by Kenneth Morton

THE USBM scene is alive and well, with underground bands like Bahimiron vomiting their pure hatred to all those who dare to give a listen. Based out of the Houston area, the band has unleashed their latest opus of violence Southern Nihilizm on the mighty Moribund Cult label. Here is an interview we recently conducted with a member of the Bahimiron horde…

Bahimiron was birthed in 2002 when Grimlord (vocalist/guitars) formed up myself and JenOside (bass)... In 2003 we added Deacon Krag Daggon as a 2nd guitarist...

Where is the band based out of and what is the metal scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Bahimiron is based out of Houston, though Jen and myself have been living in Phoenix, Arizona the last four because of my job. In Phoenix... hm... there is a metal scene – basically surrounding an excellent store, Metal Devastation – but I really haven’t made it out too much these last few years, so most of the shows I’ve seen have either been in Houston or another state besides Arizona. Local bands from Houston I can recommend are BLASPHERIAN (satanic death metal), ADUMUS (black metal), TO SCALE THE THRONE (black metal)...

You recently played a show out here in the Los Angeles area. How did it go and what did you think about the local metal scene?
I was rather impressed with LA scene, but also, we have a lot of allies in LA and the surrounding area; mainly Chris Hatewar, Sumeria, Nokturne, Ashdataus, and a couple others... So the crowd seemed rather animated, and also rather prevalent – I had been to the Black Castle (where the show was) before, so I knew what to expect though...

Describe a live Bahimiron show for those of us who have yet to see you play.
Nothing too complicated, paint, spikes, whiskey and fuggin’ vomit aggression onstage.

How did you wind up signing with the Moribund Cult and will they be releasing any of your previous music?
Odin and I have been in contact for a couple years, and he did express interest in releasing our 2nd effort – as of now, I am not aware of whether Moribund will or will not be re-releasing any of our previous material. I believe that our 3rd LP will be handled by Moribund as well though.

How did the split with Sargeist come about and did you ever meet Shatraug or any of the other members in person?
I was highly impressed with Sargeist’s Satanic Black Devotion CD – so much that it encouraged me to reignite a flame under my arse and give them an interview for Wheresmyskin Issue H8TE... this was around 2001ish or so (I think, killed a lot of brain cells since then), and then I think I kept in contact with Sargeist to some extent.. I think somehow they got our demo or something like that, and seemed to like it – they proposed a split EP, and we fuggin’ jumped all over that fugger, because all in the band highly praize the SARGEIST warmachine. But no, we haven’t met any of the members in person…

Is there any story or concept behind the CD title Southern Nihilizm?
Simply put, we’re from the South, where it’s sweltering hot, full of hellish humidity, and where tempers and guns go off rather quickly in the extreme heat… Our social environment has produced our very ill demeanors and assisted in influencing how this CD would vomit forth…not to mention our guitarist, Krag, wrote all of the guitar riffs while going through a rather horrible period in his personal life…

Where do you get the ideas for some of the lyrics you write?
I believe Grimlord, who does all the lyrics, pulls them from twisted, perverted visions of hell that swirl within his sickened skull - a lot of the personal misery he feels with having to interact with those around him that he cannot kill probably also contributes to more of the nihilistic leanings in some of the lyrics.. He is solely responsible for conjuring these affirmations of violence, though the entire band does come up with song titles.

What does Satanism mean to you, if anything…?
Every single fugger on this planet has an idea on this, and I’m sure its all personal/subjective/subject to wikipedia look-up etc, etc... As I understand, Satanism can mean an approximate to what I call Laveyian Satanism, or humanistic Satanism – i.e. the “do what thou wilt” philosophy of indulging when one wants, defending ones person when they want, and/or basically just living life without the constraints of xtianity or perhaps some of the xtian law.

That’s basically what Satanism means to me – not really that evil or scary etc... Now when you have them devil worshippers out there, or those more creative folks in the orthodox coven who seek to use religion as a perversion of xrist to espouse the truly sick and demented shit out there, that may get a little more interesting I suppose.

How “Black Metal” is it to have a Myspace account?
Assuredly it’s an oxymoron – if we’re trying to be so fuggin’ kvult, then why do we have an internet presence, and especially a hand-holdin’ be my-fuggin-gay friend type of account on the interpenet... well. It seems that times change. It is not the time when I would write a band and send an IRC and hope I get a reply, we’ve moved into the uh, new high tech era of home porncams and underage scatshows with the interpenet – with these fun and truly uplifting events comes the advent of acquiring/and or viewing musicians/music online. It seems that almost everyone involved in any type of music needs to have some sort of internet presence, and myspace seems to be the avenue that a lot are taking now, even/or especially black metal bands…

We do have one, but I also maintain a Real Live website, where I tend to put different/more detailed information... honestly though, and much to my disgust, most people go to the myspace site, and not the .com site that I have set up (and pay for heh)

What do you think of the current state of the USBM music scene? What changes have you seen over the years that are both positive and negative?
Hell it’s a lot better then the early 90s when there were only a handful of bands that could a flame to the quality acts that were spewing from Scandinavia...

Over the years I’ve finally seen the ability of US satanic DEATH metal to evolve or coalesce into black metal – mind you for me, its not a question of purely playing a musical style – I’ll take a US satanic/nihilistic death metal band over some so called black metal pagan band that tries to save nature and trees and shit..

Too many persons I ran into in the mid 90s in the US did not know a fuggin’ thing about black metal, nor did they want to – they did, however, want to wear their tennis shoes and shorts and play death metal that had lyrics about political vices or some such left wing pro life fuggin’ goddamn faggity bullshit – I got severely sick of that crap. So finally we have in the US I believe a very strong scene that has the correct ideals (death worship) and musical aptitude to construct a very bleak atmosphere to cause fervent blackened hate.

As for negative, its only gotten better – no longer is USBM something I cringe at.

Are you or any other Bahimiron members involved with any other music projects?
I know that the Deacon Krag has a couple bands he’s working on/with – namely Fireborn Disciple and The Deadite (now called Deacon Krag Daggon I believe), as well as other projects. Grimlord also participates in Fireborn Disciple… I’m doing drums and some vocals in a death/thrash assault called Towards Global Holocaust…

What CD or album would a Black Metal fan be very surprised to find in your collection?
Hm... not sure. Mebbe Sacred Reich’s “Surf Nicaragua” – I got in the late 80s before I actually knew that they were lefty/commie lovin’ life lovers…

What are the future plans for Bahimiron? Will we have to wait two years for the next live show?
Future plans are ... release the split CD with Unchrist, support HORNA in November in Texas, and I think Grimlord and Krag may be sending a couple tracks on over to me in Arizona to start for the next release...

Any messages for metal fans here in the LA/OC area?
Whiskey fuggin’ hails to the LA hordes, and for showing up to witness our vomit in August 0-Hate…

Bahimiron links

Bahimiron: Their Official Myspace Page!
The Highwire Daze Home Page: Return to the Main Page!

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