Interview: Necrophagia’s Killjoy Talks Next Album And Filmmaking Plans

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On January 9th, Venom offshoot Venom Inc and death metal pioneers Necrophagia played New York City’s famous venue Webster Hall as part of their first US circuit. For the uninitiated, Venom Inc is a new band that features ex-Venom members Mantas on guitar, Abaddon on drums, and Demolation Man on vocals, making this band a reunion of Venom’s 1988 to 1992 line up.

After the local openers, Necrophagia hit the stage. Their set was mostly focused on later material, as no songs from before 1998 were played. The band performed several fan favorites, such as “Embalmed Yet I Breathe” and “Blood Freak”, all while vocalist Killjoy practiced his horror theatrics. The band ended their set with their most well known song, “Cannibal Holocaust”, based on the horror classic of the same name.

After Necrophagia’s killer performance, it was time for Venom Inc. Audiences were curious due to the fact that though this version of Venom does not include classic vocalist Cronos, they still have two of the original three members. The band started their set with the title track from the 1988 Venom album Prime Evil. This was the only song they played from the line up they were a throwback to; from that point on the set list was mostly songs from the first two albums, Welcome to Hell and Black Metal. This included many classics such as “Black Metal”, “1,000 Days in Sodom”, “Countess Bathory”, “Don’t Burn the Witch” and “Schizo”. They also played some of the non-album singles from that era such as “Warhead” and “Bloodlust”. The band had good energy and looked like they were having a lot of fun. All and all the show was loved by the crowd who were sad about returning to reality afterwards.

I was given the opportunity to interview Necrophagia vocalist Killjoy. We had a pretty natural feeling conversation that revealed his plans for the next Necrophagia album as well as films he plans on making.

So how is the tour going so far?

It’s going great, a lot better than I expected. I’m getting drunk every night with Abbadon.

How did a bill like this happen?

Venom Inc personally wanted us for this tour. They contacted our manage,r who hooked us up with their booking agent. If it wasn’t for this tour we wouldn’t be touring at all instead I would have used the time to work on the next album.

Can you tell us a little bit about this next album?

The album will be a little bit more aggressive than our other stuff. It will just be a straight forward record, no interludes and nothing out of the ordinary and no random non-metal songs like “Sadako’s Curse”. It will just be a full on metal album that is more aggressive and maybe a little faster.

Speaking of “Sadako’s Curse”, what inspires you to write those non-metal songs?

I think it’s because I quit so many different side projects, and without taking away from what Necrophagia do, I think we were never a death metal band. I just keep my mind open. I’m a fan of Death In June, The Smiths, Elvis, Combichrist, and a lot more stuff that’s far from the metal genre. I try to make these influences work without going too left field.

That would explain why you guys sound nothing like other death metal bands yet you are credited as one of the first .

Early on, there was no terminology for it. I understand we had bands like Death and Possessed, but we didn’t really know what we were doing. We were just trying to make music that was as heavy, sick and different as possible. Everyone started going in that direction once we did Season of the Dead in ’87. To me that album is not a death metal record, people always tell us that we helped start death metal and I don’t care. I don’t claim to have started anything and neither did Chuck of Death. He was a very good friend of mine. We both just loved horror films and love bands like Hellhammer and Venom and let it influence our work.

People love labeling everything. Nowadays it’s gotten really out of hand. I’ve seen people say that punk and punk rock are different genres.

That is weird. I know you have hardcore punk and crust and grindcore and all that, but I don’t get how you can have punk that’s not rock. To me we are just a metal band. I don’t like just one certain tag.

If you were to bring back one of your aformentioned old side projects which would it be?

I’d bring back Enoch, because I love making music that is horrific and sometimes making heavy music isn’t always horrific sounding. To me, that project was more of a challenge… people got to hear a soundtrack to a movie that they never heard of ’cause it only exists in my head.

Would you ever do a voice over for a horror film? Made voice a demon?

If I like the script yes, I’d even do it for a cartoon if I liked the idea. It’s something I’ve thought about actually. Ultimately, I want to direct movies. I have three different scripts written so when I finally call it a day with this band, that is what I will do.

Can you tell us about these scripts?

I rather not, only because the titles of these alone give what they are about. I can tell you they are straight through and through horror films. Two of them are very occult based, while one is going to be the most extreme and original thing anyone has seen… and I stress original, which is why I don’t want to say what its about cause its never been done.

If you were to get any director, dead or alive, to direct these scripts who would it be?

It would be easy to say Fulci though I don’t know if his style would fit even though hes a huge influence on me. I’d say Mario Bava. I feel my stuff would be more up his alley.