BAND OF THE WEEK: Els Focs Negres

Feverishly ecclesiastic Catalonian-sung Portuguese-based blackened heavy metal - yes, it's as mad as you imagine.

I have often and unashamedly declared my absolute love for Filii Nigrantium Infernalium, my favourite Portuguese metal band and one of the most crucially important and influential for my own little musical existence - past, present and hopefully future, though one of the main slogans of their delightfully deranged frontman Belathauzer is “não há futuro!”, meaning “there is no future!”. Unfortunately, or maybe not, since Filii probably wouldn’t really be what it is without this constant instability and unpredictability, that band seems to always be on the edge of confirming that slogan, constantly going through periods of worrying silence after giving us some of the most devilishly joyous highs that extreme music is capable of. Their last album ‘Hóstia’, a fucking masterpiece of blasphemy, dark humour, Voivodian blackened speed (seriously) and goddamn amazing riffs, is already from 2018, and although it can drop tomorrow for all we know, we’re still patiently and desperately waiting for a follow-up.

In these five years, however, a little silver lining has unexpectedly appeared, in the form of Els Focs Negres (“the black fires”). A project put together by Belathauzer himself and another essential figure of the Portuguese underground, guitarist Hugo Conim (Dawnrider, Dragon's Kiss, Patrulha Do Purgatório, Son Of Cain, Legion Of The Sadists and a bunch more) that has quickly grown into a proper band, including fellow Filii bassist Rick Thor and Perpetratör / Extreme Unction axe-slinger Marco Marouco (drummer Marco Dolor completes the formation), it has a similarly unhinged vibe and unique personality and has helped fill the Filii-shaped void a little. Their 2020 self-titled debut was already quite a blast, and now comes its follow-up, ‘Martiris Carnívors: Himnes Per A Un Nou Apocalipsi’, to considerably up the ante. Because you’re surely wondering, unless you’re from our shared peninsula, that title (and the band name, and all the lyrics) is in Catalonian, and the whole concept of the thing is based around a blasphemous, liturgical universe relating to that region. I won’t even try to get too deeply into it, as knowing Belathauzer, the whole thing is probably worth a whole doctorate to follow through properly, but suffice to say the claustrophobic, ecclesiastical fire-and-brimstone atmosphere fits the thick lava-like qualities of their blackened heavy metal to a tee. This song is from the first album (there isn’t a proper video for the new one yet), but it’s enough to give you a general idea of what we’re dealing with here:

If you’re new to Els Focs Negres and you were just blown away by that, be aware that the new album is an upgrade in every department - songs are denser, more detailed and better arranged, the sound is sharper and punches harder, the melodic guitar leads hit that perfect balance between virtuosity and still sounding like they belong in a song, and Belathauzer in particular delivers a staggering performance, wailing, screaming, singing, and generally constantly on the verge of going off the rails completely, a veritable demon of the cloth consuming everything in its path. It’s truly a rollercoaster of the devil, and you’re free to listen to all of it right now, here below. One final note - obviously all of these guys use different names in the context of this band, so I’ll leave you with the “proper” line-up instead of their common names that I’ve used throughout the text for ease of identification and connection with their other stuff. They’ll probably hate me for it, but that’s cool. They still agreed to talk to me, and you can check out the full interview after the jump.

Monsenyor BTHZR - Vocals
Hugo Serp de Cascavell C. - Guitar
Marco Arpes Infernals Marouco - Guitar
Rick el Regni - Bass
Marco Dolor - Drums

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“Everything is ephemeral. Except STEEL.”

- Monsenyor BTHZR

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Can you describe the new album in your own perspective? What was the starting point for these new songs, were there any specific ideas already formed when you wrote them?
Hugo Serp de Cascavell C. (guitar): The writing for this album was based on jams in the rehearsal room that became songs. We’re an old-school heavy metal band, and everything is done like in the good old days - in the rehearsal room, full of passion and sweat!
Monsenyor BTHZR (vocals): The objective is STEEL, nothing more. We all have to work to pay our bills and, well, live. To eat, to shit (you have to pay for toilet paper) and fornicate as it is possible. But this is the real life, the life of STEEL. Writing rehearsals at 10am in Purgatory, dictionaries, litre beers, Slayer at the door of the garage and lunches of death at Inês’. We are all carnivores, even the vegetarians. I’d like to meat you!

Let’s try that usual comparison - how do you feel the band has evolved since the debut album?
BTHZR: The only difference is that this LP is even better and above all it’s all been written from scratch, at 10am (did I mention that?), with sumptuous lunches full of drink at queen dona Inês (did I mention that?). This one is more influenced by Carnivore and Samantha Focs.
Hugo: To me, it’s been the normal evolution of the band, following exactly the same style and concept of the first album, but better refined and improved, since this time round we knew exactly how we wanted the band to sound like…

Maybe a lot of people saw Els Focs Negres as a “project”, or something more ephemeral, because the main members are well known from other bands. Do you think this record is a good step for everyone to realise you’re a “real” band?
Hugo: We always saw it as a band, never as a project! Els Focs Negres is actually even more than a band, it’s a heavy metal brotherhood!!!
BTHZR: A lot of people are blind. Everything is ephemeral, in truth. I am writing right now on a keyboard that took a potent discharge of beer just yesterday (misfortunes of alcoholism, oh well), and it’s alive. But it can die at any moment. Such is the way with everything, really everything. I don’t know, man, maybe when you get this shitty interview you have the bad luck of tumbling down the window, or I trip and completely perish of death. And then, I don’t see the interview and you won’t publish it. People I would like to see dead will perhaps die after me, or vice-versa. By the way: do you eat meat? Transcendental question. But God is the main thing in life. Everything is ephemeral. Except STEEL.

Can you talk a bit about the lyrics and the concept of the album?
BTHZR: Keywords: seminars, conventual sweets, Inês’ streaky pork, not Albufeira, also Tavira, God is great; rare bitch meat; Caldeirão mountain Steel; two big cows; Crist on a skewer (“Crist a l’ast”); World Filth Days.

The first record got kinda overshadowed during those first moths of the pandemic, do you plan to play live more often after this new one and try to reach a bit more exposition?
Hugo: We don’t actually want exposition, we like this underground, even somewhat mysterious concept that this BAND transmits. We will reach who we have to reach, the rest doesn’t matter… [laughs] Playing live will always be on “special events”, we will never be a band that is constantly playing. We want each of our shows to be a holy macabre mass: interesting, special, heartfelt and rare, not a day-to-day banality.
BTHZR: I totally agree of death with him. But hey, we have played on one of the most classy festivals of our nation, Camarro Fest. The reception by the audience was mindblowing, people were climbing the walls. Some of them committed suicide as soon as we started our carnivore mass.

My dear Monsenyor, in the last few years we’ve had two Els Focs Negres records and zero by that other band, Nigrantium something. Are there news on that field?
BTHZR: What band is that? Are those guys good?

‘Martiris Carnívors: Himnes Per A Un Nou Apocalipsi’ is out now, co-released by Firecum Records and Raging Planet Records. You can find Els Focs Negres on Bandcamp and Facebook.

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