someone can’t follow this process because we control Aeba in the way we want to.
I’ve heard that when you first started, you were inspired by many Death Metal bands. What are some of your main influences musically or otherwise today and how does this contribute to the change in your sound?
Your question about our past inspirations I answered above. Our actual inspirations are mainly not taken from the Black Metal scene. Like mentioned, we act on instinct and every band member composes their songs at home; then, in the rehearsal room, the other band members just complement those songs. Therefore these songs have as many inspirations as Aeba has members, multiplied by x. Life itself and several branches of music provide enough inspiration to assimilate it into the sound of Aeba. However, we must recognise a continuous development to go on and I think we succeed on ‘Kodex V’.
Why did you choose the name ‘Kodex V’?
1. ‘Im Schattenreich’ (first released as a demo tape, then as our debut CD by Last Episode)
2. ‘Flammenmanifest’
3. ‘Rebellion – Edens Asche’
4. ‘Shemhamforash – Des Hasses Antlitz’
5. ‘Kodex V’
But that’s only one reason why it has got this name. Another one is based on the value of the word sin, which is five in numerology in the German language. I picked up the topic of sin in several lyrics of ‘Kodex V’. There are several other reasons for the name ‘Kodex V’, but they play only a minor role.
How does ‘Kodex V’ differ from previous releases to you? I think the vocals sound better than ever and your production was always superior to most Black Metal bands.
I don’t think that ‘Kodex V’ differs from the music which Aeba made previously. While listening to the songs you can find the same elements which we always preferred, aggressiveness, melancholy or just atmospheric and occult-sounding arrangements. I’m also very satisfied with the vocals, which is certainly based on our decision to engage Xsaahr as our new guitar player so that I can concentrate on the lyrics and the vocals.
The keyboards were also made a major part of your sound, so why not now on ‘Kodex V’? Are you satisfied with the progress that the band has made?
The sound on ‘Kodex V’ corresponds with our current idea of Black Metal and in my opinion we create different and special moods without the excessive use of the keyboard. We prefer to have a better sound because we don’t have to cover our musical skills with a bad one. Our concept follows the slogan “High Quality Music for Satan”. Like mentioned before, there must be a continuous development. As long as we can feel that, we are comfortable with what we have done.
Twilight Vertrieb is a pretty diverse label with Black Metal, grindcore, punk and hard rock bands. How do you think that this differs from labels that cater to pretty much one genre of music?
I don’t really know how Twilight differs from other labels, instead of distributing many kinds of music genres, but I think they just try to serve many musical tastes. We picked Twilight because there’s a pretty good communication between them and us, which is very important for us. Another big advantage is that they are located not far away from us, so we can meet them personally if the situation demands it.
Something I was curious about is that the artwork on ‘Kodex V’ is different from your other albums as it doesn’t look like a photo, but a drawing or computer animation. Like, ‘Im Schattenreich’s’ cover is a photo of a dark tower and ‘Shemhamforash – Des Hasses Antlitz’ has a really cool photo of a goat with a barbed wire crown. Why the change?
We didn’t want to repeat ourselves, which also applies to the layout. On our last albums we predominantly used photos as a front cover because at that point in time it just fit. On ‘Kodex V’ we had the idea to use a pencilled cover. Thereupon Exul drew that Baphomet and we adapted the rest of the layout to it. I think that the artwork is very nice, especially because we had the other idea that every one of us should choose a picture which represents himself at that point in time. As a result, the layout of ‘Kodex V’ is an individual overall concept, which expresses the spirit and atmosphere of ‘Kodex V’ visually.
I know that Aeba stand for Astaroth, Eurynome, Bael and Amducias, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, right? What does this mean for you?
You’re right, Aeba are the four archdemons. The name Aeba is an individual naming to us which has still got a high significance today and perfectly represents our band. The name is very important because it is something special. It stands for the existence and entirety of all black, negative powers. This world is blinded and full of religious fanatics who regard their beliefs as the only truth. But there is always the other side of the coin, which is the opposite to God and his followers and which we don’t consider as something bad.
Speaking of the name, why the change to Aeba after going through Eternal Suffer, Trifixion, Cerberos etc.? Do you feel that this name is here to stay? You seemed quite interested in this one as opposed to the others.
In the beginning of Aeba I searched for a name which conforms with the band’s real interests and which separates it from all others. I studied much occult literature and the last link of this chain of different names was Aeba.
I see that you still don corpse paint. Many bands are tired of wearing it or are just sick of the scene today. So why have you decided to stick with it? Are you not disappointed with the scene or are there other reasons for it?
We have never cared about what other bands do and what they don’t do. Many bands copy themselves, one demonstrates and others follow. Other ones claim they are grown up and now they are not in need of different standards of Black Metal, corpse paint, spikes etc., anymore. Well, they should do what they want, we don’t care, honesty and conviction have never had a high value in this scene. It seems that many want to satisfy their profiling drive and express their importance and because of that we have to vomit at best. Black Metal has a special atmosphere we want to reflect as how we feel it and therefore certain conditions belong to it, for example distorting the appearance with corpse paint.
Does Aeba still not tour? Do you not like the idea of touring or would you if you were able to? What are some bands you’d love to tour with and why? Do you have any specific plans for the future or anything else you’d like to add?
Until now a tour was not possible due to occupational reasons. In general we are not disinclined towards a tour if it is kept within limits. Possibly it will happen sometime. Currently I don’t know a band we can tour with, but I know many bands we do not want to tour with. In general we would accept all who don’t wear their arrogance and insupportableness as an exclamation mark in their face. Thought sharing, mutual respect and a bit of drinking enjoyment would be nice qualifications for a band to do a tour with. Todtgelichter from Hamburg fulfil all just-mentioned conditions and more probably than not we are going to do a split album with them next year and a few gigs, maybe a tour also. Besides, we will see what the future brings.
Many thanks for this interview and black regards
Isegrim / Aeba
