ScrapYard- Tjolgtjar. How did it get started? Where did that name come from?
Reverend- Tjolgtjar began in 1998. Only one tape was recorded, and never released. In 2001 it started again. Just something that never left my brain and needed to roam. The name comes from a certain mind trip I'll never forget, the souls that make up eternity, the past, present, and future all at once, evil flesh being the channeling lifeforce on this world.
SY- On MH, we?ve pretty much assumed the name is pronounced Jolg-jar. Are we correct in our thinking?
It was pronounced to me in another dimension as "toll-tar", like tollbooth and tar heel.
SY- Musically, who influences you? Particularly vocally (I mean, you have vocals from the bowels of hell!) and lyrically.
Musically, you have to go back to the psychedelic and rock stuff...and then to the same early black metal we all listen to, thrash, early 80s occult metal. Mix it all together and you'll find something similar to what I play. I can't ever list all the bands that influence me musically. It would take up too much space. Lyrically, it depends. On some recordings, they were done in trance state and I did them entirely in the language of the spirit, tjolgtjarium code. Other stuff is just about things I've experienced. The new album "Voices From The Center of Earth" deals with time and space travel, drug use, Satan, radio transmissions from the future, drifting through timeless light, demons that are corrupting wormholes, the world never ending, using dark magic for the benefit of all mankind, etc.. Vocally, I do what I am able to do. That's the only way to explain it. When doing my original music, I am not trying to be anyone but myself - and the living spirit host for the message of Tjolgtjar. A reviewer for a zine in Malaysia a few years back wrote that I had a vocal style like "an evil Donald Duck." I like that and am proud to be compared to him.
SY- Do you play shows? (When and where)? What kind of response do you draw? (Cheers, horns, do people throw things?)
I'd like to play a Tjolgtjar show but I highly doubt that ever happens. Tjolgtjar is just me, I play all the instruments and do all the vocals (and I realize that information is not in the new cd, which is the one you have.) Yes, another crappy one-man black metal band from the USA. The next recording will have the drumming of Burke from INVICTUS, I don't know if I'll play any drums on it, maybe a track or two. All the albums, including "Voices..." feature only me, myself, and the spirits of the dead. However, this question is not dead in the water! Luckily, I play guitar and scream for Blood Cult, which is similar to Tjolgtjar, because it's also black metal, but a much more old-school thrash kind of occult band. Anyway, all the shows we played from '96-'04 sucked and the crowds were for the most part shit. On the good side of playing this kind of music, the internet helps get it out a lot more. It is much better than it was 10 years ago. It is amazing to me that Tjolgtjar and Blood Cult both have more rabid female fans than male. Why? I can tell you it's not our looks! So I see a kind of opening-up, recently, more people coming into the fold and understanding the music and the messages. There was a day when most, even in the underground, wouldn't touch this kind of music, and now it's quite the opposite.
True metal used to be, in most cases, treated like it's Plague around here. We were quite a noisy, ugly, and crazy lot and I'm too mean for the kids. People also like to take advantage of bands, but we fucked every one of 'em over in the end. You promise us a good metalhead crowd and we get shit - then you're lucky if you don't end up with my diarrhea shit all over your stupid club. There were a few decent shows with local friends, but that's it, and we still weren't received all that well anyway.. I am bitter but I've been doing this for a while. We'll be playing more shows in the future, so ask me again --- and I'm sure the answer will stay the same. This is the underground, things are 95% shitty for the bands in it, but there's still that window of 5%...
SY- You have cool break downs and guitar riffs. Isn?t that atypical of BM?
Thank you. Spirits don't really care for anything that doesn't have some sort of hook in it. That works out well with Tjolgtjar, because fuck, I don't know about others, but I like to bang my head to shit. Taking the torch. Passing on the old headbanging music to everyone.....I'm not just in this for me, I have friends to answer to on the other side...
SY- What band would you REALLY like to play a show with?
Personally, Hank Williams Jr.
SY- Image or music? Which is more important to you?
Music, I feel that image has little place in underground music, but it sure does bring people in to the circle that wouldn't have noticed before. Many BM bands would say "FUCK IMAGE!!!" while wearing paint on their faces, spikes on their arms and using goatskulls as their cereal bowls. Fuck them.
SY- What do you think of the BM scene today? Where do you think it?s headed?
Headed nowhere. Too much of a clusterfuck. The scene is full of non-Satanic bands now. Some of us are still serious about our beliefs. Tjolgtjar deals with all evil spirits and their supreme Lord, which anyone on Earth would tell you is "Satan." Atheism, comedy, and sobriety in black metal - what is the point ? I am headed into Hell and back again, forever living and existing in a universe that cannot be destroyed, unequaled in power. That's all I care about.
SY- Where do you see Tjolgtjar going in the near (or distant) future?
Tjolgtjar will exist forever because Tjolgtjar has existed from the beginning. Tjolgtjar will continue after my death with the musicians of my choosing. This is a cult devoted to Death, ones who want to see if Gods exist, people who don't mind leaving this shit we call "reality" (which actually is the furthest thing from reality) behind. To enter the mental and spiritual states I've been in...it's been a great blessing, bestowed upon me by the Ancients.
There are plenty who have seen, can see, and will see. I am God, but so are you if you'd like to be...It's a throne the intelligent can sit upon...watch the sheep follow one another into the slaughterhouse.
SY- Any closing remarks?
The new album is out on Illinoisan Thunder (www.geocities.com/illinoisanthunder) and there's a split with Raw Hatred and Vampyro on the way. The next album will be out soon after that I'm sure. Other Tjolgtjar cds can be found at Rusty Axe (www.rustyaxerecords.com) and Dipsomaniac (www.dipsomaniac.tk)... Hail you for this interview. May the spirits open great doors in your life and may you never suffer the cruel fate of Societal Mediocrity and/or Capitalist Controlled Domesticity. Ave Tjolgtari !
? The PitGoddess and Rev. JR Preston
BLOOD CULT AND TJOLGTJAR ARE:
Evil, blasphemous, out-of-body experience inducing...classic rock infused black metal
BLOOD CULT IS
The Reverend and ONLY the Rev
REVIEW OF TJOLGTJAR/ BLOOD CULT
Tjolgtjar...Chaos in the Cornfields...
The first time I ever put in the Tjolgtjar album I thought: Good God, whatever this is can't be good for my health. Although, when I listened to Tjolg and Blood Cult, I began to really like the music- thrash infused black metal, with vocals from the bowels of Hell. These guys are seriously talented - the guitar work is awesome and the whole cd has a head banging kind of rhythm. The bands have awesome thrashy riffs and echo effects...I can almost feel the harsh Illnoiosian winds rip through my body.
This is music for passing time - one listen will have you immediately hooked. I can see a ton of people just head-banging to these albums. Tjolgtjar/Blood Cult is everything you were told not to listen to as a child (which makes it that much better). I have also found this album to be VERY good for freaking out the normals. This is a must have - an acid trip from the far reaches of Satan's grasp. \m/\m/\m/\ (out of four)
Supplement- How to Sing Like Rev
1. Fully expose testicles.
2. Place on table.
3. Pound with hammer while singing the most blasphemous lyrics you can think of.
Keep it BRUTAL!