Another great band from Italy: Tenebrae in Perpetuum. A friend of mine once advised me about them with these words: they are simply great !! After listening to their demo I agreed with him. This band (as you will read, formed only few months ago) really reminds me some good stuff that isn't usually to ear nowadays, with a sound and production that I really like.
I talked with Atratus (vocals / drums) and told him…

Heils Atratus! After listening to your demo I must be glad to ear that the Black Flame still burns in the heart of someone… how did you gave rise to Tenebrae in Perpetuum? Tell us your story…

            Me (Atratus - voice, drums) and The Darkest Abyss (guitar, bass) have founded Tenebrae in Perpetuum only some months ago, even if we created music on one's own account for many times without record it. We decided to create our band to bring to life again those spectral atmospheres that marked True Black Metal in the first '90, but now are hard to find into bands.

Why a Latin monicker? What does it means? How do you think about so many bands using Latin instead of English?

             We consider it more suited to describe our concept, especially if you consider that we don't sing in English (except one song), neither now nor in the future. Its translation is "Darkness forever". I think Latin causes obscure and ancestral sensations that fit very well with Black Metal, and for this reason many bands choose band names in this language. Personally I detest those monickers with so expected and anonymous words like diabolic…, dark…, etc.

How did you created "The Black Flame's Age"?

            It was created most of all by the will to give rise to all that sensations absolutely black and mortal those inspire us so much. It's a very fast and natural process of writing. The songs are formed of simple and minimal guitar riffs, supported by bass and drums with tearing and hateful screams. Using so much re-echo we have tried to create the right mood without fucking up to much the sound.

What do you want to get with this demo?

            As said above, basically to realise some music really obscure. In the last times I eared many demos, but not much of them can be defined Black Metal as we mean it, few of them give rise to all those sensations that this word should recall, so we felt to create something that could do that.

What's your meaning for Black Metal?

            Obscurity and mystery, isolation and loneliness, cult of death and hate.

And, in your opinion, what do you consider Black Metal and what not?

            Some people say that Black Metal must have Satanic lyrics in it, but for me the most important thing is music, which should recall those sensations I said above. I have a very narrow idea about what is Black Metal and what not: bands like Marduk, Emperor, Dark Funeral, Mayhem, without talking about bands like C.o.F e D.B. (no further comments ndA), aren't Black Metal anymore, 'cause they don't transmit me that feelings. Often I meet peoples with a totally wrong idea of what Black Metal is. Once I met a guy who said that B.M. is like power with screams instead of clean vocals! (!! ndA) Obviously he haven't eared True Black Metal! (Obviously he was a poor idiot !! ndA)

Recently Black Metal scene, besides of the plague of shitphonic black metal (sic !!), has been struck by a gossip vein that I consider very stupid for an extreme and underground movement, and everybody gives shit on this or that band, saying "…this is stupid, those are fools…" and so on. Does it happen in our "scene " too?

            We live in very isolated places, and then we haven't contacts with a "scene" (except that with another band called Beatrik), but for what I can ear, sometimes there are envies between bands. I think this is a bad thing, which limits the expansion of our scene. When Black metal was born in Norway, groups supported each other, and this thing helped them so much.
Recently I eared about the creation of an underground organisation in the northeast of Italy, and I hope it will work well.

What Black Metal bands inspire you and what bands do you hate?

            Bands like Manes, demos of Carpathian Forest and Emperor, Darkthrone, Warloghe, Katarsis, Godless North, Veles, first Graveland albums, Summum Malum and others: albums full of hate and darkness.
Personally I hate all those bands which haven't obscure and funereal atmospheres but that call themselves Satanic Black Metal just because they want to attract "evil kids". It's a dreary fashion that penalises and annoys all those who really believe in it. Many things I ear are very well played and recorded, but if they haven't that kind of feeling, for me they are useless. We don't play innovative music, I know, but our sound is surely more evil and obscure than most of "black metal" which you can find nowadays.

What's your opinion about the Italian B.M. scene (provided that there is a B.M. scene here ndA)?

            Big magazines like Grind Zone say that there's no underground here in our country, but if they look around them, they can see it isn't true at all. Altar of Perversion, Goatfire, Beatrik, Blooddown, Execratum, Dunkel Nacht, The Second Coming, etc. are good bands that haven't so much contact between them, but that I think make a respectable underground scene. (I agree ndA)

What are your believes? Are you a Satanist?

            I'm not a Satanist. I like death, obscurity, I believe in myself and I don't follow any stupid religion, 'cause I hate them.

And what do you think about politics into Black Metal? I'm referring to the thriving NSBM scene that's growing especially here in Europe…

            Being more Hathen than Satanist I don't criticise them at all, even if we have nothing to do with that ideologies. Personally if I like the music, like for Veles, Graveland and Pantheon, I don't give to much importance to their lyrics.

I liked your demo 'cause it has a glacial sound like there was in the albums of the past decade, and I can say that he reminds me Funeral Winds (I mean the glorious split with Abigail). Are you satisfied of the final result?

            I haven't eared Funeral Winds (That's bad, go out and buy them !! ndA), but I will try to find something of them very soon. We are enough satisfied for the glacial sound, that was the primary objective for us, and that forced us to leave more complex structures and arrangements sometimes, in favour of the cohabitation between obscure atmospheres and intelligibility of instruments.

I know you are only two members, and I know you sing and play drums, have you think how to play live? Have you planned some live dates or do you prefer to avoid live performances?

            I'd like to play live shows, even if actually we can't. The problem of concerts is that is rare to recreate the same atmosphere of the album, and, where we live, there aren't places where this kind of music can be played, and there aren't B.M. listeners. We should play in other places, but we haven't time to make transfers. I think live shows are actually quite improbable.

I haven't lyrics, can you tell me what your songs are about? I refer more than all to the 2 songs sang in Italian… why did you choose to sing in Italian?

            The song "Tenebrae in Perpetuum" has Italian lyrics too, so there are three Italian songs. (ops… ndA)
They talk about hate, death, darkness and misanthropy. We think it's the right choose to sing in our mother language. In each country there's someone who do this, but here in Italy I don't know other groups doing that. In the next works we'll sing in Italian too.

Some future plans? Have you got some side-projects or do you play only in this band?

            We haven't side projects. Actually we are writing material for the next work, that maybe will be published in autumn, maybe even before!

Thank you for your time, feel free to end as you want…

            Thank you for the interview.
Tenebrae In Perpetuum play pure, dark and hateful Black Metal exclusively!

… and I can confirm that's true. Listen to them and then tell me.