PRIMORDIAL's Alan "Nemtheanga" Averill - "I Never Wanted To Be One Of Those Fantastical History-Lesson Bands"
May 7, 2009, 15 years ago
Edmonton's Vue Weekly has issued an interview with PRIMORDIAL's Alan "Nemtheanga" Averill, conducted by Fawnda Mithrush. The following is an excerpt from the article:
When Euro-metal comes to mind it can often rouse visions of hairy, horn-helmeted growlers howling about faraway lands and legendary times, topped by squealing guitar solos. Of course, this idea just pisses Alan Averill off. When Vue called up the fast-tongued leader of Primordial - the seminal Irish black-metal band - Averill had just returned home from getting soaked in a rainy game of football (but we know he really means soccer), and is eager to distinguish his cohort from the silly mythical bent of the Scandinavian metal movement. Now on his first North American tour in the band's 18-year history, it's important for him to let people know what Primordial is really about.
"I never wanted to be one of those fantastical history-lesson bands. I'm not interested in singing songs about mythical wars that happened 2000 years ago," Averill explains. "I know that the syntax, the language of those stories and the imagery is perfect for heavy metal fans, but I always wanted to say something about the modern world."Averill, whose stage name Nemtheanga translates to "poisoned tongue," has at the tender age of 34 years old spent over half his life in the band. So it's no surprise that he takes his music very, very seriously.
"Primordial is more about modern politics than it is about brave heroes that did amazing things," he says. "I'm too old to care for that sort of thing. People that just want soundtracks for their gaming, maybe they'll find Primordial boring. Where is the solo, where is the chorus? People want fantasy, they want escapism - it's just never what we wanted, we wanted to actually say something about this world."Let me put it this way: I don't have any kids now, but if I'm 50 and I have kids and they pick up my CD and go, 'This is what you wasted your life doing, songs about dragons and musclebound warriors rescuing fair maidens?' I'd be ashamed that we lived in this day and this culture and we didn't try and say anything about it."
Read the full story at Vue Weekly.
