1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
1. Our guiding light is Black Metal but our vision is not limited to a genre. We are exploring heavy music in a very open way, without too many preconceptions about what we need to song like. Our ideas seem to oscillate between black, doom and death. We craft songs that are artistically driven, we want to create immersive and rewarding music. We have both introspective and brutal lyrical content focused on the grief of our genocidal race and the insignificance of all our suffering.
2.Yo have your first ep coming out in March, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style you went for on the recording?
2. Stylistically this album was recorded as a demo. We went for a truly live sound. All of these songs are full uncorrected takes of the entire band recorded in a single day. Basically, hit record and see what you get. Then we did vocals and a lead guitar after. We are interested in music that is honest and ugly. All the mistakes are in there and it is much more interesting to hear people struggle and perceiver. Often when music is polished to perfection it lacks character.
3.Most of the band members also having experience playing in other bands, what is it that the members bring into this band musically that they are bot able to do with their other groups or projects?
3. This band is truly collaborative. There is lots of open sharing of ideas and respect for a shared vision. We are pushing each other, no one could create this band alone. Everyone serves the collective vision. Our process involves lots of jamming and contemplation.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band has explored so far with the music?
4. The lyrical content is fictionalized perspectives on the psychical and spiritual genocides of the Southwest. Imagining in detail the suffering and strife and confusion that is bled into the land. Disease, torment and miserable death. There are ruins of a civilization out side my door, people who experienced true apocalypse, I like to meditate on that as a reminder of our own fragility.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Heretical Sect'?
5.Heretical Sect was a label given by the Catholic Church to groups it persecuted. There where many such groups and being a party of one was a death sentence. The Heretical Sects had different doctrines but generally focused on liberation from the control of the church, usually proponents an ascetic existence that was in direct conflict with the wealthy ruling class. The Waldensian movement was one of these Sects that still exists to this day. Other movements like Catharism, a gnostic revivalist doctrine, where persecuted so harshly that all the practitioners where hunted down and executed. This was during the era of the medieval witch trails, which where a class war against all ideas that contradicted early catholic capitalism. Worker’s rights, women’s autonomy, natural wisdom, property rights, and spiritual freedom. Our name is a tribute to the resistance against the church in all it's different forms.
6.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the ep cover?
6. It is a photograph by an artist named Kara Duval. She shoots actual film and, in this case, the negative was left to rot in water for any years before she processed the photo. So the distortion of the photo is actually the film degrading.The image perfectly captures the idea of the personal rotting into the cosmic; unbeing, not just dying but unbecoming. That juxtaposed with the female crucifix is a very potent image. It is eloquent but still uniquely brutal.
7.Onstage the band members wear masks to hide their identity, can you tell us a little bit more about it?
7. We are interested in presenting a performance that is congruent with our sound. It is something that seemed quite natural. We do not play shows often, it is a special occasion and something we do for ourselves. We want the audience to be immersed in the performance and that means transforming the self into into something more ominous. We are also interested in the history of black metal and participating in our own way.
8.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
8. Our first show was played in darkness to an unexpecting audience. This was an excellent experience.
9.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
9. We will tour at the end of this year or early 2020. Half of our group has a busy year with another band. They are doing international festivals and an east coast tour. Our next album is being written and is half recorded. Writing is probably our most important focus, currently.
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
9. We will tour at the end of this year or early 2020. Half of our group has a busy year with another band. They are doing international festivals and an east coast tour. Our next album is being written and is half recorded. Writing is probably our most important focus, currently.
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
11. There is a lot of great music being made and we admire bands that craft a personal vision, Portal, Oranssi Pazuzu, Magoth, Krypts, Ultha... But the bands we relate closest to are Sinmara, Misþyrming, Serpents Lair, Spectral Wound, and so on.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
12. This existence is all you get, so rock out before you rot out.
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