-Could you present your new lp, ‘Sphynx’, to us ?

- ‘Sphynx’ is our new album, it’s up to date, it’s reflecting logically and musically exactly what we’re feeling right now, so it’s very up to date and that’s what I like about it. I’m very proud of it, and in my opinion, not because it’s new, this album satisfied me more than all of our albums, just because it was a natural progression between our first album’s aggressiveness and ‘Djinn’s epicness, and that's where I wanted to go. Also, we’re better musicians now because we’re always trying to improve ourselves, and that is important, not just sit on your ass and say : ‘Hey, I’ve an album, that’s it, I can claim it now’, but you can’t, you have to keep on improving. I felt much more comfortable with the writing. I don’t know how to say it, but I was not too much limiting myself as I tend to do usually : I was saying to myself that that was how Melechesh should be. So, that’s how ‘Sphynx’ is. The lyrical concept also is a bit more personal, as to my personal visions of ancient Mesopotamia and its connection to the cosmos, so it’s stepped before Mesopotamia, what happened before that. So that’s why there’s four or five songs with the same theme, like a whole concept, the rest being some other subjects. I like it the most, I’m very happy with it, the production is better than before, I’m quite proud of this album.

-Why this choice of Sphynx as a title ? What does he represent for you ? The mystery ? The human questions ?

- It comes with a double meaning : first of all, the Sphynx itself is a Mesopotamian figure : people think that the Sphynx is an Egyptian figure, but that’s not true, there’s one Sphynx in Egypt but because it’s big, the media likes to write about it ! But here’s also the Greek Sphynx, and the Sphynx on the cover sleeve is actually a statue of a Greek Sphynx protecting Athens, and Mesopotamian Sphynxs as well. It’s a great and fantastic creature, but of course it’s just one word, and I wanted to choose one word representing the theme, it’s not really about the Sphynx. But, in this album, the Sphynx, as you can see even on the cover, it’s man made, made of bronze and it’s built as a vessel to go from point A to point B, put it that way. So there’s a cosmic connection that ignites it, and Sphynx is a creature of the Mesopotamian occult world, but I also have deviated it and made it as if it were a ship to transport from a certain place where the original gods came from, a flying machine with which they came here. So there’s a double meaning, because I do believe in the occult sense of the Sphynx as a fantastic creature but also this is a vessel in this album : the song ‘Secrets of Sumerian Sphynxology’ comes in two meanings, the secret of occult knowledge of the Sphynx creature but it’s also how to build a machine to go from point A to point B, and that’s where the Annunaki came from, there’s no names for them basically. There were gods like Marduk, Absu, Tiamat who where new gods from ancient times. But before them, they didn’t have names, they were just called the Annunaki. People thought they came from another planet, and that was the Mesopotamian kind of things : they came to Earth station A, A-den they called it, which was the Mesopotamia, and they built there a civilization and they came with a Sphynx. So there’s a very fantastic meaning and very personal too, I relate to it a lot. So that’s why we came with the drawing and the word Sphynx. But there’s nothing to do with the Sphynx enigma and the man question. The Sphynxs are also supposed to be like sort of creatures with magical powers, but that’s the occult translation, ‘cause that’s two, I tell you : a lot here comes in two meanings !

-Is extreme metal the best musical form able to recreate the forces of this Sumerian magic and mythology combined with power ?

-Yes, absolutely, I agree : extreme metal is a very good medium for transposing this ; not only extreme metal, but ambient side of the music too. Actually, when you watch the Cd-rom with the record, there’s the lyrics in there, and this also comes in a double meaning, and looking at the record itself : it’s basically an ancient Mesopotamian tray from bronze, but it’s also look as the bottom of a spaceship in an ancient way. Inside the Cd-rom, there’s a lot of descriptions for the lyrics, and for people who cannot understand the lyrics, so they can read it on the booklet, there is some explanations but also a glossary of terms so it makes our album easier to understand. I think it’s deep and significant, it’s like a parallel world to the daily life !

-Do you feel close to bands such as Nile, for example, who are fascinated with the ancient Egypt ?

-I love their music and I know Carl ; he digs Melechesh a lot. But their music is brutal death metal and we’re very different, so I cannot relate, I can just enjoy, enjoy them as a brutal death metal band. Their lyrics are about Egypt and I’m fascinated with every culture, so when a band sings about certain mythological or occult theme I’m always relating to him in a way, it doesn’t have to be directly linked to me, so if you sing something with depth, I understand it, but I do not see association at all : it’s two different continents. Not only USA, but also Africa has Egypt and Mesopotamia has Asia minor. I do also relate to the Celtic and the North and the Greeks the same way, and even from Mesopotamian to the Greek is a more direct link, even the letters, and more than Egypt. In that sense, I do not associate with it but I relate because I’m interested in cultures. But that’s great as persons who shares the same interests : I didn’t meet the musicians from that band, but if we do meet as we plan, one day, it’s nice that they’re doing something like that, you don’t feel alone of course ! Actually, I wish there would be bands in Holland that I know that they do this kind stuff and I can relate to them. Naturally, I have very good friends in Holland who are playing in bands, like Housewitser for instance, which I don’t have nothing in common with the brutal death metal, and when I meet the guy, we related to each other as two rockers and two persons and we enjoyed each other’s company but on the other hand I like also to meet someone like that, you know what I’m talking about. I don’t meet so many people like that, it’s sad. I wish I do, I’d like to meet people like that. It’s rare, very rare, in Holland I don’t know many people into this. The other time, the session bass player for Ancient, who now plays in an underground American band called ‘Crimson moon’ and lives in Germany, came here and he’s very interested in this subjects : we didn’t even talk about it, but we just knew who we were each other. Sometimes I don’t know who people are in person but we’re in touch with E-mails and they’re generally interested in Mediterranean music because I remember we talked about bouzoukis and traditional instruments and he knew it and asked how we used it and there was a certain relation.

-‘Sphynx’ has been recorded and mixed by Andy LaRoque at his place : why this choice ?

- I know studios in Holland and I knew how our sound is gonna be there. There’s good studios, and I’m sure that if we go there and invest a lot of time on production, not just the recording, we can try to come out with our own outcome. But generally I know how the productions are : good and decent production, but not what I wanted. So I needed something else. I asked around, and of course there’s studios that cost millions, but also studios that are good with a good budget, and Andy LaRoque fit in that category, that was one. Two he’s a producer, not just an engineer so he knows how to give the advises, he’s been in the metal scene for ages for we felt safe with him for this time, I don’t want to limit myself, and he’s a guitarist : I know how to play guitar but I don’t know anything about that technicality of the guitar, I panic when something goes wrong. So he thought it’s always good to have someone to know the guitars, specially for this album, I was in that state of mind. So we tried Andy, and I liked what he did with his special project, it sounded very noisy and crazy, and I like that he was in his studios and also I have heard what he has done in those studios and everyone, each band sounded completely different, so I thought that if we go there, we wouldn’t sound like any of them, you’d sound different, as production, as I think that our sound of guitars and drums is not like the rest of the bands. I know some studios every band come out is the same sound and I didn’t want that, when one can tell you’ve been there : they do very good production, and I’ve seen some exceptions when bands doesn’t sound like the rest, but in general there’s a standard sound and I certainly don’t feel that related to Melechesh. We just need a guy who knows how to get up distortion on guitars, how to get up drums and how to mix it, and also the mastering have a lot to do with the sound.

-You cover a Celtic frost song on the limited edition : which one and why ?

-It’s ‘Babylon felt’, from ‘Into the pandemonium’ and it suits us very well ! Originally, we recorded that for a Greek compilation, a tribute to Celtic Frost, that we like, we liked we way we recorded it because the drums were completely done in America and sent to us. Locally, my bass player has a good studio in the house, not any facility to make an album yet, because he doesn’t have the building yet, the acoustics, but it’s good for such a recording. We put our own touch there, so sometimes you hear celtic frostish vocals and sometimes black metal vocals, but then in the middle of the song it changes and becomes more Mediterranean, so it sounds like Mediterranean black trash Celtic Frost, in a bit. In the end of the song goes Mediterranean drumbeat, so we put our touch there, and it was the first time we did cover, I felt great, it was a really good experience to do it. No pressure. If people want to hear it on CD, it’ll be on this compilation, from Black Lotus records.

-The cover sleeve have been drawn by Ron Woodall, from ILM, who’s Star wars and Jurassic park graphic designer : how did you choose him ?

-Basically, it wasn’t him personaly : I had good connections in ILM, but they’re not graphicists, they do more like the lighting in the movies. Of course, inside the graphics like in Star Wars war scenes, it’s like a digital set, it’s like a normal set, someone does the lighting there, lighting graphics. So I told them I wanna a cover in this style because I’ve always adored Star Wars art since I was young, I was fascinated by the imagery. I told them to ask around, they did, and five people wanted to do it. And the first guy to contact us was Ron Woodall : they all worked on Star Trek, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, the Mummy, and recently The Hulk, and I told them that I wanted a Mesopotamian Sphynx, a concept of cosmos, a concept of the desert, and he started styling and then building from scratch and that’s why I like it very much. I gave him all the input I wanted, he added stuff like extra legs, six legs for the Sphynx , that’s very cool, and to show the dimension, how huge this thing is, there’s a person there (just at one foot of the Sphynx, ndlr), so it’s cool, we kind of used really good people, good studio, good artists, I just wanna get the best for this album, everything have been done very professionally : we only do an album once, so try to do it right as much as we can. Somehow, I didn’t want to use a conventional artist, I wanted to try something new. Usually, I wasn’t a big fan of digital art, I like more the painted stuff, but this don’t look so digital, it looks good. The CD will have different limited editions, different packaging : black, bronze, etc, I’m still waiting for it, I’m anxious. We used an really interesting artist for this album. I don’t know if next time who we will, because there’s a few I wanna do it with in that company, but it depends. Let’s not limit ourselves. Another artist I also talked with is guy called Carl Anderson : he used to do a lot of dungeons and dragons, digital art, and the last thing he’s doing is Discovery channel and Microsoft, he does video games for them, the fancy covers. He’s totally into the concept of our band, and he wanted to do it but we were already with Ron. So maybe next time. He really want it !

-If Melechesh was a movie, which one could it be ?

-An original question, thank you, I like this one ! First of all, I like underground music, but with movies, I’m a sucker ! I like everything as long as it’s good, I like it. Of course, there’s some movies I can’t watch. Something I’m very related to is ‘The exorcist’, I’ve seen it million times as I was a kid, even if I shouldn’t have ! A mixture between ‘The Exorcist’, ‘The Omen’, ‘Star Wars’ and add a bit of ‘Conan the barbarian’ ; ‘The mummy’, image wise, and more recently ‘Starship troopers’, a hell of a movie, and underrated sick movie ! I was surprised they did something like that in the mainstream. But nowadays, movies look better than their stories, which is sad. ‘Stigmata’ was an interesting movie from the new movies. And ‘The story of Jesus’. I’m joking !

-Melechech comes form Jerusalem, live now in Holland and have an international line up, centers of interest and career : considering the actuality of the world, is Melechesh a good proof that cohabitation between different people can exist after all ?

-Yes, first of all I’ve always cohabitated with other cultures, even in Israel, because I’m Armenian and Assyrian and I had Israeli friends, Palestinian friends, there was no barriers and also we were in a sort of international community, there’s always been French, Italians, Philipinos, even people I never was aware of differences till I heard it on TV and I’ve got all of that communities and I said : ’Oh, that shit exists ?’, I wouldn’t even know why, I thought that a bit stupid. I think metal people in general are most open minded than supposed to be the people who are the ‘good people’ of this world because you can always get along with any headbanger you go to. I was in Indonesia for two months, I went to a certain neighborood there where people told me not to go, I was with my metal shirt and and there was so many rockers there, but they told me ‘come, said the guys, sit down ! ‘, they gave me a cola, make me listen to their music, it felt so great, and there’s a subculture beside the music, and the occult, also the same applies with the occult people everywhere that we get along. We’ve never had culture pressures, I understand many cultures : I’ve lived in America and I understand their culture very well, and Proscriptor and the guys comes from other cultures, our bass player is from Ukrainia, my guitarist is Assyrian Palestinian, but we all get along, we all have something in common somehow, we’ve never had any culture clash. I think people should get out of their little village and open their mind, there’s so much out there to see. I’m saying it for their own sake because they’ll more interested because otherwise it’s plain all boring same thinking, same habits, I like to travel and see people from all over, because it’s like different worlds in a way, similary and different, and you can enjoy that. For instance, just going to the UK and driving on the different side of the road and having different social habits is interesting to see already. So, be open, and I think metal can coop that, if metal people get along, everyone can get along. Nice ending, isn’t it ?

Interview made in Paris, April 16th 2003.

Melechesh Website : WWW.MELECHESH.com

‘Sphynx’ is out on Osmose Records