Another killer band from the Noth-East of Italy. Playing a cold and really catching BM with abyssal vocals, Chelmno have really conquered my musical tasted since the day I first listened to their demo. Even if the name comes from a III Reich lager camp, they aren't a NSBM band, as they clearly explained in the interview we had. I invite you to support this band and try to find a copy of their cool demo before it finishes, being limited to 88 unities only.
Now the words goes to them...

Introduce the band, telling us shortly the steps that bring you to create it, and the reasons that made you choose this musical genre…

            The band was formed in 2002 with Vidharr at leathers, Eleniad at bass and vocals, Berghof at the guitar; successively Nattramn and Blarog (voice and guitar) joined it, and from then on all the things became more serious. The band was formed to avoid its members to go in jail: while we weren’t playing, we did other things.

Chelmno: a quite “explicit” moniker for a band… Why did you choose it and what relations can we find between your music and the topics concerning National Socialism and Holohoax? Personally, besides your logo and the fact to limit your demo to 88 copies, I can’t find many similtudes between you and a NSBM band, a fact that you seem to underline with the phrase on the tape: “Chelmno doesn’t support NS, but the extreme evil actions it has done”… Tell us…

            We chose the name after having deeply studied the history of that lager, looking all the facts that happened behind the barbed wire of the walls, we decided that Chelmno was the right name. We want to focus on the fact that we aren’t an NSBM band. You are saying right telling we aren’t NS, because people have to understand that National Socialism means capitalism, owner, entrepreneur, a thing that we absolutely aren’t. (I don’t really understand and agree whit what has been just said, NdA)
We do care about what they did outside of politics. The number 88 was chose casually; even maybe you couldn’t believe it.

Let’s talk about your demo “Chelmno”: first of all my compliments for the cool atmosphere that fills this work. The music is really cold and grim, while the screams, particular and some kind of “abyssal voice”, makes every song something particular. Are you satisfied of the final result? How much time did it take to record this demo and what were your sensations while you were realising it?

            We are very satisfied of the final result you can listen inside the tape: using an analogic 4 tracks recorder, the equalisation resulted limited, and consequently the sound is rotten and deep.
We recorded everything in two days; there wasn’t any particular sensation during the recording session, only a big wish to and as quickest as possible, because we were fuckin’ tired of it.

Can you give us a description/comment about the songs contained in the demo and, maybe, tell us in some way what they are about? You recorded also a cover of mighty Bathory: I’d like to know why did you chose it and what’s your opinion about this historical band…

            Lyrics are about very personal arguments regarding ourselves; things happened and things that will happen.
“Satan my Master”, along with “Witchcraft”, is one of the oldest song of Bathory. An obscure and evil atmosphere surrounds it and so we choose it for this reason. Concerning Bathory, what could I say about them when thinking of songs like “Blood Fire Death”, “Burn for Burning” and “Enter to the Eternal Fire”? Wonderful.

What inspires your songs? What arguments do you like most to talk about in your lyrics and how does a Chelmno song born: individually or coming out of a teamwork?

            Lyrics come out from an individually, usually from Nattramn. The riffs, on the other side, come out depending on the feeling of who is creating them.

Inside the demo I found a piece of bone, a small tooth I think… Why did you choose to put inside your tape this “present”? Have you got a kind of passion/interest for this kind of things, or it's just a particular you wanted to add at your release?

            The demo is limited to 88 copies. Between these 88 copies, 22 of them are Nekrocopies, a little homage to the inexorable reaper. We personally broke the teeth of that damned.

I have appreciated a lot your artwork: simple, atmospheric and absolutely BM. How much do you care about image in an extreme musical genre such as BM? Do you consider elements such as black, face painting, a “necro” attitude and similar things as absolutely important, or are just they something that go round the essential element: the music?

            For us image is very important. In our opinion, face painting, attitude and deep knowledge of the genre are fundamental for Black Metal.

BM is surely a musical genre that requires a strong bound between ideology and music; in any other case it doesn’t deserve to be considered BM but becomes simply extreme music to spend your free time, as many other genres… What are the ideologies of Chelmno? What could be considered as your ideas as a band and as individuals?
If you want to share them with us…

            We want to say a thing to all those that follow this musical genre: Black Metal is destruction, hate, feelings and so on. Don’t stop yourselves just creating a band or listening to a disc, but keep your axes and bars, bring fuel and burn all the religious icons of humanity. Keep a bottle of wine, beer or everything else that contains alcohol and go in the middle of a wood, listening to your favourite album (maybe Chelmno…). This is Black Metal. Some times ago a guy told me that BM is whiskey, beer and Nazism. What you do with a guy like him?

I was glad to read inside the booklet that you hail Smara, the man behind Tenebrae in Perpetuum and Beatrik, two bands I respect and support since I begun with the ‘zine. Beside these two respectfully entities, what other bands do you know/support in our country? What’s your opinion about Italian bands and to the multitude of kids that are trying to climb over the high mountain of BM, ignoring the most basilar rules of the genre and without “precautions”?

            We don’t consider ourselves in any particular way, but there are some bands, here in Italy, that must be ashamed of their musical proposal. And maybe they also have the courage to criticise you.
Smara is a big friend of us. He made the intro of our demo. Eleniad and Vidharr play in Beatrik (bass and drums); Vidharr plays also in Tenebrae in Perpetuum.

A ritual question I always ask is the one about the live gigs: What are your intentions, concerning live dates? What do you think about the conflictual relation between BM and live gigs atmosphere?

            We played live three times with Chelmno. Inside the band there are some conflicts about this topic. Vidharr would never play live, Eleniad and Nattramn, on the other side, would. We are always in conflict about lives; surely we don’t know when we will play live, but it will be a good show.

And about the future of Chelmno, what will be your next steps? Could you give us any anticipation about your future plans or do you prefer to keep them in secret?

            In a short time we will begin to record the new songs, and we will have the help of Smara.

This is the end… thank you for your time and, as the old ritual says, to you the last words. Feel free to end this interview as you prefer…

            Let’s meet together one day, in a way we can talk personally.
Chelmno: the end of human race.

Oh well, maybe one day it could be that we will meet. You know that “…with strange aeons…” everything could happen…