Kentucky is home to bourbon and brutality. The brutality comes in the form of the hate-fueled outfit, Brood in Black. Playing black metal with ethos fully entrenched in the underground, Sure, there's nothing particularly original about it, but I don't think the band gives much of a fuck anyway. Count Corinth gives some insight on the band plus expressing his distaste for trends and hipsters.
Hails. When and how did the vision of Brood In Black come to life and what is the ideology behind it?
Hails, brother. Let me start off by thanking you and your Zine, Death By Hammer, for taking the time to conduct this interview. The answer to this first question is going to be very lengthy, to tell this properly, so forgive me ahead of time..
Brood In Black originally started back in 2004 or 2005, as an idea, in which I was writing a lot of music on my own, heavily influenced by punk rock, ex. The Misfits, Samhain, G.G. Allin, DRI, but also Metal bands like Venom, old Slayer, Sodom, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, and Bathory, etc. while also playing drums in a thrash-punk band called One Armed Wifebeater. Haha. Mind you, at that time, I did not have the internet or YouTube or any of that crap. I was going solely by what I had found on my own, through friends or record stores. I thought that taking the speed of DRI, crossing it with Venom, and basically a blueprint for Black Metal. This was the first blueprint for what would become Brood In Black.
In 2007, I finally purchased a Tascam Portastudio and started demoing these songs that I had amassed over this time, all by myself, as there was no one around in my area of South Central Kentucky who was playing Black Metal, the so called “scene” in those days was mainly a lot of what could be called Metalcore/Modern Death Metal/Technical Death Metal, so forming a band was out.
From 2007-2010, I recorded many demo tapes, to which were sent to many labels, many with no reply or a rejection letter/email. In 2010, after not getting this band off of the ground, out of frustration I threw the band/project into the crypt, not expecting to see it again..
Enter 2015, I decided to revisit some of the old demo tapes, and realized that there was something to this project, so I slowly started writing and recording again, and by late 2016/early 2017, I had written, and recorded the first Brood demo, “Arrival Of Death”, and with this release, started Blasfemas Records. So really, Brood In Black was finally realized in 2017..
The ideology behind Brood In Black, is basically war against society, the human race, and religions of the holy cross..all in the name of our infernal father, Satan..We are the nemesis of all..
My opinion on the current state of Black Metal is, of course, nothing is as good as the days of old. Our ancestors before us. The ones who helped shaped Black Metal. But with the invention of the internet and home recording software, it has inflated this entire genre to no end. I cannot entirely complain about the internet though-had it not been for the internet, no one would’ve EVER had known the name of Brood In Black! It took having to get the internet and starting a label to get this blasphemy out! So there are a few good points to it, but they don’t outweigh the bad. So all in all, I support the real bands, the ones with the real passion in their music, the ones who are in league with Satan, and piss on the trend hopping bands who were playing Metalcore last week, and “atmospheric Black Metal” (without Satanic or occult tendencies) this week! Fuck you die!!
Newer bands of note: I’m going for within the last 5-10 years..Perverted Ceremony, Moenen Of Xezbeth, Walpurgia, Cult Of Eibon, Black Blood Invocation, Gates Of Sinn, Necromantic Worship (rip), Prophets Of Doom, Crurifragium, Abysmal Lord, Forbidden Temple, Mefitic, Croc Noir, Tomb, Belshazar, Belzazel, too many to mention..
Hails to all of these bands..
What do you think of that abominable garbage that came out recently called Lords of Chaos?
I unfortunately caved in to my curiosity, after vowing to never subject myself to this abomination..And I wanted to gouge my eyes and ears out of my skull with an ice pick. Pure shit that belongs in a sewer with all the other shit.
What are some of your biggest influences (both musically and lyrically)?
My biggest influences would have to be our Infernal Father, first and most of all, and also the Occult, musically/lyrically for Brood In Black- First and foremost, Venom, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Profanatica, VON, Demoncy, Judas Iscariot, Black Witchery(rip Tregenda), Black Funeral, Azazel, Archgoat, Beherit, Graven, Mortuary Drape, Mystifier, I’d be a liar to say that I didn’t buy the essential Darkthrone/Burzum albums, The Black, there are just too many to list..but all of these have influenced me in some shape or form..
As far as being original in Black Metal is concerned, that is nearly impossible to accomplish, without overreaching the bounds, and coming off as pretentious, and boring. For me, when I am listening to Black Metal, I don’t listen for originality. I listen for the feeling that the music puts off. I am not concerned about proficiency, or of the production. If the band is playing atmospheric BM for 8 minutes straight, I am bored by the 3rd minute. If a band is blasting Black/Death for 3 minutes, and screaming about the throne of Satan, most times, the feeling comes through. Like I imagine the feeling of someone from the late 70’s/early 80’s, hearing fucking Venom back then for the first time, you know that they felt it! They truly felt the power of Satan!! Back then, that was an original idea, not so much anymore. But rock and roll is the Devil’s music, and we are here to do his bidding..at whatever cost. Doesn’t matter how original you are, in my eyes anyways. Brood In Black is far from inventing the wheel in Black Metal, but I believe that those who listen with the right ears, will get that feeling in their hearts, that they are also in league with Satanas.
Can you tell us little bit about your solo project called RTNG JHVH and how it differs from BROOD IN BLACK?
RTNGJHVH (pronounced rotting Jehovah) is a one man War Metal project that I started under a different pseudonym, Black Daemon Of Unholy Winds. Influenced by Blasphemy, Archgoat, Beherit, Proclamation, Sarcofago, Black Witchery, Conqueror, Revenge, etc. War Metal against the false rotting savior! The first demo, “ROTTING JEHOVAH” cassette was recorded during winter/spring of 2020 and released last August on Blasfemas Records, and was repressed as part of a split w/PROGOAT, titled “BESTIAL WAR ATTACK UPON THE CROSS”, on Propagator Propaganda Records out of Germany, CD Ltd. to 30 copies
Copies of both are still available to this date, on both labels..
The differences—Brood In Black is closer sound wise to Black Metal than Black/Death/War Metal, whereas, RTNGJHVH is closer to Bestial Black/Death/War Metal than it is to Black Metal. They both have their places and their purposes, both ultimately at war against everything “holy”..
Blasfemas Records was conceived in late 2016/early 2017, with the first Brood In Black cassette Arrival Of Death. Blasfemas Records was born out of necessity, to be able to release Brood In Black cassettes, as this was a problem with the early vision of the band, from 2007-2010. No one wanted to release these demos at all, so to remedy the problem the second time around, I started Blasfemas Records. Since 2017, we have put out several other bands demos (Christrape, Unholy Christ, Cruel Spirit, ARRA,etc) and also, we have 15 releases to date. And we are on the verge of adding a few more to the roster. We are a DIY label, draw/copy/cut/paste/dub/. The first half of our releases were all mainly hand written and hand drawn, though we have gradually graduated to typing/printing liner notes.
What merchandise do you currently have available?
We
currently only have cassettes/digital files for sale; all 15 releases
are available in digital download, though a select amount of our
cassette releases are currently in stock. Our
Bandcamp page has all of our releases streaming/for sale. We hope to
expand our merchandise in the future. Our latest idea has been of
doing some exclusive runs of CD-R’s of our sold-out stock.
10 albums I can’t live without..
Hellhammer “Satanic Rites”
and “Apocalyptic Raids”
Celtic Frost “Morbid Tales”, “To Mega Therion”
Venom “Welcome To Hell”, “Black Metal”
First 4 Bathory albums.
That is all that you need!!
What do you regard as some of the most disgusting trends in metal today? Any pet-peeves?
I’d have to say some of the most disgusting trends in Black Metal today, on a musical level, which harkens back to bands overstriving for originality, is the so called “post BM” bullshit, it all sounds the same (ripping off Burzum riffs, or Avant-garde/emo bullshit)and even looks the same, ( the visual aspect is that the bands usually all look like they play indie rock, no corpsepaint/spikes/etc, just tattoos/nazi youth haircuts/beards; they look as they were playing indie rock last week, and decided that Burzum has some cool riffs but fuck that Nazi..hahaha) these bands totally try to exclude Satan, or Satanic ideas, because they think it’s been over done. Black Metal is about Satan, for Satan and is SATAN!! It’s funny, because they are all fools-they do not realize that ultimately, rock n’ roll/ Metal is the Devil’s music, and they are still serving Him, whether they think they are or not, and whether they like it or not!! They all can try to deny it- but it’s no use..It’s basically Emo/Metalcore for The Dark Lord..Hahaha!! This is just my opinion, if it’s not Satanic in some kind of way, it doesn’t need to be called “Black Metal”..
Another trend is using the word “Blackened” in a band’s description of their sound. Aaarrrgghhh…This should be self-explanatory, I need not have to explain..
One-man Atmospheric bands are a dime a dozen, with Internet and fucking recording software, also Dark/Ambient stuff has also been overdone all to hell. I stand with my last comment in the first section above…
Another trend, is the price gouging of vinyl releases. I don’t claim to be some big “collector” of vinyl, especially of the BM persuasion. I actually probably don’t own vinyl as much as the next person who listens to Black Metal, it is insane what some of the older releases bring on Discogs, EBay, etc. It really is a racket. Even with some of today’s releases, the desperate collectors are going to spend that money, to get that status symbol, to post on all of their social media accounts. And the labels are raking in the cash while they can, because today’s vinyl is going to be tomorrow’s download card. It’s all one big work, but who suffers? The ones who passionately listen to BM without the status symbols, the ones who can’t afford it, etc. Like all things that are considered “cool”, they unfortunately get turned in a trend. And vinyl collectors are no better than sports card collectors, unfortunately. Buy all the vinyl, only to look at it and never listen to it. Total neglect of these pieces of blasphemy. Music is made to be heard! If you were to ask me, I’ll buy a dubbed demo cassette for 10 bucks over an original press of an album that costs over $30 bucks and up any day!
I am sure there are other things about this genre that aggravate me and others, but at this time, I will conclude this answer..
Thanks
a lot for your time, brother! The last unholy words are yours.
Thanks very much again for conducting this interview with me, for Brood In Black..I am truly honored.. At this time, I would like to send my gratitude to all worshippers of the cult of Brood In Black, and of Blasfemas Records and our other bands. Hail!!!
Also, Infernal Hails to all of our band comrades all over the world…
Hail Satan!!