Discover the journey of Numidian Killing Machine, a band
that infuses Extreme Metal and Speed Metal. From hardships to triumphs, explore
their unique blend of history, dystopia, and their unwavering commitment to
their musical identity.
Congratulations on your recent full-length release! How does it feel to have your music out there for the world to hear?
At first it’s a deliverance, because we put a lot of effort
and energy into this release, we’ve been working on for a long time with many
difficulties that plagued us, but that’s a great feeling to have the metal
world discover our band and hear how we sound like, what we’re made of, and so
far we got a great positive reception upon release.
Numidian Killing Machine is quite an intriguing name.
Could you tell us about the inspiration behind the band's name and its
significance?
First of all i grew up with Judas Priest and the name is an
obvious reference to their album « Killing Machine », but this isn’t
the only reference, being a fan of old Bolt Thrower especially the three first
albums there are some tracks like « Profane Creation » whom the
lyrics inspired me deeply, i added Numidian to the name because we deal with
themes and topics of the antique history of Algeria when it was called Numidia,
wich isn’t talked about often in cultural works and artistic pieces.
L.I.V.V, as the driving force behind the band's
inception, what motivated you to start Numidian Killing Machine and blend
Extreme Metal and Speed Metal?
I was off from the metalscene for approximately 10 years
busy with many events, then i was done and resolved my professional goals i
returned to music, i wanted to from aproject that will honor all my musical
influences, because when i was with my Black Metal project in the past i
haven’t the possibility to do so, having a great number of bands and metal subgenres
i loved mainly in the old school such as German Speed Thrash to Black and Death
Metal so i went on with this new project.
The journey from auditions to a stable formation must
have been quite a ride. Can you share some memorable moments or challenges
faced during this period?
It was quite a difficult Journey because many of the
musicians in our scene are not familiar with dark or speed stuff, most of them
are based in melody like Iron Maiden and it’s derivative bands or whatever
mainstream stuff, in addiction to the misunderstanding and hate for Extreme
Metal because many think that it doesn’t go with our social traditions, but
they tend to contradict theirselves by playing oriental stuff wich really
doesn’t relate to the north african part of the continent we’re living in, the
first professional line up that pushed things forward featured Lamine A.
(Lead/Rythm Guitars), Abdou M. (Lead Guitars) (may he rest in peace), Abdou Y,
(Drums) wich played on my old band, in fact my comrade and friend Lamine A. was
supposed to join from the begining but he couldn’t because of his heavy
schedule so he finally joined around one year later, we worked for some time on
the songs but we couldn’t find a competent vocalist to perform the sound
exactly as they sounded so i decided to contact you for the vocal parts of our
album, a decision i’m far from regretting due to the amazing job you have done,
then after the passing out of our brother Abdou M, who done a great job, some
of his work is featured on the album by the way, i took the decision to replace
him with a new guitar player Fares B, wich is also a talented and professional
person, Abdou Y. left the country to pursue his own objectives led us to
recruite S.Blaster wich also played in my old band and other internationally
known bands such as yours namely Lelahell,
Your music is known to incorporate themes from Numidian
history, as well as fictional dystopian and post-apocalyptic futures. What drew
you to these particular themes for your lyrical content?
I had the idea to mix our Numidian history and the themes that
are related to old school Extreme Metal and also found on certain genres of speed
metal (first wave of Black Metal bands are also musically related to speed
metal) so i divided my lyrical concept in two parts, the first part is about
the Antique Numidian history and the events occuring back then such as wars,
alliances, known figures such as kings and sovereigns, as the second part takes
place in a post apocalytical future in a fictional land called Neo Numidia wich
features a chaotic evolution of events that lead to nearly total destruction.
Algiers, Algeria, isn't often associated with Extreme
Metal. How has your local environment and culture influenced your music and
artistic direction?
First of all and in contrary of my generation of metalheads
and musician i was more on European Metal than in U.S metal or the big four
thing, bands like Venom, Bathory as well as german Thrash bands wich many were
considered as Black Metal act with their early stuff such as Kreator, Sodom,
Destruction, had a maggior impact in my interest into Extreme stuff i landed up
on all this bands mainly because i was initiated to metal with bands such as
Judas Priest and Motorhead wich in their classic releases favored Speed stuff,
ieven loved European Death Metal and scandinavian Death Metal bandssuch as
Unleashed and Grave, nack in time it was difficult to find people who share the
same tastes as you on our environement mostly were on Cannibal Corpse like
stuff when it comes to extreme stuff, for the culture at first i didn’t
consider including local cultural elements on my old Band, but having extended
my knowledge in our Amazigh Chaoui culture and Numidian history i began aware
of what i could do with such historical concepts and ideas.
Could you elaborate on your songwriting process? How do
you approach creating music that incorporates such diverse themes?
As i always said, we are not a traditional metal band or a
band that include folkloric elements we’re a pure metal band and we’re not
considering changing our direction, so when writing a song that corresponds to
what we feel at the moment and of course corresponds to the genre we’re in, we
listen to it and try to get it as one with a specific thematic of our concept,
if it corresponds to a historical fact or an imaginary adaptiation of a story, in
the album tracklist we tried to maintain a certain homogeneity throughout the
songs, some are brutal others less and some are mid tempo or slow paced, of
course we can do far more extreme and brutal than this but we aren’t feeling
about it right now.
Mixing Extreme Metal and Speed Metal is a unique combination.
How do you balance these genres to create your distinctive sound?
It is clear that we put a step forward into honoring our
influences and paying musical tribute to bands that made us what we are now and
this combination of styles is more than appropriate to do so, by Extreme Metal
we mean subgenres such as Death and Black Metal, we take the energy of both
this genres to recreate for example a brutal battle that lead to tragic events
as well as athmospheric and dark stuff, Speed Metal intervene in the way the
songs are fast paced with alternate and tremolo picking and this element is
present on all the songs thus creating a certain homogeinity, wich give you the
auditive sensation that all genres are working together as one entity.
Tell us about a specific track from your recent album
that holds significant meaning to the band and the themes you explore.
If i had to choose a track, i’d go with « BLOOD AND
IRON – THE REBORN KREATION » because it works a s a summary of our concept
and music, it relates historical facts of the past and their projection in the
post apocalyptic future, and the track is also an excellent opener to the album
and an introduction to the band.
Your lyrics delve into Numidian history. How do you
research and incorporate historical elements into your music in a way that
resonates with your audience ?
I’ve read many books about our history in particular, and
never miss an opportunity to go to the Auressian landscape, i’m there on every
celebration of the Amazigh new year « Yennayer », i learned a lto
from the population there and the nature, i sat there on the highest peaks of
the Auressian mountains observing from a far the ancient Numidian ruins
imagining a kind of soundtrack to all of that, you know it is difficult to get
all of this together when you’re into a pure metal act, every musician would
have gone into traditional and folkloric stuff with instruments such as
« Derbouka » and « Karkabou » or worse into oriental stuff
wich i consider a total lack of respect to our antique culture.
Then we have the second part of the work of the concept where we project all of
that in this post apocalyptical future thing, reimagining how those past
personalities are recreated, or the ideological remnants of their passage.
When it comes to our audience, we put many elements and influences in order to
make them feel home when they listen to our work, and by doing that they will
consequently develop an interest to our message, and sit there with the lyrics
to understand history, by the way on our lyrics that are mainly in english we
use some of the Chaoui variant of the Amazigh language wich is the closest
dialect to the Amazigh Numidian Language, well the audience definitely don’t
have to worry about our musical direction in the future we’ll stay faithful to ourselves
and our culture.
Dystopian and post-apocalyptic themes often reflect
contemporary concerns. How do you infuse these themes with your personal
perspectives and messages?
Of course we do so, we have this eternal wandering of «If
this remained like that » or the « If history continued as it
was »and this wandering led us to develop a lyrical concept based on
relativity on how we establish a relation between the thematics, and in every
lyric we find a role to ourselves in story, so the thematics are automaticly
infused by a personal view, we dont limitate ourselves to relate only what
happened, we also adapt it to our music and this creates a sufficient personal
view to the genre.
Musically and lyrically, who are some of your biggest
influences as a band?
Some old German Speed/Thrash such as (Old) Kreator,
Destruction, Exumer and mainly the so called first wave of Black Metal that musically
was mainly Speed Metal pushed to limits, with bands such as Venom, (Old)
Bathory, Sodom, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, (Early) Samael as well as second wave
sucha s (Old) Mayhem, (Early) Immortal, (Old) Emperor, Setherial, (Old)
Sacramentum, (Old) Dissection, we are also into old school death metal such as
(Early) Bolt Thrower, wich the three first albums are a significant influence
both musically and visually for the artworks, also Morbid Angel, Possessed, and
the mighty swedish Death Metal acts such as Unleashed, Grave, Dissmember, God
Macabre, Centinex, Sorcery.
Live performances are a vital part of a band's journey.
What can fans expect from a Numidian Killing Machine concert?
A lot of energy, and NO COMPROMISE !!!
Numidian Killing Machine's visual identity, including
album artwork and stage presence, is striking. How do you conceptualize and
execute these visual elements to complement your music?
Well i studied in hig school of arts in Algiers, and both of
my parents are in culture and arts and i got in touch with arts at an early
age, i also practiced photography and participated to some renowed exhibitions
so i was thinking about this concept since the early stages of the band
developpement, i had some difficulties with the past musicians trying to
explain them because you know, in our country, visual concept and image are not
understood among metal musicians due to their 90’s mainstream metal influences,
but this was resolved when we found the first official line up that allowed
this shoots and visual identity you saw, when talking about conceptualizing i
already have an image when i write the lyrics and the graphics are only a tool
to materialize the whole idea.
The Extreme Metal scene can be intense and demanding. How
do you manage to keep the creative fire burning and maintain a strong sense of
unity within the band?
Since we got into the first official line up that gave birth
to the album, every new member is carefully selected, for good level of
playing, his work, his dedication to the project and of course his musical and
mental maturity, for example our beloved departed brother Abdou M. was a great
example of courage, and even when he was overidden by the sickness he always
asked us about how the mix sounds and how he can help reworking his parts, and
he was considering participating more on the music even on advanced stages of
illness, that’s the kind of musician we always needed, and i think our new line
up fully understand this commitment, because despite all the difficulties we’ve
had, and i honestly think that we’re the Algerian band that holds the record of
difficulties over the years we managed to get it all together and finish this
release thus reaching a stage of stability, we lost time and energy with non
serious musicians that have no « Musical » discipline and we do not
have interest on « Social Media » musicians or individuals that only
talk for years about projects that never materialize and couldn’t even get it
into three rehearsals, this « Auto-Sufficient » phenomenon rendered
the Algerian scene inexistant in the international.
The music industry is ever-evolving, especially with the
rise of digital platforms. How do you navigate the challenges and opportunities
presented by today's music landscape?
Well, if it’s about the digital platforms, it helped us a
lot, and we got many encouragement messages and even messages from record
labels interested to sign us, and i think that continuing on that way can be a
very rewarding experience, in the past it was very difficult to distribute
one’s music if the project was in an independt circle, but now everyone can be
the record label of himself, except if you’re on pure metal and have an
inconditional love for physical copies or LP’s such as myself (laughs)
Collaboration is often a catalyst for innovation. Are
there any artists or bands you'd love to collaborate with in the future?
There are many artists and to be honest i don’t have
somebody in mind in particullar right now.
Looking ahead, what are Numidian Killing Machine's
aspirations and goals in the coming years?
For a start, a second release hopefully, show dates, touring (why not), and also growing our fanbase
Finally, is there a message you'd like to convey to your fans and listeners who are experiencing Numidian Killing Machine's music?
Enjoy what you’re listening without any moderation, otherwise it would elad to your termination (laughs), behalf of my bandi would like to give our special thanks to all those who supported us over the years and the difficult times, allthose who gaved a sense to our cause and music, and who definitely encouraged us to go further and never give up, cheers^^
FB : https://www.facebook.com/numidiankillingmachine
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/numidian.killing.machine/
Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/artist/2bTGNDH1dl81MdXjPkZo4h
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/@NumidianKillingMachine
Bandcamp : https://numidiankillingmachine.bandcamp.com/
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