1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?
Hi, guys from Occult Black Metal Zine. First of all, thanks for the support by asking us for our first interview in english language. Well, we spent a lot of time trying to release the first album, an album we are really pride of, basically because some labels did not want to work with us, and here we are now, destroying ears and bursting heads of our audience. Right now we are ad portas of finishing the recordings of our second album, the songs on this one are more powerful and vicious, and we gave the chance to ourselves to make some experimentation on the melodies. You may ask why "so soon for a second album", and the answer is because the first album are old songs that had to be recorded and released, since those ones were created 2 or 3 years ago. We are "non stop" music maniacs, so new stuff had to came up... In a couple of weeks we will ritualize the city of Rancagua in our country, Chile, as an official live release of our debut album "Jatenentolpen Thejin", and maybe a couple of more gigs later, who knows. After that, we plan to start compositions for the third album, the colossus Siaskel will not stop!!
2.Recently you have released a new album, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical direction of the new recording and also how does it differ from the demo you had released a few years back?
The promo cd we release on 2010 was a rehearsal recorded in multitrack, both of those songs are in the full length cd we already self release. There were not changes on the music, only a more professional recording and different vocals.
3.This is the first release in 4 years since the promo demo, can you tell us a little bit more about the 4 year gap between releases?
At the beginning of 2011 we recruited Gorrge, the new vocalist of the band. By that time we had the music of Jatenentolpen Thejin already recorded and we had to wait until he learn the songs and work the vocal duties...After that he was ready to impregnate the songs with the darkness we were seeking and recorded his part. At the end of that year we had a pre-agreement with a french label on a vinyl release, but after a considerable delay on the answer, the label told us the release was cancelled by financial problems. That was the moment we decided to self release it by the back up of Gorrge, without his support and perseverance, the release of our first full length album maybe would have taken so much time to be done.
4. Can you tell us a little bit more about the song lyrics that are present on the recording?
Our lyrics are tales covered in blood, horror, war and destruction. We talk about stories of Selk'nam culture, natives from Tierra del Fuego, at the south end of Chile. We pray about their cosmogony and describe in a personal way, their rich mythology, so different to others, thanks to the cultural parallelism of primal civilizations.
5.On the album you sing in a mixture of Spanish and Ona which was the language of the Selk'nam, can you tell us a little bit more about the decision to write in these languages and also can you tell us a little bit more about the Selk'nam tribe?
As you say, the lyrics on the album are written in spanish, and we use different words and sentences of the Selk'nam language. We had a very hard work studying the Selk'nam culture, mainly reading old historical descriptions/writings of investigators, scientists and religious people made long time ago. The main point of this is because, this culture has so many shocking events, that, respectfully, we didn't want to disown and treat the themes lightly at all. We wanted that each phrase and story have their own weight and interpretation. Is in this moment we decided to sing in not another language but our own, and add the Selk'nam ingredient to give sense at what was being sung about the own creation, heroes, shamans, demons, spirits and gods of this now extinct culture. As the whole universe of different cultures, the Selk'nam had own special aspects related to their beliefs and the way to conceive life and death, so does their conception of the creation of the universe, the rites and shamanic invocations, between long aspects of history. Our songs deal with many of those aspects and specific stories of the past.
6. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Siaskel'?
The legend says Siaskel was a merciless and vicious being, evil made flesh. This colossus was capable of terrifying every single being on the Onaisin (territory occupied by the Selk'nam). He was a destructive force feared by all of the souls on the firmament, as the story says. And well, the name by itself is so powerful we didn't have any doubt of calling the band like this.
7.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Extreme Metal Festival, 2008 in Chile. This one was made open air. In that time, the vocalist of the band Occidens was singing on Siaskel, only for live performances purpose. In Chile, it is very difficult you get watched by much people at once, and to be in front of 1000 maniacs it's a lot...This happened basically because the line up of that fest was exceptional for those years: Magnanimvs, Denying Nazarene, Bellum, Melektaus, Gorgoth and Occidens between others. About the stage performance, it is very difficult to say since we have not played live at least in the last 3 years and the actual line up is very different from the past one, as we told you before, we will start promoting our album by live performances very soon, so probably you'll figure out yourself by watching some live videos people may upload in the future. And as a bonus: we are preparing to play some tunes of the second album on this year.
8.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new release?
The first gig will be on Rancagua, on the second week of August. We hope to do a couple of more shows on the left months of 2014. About touring, in Chile it doesn't work, at least you have 3 or 5 gigs and that is not touring. We hope to play outside Chile someday, and following that, we have to keep working in our music since, obviously, is very difficult any promoter wants you if you are not well known to make people pay a fee to watch you.
9.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
Yes, we are currently unsigned, and yes, the idea for the next album (and the next after that) is to be released by a label. We hope a good and professional label get interested in our stuff, since releasing your own material is really exhausting, not only financially speaking, but it requires a lot of working time. By the moment we have not talk with any labels, since we are focused on distributing and selling the first release. As the new record is almost ready, we will probably send some promo stuff to labels of our interest or vice versa, if any label contacts us, we will have to discuss a deal. Time is running.
10.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black and death metal?
It's funny, since we have a better response of the audience outside Chile, than inside. The album has a lot of reviews by now and only positive ones (average 8 of 10) by the moment...for us that is surprising and very satisfactory. Our website is visited mainly by people of outside the country and the main request of buying the album are not from Chile as well. We thank our vocalist, who has worried of promoting our cd in different sites of the world, not only by "sending" the stuff , but by promoting our material in situ in a couple of countries he has recently visited. We prefer to call our music by the tag of "extreme metal" only, since the "style" of Siaskel has been very discussed on the media, about being black metal, death metal, blackdeath metal, and shit like that, but finally, the feedback has been very good. We released 500 copies in a professionally manufactured cd and right now we have maybe 100 or less left.
11.What is going on with some of the other musical projects or bands these days that some of the band members are a part of?
Our drummer and lead guitarist share a project called INTENEBRAS, and they are releasing a full length album very soon. Our vocalist used to sing in the band ANCESTRAL, a death metal band, but he is not longer part of that band, he is working in a black/doom metal project now, called CONCATENATUS, where he does vocals and drums. Our bass player and rhythm guitar belongs 100% to SIASKEL.
12.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Well, we have a wide taste in music, but the goal of Siaskel always has been to create extreme music, related to the roots of our music taste in the past years, bands like Dissection, Limbonic Art (old), Marduk (old), Dark Funeral (old), Infernal War, Thunderbolt, Ondskapt, Setherial (old), Kriegmaschine, etc. Every member has it's own music taste, but the usual and common thing is old school black and death metal.
13.What are some of your non musical interests?
As every member of the band are full grown adults, everyone has their own different activities, and a different vision of life of course... but taking beer outside of the map, we enjoy history and stuff like non-conventional movies.
14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
EVERYONE WILL BE BURNED BY THE LAVA OF SIASKEL'S BLOOD, EVERY SKULL WILL BE CRUSHED BY HIS DECIMATING SCREAM, EVERY CHILDREN, WOMAN AND MAN MAY HUNG ON HIS SCOURGING BELT!! THE CIRCLE OF EXISTENCE AND UNIVERSAL CHAOS MAY DESTROY EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF THE ACTUAL CIVILIZATION!! PREPARE TO BE JUDGED BY THE UNNAMEABLE ONE!!! SÓ'ONH HAS'KÁN!!!
