- In February/March 1998 our two guitarists had to leave due to a lack of motivation, they simply were not willing to invest the necessary time and energy any more; this makes me the only left member from the first day on! The actual constitution of our majestic communion nowadays is: Stefan Müller (keyboard, 27); Christoph Mertes (drums, 27); Marc Barbian (guitar, 19); Patrick Meyer (guitar, 18); Michael "Jones" Jonas (bass, 22) and me, Chris Anderle (vocals, poetry and management, 27).

- The new epic is entitled "Fallen Angel's Symphony" and CACOPHONOUS have released it on the 22nd February 1999. The recordings took place during August/September and we mixed it at the famous Danse Macabre Studios in October which led to a killer sound that is more dedicated to extreme Metal again, a better respect to the compositions on this opus. The epic lasts 54 minutes and especially the guitars are less Gothic but more Death/Black. Of course the new material still has this for us typical darkness and symphonic mood with many eerie, dramatic or romantic interludes evoked mainly through synths/orchestration; driving drums and a pulsating bass can also be heard. The vocals consist of many different facets, screams, grunts, narrations, whispers, two chicks singing and speaking...very horror-like anyway. On "Symphoni Satani" for example you can hear a choir with 14 voices, this song is a keyboard track with kettle drums and chants, a reminescence to "The Omen" soundtrack or "Carmina Burana".

The tracklist for the new opus: Babalon ascends; Death in Desire's Masquerade; Bride's ghostly Grace; Black Roses on Her Grave (Desdemona's Secret); Bleeding October Kiss; The Tragedy of forsaken Angels; Amidst crimson Stars; Devil's Paradise; Symphoni Satani; Vampyresque Weddingnight (Moonlight Love).

- The most significant aspect for our style is probably this special combination of so many different genres which we combine to a floating union (Black, Goth, Death, Darkwave, classics, soundtracks, Heavy...).

The individual influences vary a lot though there is certain stuff we all like to encharm our ears, senses and spirits through in common. Let me name THERION, IRON MAIDEN, CRADLE OF FILTH, SLAYER, CARCASS, EMPEROR, JUDAS PRIEST, LIMBONIC ART, MORBID ANGEL, KING DIAMOND, DEATH, BAL SAGOTH, METALLICA or old ENTOMBED here; some members prefer technical stuff (DREAM THEATER) whilst others are more keen on Death/Black or Heavy Metal and there's also appearing classical (Beethoven is God!) or soundtrack music in our playlists. Besides this musical enchantment we (mainly I) also get a lot inspirations through books and movies or by our individual dreams, visions and emotions.

We have many classical elements in our music, a very important aspect which evokes this ANCIENT CEREMONY-typical dramatic and symphonic mood.

The big advantage with ANCIENT CEREMONY is that we - in contrast to sooooo many other bands - never limited ourselves to this or that specific style (brutal Death, Scandinavian Black, fast Thrash etc., like band X, Y or whatever), we simply create the dark tunes which represent ANCIENT CEREMONY! This unlimited way of creating makes us and our compositions, our artwork, my poetry and so on something special and superior.

- My lyrics are written in a highly individual and very poetical way with many allegories, symbolisms, alliterations or adapted quotations for example. I get inspired to them by literature (Shelley, Byron, Stoker, Poe, Crowley, Nietzsche, deSade, LeFanu, Baudelaire, books on occultism, Satanism, Magick, mythology...), movies (Omen, Interview with..., several Draculas, Haunted, Princess Snow-White...all such dark horror stuff) as well as music (classical, dark stuff mainly) and I adapt facets of those influences and combine them with my main motivation for writing such as my imaginations, my phantasy, my spirit, my dreams, my desires, my evocations, my decadence and the likes.

"Under Moonlight..." features a concept-story centered by a tragic Vampyre romance full of dark passion, revenge and mysticism. I already used such themes back in late 1993 when writing the lyrics for the MCD title-tack "Cemetary Visions", a time in which such topics were to 99% used in the Goth-scene. Hence the poetical work for our debut full length is undoubtfully no trend shit besides the fact that I am too vain, individualistic and excentric to create only cheap copies or such crap. I do not like the way too many silly bands abuse the fascinating Vampyre thing, they know nothing about the the roots or the psychological and historical backgrounds for example and simply try to be "evil" by presenting us the image of a stupid bloodsucking monster. I prefer to shit on those fakes instead of granting them a small piece of respect.

The lyrics on the symphony of the fallen angel deal with different topics such as Satanism, occultism, Gothic horror, ghosts, mythology, Vampyres or angels, moreover I have used or adapted certain quotations/citations from for example Milton, Crowley, the Templar knights (13th/14th century), Shelley.

Cliche gore lyrics may be fine for bands that have a musical concept fitting to this, let me name for example AUTOPSY or CARCASS - but have never been a theme for ANCIENT CEREMONY...

- "Caine's Children born as Dragon's Seed, A new Lilith Pregnancy, Ready to rapture the Earth and the Seas, now bless the Prophet of the darkest Star, Most precious Gift to the Altar of Thine, is Blood of the, Weak, offered like Wine, Our Seal of Revenge is broken, the Slaves in Fear all flee, Their dying Screams - a Lovesong to our Tyranny

"Once I inspired the Judas Kiss, now resurrected from the deepest Abyss, Drink from my Chalice, the Origin of Sin and in Triumph and Glory we shall win!"

Enlighten me, oh Demon Whore, engulf me in Thy Magic, to spread the Crown of Daath, through Iadnah Mad, Mighty Empress of my Dreams, wed me as Khaos Bride, Flowers of Evil decorate our Bed in the Temple of the Serpent, The Gate of God decays whilst I kiss jewel-covered Breasts"

It is a long excerpt from the lyrics to the song "Babalon ascends" and I love it so much for it combines all things marking my individual style: dark poetry, superior spirituality, the Satanic philosophy, great images/metaphers, mythology, knowledge between the lines....

- Wow, that's indeed a cool idea but it never happen regularly. Our demo is only for those who could get one in time (so hurry up, there are still 4 copies left, haha) and furthermore it does not represent ANCIENT CEREMONY in 1999. When we recorded the stuff in February 1993 we really were satisfied with it and today still think it was a cool piece of art but of course you have to keep in mind when it was done and under which circumstances, with which budget and all that stuff. As "Where Serpents reign" definitely was an original, good output that time which was a positive first step for us into the underground of the international extreme Metal scene and as we even nowadays think it is a cool song we intend to put the opener "Journey through the Gates" on our next album, though it will appear there in version that fits the style ANCIENT CEREMONY have at the edge of the new Millenium, hence more brutal but also symphonic and bombastic.

- The tour went really fine especially if you keep in mind that I had only one week to learn the songs and lyrics...which are partly in Romanian! Furthermore we could never rehearse together but again, it was successful. The average number of people was about 400 and the conditions in the venues (catering, beer, stages etc.) were also cool.

I think their album is OK for a debut, there are far better and also far worse records out in my opinion. Luckily we only played the really strong tracks which are in the beginning and the end of the CD as the stuff in the middle is absolutely not good enough.

a.) darkness - One of the most intensive and challenging moods and constellation. I love it and its unique magic!

b.) depression - Nothing for me and my divine spirit!

c.) blood - The water of life has an immense power and outstanding meaning in Satanic and vampyric rituals (I practice)...and tastes fine.

d.) black magic - Helps me in becoming my deepest own God! Only for "chosen" people anyway...

e.) Holy Inquisition - Hate! Not only that they commited so many crimes against the people that became their direct victims, those fuckin' weak losers also destroyed so much wisdom and knowledge of ancient times to stengthen their feeble religion and hence commited sins to the following generations. I hate it so much, it is hard to describe!

- Well, KREATOR are actually in the studio to record a project work with "Gruftie-act" LACRIMOSA. I do not have any news about the other bands but like and own the old releases of SODOM, DESTRUCTION, KREATOR and TANKARD and hence have the first 4 albums as well as some rarities of each of these formations on vinyl.

The very first LP in my life was "Dracula" with the age of 4, first I cried as my mother did now want to buy it for me and after that my I almost filled my slip with piss because of fear, haha. The debut Metal record I bought was a BLACK SABBATH collection with the age of 13 but it sounded a bit too wimpy to me so that I did not fall in love with it except for the song "Paranoid".

- We have several ideas concerning the presentation of an original, dark show whilst doing our concerts. Those anyway are not so easy to finance and also hard to realise. We have for example worked with Sadomaso-chicks as dancers but do not know whether to use this in the future or not so I can not give too many details here and now besides the fact that we of course spread a lot of sombre energy and sinister engagement during our appearance on stage.

- I created this sentence to express with some words in a short, highly individual form what to me means the spiritual and philosophical essence of existence!

- The beautiful 'n sexy chicks, the beer, the Internet for free, the cool library and parties, haha!!!

- Many thanx for the cool questions and best luck with your publication! The very last copies of our 1993 "Where Serpents reign" demo are still available for 6 $, the MCD "Cemetary Visions" is 10 $ and those who can not find "Under Moonlight we kiss" elsewhere or want it with signatures, dedications etc. should send 18 $ to the band adress (all prices include packing and postage; delivery by surface, airmail + 3 $). People who just want to write or have certain questions should feel free to do so but no return postage means no sure reply. We have released two different own-produced T-shirts (one of them entitled "Seducing even Angels", the other one "Ancient Ceremony"; both high quality and XL size) which can be obtained from the band adress too for a price of 15 $ plus 5 $ postage.

Furthermore the darkest of all websites, the "official ANCIENT CEREMONY homepage" offers almost anything important and interesting regarding our majestic band, check it out at the new URL: www.ancient-ceremony.de! Enflame the Satanic candle wisely!!!