An exclusive Interview with Italian black masters GURU OF DARKNESS

Answering to the questions : Tsade (vocalist)

1.Are you satisfied with your latest album "Mater Meretrix"?
Totally, it’s the best result we could imagine. The songs are full of pathos and the production was done in a very good way.

2.Is there something could be better?
We had no pretensions whatsoever to reach the absolute perfection. There are some parts where we could have done a little better, but still, we’re quite satisfied.

3.How is the response from the fans so far?
We have a good response from the fans. A lot of them asked us about future shows and appreciated the album and the " target="_blank">“Moloch Eyes” video. There are people who cannot still believe that the work came from Italy, even less from the archaic land of Sicily. Our fans are of a great support to us and we are really grateful for that.

4.This is your second album as you have released by yourselves another one back in 2006 called "Journey to Destiny".Are there any plans for any major rerelease of it?
We have not considered this opportunity because most of the “Journey to Destiny” tracks were included in the “Mater Meretrix” full-length. For sure we will reprise the two excluded songs in the future.

5.What were your main influences for the creation of "Mater Meretrix"?
We all have strong musical background. Undoubtedly, being a masterpiece as it us, Scandinavian black metal has influenced us and our compositions a great deal, but we like various styles in the music that came from darkness. We tried to do our first album in a classic black metal way, but with our style.
We love the great classics of this genre and the list of the bands could be very long…from the first steps of Venom and Bathory till nowadays!

6.How see the Italian fans your new album?
They are surprised, because before of this one, we haven’t not promoted our band, we preferred to work upon “Mater Meretrix”. Some demos and promos we’d made before this album served mostly for testing ourselves. Italian fans found in “Mater Meretrix” what they want, great moments of black metal and they support us, asking live shows and giving us comments and impressions.

7.Why did you choose "Mater Meretrix" as an album title? Is there any special message behind this?
This album is full of messages. We like to give a tribute to our Latin origin, but the really reason is that we want to focus the attention on the spiritual dogmas imposed from the big religious organizations in the world. The mater could be every form of organized spiritual administration, in our case we painted it in the lyrics like the Meretrix of the biggest leading European religion.

8.And what your cover means?
The mother that blinded our spirit, our mind. She have a deformed child in her hands. This deformed seed could be ourselves unable to see through the veils of reality. Cause we were born with the dogma chains all around of us.

9.How do you support your new release?
We made a really interesting video clip for “Moloch Eyes” song, here in Italy. They played it on the national television for several months, during the period of our official debut “Mater Meretrix”, late night hours, of course. Other than that, we had some radio passages, magazines and webzines interviews and reviews.

10.Are you satisfied with your label or you are looking for something else?
Totally satisfied, today it’s not an easy thing to found a serious one. But Haures records are doing a really good job with us, the promotion and distribution is very good, and the label really believe in our band, supporting us with all of its forces.

11.How could you describe your music to someone that has never heard of you?
Essentially we play the roots of black metal. All the emotions we loved in the ’90. It’s the same energy but with our personal style, we tried to make a proper tribute to the real core of the genre, trying to develop it in our personal way of black metal.

12.How is a live show of Guru Of Darkness?
It’s full of energy, fury, darkness and desperation. We have a lot of experience in the past of the Italian extreme metal scene and we really like to improve our energy on stage, to trade it with the audience.

13.Are there any new tracks ready for an upcoming release?
Yes, about six or eight pre-produced tracks, when we formed the band, started to pre-produce tracks for almost two full-length. But we followed a specific musical path and we prepared “Mater Meretrix” as the first step of it.

14.If it was possible, what other band' s album would like to be yours?
I cannot speak on behalf of the others from the band, but for me there are two masterpieces in my wourld: The “Ummagumma” album of Pink Floyd, more precisely, the live disc and the Burzum release “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss”.

15.Recommend us the best bands from Italy nowadays?
The list could be very long because we have a lot of good bands here in Italy, Death SS at first. Some of they are friends of ours and we really support their bands. One of the names that you’ll here often recently is Bulldozer, but in Italy they are famous for quite a long now.

16.And what is for you the best band ever to arise from your country?
In the black metal scene with no doubt Agghiastru from Inchiuvatu and his Mediterranean scene, recently we have some good new acts here in Sicily, like Lord Agheros & Mourning Soul.

17.How important is the band for your lives?
Very important, this band is what we dreamt of before it become reality. We really need a way to express our black metal ideas. And all the members are in synergy. We play to receive big emotions from our sound.

18.Do participate in any other projects?
Yes, actually Enlil is involved in the “Doublesion” project and I have my solo project simply named “Tsade”, in which I compose soundtrack for short-movies since 2005, previously under the name of “Towers of Soul”.
I am also involved in an horror movie project with Steve Sylvester and Culto Prietsu.

19.Whats your other activities and hobbies outside the band?
Personally, I watch movies and, when I have free time, I read.

19.So whats your favourite
a)books?
The old literature of horror and fantasy from ‘700 to ‘900 especially H.P.Lovecraft
b)movies?
A very long list of movies, the Murnau Nosferatu, Night of the Living Dead, the Exorcist, the Omen, Suspiria, Evil Dead, and many others, the list is very long
c)bands?
Actually in the black metal panorama I think Mayhem is the best
d)team?
I don’t like football.

20.How do you see the future of Guru Of Darkness?
We hope it would be full of live shows and good songs in the next releases

21.Let us know your future plans...
Actually we are planning a tour for 2010, check our myspace and website for further informations. Maybe a show will come at the end of 2009 here in Italy.

22.Any last comments?
Many thanks to Heavy Metal Cosmos for the interview space and special thanks to all the kids here in Greece who are supporting us. For the rest, just a message: listen “Mater Meretrix” and keep warning about her seed!