Dagon – Inquisition

Out of the mysterious world of black metal comes  Colombian duo Inquisition, a band that is renowned for it’s extreme, heavy and dark music. There is no looking back when you turn on an Inquisition album – you’re immediately sucked in. I caught up with the one and only Dagon, a really laid-back, intelligent and fun guy and we talked about all things Inquisition, his thoughts on Satanism, black metal and more ahead of the band’s upcoming Australian tour with Swedish black metal counterparts, Marduk.

In the most regal fashion, Dagon greeted me and seemed excited about the interview. ” Hey! I’m doing good. We’ve just been busy with shows, getting ready for more tours, so it’s been good.”

The band are currently touring in support of their latest release ‘Obscure Verses for the Multiverse’ and we talked about how the response has been to the 2013 record and what the writing process was like this time around. “It’s been really interesting. There’s been a lot of dynamics this year more than before – by dynamics I mean we hold on strong to the underground circuit touring while we’ve also been in the bigger circuit, doing lots of festivals, playing with bigger bands playing with Behemoth which was really good and Marduk etc, We’ve been able to hold on to a lot of our old, loyal fans loyal while gathering a great new following.”

“The writing process –  honestly no different, I would say probably what was different though was having an open mind when composing, instead of limiting myself on the guitar. For example, if a certain melody or riff didnt seem dark enough or didn’t really qualify on a black metal level scale of 1 and 10, I wouldn’t leave it out. I thought more widely than just about the genre itself  because I think its  really important that each album of ours has its own identity. Some people may make the mistake of thinking that every album is similar but its not. On this one it was writing a lot in major scales ,giving off something fast, tight, agile, explosive and expressive, kinda like the album cover. That’s what i was after.”

As always, it’s important to pick the brains of your favourite bands and ask them if there’s any new music in the works! “Actually, I’m writing the new album right now as we speak – going in baby steps here but I do have a good 15 minutes written so far! We’re working on it. I can tell you I man everyone prides themselves on a new album but I can tell you that this is definitely going to be something. We’re not gonna let anybody down – it’s going to be a very classic inquisition, no different. People  who enjoy what makes us what we are will get all that 100%.”

The one thing I’ve always been intrigued about is the lyrical themes that Inquisition base their music on. There always seems to be some kind of research and indepth meaning that goes into it.  “I would say it’s 50% imagination my own emotion, me, myself and the other 50 % is what I’ve read of others. Everything from the Occult, metaphysics to Science, Zachariah Stitchin’s writings, H.P. Lovecraft but also with my own stance on things, on what I feel and take people through those thoughts with the music. I don’t want to just take what I’ve read or think I know. and throw it in a different package and re-wrap it only to deliver to people something that’s already been read or written. I don’t want do that. A lot of it is my imagination – what I’ve developed by simply questioning  everything that’s really where my lyrics come from. I literally question everything, look for the answer to develop the lyrics again on what I assume – what is The Occult, what is life, what is spirituality, Sumerian theories – how does everything connect.”

I was pretty sold at this point because Dagon really knows his stuff! He talked about what inspired him to fuse musics with subjects such as the Occult, metaphysics and mythology. Trust me, it doesn’t get more intense than this.

“I think its you know going on the deep end.  in a positive way it has to do with age – maturing to an extent. As we all mature and develop, we start thinking differently and it was one day – probably in the early 2000’s when I started thinking how about we all speak of the darkness in black metal and people are getting burned out with people singing about Satan this, Satan that. Where can we go where we haven’t fully gone yet in a deeper sense. I always thought that those who mock satanism those who mock the occult should at least pay a certain degree of respect to what science has given us. If anything we are the true occultists of our day now. I don’t mean that in a demeaning way of course – they’re scientists – they are the people who are hands on developing what us and the music and the occult philosophies simply theorize on with our imaginations. They’re peering and staring into the Heavens, the Hells and watching the Universe develop. The micro verse, the macro verse and everything, the quantum physics of it and the theoretical aspect of it, is all really a parallel in my opinion – a parallel of what black metal has wanted to integrate lyrically into the music. I always thought of how I could do this in a poetic way,  keep things traditional and always involve the element of what we denominate Satan as but showing the parallel of it through science the Occult that’s what it is.”

That led me to my next question: How does Dagon from the mighty Inquisition percieve black metal as a form of expression?

” Again, I’ve always said it, it should have a very spiritual element to it. Now you can say that many different genres of music in general are spiritual – like the Baroque era was very religious and spiritual, so i just want to clear that out because music should be spiritual to an extent. Some music I think should be extremely spiritual – about things we question within our own psychology, and that psychology can e based on what to believe, what you imagine, what you feel, and when you take belief and feelings and combine them together you create kind of a religious or  philosophical aura which is the imagination that’s been produced by these two things and I think black metal is a genre of music where  you know we say it should be satanic but at the same time I think we forget that black metal is also about opening gates and portals to different things, things we don’t know and not just referring to one thing.”

Coming to the live show aspect, we talked about what exactly an Inquisition gig is all about and how they would describe it to someone who has never been to one. (pay close attention Aussie fans!) ” Well, they can expect 90% of the emotions that are stirred up coming from    because we rely very little on visuals and the sights or smells. We’re very minimalist. We do realize that image is very important and goes hand in hand so it’s nothing that we’re against but it’s our style. That’s how we enjoy things. Some people like highly sophisticated meals with 100 ingredients in it, some people are fine with a simple meal with a few – so it’s kind of the same thing. (He made a food reference, this man wins on all levels now in my books!). It’s how we do our art, simple. How we’d describe it is just two people on stage – guitar, drums, vocals and we take them far with that!”.

For those who aren’t familiar with the history of the band, they started off in Colombia almost 2 decades ago. Dagon shared his thoughts on what the journey’s been like so far and how things have changed over the years for the band.  ” Well, you know Inquisition, I always like to tell people it’s divided into two chapters. The American Inquisition, since I moved back in 1996, we’ve been playing together since then and it’s a really long time. So honestly, the only changes I can talk about are superficial which is the growth of the and how much we tour now and how I never, ever assumed or thought we’d be doing what we’re doing now, thanks to all the support we get from our fans. Has anything changed amongst us? No, definitely not. I mean not at all. We’re the same entities we were then as we are now. Maybe that’s hard for some people to believe, no I would look at it as if you were 40 years old and you’ve been listening to metal this whole time, as a listener, are you any different now than you were in the 1980’s? You move on yes, you like things which are heavier, faster, louder, more obscure and dark. But that’s how we evolve, I wouldn’t say change. ( I sense some Darwinism thought processes here).”

A real monster to kick off 2015, Inquisition are headed to Australia for a tour with Marduk. ” It’s our second time in Australia, the last time we were there it was great! We were on our own tour with Vomitor with us! I don’t know if we can officially say we’re friends with them or anything but we had an awesome time on tour with them a few years ago in the United States, occasionally we run into each other at the festivals, they’re very cordial people, extremely professional – I mean they do everything right, we try to do everything right, there’s a lot of respect for each other so this is definitely going to be a good tour!”

Given my current geographical location in the Indian sub-continent, I also talked to Dagon about Inquisition heading out here for Bangalore Open Air this year. “ You know how I talked about an evolution of the band – it’s definitely this. We’ve gone to some very exotic places in the past few months, we’ve got Iceland coming up, we’re getting some offers in China, Japan. So things are moving for us and Bangalore Open Air is going to be great, we’re really looking forward to coming there!”

So apart from brutalizing ear drums with heavy music, what does Dagon get up to in his free time? ” I’m laughing right now because I do A LOT of gaming. hell yeah, I love it! The Battlefield series, I play that all the time. I also do a lot of experimental, electronic, industrial type music in my own time so yeah I keep myself busy!”

Dagon has one last message to the Australian fans before their tour! “Australia, you  guys are one of the most die-hard scenes ever. Thank you for the bands that you guys have brought us, amazing scene, great people. When it comes time for the show I know you guys aren’t going to let us down – extreme souls with a love for extreme music. See you soon!

This interview pretty much speaks for itself. Catch Inquisition on their upcoming tour with Marduk which kicks off on Monday, 12th of January in Perth. For dates and ticket details, check below!

AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES

Monday Jan 12 – Perth / Amplifier Bar – w/ The Furor
http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=46544
Tuesday Jan 13 – Adelaide / Enigma Bar – w/ Nocturnes Mist
http://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/marduk-inquisition/73179
Wednesday Jan 14 – Melbourne / Northcote Social Club – w/ Abominator
https://corner.ticketscout.com.au/gigs/2996/Marduk&Inquisition
Thursday Jan 15 – Hobart / MOFO (Marduk only)
Friday Jan 16 – Melbourne / HiFi Bar ** – w/ Denouncement Pyre
http://tickets.thehifi.com.au/?Event=46494
Saturday Jan 17 – Sydney / HiFi Bar – w/ Denouncement Pyre
http://tickets.thehifi.com.au/?Event=46497
Sunday Jan 18 – Brisbane / Crowbar – w/ Spire
http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=46545

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