Hello, Khairil! Your first full-length album, "Spawned From Hellfire And Brimstones", comes! Congratulations!
Yes, thank you! And thank you very much for your support Desekrator. More people like you is needed in this scene. Congratulations to you for choosing the right path in metal music. And congratulations also for having the true metal attitude. What was the reason to found the label VRYKOBLAST PRODUCTIONS? Who manage it?
The main reason is to release VRYKOLAKAS releases. But after listening to some bands, we felt the urge to help these bands release their albums. I will feel proud if I get to release great albums of great bands, whether they sell well or not. Currently, myself and VRYKOLAKAS vocalist, Andy, manage the label. And it is not easy managing the band and the label as well. Promotion and trading takes up a lot of time and money. Judging by the songs title I can suppose that lyrics is important for you. What are your lyrics about?
Yes, the lyrics are important to me, slightly less important than the songs. To me the songs are most important. Without the lyrics, the songs alone should be able to send the message, feelings and ideas of a band. Our lyrics simply deal with death, destruction of life, afterdeath, hell and such morbid themes. How do you think, why east bands are less popular than west?
I feel that the main reason for this is lack of promotion. Asian bands find it difficult to break through the western market. After a while, after seeing some Asian bands failing to succeed, other Asian bands just simply stopped trying. I have heard some bands here and in Malaysia telling me that the western scene is never interested in the Asian scene as the western scene already have great bands. To a certain degree, I believe that some westerners feel superior to Asians, that's why they do not bother to give opportunities to Asian bands. As I understand VRYKOLAKAS is the most brutal Singapore`s band? But you played black metal before…
Yes, you certainly have done your research. We did play black metal but not the kind which sings about mountains, old trees, owls, wolves, snow, beautiful fairies, folklores and such things. When we played black metal back then, the black metal scene was spaerheaded by the might of BLASPHEMY, IMPALED NAZARENE, SAMAEL, BEHERIT and other dark acts. Even the American death metal bands are very dark, such as ABSU, MAGUS, INCANTATION, DECREPIT, INCARNIS, MALFEITOR, etc. Suddenly, the Norwegian and Swedish death metal bands changed their style to black metal and they started promoting their snow mountain resorts and nocturnal animal zoos and branded corpse cosmetics. That's when we decided that we are growing older by the hour, so let's be mature about the things we do and started writing brutal death metal songs. It was a natural change because even when we were writing songs in the veins of BLASPHEMY and IMPALED NAZARENE, we were covering songs from American brutal death metal bands. Why all your releases have not much material (1-6 songs)? You cannot released full-length album from 1992 indeed?
So far I have only revealed this in this interview. The fact is, I cannot tolerate repeating riffs over and over again. Usually in VRYKOLAKAS' songs, a riff is played up to 4 bars maximum. And we have many riffs played continuously. I wrote this song "Desecrating The Ancient Ones" which had more than 10 riffs. I was so excited about it because there were many riffs and when I played the song at home, it felt like a long song. After we practiced that song, it came out to only 2 minutes 30 seconds. Nowadays, we try to play the riffs more times to lengthen the songs to as long as we can tolerate. We also believed that it is always better to release a mini album with 5 great songs, compared to releasing a full length album with 5 bad songs. The first full length album consists of the songs we really like from the various earlier releases. We added 3 new ones to make it a 11 songs full length album. I suppose that Rudra is in your friends. Because they from Singapore too and they well-known in the west. What can you say about them?
They are very hardworking and productive band. I know the bass vocalist, Kathi. He is a very cool guy, very down-to-earth and friendly. They have been around since the start of 90's. It is really encouraging to see them still going strong today. Most other bands which started out with them have all split up. So congratulations to RUDRA! Many people think that the best of death metal already done. So what new you can suggest to metal music listeners?
I agree with what these people think and say. Everything has been done. But then in songs, the guitar riffs are important, the drum patterns are important, the vocal melodies are important. So now it boils down to how the songs are written these days. For example, just when people think death metal is getting boring, NILE appeared out of nowhere and came out with their brand of Egyptian death metal. The music is brutal death metal made out of Egyptian melodies. It is not the end. A band just have to continue to write great songs from now on without thinking of whether they are doing something new or original. What is your most hated metal band?
I don't have any 'hated' metal band in mind. But I hate bands who try to dictate the actions of other bands. I hate metal politicians. I hate it when some bands believe in something ( for example snowy mountains and big bad wolves ) and they claim that other bands which do not sing about the same thing are posers. I hate bands who determine the metal fashion by claiming if a band do not have long hair and wear corpse cosmetics, that band is a poser. What will say Khairil when will be dying?
I hope I can say "No regrets!!!" Does VRYKOLAKAS history have moments you want to change?
There's nothing that I want to change right now. Of course, if possible I would like to have this current line-up since the beginning. But I learnt a lot of things since the formation of VRYKOLAKAS and these things made my life more interesting without having to be in the mainstream lifestyle. Many years before VRYKO-members played in diffrernt bands (BESTIAL COLONY, DOWNFALL, TUMULUS, DEMONIAC). Have somebody side-projects in band?
Currently, Andy and Iman are helping out in CHAOS REGAL. I have stopped playing in the other bands I used to because those bands are currently inactive. Your TOP 5 albums.
1. GRAVE - INTO THE GRAVE
2. INCANTATION - ONWARD TO GOLGOTHA
3. SUFFOCATION - EFFIGY OF THE FORGOTTEN
4. NILE - CATACOMBS OF NEPHREN-KA
5. ALL THE OTHER ALBUMS THAT I HAVE Do you want your albums were sell by one-million copies?
If that is possible, why not? By selling one million copies, I know that my music has reached out to many metalheads. When we talk about this, we should not just look at the commercial perspective. All bands want their music to be spread around like a virus, infecting the listener with their songs and ideologies, right? So the more people they get to listen to their music, the better it is. It will also be good for the labels, because the more money they make, the more albums they can help release. I mean look at the positive side of it, without major sponsors and million dollar capital, metal labels have still been able to release albums, organize metal festivals through the years. Are there some methods to relax after rehearsal (alcohol, smoke…)
Cold drinks, good food, sex. Have you a dream?
I want to be a porn star!!! Does it influence on VRYKO-music that you live in East contry?
On the contrary, I have always been influenced by American and European brutal death music. You can hear in our songs influences of GRAVE and INCANTATION very much. Are there people you want to play with?
If you're talking about bands, INCANTATION and NILE would be great to play with. What last release impressed you most?
It has to be the album by FLESHGORE-Killing Absorption. Great Ukrainian brutal death!!! Have you gigs or tours out of Singapore bounds?
Not yet. We were supposed to play in Thailand in August but we were not able to perform on the gig date due to job commitments. Tell what you know about Russia and our metal scene?
I know Anna Kournikova has a nice butt!!! I know that a lot of Russian, Ukrainian and Latvian bands are really good metal musicians!!! I really enjoyed the albums of NEGLECTED FIELDS, BRUTE CHANT, NOSFERATOS, T.H.R.O.N, FLESHGORE, SANCTIMONY, SCRAMBLED DEFUNCTS, LAZARUS ( old band in the 90s ) and the latest album of MERLIN is great! I'm in touch with Dmitri of RELICS RECORDS. OK, thanks, Khairil! Can you tell a joke at last?
3 army generals, from Germany, America and Singapore stood on a naval missile cruiser talking about having the bravest soldiers in their army.
The German army general said he has the bravest. He ordered one soldier to jump into the sea full of sharks and catch one. The German soldier jumped in, killed one and brought up the shark and lay it down in front of the 3 generals.
The American army general said he has the bravest. He commanded one soldier to jump into the sea full of sharks and catch a live one. The American soldier jumped in, wrestled one and brought up the shark alive and lay it down in front of the 3 generals.
The Singaporean army general said he has the bravest. He demanded one soldier to jump into the sea full of sharks and catch two, one dead and one alive. The Singaporean soldier turned to the general and shouted in his face, " FUCK YOU!!! GO GET THEM YOURSELF YOU FUCKING MORON!!! The German and American army generals looked at the Singaporean army general. The Singaporean army general calmly said, "There you have it gentleman, my soldier is the bravest. He dared disobey my order and even throw vulgarities in my face!"
And to end, thank you Desekrator for this opportunity to appear in your zine. All Russian brutal death bangers should contact us for orders, trades or just correspondence. Feel the blast of VRYKOLAKAS!!!