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Om op te vallen in het wereldje van black metal moet je tegenwoordig van goeden huize komen. Veel bands volgen de standaard riffs en melodie lijnen zonder innovatief bezig te zijn. Als een genre zich als zodanig gevestigd heeft, wordt het leeuwedeel van de fans rigide en wars van nieuwigheden. Dat is op zich niet erg, maar zorgt er wel voor dat een genre dood dreigt te bloeden. Progressieve bands verdienen mijn waardering omdat ze tegen deze stroom inzwemmen en ook nog eens boeiende muziek weten te produceren. Negative Plane is hier een goed voorbeeld van. Het bandlid met de dubieuze naam Bestial Devotion heeft mijn vragen beantwoordt.
Text: Carl
 Negative Plane was founded in 2001. Could you give our readers a short introduction to the band and where does the name of the band come from?
The band was founded, as you stated, in 2001 by Nameless Void. Several lineup changes and recording experiments later, Negative Plane arrived at its current lineup and sound. The name stems from the 'negative picture plane' and 'positive picture plane' concept found in visual art; there the 'negative picture plane' describes the more hidden, darker background colors. Needless to say, this presented itself as a very potent metaphor.
According to my information 'Et In Saecula Saeculorum' is your debut album. Are you satisfied with the results and how have been the reactions so far?
We are very satisfied with it, yes. Naturally there are always very small kinks one doesn't realize until later on, or the occasional slight mistake due to some sort of drug abuse or similar during sessions, but nothing is perfect. The reactions and reviews have been surprisingly positive at least as far as I've seen.
"A saeculum is a length of time roughly equal to the potential lifetime of a person or the equivalent of the complete renewal of a human population." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saeculum) In how far is the title of your new album related to this?
No relation. The title stems from the original Catholic Latin mass version of the term 'world without end'.
As you can read in my review of your CD, I am quite impressed by the quality of your music. For example, a song like 'Unhallowed Ground' lies far from the black metal standard. Could you give us mortals a little insight in how you write such fantastic music?
Well, it's good to see that some people actually recognize the immense effort and time that is
invested in each of our songs. We just try to stay away from all outside influence and do our own isolated thing.
You play a different kind of black metal and I would like to know where you get your inspiration from. Which album of what band had the most impact on you as an artist?
First of all I have to mention that everything is written and arranged by Nameless Void. Anyways, bands like Mortuary Drape, Mercyful Fate, Death SS, Ved Buens Ende, Samael and so forth are huge musical inspirations to us in the Metal sector. Overall I'd say however, no matter how trite that might sound to some, that already before recording the album we had learned to be more influenced by our ideals and ourselves rather than someone else's creative outings.
I assume that you like to play your music on stage. Does your current record deal provide in doing tours to promote your latest CD?
The AJNA Offensive is the perfect label for us and has supported us to an amazing degree,
however, we understand that it is financially not possible yet for AJNA to send us on a tour when we're still unknown to most people out there.
In an interview I found of you, you mention that you are Satanists. According to Wikipedia "Satanism is a religion based upon the philosophy of Anton Szandor LaVey as outlined in The Satanic Bible and other works. "Satan" is appropriated as a positive symbol of this worldview, an archetype or the ultimate symbol of the self and egotism". Is this the kind of religion you believe in?
We don't find Ragnar Redbeard plagiarism to be an, even remotely, acceptable definition of Satanism... so no. Our music, lyrical and visual content speaks for itself.
In the same interview you mention that you used to play the organ. Apart from the obvious organ sounds in some of the intro's, how would you say your experience on this instrument is reflected in your black metal?
Well, once again, that's Nameless Void's doing. I hate to throw out the clichè 'Classical influenced' at this point, but we have consciously structured sections after excessive listens of Bach's Organ Works and so forth. Also, we try to achieve the same kind of atmosphere translated into a Metal setting since that's our forte apparently.
 The subjects of your lyrics are the exact opposite of most people’s experiences of everyday life. What is your life like and where does all this hatred come from?
We have sacrificed a lot materialistically speaking and so forth to be able to completely immerse ourselves in what we see as the proper 'path'. There have been moments where we were piss poor, without equipment and almost homeless basically due to the aforementioned choices, but it's the only way as I said. Things have gotten more stable in the last two years and we've finally found someone we think might be able to permanently fill the ever-vacant bass position. I never understood the need to write about 'current issues' and what not, go watch the fucking news if you're truly interested in politics instead of buying the latest Napalm Death. We solely write about what matters to US, what we perceive as the more relevant reality, our mindscapes, deep-seeded religious questions/convictions and so forth. We don't write what we write to pay homage to our favorite bands or similar, this is what is really relevant to us. We also realize that a lot of people can't relate to such and that's fine, that's why we are not on Sony or distributed in supermarkets, just don't whine to us about it because our lyrical content will never change. It's the driving force behind every creative impulse of ours and in these times of all kinds of lyrical excrement permeating BLACK and DEATH Metal we're the stone foundation.
It is a steady tradition within the genre of black metal to wear corpse paint. What are your thoughts on this subject? Do you wear corpse-paint?
We firmly believe in the visual aspect having to be just as strong as everything else, so we're fairly picky in this department. We are using robes and fully concealing masks, however as the drummer, I'd look like a total fool in a robe and probably die of a heat stroke. I admire the imagery created by bands and people like Mayhem (The True of course!), Hellhammer, Mortuary Drape and so forth, so I go that route myself. And as a comment on corpse-paint in general...people seem to forget the word CORPSE and basically by now have managed to turn it into an effeminate, silly self-parody.
People always tend to idealize the underground scene. Do you agree with this?
We don't really care to engage in circle-jerk sessions with bands we think suck, so we couldn't care less about the whole 'underground' Punk Rock mentality.
There are quite some interesting black metal bands in the U.S.A. What do you think of the American black metal scene?
I can't relate to all that Whine-Core being marketed as Black Metal. Regarding the 'scene' thing, you can find the answer above.
What is it like to be living in the U.S.A. and playing in a black metal band?
I would imagine similar to living in another country and playing in a Black Metal band? I'm not really sure how to give you an answer worth reading here.
Thank you for your time and energy. I will leave the final words to you.
Our album 'Et In Saecula Saeculorum' (CD, 2LP) and merchandise (T-shirt, poster) can be purchased in North America through our label, The Ajna Offensive, at www.theajnaoffensive.com. Europeans can get their hands on all of the above mentioned via Norma Evangelium Diaboli at www.noevdia.com. NO FUN, NO MOSH, NO CORE, NO TRENDS SATHANAS ACTUS CRUOR.
http://www.theajnaoffensive.com
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