Montreal black metal assassins Necronomicon are pulled over on the side of the high way, in the middle of nowhere but they don’t have a flat tire. They’re taking a break from the long Northwestern Ontario drive to chat about their up-coming gig in Thunder Bay at Crocks with Vesperia, Abiotic and locals Ataxia on Friday, August 12.
They have 512 KM to go, and are surrounded by only trees. The sound of passing vehicles is loud and foggy. “Is it rush hour now or what? Here comes another one,” warns Necronomicon vocalist, guitarist and sole original member, Rob “The Witch.”
The trio includes bassist Mars and drummer Rick. Necronomicon have been playing Thunder Bay since 2001, but this gig promises to be deeper and darker than ever before.
Angie Valente for TBNewsWatch: You’re 5 shows into the 19 date “Okkultis in Canada Tour.” How’s it going?
Rob: It’s been good. Of course we have to keep in mind that it’s not like touring Europe. This is a small market tour. Populations overall are way bigger in USA and the distances in Canada are longer. So far so good.
AV: You also have a string of 24 dates starting in September. What’s the tour mentality like in this band?
R: I think we only have one day off in between the two tours and yesterday I learned that 5 or 6 more dates have been added, so that’s a really long run, two months literally.
So the mentality of that is of course, we know that it’s rough, it’s not like what people think. It’s not always glorious and great. We downsized everything. We try to eat good enough, we take vitamins, we don’t drink much, we don’t party, we’re trying to stay healthy to perform the best we can each night.
AV: You’re a 3 piece. What’s the dynamic like as a trio?
R: It simplifies a lot of things. But at the same time, it makes other aspects more complicated. When we load in and out we’re just 3 guys; we take longer to set up, we’re usually night travellers. We don’t take up much space. Small tours pay smaller, but the less people you bring, the less you spend.
AV: Is the genre that you most identify with, death metal?
R: Some say black metal, or black death metal. We sometimes say dark metal, we’re doing extreme metal. We always had a dark occult theatrical influence behind the band, but we tend to classify ourselves in the terms people use to describe us, like black or death metal.
AV: What sets Necronomicon apart from other death metal bands?
R: The longevity of the band. We formed in 1988. There are few bands that have been around for that long. I’m not trying to say that we’re original because pretty much everything has been done, but we do what we want to do and don’t take influences from any other band. We do have a positive message in our lyrics.
Our message is one of power in that way, it puts us on a different track than the other bands.
AV: How does your latest album “Advent of the Human God” differ from albums of the past?
R: The writing process was not different than usual, I wrote the songs on a small computer at home, creating the skeleton of the songs. It was different this time because we had to use 3 studios to record it. One to record the band itself, another to record the orchestration and the mix was done in a third studio in Dallas, Texas. It was pretty intense.
AV: When did you first discover your singing voice?
R: It’s was an accident, actually. Literally. I had another kind of vocal before, which was more screechy and high pitched, (refer to the original demo in 1991.) It was a demo we did ourselves with a cheap mic and we put it on cassette tape.
Everyone was saying the band was amazing but they didn’t like the vocal, that it was outdated.
We were invited to play at a small festival. I got sick with a high fever. I grabbed some aspirin and water and that voice came out. I went on stage and in front of 1000 people I started to have a big voice.
Everyone was freaking out. At that time there was not a lot of people who had that vocal. I modulated my voice a certain way.
AV: Have Necronomicon always painted their faces?
R: At one point I was the only one who wanted to have the costumes and makeup. What happened was we dropped it for a while but after a few years I wasn’t feeling it, it was awkward without it.
I wasn’t into it, it was boring. I was going on stage and feeling nothing. We started to slowly go back to the origin, and it came back naturally.
Necronomicon play Crocks with Vesperia, Abiotic and locals Ataxia on Friday, August 12.