Occult rockers Alastor talk Black Magic, Vincent Price and Sweden’s water supply

For the horror fans looking to widen their music tastes, we sat down with Alastor to discuss their past and what’s on the horizon for the Swedish rock band.

The Intro:

Sweden has blessed the world with many things over the years. The propeller, zippers, Absolut Vodka and Coke bottles. But one thing you may not have realized is the music scene. Sweden has birthed some of the most amazing occult and doom rock and metal I have heard in years.

The first time I heard Alastor, I loved it. I saw the cover of Black Magic and I immediately knew I had to listen to it. When it began, I immediately felt like being assaulted by a wall of sound. The fuzzed out and crunchy guitars, the haunting but yet calming vocals and the crushing bass and drums filled my head. I listened to it probably 100 times. I reached out to the band and they were gracious enough to answer some questions. Below is our conversation.

The Interview:

1428 Elm: Congratulations on the new EP ‘Blood on Satan’s Claw,’ it is heavy and amazing. Does the band plan on bringing their special brand of doom to us in the United States any time soon?

Lucy Ferian: Thank you Aaron. One of our goals with Alastor is to visit and experience new places so we would love to be able to play in the U.S. With ”Black Magic” we got the chance to leave our moldy crypt and play some venues in Europe, we can only hope that ”Blood on Satan’s Claw” will take us across the Atlantic. ”If you book them, they will come”.

1428: Alastor has almost taken on a wraith like existence. Very little information is available about the history of the band. Can you give us a brief bio of how the band came to be?

LF: Well we all think that focus should be on the music and not the people behind it, we are not that interesting haha. Anyhow, I joined Alastor early summer 2016. I was in another band at the time but that was coming to an end and I felt that I needed to find something else to occupy my time. Alastor already existed at the time but they needed a second guitarist so I tried out and we all sort of connected right away. We played our first show in August at a small festival deep in the dark woods of Sweden. Shortly after that we began recording on the “Black Magic” EP. 

1428: The doom and heavy metal scene in Sweden is exploding with new amazing bands and have given us some of the most original rock in decades. The most important question I have is, what is in the water over there?

LF: Probably plastic waste and flushed out medication. But in all seriousness, I think it has to do with the way Sweden has been governed for the last couple of decades. The system we have here really helps young people who are interested in becoming musicians to do just that. In every major city there are free rehearsal spaces where bands can practice and there are a lot of organizations who help sponsoring bands with money, equipment, gigs and such. It’s a good breeding ground for creative people. 

1428: The horror and occult themes are incredibly obvious in your music. What drew the band to this type of music and imagery?

LF: The love for horror and the occult is something we all share, for me it has been with me for as long as I can remember really. I think what drew me towards horror, and still does, is the forbidden aspect of it.

For instance I have a very clear memory from my childhood. I was over at a friends house who had an older brother and he had his own computer in his room, yeah that was really unique at the time. This brother showed us the game ”Blood” and the gore and violence blew me away. Running around blowing up zombies and kicking their severed heads like a football made me feel like I was doing something I really wasn’t allowed to. And everyone knows that if you’re forbidden to do something, then you just want to do it more.

 1428: If the band could collaborate with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

LF: Vincent Price of course. It would be amazing to have him doing narrative for an album. Then there’s Zdzisław Beksiński, a polish painter whose work has been used as album covers by basically every black metal-band in existence. He was stabbed to death in his apartment over a quarrel about a few hundred złoty in 2005. I would’ve loved to have him do the artwork for our next release. If there are some professional necromancers out there reading this drop us an  email. 

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1428: For the uninitiated how would you describe Alastor’s sound to someone? What could they expect?

LF: I think the more you try to describe your own music the less interesting you sound. I guess it’s a really pretentious and boring answer but we really believe that people should figure it out themselves. Let’s just say that we play slow and heavy rock.  

1428: Does a horror film exist that has ever terrified the occult behemoth we know as Alastor?

LF: I find it hard to remember a film in recent years that has truly frightened me. Nowadays Im more interested in setting and style in movies. I do think that the first film to actually scared me was E.T, the scene where Elliot first meets E.T. I was very young and I have vague memories of running out of the room when it happened. I didn’t see that scene again until many years later. Fuck you Steven Spielberg. 

1428: On the new EP the band covered Bad Moon Rising. You turned it into a 10-minute heavy, fuzzy and psychedelic version of the original. What led to the band covering that specific song?

LF: Well we needed a second song for the EP so we decided that we would do a cover. We discussed a few possible songs to choose from and then it just hit me that Bad Moon Rising would be a great cover. The lyrics are just perfect for what we represent, so it felt like an obvious choice. Instead of just doing a copy we then decided that we wanted to make ”our own” version of it so to speak. No point in recording a song that already exists right? 

1428: What’s the ultimate goal you are attempting to achieve as a band?

LF: If I’m allowed to dream, I would like to buy a medieval castle and move there with the band. We would rehearse, record and throw decadent banquets in lavish clothing. But really our goal is to just play music, write records and play shows. 

1428: What does the band have on tap for 2018?

LF: As for now our main focus is to write and record a proper full length. If we survive that then we’ll play as much as possible. 

Next: Hellraiser: Whatever happened to planned reboot?

I want to extend a very special thanks to Alastor and Lucy Ferian for crawling out of the crypt long to talk with us. By all means please check them out, I guarantee you will not regret it. I would suggest headphones and turning it up to 11. You can find them on their Facebook.