Diabolical Conquest: I'd like to extend a tremendous thanks for taking the time to speak with us. It's truly an honor. By the way, I fuckin' LOVE the new album! Congrats on it's success.
Helmuth: Ave, no problem, cool you like the new album and thanx for the appreciation and your support Rob, okay lets start the madness...
DC: How has the new material been received by both the metal media and fans?
Helmuth: Goatreich got celebrated worldwide absolutely genius, the reviews are more than brilliant and outbid one another... You know, Goatreich - Fleshcult has deserved it, it became a massive-brutal album. We got a lot of really huge responses from all the magazines, radio stations, friends, die-hard demons.... the demands are enormous, it's a real pleasure to promote this album. We really havent ever had that much interviews in Europe/Usa/Canada, we even have some big cover - titlestories on the start. The interest in Belphegor is sheer madness, we have never expected that...
DC: Is Napalm treating the band well? Do you have any complaints thus far?
Helmuth: Sorry, no, I am not interested to talk about labels or business here, it's of course an important point, but it seems as if a band in this extreme - genre gets the support it deserves, only the hard way. We feel well with napalm, they do a fine job, and pushed up Lucifer and Goatreich , unfortunately they are not able to call on good tours.... We'll see what future and album #6 will bring and if we'll put another album in Napalms hands, at the moment we are fully streched with the promotions for Goatreich , that's why I won't tell any concrete things now. In the next months we will come together and decide as a band, what we will do with album #6 and with whom.
 DC: May I ask what the circumstances were that caused you to part ways with Last Episode?
Helmuth : An old story too, we got almost no support from this label although we had very good reviews with Necrodaemon Terrorsathan, the most important for the music we play is to tour nonstop and not only activation in some bigger magazines. Lots of labels seem to not understand this, last episode was no pleasant chapter for us, to express the least....
DC: Who did the artwork for Goatreich - Fleshcult? It's somewhat Giger-esque, and seems like a slight departure from the usual goats and naked females.
Helmuth: Ha, can't agree, it's typical Belphegor.
Sigurd: when we planning the artwork for Goatreich - Fleshcult (which is a circumscription for hell, and where we are hailing our mascot, the goat and his empire of flesh, lust & fire.), we knew we had to come up with the most blasphemous-horror stuff ever - fitting the lyrical, antichristian content. We were lucky that Ralph Manfreda, which is an outstanding artist from Vienna, agreed to do the artwork. Still we´ve never done this for any shock value, we fukkin dig that stuff, but if any moralizers out there feel provoked or disgusted by this art, fine with me.
DC: Have you had much success with the new songs in a live setting? It seems to me that Belphegor are writing songs that are more live-oriented.
Helmuth : The variety is for sure one of our strengths on the new album, Goatreich - Fleshcult became a death-monster, um, the whole album got very brutal & fleshy and kicks ass. While our tour through Europe we had the opportunity for the first time to play the new songs live and it was amazing for us, to finally present the new songs from Goatreich - Fleshcult live, the maniacs have celebrated the new anthems. All trax we have played from the new album are really mighty live....
We do not even think about how the song could work out live, it only has to be good aggressive metal, you know, that's the point it is about, no 08/15 guitar riffs, it has to be even more sophisticated and despite that understandable and not degenerate into hundreds of riffs.
DC: Has your progression as musicians over the years been a more gradual change, or has there been a conscious effort to tighten up and bring a more technical edge to the music?
Helmuth : Yeah, we tried a few new things, trying to take our style a bit further each time.
Sigurd : I think you can hear that its us, if you put on a Belphegor album, and that is very important to me. You know one of our trademarks and strengths are to integrate cold - aggressive melodies into our songs, without making it listen to be beauty or clear. With every album we try to go a step forward in things like musical and intensity. No matter if leads/vokills/drums, we try to set in the instruments more effective in each album, to arrange it better and to develope in every aspect, um... it's always a big challenge for us, we are fully-fledged addicted and always try to take the best out of it.
DC: Besides farm animals and tits, what inspires you guys? 
Helmuth: Haha, fukk you Rob, the first place of course is taken by the instruments, music and band... What else interests me is, travelling around, boozing, and sometimes exercising with weights.
DC: What are your favorite songs from both a musician's and listener's standpoint? Any favorites to perform live?
Helmuth: The resonances we get are rather different, but Swarm Of Rats, Cruzifixus - Anus Dei, Bleeding Salvation, Festum Asinorum Pt. II (btw the easily changed version we play live is going to be on our page as mp3 at the beginning of June - chekk it out), Sepulture Of Hypocrisy ... haha, if I think about this I really have to say that all Goatreich hymns are mentioned as faves very often. Specially the two slower trax , of course there are people who hate these two songs, haha, but it's always the same. Ffrom my point of view I am very proud about the whole album. 2004 was a very intensive and interesting year for Belphegor.
DC: Where do you see Belphegor 5 years from now?
Helmuth: I live at this moment, I dont plan that ahead, I loathe it. maybe I do not live anymore in 5 years, say, to plan this decade is not mine and pure waste of time. Hell, we will enter the studio in April '06 and begin to record album #6, the records will take till end of June, we will have again 3 sessions to work, to let the album grow detail for detail, this process proved the last 3 albums. That's the only defined thing, the rest will come har har-
DC: In the beginning, had you any idea that you would be so successful?
Helmuth: Um, Belphegor is no overnight sensation, we are there now for a long time and have played for it very hard. The success can be led back to years of hard work and of course it's a joy if you can see/hear/read that many people like it, and of course we want to be present now out of Europe too, and play concerts there, the start does our Latin American offensive in October, arghhhhh! Usa/Canada are on target and it would be a big wish of Belphegor to finally tour there.
 DC: Who have been the best bands to play gigs with over the years? You guys have played with just about everyone from Brutality to Angelcorpse to Bolt Thrower... Any funny stories or anecdotes?
Helmuth: Virtually we have already played with all of our faves, there is only Deicide left, but every time, there is something coming in between. Okay, my all time faves Black Sabbath are also left, but let's stay on the ground of reality har har
DC: Tour the US ?: Yes / No / Maybe? Who would you like on the bill, if so?
Helmuth: Yes, would be great, and we are closer to it than before, cause Goatreich - Fleshcult battered like a shell. Let's see if there is a professional agency which takes us there and makes a tour possible, we have dozens of requests of people each week, when we will finally visit Canada or the States, so..... Hm, um, dreampackage for example, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, or Vader/Behemoth, Autopsy, Slayer, Belphegor har har
DC: Your new drummer Nefastus.... He's umm.... fast. Pretty talented dude. Where'd you find him? Did he play in any other bands prior to joining Belphegor?
Helmuth: Nefastus fukkin rules, he is a 100 % replacement for Torturer and we will ensure that we will increase again with album #6 (Sept/Oct '06) enormously. He is a freak, drumming all the time, a real musician with heartblood and feeling, and he even fits to us humanly, which is very important for us cause we are on the road all the time, in the studio or in the rehearsal room. He has played in some local bands and he is a talent from Germany again. We are in contact with him since the beginning of '04 and since October '04 he is a permanent maniac of Belphegor.
DC: Do you believe Goatreich - Fleshcult to be your best effort to date?
Helmuth: I enjoy listening to the old albums and I am very proud of them, you know, it's a pleasure, a real pleasure, I combine every Belphegor record with a certain period of life, it's like a tattoo, if you know what I mean.... Look, we are on the start for more then a decade now and tried to record each time with every album the best at that point of time. With Necrodaemon Terrorsathan we had a good line up for the first time, each of the Belphegor albums has its strengths.
Necrodaemon is very dirty, dusky in its atmosphere. On Lucifer Incestus we had a professional on the drums for the first time, it was absolutely tight. Lucifer is the absolute highspeed barrel, whereas the strengths of Goatreich - Fleshcult are its dynamic and severity. These 3 albums are my absolute Belphegor faves and I dont want to elevate any of them, so as I think, we found our own Belphegor typical style with Necrodaemon and solidified it.
DC: How can you explain last year's Lucifer Incestus being released to little fanfare, as compared to the mass acclaim that Goatreich has received? Lucifer Incestus was killer!
Helmuth: It was our goal from the beginning, to get more aggressive and extreme musically. Lucifer Incestus was faster, but Goatreich - Fleshcult is much more death.
I think Belphegor has always been a undervalued band, I hope that doesnt sound too arrogant, but I have read this not only one time in magazines. Its a fact that we are not from America/Sweden, but from Austria, there are different factors which makes it difficult to break through. But the last two albums, specially now Goatreich - Fleshcult have opened some doors for us. You can say, okay, I dont like Belphegor, or their cover/spirit whatever is shitty, but musically we are on top now, and we dont need to eschew any comparisons and this is what every doubter respects by now. What you need next to proficiency and hard work/rehearsals... is a portion of luck and a good label in the back that makes it possible for you to go on tour and steps on the gas.
DC: What's your take on the current state of Death Metal? Do you believe it gets harder and harder to be creative as time goes by? I think progress is over-rated.
Helmuth: Hm, there are a lot of good bands in this genre, but unfortunately also a lot of rubbish. You can also increase musically withough getting commercial or wimp out. The aggression in the music has absolut priority here for Belphegor. Let me tell you, Belphegor has always done their own things, thats why its senseless to answer this question.
DC: Any new bands we should watch out for? What's in your CD player at the moment?
Helmuth: Vinyl format man, I am listening to Ozzy Osbourne - Diary Of a Madman, I love this album. Randy Rhoades was a genius who died too soon, ...fukk he has influenced whole guitarist generations with his classical breathed on guitar play.
DC: I really fucking hate Melodic Death Metal. I HATE IT. What are your thoughts on fruity bands like Kalmah or Norther?
Helmuth: Haha, finally someone who dares to say, you rule.
I dont even know this two bands by name, I dont have any plan from this whole new melodic death whatever wave. It's not mine, har har, I hate these melodic bands. Iron Maiden clones with growls, who can never come near the original, thanks, no way... If it's really melodic metal, then in its primary from, for example NWOBHM
DC: Before we wrap this up, do you have any particular messages for any particular people? Or any closing notes?
Helmuth: Thanks for the interview Rob, hopefully we can meet one time, if we are goin to tour through the states, death greets to the Diabolical Conquest readership, see ya on the road to hell...
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