Greetings, fellow readers. On this Friday, Lachryma Christi brings you a very interesting interview with a Black Metal band from Cuba. More precisely, the pioneer band of Black Metal music in Cuba, Mephisto.
Mephisto are an old school band, who have been around since the 90s.
Being around for so long, they have, obviously, gone through different phases, but always bringing us excellent music.
On the 27th of March, the band released their new album, called Pentafixion, through Wormholedeath Records.
So, let's see what interesting stuff Mephisto have to tell us. And definitely, everyone (me included) will listen to Pentafixion with a whole new perspective after reading this interview!
Why did you choose the name Mephisto for the band? What does it mean, in your perspective?
Mephisto is the diminutive of Mephistopheles, a character in the play "Faust", by J. W. Goethe, who is nothing more than the devil, so it is added to the multitude of names that the morning star already has. For us it is the essence of the atmosphere and theme that is mostly reflected in our themes.
How would you describe the style of the music you play? I have seen that you are the pioneers of Black Metal in Cuba. However, I have read in places that your style is Gothic / Black Metal. How is it for you?
Right now, Symphonic Black Metal. And yes, we are the first Black metal band to emerge in Cuba and the initiators of corpse-paint, and thus, years later, the other Black bands began to emerge in our country. We always did it mixing other styles with Black and using gothic, classical and symphonic elements, we have never played Black metal in the Norwegian style, which is what most of the Cuban black bands that emerged later did.
Being around since the 90s, how do you see the evolution of the Black Metal music in your country, and in the world?
Black metal began -the second wave- in a raw style, with lugubrious chords and a rhythmic base very influenced by the fast Thrash of Sodom and from there arose, when doubling the BPN, the blast beast in the drums. Over time the genre has been refining and acquiring melody and harmonic games that grew with the use of keyboards and later mixing with symphony orchestras, opening a range of richer sound and stylistic possibilities. Contrary to the world, we, the initiators in Cuba, already started with the mixtures and the other bands that emerged later have remained in the Black in their pure style.
What are your songs usually about? Is there a main message you try to pass on to your public through your music?
Lots of literary references and some satanic praise. To focus on the album Pentafixion, which after all is what we want to promote right now, I am going to quote you what the lyrics of each song are about:
Storming War Anthems: A Call to War. The final offensive against the heavenly hosts after so long the fall and exile of Lucifer.
Pentafixion: a satanic ritual based on the crucifixion of a person on a pentagram, as a sacrifice to Satan.
Creation of the Magnificent in III acts (I -The Birth, II –Rebellion, III –The falling): A trilogy based on the poem “Paradise Lost”, by Milton, about the birth of Lucifer, the rebellion against God and the defeat and fall of Satan to be condemned to reign in hell.
Curse of the Pharaoh: Based on a story by the master of horror H. P. Lovecraft, about a gem with the power to open a door to the dimension of the Ancients and invoke the blind god Azathog. According to the story, a pharaoh kept this gem in a windowless temple, since the invocation had to be carried out in total darkness.
The rings of Sauron in III Parts (Part I –The mighty ring, Part II –From Hobbiton toward the mountains of Gorgoroth, Part III –The last battle): It is obviously based on the trilogy of "The Lord of the Rings", JRR Tolkien, with the difference that we gave it a different twist at the end of the story: Frodo is caught and killed, the ring falls at the hands of Sauron and darkness advances throughout Middle-earth. Minas Tirith is taken, Rohan burned to the ground, Orthanc restored, Hobbiton and all its inhabitants enslaved, and Gandalf thrown forever into a putrid dungeon. And as the end of the song "The last battle" says: and evil reigns forever...
The Undivine blessing: Once again the Lovecraftian mythology about being blessed with the power to invoke the Ancients through the secret key Aklo Sabbaoth and thus unleash terror on all humanity, which will be exterminated.
Yavhe Sabbaoth (King of nobody): A reflection on the uselessness of the supposed almighty God who has shown to have no power over anyone and who made a mistake by choosing a people who have historically betrayed him and do not want to know about him.
Burning Fantoft: On the events that happened in Norway under the signature of the Inner Circle and at the hands of Vark Vikernes, and that ended with the fire of the Fantoft church
Cradle of Filth was one of my favourite bands during my teenage years, and Pentafixion reminds me a lot of old Cradle of Filth. Where do you get the inspiration for your music from?
The band didn't start out as Black's band. The influence at the beginning was Septic Flesh, as we were thinking of doing extreme and dark metal, but at the same time symphonic. One day the album "The principle of evil made flesh" by C.O.F fell into our hands and that's when our turn towards Black Metal began. There is still some of that influence based on the old C.O.F records, because currently we do not feel identified by the current turn of that band, but we continue with the influence of Septic Flesh and other bands like Emperor and Dimmu Borgir.
Pentafixion came out recently. How has it been the reception from the public to it, so far?
In Cuba it has not been heard yet, we have done the promotion only abroad, but the album contains songs that we have been playing throughout the country for years. We are known throughout the country, but abroad we are complete strangers. There have been several reviews on webzines and magazines and all have been positive. We've even had surprising reviews calling the album a masterpiece. All this brings us the confidence that we can be successful in future tours of the world if the terrible god of death: Covid-19, allows us.
With such a long career, and so many demos, only was it that the first album only came up in 2016 (Reborn from Ashes), and Pentafixion now, in 2021? Was it planned to be like this, or did it just happen this way, naturally?
It's all because we live in a country under a communist dictatorship. Since the band's emergence until recently, there was no chance of making a worthwhile recording, so the demos we managed to self-produce had a horrible sound and circulated underground. Cuba has always been behind the world, since the Internet and digital technology came into the hands of the population after the year 2000. Cuban record companies, which are only two, are not interested in metal for ideological reasons, since they consider it the enemy's music. Reborn from ashes was not the first official album. In 2014, a live DVD was released under the Cuban label Bis Music with a concert that we held in 2013 with the Holguín Symphony Orchestra (our city). I can tell you that getting that contract was a heroism and many were amazed at it, because Bis Music is a record company that is only interested in traditional Cuban music and salsa. It was thanks to the friendship that we made with the renowned Havana musicologist Oni Acosta that we achieved that contract; It was then that we recorded that concert thanks to the technology of a friend who has a private studio and that DVD came out, consisting of two discs: one video and the other audio. This audio was the one that Concrete records used years later to publish Reborn from ashes. If you realize the titles are similar. The reason that Reborn… is better known is that Bis Music was never interested in the international promotion of the DVD and they settled for selling it in national territory. I add that the DVD sales were astonishing, two runs of 1,500 copies were sold in a short time, but due to the characteristics of Cuba's centralized economy, the record company didn't give a damn about our bestsellers. As soon as the contract was up they forgot about us, can you understand that? That is why the communist economy has never worked.
I can tell you an amazing thing about the Pentafixion album. It was recorded in my room, with my PC and with minimal technology conditions. Because professional studios are in the hands of the state, who are not interested in metal, and do not have knowledge for the production of this type of music, we have specialized in audio software, so as not to depend on anyone. I imagine that after this revelation you will listen to the album in a different way.
With pandemics going around, it must be quite difficult to play live right now. Are there any promotional shows for Pentafixion coming up?
Our city went on hiatus after the first wave of infections. The situation was so good that we were already without masks. In that period we managed to give two concerts promoting the album. Now we are back under a more terrible wave of infections and deaths and we are in social isolation in our homes and we are just trying to produce “play through instructional videos”. We recently managed to film a streaming concert that we plan to disseminate on our social networks.
Rest assured that as soon as the epidemiological situation improves, we will plan a tour, and we will start with Central America. Many people are looking forward to this and every day, as our music spreads more, the number of followers of the band is increasing.
How is a show of Mephisto? When people go seeing you live, what can they expect?
We don't like being a fictional studio band, so before recording an album we have already tried those songs live a thousand times. What you hear on the record is possibly twice as better and more extreme live. That's what we are, a stage band first and foremost. The strength of the band is well proven throughout Cuba, so we are prepared to stand on any stage.
Is there any artist you never played live with, that you would like to?
The only country where we have played, apart from Cuba, is in Nicaragua, where we share the stage with several local bands. We have not gone further yet nor have we had the opportunity to meet our idols at the same event. The members of the band have different tastes, so we could share the stage with bands of different styles of metal. Personally: Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of filth, Immortal, Emperor, Fleshgod apocalypse, Septic flesh… I imagine other members of the band would like to share the stage with Deicide, Carcass, Gojira, Turisas, Behemoth, etc.
What can we expect from Mephisto in a near future? What are you planning next?
We are immersed in the process of carefully composing unreleased tracks for an album that will come out much later, because first we are going to rescue the songs from the demos and release two more albums. A conceptual album about the myth of Dracula is already in the middle of recording. Before the end of this year it will be ready, and I believe our record company will love it as much as Pentafixion. I imagine that with the help of WHD it will be released next year. We hope to continue our relationship with Wormhole Death Records for future albums as they’ve really been working hard on this current release and are so proactive when it comes to looking after their artist roster.
Since you've been around for so long, is there any message you would like to send to your followers and to people trying to start a band now?
Much perseverance! Whoever answers this interview has lost marriages and jobs by never deviating from the path of music. I'm willing to win or die trying, and I've been in this for 30 years. That is my message, never let yourself be defeated, never admit defeat, fall and get up stronger than ever, and whoever tries to get you out of this mission, cut them out of your life. After the sacrifice come the fruits, and when the effort has been titanic the pleasure of victory is three times sweeter.
Mephisto are:
(photos from Wornholedeath Records promotional material)
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