09/09/07

Lightning swords of death are the best blackmetal band you’ve never heard of. Hailing from LA, they only recently finished a brief West coast tour of something like 5 dates. I got the privilage of seeing them destroy Portland last month (with about thirty other lucky folks) and talking with autarch the singer of LSOD about LA, drugs, and David Lynch.

ACTUAL PAIN: so first off, what inspires you lyrically?

autarch: There is something that is within me. It is the color that is darker than black and it smolders with contempt for all human life. It is older than lunar dust and In lucid states I can almost feel it slither into the less navigable chasms of my mind. It shows me impossible places and perverse events and then demands that I share it with those who would dare listen.

ACTUAL PAIN: I know you know a lot about religious cults and the origins of religion in general, what is your current opinion of the world’s belief in God, be it a Judeo-Christian God or otherwise?

autarch: There is no way to sum that up in few words. We are slaves within a great death giving vacuum with great potential if the noose is removed.

ACTUAL PAIN: What’s in the future for LSOD?

autarch: The spreading of this plague to more cities. We have new material that will be unleashed once the The Golden Plague haft run it’s course.

ACTUAL PAIN: Do you design all the artwork for the band?

autarch: Yes

ACTUAL PAIN: It is awesome, how long have you been drawing stuff like this?

autarch: I have been drawing since I was a little kid, always monsters.

ACTUAL PAIN: Your live shows are pretty chaotic, and rad. Has anything fucked up ever happened in the crowd or after a show? Like, do people get pissed and fight at your concerts?

autarch: We have witnessed some bloodletting that bordered on self mutilation. There was an incident where members of the audience followed blood letting with the destruction of currency in the form of a fire kindled by money and credit cards at our feet. A friend of ours heard one of the security guards ask a girl to put out her cigarette while he stared blankly into the flames.

ACTUAL PAIN: that’s rad. was that in LA?

autarch: indeed

ACTUAL PAIN: does LA rule or what?

autarch: It is full of evil.

ACTUAL PAIN: david lynch sure fucking thinks so.

autarch: Yes, his last two films were chillingly accurate right down to the most strange elements. Inland Empire only played for one night here.

ACTUAL PAIN: i thought it was awesome too, one of his bests to date. I just wish he’d film more shit up here in the woods.

autarch: yes, the owls are not what they seem.

ACTUAL PAIN: What does LSOD do to unwind? To “party” so to speak?

autarch: We are all different in our habits. Only for myself can I speak, and I have a grand appetite for all things. My use of hallucinogenic though has been reserved for ritual use only… I like bloody marys.

ACTUAL PAIN: ever smoke salvia divinorum?

autarch: Yes, I prefer DMT, but it is scarce and I can procure that 10ft from my door. Yoga is better.

ACTUAL PAIN: what’s the strangest or most interesting trip you’ve had?

autarch: I had what Crowley describes I think as the wisdom of the holy guardian angel. It was very long conversation with a towering gold skinned humanoid in a language I cannot describe or produce in this plane. What we talked about is the source of a great deal of LSOD’s material.

ACTUAL PAIN: that’s awesome.

autarch: ROSKVA has been killed and brought back on two occasions and had a very similar experience.

ACTUAL PAIN: Hails autarch, anything else before I post? Final words?

autarch: With this infernal machine they shall feed it the souls of slaves until the earth is a world of shells, yearning to be filled with the black flame of freedom.

ACTUAL PAIN: ok, thanks!

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