Finally the Swedish Black Metal heroes LORD BELIAL have conquered the dark throne of Satan! Their new record entitled Revelation is a masterpiece of the dark art! Because of this record no Black Metal fan can‘t ignore LORD BELIAL as one of the most important bands of this genre. Drummer Micke Backelin and Vocalist/Guitarist Thomas Backelin felt free to tell us everything we wanted to know!

Jörn: Micke, at first. Hjalmar has left LORD BELIAL a few months ago. Then Thomas, Anders and you have decided to take Pepa back into the band. Please tell me something about that!
Micke: Yes, Hjalmar decided to quit LORD BELIAL right after the recording of Revelation, and we had some thoughts about continue just the three of us. But some of the songs would then be very hard to play live, and also many melodies and solos would fall off the songs in live situations. So with that in mind we decided to ask Niclas to join one more time, and he agree immediately. It feels really great. It feels really great to have him back in the band again, even though it has been very nice to play with both Fredrik and Hjalmar.

Jörnt: So Pepa didn't play on Revelation?
Micke: Nope.

Jörn: Thomas has been written all the songs. Are there any special reasons for this decision?
Micke: No it was nothing that we discussed at all. Thomas wrote the songs at home and brought a CD with the guitars and a click track to me. I wrote the drum parts in our rehearsal room and I guess the same procedure was going on for Anders bass tracks and for Hjalmars solos. We did not rehearse the songs at all together before the recording and we recorded all instruments one by one. I personally prefer to have some more jamming together when writing the songs, and write them as a band, but this has been a good experience as well. I think we will write the songs for the next album more as a band, and Thomas and Niclas riffs use to be some really killers when put together, so the next album will be some really bad ass motherfucking black metal album!!!

Jörn: Sounds great! Since Unholy Crusade Andy La Rocque produces every LORD BELIAL record. And I in my opinion Revelation is the best work he has ever done so far! Could you agree with that?
Micke: Yes! I can agree with you! It is a good production! I am actually not disappointed with the production of any one of our albums recorded by Andy, except for Angelgrinder that was a little bit “overdone”. The sound was very compressed and the bass drums too triggered and therefore very static. The sound did not really suited LORD BELIAL.

Jörn: So what about the lyrics then and how important are the lyrics for LORD BELIAL in general
Micke: All lyrics are written by Thomas. I use to write some lyrics many years ago but I have no inspiration for that nowadays, and I haven’t had that for many years. Niclas also wrote some lyrics for LORD BELIAL but I think the same goes for him, maybe we are too old? ;) No to be honest Thomas is a good writer so there is absolutely no meaning for me to force in some ugly lyrics in the band. He do it well and he is also watching very much videos and reading lots of stuff so I guess he get very much inspiration from that. Of course the lyrics are important; it should be for every band? In other case it would be like a movie with no lines?

Jörn: Let's talk about the line up again. Hjalmar played all lead guitars on Revelation but Pepa is back in the band now. So what about bandpictures in the booklet of the CD Are there pics together with Hjalmar or with Pepa or no pics?
Micke: There are no band photos at all in the booklet. Our ugly faces can be seen at our website or even better on stage!

Jörn: Hahaha! Good reason! There are some guest musicians on the album. Please tell me something about them and their work on Revelation!
Micke: Hehe. Yes, we used some guest vocalists; Yonas af Dahlström (ILLWILL, DESERT PLAINS etc) did some clean voice on Gateway to oblivion. Tony Jelencovich (M.A.N, TRANSPORT LEAGUE, ANGEL BLAKE etc) did the vocals on some verses on Death as solution. Micke P (BESTIAL MOCKERY etc) and Danne Executioner (SADISTIC GRIMNESS) did some brutal voices in Vile Intervention.

Jörn: Cool! Well done, guys! So what about the cover artwork? Looks like Kris Verwimp did it again. Is there any connection between the front cover artwork and the album title?
Micke: This question is impossible for me to answer I was not involved in the lyrics/title/cover art at all.

Jörn: So what would you do if there is a connection between front cover artwork and album title which means Black Metal is for gays, haha!
Micke: Hahaa, well what COULD I do? I guess I just continue play the drums!

Jörn: Hehe! Let us be serious gain. Revelation is the third album for Regain Records. So are you satisfied with their work for LORD BELIAL so far?
Micke: Yes we are satisfied! They got very good promotion all over the world, and they are expanding all the time.

Jörn: Let's talk about your last tour. What about the experiences. Good and bad.
Micke: Haha unfortunately most of the experiences were really bad. The tour management Bruchstein Tours is for sure the worst tour management I have ever seen! Nothing worked as it should, NOTHING! At the first day we got told that there was no tour manager… so the sound tech guy had to be tour manager as well. Actually we were lucky to discover that he was very good at this! Thank you Mehmet for being the coolest fucking manager/sound tech! Without him the tour would have been canceled quite soon. Bruchstein ripped the support bands on money and they did not pay us the money for the last gig etc… their part of the contract was broken several times during the tour, and the whole tour was a big joke and everything was to blame at Bruchstein Tours The only good thing was that we had some really good time with our friends in Dark Fortress, Born Of Sin and Azamoth.

Jörn: Shit! That isn't really good! But what about a tour to promote Revelation Germany needs its next LORD BELIAL assault!
Micke: Well… I can say one thing for sure; we will not be there as a part of a Bruchstein tour! I don’t even think they are no more, is that right? Let’s hope so. We have no tours booked in Germany at this point, but we will perform at the Festung Open Air, Bitterfeld, Germany, on Saturday 26th of May.

Jörn: Let's hope for a tour then!
Micke: Yes!

Jörn: -EDIT- There was another bad experience on the last tour! You've had to see my ugly face again, haha!
Micke: LoL!

Jörn: Revelation is album of the month April in our magazine! Okay, we are not Metal Hammer or Rock Hard. So what do you think about being the best band with the best record
Micke: It feels just great! It doesn’t matter if it is the biggest or the smallest magazine in the world, it still is very cool to get that title! And I really enjoy reading Nocturnal Hall more than I enjoy Metal Hammer or Rock Hard anyway…

Jörn: Thanx a lot, Micke! So here's my final question. If you would get the chance to choose your dreampackage for a tour, which bands would you evaluate?
Micke: Slayer!

Jörn: Only Slayer? Come on! There should be 3 or 4 more bands!
Micke: Morbid Angel and Behemoth, but it would be enough with us and Slayer!

Jörn: Hahaha! Good final words! But wait! The real final words belong to you! And the line up Slayer, LORD BELIAL, Morbid Angel and Behemoth sounds great!
Micke: I really thank you for your interest in LORD BELIAL, and of course for the title “album of the month” in your magazine! I really hope to see you in Germany very soon! And that you bring all crazy headbanging Germans on our gigs as well!!! Achtung, achtung ich Bien ein kartoffelkopf!

Micke: I don‘t know if it is the correct spelling the last German thing there
Jörn: bin NOT bien. And Kartoffelkopf begins with a big K! But otherwise my Swedish is still nothing more then Skøl för helvete, haha! Your German is really good!

Two days later I got the chance Thomas Backelin, too! So he had to answer some additional questions.

Jörn: What about the lyrics on Revelation? Can you describe them a little bit What are your inspirations
Thomas: The lyrics are some kind of a revelation for me personally, a way to express my emotions and feelings regarding religion and humanity overall. I see this album as a revelation and the start for a new era for LORD BELIAL, original line-up. We have kinda found our way back home to the old ways of LORD BELIAL. I gather inspiration from my own dreams and ideology, but also from movies- horror movies in general.

Jörn: Is there any connection then between the lyrics and the cover artwork?
Thomas: The front cover is based upon the lyrics, not any special "event" or so, rather on the concept and general context of the lyrics. I gave all lyrics to Kris before he started on the cover, I told him some ideas for it and then he draw this masterpiece out of that

Jörn: Yes! I agree! It looks totally great!
Thomas: He's a brilliant artist

Jörn: And what do you think about being "Album Of The Month April" in Nocturnal Hall Magazine?
Thomas: That is fucking awesome! I am very pleased with the fact that someone likes our album that much!