Blasphemy and Desecration

The band was formed by Kalervo in the spring of 1996 as a solo-project. But after a couple of months creating music for WAGCHOR, Kalervo noticed he couldn't handle the synths himself and thus Striga joined the band. In the course of the next two years the members either rehearsed and tried to record something or temporarily ceased their musical activity. In the long run they waded through all difficulties and the first demo entitled "Sodan Julistus" was released in February 1999. Musically WAGCHOR can be defined as Black Metal though the musicians don't use Satanism or personal ideologies in the lyrics as they feel that to be too personal subject to talk about. On the other hand Kalervo and Striga consider that it is more important to fight against the religions than spread a new one, and that's why their lyrics are very blaspheming and antichristian.

Striga also has a band of his own. ARTHAME was formed in the summer of 1995, and the debut demo "Fiendish Symphonies" was out in the winter of 1998. ARTHAME is a knife / sword what a witch uses when he / she draws a circle on the ground before his / her ritual.šStriga describes his synth music as black, bewitching and fiendish.šToday Wagchor's line-up is: Kalervo - vocal, guitars, drums; Striga - synths. Teemu Tirkkonen took part as a session bassist in the recording of "Sodan Julistus".

Striga answers the questions.

- As far as I understand you have two bands for the time being. If ARTHAME will exist further or you'll concentrate your energies only on WAGCHOR.

- In a way I have two bands at the moment (or actually three if we count our steel metal "sideproject", which is just for our own pleasure:), but I have most likely concentrated on WAGCHOR nowadays and let ARTHAME be on the background. At least for a while this is the situation, 'cause I can't find enough time for both of them. But ARTHAME is not dead and buried yet, sooner or later I'll raise this sword again.

- What does the name of WAGHOR mean?

- It's created by Kalervo himself, so it doesn't really have any meaning for others, but for us it has become quite important. It's the army of two mighty warriors standing against all the life in the world.

- Please, tell a little about your future musical plans.

- Well, as I said, ARTHAME is on the background, so nothing new coming from that band for a while. With WAGCHOR we are currently composing and rehearsing some new material and hopefully we will march to the studio soon again. Our new material is probably a bit more technical and not so simple as on the demotape. Lots of strange leading guitars, some synth solos and also we have some plans to use some other instruments besides these typical ones. I don't know yet so much as Kalervo does most of our music while I concentrate nowadays more on the lyrical side. About them I shall tell you that they are most likely as straight and simple as on the demotape with lots of war, hate and revenge, but nowadays concentrating more against my misanthrope feelings than only anti-christianity. Full of hate and anger anyway:

- On the cover of your demo-tape everybody can see the words "Supporting the "Crush the World" campaign:" Can you tell more detail about it? Have you ever heard about "Never Stop the Madness" campaign? Do you support it?

- It's not a serious campaign with thousands of people on it or anything like that, in case you thought so. It's just to reflect our hate towards the mankind which is generally full of weakness, fools and idiots. Yes I know "Never stop the madness"-campaign very well and it's a pretty good campaign, 'cause drugs kill people and people should be killed, but I don't like to use drugs myself so often. I prefer alcohol and other stuff instead. Actually we have this plan for the back of our forthcoming T-shirts: "Life is not fun. All the human life in this world endanger the happiness of ours. It must stop. We appeal in particular to the youth of today. Never stop dying. There are better things than life. CRUSH THE WORLD!"

- Do you use Satanism as a part of your life philosophy? What ideas do you accept?

- I prefer individualism and personal life philosophy and not stuff that should be spread for everyone, 'cause for me it's hard to understand what's the point of spreading some religion as I don't think there can be two different people thinking exactly the same way about everything. So, as we also wrote on our biography, we prefer to fight against religions instead of spreading the new one, that's why I don't either like to speak about my beliefs or my connections to Satanism so much. Let's just say that it means a lot for me and have some great ideas, but I have never called myself as a Satanist and never will either. I just don't like to categorize myself anyway:

- If Evil means anything for you. What is your understanding of this word?

- Evil means something for everyone, you can't change the fact that it exists and can be seen every day. Everything has its opposite and it's simple as black and white, that the opposite of good is evil. Some people dislike its existence, some people does not and for me it's kind of big part of my personality. I was born to walk this path of evilness and darkness which many people can't understand. But it all depends on how you see and understand words like "good" and "evil" as for me e.g. the christian "evil" is more like "good" and the opposite obviously.

- Do you really think it is possible to destroy all religions in the world? What will be then? Would you like to rule people by means of any religion?

- Christianity at least is destroying itself right now while people start to understand the meaning and lies of that religion. But I don't think that we are able to destroy every religion, 'cause every time a new one will come if something is destroyed and it's an endless story then. Humankind generally is so weak that most of people can't live without religion as they always need someone/something to tell them what to do etc., so I can't see destroying all religions to be possible. The only way (:and the best way, from my point of view) is to destroy the whole world and what will be then? Total emptiness and millions of dead rotting people: Yes, it would be pleasure for me to rule the whole world and lead it to total disaster.

- Why does witchcraft attract you so much?

- I have been interested and read about witches and witchcraft for about 6 years by now. I don't know why it attracts me so much in the first place, but it had something so dark and mysterious that it just became a must for me to study the subject more. I also do see myself as kind of a witch.

- Do you consider that you are destined for anything in this life of yours?

- Uh, a hard question: I hate the life basically, but then again I really don't see death as a better alternative. I have thought about that a lot, 'cause there was time in my past when I was truly suicidal and thinking about killing myself all the time. Nowadays I have started to think of it a bit more deeply as if I'd really kill myself I wouldn't have a choice to come back if the death is even worse. I hate the fact that I have only given these two alternatives: to rot here or to rot six feet under. But I guess you can understand that I don't want to discuss that subject so much, so back to your actual question. Am I destined for anything? I don't know: Probably just to make some enjoyable music or to spread some hate and darkness for the world. I just try to survive here as long as I live and haven't really thought about that before.

- What epoch / world would you like to live in?

- Honestly I wish someone would have asked me if I had really even wanted to live before I was born, 'cause my answer probably would have been no. Probably at the epoch when there was lots of less popularity, less technology and the people in general were free from the religions before some morons came to fool them. I would love to see 99% of the mankind being crushed and the rest that would survive I could choose myself. Then I could really try to enjoy my damned life:

- Are you fond of such a kind of literature as fantasy? In particular I mean one of the most popular work among people dealing with Black metal - "The Lord of the Rings" written by R.R. Tolkien.

- No way. I haven't ever been interested in the fantasy literature: Books I have read are informative books about stuff like Satanism, witchcraft, occultism, philosophy and other kind of mysterious subjects. I prefer to watch some good old horror movies instead of reading and I really can't understand how people connect some Tolkien's books to the black metal: Real black metal should not be connected with some fantasy stuff.

- Tell a little about your ICHOR 'zine. What is it dedicated to?

- It's a 'zine I formed in 1994 if I remember correctly. At the beginning of 1996 our first issue came which was written in Finnish, limited to 100 copies and had one of the most awful lay-out I have ever seen. After that the second editor was kicked out and I started to work with the second issue alone before I got in touch with Juha who helped me with the second issue. It came out at the end of 1997 this time written in English, lots of better lay-out etc. It was limited to 200 copies and is sold out now (as well as the first issue:), so please do not try to order it anymore. After the second issue I have kept a short break with the 'zine as I have so much other things to do. Also Juha has quicked probably (?) and I'm all alone again. That means hard work, but nowadays I have already started to prepare the third attack. I'll inform you later when it's out. ICHOR is dedicated to quality music and the people who are still honest for the underground and quality metal music:

- Would you like to be immortal?

- Naah, I don't think so. I mean, I hate this life, but I'm still alive 'cause I don't see being dead better at all. But being immortal would take away my choice to kill myself when the life turns to be too painful and I think it's better for people to have these two alternatives: to be alive or to kill yourself. I haven't really thought about suicide for a while now, but you know that someday something can easily happen which can turn your life to be totally impossible and at that time it would be pretty stupid to be immortal. Have you got my point of view? Thanks for the interview and the support!

Copyright: 2001 Werewolves Records.