Lansing, Michigan based Summon has been around since the dawn of black metal here in the US. They are also considered one of premiere black metal bands here in the good ole US of A.. Experience what transpired when Metal Coven caught up with them recently after a show they played in my hometown of Caro, Michigan.

Xaphan: Hey, no problem. Thanks for your time.

Xaphan: I'm Xaphan. Guitar player/vocalist and one of the originators, as well as Necromodeus right next to me.

Necromodeus: Yeah, I'm Necro-kickyourass. Umm, I get fucked up as much as possible and try to get Summon around the world as much as possible. That's my job.

Xaphan: We just last year around this same time we had just got off tour with Excommunion and Thornspawn. We did 35 dates straight, just total fucking chaos. The Alcoholicaust Tour. My liver still hasn't been the same. Other than that, we've just been basically trying to write the new album. You know, just trying to be a little more uhhh, what am I trying to say? A little more thorough, not just settling for getting things done. We've been going through it with a fine toothed comb and making it as thick as possible, so that's the main thing. We're just trying to write our new album and show people what we're worth.

Necromodeus: It's Flatline Studio in I think Denver. Cerberus has recorded there as well as Cephalic Carnage. Everything should be good as long as our equipment can handle it. Summon's a trip. Another trip to make some more nonsense.

Xaphan: The last album we did was at Audiohammer but... we wanted to go back there but it just didn't happen, so we're going to Flatline. He wanted to do the last album so we were stuck with doing the James Murphy thing. Now he's making money now, so we're going to give him money to make a bad ass album, so fuck yeah!

Xaphan: The new album's going to be called "Fallen", It's all about the rebel of Angels and the whole descent... you know, the making of Heaven and Hell. And all about the Angels that didn't decide to choose and who became fallen. It's a kind of twist on the way I think of society and the normality that is considered normal I guess that we were to rebel against total anarchy.

Xaphan: It was with Thornspawn from Texas and Excommunion from Denver. Colorado that is. Sorry. It was awesome. About seven dates into it Thornspawn backed out of it, but us and Excommunion finished the whole tour. We did twenty five dates. It was all West coast. We went from like from Ohio down to Texas over to Mexico over to California all the way over to Seattle and Portland and shit like that then we worked our way back down to Denver. It was an awesome experience. It's the first time Summon ever went on the road for that long a time and we look forward to doing it way more and fucking up your town and fucking up your women.

Xaphan: Uh-huh. Correct.

Xaphan: Absolutely. Odin is probably one of the only people in the underground scene who's actually believed in what we do. I mean, we've been doing this since 1991 and by the time 1995 rolled around after the demise of Masochist... he actually wanted to sign us way back when but we were just so turned off by other record labels that we didn't do nothing. But now he's actually a firm believer in what we're doing and he sees nothing but promise in what we're doing, and that's what we need. We want someone... a label who's not just wanting to put out an album and make money. We want someone that believes in what we're doing and someone who's ready to take it to the next level, you know?

Necromodeus: Hahaha, Odin's been like a god to me. He's done everything I've asked him to do. He's taken Summon to another level already. Summon ain't shit, ain't gonna be shit, and he's made us the shit that we are. I mean not musician-wise, but like as far as the label I think Odin's done a great job and I just praise to that guy because I've watched him grow to what he is today... what he was back then. Masochist was like his first love, and that still isn't out yet. Hahahaha, I don't want to say nothing about that but... It's been advertised for like seven years, dude. And someday you know, it might come out. But it might not. But it doesn't matter right now because he's supporting Summon and that's really all that matters right now. Masochist has been dead for years now, ya know. I praise everyone that did that back in the day, and I praise what we're doing now. That's all that matters to me is what we're doing right now. It's 2004 and we've got a long ways to go, but we're still trying to get up in there.

Xaphan: Oh, yeah.

Necromodeus: Blackened Moon was started back when Masochist was getting started then it's evolved. It's now... ten demos out. I'm taking the Spaniards... everything in Spain because Spain is where it's at right now. Ummm, as far as everything coming out, when it came out it just came out because nobody would release Summon. They didn't have the guts, or you know I mean, you know, the only things that came out of Summon were only as good as they could come out, but that's a lot of musicians makin' what's happenin'. Now today is what's coming out and living Blackened Moon, I'd love to put out the new Summon album just because the new album's going to fuckin' kick everything's ass!

Xaphan: The main thing is that we could do that with Blackened Moon and it'd be awesome, but it would be limiting the fans where they could get access to it, ya know. Odin's got connections and he believes in us and we believe in him. As far as Blackened Moon, it's more of like a burning underground scene. Not the bands that want to be big time but just bands that want to make good music. Basically Blackened Moon ends up supporting Summon on the road and we release bands like... what's he done? We've did Sauron, a band from our town and Shemhamphorash, Dark Faith. All kick ass old-school fuckin' black metal.He's going to be putting out my solo project which he may be playing on a couple of tracks. In the end, Blackened Moon supports Summon and that's our main goal.

Xaphan: I heard he's in Saginaw stripping in a Tu-Tu for all of the lovely gay community which he loves.

Necromodeus: Oh, he's a fag. This is Necro, and this is all for you, Duke. I have nothing against you or anything that you ever done. You know, you got your life to do with...

Xapahan: (Interrupting). He owes a lot of people money and he hasn't given them their shit!

Necromodeus: I want my CD's, dude. That's all I want. My CD's. After you give me my CD's, go rot, dude. Serious, fuck off!

Xaphan: We know who Duke is and a lot of other people know who he is and he's a piece of shit and owes a lot of people money. We're the only band that's willing to say that, so fuck you.

Xaphan: Oh, yeah.

Xaphan: Well the main thing is like, ever since the beginning of what Summon's ever done we've always been compared like to say... Like we always used to wear the makeup and do the whole fire breathing and blood spitting. You know... the fucking blasphemy that nobody could handle, and they always compared us to being like a death metal band that wore makeup or being a grind metal band that wore makeup. You know, I don't care about the whole imagery of black metal. It could die off for all I care. The thing that I care about is there is old school shit that I grew up on and that's what I'm fucking bound to do. It's what I want to play, It started with Masochist and just evolved. You know, definitely things have changed. Our shit used to be really primitive, but it's just the elevation of the band and if people don't understand the fact that we can't always play the same thing over and over and we need to evolve as musicians then they need to find some other poster child for black metal or whatever because we're not it.

Xaphan: Right.

Necromodeus: Next album's thrash, butt-fuckin' death metal, black metal, everything all in one.

Necromodeus: Yeah, check it... I'm the fucking back door man! What? Brown Eyed Girl? That's like my favorite song in the whole world.

Necromodeus: I'll tear your brown eye and make ya black and blue.

Necromodeus: You could choke on it, it's big. That's a cool thing.

Xaphan: Ummm, it's going to be just as tight as the last one with really precise precision on it. We've got our new guitar player now, Diseasus Christ. This guy is fucking insane on the harmonics and melodies...

Xaphan: Yeah, the bald guy. Tall guy.

Necromodeus: He's the Analizer.

Xaphan: Oh my god, this guy is like my hero.

Xaphan: Oh, yeah. We all do that, you know what I mean? It's like we're always up there playing 110% and when people aren't into it we just like get in their faces and be like "Fuck you!" if you don't like it, ya know. We'd rather totally alienate ourselves from the crowd if they're not digging it or totally indulge in bringing them in to what we're doing, ya know. If they can't handle what we're doing, we don't care. We're not going to change what we do in any sense to try and make people enjoy us more or think we're the shit or whatever. We know what we like is old-school metal and that's what we're trying to do, ya know. We're not trying to follow a trend. We're not trying to follow anything. This is what we've did for years on end and it's going to go for years on end as well. It's just ahh.. ya know, this album is totally going to blow us up, or we're just going to stay a cult band, it doesn't matter to us. We could be huge and fucking touring all over the planet and majorly known like Lamb Of God or something. But in the same sense I don't like just being known as a cult band that has been around for years. I just wanna stay true to what I think metal should be, and everybody else as well. That's all I care about. Fuck trends and fuck everything else.

Necromodeus: Fuckin' A!

Xaphan: Well, it's like... the whole album is like we didn't change much of... When we did "No Thoughts From The Sky" we were like in a whole different mindset. We were all kind of seeing what we were capable of and what worked and what didn't work. That album kind of ended up becoming more of a demo of like where we wanted to go really. So when we did "And The Blood Runs Black" it was more like "Let's get back to what we started out doing". We're not trying to do this aggressive intent death metal/black metal assault or whatever you wanted to call it. It was more about just trying to be true to how we felt about music, you know what I mean? It was more like getting back to roots. We're firm believers that all these trends and everything, a lot of bands just try to sound like other bands. We're not trying to sound like anybody, we're just trying to incorporate what we like as musicians and what things have influenced us, you know. It's like people can say we sound like so and so and we sound like so and so, but it's all genuine influence and not trying to be fake and trying to sound like these bands. We love what this whole genre of what we're trying to create. That's what we love, that's what we like to play, that's what we're born to play and it just comes out. Anything else would be false. Our original stuff was just simple black metal and all that, ya know. And that's what we were doing at the time, but now we're embracing all our influences that we grew up on. It's like if it's death metal, if it's black metal, if it's thrash metal... who cares? This is what I was raised on and this is what I believe. And I don't think black metal should be simply categorized as that because you know the main band that people try and emulate as a black metal band being Bathory, they originally called themselves a death metal band. I just think the categorization of a lot of shit kind of overshadows a lot of shit, you know?

Xaphan: Hahaha...

Xaphan: James Murphy is someone I grew into and admire because I grew up listening to him like being in Death and him being in Obituary and Cancer and so on. Beyond that I really kind of lost interest. I never really listened to any Disincarnate, ya know. I knew he was an amazing guitar player and I knew he had a lot of things happen to him when he was wanting to reinvent himself. So I was open to that, ya know. I was open to the fact of working with someone I had grown up listening to and kinda idolized. So when I had ideas as far as guitars, it was nice to have James sitting there saying "Hey, how about this? How about that?". You know, it was really cool to work with someone that I admired. I wouldn't necessarily say I'd work with him again just because it was kind of ... he didn't really know what the studio was about that he was working in and it seemed to kind of stammer us up. We're a band that just likes to "Bam, bam, bam" knock it out. Like I usually take one or two takes on vocals. I'm not one that takes 20 tries to get it down, it's like one, two, three and I'm done. It just seemed like it stammered up or slowed up a bit with him, but the overall experience with working with him was just amazing. He's just a fucking phenomenal guitar player and I have nothing but praises for that guy because he brought something out of me on that album that I never knew I had. He's really cool.

Xaphan: Well, I've grown up like obviously as far as metal and thrash goes with the classics like Bathory, Venom, Slayer, old Testament and fucking Nuclear Assault. I just love the old thrash element. The things that made you feel good about what you heard. I really liked the darkness of what Bathory made you feel or like Darthrone. Really cold and uncaring metal. I kinda have a mixed feeling about the whole new Mayhem thing, ya know. But... But I also in the same breath I love the old school thrash metal/blackened thrash style. I love that, that's like my main influence. I also like a wide variety of music. I don't just listen to black metal, you know. I listen to like everything from early Pink Floyd in the Syd Barrett days to like, I'm really into like 1967 to 1969 British psychodellia metal. Ya know, I say "metal", but it's not really metal, know what I'm saying? My side project reflects a lot of that. I'm really into the whole experimental end of... you know... I actually think at some point Summon will release an EP where like half of the whole album is improv. It's a wide break from what we normally do, but I think if we do it the right way we're not going to alienate anybody. They're just going to embrace it because it's like it's a crazy improvisational kind of thing.

Xaphan: As far as metal, I don't really listen to much, man. The new Vital Remains is really good other than Glen Benton being on it. I love Order From Chaos kind of shit. I'm more into like... I guess... I'm into good music. I could care less if it's death metal or black metal or polka music. I don't care. As long as it's fucking good I'll fucking listen to it, you know. That's the main thing. I don't listen to a band and want to do what they're doing necessarily. I more or less listen to how they try and portray their riff and hold changes and everything. That's what I'm more interested in. Being an artist is amazing. That's the only thing that's carried me to being creative, you know? I'm not the most talented fucking musician at all, but I feel that I'm a very creative person and I can express that. That's basically what Summon has allowed me to do is just be creative and not judge. You know, there's a whole media out there that wants to classify and put us into a certain category. All we are is just a band that plays total fucking chaos. Metal. That's it. It's thrash metal, it's black metal, everything because that's what we're into. You think it's grind, that's what we do. That's what we're into. We're more into the emotion and feeling of it rather than the whole credibility of it.

Xaphan: Qurothon to me was like... When I first heard "The Return", I totally fucking flipped out. It blew my mind because it was like... I thought "Man, how can somebody come across so fucking evil sounding on this album? You know, from all I've read I get that it was from the vodka he was drinking at the time, but he had a concept that he started then that bands now still try to portray. And they feel that what he had done wasn't the end of it, it was a whole beginning. To me, his passing sucks. I even liked the stuff he did that wasn't black metal. "Hammerheart" and stuff like that. I love all that old stuff.

Xaphan: Yeah, the Quorthon stuff was a little flaky. A little too much sounding like Alice In Chains and being a fag. I love Alice In Chains, but Quorthon doing it just didn't work. Quorthon needed to be singing about stuff like Satan. His first three albums to me are the most influential on me. When I heard "Under The Sign Of The Black Mark" I went insane. The same effect as when I first heard Dark Throne's "Under A Funeral Moon". Those albums to me are like... If I could put out something that's feels that cold, but with also that much passion to it, I've done something. That's what I'm aiming for is to make something that classical.

Xaphan: Yeah.

Xaphan: The old demos are getting to be released actually on Moribund Records because that's how we first me Odin was when we were in Masochist back in 1992/1993. There was only a couple of years when Masochist was actually around but we were like one of the first US black metal bands that actually did the makeup and spikes and were like fuck the whole view of... We were a very, very negative band. It was a fun experience, but I think as far as like being able to tour with that again, I don't think it could ever happen. The original singer has gone through a lot of personal shit. He's released stuff as Winds Of The Black Mountain, which is cool. But I think as far as us ever trying to do something, it's just not going to happen. You know, the original drummer from Masochist was on the first two Summon albums, and it was just... that was the time. It was two or three years of our lives that felt like a lifetime. I don't think we'd ever go back and try to capture that at all.

Necromodeus: Red Shed Heads.

Xaphan: You know, the funny story is the last time I was here, I fucking impaled myself with a fucking nail! In my thumb. I was being a drunk ass. We played a show... it was particularly fun. It was an awesome experience.. We brought a keg on-stage and we were just being the belligerent drunks that we are. I was being a stupid ass out on the fire they had in the back and I was throwing pieces of wood into the thing and I actually impaled my thumb with a huge fucking nail that basically... sucked really fucking bad. Hahahaha. I had to get a tetanus shot and all that good shit, but it was an awesome experience and we came back and obviously we rocked it out tonight. We're just going to do that all over the fucking world. If you like it, cool. If not, you can fuck off and die.

Xaphan: You know, I've been supporting bands since the late 80's. Bands Lucifer's Hammer and Sinister Black. These are all bands that I grew up admiring, you know.

Xaphan: No, they split up. Well actually, they haven't played in two years is the main thing. I grew up on bands like that, and our drummer grew up on bands from his area and the scene is just kind of disintegrated into people who focus on themselves instead of the scene. It's kind of sad, you know. The only bands that we play with that we feel are supporting what we do is bands like Sauron from our area, a kick ass thrash metal band. Sado Masochism, Project Apocolypse. You know just random bands here and there. The scene has really taken its toll and is kind of dying out. I wish there was more people that support it, but ya know. You work with what you got, right?

Josh: Pretty good. What the fuck you doing? Drinking Jack Daniel's?

Necromodeus: Real good!

Xaphan: I think it's that if you mimic to the... that what we do is not ripping off anybody, it's what we do. There's bands out that sound similar to us. I still think we offer something to the whole metal community. A fresh breath of air for metal. You know... you've heard it, but you've never heard it done as we do it. It's something that ten years from now it's going to matter as opposed as something that just is done and doesn't matter.

Josh: Yeah, everyone likes it. Everyone comes up to us and says "Hey, what's up with the Fuck You song? Well, we do it because we just want to go up and have fun, you know. We want to have fun just like everyone else. Half the metal bands out there are just like so straightforward and trying to be all metal and shit. Well, you know... We're just out there having fun. You know rock it and have fun with everybody else.

Xaphan: Oh, that's got something to do with it, but there'll be five thousand people there and we'll still tell them to fuck off. *Laughs* The main this is like the whole metal scene takes themselves way too fucking seriously. Just about. To me it's about playing what I grew up on and having fun.

Xaphan: Right. Hahaha... Right, right. Exactly. I mean, there's so many bands out there... I want to say the early black metal scene in the early 90's. They pay homage to themselves for being so evil but they lost the fact of having fun in metal. Metal's fun, know what I mean? You look at it the right way, it's fun and having a good time and expressing something. In my sense, I wanted to do something that I have a good time doing and not play something that I feel I have to play. I want to play what's true to me, and that's all that matters.

Diseasus Christ: I just come in to say "Hi".

Xaphan: How about "Fuck you?". You know what? If you want to hear some trendy ass metal that you've already heard, don't buy our album. We don't care about you. All we care about is what we're fucking doing.

Diseasus Christ: If you're going to come to the show with your boyfriend, fuck your boyfriend.

Xaphan: That was Diseasus. Diseasus likes the fuckin' girlfriends. But, we definitely are on the verge of creating something massive and if you're part of it cool. If not then fuck off and die.

Josh: Necro's talking about his cock.

Necromodeus: Lord Helmet!

Shawn: There's something about a live show that just makes you love a band. You see them live they got the energy you know.

Xaphan: Yeah, a lot of bands sound better live than when you hear them on album.

Shawn: Right.

Shawn: You guys have an awesome live show. Seeing you throughout the years, it makes you wanna get going, but a lot of people fucking get burned out going to see a bunch of motherfuckin' bands...

Xaphan: Because they don't fucking deliver, that's the problem, man! You got all these fucking shit ass bands. All they're saying "Yes we're this and yes we're that" and they don't deliver. They're playing some shit you've already hear and who gives a shit about that? You want something that'll rip your face of and make you go "God damn it, I'm going to go kill my old lady to this shit".

Shawn: What band do each of you just, you can never get enough of seeing them live?

Diseasus Christ: And they're not around anymore! All these bands call themselves fucking black metal nowadays and they're fucking homo.

Xaphan: Blasphemy, Beherit, Bathory, Venom...

Josh: We're Summon metal. We're soft hardcore ballad rock, right? Hahahaha...

Necromodeus: From Michigan!