“CAVERNE WAS ALWAYS A TRAVELOGUE, THE ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY DRUDGING THE MIRE OF FORLORN, ESCHEATED LANDS” – AMERTUME

Ushering Caverne reverentially and gloriously to its final resting place, ‘La Fin de Tous les Chants’ represents a suitably poignant, impassioned and poetic memorial to one of Black Metal’s most inimitable and enthralling forces. Amertume eloquently articulates how his decision to bring Caverne to an abrupt and premature end aligned with external circumstances and assesses the predicament into which mankind – bred into slavery by centuries of terror, tyranny and degradation – has been systematically projected. Floundering like blind mice, held captive by debilitating dual deniers Fear and Hope, how can we escape the wheel?

Confirmation that third full-length ‘La Fin de Tous les Chants’ is also Caverne’s final recording will disappoint those who appreciate this uniquely glorious, soaring and immensely emotive art form. It’s a truly magnificent recording, revealing a depth of emotion that is rare in today’s oversaturated and faceless Black Metal domain. Why have you decided that this album should mark the end of the Caverne journey? Was it always predetermined that you would record a limited or planned amount of music under this banner or did you arrive at a recent realisation that it would be fitting to create one poignant last parting shot to lay Caverne to rest in a fitting manner? And why now?
“The scope and end of Caverne was never premeditated. As it came abruptly, it seems natural it should go in similar fashion. Both personal and external circumstances led to that conclusion, first and foremost the attempt to bury the bitterness which I had rather foolishly made my name. The world we live in is the one we project, wallowing in the aimless mire of bile, ire and hatred begets only that. The stronger wolf is the one you feed, and that one is fat and bloated. It needs a fast.
“Caverne was forged from particular experiences in time; it was always genuine, and as the vision refined I did not find useful to lock myself into a character. Finally, it so happened that I had emptied the vaults of stray riffs, saving me the trouble of self-parody and repetition.
“As for external circumstances which we will largely cover below, they aligned with the above, by drastically shifting priorities.”

From the listener’s perspective, it makes for something of a bittersweet experience. On one hand, we are granted an unforgettable volume of music. At the same time, the realisation that Caverne is no more comes as an unwelcome caveat. Immersive and captivating from start to finish, with an uncanny mixture of pathos and triumphant spirit, the record is at once vulnerable and defiant. Ultimately, it is incredibly empowering and uplifting in a twisted kind of way. It’s difficult to imagine how you could have topped this… Thus, would you agree that ‘La Fin de Tous les Chants’ represents a worthy last stand as it showcases Caverne at the absolute zenith of your powers?
“I certainly would not. It is a good album, which would have been a suitable follow-up to ‘Aux Frontières du Monde’ if ‘Omphalos’ hadn’t sprung forth in its stead. The latter is the stronger record. At any rate, feeling sorry for the cessation of activities of a fringe music band does not seem to be of any use. The records have a life of their own.”

Caverne is a deeply personal and introspective expression. As on ‘Aux Frontières du Monde’ and ‘Omphalos’, you were the sole creator, handling guitar, bass, drum and vocal duties as well as recording and mixing the album. Furthermore, you looked after the lay-out and released ‘La Fin de Tous les Chants’ on your own Résilience label. The independent spirt burns bright and that is reflected in the music! How important is it to you to retain complete creative control over all aspects of the process and how challenging is this? I can only imagine that producing an epic and dynamic recording such as this is daunting and sapping. Did you suffer for your art whilst putting this album together?
“Caverne – and Résilience – were born from this will to break the fetters of compromise and dependence (on a drummer, record label, layout artist etc.). Naturally it was a gradual and imperfect process, using a drummer on the first demo, and the welcome assistance of record labels for vinyl pressing, namely Northern Heritage for the recent reissues; total artists being a rare breed, and I not being one of those, Caverne initially came with inept drumming and shoddy artworks, all of which did contribute to the works’ charm.
“Caverne is usually a relatively easy process compared to other works. The music for this record was recorded in the Summer of last year, and the lyrics and vocals written and performed upon my return after several months’ journey. This latter process was as per usual a painstaking affair; esoteric rhythm and rhyme, scathing addresses, questionable puns, everything was carefully chiselled in sweat down to the last comma, autism oblige. And only French-speakers can enjoy it, pearls to swine!”

The production is perfect as the music retains a raw and organic feel but simultaneously with abundant clarity and space for every instrument. The only outside help you enlisted as far as I’m aware was from fellow multi-instrumentalist Damon Good from Mournful Congregation, StarGazer and Cauldron Black Ram, who oversaw the mastering. Why did you choose Damon for this task, what was his brief and how pleased are you with the outcome?
I have been in contact with Damon since my Australian days of 2006, and following his various musickal endeavours ever since. I was planning on using his services for the tentative next Nécropole record, but with the current world farce rendering this uncertain, I decided to hasten the plan. Being mostly alien to the mastering process, I asked only to make it CD-ready; Damon did exactly that.
“The ‘Omphalos’ mix had been such a drawn-out process that I somewhat rushed this one. In contrast with the mid-heavy aforementioned record, the new one is a bit too airy and bright on guitars and cymbals. The mastering being a very light veneer, it did not correct that, nor was this its purpose. Still, the record is a good compromise between the previous two records, and quite pleasing to listen to on headphones or proper hi-fi.”

What is the painting on the cover and how does that fit it with the overall ideology / theme of the album? Looks to me like an ideal visual reflection of the epic, ancient, mysterious and glorious majesty of the music, capturing a deep-rooted, primordial connection between man and the might of the land. As with everything Caverne-related, it feels abstract, symbolic and difficult to verbalise or explain, yet it makes perfect sense in an almost non-physical, intangible way…
“Finding a proper artwork is also always a difficult task, as I am not much of a graphic artist and have very little inspiration regarding visual presentation. I used Arthur Rackham’s ‘The Three Norns’ from his illustration of Wagner’s Siegfried. The atmosphere it conveys is more of an oneiric nature, rather than chthonic, which fits with the themes. While it does not precisely reference the mental and musickal images developed through the record, it does relate somewhat to the overarching theme of ‘Fate’. It also serves as a nod to a line from the debut album.”

Is there a concept behind ‘La Fin de Tous les Chants’? The lyrics are powerful, evocative and vivid yet simultaneously seem rather abstract to me. Each song is like a detached dream sequence, but is it in any way a voyage towards self-discovery, an appraisal of your own convictions? I’m particularly taken by the words at the end of ‘Premier chant: La proie pour l’ombre’:
“On suit des chemins de travers,
Les prenant pour des raccourcis
Mais ces détours sont nécessaires,
Sans eux ne serais-je point ici
Fais ce que dois, nul périple n’est vain
Avant le retour d’Idunn s’achèvera le mien
Partir c’est mourir un peu, mais ai-je jamais vécu?”
This is at once beautiful but also deeply depressing – kind of like life itself?
“This is not a ‘concept-album’ per se, or all albums are. Caverne was always a travelogue, the account of a journey drudging the mire of forlorn, escheated lands. The lyrics are actually quite concrete; they are for the most part my finest lyrical work. Their truth is sheathed in poetry, using serendipitous self-references, multifarious allusions to Alchemy, cosmogony, Tristan and Iseult, allegories and kennings, as well as the obligatory judeocritical deprecation. The end is seemingly always the same: to destroy the veil of illusion.
“Doing so is a process, I will therefore keep this work shrouded, for the explorer to read through.
“Amusingly, the selected extract is the weakest of the record. Between sketchy but relevant puns, stating of the obvious and Burzum reference, this is a mere reflection on lost time. It is slightly melancholic but it need not be. Any realisation should be joyfully seen as a development.”

Caverne’s music is imbued with a longing for values and customs that man has long abandoned (“Retournons en la sylve, qui nous garde et protège; Pour échapper au sombre grouillement de la plebe; Allons donc au Haut-Bois, Eliande froide et austere; Avec pour maisnie loups, hiboux, goupils et cerfs. Nous vivrons hors du temps, hors du mal, hors du siècle; En ce temple sinople aux colonnes sévères; Nous pourrions, à l’abri dans ce nouvel Eden; De nouveau rendre culte à la voûte celeste”). It feels like a chapter is being permanently closed and a radical departure / change is taking place (“Et nu sous l’œil de la Lune, je proclamerai mon dernier chant”). However, the emotionally-charged and spine-tingling climax suggests a rebirth rather than death?
“As Christicide’s Scars synthesised it: ‘Death is the puberty of the soul’. All ends are new beginnings, until you escape the wheel. This one was anything but radical, it was a gradual process. I have stopped longing a while ago, it is sterile and unwarranted.”

The notion that ordinary people are not capable of behaving responsibly, assessing risk and making their own decisions is preposterous yet we are led to believe that in our best interests – for our own protection, to save us from ourselves – we need governments (slave masters) to determine and control what we do and what we think. Is it not our birth right to choose our own path and make our own mistakes along the way – to live and die on our own terms?
“This is both true and false. No right is given, you have to take it. We have been bred into slavery for centuries; as such most people are verily incapable of responsible and sensible behaviour. I have a hard time feeling outraged at the thought our controllers see us as mindless, useless-eating cattle: most of us are just that. I do however think that reclaiming that ‘right’ in order to follow that path is part of the experience.”

As long as they have access to Netflix, Facebook, Deliveroo, ‘smart’ technology and the countless other addictions gushing forth into our increasingly-spiritless and -soulless everyday existences, most people don’t seem to care about surrendering their liberties, rights and independence to the tyranny of the globalist cabal and are too blind to see the endless insidious chicanery being deployed to irreversibly transform society into an enslaved, obedient hive of homogenous, barely-human drones bereft of free will or individual identity. Having sunk so low, is humanity even worth saving?
“Soulless today, and soulless tomorrow. We struggle for the Joy, do we not?
“‘Humanity’ is a modern concept, not a homogeneous reality. Soteriology has extensively covered your question, so I’ll keep it at this: those who save themselves will be saved. We should however keep in mind that the current straits we are in are but the logical and very natural continuation of a millennia old ongoing degradation process, which can see no reversal; there are no brakes on this train, the nigredo / cosmic apoptosis must see its conclusion. Does it mean we should capitulate? Certainly not; there are many ways to be in the world and not of it.”

George Orwell famously wrote in his eerily-prophetic dystopian masterpiece, 1984: “if you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” In light of current events playing out insidiously and inexorably across the planet, it looks like the anti-authoritarian English wordsmith was a raving optimist! The scale of tyranny and terror being inflicted upon citizens worldwide to ostensibly save us from a fate worse than death would have been unimaginable only a few short years ago, yet it’s happening right in front of our eyes. Is this the greatest threat the human race has ever faced?
“A rainbow-flag coloured high heel boot! But nothing is forever.
“My tinfoil hat is so wrinkled that, by now, I reckon the old Eric to have been an initiate of some kind, and that ‘1984’ (‘The Last European’) isn’t a warning so much as a user manual. I will have to disagree with you; the deceitful tyranny and terror has prevailed for a very long time, it is a great work of ages and a work of great ages. It is only becoming more and more visible as we enter Revelation times (literally, ‘lifting of the veil’), which is a welcome relief. Let all masks fall. This hubristic threat is nothing compared to the actual cosmic flush coming after it.”

Sickness and disease are a natural part of life and we cannot conquer death. Yet, all of a sudden, governments which historically held us in utter contempt and had zero consideration for our physical or mental wellbeing are compulsively concerned about our health to the point of obsession. Surely this abrupt volte-face alone should be enough to arouse suspicion in even the most gullible amongst us?
“You are expecting people who believe in a godless random accident universe, spinning ball Earth, germ theory, gender studies, insecticide shower rooms made of wood, antiracism and SCIENCE to be suspicious of governments that have been replacing us with mongrel populations and genociding us with poisoned water, food, air, medicine and wars for the past hundred and fifty years, and bred us to enjoy it. What can you expect?
“Some will reach the tipping point and revolt, most won’t. And that is fine, quantity is not something we should actively seek in this struggle, we won’t prevail by sheer numbers alone.”

The incessant flood of unscientific, exploitative, antihuman, anti-life lies keeps coming thick and fast and there is no respite. Lockdown, mask and ‘vaccine’ mandates, for example, are all based on junk science (not that we need to consult any science to guide us). The official narrative does not add up or make any sense from a public health perspective. Yet, no matter how farcical, illogical and contradictory the endless succession of draconian, discriminating diktats and decrees becomes, the public continue to comply blindly, ignorantly, meekly marching themselves towards the gallows. The depths of stupidity, hysteria and outright insanity to which the population at large has descended is staggering. While it is hardly surprising, isn’t it nevertheless demoralising and depressing to witness this mass indoctrination?
“I will echo Mr Capp’s sentiment in that we should not address absurdity, especially not with logic and reason; that ship has long sailed. By doing so, we contribute to moulding this nonsense into reality, by giving it feedback.
“It is certainly profoundly depressing and soul-wrenching (for those gifted with one) to witness, which is why we must urgently grow emotionally detached from all that noise, which simply does NOT exist, and to focus on what must be done.”

Since early in 2020, all roads have been leading inexorably towards the supposed cure – the silver bullet. Already the most publicised product in history and the first medical treatment to be offered to everybody in the world for free, the next-generation ‘vaccine’ has become the ignominious buzzword in everybody’s lives. The end game. Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine… That word is everywhere. Being rammed down our throats and effectively forced into our arms. Governments, employers, businesses, clueless medics, brainwashed celebrities and the corrupt mainstream media all insist that responsible citizens should form an orderly queue. The coercion smacks of desperation. The bitter irony being that these are not vaccines in any shape or form – they are something else entirely. Why are people lining up like guinea pigs to undergo an experimental gene-therapy procedure that prevents neither infection nor transmission of the disease it is claimed to treat? And why are the authorities so adamant that everybody needs to take this unproven treatment?
“Vaccines are a hoax from the get-go; based on a flawed and never proven germ theory (rejected by Pasteur himself on his deathbed), they were pushed by the Rockefeller school of modern medicine and the flourishing pharmaceutical industry to further population control, disease creation and weaken our bodies’ natural defence mechanisms, for wicked purposes and monetary gain. I care very little for the distinction between a ‘traditional’ vaccine and the new mRNA injection. Both are chemical toxin soups made with animal and human dead cell debris, created from in silico models, causing permanent damage to the injected. The novelty with this one seems to be the modification of genetic response, as well as the heavy presence of magnetic graphene oxide, with endless possibilities for our controllers (straighten your tinfoil and check the patents for crypto-mining through body movement, frequency-enabled behaviour control and many other Internet of Bodies applications, etc.)
“The answers to your question are many, but aside from the outsourcing of all specific knowledge to ‘specialists’ and the manufacturing of consent, the main ingredient is Fear, which is ironically but unsurprisingly the single most important factor in our remaining shackled in this Reality. The other, equally noxious, is Hope, for a return to a now sanctified old normalcy. With these two horses, we can travel our way downwards for quite some time.”

Morally-bankrupt governments and the globalists / technocrats / bureaucrats orchestrating them from behind the scenes are determined to see the mass-inoculation campaign through while systematically suppressing other treatments. Those who refuse to comply are going to be denied the most basic of services – healthcare, employment, travel, entertainment, groceries, education, social services and maybe even eventually electricity and running water. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly apparent that something deeply sinister must be going on. There are undoubtedly ulterior motives behind the relentless campaign to coerce the world into routinely taking messenger RNA shots that they don’t need. And these motivations could be more nefarious than merely lining the pockets of the self-serving criminals in Big Pharma…
“Indeed, reducing the game to greed is singularly near-sighted. This whole operation is extremely costly and operated at a loss – so to speak, as the ominous ‘THEY’ is also in charge of the money-printer, brrrrr – so Mammon is certainly not the beneficiary.
“I don’t believe the injection to be a death sentence; there are many easier ways to simply kill us off. I do believe it is part of a worldwide initiation ritual, a satanic contract of sorts requiring consent, to be used for control, further weakening of the immune system, sterilising, possibly damaging the upper çakras, and other nefarious designs which I leave open for speculation.
“On the other hand, getting off the agro-pharma complex, school / media / tittytainment indoctrination and state scrutiny can only be beneficial. With this in mind, I sometimes toy with the idea that higher controllers are using an underclass (which we call the ‘Elite’, mostly made of bearded-hustling satanic paedophiles) to put us through a shit-test of cosmic proportions in order to determine our ‘worthiness’. A bit of a stretch, but I keep in mind that Satan, the accuser, far from being an evil ghastly angel angrily defying a Santa Claus God from a Hellish throne, is rather an agent of divinity sent to put Man to trial. We seem to be failing that trial so far.”

Based upon calculated and transparent deceit, vaccine passports are not alone utterly hideous and discriminatory but make no sense on any level. As they clearly don’t achieve what they are allegedly designed for, they are plainly part of a bigger plan that goes beyond either safeguarding health or even incentivising compliance and persecuting the unwashed, i.e. fully implementing digital ID…
“There is no health situation, outside of jab roll-out. There is no ‘pandemic’. Anyone using related semantics is either complicit or mentally stunted. The ‘health passport’ is yet another step in the shit-test, another bluffing hand: let’s see if we call it. Aside from the practical control aspects, its purpose is to further the horizontal divide, which may ultimately not yield the desired outcome.”

Macron – like his co-conspirators on the world stage – has gone into full-blown fascist mode. But the French are taking a meaningful and strong stand against the unprecedented totalitarian over-reach, with largescale protests and growing civil unrest becoming increasingly common there. If enough people push back now, can the tide be turned? Or is resistance futile? Is it too late to channel the spirit of our ancestors who were at one with the planet, attuned to the blood coursing through their veins and acutely aware of their place in the universe? Has the battle been lost or is there still hope?
“Autism kicking in: ‘Fascism’ is a national-revolutionary ideology which bloomed in Italy in the late 1910’s, I fail to see the link with the MK-Ultra, Rothschild boy-wonder Macron. What we are seeing is Bolshevism 2.0. Words have meaning, let’s not abuse them. At any rate, the world is a stage, and the actors do not write the script. Macron – and others – only play the part their handlers give them, just as people can wreak havoc and protest, as long as it is within lines drawn.
“I have no illusion concerning in any popular revolt, nothing High can ever spring from the low of its own, it must be pulled. Should mass uprising stem from divine inspiration, then tides could turn. Leben ist Krieg, the war never ends whatever battles are lost, until you realise there is no war. We’re a far cry from that type of realisation and radical faith, but stranger things have happened.”

If the Great Reset and the complete reframing of human society is carried through to its intended conclusion, our children and our children’s children will not have the luxury of living relatively-free as we did pre-2020. That seems like something worth fighting for but could it be a vain aspiration? With more lockdowns, a cashless society, and universal basic income all waiting to be rolled out as part of the globalist masterplan, is the old normal gone forever? Need we design and build new structures and counter cultures? Dissent will not be tolerated. For those who refuse to toe the line, it could become almost impossible to survive unless one is adequately self-sufficient and prepared to literally go ‘off the grid’. Is that the next and biggest challenge facing mankind?
“Anything is better than the status quo. We are living in the best possible timeline, these proverbial Hard Times whence Hard Men are forged. We are in the heart of the furnace, and you would trade this for the lethargic ‘comfort’ of pre-2020 life? To fall back asleep into the same slow and silent replacement genocide, Weimar-tier zeitgeist and generalised conspiracy on life, only without the burgeoning awakening we see today, that Their own haste gave birth to? Fuck the old normal. It never was normal to begin with. Your children were already sterilised, poisoned, mentally and physically raped by archontic vassals. If we do what we must, the children of tomorrow will be hard like tempered steel.”