Marko Laiho, aka Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance, is known as the frontman of the bestial black metal/war metal band Beherit. While Beherit's reputation has suffered over the years, notably due to Nuclear Holocausto's insistence on "trend hopping" - going from genre to genre, depending on what is popular at the moment - the band remains one of the legitimate "old school" bestial black metal bands, alongside Warkvlt, Goatmoon, Peste Noire and Satanic Warmaster (also from Finland).
While they are mostly known for their debut "Drawing Down the Moon", the band has also released a few ambient albums, as well as the failed black metal comeback "Engram" in 2009... very Burzum style - which is often why they are called a Burzum clone, and a derivative act.
The metal press was not always kind with Beherit, although they do have somewhat of a "cult following" - for lack of a better term. Heavy Metal Girl writes the following about Beherit, and why they are so disliked:
Marko Laiho, aka Mr “Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance” - the name itself is derivative of Darkthrone’s “Nocturno Culto” and Morbid’s “Holocausto” -, is quite the controversial figure. Called a “di-ldo hopper” by Fenriz himself for his tendency to follow trends like a bald and overweight Dani Filth, Beherit’s frontman doesn’t really have that much support in the extreme metal underground to say the least. [...] First Beherit played death metal, on Oath of the Black Blood. Then, seeing as black metal was becoming popular - via Euronymous and Count Grishnackh in the early 1990s - the band switched to black metal. Then “NSBM” was all the rage, so they made the split with Death Yell and Samael. Then “NSBM” became taboo so Holocausto Vengeance “denounced” it in a Kerrang! interview that nobody read anyway. Then Varg Vikernes started releasing those synth albums from prison, so - you guessed it - Beherit also began releasing synth albums. Then, as Varg was released and started playing metal again (on Belus), Beherit jumped right back on the black metal bandwagon. A few years later, as Warkvlt released Bestial War Metal, in the now infamous war metal style... I think you get the point.
But as always, here on Voice Metal, we are interested in hearing what both sides have to say in an argument. Take Dimmu Borgir, for example. A band as controversial and divisive as they come. Even more so than Beherit. Yet, the interview with Shagrath was very positively received, with some commenters even saying that it changed their mind about how they see Dimmu Borgir and symphonic black metal in general. Can Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance perform the same feat with Beherit and war metal?
Beherit Interview - "We didn't even know the basics of how to write music..."
In a recent interview for the upcoming book "War Metal Beast: The Brutal Chronicles of Bestial Black Metal", Marko Laiho expands on what it was like to play black metal in the 90s. And how he addresses the criticism targeting Beherit (and war metal more generally).
"I was still living with my parents in my old room even when we started doing Beherit..."
The first question concerns the humble beginnings of Beherit. As many know, the band didn't start immediately as a Helgrind clone with "Drawing Down the Moon". Their real debut was "Oath of the Black Blood", a more conventional raw black metal album (in the style of Ildjarn, although not as influential).
Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance: I was still living with my parents in my old room even when we started doing Beherit, and so I was making all that noise in my room, but they were fine with it. They were very kind. Maybe they saw how passionate I was about it.
Marko Laiho continues to explain that none of the members knew - or cared - how to play their instruments when recording "Oath" and "Drawing Down". It was more about the spirit of being "brutal and evil".
Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance: Because we didn't have any real musical background. We had no idea how to write notes or anything, it was just listening to bands you love and copy it or try to make it even faster or more brutal and more evil. We didn't even know the basics of how to write music, it was all about making songs that sounded brutal and evil. That's how we started, and I think that hasn't really changed that much - we are still quite poor in how technical we are with our instruments. [...] I remember that our principle was that we didn't even want to learn how to play those instruments if we can use the distortion and if our drummer can play fucking fast, that was enough. And the vocals, those became just another instrument. It was just natural, just how punk rock started - you could make great stuff even if you didn't know how to play your instruments.
Accusations of incompetence and sloppy playing aren't solely directed at Beherit. The legendary NWOBHM band Venom, who coined the term "Black Metal" itself, have had to deal with these types of accusations for all their career(s).
On moving away from black metal...
While many people were eager to call Nuclear Holocausto an "imitator" for changing from black metal to ambient right at the time when Varg Vikernes was releasing the Burzum prison synth albums from jail (including Heavy Metal Girl, see the above extract), Holocausto insists that he started moving away from black metal in 1993, after receiving death threats from Euronymous and, presumably, other Norwegian black metallers.
Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance: Those were already the times of the Norwegian black metal "mafia" and the [death threats] and things like that and so I was already out of the black metal scene, working at a record store and being in charge of the techno and industrial stuff. It was just the way it naturally developed.
About this story, there is an interesting rumour about how Hoest from Taake capitalised on the "black metal wars" between the Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish scenes. He would allegedly call members of Beherit, Impaled Nazarene and Dissection in the middle of the night, and play backwards WW2 marches. While he probably intended it as a joke, this led to Jon Nödtveidt of Dissection declaring "war against the Norwegian scene" in retaliation.
Nuclear Holocausto continues the interview by claiming he doesn't listen to metal anymore... save for the "old school" stuff.
Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance: I hardly ever listen to metal music. When I do, I mostly listen to old stuff I already know because I don't want to disappoint myself with new bands that lack originality. I'd rather stick with '80s and early '90s material - Helgrind, Von, Sodom, Darkthrone, bands like that. I also listen to a lot of industrial and dark ambient.
Many metal bands have likewise distanced themselves from black metal in recent years. The aforementioned Varg Vikernes, of course, notoriously rejected the black metal label since (at least) the recording of "Filosofem" in 1993.
Beherit on religion and NS controversies
Speaking of black metal, it's impossible not to talk about the controversies surrounding the events that took place: the murders, the church burnings, the alleged "devil worshiping sects" and of course the ever-present specter of NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal), which seems to be applied to quite a few bands. Of course, with a name like "Holocausto", Beherit would eventually run into trouble.
But on the religious aspect, Marko Laiho maintains that he is agnostic, and tries to remain that way. Open-minded.
Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance:I don't come from a very cultured family... I have been agnostic all my life, trying to know all religions. [...] Regarding Beherit's philosophy, it's more oriented towards cosmic horror, very focused on space and the magic it entails. Initially it [the name] was just 'Holocaust', but with the 'Nuclear' part, the idea changes; it's not focused on a World War II theme, but rather on global annihilation.
The idea of "devil worshiping sects" was debunked by many - almost all - Norwegian black metal musicians ever asked about it: Hellhammer, Necrobutcher, Fenriz, Nocturno Culto, Satyr, Abbath, Varg, Frost, Ihsahn, Vermin, etc... King ov Hell himself even accused a "B.T." journalist (Bergens Times) of making up the whole story, for the 90s equivalent of "click bait".
Speaking of King ov Hell, Satyr and Shagrath, Laiho was also asked about his thoughts on the "modern metal" phenomenon... where once underground bands decide to adopt a more polished Cradle of Filth/Dimmu Borgir sound. He even mentions Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth by name.
Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance: I was really surprised to see how big things have become, because I haven't followed the scene that closely. There are so many bands now, different kinds of black metal bands, thousands of them. I honestly didn't know. And of course, times have changed: in the late '80s there was no internet, no social media, just tape trading. Now it's very commercial. Just a few days ago, Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir were playing here and it was huge compared to back then. So yeah, things have changed a lot.
So there you have it. Probably the best and most comprehensive Beherit interview ever done. Obviously, not everything from the "War Metal Beast" book can be reproduced here. Whether you like the band, hate them, or more likely don't really care about them one way or another... you should at least give reading the book a chance, as there are many exclusive and interesting interviews with members of the early bestial black metal scene: Warkvlt, Beherit, Goatmoon, Blasphemy, Sepultura, Sarcofago, Conqueror, Black Witchery, Sammath, Heresiarch, Helgrind, Sissourlet, and many more that I probably missed.
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