WTLS: So a wary hello to you Hex Ghoul. Thank you for agreeing to this intrusion and for not obliterating me with your arcane arts on sight.
Hex Ghoul: You are most welcome scribe, as long as you do not slander my name and reputation as thee Warlock.
WTLS: If I may venture so, carefully mind, how did a person of the cowl or pointy hat persuasion decide to eschew the world of hermits and delicate instrumental pursuits decide to cause trouble by releasing music of such a noisy, exuberant nature? Your grasp of how to mix black metal, thrash, punk and just gleeful evil is superb and contagious so its clearly deep rooted. Where does this love of musical boisterous behaviour come from? Was this something that simply had to come out? What have been your previous musical endeavours, if we are allowed to know your origin story….?
Hex Ghoul: Thank you so much! We are all obviously musically inclined (if you can call it music) with varying levels of experience from previous musical endeavours. Some of us have played gigs and festivals around the UK before, and for some of us, this is the first time. Personally, I’d been out of really committing to writing and performing for around a decade, due to the blowup of a previous group and life getting in the way. I was itching to play small sweaty gigs again, and release some music that hopefully at least one person thinks is cool.
WTLS: What would you say are the musical roots of your inspiration with Coffin Fodder? The music is so diverse yet perfectly woven together – I hear bits of doom now and then, death metal, black and thrash and punk of course. What bands would you say have helped inspire, and does this… playfully nasty atmosphere… have roots in other areas of art?
Hex Ghoul: I felt really inspired by a few particular artists i discovered sometime last year, namely Abysmal Specter of Curta’n Wall, Old Nick & Bloody Keep infamy, plus some Dungeon Synth from the greats like Sokol Keep, Warlock Corpse and Flickers From The Fen. It had been a few decades since I last became hyperfixated with blackened genres, going all the way back to my college youth, so it was almost like a rediscovery for me, that far exceeded my first go around. As for thrash, that’s been in my blood since being a thirteen year old Slayer fanatic, and the punk stuff comes from my love of The Misfits.
WTLS: I noted in my review that a lot of the songs appear to be very much specific to places and tales of Kernow (Cornwall, UK for those without Google). Are such tales and places a part of your very fibre? Can you explain the pull of the land to us, how its deep time and history influence the irrepressible energy of the music? I say this as, being a person from Yorkshire I do carry a true love of the land but the energy I feel from the place is more stoic, with an affinity for the grey skies and bleak moors (I doubt its coincidence so much doom has come from my region!)
Hex Ghoul: I was born and raised in Cornwall, and whilst I have lived elsewhere in the UK, I’ve since returned home. All four of us reside in Cornwall, in different areas, and all have an appreciation for the romantic nature of Cornwall’s history, foggy moors, ancient stones and witchy covens. I wrote the lyrics for the first Coffin Fodder release, but since then the concept of including Cornish folklore has been driven by Phlack Billip, who then goes to the next step by writing lyrical passages in Kernewek, the native language of the land, which is very cool. I tend to think of the song titles while writing the instrumentation, along with the general theme and vibe, but Phlack Billip takes that and makes it their own beast.
WTLS: From looking at credits it would seem that initially at least you were responsible for all the writing and performing in the studio. -That usually implies a certain contentment with being in sole control. What changed? Simply the desire to go out and perform this live? Are you still responsible for all the songwriting and is there any studio input from them?
Hex Ghoul: For the initial Coffin Fodder debut, I wrote and recorded everything myself without outside input. The intent was always to play live, with the ‘ultimate goal’ being to play some shows, release music people like and release some physical copies through a great label like Grime Stone Records, Sokol Keep, Crypt of the Wizard etc. I wanted to create it as sort of a mission statement, and felt that starting a band would be easier and more effective if I had some material down already. This debut kind of served as the backbone of our founding, and we play all of those songs live still. It then only took a couple months to recruit three other musical magi, and Coffin Fodder really came to life once they were involved. To reflect this evolution, I wrote and recorded the VVitchstorm EP, with lyrics and vocals from Phlack Billip, as well as creative input and ideas from Kowanden & Malignant Ted. I think the growth from the debut, to VVitchstorm, to Flay Thee Gatekeepers is apparent and is thanks in large part to my partners in magick! We’ve achieved the ‘ultimate goal’ I had for Coffin Fodder at the start, within the first five months… Everything else now is a bonus!
WTLS: After the compilation of your first two releases via Sokol Keep (shout out for such a beautiful artefact from them!) you have just released another EP ‘Flay Thee Gatekeepers’ with three new tracks, two remixes (including an insane ‘rave mix’ of The Beast Ov Bodmin… love it) and a fine cover of the Addams Family theme. I find in such a short space of time your sound has not just developed but the songwriting and arrangements grown almost exponentially (‘Mountain With The Visage Ov A Witch’ is an awesome example with a little almost stoner vibe creeping in to the bass on that). Do you feel like ideas are just bursting out at the moment or have some of these songs been gestating for a while?
Hex Ghoul: The cassettes from Sokol Keep are stunning, we were/are honoured and privalidged to be able to work with them! I also want to shout out Clerical Music, who took a chance on us in the U.S. and produced our first physical release in the form of Witchstorm EP cassettes, thank you so much! For me, the writing process is very spontaneous, I will think of an idea for something that might be cool, and then pick up a guitar and record; usually the first version of the song will be completed that day. I don’t tend to gestate on compositions, but instead strike while the iron is hot with a rough mental concept. The rest of our menagerie will then give feedback and suggestions, and Phlack Billip will pen some lyrics, followed by a vocal recording session. I’m currently in the process of writing for our first full-length, in which Kowanden will also be included in the performances, and Malignant Ted with have his malignant hands involved in the drumming.
WTLS: Were curses involved in gathering co-conspirators? Did you blackmail Phlack Billip or vice versa? Is it really nice to call Ted ‘malignant’? What orbs exactly does Kowanden machinate (I looked it up. It is a word)? Where did you find these wonderful ghouls? How do you justify the promoting of pointy hats? Important questions which need to be answered.
Hex Ghoul: I tried the usual route of joinmyband etc. to no avail, not that I really expected that to work. I was lucky in hearing from a friend that Kowanden was intrigued by my Magicks. Kowanden then happened to know Malignant Ted, then once there were three, an open invitation was answered by Phlack Billip. I’m honestly quite stunned that I was so lucky with the people I/we found; not only are they all great performers, but they ‘get it’ and have a great respect for the Coffin Fodder vision. I’m lucky; I’ve been in groups with some real chuds before. For pointy hats… I actually worry that Kowanden’s hat is not big or pointy enough, and that size absolutely does matter when it comes to hat-magick. Malignant Ted chose his own name, he’s a self aware kind of malignant entity.
WTLS: You appear to have been getting a few good gigs under your belts recently. Are they mostly around your own area of have you had the opportunity to terrorise people further afield yet? What types of bill do you play on as with your mix of influences I can see you fitting in nicely in lots of gigs? A serious one though – does the mix of humour (which is done so well btw, never overshadowing the music) mean you’re less likely to get on a full black metal ‘gosh we’re serious’ bill, or is that not something you think or worry about?
Hex Ghoul: We’ve been really lucky with being invited to great gigs; shoutout to Offworld Endeavours, who took a chance on us with our first show, we appreciate you! So far we’ve played two local shows and one further afield in Bristol. We have four more lined up, some local and some less so. We’re happy to play anywhere and bring Live Spellcasting™ to any venue that will tolerate us. We’ve played with punk bands, hardcore bands, doom/stoner bands… We’re scheduled to play a drag cabaret night soon, we love the variety of artists we get to share the stage with! We’ve also started incorporating backdrops of projected visuals at shows, courtesy of Dreadmore Collective, it looks super cool!
As far as the full, ‘true’ Black Metal bands and gigs go, if they want to have us, that’s awesome (unless they are NSBM, thanks but no thanks) but if they think we’re too silly and aren’t ‘true’ enough etc. then whatever. To me, Black Metal is inherently silly, much like metal in general – if you don’t want to accept that, and take the witch hats and screaming about wizards as extremely serious subject matter, we might not be what you’re looking for… But if you do want to take us really seriously, we also wouldn’t say no!
WTLS: On a very serious note – Coffin Fodder are very staunch supporters of inclusivity, no NSBM, no AI slop. All of which WTLS tries to adhere to. We can all have agency over our own actions, but is there a simple rule you follow that dictates how to react to unacceptable behaviour around you. Do you think Coffin Fodder contribute by simply being out there, gigging with a clear policy?
Hex Ghoul: We all stand for what we feel in our hearts is right, but we’re also open to hearing other perspectives and growing, to be more informed and better people. There are a few things we believe as hard fact; NSBM is gross, fascism is gross, ripping off art with generative AI as your output is gross, being intolerant is gross… We are not here for gatekeepers who think this type of music is only for certain people, fuck that. The real world at the moment is… really upsetting. We are a band that consists of non-binary, autistic, depressive, LGBTQ+, atheistic people, and it’s our prerogative to support eachother and be on the side of anyone undergoing persecution or discrimination against their very existence, by those people making the choice to be filled with hatred. Black Metal as a genre has a pretty problematic history, I like to think that we’re helping to ‘take it back’ from the supremacists in one way or another. We make our views clear on our Bandcamp, socials etc. So that anyone who finds our beliefs disappointing can move on quickly with their day.
WTLS Quick fire weirdness to go out on:
If Coffin Fodder were to do a set before a film was shown, or after, what would the film be?
Last vinyl you bought?
Do you like cheese?
Last new horror film you saw and enjoyed?
Trick or treat?
Hex Ghoul:
Film: The Addams Family Values
Vinyl: I Am a Vampire by Vampiric Coffin
Cheese: Mature Cheddar is sacred
Horror film: IT (2017)
Definitely treat, we like treats.
WTLS: Any last words? Please try not to make them a curse on me and my non-existent lineage…
Hex Ghoul: If you’ve listened to any of our blackn’d spells, seen any of our Live Spellcasts™, read all of this interview, we love you, stay trve, keep the magick alive! 🙏⚰️🦇
WTLS: Thank you so much for your time. And all the best for whatever mischief you get up to next.
Hex Ghoul: Thank you! We appreciate you!
Questions carefully posed by Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 