It took me a lot of time to prepare this interview. There was some kind of unexpected curse over it. When I prepared questions for the first time, during “War In Heaven” topic, my computer burned. It seems, that eternal war is still taking place on a different planes, taking success in hindering our lives. Maybe Messerchmitt attack finally scared off god’s herd, which decided to threaten me a bit, so I’ll be more careful about interviews’ topics? Anyway, I won’t give up easily, especially that EVIL MACHINE’s music is just perfect for my soul, which is always hungry for sounds like this. So I won’t keep you waiting anymore – Ladies and Gentlemen – EVIL MACHINE.

1.    Hi ! Even if some time has passed, since “War In Heaven” seen the daylight, these 10 songs lost nothing from their essence. Congratulations for your great debut, which is much stronger than a lot of new releases, which can’t threaten EVIL MACHINE in any way. A pact with the devil or long hours in rehearsal room?

Hell! Thank you for such a big recognition of our CD from your side! We’ll pass it to the Devil, who is an invisible, inspirational factor.

2. Seba, please tell me why did we have to wait 9 long years since the band was formed to hear your debut? Whole session was strongly stretched in time. First tracks you recorded in 2006, but the final resultsonly appeared in 2013. I hope that for the next EVIL MACHINE album we won’t wait next 9 years...

There were a lot of things that caused that situation. After recording drums and guitars, Pierscien suspended the activities of his Bloodline Studio. We weren’t in a hurry, so we decided to wait. Suspension took around two years, or maybe even longer, so we decided to move everything to Studnia Studio, where we recorded vocals and bass. It was taking place in rounds – every session was separated by a brake which took some months. It’s not easy to put together three guys, which doesn’t treat running a studio or playing in EVIL MACHINE as their full-time job. We also needed some times for invited guests to record their parties. Peter did it during VADER session in Hertz Studio, Cezar in an improvised condition, when he visited his friend in Bialystok, and Seth, i think that in home-studio of his buddy. It seemed that after some years, we had all elements of our devil’s puzzle complete, but that’s where the problems with mix started. I’ll only tell that they were caused by incompetent tries of mixing material by different people, and it took so many time that I was claused to throw all material away. Luckily, we found a path that guided us to the only reasonable place – Hertz studio in Bialystok. And, that’s what I’ve mentioned more than once,  it’s thanks to Slawek Wieslawski that this album appeared and sounds so brutal. Well, to be honest, Slawek wasn’t enjoying my vision of sound, but as a wise man, he yielded to the stubborn one, haha! About next EVIL MACHINE album, I can only say that so far there are ready (recorded by Hal) sketches of some new songs, we already picked the covers, and… that’s all. Now the move belongs to Cyjan and me. It will surely take some time, but I hope that it will be less than 9 years.

3. EVIL MACHINE is created by true metal veterans. Just to mention some names: Vader, Dead Infection, Hate, Hermh, Christ Agony to show what I’m talking about, it’s like a dream-team… Did it help the band, or make everything more difficult?

It helped mostly because it was easier to get an attention of metal maniacs than to a unknown name, even if I didn’t intend to promote EVIL MACHINE with names of well-known bands. To create a band you invite some old friends, not people you knew last year, am I right? Also, I wanted to treat our album as some kind of unity manifest of Metal Underground. And we did it. On debut album we’ve got a guest appearances of people from legendary bands – VADER, BEHEMOTH, CHRIST AGONY. And, it’s worth mentioning, they did it without any problems or conditions. Second album, I hope, will also follow that idea. And if that “dream-team” harmed the band – I don’t know. Maybe someone expected – thanks to the other bands of EVIL MACHINE’s members – that “War…” would be a mix of, for example grind with black metal. And here’s a surprise, because this album has nothing in common with the music that you theoretically could expect that would arise from it.

4.The title “War In Heaven” is ambiguous. From one hand, we can search for a topic with eternal war in heaven between rebellious angels and creator. From the other hand – what the cover art suggests – it’s a reflection of your fascination about II World War machines. Can you also tel me something more about the lyrics in “War In Heaven”? I’m asking because you can fuck up your eye in the booklet, everything is so unreadable, and my eyes aren’t that strong as for example the eyes of a 20-year old boy. I don’t think that you’re embarrassed of your lyrics or maybe they are too blasphemous and you’re afraid of Vatican’s curse?

I’m happy that you noticed that dichotomy of meaning hidden in our title! You’re the first one who did that and analyzed correctly. Of course, the fight with the creator is present in the album, but not from the perspective of rebellious angels, but of man, who maybe didn’t win this war at once, but is not afraid to get of his knees and spit into the face of God-tyrant and his earthly deputies. On the other hand, you can also find lyrics inspired by historical events, also from WWII. For example “Prometeus” is about an event from Warsaw Uprising – suspected bringing down Junkers 87 by insurgents and it has to do with the killer machine that you can see at the cover art. By the way, don’t you think that WWII was the most cruel battle between God and Satan in our history, where people were only pawns? Just like a “chess” part between two beasts. And that’s like a third meaning of album title. I still don’t know who won that “war in heaven”...
I’m not embarrassed of lyrics, if I talk about them. With a big strength of will, you can read them in the booklet. But at the same moment I don’t see myself as a poet, who has some important thing to tell to humanity, so the lyrics are printed in the way you can see. It’s not a mistake, Hal put a lot work on it. When I made some important lyrics I’ll publish them as a book of poetry, but I won’t use them for band’s publication. There is only one Marcin Świetlicki on the world, and that’s not me.


5. Musical content of “War In Heaven” is an explosive mixture of stylistics, which reflects all your musical fascinations. There are a lot of influences from black/thrash/death or even doom. If you have to define it in few words, how would you call a style of EVIL MACHINE?

Surely in a different way that Metal Archives did, haha. I think that we’re playing archaic thrash/black with some death elements. It’s metal of late 80’s, so when no one cared about stylistical differences. Till this day we can make a fight if we say that VENOM played thrash with elements of heavy and punk or did they created black metal? Or If DARK ANGEL were a strict thrash band or a death metal one? It’s not what matters for that music. But coming back to EVIL MACHINE, in one of the interviews I’ve said, that we’re playing a “musical and sound filth”. Skalpel from Necroscope Zine liked that term, he said that it perfectly gives our style. So let it be translated to the language of Shakespeare and Cronos. Skalpel really nicely translated it as “musical and sound filth”


6.”War In Heaven” is a strong tribute to good, old school of death metal, it shows how close you are to this stylistic. Tell me how in present times you achieved to have such an archaic overall sound?

First thing we planned was to resign from the best, newest instruments, owned by band members or our friends, who could lend them to us. We play on what we have, and what’s in studio.  Second thing – we set the sound that we find optimal at the first try. I can’t imagine a session where it tooks Cyjan two days to set the drum sound. Blood will be boiling in me and local stores will went out of vodka, that we’ll drink thanks to boredom in this time. There are no doubts that a big influence on sound – especially vocals – was given by “Gorzka żołądkowa” vodka. Everything won’t be worth a damn, if not master Sławek Wiesławski, who perfectly understood our intentions and nicey mixed everything, and didn’t even protest too much when I was stubborn about having an almost maximum reverb. He of course claimed that it’s not a good way, but that assured me that EVIL MACHINE should do it. So the recipe is: great, but also experienced musicians, genius Wiesławski in the studio, and troglodyte as the “producer” of the album, haha.

7. I’m curious what musical inspiration gave the strongest mark to “War In Heaven”. I’m asking, because album is full of classic influences, and what’s more next to your author songs you added two phenomenally played covers: in ONSLAUGHT’s “Power From Hell”, Peter destroyed me by his voice, and VENOM’s “Die Hard” also is a brilliant job. I suppose that it wasn’t easy for you to choose songs for covers – I guess that you have a lot of favourite classics?

My biggest inspirations are of course HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST, which I love without any limits. Probably the best fun for me would be recording an album only with covers of both bands, haha. But I’m not a musician, so I showed my ideas to Hal, and he “filtered” everything through his preferences, experience and musician’s sensitivity in creating songs. Also Cyjan and Cyprian had a big part here. None of us is a young boy anymore, we all were raised on (more or less) the same albums, so it wasn’t hard to find a compromise and common language. Also guest appearances are not without a meaning to final sound of album. Vocals of Cezar and Peter are genius and it’s obvious, but I’m shocked that so little people looks at perfect guitar parts recorded by Seth. Maybe it’s because you have to get through that “musical and sound filth”, and not anyone is willing to do that, haha. Covers were chosen by me. VENOM isn’t the choice, that needs to be explained, and song “Die Hard” hasn’t been recorded by many bands. First ONSLAUGHT album, “Power From Hell”, was one of the first albums that I’ve heard with true dirty and satanic metal. It’s sitting inside of me since 1985. If we finally record second EVIL MACHINE, there will be POSSESSED cover on it, and it won’t be the only one. You probably think why we won’t reach for any songs written by Tom B. Warrior. That’s because all HELLHAMMER demos and early CELTIC FROST albums are for me a complete works of art, and I don’t think that we’ll do it better. But still I always put a great care when I’m listening to HH and CF songs covered by other bands.

8. Can we expect continuation of this project and new full-length album of EVIL MACHINE? From what you mentioned, you have a potential label in Pagan, so I think you have a good motivation to work. Do you have any new compositions? How does writing songs looks in your band? I guess that you don’t play regular rehearsals, since you live in a different parts of country, and what seems more difficult, due to commitments you made to your home-band, where most of you play everyday.

Pagan was interested in first EVIL MACHINE album, but finally it was released by Słyżtof from Arachnophobia. Tomasz said that we have to contact him with a new album. So, we theoretically got a label, but first he has to like our new “piece”, haha. As I mentioned before, we’ve got ready sketches of songs for almost whole album. And the composing process I already described – I’m come up with something, Hal translates it into sounds, Cyjan adds drums and very often he makes the whole song faster in this moment, and Cyprian’s bass gives a new level of heaviness. Solos this time will be recorded – I hope so – by my great friend Kaos (NEKKROFUKK, ex-REVELATION OF DOOM, ex-HATE), so they will probably be sick and disgusting, haha. Regular rehearsals are impossible, thanks to things you mentioned. And we don’t need them – “War In Heaven” is a proof. I’m afraid that if we worked more on this songs during rehearsals, there won’t be such a strong, raw, dirt and certain feeling that makes this album sound, in my opinion, authentic.

9.  You can feel the Devil under the skin while listening to your music. I guess that this person isn’t meaningless, if we’re talking about “War In Heaven” content. Fourth song on the album is a good proof. Can you tell more about it? I’m curious about how you see the Devil. And in case he visits you one day, what will be on the table – beer, booze or red wine?

The song with that beautiful title is the slowest on whole album, like a big ball of hell’s tar, which Cezar from CHRIST AGONY apparently liked. When he visited me, we talked that maybe he could sing something to the EVIL MACHINE album. During his next visit in Białystok, Cezar wrote the lyrics during the night, and next day he recorded the vocals so well that we decided that we’d only add mine and Hal’s backing vocals, because there is no point in messing inside a song in which everything is fine. And we got a beautiful, blasphemic song, that is performed – as the only one on the album – in Polish. About the image of Devil, there have been a lot of books over the centuries, so I won’t add anything new here, and it’s probably not the time and place for it. Some see him as the First Rebel, others as The One Who Carries The Light, others see him as The Great Deceiver. And maybe He is just a force that everyone carries inside, and we call it Devil? For sure I don’t see him in a religious category, as a being that demands worshipping. It smells to me not as a sulfur, but as a religious enslavement. And we already know that one… About libation with the Devil – it depends who would visit me, haha. If it will be Woland’s crew, than – as far as I remember – Behemoth didn’t dare to offer vodka to ladies, only clean alcohol. If there will be some kind of local Boruta or other Czart, I think that some kind or regional product will be suitable, so craftily striking moonshine from, for example, Czarna Białostocka, haha. The Devil won’t be able to stand after this.


10. Bulletbelts, chains, brads, nails, leathers or finally jeans jacket with a lot of patches with favourite crews: that’s how every metalhead looked like years ago. I see that you cultivate old traditions. Do you miss times of your youth a bit? What’s the thing that you miss the most from past years?

I’ve got distorted taste, so every single attribute you mentioned I like for years, and nothing seems that my taste will improve, haha. It’s hard for me to accept an image of modern metalhead: emo-bangs hairstyle, manicured beards, sport clothes and some kind of fucking postmetal. Well, sometimes you can find something really interesting in bands in this wave, but it’s hard to call them metal. Something is metal, or something is not, it’s not the fucking postmodernism, haha! From the old times, I miss attitude to music, where everyone was listening CD with friends, talked about them, every new album or interesting demo was a big event! Now it’s gone – thanks to the internet, the environment was atomized. People count discography of favourite (?) bands in gigabytes and not in the number of albums. What kind of fan is someone who downloads CD from the internet, instead of giving support to the band, by buying merch and album? How many freaks like you and me are still there, spending their hard-worked money for new vinyls, CD or tapes? There are a few of mastodons, who don’t want to extinct, haha. Other things is the fact that now it’s impossible to listen to every release that appears. I suppose that even while listening to music for 24 hours per day, it won’t be possible to listen to everything that appears.

11.Some time ago you had a lot in common with musical journalism. I’m curious whether you still run radio audition. Except radio, you were writing to different magazines – do you still work on this field?


I was co-running audition over 20 years ago in Polskie Radio Białystok, hurting listeners in early Sunday afternoons by bestial sounds. There was even phones that we’re playing some terrible vomits for people’s dinner. Regarding the sound of demos at that time, I admit, that I wasn’t acting humanitarian, haha. But it was long time ago. After that, I wrote to, for example, Pagan and Witching Hour, as far as I remember I also wrote something for Brum, but it wasn’t about metal. In past times, I’ve made a lot of interviews for the newspaper that I’ve worked in for years – that were a good times, when long time ago Morbid Noizz made a phoners with bands like DIMMU BORGIR or HYPOCRISY and a talk when VADER released every new CD was something absolutely obvious. Right now I’m still writing reviews for the newspaper I work in, but there isn’t too much metal. Maybe I’ll finally write something also for yours Oldschool Metal Maniac Mag? Haha!

12. How would you conclude the year of 2014? Were there some CDs that thrown you to your knees? What in past year was the most often in your player? Concert event of 2014?

I think that from musical point of view, it was at least a good year. There were a lot of albums that I liked. VADER recorded one of the strongest albums in their career, “Tibi et Igni”. It has only one disadvantage – it’s too short and you have to press “repeat”, hahaha! I love “Antichristus Ex Utero”, by WITCHAMSTER – no weak moments. Also, there is a great album released by BLOODTHIRST. Finally, BEHEMOTH released an album that I listened from the beggining to the end. It’s, for me, a big event. Despite the fact that I’ve bought all albums after “Zos Kia Cultus”, I couldn’t listen any of them till the end. There were fuckin’ overproduced stuff in the studio “baloons”, and not BEHEMOTH, that I like for years. “The Satanist” is partially really predictable, but there are parts that are touching genius. Cool, I can listen BEHEMOTH with pleasure again, haha. TRIPTYKON and MAYHEM don’t go below the very high level, and the positive surprise was OVERKILL, that in their old years get younger and have a lot of energy, and doesn’t make a blues boredom. With a big pleasure, I dive in sonic pitch, which is “Time To Die” by ELECTRIC WIZARD. I very often listen – although it’s an album from 2013 – to “Contra Rationem”, by CENTURIAN. The Dutch showed how to play real death metal! MORBID ANGEL should listen to this album at least once a day, maybe it will remind them how to play real death metal. I also should mention “Angelic Dread”, by NUNSLAUGHTER, an the new albums of DEAD CONGEGATION or EMBRACE OF THORNS, but maybe I’ll end here, because this list will be longer and longer. In my concert ranking, the biggest killer was VENOM at Brutal Assault. I maybe wasn’t throw to my knees, but I just have to see them. When they were in Poland, the gig in Warsaw (which I had a ticket) was cancelled and I couldn’t go to Cracow. Only for Venom, I traveled 700km in one side.

13. The year of 2015 is announcing a lot of interesting events. I wonder if some upcoming gig or announced material gives you sleepless nights...

About gigs, I try not to go very far forward and wait for a gig for example in five months, because earlier other gig on which I MUST be can happen and I can’t go to that planned before, as I have that kind of job. I’m unlucky recent times, because gigs interesting for me take place in Poznan or Cracow and for INCANTATION I traveled to Wroclaw. You know how many kilometers it’s from Bialystok… Albums – I’ve awaited as always to MARDUK, which destroyed me. “Frontschwein” is a MARDUK that I like the most. I wasn’t expecting ARCHGOAT to record such a phenomenal album as “The Apocalyptic Triumphator” – now it’s my top 10 Anno Bastardi 2015. About our country backyard – I can’t wait for a new INFERNAL WAR. I’ve heard that it destroys roofs, ripps of doors and devastates atomic shelters, haha.We’ll see in April! Oh, and a new VOIDHANGER would be nice. But I have no doubts that there will be some albums that unexpectedly will create a musical hell.

14.So far EVIL MACHINE is a project, not a full-time band. Is there a chance to change it in the future and will we have an opportunity to see you live one day?

There is no chance for it. That was planned this way at the beginning and it will stay this way. For clarity: it’s not the “fault” of my friends, who play in their bands and don’t have a time for EVIL MACHINE. Probably they’ll find, but we don’t change fundamental assumptions.  

15. “War In Heaven” was released by a new, yet very promising label Arachnophobia Records. I’m curious why you decided to pick that label. It seems that you have more than one proposition of releasing this album, and not only in our country…

We’re in Arachnophobia Records a bit by coincidence. We were searching for a label and Krzysiek – during the opening of it. We fitted each other perfectly, hahaha. Also Krzysiek isn’t a fresh person in underground, and we all knew each other for years, it’s a solid and honest man, who wanted to release material really quickly. And I, after years of fighting with that songs, wanted to “get rid of them” really fast. Everythings was fine then. If we waited half a year, we’d have a debut in Pagan Records, but what waits, won’t escape… hahaha  We also have some propositions from USA and Great Britain, but on such condition that I didn’t even reply the guys. It sucks that they were such a shitty propositions, because one came from a label that I really like.

16. Your musical achievements has reached wide and very positive echoes in our underground. It’s enough to read some reviews in musical press to find a confirmation. What is the West’s response to it? Is there a chance that your material will be also released on vinyl? This material will sound really good at black disc…

It’s a fact that no one shitted on us in our envious country, but you know how it works, a lot of bribes from Arachnophobia, numerous libations with reviewers and threats that should be punished from us, haha. What’s the response in the West – I don’t know. After the album was released, a lot of promos were sent by Adrian z R’Lyeah Zine and Skalpel from Necroscope Zine. And of course, a lot of work did our Mister Publisher, so they’ll faster answer to the question “how does reviews of our material looked like?”. I know that there were some, and some of the English ones I saw and they were positive. But what has been written about us in German, Spanish or Danish, I can’t tell, I don’t know these languages. I’m not that sensitive about EVIL MACHINE to search friends that know fluently certain languages and ask them for translation. I’ve heard that one Dutch or Danish guy gave our album 1 point, because he decided that the material sounds like shit. He’s a shit himself, since he couldn’t understand such a simple album.
About other version of releasing “War…” than CD – we’re open to propositions. Nobody contacted us with an idea to release it on vinyl. It seems that EVIL MACHINE is too small name to take a risk and stamp us at the black disc. What’s more I won’t agree to release album anyhow. During the CD we also took care of it – within the resources given by the label – about the quality of publishing. That’s why there is also a second, more collectioner version of the album. It was supposed also to have overprints on superjewell case, but there wasn’t enough money for that. As a collectioner, I hate when the label gives people shitty black&white paper instead of booklet, and doesn’t make the price any lower. So that’s why I won’t give up about releasing EVIL MACHINE albums. Maybe someone will have an idea to release our songs during the second album, or…. in 20 years, when this debut material will be enough covered by dried goat’s blood and…dust and spider’s web, haha!

17. Recently, our national metal backyard is a rash of interesting bands – just to mention Raped Christ, Plaga, Det Gamble Besatt, Exmortum, Freezing Blood, Ragehammer or Abusiveness to see the upward tendency of the underground. I’m curious to know whether something caught your attention, from young crews in our country?

PLAGA and especially ABUSIVENESS aren’t that young. I like PLAGA very much since their first demo, I haven’t heard a new ABUSIVENESS album, but we’re right now in the same label. With DET GAMBE BESATT there is a funny story. I’ve heard that band when BESATT recorded “Nine Sins” in Hertz. We drunk a bit with the guys and Bel played DET GAMBLE BESATT’s song. I was sure that he’s playing a joke on me and in fact it’s some unpublished KAT song! What I think is a great complement… I really like FREEZING BLOOD, but from a bit different stylistic – it’s black metal, but with prefix “post”. They recorded a great split with THAW, I think that this year their full-lenght material will be released. I’m awaiting a serious album. By the way, I’ll tell that RAGEHAMMER…pisses me off. Hahaha! I’ve read about how great they are, I’ve seen live and they destroyed me, but you can’t get a demo on a normal carrier, and I won’t listen to demo which appeared two years ago on the internet. I know, that it’s XXI century, but demo from the internet? Blah… Tymek, stop making me angry and do repress on tape, you bastard!!! I hope that right now he’ll get embarrassed and write to me, haha!
And you in your modest didn’t mention your new band NECROMANTICAL SCREAMS, which with the 7-inch disc “Deadly Frost” gave me a great appetite for full-time material. You know what it means, when we’re talking about worshipping HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST, hahaha. When we’re talking about young Polish crews, we have to mention thrash metal scene. Very often that bands represent a really high level, but I have no idea why they chose crappy names like SEKATOR or – it’s the “highest” joke – TRAKTOR. Fuck, what kind agrarian themes are it? Maybe some moron will name his band “REKULTYWATOR”? He’ll have a nice logo with two “r”. I understand that thrash doesn’t have to be a deadly serious music, but come on, don’t take your music as a joke! We’ve got one CREMASTER and it’s already too much. Or I have a totally different sense of humour.

18.  Our little talk is about to end. Thank you very much for the time you gave us. If you want to tell something to the readers of Oldschool Metal Maniac, traditional last word goes to you.

Thank you for an interesting and oldschool set of questions! I hope – and I’m probably not the only one – to see your magazine again in paper form! First numbers destroyed in every possible sense! And thank you for your patience in waiting for the answers – but as you know, now my skeleton is partially metal, haha!

Leszek Wojnicz-Sianożęcki