Some time ago I wrote a review of “Cadaver Idolatry” and already in course of this activity I decided that it’d be reasonable to talk with Sergon. Well, it took me more time than I planned, but I hope the final event will not disappoint you. It’s true we both got along a bit, so I suggest you to “arm up” yourself in a couple of breweries before you sit down for good to read our chat. By the way, without revealing any details, I assume that you’ll learn some interesting stuff from it! So, I won’t extend it anymore. I wish you a great time with this mininovel.
Hail my metal brother! What’s up? How’re things in Montevideo?
Greetings pal! Here’s all very fine. So, let’s enter hell and let us know everything about each other!
Before we’ll start to talk about your several activities on the scene, tell me how it happened that you began to listen to metal music. When passive listening has become too less for you and decided to create something of your own, participate actively in the metal community?
Yeah, it makes great memories. And if we talk purely and exclusively about metal, it happened when I was 13 or 14 years old. In the early 90’s. A neighbor passed me some tapes. And well, I got addicted immediately. Just like all of us did, I started to look for more stuff, more bands to listen to and I got caught up in that. Then after a few years we decided with some friends to create our own ensemble. We played a few years in the local circuit. Rgew band called Necrópolis, by the way.
Anyways, if we’re talking about it. How do you remember those times and are you going to somehow celebrate the fact this year we had a round anniversary of creating the band? Necrópolis recorded some stuff, so…
Yes, that’s it. We released our first demo in 1995. It was five songs recorded with a rather precarious console and sound that matches the studio. We released it in tape format and several copies were moved around the countries, and few more abroad. When it comes to memories, they’re extremely good, because for those years the scene here was quite crowded and we were all more or less of the same generation. I still have friends from these years, by the way (the same here, but as I know life, there’s less and less of them; you know, many of them are dead or “grow-up” from the Metal – B). Well, to be honest I can’t believe it was whole three decades ago. And if I wanted to re edit it, the problem is I don’t have the original master of the recording anymore. There’s still only a couple of copies and it means the sound isn’t too good, you can’t hear it well.
Well, in my world it’s a problem. But that’s probably because of the times I grew-up, the way we got new music to listen to and so on. But let’s get back to the point. After a few years of activity Necrópolis ended its life. Why? As far as I know, the line-up in Dominion was exactly the same. So, wasn’t it like that you just changed the name and started to play extreme metal in a little different way?
Yes, once we started to become more alienated with black metal in rehearsals. And it meant we hadn’t a lot to do with Necrópolis to do anymore. So we put together another band (Thy Dominion) to keep playing, but our enthusiasm for our first band after some time became quite weak and that’s how Necrópolis was buried.
As Dominion you released an EP and an album and after that you finished activity for six years. Or maybe you failed… What caused it, by the way?
The first stuff we recorded under the name Dominion was demo “The Age of the Evil”, in 1997. It was released on tape. Then in 2000 we went to Lima – Peru to record what became our first studio full-length and to perform a live presentation. The engineer who oversaw recording was John “Aggressor” Capcha, guitarist of Peruvian Hadez (as for me pure Metal Gods! – B) and later in 2001 we released it here in Uruguay in CD format. Then, after some quite short time, we decided to take a short break.
In 2008 there was an attempt to resurrect the ensemble, but it ended in failure. Anyways, after a few unproductive years, when it comes to publishing something, years you must give up once again. What was the reason for that? Couldn’t you find right and willing musicians in such a huge city like Montevideo or…?
Hahahaha… Something like that. We retook rehearsals with another band, and we dedicated ourselves to gigs. Time was running and we didn’t write new songs at all, so in 2012 we were on standby. The problem was to find musicians who shared the same idea as us. And such a situation took place in 2015/2016 when we started practically from scratch.
However, it seems that after returning from inexistence in 2017 finally came good times for Thy Dominion. Since then, you have released three splits, a live album and second in your career full-length “Cadaver Idolatry”. Tell me something about breakups. I mean, first you found bands, or they found you, and then you were looking together for a label interested in launching this or it was contrary – labels searched for a right band for a split, and it was them who proposed you a participation in their works?
Regarding breaks I think there was a disinterest on the part of all members of the band to continue something that always ended in the same songs. Lots of alcohol and drugs and zero work on composition at all.
Then something similar happened and the drummer (Kaos) lost interest in the band. So, we were forced to look for a drummer who was willing to participate in the composition stage. Until then we had a little interest in looking for labels who were interested in re-releasing our stuff.
As we already mentioned, you also have the registration and launch of the concert in your account. How often do you have the opportunity to play gigs and what is the atmosphere of the concerts in South America? Have my assumptions there’s real armageddon under the stage something to do with reality?
Well, here in the capital (where we live) we don’t play very often. To be honest, that’s practically two or three times a year. We also play once or twice a year in Buenos Aires – Argentina, but for ages we didn’t play in the interior of this country. With my other project (Parasital Existence) we’ve played in a short time in the main cities of South America. And scene there is bestial! We visited São Paulo, Santiago de Chile or Paraguayan Asunción to name only a few of them. And yes, the extreme metal scene is very strong here. I think Thy Dominion is without doubt a band to see on small stages, which means very close interaction between us and the crowd. It also means an atmosphere of one huge chaos, destruction and incessant mosh.
If we’re talking about gigs… Uruguay is a very specific country where the municipality of Montevideo lives the most part of the whole country’s population. How often do Thy Dominion and Parasital Existence play outside of your home-city? I mean Paysandú, Ciudad de la Costa, Salto and so on.
Oh, that’s a good extension to the answer to the previous question. The interior of Uruguay unfortunately hasn’t the scene we could call stable. Paysandú is one of these cities where the public like to attend a show (so I’d feel over there like on a show here in Sweden… hehehehe… – B). And here that’re bands themselves who pay the costs of travel to play in another city on weekends and it happens they only sometimes get their money back. For example, this year we played in a Brazilian city which’s on the border with Uruguay. It was bestial!
So, if you have to pay for travel and the band has four members, maybe that’s better to just save this money to go abroad.
Almost all your materials were released by different labels. Why and how do you remember cooperation with all of them?
Well, taking the “Demo 1997” and album “The Great Death”, 2000, almost all the material that has come out came by Artes Negras which’s my label in fact. But the truth is that it was always in conjunction with other labels from abroad, and thus had distribution outside Uruguay.
“South American Unholy Trinity”, “La Muerte de Sagitario”, “Darkness Allegiance” and your debut album “The Great Death” were released as CDs. Are they still available? I refer in particular to the last-mentioned stuff.
From those titles only “South American…” is available at the moment. Other ones are unfortunately sold out. But if someone would like to reissue them, it would be great.
Actually, what I can’t believe is that one year since you released “Cadaver…” and in the life of the band it’s quite a lot, I think. So, when can we expect the next stuff?
We’re already working since last year on new tracks, in the same line-up as recorded “Cadaver Idolatry”. Music has in comparison to our last full-length rawer sound. I think in the near future we’ll release a new EP. We haven’t even considered an idea of a new album, so it’ll be just an EP or maybe even split.
This album, as far as I know, was released only in digital form by Vacula Productions of Portugal. Or maybe I’m wrong, though?
Not at all. Vacula threw it alongside Artes Negras, Extreme Zone Records and Herrecords from Argentina in a limited edition of 500 CD copies, of which we haven’t too many left. It also came out in full printed tape format, by Total Desaster label from Argentina. In this case we also can’t offer a lot of copies anymore, but there still are some of them. We’re of course thinking about looking to re-release the stuff in any of these formats (hope so it’ll happen very soon! – B).
What does cooperation look like, and do you think to continue this in future, when the next stuff will be done and ready to release?
I think this is a very functional band now. We have great relationships not only as musicians, but also, and probably first of all, as friends. But I can’t tell you when we’ll have the material ready to release, but we’re on our way.
You’re active on the metal scene not only as a musician. You also launch an old-school fanzine and have a label. Tell me something more about that, please.
So, a few years ago I decided to do a 24/28-page newspaper. Printed od course and distributed for free. This is dedicated first of all to death and black metal hordes coming from Latin America. Although the old world is always presented on our pages. Few months ago, we released the 10th issue of Artes Negras ‘zine. Artes Nefras is also a label, as I mentioned before, with more than 5+ items released in CD and tape format. Anyway, one more field where Artes Negras is active is the arrangement of shows here in Montevideo. For example, on the 2nd of February we bring Violator from Italy and on the 18th of March time for Sacramentum from Sweden will come. We always bet on physical formats, either for zine or for the label.
Ok. Let’s go back to more general questions for a while. I’m not sure if you’ll agree with me, but in my opinion the scene of Latin America is quite hermetic. What do you think, and what is the reason for such a situation? Once, as I know, a huge role here played economic factors. But since the spread of internet access…
Well, here I can speak only for myself. I can’t write anything about other people’s feelings. So, let’s go. Honestly, the best part of most influential bands come from the Old World or the States. When you listen to old Latin American bands and see they have nothing to envy to the other continents, I think you’re beginning to analyse why the hell this is like that. And here we come to economic and social factors. Today the influence of such bands as Sarcófago, old Sepultura, Masacre, Hadez, Mortem, etc. have grown and they’re internationally recognized. I think some of that should be in our hermetism. Nowadays it’s much easier for bands to go out. But well, we’re not all fans of the internet and prefer to stay in times when having tapes and CDs was the best.
I’m also a fan of the internet. To be honest I treat it as necessary evil, the same as mp3 stuff. Physical copies are the best I can! They offer more than only music. Besides, I somehow never cared too much about sound – music itself was, is and will always be the most important. But at the same time, I see huge possibilities on the internet to spread metal plague! And it’s easier to get some CDs or tapes using this platform. By the way, is it an important factor in your opinion that in greater part of your geographic region Spanish is the official language and it still builds a language barrier that prevents communication with labels from outside of Latin America?
I don’t think so. In almost all South and Central America Spanish is spoken, except Brazil where Portuguese is spoken. And perhaps for non-Hispanic speakers they both seem to be very similar languages, but believe me – we’re really few ones who can understand Portuguese as well… hahahahah… And since we all understand English, then there’s no linguistic barrier anymore. In fact, there’re fortunately several European or USA labels who regularly release bands coming from Latin America. Maybe they’re not too many, but they’re and that’s awesome as well!
In my opinion, there’s still too few of them! But something I’m really happy about is that it’s easier to get bands coming from your continent. I still must dig, but not as deep as it was 20 years ago. The Brazilian scene is quite well-known outside South America, even if rather superficially and it’s still about not too many ensembles. But when it takes other countries from South America, it’s real terra incognita for most people from outside of the continent. Well, the Colombian scene is a little better known, but…
Look, if we talk about Colombia, they have legendary bands like Masacre, Resurreccion or Parabellum to name only three ones. They’re in fact ensembles who were active in the early 80’s and released materials then. They were great inspiration even for bands who as the first ones called themselves a black metal ones. Here you can maybe see a gap, being a banger of South America. I can’t under any circumstances name you more iconic bands for us, as were these I told you. Well, also Sabaoth of Paraguay should be listed here, for example. Argentina’s scene is almost glued to our one. One of the reasons is probably the fact their capital, Buenos Aires, is lying quite close to us. Actually, I also play in a death metal band from Buenos Aires called Transmigration Macabre.
And now, what’s some kind of twisted tradition in my interviews, and we’ll turn the roles. It means this you ‘ll ask me a question, or even questions if you wish. And since you have experience as editor of the ‘zine, I’m sure there will be interest, you won’t be ashamed to ask me about whatever. Shoot bro!
Hahaha… OK, let’s go then!
When did you start to make zines? And what was the real purpose of it?
Well, I see you got great inspiration and decided to do a mini-interview with me, which I like very much! Most readers will probably scroll to see what more you must tell, but that’s always possible there are such geeks like me who’ll read my words (hopefully not the last ones I ever say).
Huh… It has been a really long time since I decided to edit my own zine, and this is what’s common for us. I mean, I started to get materials for my first ever issue probably in 1991 or 1992. I was always a friendly guy, so I accepted an invitation to… Hm… now I have no idea what word I should use. You know, I joined a guy who had the same idea to make a zine and then… He just gave me his materials and zine’s name and left me alone. To be honest, I’m not sure if he didn’t stop to “listen to” metal shortly after that. Zine called Horrific Gloom then and since second number I changed name for the one I was thinking about from the beginning – Sepulcross (we both know what band and even what song inspired me to make this choice – there should be one “S” on the end, but guy who made logo did itt so and…). Unfortunately, after six or so numbers (most of them were written in two versions: Polish and English) zine died. There were several here. Anyways, after some time I began to write for several magazines, what I plan to do for the rest of my life. And since I miss making regular paper zines, it’s possible someday Sepulcross will resurrect from his grave!
And what was the real purpose of it? It was the same reason for all of us who decided once to edit a zine. I mean, maybe some editors had other reasons on the top, but… I just wanted to actively support the scene worldwide, get to know new bands, new music and the best ones who weren’t known to anyone else or at least to not too many other maniax. I tried to help with my reviews and interviews in promotion, first of all ensembles coming from not too well-known metal scene corners of the world (Latin America, ex-USSR countries…). Anyways, I don’t hide the fact that I was getting several things for free to review. It also was what I liked very much… hahahahaha…
I know you live in Malmö, Sweden. How would you describe the scene, if there’s only one scene?
Yeah, I moved here 15 years ago for personal reasons. Fortunately, I was in such a situation I could quiet everything in Poland and come here. But to the point! Yeah, I know what you mean with the second part of the question. And well, this is a little bit complicated as I noticed. In general, here’s a lot of metalheads. It was a little shock for me, and it still is, that there’s not too many of us who go to every gig. Mostly I see other people on death metal gigs, other on black metal ones, other on thrash metal and so on. So, in this meaning it seems there’s no one scene, folk became more, let’s call it, specialized and don’t listen to metal in all its forms anymore. But maybe this is some kind of sign of times, or I just come from a strange country and a strange generation. You know, we listened to, I’ll use South American examples of bands, with the same enthusiasm both to Dorsal Atlantica and Averno or to make it clear for “average” metalheads – both to Metallica or even Judas Priest and Napalm Death. Well, I know it was also quite strange, but… And I even don’t mention what gigs look like here, how the very most of maniac acts. I tell you only one thing: it isn’t what a metal gig should look like for such freaks as us!
Anyways, there’s a lot of good bands not only in Sweden or even Scania (the region in southern Sweden where I live), but also in Malmö. But, even if Malmö is the third biggest city of Sweden, we’re in quite a deep shadow of Gothenburg or Stockholm.
What do you think about more modern genres of metal?
Oh shit! But OK, I try to be polite now. My approach to the matter, what probably is also connected with my age, is die hard old-school and orthodox. Metal is metal and not some fucking around! There’s no place on the scene, even if it’s about people who’re “only” fans, for posers and that’s it! Sometimes I really miss times when I was growing up as a metalhead (late 80’s and early 90’s) – because for some reasons posers were eliminated very fast, natural selection was brutal and only real maniacs were welcome.
Anyways, most of these “more modern genres of metal” have nothing to do with metal in my opinion. It absolutely doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate, from a purely technical point of view, some band who play “modern genre of metal”, but this isn’t and never will be my cup of beer at all! There’s no metal spirit at all in that! I could develop this, but I somehow don’t think it’s needed.
Tell something to the bangers of Latin America in the end.
Stay as sick as you’re! People like you are keeping metal flames away and thanks to such freaks real metal will never die! Hope yet in this incarnation I’ll get the possibility to visit some gig(s) on your continent.
And if someone who plays in a band or even has a label is reading these words – contact me, please! I was always a maniac of the scene of your continent and as more ensembles I get to know as better. Besides, maybe my scribble will help you in promotion at least a little.
Ok, I don’t know what you think, but in my opinion our chit-chat became extremely long. And even if readers didn’t start to leave us yet, we should be over with this, don’t you think? You know, enough is enough! The very last words belong to you, and it means you can say what you want. ¡Adiós, amigo! And… maybe I forgot to ask you about something that’s very important in your opinion?
Sorry I was too long in my answers! (In my opinion you absolutely weren’t! I’m not a huge fan of interviews where questions are longer than answers, to be honest. Besides I also asked long questions, and my answers were even longer than yours, I guess– B). First of all, thanks for your time and space dedicated to Thy Dominion! And secondly, thanx you don’t letting underground flames die. Printed fanzines are pillars of it.
Strong hugs and hopefully life will cross our paths one day!
Support the war against Christianity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
