Originally published at: https://www.moshpitnation.com/full-album-stream-precaria-and-o%cc%82ros-kau-theosulphuros/
PRECARIA INTERVIEW
Hayduke X: Can you take me back to the beginnings of Precaria? How did that all come about? What is the purpose of the project?
Hermit: Since I can remember I’ve always been drawn to darkness. From doing harm to others when I was a kid to the choices I’ve made for my life, and music was not the exception.
My first exposure to metal was at twelve years of age and it captured me immediately. It was in a piracy/street market in Monterrey, Mexico, called “Mercado Reforma”, which doesn’t exist anymore due to the police raiding it. You could find anything, from house items and food, to guns and child pornography. There was a music stand I walked by and the guy had the darkest music I had ever listened to playing in his stereo. I asked him what it was. It was Immortal’s Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism. I bought it and became obsessed with it, listening to it daily. A month later I returned searching for something similar. Among all the metal bands he was selling I discovered Dissection, Emperor, Dark Funeral, Abigor and Lunar Aurora. This revolutionized my life.
I wasn’t introduced to heavy metal by some friend or relative. I found black metal by mere chance and fell in love with it. Soon I started feeling the urge to transmit my own darkness the same way, via music. I washed cars for a week and bought my first acoustic guitar, started making horrible “riffs” (I never had music education) and the name Precaria came to my mind because of the way I was living – in plain misery.
The textbook meaning of Precaria is a condition of poverty, misery or lacking something. You might be familiar with the word precariousness. But for me it had an even deeper meaning, because I felt that my misery wasn’t limited to that, but extended to my soul or whatever was beyond what everyone can see.
My idea of these types of concepts wasn’t very clear at that age, but the darkness was there and extremely predominant, in every aspect of my life and myself. The purpose of Precaria is to transmit this darkness to the world.
I kept trying to structure riffs and songs and improved considerably through the years. However, I didn’t know anyone else into black metal, so making Precaria a real band wasn’t possible for a long time. It was practically a solo project for at least six years. In 2010, I met the drummer Opposus Discordia and after listening to me playing the acoustic guitar, he was extremely interested in taking those riffs into distorted form with blast beats. From then on, Precaria was officially a live band.
We started rehearsing, playing live as a duo and recording. This duo style, however, limited a lot of what I could do. Before this, I had only played alone, so all my compositions were a single guitar doing very complex stuff, to compensate for the lack of everything else. A prime example of this is the entire album Precaria Ex Humanitas, released in 2014 but composed from 2009 to 2010. The riffs and structures are more like a flow of chaos, than conventional songs.
As I gathered other members to form a full live lineup, I started feeling the freedom to add different guitar layers to the main riffs, and this eventually made me see music as more of an orchestral movement with coherent points of expansion and return, rather than an everflowing stream of chaos. This notion that I developed is present in the new material and I believe it makes the compositions better. The better they are, the more ears will be seduced by them, therefore spreading more darkness into the world.
HX: Who is officially considered a part of Precaria? How does composition work for the project?
Hermit: There are three official members. Both drummers (Bestia and Discordia), and me.
Discordia will always be a part of Precaria. His role was fundamental to the formation of the band and even if he’s not currently recording for the new releases, he has still been playing live with Precaria and provides input on some beats, therefore making him a core member.
Bestia on the other hand lives in Italy, so it would be hard for us to play live together, but he’s the one that’s been recording lately and composing most of the beats, with me only wanting some changes occasionally. His notion of beat creation is amazing, so the direction I give him is minimal.
I’m the one that composes the guitar and bass, song structures and vocals/lyrics.
The live members are Nefarious and Asbeel, but since I’m now living in the USA the live lineup might change once the world is back to it’s non-COVID state.
HX: That must be a fairly recent move. Would the plan be to find a whole new live lineup? Would any of the live members come up for tours? Maybe it’s all too early to tell.
Hermit: The Mexican live members are able to travel. They do it with their other bands, Hiborym, Alpha Hydrae, Sacratus, Northwar… However, I’m living with the guitarist and drummer of Deathspiral of Inherited Suffering (now INIEL), the US band I invited to the Metamorphorphoros split released in 2018. They’ve expressed the desire to play with me, so a live lineup isn’t an issue. It could either be with Asbeel and Nefarious or with Manus and Principivm from INIEL, if they put effort into it, plus a live bassist.
HX: Speaking of INIEL (formerly Deathspiral of Inherited Suffering), in 2018 you released a split with them and Dominus Ira. Now you are releasing a split with ÔROS KAÙ. It’s my understanding that these splits are thematically connected. Why did you choose to do two splits instead of releasing a full album on the theme yourself? Is there some aspect of it that you felt the other bands brought out in a different way?
Hermit: I had the idea of having a “bridge” between Precaria Ex Humanitas and Necrokhaos (the upcoming, second full length album) due to the drastic change in composition – what I mentioned about constructing songs with the idea of multiple instrumental roles that compliment each other.
The songs Ex Abyssia (present on Metamorphorphoros) and Ex Nigredo (present on Theosulphuros) are this bridge between the initial and latter styles. While the other songs in Metamorphorphoros reflect the past style and the other ones in Theosulphuros reflect the new style, Darkness Is My Light being a prime example of this.
Rather than fitting them all into a single split with one band and having each song progress and reflect this change, I choose to make two splits, naturally connected by their themes and artwork. This allows the change to be stretched across releases. First, I chose Dominus Ira, a very obscure black metal band from Russia. We’ve been in contact since the release of Precaria Ex Humanitas. Then I chose INIEL after I noticed the type of black death hybrid they do. This brought a dose of variation to Metamorphorphoros that keeps you interested in what every band has to offer. For Theosulphuros I initially chose Ars Magna Umbrae and then Heretic Cult Redeemer, but they quit after realizing that the artwork was being painted by a gnostic Christian. Luciano from I, Voidhanger Records introduced me to Ôros Kaù, a Belgian black/death band that showed openness towards collaborating with people of diverse ideological background.
Split albums are often overlooked because it’s typical that bands just put songs together that didn’t make it to an album. This is not the case here. Metamorphosphoros and Theosulphuros are splits in which the bands composed specifically for them both musically and lyrically. It’s everyone’s take on dark spiritual subjects. Mine revolves around Theion in Ex Abyssia and Ex Nigredo, and it expands to more themes in the other songs, but they’re all burning with the same flame.
Nigraluminiscencia is a compilation LP that features the Precaria songs on both splits, with the Metamorphorphoros songs remastered here at Necrosound Studio. And since vinyl requires a more specific sound, the Theosulphuros songs on the physical version of the LP also sound different than in the split CD. A Precaria superfan would have both splits and the LP.
Something I’d like to point out is that my compositions take years to make. I started Ex Abyssia in 2011 with a different name. It was called Fragilitatis Profunda Atrissima, and we played it live as a duo in 2012 opening for Nocturnal Depression in Monterrey. The title changed as I expanded on the lyrics and refined some riffs. By 2016 it was finished with the form that you can listen in Metamorphorphoros. Ex Nigredo started in 2013 and was finished in 2018. The new album (Necrokhaos) has been in the making since 2015.
Being so meticulous with every detail is both a curse and a blessing. I’m trying to create a big work of art that serves darkness in a majestic way, not just being a band that releases a bunch of metal riffs.
HX: Wow! That all sounds like an absolutely massive project. Can you expand on this concept of Theion?
Hermit: Theion is divine fire – an agent of transformation. It burns but never consumes.
An example of this is mentioned in biblical texts describing how Moses found a burning bush which was not being consumed as he “heard” God speaking to him through it, and so he was appointed tasks which were of divine origin.
I fully associate Theion with my realization of the purpose I have in this world. It transforms me from being a miserable pile of flesh to being a soul that’s constantly scorched for a reason. I still feel the desire to kill myself daily, but I know I need to fullfill my task as a bringer of darkness in this world and prepare my soul for an eternal departure.
Genuinely serving DARKNESS (the true God/Essence/Void from which everything IS; beyond any human perception of a god) grants a permanent death in which there’s no need to return to a physical plane as a life form. This task is more important than my own human desires. Theion is the fire that keeps me here, constantly burning but with the will to not be consumed.
My existence is a tribute to what lies beyond and yet is present in everything. By crafting uncompromising majestic dark art with Precaria and working on others’ by mixing and mastering their recordings under the banner of Necrosound Studio, I’m actively being a key piece in the spreading of dark energy in the world.
HX: I also wanted to ask about the choice of cover art. You mentioned that it was created by a gnostic Christian, not a conventional choice for a black metal project. Tell me about that.
Hermit: There’s various reasons why I chose Ikonostasis (Elijah Tamu) to be my painter for this set of releases.
I noticed how digital art is becoming more predominant as time goes by and most of it looks pretty generic.
The artwork of Precaria Ex Humanitas is digital, but it has depth and looks impactful. However, by the time I was looking for an artist for the splits, I wanted to choose a more original direction – a real painting was the solution.
I discovered the artwork of Elijah Tamu with the album of Lo-Ruhamah and immediately knew I wanted something in that vein. As far as I know that was the only front cover Elijah had painted. At that point I had no idea about his beliefs. I contacted him and proposed my idea for the front cover of Metamorphorphoros.
As we talked he told me about his personal ideology, and that other black metal bands had decided not to work with him after knowing this. That’s up to the criteria of the artist. Are your beliefs so rigid that you wouldn’t work with someone that walks the opposite path even if he’s open to working with you? Mine aren’t. My ego would never be above the greater purpose I have.
Something that I admire about Elijah is his passion and devotion, because I fully identify with that, even if we have different ideas of God. We do feel very similarly about certain aspects.
I understand the archetype of Christ as a martyr. Someone who smashed every hint of human ego and suffered for a more important cause. As I explained in an earlier reply, I have an otherworldly purpose which is not for the benefit of the masses, as his, but in the process the same suffering is experienced, the same alienation and development of spiritual endurance.
Most people who are into black metal are either nihilist atheists or basic satanists, and none of these can grasp what really goes on beyond the flesh. The same goes for basic christians and muslims. What a lie they live in!
It’s extremely uncommon to find someone who genuinely has an open mind for the understanding of the soul. For me there’s an ultimate goal and working with a gnostic christian for a chapter of the process is not a stone in the path. The outcome has been worth it. Ikonostasis was absolutely fit for participating in the Nigraluminiscencia diptych (Metamorphorphoros and Theosulphuros).
As for the next album (Necrokhaos), I’ll have to find someone who’s open to crude aspects of reality as the themes within the album are not only of spiritual darkness, but reach to mundane darkness as well. There’s a song about the Narcosatanicos, a group of criminals whose lives revolved around drugs, violence and sinister occult rituals in Mexico. With this kind of narrative I would not ask Ikonostasis to be the painter. Rather someone who’s path isn’t holy.
It might be hard for this album to find a painter and a label due to the disgusting/horrendous nature of it’s subjects so I might eventually self-release it just like the debut album.
HX: It sounds like you’re very clear on themes, etc for that new album. Has it been written already? How fully developed is it?
Hermit: Necrokhaos is in pre-production phase. The album has two main guitars doing different stuff, with the appearance of a third guitar in key moments, such as choruses or immersive sections. These are fully composed.
Each song has its own identity and they’re compact in comparison to the first album, this time with a length of around five minutes average. Only the best riffs make it to the songs and nothing is overused. The pace in every song is dynamic and after moments of blasting, we get rhythmic sections, build-ups and occasional unconventional metrics.
I’m currently working on making the best melodic/harmonic bass lines for every riff. I want Precaria to be a band where the bass shines, because this is so rare to find and so seductive to listen.
Bestia is currently working on the drum beats for each section. Some of the Necrokhaos songs already have beats done by Opposus Discordia, since we played them live in Mexico, but I will let Bestia come up with his ideas and in the end we’ll keep what’s best.
The lyrics are mostly done, but I always find something to change as time passes by, some phrase to add impact or a phrase to remove from a section, as to give it a moment of pure musical contemplation.
The official recordings will be done after a long period of practice and I’ll most likely send my guitar and bass signals to Nullset Studios in Massachusetts for reamplification, just as I did for Theosulphuros. The studio owner has some top class analog gear and we share the same passion for audio, so that’s a guarantee for good results.
The sound I’m going for this time is a more “right in your face” dry/warm kind of sonic assault, as opposed to the typical cold and reverberated black metal sound. Precaria is burning, not frozen. There’s a whole lot of magic that goes on in order to achieve the production I’m after.
HX: This has been a really comprehensive interview so far. Your answers go into a great deal of depth. I want to wrap it up by asking if there’s anything else you’d like to add?
Hermit: Yes. To the reader: if you’re planning on releasing an album, consider contacting me to work on the mixing and/or mastering. My rates are very accessible for what you get. Look for Necrosound Studio on Facebook or Remastered Black Metal Albums on YouTube and get in touch.
Thanks for the fluid interview and expect more from Precaria for as long as I live.
HX: Thank you. I greatly appreciate your time and thoughtful answers.
* This interview happened in the second half of 2020.
