Heathendoom was a Swedish fanzine during the later part of the 1990’s focusing on Death and Black metal. It was written in Swedish, but here’s an article/interview translated to English for you, with added music by me,
FUNERAL MIST has already established its name in the Swedish underground. When this interview is done, they have just recorded their debut MCD. With two demos on the shelf “Darkness” and “Havoc” they rowed into port a record deal with Swedish Shadow Productions. Boss Tena ordered the first demo, and he snapped up the second. According to Arioch, it is too early to answer how the continued collaboration will turn out.
But one thing is for sure, FUNERAL MIST plays fast and brutal fucking black metal exactly as it was originally intended. The only member left from the “Darkness” era is Arioch, it was him I asked a few questions
About the time when FUNERAL MIST became what they are today…
— The FUNERAL MIST that is today basically started with Typhos, the old singer and one guitarist quitting in the middle of last year. The reason he quit is because he was offered a place in DARK FUNERAL as guitarist, which he accepted. This naturally meant that his time for FUNERAL MIST became limited. So Typhos and I agreed that I would take over the band on my own. And Vintras, also a guitarist and songwriter, seemed to lose interest, so I decided to continue myself with drummer Velion's replacement Necromorbus, who was invited to take over the drums a month or so after the debut demo "Darkness" had been released. And since I had a solo project alongside FUNERAL MIST under the name WINDS, which I recorded a demo with at the end of '96, it had to change its name from WINDS to FUNERAL MIST at the last minute. All of this also meant that the musical difference between the debut and "Havoc" became extremely large, since I barely wrote any of the musical stuff on "Darkness" and all the music on "Havoc". "Darkness" was somewhat milder with loops, melodies and such nonsense while "Havoc" is rawer, more aggressive and simply more brutal. That's kind of how it is. And to briefly give you some general history, FUNERAL MIST was formed in the spring of ’93 by Typhos, Vintras, Velion and some other guy on bass who was replaced by me about a year later. And pretty much exactly a year after I came into the picture, the debut demo “Darkness” was recorded, but for a bunch of really stupid reasons it wasn’t released until early ’96. And a short time after it came out, drummer Velion was kicked out, but was quickly replaced by Necromorbus. Then Typhos quit and so on, but I’ve already told you all about that. An MCD is currently being recorded and will be released by Shadow Records sometime around the turn of the year. BEWARE…
A GROTESQUE SHOW
FUNERAL MIST’s second demo “Havoc” has been pretty well received, it got high marks in Terrorizer, among other things. What does Arioch himself think of the criticism and the demo?
— Well, “Havoc” seems to have been well received from most quarters, only a few occasional snubs. So I am very happy with the criticism. I am still relatively happy with the demo itself, apart from a few minor misses and such that I would like to have undone. But overall I am happy.
An MCD will be available soon, has the music changed anything from “Havoc”?
— Well, the new material is probably quite similar to what can be heard on the “Havoc” demo, possibly a bit faster, a bit more brutal and a lot sicker, but on the other hand there will only be three completely new songs and two old ones. One from “Havoc” and one from “Darkness”, these two are however slightly rewritten to fit better with the new songs.
It must be hard not being able to play live. Any thoughts on session members, and who would be “dream people” for the purpose?
— Yes, I've certainly thought about picking up session members for future live performances, but right now it feels more important to get the MCD out and write new material for future releases, so it's probably going to take a while, but there will certainly come a day/night when FUNERAL MIST will take the stage again for another grotesque show. And if I were to put together a dream line-up like you asked, I'd probably have to clone myself three or four times. Well, I don't really know, I haven't thought about it much.
Are there any plans to resume the WINDS project or is it just FUNERAL MIST that applies?
— No, WINDS is and will probably remain a closed chapter. As I mentioned earlier, I took the material I created for WINDS and used it under the name FUNERAL MIST, and since I'm the sole songwriter in FUNERAL MIST, it would probably be quite time-consuming if not completely unnecessary to have a solo project on the side. So yeah, right now it's just FUNERAL MIST that counts.
DOOMSDAY VISIONS
Sources of Inspiration…
— Sometimes it's a bit difficult to name an exact source of inspiration for the lyrics. Sometimes it just flows and sometimes it's slow as hell, but most of the time I base the lyrics on various kinds of doomsday visions and descriptions of hell combined with the hatred and disgust that the so-called "god" and his single-minded part of humanity have instilled in me. And then of course a whole part completely unprovoked violence, torture and terror. While the musical part of the writing is mostly shaped by the mood I am in while composing. Then I can hardly deny that other bands have also left their mark on my creation, even though I try to avoid it as much as possible, but it is not the easiest thing for most songwriters to know. So a slightly unwanted part of the inspiration probably comes from other bands.
METAL AND ONLY METAL
About changing musical style…
— Hmmm. It depends on what you mean by different kind of music, other violent forms of metal, like death, thrash and heavy metal would perhaps not be completely unthinkable to play, even though black metal with its extremity and its dark and evil message is the form of music that appeals to me the most, but music that has nothing to do with metal I don't give much thought to.
FUNERAL MIST in five years? Still alive?
— Yes, at the time of writing I absolutely believe that FUNERAL MIST will exist in five years. If nothing goes wrong of course, but it will probably work out. And musically I think it will probably sound about the same as today, brutal, fast and crazy as hell. Of course I will also develop, but in which direction remains to be seen. Then we will see if I have recruited any other members or if I continue as I am now with an incomplete line-up.
Thanks for the chat Captain Havoc! Last words to the readers?
— OK, Johannes you bearded half-mongo, thank you so much for the inte! And the rest of you, buy the hell out of the “Havoc” demo for a 30-kroner! Pretty new “Havoc” shirts can also be ordered for like a hundred ringgit. Also watch out for the MCD that should appear sometime early next year. That's all. Worship the hell out of the hell!