When you began, Woe was just a side project. How it evolve from side project to releasing A Spell for the Death of Man?

It was something that sort of just happened. I started writing songs and before I knew it, there it was. It really didn’t stop being a “side project” by design, it was more that my other bands became less active while there was enough interest in Woe to push forward.

You've said that one of your goals with Woe is to put out pure Black Metal, without all of the corpse paint and cliche. Do you think all of the cartoon like evil is why some have a hard time taking Black Metal seriously?

It’s absolutely why some have such a hard time taking it seriously. It is definitely possible to do corpse paint and traditional black metal themes with dignity, it’s just that 99% of those doing it are douchebags with no style or originality.

Pure Black Metal can be a lot of different things. Some people think that Black Metal in its truest form is there to dismantle the religious establishment. Others to evoke evil, the list could go on and on. What do you feel black metal is in its truest form? 

One of the great things about Black Metal, to me, is its ability to sort of meet you at whatever point you are in your life. Everyone who creates music is going to have their own purpose for it but the listener can decide whether a band is about introspection or a literal war against religion or maybe a figurative war against authority and so on. I have trouble saying what I think Black Metal in its truest form is right now… Woe has become a vehicle to explore some fundamental existential questions from my less than pleasant perspective of the world around me. A band like Craft, though, I see as being a total expression of hatred for all creation! My friends Infernal Stronghold are the embodiment of fucking chaos, a war against all order and rules! All are totally valid and pure Black Metal, though the three bands are all extremely different. That isn’t to say that anything goes – Christianity, White Power, and I’d even argue any Norse god/culture shit isn’t pure Black Metal, as far as I’m concerned.

There are a lot of great Black Metal bands out there, most of which are from other countries. Why do you think that there aren't as many American Black Metal bands out there any more?

There are plenty of American Black Metal bands out there, there just aren’t as many as in Europe. I’m not particularly a fan of most bands, nation of origin aside, and of those I like, more than a few are from the US. As for the “any more” part, I’d say that there more American bands of note right now than there ever have been in the past. I’d like to see Judas Iscariot and Weakling but other than that, who’s gone that is really worth missing?

What do you see as the future of Black Metal in America?

The same thing I see as the future of Black Metal worldwide: Bullshit.

The future of black metal is bullshit eh? You don't think there is room for the genre to grow and evolve beyond the gimmicks? 

I’m just being difficult. There is definitely room for growth and right now seems to be a very exciting time. While the underground very much wants to remain off the radar, the mass interest that created a market for such bullshit has introduced a lot of serious people with serious ideas and, ultimately, will help it grow. Trends come and go. Black Metal as Internet joke is slowly fading away and soon, it will find its place, a part of but still apart from the American Metal scene. When that happens, those who remain will be those who always should have been there.

Sometimes I wonder where it all went wrong. How did things go from the kind of Black Metal that makes you think to an evil parody of itself. Where/ when do you think things started to get weak? 

I don’t really think there was any one culprit, more a combination of different things. Black Metal’s dedication to the styles created by the early bands is both a blessing and a curse because while some will find general guidelines to keep the spirit pure, others will find rigid rules that will turn Black Metal into a rigid, stagnant, meaningless slop. The commercialization of Black Metal is an obvious problem as it takes all of the flashiest aspects, turns them up to 11, and then promotes them to the dumbest members of society. Finally, let’s face it: any jerkoff can make somewhat legitimate-sounding Black Metal pretty easily. A band like Meshuggah is very popular but we don’t have nearly as many bands ripping them off as we have, say, early Darkthrone because one is very difficult to emulate correctly while the other… not so much, at least in superficial ways. This makes it really easy for people to flood the world with authentic-looking and possibly sounding Black Metal bands!

You've done some shows since A Spell for the Death of Man was released. How are the people responding to the album?

The response has been very strong. I’m still waiting for people to start pointing out all the flaws I noticed! Haha!

Glad to hear Spell is being well received. Maybe people haven't pointed out the flaws because they are part of the music's charm? They make it sound more human, more intense.  

I made a conscious decision to leave a few mistakes in for that reason. We recorded digitally so we had the option of fixing everything but in a way, I liked some of them. There are no major fuckups, just some sloppy drumming and guitar playing. While it was done in a studio and the production was bumped way up from the early Woe recordings, this is still underground Black Metal and it neither needs to nor should be perfect.  

Is it just me are a lot of bands are beginning to sound over produced. Too slick and too glossy. Does the trend of hyper production annoy you? 

Absolutely! I don’t know if I’d say this is something new, though. Production makes all the difference. Take a Burzum album and add a few 0s to the recording budget and it loses its magic. It works both ways, though. A lot of bands have this idea that their recording must sound like absolute shit and it ends up losing the feeling. Production should be as good as is necessary to get the point across, no more, no less. I did “A Spell…” in a studio because I couldn’t get the right guitar tone by myself to make it hit the way I wanted it to. On the other hand, when I engineered the latest Infernal Stronghold 7”, we did it live in a show space because we wanted it to sound like fucking garbage and we couldn’t be happier with the result. 

When you're in the studio you're a one man band, but play with a band live. Do you prefer playing in a band setting to working solo?

They’re very different experiences. When I write, I tend to know exactly how I want something to come out, in which case I prefer working alone because I don’t have to change my (pretentious word alert) vision to make someone else feel good. On the other hand, a good song played live is infinitely more powerful than a recording, no matter how well it is recorded, in which case you obviously need a band. I prefer the songs on “A Spell…” live over the recordings, without question.

you recently played the Hearts of Winter Festival. What was it like to play such a big event?

It was a fantastic experience thanks to the organizers and everyone else involved in the show. We’re looking forward to the next one.

What can we expect to hear from Woe in the future?

I actually just came home from recording a new 7” that I expect to have out in the spring of 09. The vinyl version of “A Spell…” will be coming out before the summer and I should be able to announce the label releasing it soon. 

How did the recording session go? Why put that material out in 7" format instead of a CD? 

The recent session went more or less perfectly. I was very worried about the drums because I don’t really play anymore and expected to have absolutely no stamina but totally blew through the songs. There’s still some sloppy stuff in there but… again, I’m not looking for perfection.

 Everyone should buy our stuff. We need a van if we’re going to keep playing out of the area.

Its no secret that I am a fan of Progressive Metal. Of things that push the genre and the scene to entirely new limits. So when I first heard Xandria's new album Salome I almost fell out of my chair. These beautiful vocals carried along Middle Eastern melodies,electronic pulses and metal aggression floored me.  Something this good naturally makes me curious about the bands back catalog. So as I look for trax and videos of older stuff I ran across and bit on the bands website saying they were looking for a new new singer. My jaw dropped! A new singer? Is it possible to improve upon the chemistry Xandria already has I wondered. So to the internet I go to talk with Xandria's Marco. To see what I can find out about their new siren, the new album and their first best of collection.

Sameerah: Over the summer you released your first best of album/dvd, The Best of Xandria. How did if feel to put out your first best album? Was it hard to sort out what to put in? I'm sure there was a ton of material!

Marco: Well, there had been the material of the 4 albums and some b-sides, and additionally a song that was left over in the Salomé-sessions. Of course it wasn´t easy to pick out the songs worth being on a “best of” – but finally we made it by choosing a mix of the fan´s and our faves, a mix of the songs that always work well live and songs that are not in really in our live set, but are real good songs to listen to on an album. You know that there is that difference, you can´t just take the live faves. We were thinking about putting some live versions on it, concerning songs that we don´t like much as album versions but are really good live, cause we play them a bit different than on the album, with more feeling and energy. But we thought to leave that, cause there is also the DVD in the package with a live show on it. And I personally hate it when live and studio tracks are mixed on an album, either you do a best of or a live album, and maybe we will do the latter some other time.

Sameerah: I know that you have recently ended your search for a new singer, but you're being incredibly hush hush about her identity. Why all of the secrecy? We're dying to hear her!

Marco: I know that people are waiting eagerly, and we get tons of emails concerning this. But there are some good reasons for this I just can´t tell at the moment. But be sure we are well and everything will work out very good.

Sameerah: You're back in the studio working on another album, how is the new material coming along? Will the sound be as eclectic as Salome?

Marco: We are in the songwriting phase for the next album, but not in the studio yet. This will happen later this year. Well, I think with eclectic you mean that Salome consisted of several styles and very different elements. That´s right, we had some fun to do whatever we wanted on this album, to check out very different things and in the end also not fulfilling the expectations the people had after “Ravenheart” and the bombastic “India”. But though doing so is fun, after all it lost the thread a bit. The next album will be a return to “full” Xandria, but also putting it on a new level. We are very enthusiastic of the new material and I don´t promise too much when I say that people can expect something really great!

Sameerah:On Salome, there is a remix of Sisters of the Light done by Jesus on Ecstasy. Its a great remix, how did the decision to have them remix the song come about?

Marco: We know the guys from JOE personally and we thought it would be fun if Chai would do a remix of a Xandria song, cause both bands do something quite different. The result was very interesting and a club hit in Germany, but it of course has nothing to do with the further direction of Xandria.

Sameerah: Everything on your albums is always so rich and eclectic, how do you like to approach song writing? Is there one person who writes? Or do you prefer a more collaborative approach?

Marco: I am the main songwriter and the one who keeps the track of the overall Xandria sound, but the others also write some songs. The variability always has been something important for us, cause we always had so much ideas and like to use different elements.

Sameerah: So much of your music has the feel of fantasy to it, and touches on a lot of mythical themes. what are some of your favorite flights of fancy?

Marco: The music of Xandria is supposed to make it possible for everyone to rise his own fantasies and associations, so I don´t like to tell much about what is on MY mind concerning this. But a lot of things are inspired by fantasy film soundtracks or folk music, I like the atmosphere a lot.

Sameerah: Are there any plans to tour with your new songstress before the new album?

Marco: Yes, the first dates are confirmed and can be found on our homepage www.xandria.de

Sameerah: Anything you want to add before we wrap?

Marco: Yes, we hope we all see you on tour this year, hopefully we will be coming to your country, too! All the best wishes to you out there! Keep the scene alive!