Photos by Joonas Juntunen
At the tail end of 2019, the awesome King Satan released their second album I Want You To Worship Satan (our review of which can be read here). We caught up with the band’s mastermind King Aleister Satan to talk about the new album as well as videos, live shows and controversy!
So your second album I Want You To Worship Satan has been out for a couple of months now – what’s the response been like to it so far?
It has been surreal! Praise, critic, controversy and confusion and the rest of the the whole nine yard! In other words, so far very mixed from high critical acclaim to total discredit as well and everything in between as well as lots of confusion, like it was with the debut album and this time even more so! Due to nature of our craft already starting from the band’s name has proven to be much more controversial and thought-provoking than we expected and dreamed, to be perfectly honest. Also, we are sort of between the genres here which seems to be too much for the guardians of the conventions. You know, not pure metal, not pure electro-industrial but very much both of them! We have reached this time bigger audience and gained lots of incredible new fans whose devotion still pleasantly surprises us as much as the reactions of people who gets cut under their skin by this as well! It seems you either love us or you hate us, no middle grounds here and so we feel accomplished here already, because we want to push all buttons and as it says in the lyrics of Fuck Yoga: ”Our aphrodisiac is nothing but chaos!”
It feels like a very natural progression from your debut King Fucking Satan, both musically and lyrically. How did you approach the writing and recording process this time around? Was it much different, as you’ve gained members and have had line-up changes since your debut?
My own effort as a lyricist and main songwriter was quite similar as it was with the debut, but I Want You To Worship Satan was our first with a full line-up in the record as well, so it made it a little more different of course when compared to working alone – but only in a good way! Also Kate and Jerry did some composing on their own, especially Kate who composed two songs herself basically! This made the musical side of the album much more diverse than it was with the debut. It pleases me very much that I have much more skilled musicians in the band now than myself, who can transform my compositions into whole new level.
As a lyricist it continues the same theme as it was with the debut, sort of following this so called Spiritual Anarchy theme as I felt that I wasn’t really through with the theme yet. As usual, I wanted to challenge myself and also explored further the means of black satire and blasphemy to deal with serious philosophical and existential issues, but also covering personal things as well. It’s like juggling with fire or like surfing between two waves – which suits me very well!
Which of the songs are your personal favourites? (I think mine is Transgression!)
This is a tough one as I try to perceive the albums as a whole and every song has their purpose to be there. Usually the most challenging ones or the ones that works in live show the best usually pops out first from the top of my head. Circus of the Mind was the most challenging one and Fuck Yoga is one of my favorites while playing live!
Your songs and videos explore some more sensitive/taboo subjects and have sometimes caused a little bit of controversy. Has that always been an aim for the band, to push boundaries and get people talking?
We sort of work with the ancient left-hand-path method where you try to break out the cultural mind and slave moral through the means of clowning, blasphemy and rebellion, of which examples in Western culture could be figures like Diogenes The Cynic and Aleister Crowley. The aim with the videos is to get people thinking, including us! On the top of the entertainment aspect of course. But if they talk, it means they have thought of something! And yes, the videos have caused controversy indeed! Apparently a major part of it comes from the confusion whether we are serious about what we say or not, is this parody or not – as we do have serious and sensitive subjects on the table there but presented with strong splatter aesthetics. But at the end of the day, it is not so black and white. Even if we have some strong satire and dark humor in our works, it is always there for a reason and serves a bigger picture related to the subjects at hand.
It’s true nature of meaningful blasphemy and therefore strongly related to this Spiritual Anarchy undertone of our two albums so far which is same time very nihilistic as well as transcendental in the context of this so called left-hand-path. It is like I have put it in the lyrics of Circus of the Mind: ”Of course I am serious, I am always serious, even when I am joking – everyone is!”. Aesthetically I am avid fan of both the splatter and symbolism. If you understand Aleister Crowley’s method where he is sort of a joker, keeps sort of ironic distance of his own stuff but same time takes them completely serious – then you understand ours. And if you don’t get the joke, you are the target of the joke! Of course we have a couple of not-so-splatter music videos, approaching the topics more symbolistic and allegorical narrative and aesthetics, but its the splatter side of our works which gets the most of attention. We are after all no matter how high we think our motifs and agendas are, in the entertainment business. Clowning is serious business!
What’s been the worst and best things that someone has said about your videos and music?
Hahah, almost next to impossible to pick favorites! We get asked if one can become a King Satan disciple because of what we do and even on the other side of the spectrum there are threats coming from mostly from fanatic Christians these days which says that we should ”not disrespect God or else…”. I am almost positive I have heard almost all of them! We’ve been said to be either one of the best bands there is or the worst things happened to music ever and everything in between. So like said, it is very hard to pick favorites, but also just recently one devoted fan told me that our work gives her both strength and sense of direction and meaning in this chaotic world and that she wouldn’t be the same person as she is today without our works. I don’t think it could get more beautiful than that which makes me so humble and proud at the same time that something we do could offer something like this to somebody. Every time I hear something like this it means a world to me.
Same goes with the worst things when picking the favorites, the most funny worst things are related to my hats! If I wear top hat, I heard I am a ripoff or parody of King Diamond. If I wear cowboy hat, I am a ripoff or parody of Rob Zombie. If I don’t wear a hat all, I am ripoff of Alice Cooper and if I if I am spotted with woolen hat I am supposed to be Tom G. Warrior. Didn’t expect hats to possess such powerful symbolism! We have been accused or perceived to be almost anything by now, even things that are opposite with each others like from communists to fascists all the way to pseudo-occultists to serious satanic cult criminals. I guess this means that the Satan as the archetype of the Devil has not lost its power of self-projection and scapegoat after all where you can reflect your hopes and fears. Since I cannot think of a better reply for these than Laibach once did, I just say that the lack of concentration mixed with hysteria is not really leading into good tomorrow and if you would’ve bothered to read the lyrics alone, you would have saved yourself from embarrassment. We are not a political band at all, our message is spiritual and love is the law – love under will, said the Devil through the Great Beast.
On the subject of your videos, how do you come up with the concepts and stories for them? They’re all rather unique and you never know what to expect with them, which I love!
As a music video director I just want to experiment with different kind of styles, but in general I am an avid fan of splatter and symbolism, so all King Satan videos circulates around these. You can say one thing with many different ways, and represent it with different aesthetics and all of the videos are related to the lyrics one way or another. It feels like that the videos write themselves through me, because when I have the vision, the images start to play in my head and I do not question them but start to make it into reality. Budgets are of course usually an issue, but if we had more, I would make music video to all of the songs!
I have directed 8 music videos for King Satan, and most of them are very splatter oriented – but for Dance With The Devil and All Magick Is Chaos Magick I wanted to make a story-based esoteric allegory of spiritual path more experimenting with symbolism, instead of splatter. I like to play with contrasts. For instance, Dance With The Devil is pretty mundane by its philosophical dimension, but the mundane can be transcendental and surreal. Actually it is just like that, that more simple and obvious things are, the more mystic they tend to appear as people have alienated from reality so much that reality itself is mystical experience for many. I wanted to use this kind of narrative in the aesthetics of the music video. With songs that have more profound and abstract message, like Satanized (Praise Hail Satan!), Fuck Yoga and The Killing Of God, I wanted to go completely other way around and embraced the splatter imagery completely and take it over-the-top to bring the message more down to earth from their mystical dimensions.
For Psychosadomasochism we actually hired an anime cartoon artist to make the video, but due to schedule conflicts the anime video never happened and I still wanted to make a cartoon video. I had never done such things before, and I figured that since I am not an anime artist but a fan of South Park and Monty Python, that I should try to make an animation inspired by their style with my own fandom towards trash film, but combined to the themes of the song and the album itself. It was the hardest video project for me so far because I had only 2 weeks time to do something I had never done before! As a general rule I want to take things over-the-top always, even with the not-so-splatter like videos. I have dropped references or clear tributes to all my influences and likings when it comes to the videos, which some of them are pretty straightforward and some not so clear.
Psygnosis was originally based on a short film I wrote back in the audiovisual school a lot younger, but it never got made. I noticed that Psygnosis‘ lyrics were very much in synch with this short film script, so then I pursued it with King Satan with some adaptation of course. I just could go on and on with the videos, because they all have different creative paths and thematic functions, heh! But maybe for another time!
I especially like the video for All Magick Is Chaos Magick, which is probably down to the fact it’s partly filmed at the Veijo Rönkkönen Sculpture Garden. I love how unnerving the statues are, so they fit in well for a King Satan music video! Can you tell me a little more about that video in particular?
It was filmed in three locations, at Veijo Rönkkönen Sculpture Garden, at Biodgraska Gora National Park of Montenegro and at my village here in Tampere, Finland. I was shown pictures of the Sculpture Garden of Veijo Rönkkönen and I got so much fascinated about it and I knew immediately that this was something I had looked for for a long time. It was on the other side of Finland, so I could not go to check it beforehand. Once we got shooting permissions, we just hit the road. I actually had another song in mind for the video first, but to experience the sculptures on location was a game changer and I eventually changed the video to be All Magick Is Chaos Magick.
The sculptures were so amazing and Veijo Rönkkönen (R.I.P.). was truly a genius. The sculptures felt so alive and even eerily conscious and they were like living Rorschach tests! More you looked at them, more you saw things in them. The concept of All Magick Is Chaos Magick is very abstract and I did not intend it to be a music video song in the first place like said, but to experience this fully on location made me change my mind eventually, because the sculptures did reflect the abstract side of the song much better than the other video! Once I get going, I wanted to create another world and separate this Sculpture Garden from it’s real location from the border of Finland and Russia – and therefore I filmed the surroundings in Montenegro’s Biodgradska Gora National Park, because I felt the nature there being same way alive and eerily conscious as the sculptures were. Truly magical places, if you ever have change to visit either of them, just go! The song are the theme, and the video answers to these questions ”What is Magick, What is Chaos Magick and how they are related to the archetype of the Devil?” while representing the abstract reality of Chaos Magick. The baptism scenes with masked cultists are very much related to the symbolism of Sculptures and the theme of course, and with this video I embraced the symbolist in me more than splatter fanatic within.
Moving onto live shows, it was actually at a live performance I discovered you. I thought your live show was chaotic (in a good way of course!) and every single track packed a massive punch – I just couldn’t take my eyes off the stage. What goes into planning one of your live shows?
When it comes to the nature of the each performance in general what happens on stage is not ever planned. We seize the moment, we embrace the moment and we believe in the spontaneity and embracing the chaos. Especially for me, I like to surprise myself too, and usually if it happens to me, it happens to the audience as well and I don’t like routines! Working with background tracks and combining them with live musicianship requires always some planning of course, and with background visuals and light shows as well. You could say we plan the frames well, but within the frames could happen anything!
Tracks such as Dance With The Devil, Fuck Yoga and Spiritual Anarchy just feel tailor-made to be performed in front of an audience. Are there tracks you’ve created specifically to be showcased in a live environment, or is it coincidental they translate live so perfectly?
No, not really. When I started the band I didn’t even expect live shows to happen. But, we make the albums by the terms of the album and music itself, and some of them just translates live very easily and effortlessly, but some of the songs have to be rethought for live performances in mind. This happens if on the album version the sounds include so much layers and nuances that cannot be presented with same feeling on live. Sound technic -wise this production is a nightmare for sound engineers hahahah!
Keeping on the subject of live shows, what would you say the best live show you’ve ever played has been? And what about the strangest or weirdest?
Ah, so many great memories and shows! Of course all sold out shows or big festival shows have the the most energy and burns into your memory forever very deep, but I also cherish the memory of all the shows that breaks outside the conventions of regular ”metal show” like our show in Geneve, Switzerland in 2018 where the stage was too small for us and we just spread around the venue moshing and dancing together with audience – that was something else! Also our show at Nummirock Metal Festival in 2017 has a special place in my heart too, as it was just like couple of weeks after the release of our debut and we didn’t really expect such great reception. We ran out of songs as we only had 8 of them and people wanted more and even festival organizer tried to stop us to leave the stage asking if we could just play something more, but we didn’t have more songs at that time hahahah! Weirdest show was probably in Jyväskylä early 2017 when I got electroshock and concussion while climbing the stage structure, but I still performed the rest of the show by the power of adrenaline. I was hospitalized afterwards, head and hand (the nerves due electroshock) hurt like hell. Truly strange night!
And finally, what’s in store for King Satan for 2020?
Well, our second album got just released and we started our album release tour which continues till early 2020 and after that there will be more live shows coming, so far all of confirmed ones are in Finland but our people and allies are working on for shows in mainland Europe as well to take place sooner or later in 2020! I truly wish that we also make our first appearance in UK as well, as we have performed in 11 countries already, but not in UK yet! Let’s hope it happens in 2020 for the first time!
