Interview with Trey Azagthoth (1st of June 1996)
by Andres Padilla

from Chaotik Webzine


C: What are the bands that have influenced you?
T: I was very influenced by rather old bands when I was growing up back in the late 70's, early 80's; I had a good time listening to bands like JUDAS PRIEST, BLACK SABBATH, VAN HALEN, UFO, SCORPIONS... This is before there were bands like SLAYER or METALLICA. When SLAYER, METALLICA and MERCYFUL FATE came out I was very interested and very excited by their new approach of music. I listened to some VENOM and Ozzy... I wanted to make a band with the feeling of the early SLAYER, MERCYFUL FATE, BLACK SABBATH with Ozzy, Jimi Hendrix... A mixture of all these influences. At the late 80's I moved up to North Carolina to get up with David Vincent and we had our band for a short time and this is the time while we put out "Thy kingdom come", our demo. I was very influenced by TERRORIZER at that time, because I heard the demos and I liked a lot the riffing and drumming, they were more brutal and attacking compared to most of the other bands of that time. That's why I wanted Pit from TERRORIZER to join our band, because I wanted MORBID ANGEL to be the best they can be, and speed was very important; for that style the fastest drummer I knew was Pit. So, at that time I was very influenced by grind-core like TERRORIZER, CARCASS "Symphonies of sickness", and after that I kinda got bored with a lot of the death metal bands after that time, because they were a lot of bands that came out that I thought were very noisy and I didn't really get any feeling out of the music even if they were very great aggressive, they didn't have any hunting melodies that I wanted to hear.


C: Why did you cut your arms with a razor blade before playing live at the early days?
T: I was doing that during the tours of "Altars of madness" and "Blessed...". It was a spiritual thing for me, something that helped me to transform, to invite the presence of the Ancient Ones inside of myself, to become a part of them... The reason why I don't do it any more is that some people would see it as a gimmick or something, as if it was a part of the show and not a personal thing. Another reason because I did it: guitar players of bands like KISS, VENOM, or POSSESSED had some fake blood coming out of their mouth, and I thought it was a neat idea but it shallow, it's not real, I wanted to show people the reality of the blood letting.

C: Can I ask you your age and real name?
T: I am 31 and my name's Trey.

C: You don't want people to know your real name, right?
T: I got a million names :) (ed: yeah, right)

C: Does the fact that you've been married changed your life?
T: No, not really. I'm still a freak, a weird person.

C: Do you think you're still an underground band?
T: Our music is underground but our popularity has gone above ground.

C: When did you start playing the guitar?
T: When I was 16.

C: Do you still have your first guitar?
T: Yes, I still have that red BC Rich.

C: Have you ever thought of doing classical music?
T: I am planning to get some MORBID ANGEL songs such as "Blood on my hands" , "They are suffering", "Fall from grace", and have an orchestra playing them. No guitars. Just violins, cellos, horns, only classical instruments. To me the feeling these songs are very classical.

C: What about Eric quitting the band?
T: As the band got more technical, Eric didn't fit to in anymore.

C: Do you play any other instruments than guitar and keyboards?
T: I'm not good at keyboards. I can only play some basic things. The answer is no, I don't play anything else.

C: What is, according to you, the meaning of satanism?
T: To live yourself, to be yourself, to decide for yourself, to think for yourself, not to be a follower and to speak your mind.

C: What is the main message behind the lyrics?
T: We want people to be themselves, not to be slaves, not to be sheep, to think for themselves, to use their mind and their spirit, be full of life and power as far as leading yourself - which to me is the true sense of satanism. A lot of people say that satanism means to kill christians and stuff like that, but I don't agree; I don't wanna hurt people and I don't want other people to hurt me. I do my thing and the fighting, attacking, killing, and all that are unproductive; there are best things to do with your life. But that's according to me, I can't speak for anybody else.

C: Do the other members of the band think the same?
T: We're not exactly the same but we feel similar about the message of people thinking for themselves, etc.


C: How would you like to close this interview?
T: I think I already said everything.

C: Ok, thanks.