by Niklas Göransson

What looked like momentum was a slow-motion collapse. In the shadow of The Black House, with paranoia seeping into the cracks and old ghosts resurfacing, Krieg edged toward its own funeral pyre.

NEILL JAMESON: KRIEG was doing okay, but my personal life had turned to shit. I’d grown erratic and paranoid; didn’t want to be around people. Despite appearing social, I’ve never really felt comfortable in crowds. Balancing that unease against a need to socialise – to stay connected with reality – got increasingly difficult.

Red Stream and Darkland Records released KRIEG’s “The Black House” in March 2004. The following month, the band took part in the USBM Attack tour of Europe alongside DEMONCY and ABAZAGORATH.

NEILL: I’d already started thinking about ending KRIEG and pursuing something new – plenty of ideas for fresh projects were floating around my head. During the DEMONCY tour, I began writing material for N.I.L., which was essentially STRID worship.

N.I.L. – Nihilism Is Liberation – was a black metal band Neill founded in 2004 with guitarist Jeff Marcheski. By then, WELTMACHT had ceased operations following Akhenaten’s scene exodus, and earlier side ventures like ANGELKUNT and DEVOTEE had never progressed beyond demo recordings.

In August 2004, four months after the USBM Attack, KRIEG played Exit – a Chicago metal bar Neill often visited with local friends. The show was part of NACHTMYSTIUM’s release party for their second album, “Demise”.

NEILL: My girlfriend at the time played bass with us for that gig. The guitarist wasn’t even into black metal – just a friend from my area who listened to bands like OPETH and DARK TRANQUILLITY. That was my first time trying something like that, but we powered through it.

 

Footage from the evening captures Neill’s first KRIEG performance without corpse paint. Interviews from this period also reflect his growing criticism of the US black metal scene.

NEILL: Honestly, much of that probably stemmed from jealousy and frustration about how things were going. “The Black House” landed well in Europe – but over here, most metal journalists fixated on this ‘new wave’ of American black metal consisting primarily of bands signed to Moribund Records.

Shortly after KRIEG’s early 2004 performance with ANTAEUS in New York, NACHTMYSTIUM frontman Blake Judd approached LEVIATHAN’s Jef Whitehead and XASTHUR’s Scott Conner about a collaboration. On the Witching Hour podcast, Neill recalled having ‘weaselled’ his way into the new project: TWILIGHT.

NEILL: That’s half true, half self-deprecating humour. Blake and Jef were assembling a ‘supergroup’ – gathering the so-called elite of American black metal. I went, ‘What the fuck? I’ve been at this far longer than any of you.’ And that’s how I managed to worm my way in.

Whitehead, in turn, insisted they include his friend Tim Lehi from DRAUGAR. In September 2004, Neill and Blake flew to California to finalise the basic structures of the TWILIGHT songs. Scott Conner, a notorious recluse, declined to join them and instead contributed his parts remotely.

NEILL: Neither Blake nor I knew Jef very well at that point, so the three of us were still figuring each other out. We headed straight to Jef’s apartment in San Francisco, but it was pretty small. On the fly, I asked the BONE AWL guys if we could crash with them, and they agreed.

Neill first met BONE AWL guitarist He Who Gnashes Teeth at the San Francisco date of KRIEG’s May 2003 West Coast War Machine tour, where he received their EP, “Night Is Indifferent”.

NEILL: That was the first time I’d heard of them. Somehow, Brandon (He Who Gnashes Teeth) found his way backstage, and I distinctly remember this weird kid rambling about bizarre philosophies – shit I couldn’t even begin to understand. Really heavy, heady stuff. But we kept in touch afterwards.

 

He Who Gnashes Teeth and his collaborator, drummer He Who Crushes Teeth, lived on a compound about forty-five minutes outside the city. Neill and Blake rented a car and drove out there.

NEILL: Brandon and Marco (He Who Crushes Teeth) are incredibly intelligent guys, interested in all sorts of music, art, and concepts. Intensely original, creative individuals. At the time, virtually no one in the US beyond a tiny circle gave a fuck about ILDJARN. Yet, you walked into Brandon’s room and saw this massive ILDJARN poster.

ILDJARN was a Norwegian black metal solo project active from 1991 to 2005, renowned for its raw, minimalist sound and lo-fi production – somewhat of an acquired taste.

NEILL: Right beside ILDJARN hung an equally enormous Ian Curtis (JOY DIVISION) poster. That was my first time meeting black metal people deeply into post-punk. But what stays with me most vividly are the conversations – genuinely mind-altering stuff. I’d never met anyone who thought like them. And honestly? I still haven’t.

Amid these deliberations, “Daze West” – a KRIEG and NACHTMYSTIUM split – took shape. With the BONE AWL duo joining as session musicians, Neill and Blake each recorded two tracks for their respective bands.

NEILL: Since we had a free night in San Francisco, Brandon and Marco suggested, ‘Why don’t we head to our rehearsal space and just fuck around?’ I quickly wrote my song, we learned a STOOGES cover, and Blake already had his material ready. Everything came together unbelievably fast.

 

Meanwhile, skeletons of the initial TWILIGHT songs were assembled at the lair of LEVIATHAN – Jef Whitehead’s home studio, where he’d recorded his demos and early albums.

NEILL: Initially, I expected us to write collaboratively – but instead, it was every man for himself. ‘Here’s a Blake song, here’s a Jef song, here’s my contribution.’ That’s pretty much how it went down. The San Francisco session mostly involved showing each other our parts and throwing them together.

Two months later, in November 2004, Neill and Jef flew to Chicago to finish the recordings.

NEILL: Jef and I stayed at a motel where people actually lived – not exactly the sign of an upscale establishment. At one point, a neighbour dropped by and offered us some homemade cooking. A generous gesture, but also a bit odd. Around that time, NACHTMYSTIUM had started making bigger moves.

SATYRICON had a US run called The Return of the Antichrist coming up in December, with NACHTMYSTIUM booked as opening act. As such, Blake Judd was juggling tour preparations alongside the recording sessions. Some parts were tracked at the motel, others at Judd’s parents’ house.

NEILL: That trip is when TWILIGHT finally began feeling like a real collaboration. I’d worked in both professional studios and raw DIY environments before, but never with someone as precise as Jef. I mean, Pat (HIDDEN) was meticulous about capturing the right vocal takes, but that didn’t create a particularly inspiring atmosphere for me.

How did working with Jef compare to Akhenaten, who also self-recorded?

NEILL: Andrew (Akhenaten) allowed things to flow naturally, whereas Jef constantly had new ideas brewing – layering sounds, experimenting with textures, and shaping concepts. The whole process was incredibly deep and immersive, completely altering how I approached making music.

 

Neill and Jef share lyric credits for eight songs on TWILIGHT’s debut album, most of which were penned during their stay in Chicago.

NEILL: We wrote the lyrics using what Jef called the ‘exquisite corpse’ method – I’d write a line, he’d add one of his own, and we’d pass it back and forth. He’s one of maybe three people in my entire musical history I’ve allowed to see my lyrics.

Jef told me that the two of you grew quite close during this trip.

NEILL: Yeah, he and I spent a lot of time together. Neither of us had a car, so we were basically stuck at the motel. Blake went home each night, leaving Jef and me with long stretches to talk, get to know each other and develop ideas.

He also recalled playing you the LURKER OF CHALICE album he’d recorded earlier that year.

NEILL: One of the most dismal pieces of music I’ve ever heard. It gave me more confidence for the TWILIGHT record. Jef put immense effort into it, bringing in multiple session musicians to add strange noises and layers behind the music. Looking back, I probably didn’t appreciate that enough, which eventually caused some issues.

Once the recordings were finished, did you feel the project had fully realised its potential?

NEILL: No. I doubt anyone was particularly thrilled with the record itself; the experience, sure, but not necessarily the final product. It also annoyed me that Scott hadn’t attended any sessions, just mailed in a leftover XASTHUR track – plus, there were some ego clashes.

 

In December 2004 – two full years after it was recorded – the “Patrick Bateman” EP finally saw an official release via H.C.B., a label run by Neill’s former collaborator H.C., who’d drummed on the first IMPERIAL demo and in the ANGELKUNT project.

NEILL: I wanted “Patrick Bateman” to be a carefully curated release – perfectly placed samples, handling the photography myself, something truly special. Until then, I’d only circulated tape copies. H.C. was really keen on releasing the EP, so I agreed, and it ended up launching his label, Conqueror of Thorns Records.

Closing out the year, GoatowaRex issued “Death Glorification”, a split between KRIEG and Portugal’s MORTE INCANDESCENTE, containing tracks from the March 2003 session in Germany. Originally, this was planned as a split with German black metal band MOONBLOOD via Sombre Records.

NEILL: Back then, anything involving MOONBLOOD seemed incredibly special, so I was excited – until one of them got in touch and said, ‘No, we never agreed to this.’ That scrapped the whole idea since I wasn’t about to participate in a bootleg. Dani (GoatowaRex) stepped up, and I reached out to Horrendous from MORTE INCANDESCENTE. I loved their demo, so it felt like a perfect match.

At the time, Nocturnal Horrendous from Portuguese black metal band CORPUS CHRISTII had recently co-founded MORTE INCANDESCENTE. Following a 2003 demo, they released their debut album, “…Your Funeral”, through Elegy Records.

NEILL: In hindsight, I’m glad things worked out as they did. Even now, years later, MORTE INCANDESCENTE are blending harsh black metal with raw rock ‘n’ roll energy in a genuinely sick and evil way. I loved their side of the split – honestly, it was one of the first times I felt another band outshined us.

 

Soon after announcing the project, TWILIGHT signed with Swedish label Total Holocaust Records for the European market and Southern Lord Recordings to handle North America.

In early 2005, the band had a photoshoot in Pasadena, California. I came across an account by Greg Anderson of Southern Lord, mentioning tempers flaring when Scott Conner turned up wearing white socks and Vans.

NEILL: <laughs> Yeah, I distinctly remember giving Scott endless shit for his white socks. Other than that, I mostly recall us driving around aimlessly until we found some woods and cemetery gates. Honestly, the whole thing felt tedious. This was also Southern Lord’s introduction to black metal, which made me uneasy.

Founded in 1998, Southern Lord Records initially focused on experimental, drone, stoner, and doom acts like THORR’S HAMMER, THE OBSESSED, KHANATE, ELECTRIC WIZARD, SUNN O))), and GOATSNAKE.

Around the time of TWILIGHT, the label expanded into black metal, first through original titles and later via distribution deals with underground labels such as The Ajna Offensive.

NEILL: Southern Lord were the first ‘outsiders’ to seriously engage with black metal, and I saw it as a hostile invasion. At that point, Jef and Scott held the main spotlight, Blake was the rising talent – and no one gave a fuck about me. Or Tim, for that matter.

Soon after, Total Holocaust and Southern Lord released TWILIGHT’s self-titled debut. The album, though highly anticipated, failed to live up to its hype.

NEILL: I remember people finally getting their hands on it after all the build-up – and of course, it couldn’t deliver. Honestly, though, no album could’ve matched such impossibly high expectations. That’s the problem with supergroups: they rarely live up to the hype.

What about your own expectations?

NEILL: I don’t know what I expected. Maybe I’d hoped it would launch me into something new? Or that people would start caring about KRIEG the way they did about LEVIATHAN and XASTHUR. Around then, WEAKLING had also started becoming a big topic of conversation.