Hi Moloch, what's up? Things are working cool for Melechesh?

Yeah things are rather well, finishing the promotion for this album, till now the reaction were very positive.

You must excuse me, "Sphynx" is my first contact with Melechesh. I`ve heard about an album called "Djinn" but I never listen to it. I think it’s not easy to create a new style. You promote your music as “Mesopotamian Metal” but what the hell is "Mesopotamian Metal" and what is the idea behind it?

What we mean, by Mesopotamian Metal is the presence of Middle Eastern / Mediterranean elements in our extreme metal (black/ thrash/ death): this means rhythms played on drums that are directly inspired by rhythmic patterns traditionally played on percussion, riffing and melodies on the guitar that is also inspired from that region’s music and atmosphere. That doesn’t mean we do ”folk metal”. No we don’t play farmer music, but extreme metal that is brutal and evil, but played in a unique way. One must listen in order to understand. But to explain musically what we mean by Mesopotamian Metal, we’ve included a CDrom section on “Sphynx” with guitar tablature, an explanation of those specific rhythms I mentioned, etc... (also a video clip, photos, etc...).

Tell me, where are you from? I mean, some say you are from Israel, the next tells you are from Albania and the last wanker told me you are from France. So where the hell are you from?

It’s all very complicated, as the band is pretty international concerning place of birth and place of residency. Ashmedi (guitar/vocs) is Assyrian / Armenian, Al’hazred (bass) is Ukrainian, Proscriptor (drums) is Scottish / American, I’m Assyrian/ Palestinian... The band started in Jerusalem / Bethlehem, which makes people say we’re an Israeli band, but we are not Israelis. In 1998, we relocated to Northern Europe, I live in France, the others in Holland, and Proscriptor still lives in the U.S.

I read all the great reviews you get for "Sphynx"! Are you satisfied with the reactions from press? And what about the reactions from fans? The reaction from the press was very good, we still didn't get any reactions from the "fans", because the album was delayed (technical problems, it's released now), so we will have to wait a bit. It's very difficult to do comparsions about your music. Where do you see yourself? Who influenced you?

We have a unique style, and the more we progress as a band, the less you can compare us to other bands. But we're very thrash/black metal oriented, I guess you can generally put us in the category, even if we don't really sound like other bands.

Can you tell me, what means the name MELECHESH?

In hebrew: "Melech" means "king" and "Esh" means fire. So it's basically "king (of) fire".

The cover looks really brilliant! I have no informations about who it does! And what is it for an animal? It looks like a bastard between Pegasus, a bull with six legs ( Has it two pricks, too? Hahaha?) and at least the head is from Agyptian priest? What is the idea behind the cover? Ah, there goes a laser from space into the pyramide!

The cover was done By Ron Woodall who is a graphic designer works for George Lucas's Industrial light and Magic (Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Mummy). The cover represents a Mesopotamian Sphynx, which is a winged bull with a human body. There is nothing Egyptian, neither in the concept neither in the representation. The Sphynx represents the order established by the Gods, in other words: civilisation, the marts, magic, science... In Mesopotamian mythology it was believed that the Annunaki (a race of giants) were sent by the gods from the planet Nebiru to bring civilisation to mankind. That’s why a light is descending on the Sphynx from the stars. The pyramid is a Ziggurath, which was a mounted temple is ancient Mesopotamian where it was believed that the gods dwelt when they descended to earth.

Are you into science fiction?

Not really, but the other members and specially Ashmedi (guitar/vocs) are.

You music is not easy listening Metal! You play with very abstract rhythms? Is this your goal, that the listener must “Listen” to your records? And why don`t you play more straight parts?

It’s not easy listening, but I don’t agree that it’s not straight forward. It’s in your face music, the rhythms are heavy, not abstract “jazz” like, but they just have a different sounds, so your ears are not very used to them, which is refreshing an a saturated scene where bands tend to sound alike. There are many hidden things in the music, you need to listen to the album a couple of times before starting to appreciate it.People who tend to say it’s too abstract are just close minded humans.

The two instrumentals on “Sphynx” sounds like the soundtrack to build a pyramide or like the soundtracks in old Agyptian war movies! Think you like that stuff, huh?

Exactly, we even wanted to call a track “building the Ziggurath” (the Ziggurath being the equivalent of the pyramid, but it didn’t always have a pyramidal form). But again there is nothing Egyptian in our concept, the Sphynx is a mythological creature that existed in Mesopotamia before existing in ancient Greece and ancient Egypt. Yes we have these visions when we write music, specially in the instrumentals. They help the listeners in visioning our world, and not only by listening to it.

Your drummer is not very unknown, it's Proscriptor from ABSU. Is this not a little bit difficult for you? What do you do, when it comes to rehearsals? But the hell, this bastard did a great job on “Sphynx”! Now we can hear his talent, hahaha. When my information is correct he had some rehearsals with Slayer?!

Yes he did a very good job. We don’t rehearse on a usual bases. What happens is we record our music on demos: the drums are programmed on computer, then the guitars and bass are recorded, we all rehearse on these demos, and before recording this album we met up in Holland and rehearsed during a month. And yes Proscriptor rehearsed with Slayer when they were looking for a new drummer, he finished third place.

Ok, Moloch, commin` to your lyrics. They sound very mythologically, very strange but unique! What inspires you by writing your lyrics?

Mesopotamian mythology, mysticism and magick are the main sources of inspiration for the band. Concerning this album, it was the idea of the beginning of mankind and civilisation in Mesopotamian mythology more specifically, and the myths around that theme: The Annunakis, the 7 sages, the Tablets of Fate, etc... for clearer and more precise information, we have included a lyrical overview and a glossary in the CDrom I mentioned earlier. This way one can plunge and understand our lyrical dominion that I is too long and complex to reveal in the space of an interview.

Is a tour planned? When will you conquer Europe and with whom will you blast?

We will tour for this album, alongside with Osmose Prod, we are looking for a tour. Till now nothing is certain, most probably in Autumn.

We will close this bullshit now, hahaha. The last words are yours!

Nothing to add. Thanks for the interview and interest in Melechesh. Hails.

Contact:
www.melechesh.com

Interview: Marcus