1. What’s new within ANTICHRIST HOOLIGANS? I’m asking about this, because it has been a couple months since the release of your debut We Will Piss on Your Grave.

Cristiano Kranium: Hi, Leszek! First of all, thanks a lot for this opportunity! OMM rules! So, as for Antichrist Hooligans, we already have some new songs done and we started to think about recording them. Anyway, we had two invitations to make splits 7” with Carcará and Dethroned Christ and we still don’t know what we will do first. Anyway, our label has already offered an opportunity to record our second full-length whenever we want, and this is great for sure! We already have about 10 new songs done and almost ready to be recorded!

2. You are a relatively young crew formed in 2010. Despite all this, your music is imbued with the old school metal of the 80s’. However, it shouldn't be a surprise, as you come from Brazil – home of metal :) Do you remember what was the cause of creating such band as AH?

CK: Yes, man, we are all veterans of the underground scene, so it’s natural that our music sounds like the sound of the 80’s, because this was our main school, as well as some bands from the beginning of the 90’s. As for the cause to creat the band, first it was a way to make the music we like to listen to, but we didn’t have plans to record or to make lots of live shows etc. Above all, Antichrist Hooligans it was seen by us as a way of keeping our minds sane (or sick?) doing music, but fortunately some people started to pay attention to our music and now we are really a band, despite we don’t believe we are going to make a living out of it, of course.

3. However ANTICHRIST HOOLIGANS is a young band, the members are an old hands at metal. Looking at the bands you played in, we can see who are we dealing with :) Do you think that your previous experience has some influence on the present ensemble of ANTICHRIST HOOLIGANS?

CK: yes, of course, our previous experiences have everything to do with our music in the present, although we also listen to some new bands too. Anyway, the way of composing, the way we want our music to sound and the general references we have when doing the lyrics, when taking photos or thinking about the art for the cover, for instance, everything is conceived based in our metal/punk background. In fact, when we started the band, we didn’t define a specific kind of sound we wanted to do…we just let it go and, in the first rehearsal, we had “Satanic whore” almost ready, I think in the first 30 minutes of reh. So, since then, we just let the music get out of our heads and bodies spontaneously and the songs you can hear in “We will piss on your grave” are the final product of this natural attitude towards the composition process.

4. We Will Piss on Your Grave is a material which could have been released three decades ago. I think the 80s’ still have a huge influence on you as musicians. I’m sure you listen to a lot of classic metal from those years. Was it just metal that had influence on your music? What do you think about Punk which can be strongly heard in your songs?

As I have just said, we also have lots of punk influences, as well as from some 70’s music – we all love Thin Lizzy, for example, and I’m a huge fan of Krautrock – but punk is more clearly present in our music. In fact, I think that punk and metal, especially in the 80’s are really brother genres and they have everything to do with each other. Black metal, for instance, was conceived with its roots deeply involved with punk music, as well as thrash metal. Besides this, for me, both genres are anti-mainstream, anti-conservatism and were born almost under the same conditions all over the world. So, there is no reason to see them as separate styles. Personally, I like Discharge, Crucifix, Lärm, Heresy, Lip Cream, GBH, Terveet Kädet, Olho Seco, old RDP, Dead Kennedys, Brigada do Ódio and tons of punk/hardcore and grind/noisecore too.

5. Cristiano, you are one of those who didn’t just stare and look how the Brazilian scene was spreading far and wide enslaving metal maniacs throughout the world, but you also co-created this scene. Can you remember how did it start with you? What pushed you to not only listening to this music but to play drums, as well?

CK: first of all, I have to explain that I only started to play drums in 2007...when I was in Necrobutcher in the end of the 80’s, I only did the vocals. I started as most of the people in the underground: first, hearing AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister and WASP, for example, but soon me and my brother started to discover bands who were more brutal and aggressive, like Slayer, Venom, Vulcano, Sepultura and Sarcófago, for instance, and so we really discovered a sense for our boring lives, hehehehe. Soon, we started knowing the real underground scene and we didn’t stop any more, getting to know bands like Dissector, Necrovomit, Sadus, Terrorizer, Repulsion and so on. We decided to make a band, but we didn’t know how to play, record and none of the things involved in having a band. However, this was not a problem, hahaha! We overcame these difficulties simply by doing what we could do, without caring about waht others thought on us. I was only 14 when we started Necrobutcher and I remember that we just wanted to play, no matter how difficult it could be, we wanted to make part of that scene and I think we succeeded in our point of view.

6. Brazilian scene have always been infecting with the amount of great bands. Such was in the 80s’, and so it is now. Tell me, where does this phenomenon lie?

CK: Well, I don’t know where it lies, but I agree with you that Brazil has always offered the world some of the dirtiest bands in the underground scene and this may be, in part, due to our lack of resources and extreme desire to make a scene out of nothing, just for the wish of playing fast and noisy. Of course, our lack of technological resources, coupled with our lack of musical skill (since we normally don’t have music classes in school, for example, unless we can pay for it!), helped to create this dark, obscure and raw atmosphere that you can find in the Brazilian bands, as well as in Chilean, Peruvian, Colombian and even in Indonesian and Malaysian groups, which were all countries that have similar conditions with the Brazilian ones. Nowadays, you can find some of these characteristics in bands coming from Africa or Middle East, for instance, and that’s why I like these scenes a lot, although it’s very difficult to find their stuff available.

7. During the 80s’, the Brazilian scene was hermetically separated from the rest of the world. It reminds me about our iron curtain which tried to isolate the west from the countries of the socialistic block. A lot of Brazilin bands didn't have chance to show themselves beyond the boarders of their own country. In spite of this, your music was present in the underground – trading of the demo tapes, underground press, eternal hunger of extreme music. How do you recall those times?

CK: frankly, we didn’t think too much about that at that time, we just did the best that we could to spread our music by letter all over the world. We didn’t care about the mainstream scene and even the thrash metal scene was too mainstream for most of the Brazilian underground bands and fans. The best way of knowing the foreign world was via tape-trading and that phenomenon was very important and huge here during the 80’s and beginning of the 90’s. Everybody traded and recorded tons of stuff in each tape…we never let a blank space in a tape, because this was an unforgivable waste! As for the isolation, I confess that we didn’t felt like this in the 80’s, since we got in touch with bands and fanzines from all over the world, including Japan, Costa Rica, Greece, UK, USA, Italy, Belgium and others. Indeed, this isolation was much more from the mainstream metal scene, but this was pretty good for us, because we had to look for references in the real underground, following the DIY ethos that came from the punk movement.

8. Many things has changed since then. Now, it is a standard that Brazilian crews play tours in Europe, show up at festivals. At one time, it was impossible, not least because of economic issues. Times have changed. How do you think – have they changed for good? What do you think about the condition of music market; especially, when it comes to underground?

CK: I think that today it’s way easier to make your music, record it with a reasonable quality and spread it via internet and these features may be very good, if you know how to use them. However, there are too many bands and some of them are just clones of the old bands nd, at that time, you could perfectly distinguish one band from another just by hearing the first guitar notes or the vocals. Talking specifically about the market, I think you have lots of options to buy and trade stuff, but sometimes it’s hard to choose due to this excess of bands, labels, stores and distros. Anyway, the underground market is much more a way to keeep the scene alive than a place to get rich, fortunately, hahaha!

9. As a co-creator of the Brazilian scene you have direct contact with many young bands that grow in strength day by day. We can include groups such as GRAVE DESECRATOR, BODE PRETO, DETHRONED CHRIST or your band to understand what phenomenal atmosphere we are dealing with. I wonder how does it look inside the box? Do the bands support each other? Are there any internal antagonisms similar to this between Sarcofago and Sepultura?

CK: Some antagonisms must exist, for sure, but we don’t know about them. As for these bands you mentioned, I think that everybody supports each one’s band. Besides them, that are great bands, I could also mention Whipstriker, Velho, Vulture, Expose Your Hate, No Sense, Battalion, Offal, Mystical Vision, Masturbator and lots of others as bands that are still kicking ass here. We also have a strong local scene in our state (Santa Catarina state), with bands like Skombrus, Carrasco, Insalubre, Sengaya, Homicide, Flesh Grinder, Zombie Cookbook, Sin Rejas, Os Diabo a Quatro or Bomba no Porão, just to name a few, that make lots of gigs and keep the old underground friendship alive.

10. Let’s go back to your debut, which is available for sale a couple months. What do you think about this material? “We will piss on your grave” was released on CD. Is there any chance for this album to come out on vinyl?

CK: so far, we didn’t receive any proposal, but if we do, of course we would love to release it on vinyl. We liked the final result, because we wanted it to sound exactly like it came out. I mean, we wanted a raw sound, with not much technology in the recording process, trying to make the music sound as natural as possible, so that we could play the songs alive and show the people something pretty similar to what they listen to on the cd. Probably, the next one will be even more aggressive and with a raw atmosphere. We even thought about recording it on take-one, i.e., almost as it was alive in the studio, but this is just an idea until now, since we are not in a hurry.

11. Next to the debut, you have already released two demo tapes and one DVD Live at Necrolust Festival I. Can you tell something more about this musical event? What bands participated at this festival? Usually, during parties like this there is a lot of fun. I wonder if this time there were also some funny stories? Where did the idea of DVD come from as you didn't have any full album released?

CK: our first demo was just a rehearsal that we did when we had already 10 songs and, as we liked the recording, we decided to spread it, but I was not intended to become an official demo. The second one was done to work as a real demo and it was released by Hammer of Damnation as a kind of teaser for our debut and its 100 copies were sold out very fast. As for this DVD, it is also unofficial, hehehe. We just recorded some songs with personal cameras and we put them together, but it is not an official stuff, since there is absolutely no production at all! As for the bands we played with, I remember there were Offal (death metal a la Autopsy), Cujo (death metal) and Sengaya (a great local grindcore act). We had lots of fun, but I confess we were a bit nervous, since it was our first gig, hahahaha. So, the funniest thing that I remember now is the anxiety before getting onto the stage, hahahaha.

12. Next to Japan, Brasil is the perfect place for the bands that want to record a Live album or DVD of their show. How do you think, what is the cause of all this?

CK: maybe because metal fans here are too devoted to the bands, or maybe because of the lack of options that we had in the past. Nowadays, there are lots of gigs, even some international ones, but the audience is still crazy and I don’t know how to explain that, but I think it’s something cultural, because Brazilians are normally very enthusiastic about everything they do in comparison to the European people, for example.

13. According to concerts, is there any possibility that ANTICHRIST HOOLIGANS may visit The Old Continent this year and play at some summer festival, e.g. Brutal Assault in Czech Republic? Are you planning to attack Europe this year?

CK: well, we are band of middle-aged men and we all have families and normal jobs and this makes it difficult to plan something like that, which is normally pretty expensive for people who receive a basic wage per month. Maybe any day, when we have a good amount of money and manage to combine our vacations together, we can go to Europe (it would be crazy, of course!), but so far we have nothing planned nor an invitation.

14. We Will Piss on Your Grave was released under Hammer Of Damnation label. What can you say about cooperation with them? It seems that this label puts a lot of its heart in its work?

CK: Hammer of Damnation is a small, but pretty honest and devoted to the underground label and it’s been great to work with them. Luiz, who is always a member of bands like Dethroned Christ, Evil and Ritual Murder, is a great partner and offers total support for the band. So, we don’t want to change our label exactly because of this dedication to the underground shown by its founder, who is always making huge efforts to keep our underground alive, releasing great stuff like Asaradel (legendary Brazilian black/doom cult), Vulturine, Detonator 666, Chemical Disaster and lots of others! So, it’s an honor to be part of such a cast!

15. I know it is too early to ask, because “We will piss on your grave” is still hot. However, I would like to ask you – when do you plan to release something new? Please tell me, what are your plans for the nearest future?

CK: We still don’t know when we will release something new, but as I old you in the beginning, we were offered two split releases with a great satanic speed/thrash act called Carcará and another one with the mighty Dethroned Christ. So, very soon, we will have something new, I do believe! Besides these invitations, we are not planning too many things, because we never know about the future, so we just let it go, without any kind of pressure.

16. As a metal fan, you surely have many favourite albums. However, if you were to go on a desert island and could take only five albums, what would they be?

CK: Man, this is a very fuckin’ difficult question to answer, hahahaha. It’s hard to know, but maybe I could take Slayer’s Show no mercy (the first extreme metal band of my life), Venom’s At war with Satan (no comments needed…they rule!), Sarcófago’s INRI (a milestone of the extreme music and that inspired me a lot), Napalm Death’s Scum (I got really crazy when I first heard this play around 1989), Vulcano’s Bloody vengeance (fuckin’ awesome album that called my attention to an underground scene that I didn’t know until then. Of course, I would hide some tapes inside my clothes and would take some Fear of God’s releases, as well as some Sore Throat, Mutilated, the Japanese Beleth and Crucifixion, Agathocles, Genocídio, Exterminator, Dissector, Hellhouse, Rattus, Terrorizer, Majesty, Deathstrike and lots more, because I wouldn’t survive with only five albuns, hahahahaha.

17. Within metal subculture the figure of the Devil found itself a special place becoming inexhaustible source of inspiration for many bands. I wonder how does it apply to ANTICHRIST HOOLIGANS? Do you believe in existence of such figure? If yes, how do you imagine the outlook of this gentleman?

CK: as an atheist, I don’t believe in god nor in the devil, but I think that the figure of evil was always a good one in our underground scene because it indicates opposition to the dominant moral christian values of our western society, and it’s this metaphoric conception that I look for when we evoke this satanic imagery.

Cataströfe Nuklear: Lucifer symbolizes the human desires. Satanism is the individual freedom of each human being. It’s the destruction of the chains that imprison the people to enslaving dogmas. The light of wisdom is locked within each of us, but we have to find the key to free it! We don’t need rituals or sacrifices, because, in my opinion, the materialized desires are already well-succeeded rituals! I see satanism as a beautiful woman smoking a cigarette leaning on a bar table, looking at me with fire in her eyes, asking me to dive in the purest sin!

18. Alongside with music, bands often point out as inspirations literature, horror movies, comic books. And how does it look when it comes to ANTICHRIST HOOLIGANS? What does specifically inspire you to making such music?

CK: well, besides underground music – in a broad sense – I also love literature and philosophy, specially the contemporary authors, but I wouldn’t say they influence directly our work, although I believe that everything that we live influences indirectly our activities, including music. Anyway, I could say that my main inspiration comes from the anger I feel when I see this corrupt world ruled by stupid humans who can’t do anything else than acting like idiots, spreading pain, misery, death and starvation all around. This is what really pisses me off!

19. Unfortunately, our interview comes to an end. Thank you for your interesting answers. I wish ANTICHRIST HOOLIGANS successful conquest of the entire metal world! If you would like to say something to the readers of Oldschool Metal Maniac, last words are for you.

CK: Thank you a lot for this interview, Leszek! You fuckin’ rule, as well as OMM! As for the underground freaks all around the world, just keep your mind sick and your heads banging to the music!