Lava Abyss, featuring Mike Poggione on bass, sees their debut album, “Sacrificial Ritual of Primordial Fire”, being reissued and Myth of Rock doesn’t waste any chance to talk with Sergestus Baytalaal (guitars, vocals). In a long conversation about many topics, you can understand that Sergestus isn’t the typical musician, who will give the expected, boring answers! It’s time for some … plague metal, as Lava Abyss calls their music!
by Dimitris Zacharopoulos
When and under which circumstances was Lava Abyss formed? Give us a short biography of the band.
After ten years of playing and composing songs in the death and technical death metal, I realized that there are some barriers to the width of the spectrum of presenting the mood of the composer exclusively through death metal, at least the music that comes out of me is more correctly displayed through blackened death, which we call plague metal
How is the band affected by the fact that Mike Poggione is a well-known musician in the extreme metal genre (of Monstrosity and Vile fame)?
He is a very cool musician and you won’t find such bass players in the direction in which we play and every time after recording it is very interesting to listen to our new mixes as it often turns out very unique, and soon we will develop this unique sound and development on the basis of the Lava Abyss itself.
Which is the relationship between the members of Lava Abyss?
Mike is my very, very good friend for about ten years now, we have very similar music tastes
and life views, this makes the process of creating music even efficient.
Why did you choose the name “Lava Abyss” for the band?
This is the inner flesh of the earth, the primary, what gave and gives the opportunity to continue to provide conditions for any form of life on earth and at the same time the most destructive thing that can be, red-hot rocks and metals, boiling, seething, dancing tornadoes with a temperature of tens of thousands of degrees. This is what drives me. I believe that the lyrics and any titles that any band extracts into the vastness of music libraries should be sincere and if the musician does not believe it, then there is no point in hearing it because the meaning of the message becomes false.
Your debut album, “Sacrificial Ritual of Primordial Fire”, was released in 2021 and it’s now published on CD via Archivist Records. Can you tell us the story behind the release of this first Lava Abyss album?
There were three stages of recording this album, I recorded the first demo myself, then pre- production and the final recording in the studio, some parts were cut, some were added. Mike recorded his bass waves remotely and we finalized and solved the recording issues over distance. It was a very interesting process. I’m waiting for when we will write a full-length album again as for a long time now, we have a vast amount of material to record.
How do you feel about this debut album now? If you had the chance, would you change something to it now?
Listening to it now I can say that I am happy with the recording and composition, you can always change something, but with a decades of experience in music creation I realized that the composition cannot be ideal for the composer if you constantly hone on it as you have to stop in time, or it will not be realized at all. I have about 40-60 unrealized tracks because I was not completely happy with them or not even simply recorded, but now we will record these deposits. All groups can have bad and tasteless songs, and as a rule, the more songs, the lower the percentage of quality of the songs can occur in general.
Why do you call your music “plague metal”?
We reproduce compositions through the sound of death and black, we call it directly: Black
Death, just like the plague was called in the medieval times.
What do the lyrics of your songs refer to? Do you try to convey any messages to the
listeners?
The main message is that man is insignificant in relation to nature and despite the amazing coincidence of evolution, we must benefit everything that we have conquered and not thoughtlessly destroy it. This is not a call to any action! My lyrics are a post factum that everything is going to the bottom. This big anthill will soon have to use the bodies of its own colonies, since other species will die out. Wars are inspired by stupid religions and the interests of power as resources are disappearing due to the short-term intentions of greedy insignificant, primitive-egoistic “individuals”. The thirst for power will destroy all living things.
How is a typical song of Lava Abyss composed?
The birth of a typical song of Lava Abyss is usually born by the sound in my head after which I rewrite it in any form….record audio voices, record tablature, notes, and describe verbally what sounds I hear in my head. But the true creativity is born during the real suffering of the composer. I hope we will start recording soon those compositions that made me suffer or vice versa-those that conveyed my suffering, in which mental worlds are embedded, no matter how pathetic it may sound.
Do you try to avoid clichés, when writing music and lyrics?
Judging by the question, you probably noticed that the lyrics of Lava Abyss are not typical. Yes, you are right, in my style, there will be no standard songs about stereotypical metaphysical presences of death, distorted quotes from the bible, or even worse-just a set of “dark awesome words”, I do not think that the bible or another false book is worthy of attention. Satanism has become fashionable, and most performers do not believe in what they sing. I myself, like this dark theater, but I prefer the real world as it is much more brutal and darker than those created…..although I can admit that I am a big fan of some albums dedicated to this topic. But I do not see the point of repeating what has long been said and so that it is better not to repeat it again. I am still interested in new performers, but 99% of them carry the same idea, but still some manage to create new worlds. These are those who believe in what they sing about and know how to display it through musical works. This is real creativity and what is worth striving for!
Have you ever toured as Lava Abyss? Which is your plan for live shows?
We haven’t played a single concert with this project yet but I really hope that it will happen in the near future as it will be an exciting event. I think that we will start performing after the next album, which we will start recording after the single “Tephra Horizons”.
Have you written any new songs for your next album? If yes, how do these songs sound? When should we expect a new album from you?
I have been writing songs constantly since 2004 and only about 10% have been recorded. Right after the release of the first album, we prepared a demo for the second album of seven
songs, but because of the attack on Ukraine, the work on the new album has been postponed. However, very soon we will start recording it and once again it will be unique in all possible aspects.
How did the pandemic affect you as persons and as a band? What about the war against Ukraine?
Covid only helped to record the album, everything was closed and nothing prevented us from focusing on recording and producing this release.
What can not be said about the war… Forever changed the lives of Ukrainians, at least this generation, since the war with our ungrateful neighbors has been going on for more than 900 years, just under different flags, initially it was the Tatar-Mongol yoke in alliance with the exiled so-called tsars expelled from the territory of Ukraine, (Kievan Rus) at that time. After these events, of course, we will never play on the territory of this country or do any business, since 99.9% of them are zombified by television illustrations depicted by propaganda for a false presentation of reality inside Ukraine
Which are your ambitions for Lava Abyss?
The main reason for living
Send your message to the fans!
Don’t be fooled by trends, listen to those you believe. Don’t let the fake industry penetrate metal, this is our last truth.
