BW&BK Exclusive: BELPHEGOR - "It’s Nice To Be Able To Hit The Church In The Face With Their Own Language"
May 3, 2008, 16 years ago
BW&BK; recently caught up with BELPHEGOR frontman Helmuth to discuss the band's new album, Bondage Goat Zombie. The following is an excerpt from the interview, with Helmuth discussing his use of English, German and Latin in the band's songs
“I read a lot of different things. For the Latin stuff we use many original verses and chants from old books of the Occult. It’s stuff you can’t translate into English. It’s the same with German; we’re using the really old and archaic version of the language. That’s always been our thing, to work with archaic stuff. It’s cool, and it’s practically tradition for Belphegor (laughs). And, another reason we use Latin is because it’s the official language of the Church, which is pretty cool considering how blasphemic our songs are. It’s nice to be able to hit them in the face with their own language.”Doing so has forced Belphegor’s record labels, past and present, into doing damage control by requesting certain lyrics be removed or changed before an album release. It was no different for Bondage Goat Zombie.
“We always run into that problem but it’s not a big deal,” Helmuth says, "but honestly, when I read the lyrics I’m a bit surprised they (Nuclear Blast) agreed to release it (laughs). The new song ‘Justine: Soaked In Blood’, for example, has some of our most offensive lyrics ever, so there were a few discussions about it. On the last album (Pestapokalypse VI) there were lyrics in three songs that Napalm had a problem with. But, we discussed things and they worked out, which is good because I hate being restricted in doing things. Freedom is the most important thing for me, so it feels good when I get my way.”Watch for the full interview in BW&BK; #111.
