Hails Jon . USURPER to part ways with Necropolis Records..., tell us something of this? USURPER is negotiating a new deal with a new label.?
Yes, after what seems like an eternity, we have left Necropolis Records. Over the years, things had just slowly, but steadiy fallen apart with them. We hadn't recieved any statement of what we had sold in over 2 1/2 years, which is rediculous. They were always very good about funding us for the studio, and for any subsequent tours, but they were always late in paying, which created a really awkward situation for us. We were always trying to explain to a studio, or tour bus company, that the label was going to pay...we just weren't sure when. On our last tour of Europe with Cradle of Filth, we were almost kicked off the bus because there had been nothing paid until the last minute. Then they stiffed our artist, Juha Vuorma, who did the covers for "Skeletal Season" and the "Visions from the Gods" re-release. That was inexcusable. Plus we were without a contract with them for the last 2 albums. They sent us one, but we
asked them to define one part of the contract that we didn't understand. After over a year of trying to get a straight answer, we decided to just forget it and try a different label. We also needed some distribution in the US, which Necropolis had not been able to offer. So we left. We don't blame label president Paul Thind that much, we think the label's poor buisness was a direct result of some of the staff that worked there.As of now we have a few really good, solid offers. We are taking our time and hoosing the one that makes the most sense to us. We should have a contract signed by the end of the Autumn.
It's been a long time since when NECRONEMESIS had been released and I see that there was not enough promotion for this album which is having a lot of USURPER fans to loose this cult piece? (Not so many fans here in S. America know what NECRONEMESIS represents).
That was another issue with Necropolis. They didn't send out many promos at
all, and after the 2nd pressing of the album, they just stopped manufacturing it. Its a real shame, because there is no doubt that it is our heaviest, and most violent album that we have ever ecorded. Its the first album that we were 100% satisfied with when it was completed. And they just decided to stop printing it! Hopefully our next label will re-release it with proper distribution so that it will be available for more depraved, metal otherfuckers to get and bang their head bloody to!


Every USURPER album has it's own feeling and in a certains way differs from it's previous release,but in you reach a special feeling in NECRONEMESIS. Songs like DEATHWISH, 166AD are made so we can break aour fucking neck, did you need, in a certain way, to reach this level with NECRONEMESIS?
Its not a "need" that we felt that had to reach, its just the way the songs came out. We never sit down and try to decide what the next album is going to sound like. We have always just written what we feel is heavy. We love all kinds of headbangable metal, so some songs are faster, break your fucking neck songs, and some are the slower, heavier, ultra-headbangable, death dirges. Its just what we feel, and have always felt, is heavy. We never strive to be the most original, fastest, slowest, heaviest, or whatever everyone else is trying to do. We just do what comes to us naturally.. .write super heavy songs that are made to kick you in the ballz!
One of the biggest surprises with NECROMESIS is the appearance of KING DIAMOND as guest with some vocals on the song-title. How did this come out? It's not common that a legend like KING DIAMONS features in other bands.
You're right, he has never contributed to another band's album before, so it was quite an honor! He said the only other time he ever sang someone else's lyrics was when Mercyful Fate covered Judas Priest's "The Ripper". So that was cool. Basically what happened was, King Diamond was in the same studio as us recording "House of God". Our studio time was booked for about 2 weeks after King was supposed to be finished. He went way over schedule, and was still mixing his album when our studio time was supposed to start. The owner of the studio called Rick, the guitarist, and told him of King Diamond's problem, and said that the King was wondering if we could do him a favor and wait for a day or two before we went in so he could finish. Of course we would have with no problem! But before Rick could answer, he said that King would repay the favor by singing some guest vocals on Necronemesis" if we were interested. Since we are all huge King Diamond / Mercyful Fate fans, we were more than happy to take him up on his offer!
To have KING DIAMOND as a guest is all a honor, how was the process to fit him with the right song once he had confirmed his participation? How did you choose the lyrics? Because you couldn't give him crap. What did he think when reding the lyrics? Did he suggest something?
Actually, Rick wrote all the music and lyrics for the NECRONEMESIS album. As soon as we found out King had offered to sing on a song, Rick immediately knew that the song "NECRONEMESIS" was the perfect song for him to sing on. Musically, we already thought it was the best song of new album, perfectly reflecting where we were at as a band at that time, and Rick's lyrics were killer. He showed them to King, and King just nodded his head. Out of the 6 lines that he sang, he took one and kind og re-arranged the way that the words were in the sentence, so he could fit it more easily with the layers of choir harmonies that he was putting over it. But that was pretty much it. That guy is a total professional. He just read them, knew the feeling we were going for, and layed it down! It still gives me the chills every time I hear it....
Explain to us the lyrics on the song NECRONEMESIS and specially the fragment in which KING DIAMOND sings.
The song NECRONEMESIS is based on a true story of a young woman, named Mercy Brown, who died of consumption at the age of 19. At that time, "wasting away illnesses" like tuberculosis were sometimes blamed on vampires. Her mother and sister died of the same illness before Mercy did. When a brother fell ill, the 3 bodies were exhumed and examined for signs of vampirism. Mercy's heart and liver were burned, and the ashes were mixed in medicine for the brother. He died despite the measure. To this day, moaning is still heard at the cemetary where they are all buried, along with other strange occurences such as: ghost lights, glowing red eyes, and a shadowy figure sometimes seen during a full moon by Mercy's grave site. Some people believe this to be a phantom that has haunted the graveyard. King Diamond sings the part of "The Phantom of the Graveyeard"....
Other great guest on NECRONEMESIS was Sir Proscriptor McGovern fromthe powerful ABSU, in a song with a very thrashy feeling "Full MetalMaelstrom". I hadn't heard their new album TARA but according to what Ihave read it's all a masterpiece, what do you think about it?
Yes, Prosriptor did an excellent job on the album as well, and it was killer hanging out with the Absu Klan, partying well past the break of dawn.I just recently picked up Tara, and I think it is one of the greatest albums to come out in a long time. After watching their rehearsal its no surprise. They were incredibly fast, tight, and accurate. Killer album.
There's no cover on the promotional CD-R I got.. (But obviously,it's very easy to find on internet)... with NECRONEMESIS you keep thesame style on the covers, identified with the atmosphere managed by USURPER, in some way I think thae cover fro NECRONEMESISS could fitperfectly with SKELETAL SEASON and vice versa. What do you think about it?
We loved the cover for "Skeletal Season" that Juha Vuorma did. We knew that it would be hard to get better than that. This time we used a new guy for us named Craig Simpson. Rick always comes up with the concept for the covers. He'll make a rough drawing of it, and then send it to the artist. Craig did an excellent job. It came out exactly the way that it was supposed to. A good cover is always important to us. It really sets the mood of the album before you even get to listen to it. The covers for "Skeletal Season" and "Necronemesis" are perfect. It just creates a bigger challenge to match that quality on the next album!
Your lyrics are focused on paranormal, medieval times, rituals. Doyou preffer more documentary lyrics than fiction?
Our lyrics are usually based on true accounts of strange occurences, but sometimes there are some purely fictional lyrics. Ricks style of lyric writing is the more documentary style, while Diabolical Slaughter's are usually a little more abstract, and the fictional kind. After taking some time off, DS is finally writing some killer lyrics again. The next album is garaunteed to completely destroy everything!
USA invades us with several TV series dealing with paranormal activities, specially X-FILES and MILLENIUM, do you like this kind of stuff? Do they fulfill your expectations in a certain way?
I can't speak for the other guys, but I think those shows are fucking gay!
You changed producer for NECRONEMESIS, Brian Eaton had beenreplaced by KOI MARSHALL. Did you feel that you had done everything you had to in EATON STUDIOS and needed to try with a new sound?
That was pretty much the idea. When we did "Skeletal Season" at Eaton's, we wanted this really raw and rough sound.


We wanted the speakers to rumble, and to really capture an old analogue sound to it. We sure got it! It came out a little bit rougher than we had intended. The main thing was that Eaton's had kind of changed over the years. Originally he knew exactly what we were going for. But over time he just seemed to lose interest in the Usurper sound I guess. It was getting harder and harder to get that killer tone that we love so much. bedroom in his apartment. Its just outside of Chicago, so we would go there nights and record. It proved to be a distracion to be so close to home sometimes when we would record an album 3 hours at a time. So we wanted to try somewhere new, and that was out of the state. 

This way we would be locked in the studio for a few weeks straight, with nothing to do but record a killer album. Also, the way the songs were written on NECRONEMESIS deserved a clearer, more concise production to really bring out some of those tighter riffs. NOMAD STUDIOS was perfect for everything that we were looking for.
You'll enter the studio to record a new album soon. Will it be in the same thrash direction of NECRONEMESIS?
Some of those elements will remain intact, but there are also some of the slower, extra heavy songs working their way into the new material. If anything, musically it will probably be similar to a mixture of NECRONEMESIS and SKELETAL SEASON. A good balance of the ripping your fucking face off, super speed, and the dirgier sounding, morose, beat you to a pulp slow shit that just builds and builds. The production though will be as clear as on NECRONEMESIS. It should turn out interesting....
SKELETAL SEASON is an album that deals with so many atmospheres, structures and very dark and bizarre passages, how do you create and maintain those atmospheres when playing live? I think it's complicated.
Yeah, some of the songs are hard to recapture that exact feeling live. There are so many different layers of guitar feedback, backwards vokillz, etc. Live we usually play the more straight forward songs from that album like: "Dismal Wings of Terror", "Skeletal Season", and occasionally "Shadowfiend". "Dismal..." always finds its way into the setlist no matter what.


USURPER's sound demonstrates that USURPER is a band that experiments lot with it, but keeping the roots intact, will USURPER experiment a lot more and create something like INTO PANDEMONIUM?
Maybe eventually, but not at the moment. That feeling hasn't really reared its ugly head yet. But if new songs start sounding more experimental, then we won't change them. Again, we just write what we feel like. Whatever comes out, comes out. We're not going to steer the sound of new songs in any particular direction just to "try" to write an "experimental" sounding album.
You are not a fan of GORE metal and it's lyrics, is there a special reason for it?
Maybe its just because we're older. To USURPER, there is no real feeling in that. The lyrics are totally stupid, the music is usually pretty boring.... Not that we feel that we're above any particular genre of metal, its just not what we're into. We prefer metal to have a little more balls and heart in it.
How do you see that NECROPOLIS RECS which used to be a Black Metal label in the beginning had created a sub division like DEATHVOMIT RECS?
Personally, I hate those DEATHVOMIT bands. Its that mindless gore that you mentioned in the last question. Maybe they thought they would be the first to cash in on the "comeback of death metal". Most of it seems pretty second rate to me though.
This is a question you should have answered several times... Tell toour S. American readers what are your problems with OPPRESOR and BROKEN HOPE.. and your participation on the CHICAGO METAL INQISITION?
Well, the Chicago Metal Inquisition was just an alliance of metal jerk-offs (like us) that Stan from RIP RECORDS kind of put together. It was basically the bands that RIP was releasing from around here...USURPER, LORDES WERRE, and the rest. Just a bunch of drunks that liked to start shit with the rest of the shitty Chicago scene.The problems with BROKEN HOPE and OPPRESSOR were basically just us getting sick and fucking tired of shit talkers in Chicago. BH's bass player talked tons of shit about us, and so did OPPRESSOR, but when we would confront them about this, they would back down like pussies and make excuses. Finally we just started beating the shit out of them whenever we saw them. Now that they have all gotten haircuts and started a rock band (like the true posers that they are), we have never seen them at any metal show, or even bar, for years.

You say that almost everything you earn with the band is given to NECROPOLIS in order to be invested on tours. Does it mean that it's essential for USURPER to keep playing live? What do you think aboutthat american festivals in which you have to pay to play?
Well, Usurper HAS never, and WILL never "pay to play"! That's rediculous! That's how Milwaukee MetalFest is for unsigned bands. They have to pay $1500 USD to play for 20 minutes. Then, if they want to be included in the program (that nobody buys or reads) they have to pay another $1500. After all that, if they want to be on the compilation cd (that is never sold in any store, and no one cares about anyway) they have to pay ANOTHER $1500! So, MetalFest can easily MAKE $4500 from a band, before they even sell any tickets! And you figure at LEAST 50 bands do that. That is something that we will never be a part of. We have played Milwaukee MetalFest 3 times, but we have never had to "pay to play". We just refuse to do it. We usually won't do a show if our expenses aren't at least taken care of. We don't usually care if actually make any money, but the cost of getting there has to be taken care of. But all that aside, yes playing live is essential for USURPER. Its the life that we love. Touring, getting up there in front of a bunch of metal psychopaths, playing and headbanging like absolute freaks...that is what USURPER is all about. The more we can tour the better.
Threshold Of. USURPER is made of two 7" that USURPER planned to release, why didn't you relase it? Who was supossed to release it?
One was supposed to be released by Teutonic Records, and the other was supposed to be released by X-Rated. The X-Rated deal we were really excited to do, but at that time we were under contract with Head Not Found out of Norway. In our contract it said we couldn't record anything for another label, and they didn't want to make an exception. The Teutonic deal just fell apart. The guy didn't seem too serious about it, so we just decided to combine all that material, plus a conver of Mercyful Fate's "Black Funeral", and make the "Threshold of the Usurper" MCD. Looking back, I think that was the better decision at the time. That's still one of our favorite releases.
USURPER is a band that only cares about metal, you are free of political/religious beliefs, you are not followers of the scandinavian trademark,. How do you see this Black explosion in the USA with bands such as THORNSPAWN, JUDAS ISCARIOT, AVERSE SEFIRA, THY INFERNAL , BLOOD STORM, KULT OF AZAZEL, KRIEG...ETC?,
To be honest with you, we only really know the Aknahten from Judas Iscariot the best. He was originally from Chicago, and now I believe he is still living in Germany. We also played a show with Thy Infernal a few years ago in Portland, and we've been in occasional contact with the guy from Blood Storm. Judas Iscariot is by far my personal favorite of the US BM scene. In general, we don't really follow up with too much of the newer black metal. Not that we refuse to, but there just isn't that much that really grabs you by the balls the way that extreme black metal should.
Do you have any contact with APOCALIPTIC WARLORD? The pics onV.F.T.G show him as a dark metalmaniac.?
Oh yeah, Apocalyptic Warlord is total fucking freak! That is the hardest guy we know! Not only is he one of the best drummers on the planet, but he has an extreme personality on top of it. Not a guy you want to fuck with! But to answer your question, we haven't really seen much of him lately. After Usurper he wanted to do his own thing. He is in a totally technical project, with a group of other viruosos. It suits his playing perfectly. But over the years we've lost the daily contact that we used to have. Its a pity. It would be great to hang out with that lunatic again....
With a cult band like USURPER a lot of fans try to find anything related to USURPER. Tell us if there exists an official recording or rehearsal from your old band ARMAGEDDON?
I'm not certain, because I wasn't involved with Armageddon at all, but I think there might have been a taped rehearsal years and years ago. I would almost doubt if Rigor or The General even still have it. It was a long time ago, and that was a really raw project. But there was never an official release that I know of. Or even a demo for that matter.
Talking about the previous question, does USURPER have some of the sound you were looking for in ARMAGEDDON?
Again, since I wasn't in Armageddon its hard to answer. But I think its fair to say that USURPER is the band that Amageddon was striving to be back then. It was always the goal for all of us to be in a band that is heavy like USURPER. It just took several years of trying different projects before we all we able to make it a reality.
What's the deal with CARCASS CHRIST? Was a part of USURPER or not?Will be an official USURPER member someday? It looks like you ( NECROMANCER) doesn't like him so much.
Well, its not that I don't like him. All of us in USURPER are total metal brothers. But on the other hand, we are much fucking assholes that we don't have any other friends anymore! There is a definate heirarchy in USURPER, and it is as follows: Rick "Rigor" Scythe - Founder and mastermind of the band. Writes all of the music that has been released so far, and most of the lyrics. Definately the head of the band. If Rigor doesn't want to do it, then its not going to happen.
Diabolical Slaughter (AKA-"The General") - Co-Founder with Rick, and one of the biggest ballbusters I have ever met in my life! The guys main mission in life is to humiliate as many people as he can before he dies of a cocaine induced heart attack!

Jon Necromancer - I joined in '95, and am the "town drunk" of the band (or as The General would probably put it, "The Village Idiot").

Carcass Chris comes next - he is the new guy, and has been playing lead guitar live for us. He played MetalFest in 2000, a show in New York, and then did the Cradle Tour with us last year. At first he was struggling to get in the swing of things with the rest of the band, so I would bust his balls constantly. Now things are going smoothly. He will officially be in the band when he plays on the next album. That has always been the rule for everyone who has joined the band.
And somewhere floating among all that is Dave Hellstorm - Dave is a total free spirit, who is often lost in his own world. He rarely busts a lot of balls, but when he does its vicious!
So usually The General and me are constantly fighting and argueing with each other, then I turn around and take it out on Carcass. Rick is busy trying to keep the peace between everyone so that maybe we can get something accomlished at rehearsal instead of just arguing the whole time!
Your first tour was soppossed to be with DARK FUNERAL, DESTROYER666, and ACHERON, you only did it with DARK FUNERAL , do you blame Odin from Moribund Records because the tour didn't wok as planned?
Yeah, he was pretty much responsible for that one. He never arranged for any transportation to get across the whole fucking US to do the tour. We had to do it ourselves for us and Dark Funeral. Also, he never took care of Destroyer 666's visas to play in the US. That resulted in it being immpossible for them to play here. And he lied to us and told us that Acheron had broken up. That was bullshit at the time because we played a show with them a year later in New York. He was just full of shit, and a real slimebag. He wound up stiffing the promters for all the advance money, so we were only able to play 5 shows out of 28 with only us and Dark Funeral. But the shows that did happen were incredible! No thanks to Odin though.
When was the last time you played an official show in Chicago?
November 1, 1997
There's a section in your site called EURONEMESIS tour, at the endyou talk about the CRADLE OF FILTH members, saying they are cool guysand metalheads. The truth is that you are one of the few people in theunderground talking good about them... I have a question then taking inaccount that you also say "to anyone else who questionswhat we do and why we do it..fuck you..., so, go ahead?
We got a lot of shit from the underground about playing with a band like Cradle of Filth. Some people thought that we were selling out. That is the most rediculous statement that we have ever heard! We could open up for fucking OZZY,and we would still be an underground band. Just because you play on a big tour, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to get bigger or more liked in the Underground. Also, we have never, and will never change our sound or writing technique. So the thought that we are selling out is just wrong. To sell out you have to sell something! We are still a totally small, underground band, with only a small, yet extremely dedicated, group of lunatics/fans. It was just an opportunity for us to play in front of bigger metal audiences. We figured we may never have a chance to do a tour that big again, so we went for it. That is the honest truth. And the CoF guys are cool guys. They are totally into metal, just like you and me. They are one of the biggest selling metal bands in the world right now, and we expected them to have total rock-star attitudes. They didn't have that towards us. They treated us with respect, and we got fucking shitfaced every night listening to old Sodom and Destruction. But we did what we did because we are into metal, into USURPER, and into touring. If anyone thinks we are into anything else ...FUCK OFF!
Let's talk about porn
-your favorite pornstar?
Ginger Lynn
Hardcore or softcore stuff?
Hardcore
How many porn videos do you have?
Way too many to count
How much is the top you have paid to a whore?
*ahem*....almost $600 USD
Which is the cheapest whores house in Chicago? Recommend it to us?
I have never been to a whore house in Chicago. I have been to a very friendly massage parlor though....
Bushido, fisfucking, extreme body modification, coprofagía, Necropaghia, voyerism, s&m, pregnant, multirracial , fetich, bondage..... is there any special depravation that the members in USURPER practice? If I had forgotten one of them,please remind it to me.
We're very into sex. We should just leave it at that......
Let's talk about alcohol and drugs... I know that DiabolicalSlaughter is a beast who consumes big quantities of it, so please tell me:
The more days you had been drunk... or does it no longer exit a daywithout alcohol?
For most of us, we get drunk every day.I cannot honestly remember the last time I went 24 hours without getting drunk, or at least drinking some amount of alcohol.
Which is the drink with more alcohol degrees you can find in Chicago?
Well, Everclear is pretty much just grain alcohol. Totally flammable...
What do you think about Colombian cocaine?
THE BEST!!! The problem is that, by the time it gets to Chicago its so cut up with other bullshit just to make it weigh more, that the purity is almost lost. Some guys can get the good shit, but if you just buy it off the street from some gang member, you're going to be snorting more baking powder than actual cocaine.
T.H.C, Acid, P.C.P... are mentioned on your song Brimstone Fist... Do you use them frequently?
T.H.C. we use every day without exception. Especially The General. Acid has been hard to find lately, but we dont discriminate. We eat LSD, or mushrooms whenever we can get our hands on them. PCP has not been around for a long time. All the guys we used to know who sold are now mostly dead.
USURPER life without alcohol would be a disgrace?
For USURPER, a day without alcohol simply doesn't exist...
Sex , Drinks ...now Metal... Have you had the chance to meet the guys from PENTACLE in your European tour who also have a very special CELTIC FROST feeling? Are there other bands that gets your attention or do you preffer classic ones?
We met 1 or 2 of the PENTACLE guys in '98 when we played in Rotterdam, Holland. That was a pretty crazy night though, so I'm afraid I don't remember much of it...Mostly the older metal we prefer. The last new album I really liked was probably "We Are Motorhead".
Do you remember the first time you listened to HELLHAMMER / CELTIC FROST, what were your reactions?
The first time I heard Frost I thought that it was the heaviest thing that I had ever heard before.
MASTER is one the few american bands that have visited our country.. The show in Cali was very bad organized, they played like at 3 in the morning so PAUL SPECKMAN and the rest of the band concentrated on talking to the people, drinking, getting high and asking for Colombian cocaine... finally, the went on stage an the show was one ofthe best I have seen, it was incredible to see PAUL destrying the bassand spitting blasphemies... a metal warrior... are you friend of them?Are there plans
for a USURPER tour in S. America?
Paul moved to Poland a while back, so we haven't seen much of him. Even before that, he hung around in a different group of people, so we only hung out with him occasionally. We were never good friends or anything.As far as S.America goes, we need to get a new label, and then a new album out. After that we definitely want to go to South America. One of our closest friends Crazy Ted moved there about a year ago. He's ben trying to set up shows for us out there, but without a new album its difficult to do it. We will though. We have wanted to play there for years!

"The majority of Death Metal music fans in the USA are idiots.They know nothing of the history of metal and worse yet they do not even care.The true fans of Metal are in Europe.(Don Of The Dead from NUNSLAUGHTER)" What is your opinion?
For the most part that is true. But there are a few exceptions here.
A last question ......Your opinion about of the new war against a miserable country like AFGANISTAN,  and the terrorist attack in NY? Is near the fucking ARMAGEDDON?
Man are those fuckers going to pay!  You dont destroy the fucking World Trade Center buildings and get away without anything happening to you.  That was a total bitchslap to America, and we will wipe them out eventually.  I don't know how the attacks on Afganistan will solve much.  Seems to me the
Russians have already bombed most of the good tartgets, so we might just be blowing up piles of rubble.  But a more accurate invasion with ground troups
would be a good fucking start!  Get in there with some flamethrowers and smoke those rats out of their holes!  I don't necessarily believe in
"Armageddon" as described in the bible, but this very well could be thebeginnings of the end of civilization as we know it.  Wait 'till te chemical weapons start getting used....
Thanx Jon NECROMANCER for your answers... I do not know how many time I have  listened to NECRONEMESIS while writting this interview, but it's ametal piece which deserves all good comments... congratulation for creating it.
(This question answered by "Rigor") ...."Cool, thanks alot man! Glad you love NECRONEMESIS...! Wait 'till you hear the new shit. It'll destroy every pussydrip motherfucker WorldWide!!!! IN THE NAME OF METAL!!!!!!