IMHOTEP FANZINE — CULT NEVER DIES

IMHOTEP INTERVIEW

(EXCLUSIVE)

Though no doubt overlooked by those not in the know, for dedicated metal listeners and readers, the 1st of September is notable as it sees the long overdue return of Imhotep fanzine, following eight years of silence from the respected Norwegian fanzine. Imhotep has sat alongside other respected periodicals relating to black, death and doom metal since its debut in 1995, not least because of founder and editor Roy Kristensen’s intense passion and analysis of bands, albums and songs. This has been reflected in his increasingly lengthy and detailed interviews with musicians – something we obviously relate to strongly at Cult Never Dies – and to this end, the zine makes its resurrection in style, with a 112-page perfect bound issue featuring huge (in some cases 10 or 20 pages) pieces with Deathspell Omega, Watain, Heathen Deity, Mare, Dissection and more. We caught up with Roy to talk about the new issue(s)…

Cult Never Dies: Imhotep has been a fairly prominent name in the underground metal fanzine world since the first issue debuted in 1995. Please give us a little background on how you initially became interested in black and underground music. Was being located in Norway, ground zero for a lot of the rebirth of black metal in the 1990s, part of this?

Roy Kristensen: “In the late 80s, I realised that once I went black… I didn’t quite understand Bathory’s Under The Sign of the Black Mark album when I heard it the first few times. In fact, I traded my vinyl for King Diamond’s Abigail, though I bought a new copy a few months later. So, after going from U2 (the early 80s) to Iron Maiden (not so early 80s) to Slayer (mid-80s), via the regulars (Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Metallica, Megadeth), the opening track of ‘Under The Sign…’ caught me off guard. That’s why I traded it, I didn’t like that song at all. I mean, there you are, and suddenly it all turns into a ‘Massacre’. But after the killing, it was time for a bit of death metal for a few years before Samael released Worship Him. So, so it was spoken, and so it was done. And this worshipping continued with A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The rest is, as some people say, well-known history.”

“In the initial years, I lived far away from everything that happened since my homeplace in the north of Norway is still a 24-hour drive from Oslo. And when I moved south in late 1993, people were already killed, and churches were burnt to the ground. This didn’t really affect my interest in this extreme form of music because I was already there prior to the happenings. And I was one of those who thought that things should be kept in the dark, musically and artistically speaking. I still can’t find much enthusiasm for hearing and watching Satyricon playing live to a bunch of ordinary people at a big festival now in 2024. Then again, I shouldn’t care too much about things I can’t really affect, so I guess I just dive slowly into my cave again. (ps. I do like Satyricon, and I think their latest album, counting out that Munch-thing, is their best since Volcano).”

The 1990s were arguably the glory days of metal fanzines – can you tell me a bit about how you first came to create your own and where the inspiration for the name came from?

“The idea of making a zine came from a friend of mine, one Lasse Marhaug [who would later work in music with acts like Fleurety and Sunn O))) and become a publisher himself]. He saw that I was enthusiastic about music and everything related to it. Sadly I didn’t have any goals or much focus back in those days. I was just a fan, and I never wanted to make Imhotep to gain a single cent. I guess a vision (from the Darkside) would’ve made room for quality instead of an enthusiastic fanzine. Oh well, those were the days… The name was a combination of a cool figure from the Conan comics named Imhotep – Destroyer Of Worlds. And you have the good ol’ Imhotep from Egypt in there as well. Later on, someone decided to make a main protagonist out of Imhotep in a few dummies… I mean Mummies. The first movie is actually pretty cool. And even later the infamous Trump-supporter Jon Schaffer decided to make a Horror Show with his Iced Earth. Well, the track ‘Im-Ho-Tep (Pharaoh’s Curse)’ is okay.”

Imhotep had a fairly regular release schedule for many years, but the previous issue, 11, is now eight years old. What was the reason for this hiatus, and what led to your return to your role as a fanzine editor?

“Issue 9 was released back in 2003. Then we had a website for too many years, we were doing video interviews (with bad equipment), and the urge to update every day killed my interest, so it was closed down in 2014 if I remember correctly. And the digital promo thing also killed my interest. Instead, I wanted to go back to print and released Imhotep Issue 11 in 177 copies in 2015. Nuclear War Now! liked the issue, so they reprinted it (with a slightly different layout) the year after, adding an Abigor 7” EP. That issue made me think that I should manage to release one zine each year, but somehow, it didn’t happen. I did write for Norway’s Scream Magazine as well, and still do, so the interest was there. But I didn’t really feel it, to put it like that. It wasn’t until the Deathspell Omega interview happened that I wanted to go print again. But nothing much happened because I got covid-19, which wiped out my energy for a year or two. And still it took longer time than I had in mind after the initial talks with Dayal Patterson and Cult Never Dies, because things take time. I’m not sure if Imhotep Issue 12 would ever have happened if we hadn’t started talking about this and that and printed zines again. I still don’t have a clear vision, Imhotep is still a fanzine, but it’s great to have you guys to discuss details and contents with. So, 13 and 14 are already in the works, but slowly of course. This is still the underground.”

You mention Deathspell Omega and of course a significant amount of the new issue is dedicated to that band. Can you tell us what they mean to you personally and how the interviews went, given that you are one of only a handful of people to interview the group?

“I was actually a bit late to the party. In 2006, I hadn’t listened to the band’s music yet, even though I did receive the Kénôse CD, as a promotion, from Norma Evangelium Diaboli in 2005 –I forwarded it to another writer without paying attention. A Danish friend of mine sent me a CD-R with the track ‘Diabolus Absconditus’ in Spring 2006. I did, of course, like black metal a lot since the late 80s and the second wave, or Norwegian wave if you will, and what followed. I mean, Death Cult Armageddon, Prometheus - The Discipline Of Fire And Demise, Casus Luciferi, Salvation and many more in the third wave (if there ever was such a thing). But hearing that track in 2006, originally released on the split album Crushing The Holy Trinity in 2005, changed something inside me. The dissonance in that track really touched something unholy, and I will, for the rest of my life, have a short quote from that lyric tattooed on my arms. I listen to ‘Diabolus Absconditus’ on a regular basis, and a few seconds from the midsection is actually my alarm and ringtone on my cellphone, so I hear a short passage from that track more or less every single day.”

“And then in 2007 they released Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum. There are so many albums I like, and some of them I even love, but Fas is above everything; it is one of a kind, it is unique, it is original, and it is an album I still struggle with. I can’t understand it, yet I love it to the end of my world. I met my wife three years later. I can’t understand her, yet I love her to the end of my world too. When life is almost over, I plan for this to be the last album I’ll ever listen to! We actually agreed to do an interview already back in 2008, but it never felt right, and looking back at those questions I did write at the time, I’m glad it didn’t happen because the two interviews Niklas did for his Bardo Methodology and the one I did for Imhotep make a trinity that is unparalleled. I think the final article is tremendous. It is a rough read, but it’s worth it. There may be a bit too much Roy with my ‘reviews’ and diary, but Imhotep #12 is, after all, my personal tribute to Deathspell Omega and also to myself for not giving up. I will understand if people think ‘Oh, what’s up with this fanboy?’ – or fanRoy if that suits you better – but for those who seek my monument, there is more to the writing than words upon words.”

Tell us a bit about the remaining content regarding this comeback issue and the choice of interviewees.

“The zine turned out to be 40 pages longer than first intended. It seems like short interviews / articles are for magazines like Metal Hammer, Zero Tolerance, Kerrang and other big magazines. But it is important that length or size doesn’t matter. It’s like when someone writes a song that lasts for 15 minutes and tells us that the song has to be that long. Well, those articles are meant to be that long. It is a varied issue, no doubt. The subtitle of Imhotep #12,…the cult never dies…, is not based on your company, though without Cult Never Dies I’m not sure Imhotep #12 would’ve seen the light of night. But your books are important to me, and I tried to make the Cult Never Dies article a bit different from those interviews you’ve already done, as well as video chats you’ve done for the Bible of black metal. I think it turned out to be a great article. Heathen Deity is there – I have heard their new album and we’re in for a treat. I have always wanted to see a reprint of the Dissection article from Evilution #2, from back in 2005 (I think) and Bo of Evilution and Set Teitan gave me the permission to reprint this. Evilution was printed in 666 copies, so now a few more people can read this vintage article. My favourite album from the former decade is Mare’s Ebony Tower (2018). I loved that interview; I drove eight hours and met with Nosophoros in their rehearsal room/bar and I hope some of the atmosphere came through in the article. And finally, one of my favourite artists and bands, E./Watain. This is also the most obvious connection from Imhotep #11, since Watain were one of the three bands in that issue! Should we have more bands and shorter articles? Ha, I’d rather give you the long kiss goodnight.”

Indeed, Imhotep interviews are some of the largest and most in-depth in the metal journalism game. How did you end up moving toward that approach?

“First of all, I’m no journalist at all. I’m merely a fan interested in music, lyrics and the art connected to a release. In the initial years, I didn’t even edit my articles. But as time has passed, I have become a bit more focused and spent steadily more time in the preparations of an interview, be it a phoner, an eye-to-eye meeting or an e-mail interview (or snail mail all those years ago). I have received proper replies to my written interviews almost from day one. I don’t know why, but it could be due to me showing a bit more interest in the art instead of the latest sensations or what they do when they wake up in the morning or who slept with who. I’m basically interested in music and the development of the art. And too many times have I agreed to have a short chat with an interviewee, only to end up with twice the time. I remember chatting with Fredrik from Opeth, and after our set time the manager came and said that our time was out. But no, Fredrik wasn’t done since he knew there were more topics we needed to cover. So, again, I guess the artists can see that I pay attention to their art and their replies, and I also come up with one or two questions out of the ordinary from time to time. But I could, of course, have edited my conversations with artists into an article with so and so many words. I even tried that a couple of times but felt that I got lost in something that wasn’t me anymore. So, I simply try to have a good conversation and see where it takes us, and the written article is more or less a replica of our conversation. The only time, as far as I can remember, I got replies that I never printed or published on the website, when it was alive, was when I got replies from Manowar. I am still 100% sure that it was their secretary who did the replies, because they sucked big time. I mean, I had done a couple of interviews (with Eric Adams and Karl Logan, long before the news about his crimes with child material were known) and those were great conversations. So, that short ‘interview’ has never seen the light of day, nor will it!”

You say you’re not a ‘music journalist’, and that is a phrase I feel somewhat uncomfortable with and find myself trying to avoid, especially in more recent times. That said, you’ve spent many years writing for Scream as well as Imhotep, Scream being a more traditional / mainstream metal magazine, so the phrase isn’t entirely out of place.

“Scream is a Norwegian-written, printed magazine released ten times a year. The simple reason for writing there is that I enjoy writing in Norwegian. I could, of course, have a Norwegian edition of Imhotep as well as the English, but it feels great not to be responsible for anything else but doing a few interviews every now and then. And when I write these articles into English for Imhotep, they’re still mine. It’s also a part of the hobby, though if I ever have to choose, I will, of course, choose Imhotep. Norwegian is my mother tongue, so my dad jokes are easier to do in Norwegian. But since my English is okay, I still hope some readers appreciate Imhotep despite English being my second language. The reason I don’t consider myself a journalist is because I have never received any money or payment for doing interviews and articles. I have asked labels for a CD if they had one to spare, but that’s not a necessity for doing an interview. I have always had my regular job, and I will continue with that. This means that I consider myself a fan, thus Imhotep is a fanzine. In that way nobody could ever question my integrity.”

“And I do hate deadlines, of course. I guess that goes without saying. My heart belongs to the underground fanzine format, from here to eternity. I mean, I like to read a Metal Hammer every now and then, I did read Terrorizer regularly. But fanzines – that’s where the dedicated people live. I mean, Isten, Bardo Methodology, Qvadrivivm, The Crypt, Slayer, Davthvs and so on. And there are still many fanzines popping up, some with layout that is almost too posh. I don’t care if the English is far from perfect. A great article is great no matter. Interviews, articles, reviews – if done by enthusiastic people that love and respect that art or music, I’m all ears! Or, I’m all eyes, if that’s useable English.”

That’s almost it for now, can you tell readers (and potential readers of Imhotep) what the future plans are for the fanzine now it’s manifested again?

“No big plans, actually. The aim is to release a couple of issues a year, if we sell enough copies. If Imhotep fails, well, so long and thank you for the music. But trying to be more positive, the plan for the forthcoming issues is to make Imhotep a varied fanzine, irregularly released and with bands from various genres. And this also means bands outside of metal. Imhotep is not a black metal fanzine, even if Imhotep #12 is basically focused on said genre.”