OCCULT PANTHEON is a Death Metal entity coming from a small town located in southern Chile called Maullín. Their first released, a demo titled The Omega of the Alpha, received a good reception in the underground local scene. That production was later re-released the current year by Ex Nihilo Music as a part of a split CD with Chile’s PROFOUND GRAVE, titled Immortal Chaos Ascends. In the next interview OCCULT PANTHEON’s drummer dialogue about their current line-up, the philosophy behind the band and plans for their future.  

When the band was formed and what was the purpose at the time? Tell me about your current line-up.

OCCULT PANTHEON was born early Autumn of 2013. After several meetings under Dionysian state between Owlhell, bass player; Conqueror, guitar player; Orravan, drum player and vocals, and contrasting our perceptions and ideas, the sketches were surfacing under just one task: create a necromancer alchemical Death Metal strongly influenced by old school bands. Although the work was taking its own course until come to be shaped, and it’s still growing as a solid alliance on strong roots. The current line-up is Owlhell on bass, Conqueror on guitars, Abyssal on guitars and E. Orravan on drums and vocals.

Which are the topics that OCCULT PANTHEON approach in their lyrics and which are your main influences?

The OCCULT PANTHEON lyrics emerge, based on searching the classic philosophical questions, using all the possible allegories. On this journey, we are under the influence of the arcane knowledge, alchemy, altered states of consciousness, magic, quantum physics, etc. Our first work is an iconography related to the shamanic phenomenon where our inner hero undertakes an initiatory trip to the world of the dead, transiting an insurmountable path searching for possession of life and death secret, posing it as a mysterious revelation from the occult pantheon.

I know that you shared the stage with ANGELCORPSE during May in Valdivia, Chile. How was that experience?

Yes, excellent experience! What better than playing live for our very first time sharing the stage with a great band as ANGELCORPSE, in a wonderful southern city as Valdivia city. Everything worked very well, great audience attendance, the venue was full of people. We received a good retribution from the audience and that is very strange since we are an almost unknown band. Some people arrived at the show from different cities to support us and made us very happy. While an incessant raining crowned the night, the promoter makes a good job.

OCCULT PANTHEON does not usually play enough live. Is there some kind of particular reason regarding this decision or is it just random reasons not to see you in the different flyers of underground concerts that are organized from time to time in Chile?

The truth is there is some working and time reasons that we need to make concur, although there is the conviction that every time we play live it must be something special too, every show must be worthy and must represent our message in the best way possible, and to make it works there are some factors both technical and trustworthy, must be met. That said maybe there will be very few occasions that we get to make a live show, but when this happens to be assured that it will be a great experience for your senses.

OCCULT PANTHEON comes from a small city in southern Chile called Maullín (Maullín means ‘Waterfall’ in Mapudungún, the spoken language of Mapuche, native people from South-Central Chile and Argentina). Do you consider this factor as a disadvantage to making extreme metal if we consider that in itself, even in the larger Chilean cities and therefore with access to certain advantages (recording studios, venues where to play, etc.), it is already hard to making Death Metal?    

The truth is that in our case it has not been so. I would even say that has been a great advantage to belong to a small town like ours since we are remote and immune to the vices and gossips of the big cities. Our houses are close each other, we have our own gear and a spot to practice, and enjoy nature and tranquility. We have our own sound engineer and graphic designer in the band so we do almost all the work in our homes. So the truth in this aspect we are working very well. The only thing is that we have to migrate outside for working matters, but when we manage to get together everything flows in a good way.

Can you tell me about the underground metal scene in Maullín and the surrounding cities? What is your view on the underground metal scene in southern Chile today?

Maullín is an old but very small town, so it does not have much history about it. Anyway, there have always been people battling for metal, although we are the first band to record something serious and play outside Maullín. The extreme metal scene in South Chile has always been good with a lot of actives bands in different genres and now is much better since it has been professionalizing gradually, with better productions, shows, rehearsal rooms, recording studios and serious people that are dedicated to supporting the scene, all this next to the attitude of the new generations to concretize in a professional way theirs works.

Your demo The Omega Of The Alpha, released in 2015, received excellent reviews from the national and international extreme metal scene, which even led you to reissue that material in tape format with two different labels, Aorrahantakhard Productions from Thailand and Soul Reaper from Chile, in addition to including the same material in the Split CD with PROFOUND GRAVE released by Ex Nihilo Music. Will the new material in which the band currently works will follow the same way already shown in their previous works or will there be variations in composition, lyrics, sounding, etc? What is the importance of using intros/outros in your productions? Is it a resource that will be used again in your next works?

The new material will bring improvements both in sound and in musical structures, the songs are more polished and with some worked details. In the global aspect will maintain the brutality and darkness that are the main part of our compositions. Regarding the lyrics, we will keep the main topics with a poetic and allegorical language of the mysteries that covers the occult pantheon. Will reveal some secrets that our hero has decoded in his trip. Regarding the intros/outros in our first demo, it was important since from my point of view it contributed to the general concept of the work helping to create the atmosphere and to understand in a better way the general production… in addition, it served as food for critics. I don’t know if it will remain as a resource that we could use again by now. We reserve the right to analyze it in due course.

What’s next for the future of OCCULT PANTHEON? I know that there are plans to launch a new production soon. Can you tell us something, whether it’s a number of tracks, the title of the new work, etc.?

Yes, we are ready to launch new material which is already recorded and is only missing the last details. This will consist of 3 new songs and we intend to release it as EP. We already have some offers from some labels but nothing serious really by now, so we are open to receive new offers. Regarding the music, I can tell you that maintains the brutality and variety of nuances although this time with more complex structures. We also add another guitar player which creates new atmospheres to the band. It only remains to invite them to be tuned to what is coming…

That’s all for now. Space to say whatever you want.

First of all, thanks to Miguel and Ex Nihilo Music for relying on our artistic proposal and doing an excellent job with the Split CD Immortal Chaos Ascends by PROFOUND GRAVE and OCCULT PANTHEON and thus help us to spread our kind of magic expressionism (growing and expanding its borders). Those interested in our work, don’t hesitate to contact us and keep an eye on what is coming, which will not disappoint. Cheers from the South. Hail Eris! Hail Patagonia!

Discography:

Occult Pantheon – “The Omega Of The Alpha” (Independent, 2015)

Profound Grave/Occult Pantheon – “Immortal Chaos Ascends” (Ex Nihilo Music, 2017)

Contact: occultpantheon@gmail.com