“IT IS EVIDENT THAT THE IDEOLOGIES THAT HAVE PREVAILED IN RECENT TIMES, FROM THE WORLD OF INFORMATION TO ACADEMIA, ARE IMBUED WITH AN OBSCURANTISM AND DOGMATISM THAT ARE ESSENTIALLY ANTI-HUMAN” – VOID A.D. (FIDES INVERSA)

As a captured world takes leave at an ever-accelerating rate of its senses and we descend deeper into an inverted surreality, Fides Inversa’s ravenous adversarial unorthodoxy burns brightly and billows blackly, fuelled by ferocious fanaticism and enraged, incensed, inextinguishable flames of resistance, summoning blasphemous hellfire ignited by Black Metal’s traditional traits: opposition, provocation, invocation. Answering a wanderer’s call and offering the antidote to docile, subservient surrender, Void A.D., the curator of this infernal force, discusses with clarity and conviction his calling to Black Metal and the antagonistic pillars underpinning and nourishing the wild, repugnant rebirth of Fides Inversa.

A fierce, independent spirit burns radiantly at the very core of Fides Inversa, giving rise to an irrepressible cleansing, purging fire that threatens to consume all in its path. As well as aligning naturally with the original, adversarial essence of Black Metal, this insatiable craving for liberty and self-determination has precipitated tremendous transformation and evolution within the band’s inner circle. Although the underlying ethos remains set in stone, are we witnessing the dawn of a sovereign new era for Fides Inversa?
“I’ve lost track of the countless times I’ve seen this creature reshape itself in my hands. Probably as numerous as the chills I’ve experienced when a riff coalesces at the intersection of self and other, while playing my guitar. All the times I’ve lost myself in ecstasy during a live performance. Shaking in tears afterwards. Or when, more coldly, I’ve rationally pondered what the next goal is, the new skin to wear, the unexplored territory to delve into.
“What I know for certain is that I’ve lived every moment of Fides Inversa as a true, honest calling to Black Metal. From its rawest, youthful forms, to its most daring and risky ones, and to its most ambitious ones. To the present; hungrier and more ferocious than ever. For it is the zeitgeist that demands it.
“And I’m unconcerned if to the uninitiated these words sound like the ramblings of a fanatic, because I know I have on my side a legion of few notorious – and equally fanatical – acolytes.”

It’s a sad indictment of humanity how little consideration is given to spiritual and mental liberation. One doesn’t have to be in physical shackles or confinement to be imprisoned, yet many people place comfort and convenience before personal freedom, allowing others to dictate to them how they should behave and surrendering all sense of self. As an artist – and as an individual – how much stock do you place on expressing yourself inalienably, without being compromised, censored or contaminated by the restrictive, stifling diktats, inversions and perversions of the modern world?
“Well said. It’s hardly surprising that humans tend to define their identity within a herd mentality; in fact, it’s as ever ‘human, all too human’’. And the current reality only amplifies this evidence, and exacerbates its symptoms.
“The last five years have been the clearest proof of this … and the most arduous for those who were already fed up. From people being denied the right to decide about their own health, loudly scolded by those who claim the same right when it comes to procreation. To hordes of self-proclaimed morally and intellectually superior virtuosos cheering on bloody wars.
“It’s enough to trigger an identity crisis over who the real satanist is, isn’t it?
“Of course, it’s paradoxical that this virus should spread within a subculture born as a paean ‘to the hypocrites’. But it’s also salvific, because it allows (for those who want it) to finally make a selection and discern. After all, today it’s easier than ever to dissimulate and create an appealing image and sound, and reach the public with a fake identity.
“But this does not negate the fact that those who have consciously taken the path of Black Metal, or have been attracted to it in their youth and then discovered its value, hold dear the immanent spirit of freedom and rebellion that by definition and archetype is its foundation.”

That’s a good point you raise: who is the real Satanist today? In an inverted reality where the most basic biology is outlawed, intelligence is artificial, smart means dumb, language is used as a weapon and the woke are fast asleep, it’s difficult to make sense of anything. Who are the real evil ones, indeed? Best to ignore the maddening din and stick to your own values and ideals. Who or what is the Satan that you celebrate and invoke through your artistic expressions and lifestyle choices? Is ‘the horned one’ a metaphor for a liberating, primal energy that exists within us all?
“I personally reject the use of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ as categories, particularly in the metaphysical and spiritual realms, as I find them to be extremely limiting. For a reading of reality and the current historical period, instead, I simply aim to consider which are the restraining factors or those that are likely to damage the chance of growth and development of the individual in his human experience. And it is evident that the ideologies that have prevailed in recent times, from the world of information to academia, are imbued with an obscurantism and dogmatism that are essentially anti-human. On the surface it may seem the opposite, but conforming under the banner of diversity, praising censorship to prevent offence, and so on … are in heavy conflict with the idea of individual freedom which is the necessary prerequisite for an evolution of human thought, of creative work or of spiritual development.
“The same applies for the anxiety of taking a stand, for the so-called virtue signalling, for the enslavement to infodemia.
“Zooming out, the contemporary era seems designed to lead us towards a senseless materialism, an almost religious scientism and a total numbing of our more subtle perceptions.
“The ability to pause, reflect, and discern is a crucial skill. Being present is an art that has since long gone lost. Therefore, the archetype of the Rebel and the Adversary are more relevant than ever today.
“And, as you rightly point out, yes, there is certainly a metaphorical component behind the Satanic archetype, just as there is undoubtedly a psychic (individual and collective) component, intrinsically linked to a cosmic component.
“The divine is this and is not this. And at the same time, it is the opposition of all this.
“And, I’m sorry if I disappoint you, but the space of an interview tends to be too often the ideal place for easy sensationalism, and experience has also taught me that it is the cradle of easy misunderstandings.
So let’s leave the definitions to the charlatans, who can happily keep plagiarising sacred texts and grimoires. However, the only mystical experience they seem to care about is counting the number of likes on their social media posts.
“Growing up in a Catholic family in a bigoted Southern Italy, I recognized quite young the contrast between the suffocating Christian morality and the hypocrisy of a crudely individualistic and envious society. The former, which creeps into every aspect of people’s lives, punishing any attempt at intellectual emancipation through the weapon of guilt. The latter, equally rotten, but decidedly more vulgar.
“Only as adults do we recognize the real power that religion has over people’s psyches, and then it’s not difficult to realize that those souls less accustomed to living in chains find, in their attraction to the dark, the evil and the grotesque, the impetus for a broader exploration of reality and the metaphysical. After that initial attraction, there are those who abandon themselves to materialism or nihilism, those who indulge in transgression for its own sake, and finally, there are those who find in transgression itself a means to deconstruct taboos and internalized fears to explore independently the spiritual realm.”These feel like times of rebirth and regeneration for Fides Inversa. Friday, November 29th was a landmark date in the history of the band as you made a historic appearance at Unholy Congregation in Belgium – your first live ceremony in two years, where you duly delivered with devout dedication the first public performance of the powerful profanities comprising your brand-new self-produced cassette, ‘Pillars’: suitably antagonistic, defiant new curse ‘Pillars of the Adversary’ and a seething reimagining of the Katharsis track ‘Eden Below’. What are the pillars you are referring to and how significant / symbolic was this gig?
“Exactly ten years ago, I happened to meet Wraath in Stockholm; amidst the fumes of alcohol he offered me to work on something together for Fides Inversa. At that time, One Tail One Head was at the peak of its destructive live force. This creature had been able to split the scene in half, and for those who had eyes to see, that frontman could certainly give the impression of being the reincarnation of a certain Pelle Ohlin. To back down would have been like closing the doors to the Messiah during his return.
“Two months later, we found ourselves in Berlin to record the EP ‘Rite of Inverse Incarnation’ (released after a frustrating delay only in 2017), and the foundations of what represents ‘Pillars’ were laid just a few hours before entering that studio in the woods outside Berlin, in a brewery a stone’s throw from AlexanderPlatz.
“We were in complete agreement on how the scene had reached its ideological and formal purity peak in the early two thousands, at the dawn of NoEvDia, when the diabolical essence of Black Metal had been perfectly distilled – in forms equally diverse but pure – by bands like Funeral Mist, Deathspell Omega, Katharsis, Ondskapt and Watain … and ten years later, that spirit, which was the source from which both Fides Inversa and Celestial Bloodshed fed in their early days, seemed to have disappeared. Those wild, fierce, hungry, essentially satanic forces – with which we have also burned ourselves in the past – that today we are able to evoke with greater maturity and awareness.
“These are the Pillars on which this release rests. And we couldn’t but pay homage to one of the masterpieces of those years – if not one of the best Black Metal albums in history – by choosing ‘Eden Below’ by the legendary Katharsis.
“And if on the one hand this release has a celebratory meaning, a provocative, accusatory and antagonistic component is at least evident in my eyes. And for those who had the senses to do so, it was also perceptible at our first concert after two years.
“Because at the heart of Black Metal there’s an innate intent to invoke, evoke and provoke.”
Most bands today go out of their way to make sure they do none of these things! I’m sure you would agree that the Black Metal landscape has changed utterly since the genesis of Fides Inversa. If that above-mentioned era was the peak, are we now at the lowest point? Black Metal no longer attracts the same calibre of devotee that it did 20-25 years ago. Is this a reflection of society as a whole, in that fanatical, extreme individuals no longer exist, or are they just not attracted to BM anymore?
“There’s a ‘scene within the scene’ (as our friend and booking agent Steve calls it), made up of bands, labels and individuals who continue to push the same uncompromising discourse with arrogance and a full awareness of their actions. All within an unyielding Black Metal framework.
“It’s reassuring to see that spirit alive in long-standing and tireless bands like Marduk, more recent and innovative bands like Akhlys, or young wild maniacs like Ultra Silvam.
“It is true, though, that for a decade we’ve been witnessing a deconstructivist wave that’s been scrambling to give new interpretations to and appropriate the aesthetic and sound of Black Metal; but in the end, what has it led to?
“I certainly won’t be the one to stop a generation of snowflakes from listening to the umpteenth Mgla clone on YouTube, buying their pseudo-provocative merch to decorate their Christmas tree, nor will I lecture them trying to explain the difference between US and THEM. Which, simply put, is that we’re committed to this for life, while they’re just following the latest trend.
“They say the eyes don’t lie and, when I gaze at the true madness and fanaticism, both from above and below the stage, I realize that Black Metal is alive and well, and – think about it –  it enjoys a longevity that other musical genres can only dream of.
“Our work today is certainly more arduous, because we have to affirm and reaffirm it under constant attacks and accusations aimed at curbing or minimizing the extent of this movement. There are those who back down, who apologize for anything, who change shape and adapt, who let themselves be softened. But there are those who remain firm and defend the values of Art. Because it is about Art that we are talking, and about the courage to defend its freedom of expression.
“Paraphrasing Deleuze – who states that philosophy must be aggressive and create disturbance, otherwise it serves power – we must similarly affirm that art that doesn’t create disturbance is not Art. If it does not disturb, disdain or offend, then it is not Art.”

Though born in Italy, Fides Inversa is now a fully-fledged international alliance. ‘Pillars of the Adversary’ is a precursor to the forthcoming fourth full-length. There have been changes in personnel since the last album, with Omega and Unhold no longer involved. Wraath became the main vocalist for ‘Historia Nocturna’ and remains very much on board, delivering ‘daemonic strangulations’, while you disperse ‘VI and IV stringed lust’ and NKR administers ‘abysmal hammers’. Is this going to be the recording line-up for the new album? As Fides Inversa is such a strong representation / manifestation of your deep-rooted personal convictions, what criteria do you use to decide who is suitable to become a cocelebrant?
“If you knew me personally, you’d know that if there’s one area where I don’t hesitate to show confidence and clarity of intent, it’s music. Yes, I do have a very clear idea of how things should work around Fides Inversa. It’s a gut feeling, but one that always seems to lead towards purity, so I usually trust it.
“For goodness sake, I admit that over the years I’ve found myself having to reach some compromises to make everything work, maybe in the studio, maybe for live shows? And I’ve learned that I want to accept fewer and fewer possible compromises, partly out of personal obsession, partly because that perfectionist streak inevitably leads to regrets.
“There are also periods of life that, with all their chaos, discomfort, and frustration, necessarily reflect in what we write and, as ‘creators’, it becomes more difficult to separate the object from the context in which it emerged.
“As the ‘curator’ of Fides Inversa, however, it is my passion for Black Metal that takes command, trying to ‘borrow’ their art, from musicians and other exponents of the scene that I firstly admire, who have become friends and then collaborators. So in the past, so in the future.
“If there is a rule? Well, it is necessarily a communion of intent and shared vision and values.
“There are a couple of surprises in store for the next album, for sure. But I can’t hide my excitement for this current incarnation of Fides Inversa. The adrenaline from our Unholy Congregation show is still pumping. First gig in two years and, honestly, it was so good I would have paid to be a spectator.”

‘Pillars’ embodies the essential evolution Fides Inversa has experienced over the past few years. The DIY spirit you are embracing is also a timely throwback to a pre-internet era, the days of tape trading and wonder, when word of fanatical acts and deeds and life-affirming music spread like wildfire through the ravenous underground – a far cry from the strangely compliant Black Metal landscape of today with twenty gatekeepers for every genuine follower. Do you identify more closely with those days of yore and do you feel disconnected from and at odds with the modern world and its robotic, uncultured, sedentary ways?
“Obviously, I can’t identify with the real old times, because I belong to the era exactly between pre-internet and internet. In 1999-2000, during my formative years, though, you certainly had to work harder for your listening and musical discoveries. In the early 2000s, tape or CD trading was still very active and discovering releases through recommendations or buying blind from a distro’s paper catalogue, necessarily gave a higher value and a more intimate flavour to the listening experience. And along with the music, there was a quasi-esoteric transmission of values. If you were lucky enough, you found a mentor from the previous generation who practically took on the appearance of a guru.
“Look, there is often a tendency to nostalgically denote everything that has disappeared as magical, often bullshit, but in this case, it is for good reason.
“And at the risk of sounding excessive, but it’s fucking shameful to see how superficially the artistic work is treated in a music genre as essentially fanatical as Black Metal. From generic press releases (all the same!), to tours and festivals that are practically identical from year to year, careful to re-propose the same handful of innocuous and fake bands, and to attract newbies with inclusive bullshit. Everything feels so calculated and inauthentic.
“We’ve all heard about how the internet has shortened our attention spans, turning music into a fast-food-like bulimic experience, degrading its value. But the problem also reflects on the other side of the spectrum. If ‘artists’ couldn’t rely anymore on the internet for instant gratification, how much ‘art’ would truly exist? I believe that essentially every pre-internet artistic and musical movement could count on an expressive honesty that is simply irreproducible today.”

The original purifying flame of Black Metal burns like an inferno in Fides Inversa’s music and never more so than on ‘Pillars of the Adversary’, complete with some of the most furious, frenetic, fevered guitars I’ve heard in a long time. The tone and style of execution are almost otherworldly and dare I say, even by Black Metal standards, utterly possessed, unbelievably intricate … short, ecstatic stabs shimmering, razor blades radiating glints of insurrection … death by a thousand cuts. What sort of trance or headspace do you have to get into to compose such supreme music and how difficult is it to perform?
“You know, I’ve often found myself reflecting on the mechanics of the creative process. Especially after the ambitious and exhausting work on ‘Historia Nocturna’, in 2020, when I felt myself deprived of any creative spirit, and perhaps not without reason, since during that period I was also living in Milan, where that mass madness that was the lockdown took shape in a pretty grotesque and rather extreme way. While my system was trying to adapt to all that insanity, to try to make space between police state restrictions, the fierce and insistent attacks of the media, and the supine acceptance and support of the new status quo by most… my creative vein had become anesthetized.
“Indeed, we could fill entire libraries on art theories and the creative act, and I don’t have the arrogance to affirm anything but my own experience. Lacking technique and theory – not even considering myself a musician – I found peace with the creative process when I recognized that I could transform into listening material the sounds, shapes, ideas that materialize in that inner space we call consciousness. Sometimes even managing to retain them from the subconscious of dreams.
“I believe that our system, when well tuned, behaves like an antenna, perceiving messages that travel at certain frequencies. I’ve often experimented with different techniques to ‘tune in’ to these frequencies. To ‘invoke’ them, to ‘conjure’ them. And very often they work.
“The history of humanity is full of episodes, stories and tales about these types of techniques and prophetic figures, or contacts between dimensions of being: from the Sibyl of Cumae to dream incubation, to Spare’s automatic writing and drawing.  This innate human sensitivity is very much under attack today, numbed and stigmatized. And I’ll allow myself a moment of vulgarity to utter ‘fuck materialism!’.
“In 2021, in an attempt to cleanse myself of the secular infection the ‘pandemic’ brought, I timidly resumed writing music, but it was after the tour with Akhlys and Chaos Invocation, in October 2022, that I found myself so overwhelmed by a wave of creativity – probably strengthened by the company with which we spent those days on the road, by the spirits summoned and the camaraderie – that today I find myself sitting on an amount of material that would be enough for more than two albums! How does it sound? Well, there is a ferocity and brutality to it that I didn’t feel such an ardent need for in the past.”

As we talk about shedding skin and new beginnings, it would be remiss of me not to reflect back and mention how monumental an album ‘Historia Nocturna’ was. Even though it was a mere four-five years ago, a lot of water has passed under many bridges since and we are in an almost different lifetime now. How proud are you of what you achieved with that record; how much have you changed as a musician and a person in the meantime; and – having set the bar so high last time out – is there pressure from within to produce a follow-up that is at least as good if not better?
“I can’t remember the exact year, but I started working on ‘Historia Nocturna’ eight or nine years ago, right after ‘Rite of Inverse Incarnation’. It was the lyric and main riff of ‘A Wanderer’s Call and Orison’ that formed the skeleton for the album and shaped its identity. The inspiration was quite clear to me, and it’s that magical-esoteric current that goes by the name of ‘Traditional Witchcraft’.
“In 2015, during the recording of the EP, Wraath had proven himself capable of giving his soul in interpreting the lyrics, having the ability to make them his own and magically charge them.
“I feel like we have a creative alchemy that allows both of us to push each other beyond the limits we believe we have, and the most iconic moment of the ‘Historia Nocturna’ session definitely occurred when we locked ourselves in the studio in Trondheim for the vocal recordings.
“During those years, I was literally obsessed with the Sabbatic themes that shaped the work, and the mystical/occult experiences and synchronicities that manifested until the album came to life. And that weekend, they didn’t take long to occur.
“The biggest ambition of that album was to musically capture the mystic depth of the lyrics, to maintain an occult and ecstatic atmosphere, while sounding relentlessly violent. The enthusiasm and intensity with which we all worked could give you an idea of how much we believed in it. And to this day I consider ‘Historia Nocturna’ both Wraath’s greatest vocal endeavor and Omega’s best behind the drumkit.
“Of course, the plans were quite different. This was an album especially conceived to be played live to reify its energy and, being released in the summer of 2020, that took a while. Two or three world lockdowns later, with a new wicked line-up, we finally managed it in September, 2022. Almost two years after I and Kyle (Naas Alcameth) imagined that touring package. And what a ride that was!
“Coming back to the present, the only pressure I feel for the next album doesn’t belong to the past, but to my own expectations, to the idea I aspire to manifest. The comparison with ‘Historia Nocturna’ can only be made by a third-party listener, who looks at a band’s discography as a static continuum. I don’t consider myself to be the same person I was in 2019 and for good reason I have no intention of wasting energy and resources repeating a job I’ve done already.
“I’m one of those who always believes that the next work is the best. If I didn’t have this conviction, I wouldn’t even start.”

It’s telling that you’ve not involved yourself publicly in any other bands to date but have instead given your full, undivided attention to Fides Inversa. You brought this antagonistic apparition into the world and have invested your heart and soul into it, forging from fire the formidable force that exists today. It’s clear what Fides Inversa has gained from you – its very existence – but what have you received in return? To what extent has nurturing, guiding and taming this beast shaped, informed or enriched your life journey to date?
“I’ve long considered Fides Inversa as an avatar of a more intimate spiritual exploration, and this has prevented me from venturing into other ordeals for far too long. I know it might not seem so, given the time between releases… but the space that this band occupies in my mind has always been immense. Often overwhelming and intensely strenuous. The energy I’ve poured into this project, the ambition, the dedication, have often led me to clash with the disappointment of not finding the same fire in the eyes of the other band members. That’s how the collaboration with Omega ended, after more than ten years in Fides Inversa. Darvaza had become for him what Fides Inversa is for me, and there was no space for both.
And thinking about it, only a maniac like Wraath could have the courage to embark on two such intense ventures.
“Over the years, there have been several crises, and at one point, during the recordings, I had even come to consider ‘Historia Nocturna’ as a possible final chapter, perhaps also due to some diverging viewpoints within the lineup. The revolution that happened in 2022 was quite providential: the new band members brought a whirlwind of frantic fanaticism, which allows me to recognize that this era of Fides Inversa is the most genuinely ravenous and wicked.
“But the lesson I learned from these crises is to avoid making the mistake of identifying my artistic self at all costs with Fides Inversa. A stupid self-imposed preclusion and obstacle that prevented me from giving birth to a goldmine of material that lies dormant inside some hard disk. Collaborations never completed, invitations refused. Well, that’s part of the past. Last year, fate put me on the same path as a like-minded zealot and spiritual wanderer, and as I speak we are also nurturing an evil creature that will soon begin to infest this plane with its auditory terror.”

Photo credits: Void Revelations (black and white); Sabbatnoir (red); Fabiola Santini (Void A.D.)