The Violent History of Ancient Egypt
SPHYNXS ·
This Saturday, SPHYNXS are playing at Rosettas. We stumbled across them on Bandcamp by chance a while ago and were, of course, seriously impressed by the other releases on the Necro Invest label as well. At the same time, we suspected there might be some kind of satire involved. During the interview, however, I learned that this is the real deal.
Q: Who are you, really? What kind of background do you have? What other bands have you been involved with?
A:
Cobra Corpse
Father Pharaoh
Snake Pilssner
We come from Norrbotten and Dalarna. We started SPHYNXS in 2005. We have played in many different bands, but all of that is irrelevant.
Q: When you started Sphynxs, did you have a particular idea of what you wanted it to be, and if so, what was it? Or was it simply something that came as a revelation?
A: We wanted to play raw and ultra-direct music where everything is according to our rules. That’s how we thought then, and that’s how we think now. Simple and hard. We were thinking about Chrome and, at the same time, Celtic Frost.
Q: The lyrics and song titles are interesting. It feels like satire, but at the same time it almost seems to come from a genuine fascination. Is that correct?
A: You can interpret it as satire, but that’s not how we see it. Venom means a lot to us. Is Venom a satirical band? Many people choose to see it that way. But that’s wrong. At least for us. Everything is open to interpretation, of course. It becomes more exciting if you choose not to dismiss everything that’s cool and over-the-top as nonsense, like the office society, Moderat-ansiktena, and the rest of square society tend to do. The theme has always been, and will always be, the violent history of ancient Egypt. An endless source of inspiration and a completely inexhaustible subject.
Q: Are you occultists?
A: No, we just play pure street metal with an extremely clear agenda. We aren’t black metal people who want to be alone in cold, dark spaces, light fires and want to be dangerous. Our music, lyrics and imagery are what we are. We’re probably more extremely dogmatic autists than occultists. Our only physical practice is SPHYNXS.
Q: Have you visited the pyramids?
A: Yes, several times. However, we haven’t seen them together. Yet.
Q: What do you think about this lost civilisation?
A: An endless source of inspiration and a completely inexhaustible subject!
Q: Tell us about Necro Invest!
A: It’s Cobra Corpse’s record label. We released both the debut KILLING FOR EGYPT (tape) and the follow-up DAWN OF EGYPT (LP) on Necro Invest because nobody else wanted to release them.
Q: A friend of mine said, “They’ve understood” when I played your record for him. “Some people have just understood, and you can hear it immediately.” Do you feel that way yourselves?
A: Your friend has understood.
Q: What are your plans for the future? Any out-of-town shows?
A: We’re playing in Gothenburg at Oceanen on Friday 21/8. After that, we have nothing else planned this year. We’re releasing two records on an English record label next year and playing a few shows there next year. Nothing else planned for next year.
