“They walk through the mist, to an ancient place, gathering for the King, to invoke his name, potion from the darkest well, opens for pagan souls, hear the angels of heaven wailing, as they call for the lord of darkness...”
The setting is one of archetypal horror: a gathering of evil entities celebrating the coming of their king in a secluded, rural place pregnant with age and surrounded by mystery, a picture audibly painted close to perfection by so many dark luminaries in the past – Pentagram, Sabbath, Black Widow, Coven...
YEAR OF THE GOAT, while recognizing that the 60’s and 70’s saw the birth of true genius within the performance of dark art, aim is to abolish time and make you see it for the illusion it is - sinister gospels with properly dank atmospheres can be created whenever and wherever.
Thomas Eriksson (vocals, guitar) received vision in 2006. Since then an amalgamation of different elements has taken place, Fredrik Hellerström (drums), Per Broddesson (guitar), Tobias Resch (bass) and Jonas Mattsson (guitar) now constitute one sombre congregation whose debut MCD Lucem Ferre is due for release in (April/May ?) through Ván Records.
Lucem Ferre, which is latin for The bringer of light/The son of desert fire/Lucifer, consists of four gospels: Of Darkness, Vermillion Clouds, Lucem Ferre and a cover of the Sam Gopal song The Dark Lord (originally sung by Lemmy).
In these times of global upheaval YEAR OF THE GOAT will add fire to chaos and ignite the branches spread out for Christ by his flock to further the triumphal return of a Lord that never left… So rejoice in sin, every hour and every second is yours and yours only, just like every year is, and always has been, the YEAR OF THE GOAT!
Greetings Sandrijn, Thomas and Jonas here.
J: Yes, it seems people like what they’ve heard so far. Of course it is charming that people like it and we would lie if that wasn’t part of the plan. However we will never change our style based on people's reviews or opinions. I believe we have been playing music for so long now that to some extent you know what sounds good in a human ear.
T: It nice that the media is making a buzz about us. I think its only natural when new interesting music comes along, hopefully we go under that category.
Q: As far as I could see on the internet, this is one of the first interviews. To start, could you lift a tip of the veil about the history of the band members? Rumored to be Swedish, which bands are Year Of The Goat’s band members linked to?
J: You are correct about Sweden. We are from different parts around the middle of Sweden. We do have links to other bands and there’s info to be found on different sites, but we’ll leave the other bands out of this and leave the detective work to the listeners.
Q: Fenriz recently proclaimed Year Of The Goat band of the week! Quite an honor I think? Fenriz states ‘my guess is Sweden’. And a friend of mine coined the name: mystery bands (like Ghost). Do you deliberately create an atmosphere of mystery around Year Of The Goat? If so, why?
T: Hail to Fenriz!!! No we are new upcoming band and that is why theres not much information. But there will be a webpage for YoG shortly.
J: Of course it’s an honor when Fenriz does a statement like that. I’ve had a couple of ”band of the week” with Darkthrone aswell so that’s cool. A positive thing is that lots of people read his blog and that helps us spreading our name.
We have never deliberately planned to be a “mystery band”. And if this is the fact right now it’s not that strange. We are just about to make our first official release.
Q: What is it about Sweden and quality heavy metal and rock? Thanks to In Solitude I recently got into the whole NWOSHM thing.
J: Is there a NWOSHM?? Then what is SHM?? Yngwie Malmsteen?? Heavy Load??
I have no idea what brings out good bands from Sweden. I do agree with you though. There is lots of quality coming out of Sweden but of course there’s also lots of crap.
It might have something to do with the climate. I honestly have no idea. But I have the same opinion about Great Britain. Be it Heavy metal, crust, psychedelic or doom they almost always release quality. So it either has to be the climate or something in the water.
Q: Why did you choose Germany based Van Records to release your début?
T: I think it comes out naturally for us to sign with Van, because i worked with Sven before YoG was formed. And i think he has a really good roster with bands, and we are very proud to be on that roster!
Q: Looking at doom, stoner & heavy psychedelics, what exactly is your take on the new wave of occult retro doomsters like Blood Ceremony, Sabbath Assembly, Devil’s Blood, Jex Thoth and the like? Does Year Of The Goat fit within this niche?
J: The only band I’ve really listened to is The Devil’s Blood and Sabbath Assembly. The others doesn’t really speak to me. But as far as TDB goes I guess we would fit in the same niche. We both have more hooks and melodies compared to the other bands you mentioned. But if people need to place us in a genre I guess they would place in some sort of retro doom/rock.
T: I think that TDB is an amazing band!
Q:What is your take on ‘the occult’? Ornament or fundamental?
J: Both in my opinion. An ornament lyrically, a fundamental in way of living.
J: I believe that’s up to the listeners to decide. What makes us different is that I think we are more progressive than other bands.
T: i think that we have a good mixture of both progressive songs and shorter songs with more common structure. It´s important to have a strong melody and a good structure in all songs.
Q:The obvious question: what are your influences? Music, literature, movies, games, you name it.
J: Musically, everything that sounds good. Be it rock from the 60’s and 70’s, ambient music from for example Bo Hansson (a Swedish organist) or metal in different styles.
I hardly ever read but I do watch a lot of movies. Lots of horror movies of course but anything that makes sense. There are some movies I could see over and over like Evil Dead, The Beyond, The Exorcist I and III, Amityville II – The Possession, Requiem for a Dream, Jacob’s Ladder, Cube etc.
T: 60´s and 70´s music, art and movies is my biggest influence. But i receive inspiration from new bands, books and movies as well. Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky is a good example of a movie, that i find inspiring.
Q: The 6th of May Lucem Ferre is released on Van Records. I heard a lot of people pre-ordered the album. How will Year Of The Goat’s future look like?
T:I´m proud that Lucem Ferre is going well and it hasn’t been released yet. I wasnt even aware that so many people had this interest in YoG.
J:From here on we will finish the material for our full-length album. We have a few songs to complete and if everything goes as planned we will start recording during autumn.
Q:Are you planning on touring Holland? If so, let me know J.
J: We will tour anywhere if the time is right and make sure not to miss it.
T: Love to play in Holland i think you guys have an amazing scene over there!
Q:Thanks for this interview, and I hope to catch Year Of The Goat live soon!!
Thomas and Jonas: Thank you Sandrijn and the best of luck with doommantia.
Interview By Sandrijn van den Oever
Year Of The Goat @ Facebook
Year Of The Goat @ Reverbnation
Van Records
Posts
0 COMMENTS:
Widgets by Blog Widgets
Post a Comment
Doommantia will not accept spam, racist or sexist comments or people making comments just to start a argument. Be constructive if you intend to criticize, comments like s**t review or you suck will be marked as spam and deleted. If you have a problem with a review, take it up with the author via email. There is other basic rules - No Profanity, No defamatory or personal attacks, No negative rants unrelated to the article in question and No Soliciting. If you break these rules it may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned and your service provider being informed in extreme cases. IP addresses are being recorded. If you don't follow these simple rules, I have to take it you cant read so what are you doing here anyway?