Charting a similar blackened path through the blighted industrial wasteland of the Western world as Anaal Nathrakh and Blut Aus Nord, Middlesbrough genre-splicers THE AXIS OF PERDITION are making a live appearance every bit as seldom as former, but doing so for a good cause at the annual CAUSING CHAOS FOR CANCER, held Newcastle Cluny February 27. Guitarist and noisesmith Michael Blenkarn broke the silence.
Obviously Axis Of Perdition don't get out much so there're added logistics - what stages do you have to go through to get a live appearance underway?
Well, particularly after the last show we did in 2005 - which could charitably be called a shambles, and uncharitably far worse things - we thought we'd better rethink our whole approach to doing TAOP live, so we've restructured our way of doing things considerably since then. It's quite difficult to pick a coherent live set from our repertoire so it's a case of finding the songs that have the best chances of translating and shaving off the extraneous parts. The other main obstacle we have is scheduling, what with Dan's commitments to My Dying Bride, conflicting work timetables etc. We just need to ensure we have a big enough run-up.
Do you get to rehearse much? Do songs have to be altered to make them suitable for playing live?
Probably not as often as we'd like, but we'll be significantly increasing those between now and CCFC - we don't want to get caught with our trousers down (again). It's pretty unavoidable that the songs need rearranging for live performance, primarily the guitar parts need trimming down so that two can more-or-less cover the ground of three or four while retaining the most important elements. The electronics also need to be approached differently, we need something more flexible than a backing tape. As for the drums, much of the early programming was deliberately irreplaceable so we give Dan free rein to come up with his own arrangements.
If death metal doesn't normally rub up against charity-fuelled events like this, then black metal does it even less frequently. Do you think extreme metal needs to confront the fact that its listeners have to deal with real world problems?
Leaving aside the fact that we haven't considered ourselves black metal since the demo, over the years we've come to appreciate that beneath all the horrible noises there's actually quite a moral modus operandi at work in Axis, much like Throbbing Gristle (for example), loathsome as the concept may be to some. We don't consider participating in a charity event to be outside our "ideology", put it that way.
What made you decide to take part in Causing Chaos For Cancer?
Losing the near and dear to cancer is something pretty much everyone can relate to. I've certainly lost some relatives over the years. Nobody's immune, everyone's at risk, and you never know who might be struck next. As causes go, you don't get much closer to the bone than that. Also, Harty [Paul Hartburn from Dawn Of Chaos] badgered us incessantly for months until we acquiesced.
What do Axis Of Peridition have planned for the future?
We've still got the final instalment of Urfe's story to complete, which will be called 'Tenements'. It'll be the third part of the triptych, missing piece of the puzzle, call it what you will. I'm not suggesting it'll provide any conclusive answers - how tedious would that be? - but 'Urfe' will make much more sense once that context is there.
We've been working on that for a long time, but we've had quite a few false starts with it so progress in the form of completed recordings isn't much in evidence - yet. It should be out sometime in 2010, though. We also have a couple of other things in the pipeline which we'll announce when the time is right."
Obviously Axis Of Perdition don't get out much so there're added logistics - what stages do you have to go through to get a live appearance underway?
Well, particularly after the last show we did in 2005 - which could charitably be called a shambles, and uncharitably far worse things - we thought we'd better rethink our whole approach to doing TAOP live, so we've restructured our way of doing things considerably since then. It's quite difficult to pick a coherent live set from our repertoire so it's a case of finding the songs that have the best chances of translating and shaving off the extraneous parts. The other main obstacle we have is scheduling, what with Dan's commitments to My Dying Bride, conflicting work timetables etc. We just need to ensure we have a big enough run-up.
Do you get to rehearse much? Do songs have to be altered to make them suitable for playing live?
Probably not as often as we'd like, but we'll be significantly increasing those between now and CCFC - we don't want to get caught with our trousers down (again). It's pretty unavoidable that the songs need rearranging for live performance, primarily the guitar parts need trimming down so that two can more-or-less cover the ground of three or four while retaining the most important elements. The electronics also need to be approached differently, we need something more flexible than a backing tape. As for the drums, much of the early programming was deliberately irreplaceable so we give Dan free rein to come up with his own arrangements.
If death metal doesn't normally rub up against charity-fuelled events like this, then black metal does it even less frequently. Do you think extreme metal needs to confront the fact that its listeners have to deal with real world problems?
Leaving aside the fact that we haven't considered ourselves black metal since the demo, over the years we've come to appreciate that beneath all the horrible noises there's actually quite a moral modus operandi at work in Axis, much like Throbbing Gristle (for example), loathsome as the concept may be to some. We don't consider participating in a charity event to be outside our "ideology", put it that way.
What made you decide to take part in Causing Chaos For Cancer?
Losing the near and dear to cancer is something pretty much everyone can relate to. I've certainly lost some relatives over the years. Nobody's immune, everyone's at risk, and you never know who might be struck next. As causes go, you don't get much closer to the bone than that. Also, Harty [Paul Hartburn from Dawn Of Chaos] badgered us incessantly for months until we acquiesced.
What do Axis Of Peridition have planned for the future?
We've still got the final instalment of Urfe's story to complete, which will be called 'Tenements'. It'll be the third part of the triptych, missing piece of the puzzle, call it what you will. I'm not suggesting it'll provide any conclusive answers - how tedious would that be? - but 'Urfe' will make much more sense once that context is there.
We've been working on that for a long time, but we've had quite a few false starts with it so progress in the form of completed recordings isn't much in evidence - yet. It should be out sometime in 2010, though. We also have a couple of other things in the pipeline which we'll announce when the time is right."
