KAOTEON's Walid Wolflust: "Anthony (Kaoteon) and I do enjoy the band life because we both have corporate jobs by day, truly highly demanding jobs, so KAOTEON is our passion and our stress outlet."
July 8, 2018
Recently at the Golden Gods Awards 2018, Black Metal band KAOTEON won an award, presented by Jamey Jasta. Metal Temple Writer Gareth Beamshas shared many a conversation With Walidsince he wrote a review of the newest album (link below), and have become friends on Facebook. So, when he saw that the band had won the award he congratulated him and had a chance to ask some questions on the award and ceremony.
Metal Templereview of "Damnatio Memoriae", here it is: Kaoteon - Damnatio Memoriae:
https://www.metal-temple.com/site/catalogues/entry/reviews/cd_3/k_2/kaoteon-damnatio.htm
So, Walid, I have seen a lot of people on Facebook congratulating you. Anyone famous thanking you? If So how did it feel?
"It still feels surreal to receive such a recognition from the community. We have received countless messages from our friends and fans and that's what truly matters to us. We're doing what we do in order to leave a mark, to deliver a message, and to change a few mind-sets, and to receive so much feedback from like minded people is surely a light in the dark".
I've seen the METAL HAMMER Interview after the awards. How did it feel being interviewed by METAL HAMMER?
"That felt great too, as we could tell the world a little more about our story and history. Where we come from and the issues that metal fans had to face (a while back, things are better now) back in Lebanon sounds odd especially for the European scene where oppression of metal fans could be completely irrelevant to some".
How does this award help the band move forward this year and in the future?
"KAOTEON began 20 years ago so this award along with the messages by our fans was a proof that we are doing things right and while the journey had many obstacles, we are still going strong against the current".
A number of high-profile bands were on the stage that night, who was the biggest honour to share the stage with?
"Personally, I would have loved to meet JUDAS PRIEST (who weren't there). However, Jamey Jasta was great to meet, such a great guy! We also had a few drinks with Adrian Erlandsson who is going to record our next album. We already started working with Adrian on some of the music and the results are fucking heavy so far. Anthony and I are both big fans of Adrian's work in AT THE GATES, PARADISE LOST, THE HAUNTED and many other projects. The man beats the drum with an unmatched passion and rage. Linus Klausenitzer will be recording the bass on the next album as well. Linus became a very dear friend of ours with his outstanding attitude and musicianship so we could not be happier about another collaboration with him".
Band life cannot always be easy, but surely on nights like that, it must all seem worth it?
"That's absolutely true! Anthony and I do enjoy the band life because we both have corporate jobs by day, truly highly demanding jobs, so KAOTEON is our passion and our stress outlet. We cannot complain about band life because we do not depend on the band for a salary and we like that, it helps us to stay in control of the band's direction".
On March 28th I opened my latest METAL HAMMER to find a CD Named "Sound of Metal 2018". Track 12 is "The Will", which is Track 5 on "Damnatio Memoriae". I passed it on to Walid to show. So, Walid, how did it feel too get one of your songs on an album that would have been heard by thousands of people?
"We have been collecting METAL HAMMER (and a few more magazines) since we were kids, so for both Anthony and I this is a dream come true. We have hundreds of such CDs from the different magazines we grew up listening to, and METAL HAMMER has always been our favourite. It was an amazing feeling to go all the way from collecting the CDs to being featured on one of them, along with BEHEMOTH, IHSAHN and other legends".
One of the best ways for people to hear bands is Spotify, how do you feel it can help bands like yourselves?
"I do appreciate Spotify and Bandcamp as both websites are my main source of discovering interesting music. However, the trouble with Spotify, for underground bands, is that you need to be a part of major playlists to attract listeners. You need to be added to such playlists, until Spotify adds you to their Discover Weekly playlist which takes a very long time for underground music. Otherwise, the fans don't have a proper way to discover you. However, we're also happy to see organic growth there by people who directly seek us out instead of simply discovering us by mistake."
"I'd like to thank you Gareth, along with Metal Temple for giving us this opportunity to express our thoughts. We're always thankful to our fans as well, keep sharing our music, and expect a ground-breaking new album in 2019 with Adrian behind the drums and Linus back on the bass."
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