(One year after their acclaimed Duality album, last month the international quartet Defacement released their fourth studio record, Doomed, through the Unorthodox Emanations division of Avantgarde Music. What we have for you today is Zoltar‘s interview of Defacement protagonist Khalil Azagoth.)
The jury may still be out on if they truly belong to the post-black metal genre or not (read Andy Synn‘s extended review to find out – or not) but the international act that is Defacement aren’t your so-called ‘typical’ dissonant death metal band, whatever this elusive tag may refer to.
Yet as undecipherable as they may come across at first, despite their overall concision, each of their four so far released albums, including Doomed unleashed by Avantgarde Music last month, has this rare ability to suck the listeners into the vacuum where one can experience subsequently dizziness, fear, and inner peace, sometimes simultaneously.
Mainman and guitarist Khalil Azagoth agreed to give us some keys to their abstruse but fascinating inner world.
First of all, from what I understood, you guys are spread over several countries. How come? Does this mean for instance that you never do rehearse altogether and everything happens online?
We rehearse rarely or not as much as we would like to. I could say we don’t rehearse, but we have one or two rehearsals before a concert or a tour. As the chance offers. But we’re not doing things online. We meet after everyone knew his part and we play to see if everything works and fix some parts in rehearsal.
Khalil, you’re originally from Libya. You then moved to Ukraine for your studies and finally settled down in the Netherlands didn’t you? If so, do you believe those wanderings and having difficulties finding the right place to be able to live and practice your art has affected in a way or another your music? Maybe it did give it an extra edge, as in your case, it can’t be just music can it?
Yes I’m from Libya. I left to study in Ukraine and then, from Ukraine to the Netherlands. And yes, DEFACEMENT plays a kind of music influenced by not just music but everything we’ve experienced socially speaking and all those questions about our identity. All places are different, but I think for many individuals, society and surrounding environment can be a challenging thing and a reason to raise a lot of questions about oneself, differences, etc.
Prior to DEFACEMENT, you guys were playing pure black metal with DEATHCRUSH, yet as far as I know, the latter is no more. Was it because you felt too restricted musically speaking? Or was it because emotionally speaking, DEFACEMENT allows you to express something far more complex than DEATHCRUSH?
Even though we’re proud of DEATHCRUSH as the very first album we’ve ever recorded, we found ourselves growing in a wider direction. There’s much more to musically express in DEFACEMENT. Black metal is still present in it, at least to us, but it’s not a strict limit anymore. Playing strictly in one musical style isn’t appealing in my opinion.
Then again, is it fair to say that none of your songs uses standard song structures, like, say, bridge/choruses and so on? If so, how do you come up with new compositions? What comes first? A vibe? Or more traditionally, do you start off with a riff before building the rest on the top of it?
What matters the most to me is clarity and taking time to let things grow. Then, a bit of isolation and improvisation a few days later do the rest.
Your music is often labelled as quite ‘dense’. Would you say that your biggest challenge is to somehow maintain a certain clarity, both sonically wise and in terms of composition?
We’re well aware of DEFACEMENT being sometimes ‘too’ dense to a certain group of listeners. However, it’s a matter of taste. For example: One of my favorites tracks of our is ‘Scabulous’ off our third album, Duality. Yet it’s far from our most well-known track. Besides, the chaotic side of our music fits us perfectly as, for example, on our last tour when we were playing the same set every night, it allowed us to improvise a bit here and offer something a bit different every night. It’s about showing off of how, but rather our way, to offer a story or an audible painting as I can describe it to give a full image of something I’m trying to tell in an abstract way.
Is DEFACEMENT music the proof you can be dissonant YET melodic?
DEFACEMENT is just a description of a state of being. From mood swings to melancholic parts to descriptions of present and past situations and creating an outlet to some emotions. It can be dissonant and it can be melodic. The focus isn’t what kind of music we play but what are we saying through our music.
From what I’ve gathered, you talked in earlier albums about your difficulties dealing with the outside world and all the surrounding negativity or even rejection you felt as an outlander. Does the new album’s title (Doomed) signify that you’re now past trying to protect yourself from such aggression? That we’re all, well, doomed anyway?
Totally, yes.
Out of eight songs on the new album, three are instrumentals, quite another habit of yours. Yet there’s a very cinematic feel to ‘Mournful’ and both ‘Forlorn’ and ‘Clouding’ sound, at least to my ears, almost, dare I say, joyful. Or at least full of light and hope… Was it because you felt the need to counterbalance the rest of the songs?
Not necessarily. As I’ve said we’re well aware that our music can be a tough nut to crack to some, but to me, it’s all connected to human emotions. I do music to express a state of mind or what I’m going through in life. This is why all our albums are so different.
Each track has a one-word title. Why?
One word can stand for a lot of meanings, especially combined with a song. And we love that idea. That’s also why we used a simple picture for the cover and chose not to put there our logo nor the album’s title; we thought this image was real and strong enough as it was.
What’s next?
We’ve finished writing our fifth album and we’re looking forward to touring in 2026.
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