Leo: What do you want to achieve with your music, what kind of listener is attracted by your style?
Gorath Moonthorn: Our music is first and foremost a channel for our own creativity and a means to materialize our deepest thoughts and emotions. In this respect the most important thing we wish to achieve with it is to express ourselves as fully as possible. When speaking about what we want to achieve with our music when projecting it outwards to the listeners, the main aim is to awaken certain darker feelings and to resonate with their thoughts that are sympathetic with our message and thus strengthen or alter them. We want to stir some emotions and provoke some thoughts. And this we do merely by channelling what we are deep inside. It may strike root in others or then again it may not.
There is no stereotypical “ALGHAZANTH enthusiast”, many kinds of metallists seem to be into our work. But I guess the ones that are most entangled in our web are the ones that have realized the deeper aspect in our songs. So those who've dared to dig deeper than just the surface, have found more nourishment for the soul to chew on, so to speak.

Leo: Concerning your difficult to spell band’s name, what does it mean?
Gorath Moonthorn: It may not come as a surprise to you that we have to answer to this question time and time and time again... But that's the price we're willing to pay because the name is unique and, more importantly, it was given to us from the realm of spirits. ALGHAZANTH is the name of a death-bringer entity that appeared to me in a dream in the shape of a white wolf. He told me that he would take me from the world of mortals but not before I have completed one important task. And here I am, still on my path to fulfilling this mission. I am in no position to reveal the full extent of this mission, and I also lack the desire to do so, but it sure isn't just a pile of records and some live performances.

Leo: How important is he lyrical aspect in ALGHAZANTH?
Gorath Moonthorn: Very important. The lyrics convey what the abstractness of music simply fails to do. The music and the lyrics are, however, in a tight state of symbiosis and I see them as components that are quite equal in their importance, at least in our case. The lyrics deepen the overall flow of energy and the thought forms already present in the music but they also function as separate entities which can transmit the force behind the song on their own to some extent. To put it more simply, although our music and poetry are equally important and go hand in hand, it is the poetry that defines the heart of this art more fundamentally than the music does. Distorted guitars and blastbeats don't yet make your art Black Metal, it's the Satanic lyrical content that does.

Leo: Has there been kind of jump start to play Metal music, which inspirations are important for you?
Gorath Moonthorn: I guess everything evolved quite ordinarily with all of us. I mean, when it comes to metal music and how we discovered it, the same story could be told by almost everyone involved in the scene. First you hear about metal from your older siblings or some older friends, then you get excited about it and start listening to the same bands as they do, then you discover more on your own and so on and so on. You're poisoned and there's no turning back.
The thought of starting to play metal myself sprung from all that energy which flowed from the speakers when listening to all those great bands that I discovered back in the day before I bought my first drumkit. I wanted to start creating it instead of just feeding on it. I felt I had something to give, that something was waiting to be channeled through me. That's when I decided to buy a drumkit and shortly after that we formed our band. That's basically how it went. So no actual jumpstart was involved.
The main source of inspiration for me personally is my belief system. My faith and my yearning are what push me forward on this path. The need to explore Darkness and the need to process through art what I've found already. To seek, to understand, to express and to worship.

Leo: How will the Metal scene develop in the next future in your opinion?
Gorath Moonthorn: I do not possess a crystal ball and therefore my guess is as good as anyone else's. The only thing that is certain is that trends come and trends go. Everything goes in cycles and metal music is definitely not an exception.

Leo: Different genres had good and bad times. The MetalCore trend passed, what could be the next big thing?
Gorath Moonthorn: Who knows? And who really cares? I don't, that's for sure. I'm going to stick to doing what I do, no matter if it's a big thing to others or not.

Leo: What do you think about Black Metal?
Gorath Moonthorn: Well, being in a Black Metal band myself and pretty much living and breathing its inmost essence nonstop, what do you think I think about it? Black Metal is the music of the Opponent, it is one of the many voices for Satan. It is beyond entertainment, it is enlightenment. It means a fucking lot to me and at times it sort of breaks my heart when I see it being used as a mere tool to capitalize on eager teenagers and their gullible minds. On the other hand, that's so far from the true heart of Black Metal that all that exploitation and whoredom going on in “the big business” shouldn't concern me in one way or the other. But at times, it does irritate me rather a lot. It's a damned thing to witness the rape of something you cherish so much.

Leo: Nowadays it is difficult to create an individual sound. Could you imagine integrating completely new influences in your tunes?
Gorath Moonthorn: Just so that we'd sound different than others? No. We have never strived for originality per se, our passion is to do the thing we love as good as we are able to. We're not here to invent the wheel again, that's for others to do if they wish to do so. It is not an impossible idea to imagine something completely new entering our frame of work but that would have to fall into the picture 100% naturally and not by first searching for such an element intentionally and then forcing it to fit the puzzle. Our roots are, however, deep in the more traditional approach to Black Metal so I see it highly unlikely that we'd be the inventors of something utterly groundbreaking. What we do comes from inside us, straight from our hearts. If one finds it generic or outdated, then so be it. There are lots of “innovative” bands out there to choose from.

Leo: Wouldn’t it be easy for you to cover a famous song to hit the bull’s eye and get known by this tactics?
Gorath Moonthorn: I think this is a bit absurd thought in so many ways. First of all, Black Metal bands have done cover versions almost since the beginning of this genre and I can't think of even one cover that has propelled the band in question into "fame and fortune" by itself. Cover songs don't count in this branch of metal, it's what the bands are creating themselves that is crucial. Besides, what would be the point in riding on someone else's creation just to make you known? Paying tribute to some band is one thing, trying to exploit their work is another. Such mentality may work with some "nu metal band" covering a track by a legendary moonwalking pedophile but we're talking about the realm of Black Metal here and in that world integrity is valued QUITE much more than being famous or popular among the masses.

Leo: Catchword live experiences – which appearances stayed in your memory (could be eminently good or challenging ones)?
Gorath Moonthorn: I must say that our very first gig which we played back in 1999 (I guess, can't remember for certain, hah) has been the most memorable for me personally. It wasn't a good one, far from it actually, but the experience was so devastating and different when it comes to atmosphere that it was a tremendous turning point for me as an "artist". All that energy that was floating around was rather intoxicating and I guess I got hooked on it because I really like performing live. It feeds the black void within me and at the same time that void radiates energy out into the surrounding world. Interaction beyond descriptions.

Leo: Is there a chance to see ALGHAZANTH live in Mid Europe in a little while?
Gorath Moonthorn: I'm sorry to say but nothing of that kind is dawning in the horizon for us in the near future. We would really like to play some gigs there, that's for sure. I honestly hope that something will come up on this front for us because a lot of people have been asking the same question for some time now. Let's hope for the best!

Leo: Is there kind of dream tour, a special band you want to part the stage with?
Gorath Moonthorn: Some might expect me to throw in a name of some legendary Black Metal band but that's not my idea of a dream tour. Not that I have anything against such an idea, because I certainly don't. But I think a tour with two other fellow Black Metal hordes from Finland would be the most ideal one in my mind. It would be great to have three more or less equal bands touring together and preferably all these bands would be well-acquainted with each other even before the tour. I really think that would be a nice foundation for a successful crusade somewhere.

Leo: What’s the trademark of ALGHAZANTH that makes the group outstanding? Why should the Metal fan choose your CD?
Gorath Moonthorn: I really don't know if we have one or not. It depends on how you look at it. In my eyes the strongest justification for our existence is the fact that we've remained true to our vision regardless of what the trends dictate in the scene and also the fact that we're doing our thing straight from the heart. In my opinion, both of those things can be heard in our music in the form of uncompromising and otherworldly flow of different emotions. Many have confirmed this notion, judging especially from the feedback we've received about the new album, and I think that we're a kind of welcome alternative to all that clinical and over-polished symphonic Black Metal out there. Everyone who feels drawn towards Black Metal that is both atmospheric and aggressive should check the album out and decide for themselves if I'm bullshitting them or not.

Leo: Let’s have a look at the future – where do you wish to be on the ladder of success in ten years? What does success in general mean for you?
Gorath Moonthorn: As you might have figured out by now from my previous answers, success isn't exactly what we're hoping to accomplish with ALGHAZANTH. Don't get me wrong, of course it would be great in some sense to be able to support yourself wholly by just playing Black Metal. This, however, isn't what we're intentionally aiming at and, to tell you the truth, the whole idea strikes me as rather utopian. Where will we be in ten years? Hard to say, I guess it's better to let the sacred alignments do their work and show us our destiny in due course.

Leo: Thanks a lot for answering these questions and all the best for your career!
Gorath Moonthorn: Thank you for this interview and for your support! Ecrin Saitan!