07.05.2021

INQUISITION interview: «The Metal Scene is a festival culture, a party culture, a fun culture that cannot face the dark side and imperfections of humanity»

(Jason «Dagon» Weirbach, May 2021)

Thinking about American black metal, INQUISITION’s name comes to your mind immediately. Having started in the 90s, this band has been going at a steady pace, creating its special shade of black: visionary, hypnotic, cosmic, occult, catchy, intense, with a uniquely refined feel of melody. Black Mass For A Mass Grave album, released last year, is definitely one of the most prominent releases of these weird times. So I really wanted to talk to its creator, also known for his impressive stylish photosets, also known as Dagon.

All bands say «our new album is definitely the best one», and in INQUISITION case I’d agree with that. Black Mass For A Mass Grave feels like the most inspired/complete/majestic work of yours. Do you think the band has reached its highlight point?

There are subtle characteristics on this album that are responsible for playing a dominant role on this album that are heard much less, if at all, on previous albums. When you hear the album, you essentially know what band it is, but you are hearing things that are a bit refreshing because of these newer elements. Slow songs with few blast beats throughout the album, clean guitars, a few organ passages, some clean vocals in a few areas. It is those subtle additions that people are possibly liking and the atmospheric result that produces an illusion of having reached some type of highlight.

In the end what matters is how people feel and connect when your music is listened to, and I think listeners connected deeper on this album because their mind went to special places, darker corners of the mind during their listening experience, versus a more physical feeling of aggression and extroversion. Slower music is less congested and agitated, slower tempos allow for tone to travel and cast its rich harmonics to the listener’s ear better, you can think and enter a realm of immense introversion and introspection easier… that was the goal of this album, to make a more personal connection with the listener and I think this is the highlight.

It is not easy to write an album like this when you have challenges for example as: the music needs to still be «Metal» at heart, not too atmospheric and shoegaze like, still sound like INQUISITION, not put people to sleep, sound like the same band preserving identity at the forefront… yet still be interesting and valuable to the fans.

What are your plans and wishes for 2021? Do you think live music is going to return to USA in full swing?

In the United States, I do not know. Whichever year normalcy returns on, I will play devil’s advocate and go as far to say I think this is good for music industry and bands, and musicians in general. There is more to life than just living on the road being «rock and roll». I think possibly many musicians will have looked inwards more and have had time to truly live life more under COVID than they lived as a full-time touring musician, I can say I have. This also has forced people to develop or refine other skills they may have had and sacrificed for touring time.

During this pandemic time, when bigger bands sit at home, there’s a high rise of the underground music (or at least I can see this in Carolinas). Do you experience it in Seattle, too? Btw, what are the most popular metal styles out there?

The only thing I connect with here where I live is nature; the mountains, forests, the Washington coast are an absolute majesty of nature. I am completely disconnected from Seattle bands and music scene in general here. However, I do have less than a handful of people here I talk to in bands, and they make very traditional classic Black Metal. I think Black Metal here in the Pacific Northwest is a bit more atmospheric than Black Metal spawned in other states. It is not easy to describe popular music styles that originated here; Seattle has always hade an odd infusion or blend of styles that become popular for awhile but are not clearly identifiable as a particular genre.

What is the most stressful and challenging part of playing INQUISITION’s intricate music live being just a two-piece band?

Having to sacrifice elements I cannot execute live due to having only one guitar live is the negative side. So much, that I have always kept our albums more minimalist, so people do not miss anything when we play live. On this latest album, Black Mass For A Mass Grave, I did not care and went much further than usual layering. I told myself I would start to layer more elements and push the songwriting abilities further without allowing the live aspect to dictate what we can and cannot do in the studio.

Looking at your photoshoot for Black Mass For A Mass Grave, it surprises how many knives one may have. What do these steel weapons represent, is there a special meaning behind your image? Do you collect knives, swords, guns — like many Americans do?

I do collect knives, and I have a passion for it. I do not collect knives for the sensationalism connected to Black Metal. I absolutely love knives. My favorite knife style are hand forged American frontier oversized knives. Knives trappers would carry during the early period of the United States when the American West was being explored. The classic Bowie knife style and frontiersman knife in general are the best knives. Of that style, my personal favorites that I own are made from rasps and old 1800’s sawmill blades, and leaf spring steel from old 1800’s horse plows.

The steel used to make old sawmill blades from the late 1800’s and those springs used on horse plows from that same period is some of the best steel ever made, making for an obviously strong blade that sharpen extremely well. The sword you see on the album, that is made from a leaf spring from an old horse plow the forger inherited from his grandfather, the steel is amazing on that one.

I have some WW1 bayonets, WW2 bayonets and knives, US military modern knives. In general, a lot of large and oversized knives made by hand.

What do they mean you ask; first they are an art form, I see them as art. People buy paintings and sculptures; I buy knives like people buy art. They represent the need to survive, to live, to eat, to create and destroy, they are both sexy and sensual while also vicious and brutal. They are an immense symbol of duality because they can do two opposite things so well that are both negative and positive.

I will not speak for the other member, it’s his privacy I am protecting. Incubus does not talk much about what he owns. He does not collect knives.

Since INQUISITION is such a picturesque band, with much attention paid to the visual side, I can imagine you like to surround yourself with something special. Can you describe the place you’re living in?

We both live in the city between Seattle and the Canadian border, not in a nature paradise. But only one hour from me are the North Cascade mountains, and two hours away from where I live is where we took the pictures for Black Mass For A Mass Grave. Travelling one hour in several directions I go will lead me to something beautiful.

I read a number of your interviews referring to your childhood and youth in Colombia, with quite dangerous surroundings and extreme music being actually extreme in many ways. (Here, for example.) Haven’t you ever felt your life in Seattle is too comfortable, too well-organized and safe to keep you in the right mental shape — compared to the early years?

Well right now Seattle is in a social crisis, and that social crisis is spreading throughout the state turning the state into a human cesspool if we do not get things in order soon. Other than that, nature is still here in all of its glory and that is what inspires me. The tensions I lived in Colombia gave me strength and character for life later into my adulthood, I lived some interesting situations that stayed with me, and those situations forged me as a person, not directly as the musician I am. Once I arrived here, the environment made everything what INQUISITION is now; not socializing in a large scene while surrounded by the thrones of nature allowed me to focus on simply writing the best music I could with no distractions.

Do you think Agonia Records are doing great in promoting Black Mass For A Mass Grave? I know the label got under fire after signing INQUISITION, but they seem to be standing strong behind you.

Agonia are doing a phenomenal job by standing in their place and fighting for their right to sign the band they want, it is a basic right they have. The stories we have would shock a lot of people who think more with the brain than the heart if I were to tell you what some people in the smaller part of the “industry” attempted with Agonia to defame them and make life a living hell, for essentially doing absolutely nothing wrong against anyone regardless of your opinion or how you “feel”. The larger part of the industry like Sony Music stood strong with us and were aware of the emotional drama. Both Agonia and Sony stood by us.

Did you feel betrayed by Season of Mist after they dropped the band?

Season of Mist, I have no resentments towards. Michael and I spoke on the phone the day we were dropped, he explained his reasons and I understood. I was very logical, almost military like when he explained his reasons while all I would reply with were «I understand». That conversation is private, and his reasons were not just one reason like many would want to think. But yes, we had a very good relationship for two solid albums with Season of Mist, no complaints for being dropped.

When you are fired from a job, released from a relationship of any kind be it professional or personal, rejected in general, the most important thing you need to do is to think clearly and think forward. You cannot think clearly and apply forward thinking if your heart gets involved, and worse yet if guilt is involved it becomes poisonous. Keep your head high, be a great person, be like iron and move forward…

Can you agree the metal scene (that’s supposed to be tough and united) has become too cautious, heavily infected with cancel culture and self-righteousness, that it’s becoming hard to be yourself and speak your mind?

Society as a whole has this issue and it has trickled down into the Metal Scene, because the Metal Scene is no longer a sub culture where usually isolation is its strength… like the underground scene. The Metal Scene is a festival culture, a party culture, a fun culture that cannot face the dark side and imperfections of humanity and actually run from it. The party spirit and celebratory spirit the Metal Scene has is understandable, Heavy Metal was not always the devil’s music, it is also the peoples music.

However within Metal we do have less than shiny areas of musical genres that have real people, that are not perfect, don’t just flirt with darkness but carry within them a dark soul who also happen to make music we call Black Metal, or make art for bands, or simply listen to Black Metal and other truly extreme genres. These are listeners, artists and musicians who are everything from real sociopaths to people with traumas who carry the black flame within them and instead of playing a judging role in moral court, they express their darkness through Black Metal and cast it. This crowd does not mix well with the fun party people of our scene, this is where the problem is. We see this in politics, we see this at right versus left rallies in the streets. It is a battle of the mind versus the heart and is not a simple topic like many think.

And that being said, INQUISITION has attracted both types of crowds, two crowds and realms of the music industry and society that conflict with each other.

In one of the interviews you said you’re interested in ‘everything that happens on Earth, from its evolution of species to the history of mankind’. Do you think the ongoing pandemic is an interesting period in human history? What are the main lessons to be learned from it?

To clarify, I do believe in the pandemic. There are too many factors and dynamics on a massive scale to see this as a world government conspiracy, sounds clich? and ridiculous but I want to clarify. I do think that political opportunism using the virus as a vehicle to carry an agenda that is far disconnected from healthcare, is also a reality, that is another virus the real virus is infecting the elites, of the bad kind with… more abuse of power.

Personally — Always have a plan, from plan A to plan Z. You can own all the survival tools and stock on weapons and ammunition, own your house and a property as what you think is the best defensive and survival measure. But it is your ability to adapt, learn new skills and apply them that will carry you through a life changing event. I lived a covid type of situation before covid two years prior, and two weeks later my life was in a good place because I can adapt. Learn multiple skills, develop useful skills, be willing to do any type of work and leave your ego out and get busy. That is survival of the fittest.

On a human scale – what I learned is nothing new, we have all been told throughout our lifetime that a life changing virus would come one day, they always do and will continue to do so. First time I read about that topic was back in the 1980’s in Isaac Asimov’s book «A choice of Catastrophes: The Disasters that Threaten Our World». What this tells me is that our mentality of the «not in my lifetime» mindset led us here.

That mindset starts at the top all the way down to the bottom class of society… «not in my lifetime». And from this mindset, carelessness in a laboratory in conjunction with care free people as a whole more concerned about some hyper paranoid social justice issues were caught unprepared while virus versus mankind began its battle.

Speaking about last years, apart from covid stuff, there’s been a lot of social instability, with Seattle being one of the epicenters of political turbulence. Did it influence your life, inspired your music in any way?

Nice things do not come out of my mouth when I see all the social effects from heavy drug use and mental illness not taken care of, and a political system playing a passive role thinking its reverse psychology will help the opiate crisis and mental health crisis. Garbage, graffiti everywhere, filth and scum all over what was the most beautiful area of the country. Social issues have become a priority today all over the world, but only in a civil rights arena.

What you say is more important than what you do, is the current form of «action». Rallies and complaining, crying, do not make changes.

All of what I just explained above is most definitely not an inspiration for me to make any kind of music at all with. I stay far removed from anything related to social instability as an artist. I like the perfection of nature and admire the human spirit that thrives for order, intelligence, to be its best it can be. I do not like self-pity, feelings of hopelessness because thriving to be your best will kill a lot of these issues people are crying about every day.

The chaos of the universe inspires me, cosmic chaos, destruction as a means for creation; chaos with creative purpose can only be done by nature to perfection like a sculptor who destroys rock for his creation. Maybe the virus and the social issues currently have been manipulated by nature within itself to make for a new and greater era of mankind. Wishful thinking is ok sometimes.

Top-5 of essential black metal albums for you… and why exactly them?

On this list in no specific order.

BATHORY The Return
PARABELLUM Sacrilegio
BURZUM Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
IMMORTAL Pure Holocaust
MAYHEM De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

Those albums led to the development of a greater level of creativity of Black Metal within their styles. These are groundbreaking albums for their time musically, and the attitude behind the albums were raw and true – the real thing.

Just add anything you want…

I am currently writing the next album as of May 2021 when these answers were provided. Hail the cosmos, hail Satan.