Interview: Noctem

Last year Spanish metallers Noctem released their latest effort, called Haeresis. DutchMetalManiac’s Nikola Milošević already reviewed it, you can check his review here. Now, DutchMetalManiac’s Tim van Velthuysen interviewed Noctem’s vocalist Beleth, you can check the interview below.

Hey, how’s life?

Hey! hehe not bad. In this country if you know how you can live relaxed… Looks like I’m already learning.

For people who don’t know you (yet), can you tell us a bit of Noctem’s history?

Noctem is a blackened death metal band with a long trajectory of more than 15 years. With 2 demos, 1 live LP and 4 albums, released with Prosthetic Records, Art Gates Records, NHR and Metal Blade Records.
After 16 years career, Noctem is one of the most active bands from Spain.
The band played on many festivals, more than 15 tours around Europe and Asia, supporting lot of bands like Marduk, Enthroned, Impiety, Napalm Death, Samael, Gorgoroth, Nargaroth, Keep of Kalessin, Taake, Immolation, Vomitory, Malevolent Creation, Incantation, Hate, Ragnarok, Melechesh and many more…

Noctem started in 2001, took a break in 2005 and is back with a new version since 2007. Now, in 2017, you have 10 years with the new Noctem behind your back, how do you look back at the last 10 years and the period before 2007?

Before 2007 the band’s activity was almost nothing. Record a demo and make 5 concerts became Noctem’s biggest goals in a year.

The last 10 years have been the most active period of the band, we have done about 400 concerts, we have released 4 albums since then and this has made us grow a lot and position ourselves better and better on the European scene, and find the attention of good labels outside this continent.

I do not like to look back because I think that with work you have to look forward and there is still much to do.

What makes Noctem’s music unique?

I think it is this kind of blackened death metal mixed with thrash, the sound is raw but not so old school like the classics of the genre. That is my opinion but people usually say that they are epic passages in songs, guitar melodies and Spanish guitars that we use in some songs.

You are from Spain, how is the metalscene in Spain?

It is a metal scene growing up faster and strong in the last years, lot of new bands are making a great job, I mean bands like, [IN MUTE] (winners of Wacken metal battle), Trallery, Angelus Apatrida, Crisix… and many more are hitting the stages outside our country. Some really great festivals like Leyendas del Rock or Resurrection fests are growing up and calling the attention outside of our borders.

A couple of days ago I saw comments in internet about Resurrection Fest poster. Foreign people saying… “Spaniards lucky bastards to have this great festivals…”, “you dont know how lucky you are…” well this is simply amazing. 10 years ago no one thought about this can happen. So we need to continue working and supporting our scene, festivals and bookers to continue growing up.

In September last year you released your latest album called Haeresis, how’s the response you get from press and fans so far and are you satisfied with it?

The answer is being great. The new album Haeresis is getting a great impact in the specialized press and the metal heads. So we can be more than happy.

I don’t know the total sales yet but the special edition we made of 666 copies with cadaver scent is almost sold out. This had a great impact, Haeresis was the first album in the world released smelling to rotten flesh. We have less than 50 copies and we will sell it in the next concerts.

What’s the story behind the cover art of Haeresis?

The cover was made by Seth Siro from Septic Flesh. We know Seth from some years ago and we asked him for a special artwork, we just gave him some info like “topic”, “something explicit”, “big impact” and he unleashed his magic. About the final result we haven’t changed almost anything, it was perfect from the very beginning.

You’ve toured a lot during the years, what is the most fantastic memory you have from it?

We made a lot of friends in the last years touring Europe. It is a great satisfaction when you are going to play in some city and you receive lot of whatsapp and facebook messages telling you “see you there fuckers”, “Party night after the show”… We are simple people and very friendly, so it is very easy to us to connect with the people.

The best memory I can remember right now is play in front of full venues in China. I never thought it can happen. I think this is the reason why we will tour again there.

About touring, you already announced a few festival shows and an Russian tour, can we expect some more shows in 2017?

Yes we announced this week a new European tour with the Polish metal band Batushka. We will take part in the European Pilgrimage part 2. Was a great surprise when Massive Music contacted us and asked “guys are u available to do this tour?” We said… for sure!

We felt like after so many efforts for years people value and consider the band in a good position.

We will be in Netherlands the following dates.

26.05.2017 – Rotterdam/Baroeg.
27.05.2017 – Nijmegen/FortaRock In The City.
28.05.2017 – Utrecht/De Helling.

Any other future plans for Noctem?

Yes we will release next month a new single. Called A Cruce Salus. This was a bonus track recorded in one of the best studios of Spain “Millenia Studios” in Valencia. Raul Abellan offered us the possibility to record a new song and we didn’t doubt it.

This song is in the same thematic of our album Haeresis and will be online very soon, accompanied of new merchandising designs and cover artwork. We will play it in our upcoming tours.

Is there anything you want to say to DutchMetalManiac’s readers?

I want to thank you for this great and complete interview, and say Hey! to all the DutchMetalManiac readers, we meet you guys next month in the upcoming gigs. Stay brutal brothers and sisters.

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