Hi Maurizio! How are you in Florida? Do you still like it?
Yes, very much. It is a place where you can have the weather and the sun every day, it is hard not to be happy when you got that, you know.

The last time we talked was for ‘Unconquered’ and then we were in the middle of the pandemic of course. It was September 2020. Times have changed, how did you crawl out of this worldwide crisis?
Well, there is also frustration coming out of it, you know, when you ask yourself: ‘what the hell happened?’’ The world just stopped and then we had to reinvent ourselves a lot and we were thinking: ‘how to move forward?’ ‘Unconquered’ was made before the pandemic started, so basically we had a different vision at that time, so it came out during the pandemic and the first six months were the most craziest moments. The album was in the middle of a crazy moment in our lives and then the new one was written towards the end of the pandemic, so in 2022 we started writing the new album and now we are releasing it with a different aspect, you know? This record is way more aggressive and it is way more dramatic in many ways, it includes the effects from what we experienced. We use music as therapy more than anything and I think this is a reflection of our feelings during that time. We made it okay out of it, we were very self-sufficient and the band was in good spirits through all the things, so that helped a lot.

Yes, because I have read that JF Dagenais had covid-19 right after our previous conversation…
Yeah he was one of the first ones to get it and then the whole band got it. I think the whole world got it at some point, but he was one of the first people to get and he got pretty sick of it, you know. He struggled a little bit with it, but in the end he was okay. That was what matters.

That must have been a hard time for you…
Oh yeah, you are kind of vulnerable in that situation. You don’t know how things are going to go and that is a very scary situation. We were talking about it all the time and had a good connection.

But I am glad that you managed to create a new album! Like you said, it is harsher, but we also have a story about David and Goliath, a kind of thing from the Bible and that makes me think of your other band Ex Deo…
Yes, we are all connected with historical figures. To me, what was interested about that story, was that – if you look at it in general – that story was thousands of years ago and now, if you look at society these days you can conclude that things haven’t changed. We are still fighting a monster these days, we are still fighting something bigger than us to make ourselves free or valid or existing and mean something. So I feel that we are still in that battle, you know and what is going on today I believe it is like a modern day Goliath what is going on. I think it is important.

It goes back to biblical things. What do you think about all the wars for certain religions?
The message behind this record is just a reference, right? It is the idea. The band is not a religious band at all. So it is not our thing. I am not a political guy, I am not a religious guy, nor our band either. We are not part of that sort of things and I haven’t been part of any Satanist movement or ideology, because I don’t take it and I don’t believe in it. I know that evil exists, but I am not part of that section or whatever, either if we are overly bombarded by it anyway. Everybody’s a Satanist, everybody believes in certain things, but there is no valid source behind it. I believe right now we are living in a very dark time. I prefer when things are good. Personally. I don’t like when things are going bad for everybody. People who like that, I don’t think they are cool. That is my philosophy behind it. If you have a mythological area of thinking with metal and stuff, I get it, because that is also why the record is called Goliath, because it is centralising on the monster, but I believe, the idea is that we are the people and we are the ones fighting for existence to survive, against something out there which is trying to control everything. Covid-19 gave us that idea of control everything. We were heavily controlled and to me that is evil. When you put someone in chains and say: ‘this has to be’, you don’t have a choice… to me, that is an evil control. We, as human beings, should always have the freedom of choice, the freedom of thought and freedom of expression. Me and you could not do this interview right now if you did not have freedom of expression. We are capable of talking and having a conversation without anyone valuing us, calling us up and not able to continue to talk. So I think it is a fundamental right we need to protect all the time and Goliath is something that I feel we had an oppression happening on the people, worldwide. It was not just one country, it was worldwide. People were losing their jobs, all kinds of stuff happened. The concept of this record is two things: one: it is the story behind that, which is the fighting back in a situation and also it is very social in the sense of ideology or fighting your demons. A song like ‘Dark Wings Of Deception’ is about being deceived by something. You believe in something and then you are deceived and then fighting that demon inside of you. We are in a world that, I believe, has enough goodness in it for us to move forward, because without it, it would be complete chaos, and now I feel that the world is more and more into this dark chaotic state, right? That’s what we are trying to bring a light to that, bring a little bit of thought to that idea, like: ‘this is what’s happening, maybe we should all get together and rise up in the sense of putting a positive touch back into life in general. It is a complex story, but to me it is very iconic. David and Goliath.

I completely understand, because I am also a positive person. I am already happy when I am in my house or my garden with my cat….
Yeah, me with my dog and my cat too.

Really?
(laughs) Yeah, in the end we want that, right? But the idea of some religions is good, because it is about forgiving your neighbour, being good to each other, respect each other, wishes and all that, but then religion on the top controls people and that is also evil in my way, whether it is Christian, Muslim or whatever. If you are controlled in any form, controlled by religion or anything, it is not a good thing.

I followed an interesting documentary about the Jews in Antwerp. You know Antwerp is the Diamond city and we have a large Jewish community within society. I wanted to follow it to know more about it, because it is an ultimate closed community. They are very friendly, but they are so strict…
Yeah, they were always very captive. Gold and diamonds. That’s how they were able to make a lot of money and they have a very good structure around them, but they have a lot of jewellery. I think that’s the thing. It can be anybody, but if you are not united in your approach to survive, it is very difficult to mark your footsteps, so… we are consistently divided.

Indeed, we are now with so many nationalities that we cannot communicate together. It is like a Tower of Babel, we all speak different languages, literally and metaphorical…
Society or whoever who is on the top is finding ways to separate people more and more. You have a different colour, different religion, different this and that and you can really go deep into this and think also all these languages were invented because of keeping people separate. Imagine one language and everybody would understand each other, but because we are separated like that, it has always been something that has been imbedded into humanity. If the world is divided, you can control better. The Romans had the divided conquer thing, it is the same. It is the perfection that matters. It is all about control in the end, you know? We need structure, we need it to a certain degree. When it is too much, then it is not good and that is my point you know! Balance everything. You can have everything, but in small doses and not like exaggerations and that’s pretty much the case and that is the message behind the record. I still believe that you get out of the world what you put in. If you contribute, if you work hard, if you believe in things, you are going to get something in return, but if you are not doing consciously anything, all you do is negative, why should you get a reward for that? That is my philosophy around that, you know. If you are positive, everything you want or want to achieve will happen, that is about determination. It is all in the lyrics as well.