by Niklas Göransson

Through steady communion and sharpened resolve, Grand Belial’s Key summoned Kosherat – a scripture of scorn and sacrament, inscribed in ire and guided by revelation.

 

GELAL NECROSODOMY: “Kosherat” was a very long album, so it took fucking ages to piece everything together. Fortunately, a friend of ours let us practice in his basement whenever we wanted, so rehearsals became a weekly thing. Demonic and I felt a shared obligation to follow up “Judeobeast…” with something worthy.

When The Black Lourde of Crucifixion left GRAND BELIAL’S KEY in 2003, Gelal and Demonic recruited The Gulag, a local drummer who also played with ARGHOSLENT. Their new vocalist, Grimnir, lived in New York City, but his presence wasn’t required for rehearsals.

DEMONIC: There have only been two periods when G.B.K. rehearsed consistently – before “Triumph of the Hordes” and leading up to “Kosherat”. Studio recordings are forever; I take it very seriously. You must be prepared, fluid, and in sync with each other.

GELAL: Back then, an album recording meant arriving fully prepared and ready to go; studios charged by the hour, and we had a budget to stick to. So, we took full advantage of not having to drive interstate for rehearsals this time and focused on perfecting the material.

DEMONIC: As far as arrangements go, I took an active role on “Kosherat”. I’ve always found full songwriting difficult, but arranging music comes more naturally to me. I’d tell Gelal, ‘That section is too long’, or ‘Let’s move this part here’, and he was usually receptive, which gave me confidence to continue.

GELAL: Once the arrangements were locked in, the material was demoed using my four-tracker. I’d finished the lyrics by then, so we could start mapping out the vocals. I even made a rough guide for Rich (Grimnir) – just whispering or quietly speaking to demonstrate placement within the tracks.

A process of regular jamming followed by a pre-production demo seems to me like the ideal way to prepare for a studio session. However, in an age when bands not only rehearse but even record albums without ever being in the same room, that approach seems almost old-fashioned.

DEMONIC: I come from a background of appreciating a broad range of genres. This might sound a bit goofy – but take Blue Note Records, the old jazz label. I’m not a huge jazz fan; still, you had these incredible players recording high-quality instrumental music with top-tier microphones.

Known for pioneering studio work under engineer Rudy Van Gelder, Blue Note Records was one of the most influential jazz labels of the 20^th century.

DEMONIC: The result was a very organic, vibrant sound you just don’t get unless you actually jam together. Especially with G.B.K., where none of us are musical virtuosos, right? There’s always gonna be some sloppiness – which is fine, because when you rehearse regularly, that looseness turns into a kind of feel. It brings out the band’s character and dynamic.

 

“Kosherat” saw GRAND BELIAL’S KEY returning to Assembly Line Studios in Vienna, Virginia. The result is an amazing production with a powerful, heavy tone; it retains the low-end depth of “Judeobeast Assassination” but sounds more atmospheric.

DEMONIC: I’m no engineer, nor do I have the technical know-how – but when it comes to making creative decisions about sound, I’ve always been able to draw from a wide range of influences and ideas. On “Kosherat”, I spent a lot of time with the producer fine-tuning the guitar tone.

GELAL: The guitars on “Kosherat” had a more Swedish death metal feel compared to earlier releases; thick and swarming, fuzzier, and less of the thrash sound. Still thrashy enough, obviously – but when I’m playing full chords, the tone is particularly dense.

DEMONIC: Gelal used the same Rectifier amp on “Judeobeast…” – but this time, we added a Boss Heavy Metal pedal. Our goal was to make the guitars sound uncontrollable: wild and aggressive. You can hear it in the feedback between songs. Again, a well-rehearsed band allows for more chaos; you’re able to adapt and lean into it.

 

Besides new songs like “The Bearded Hustlers”, “On a Mule Rides the Swindler”, and “Vultures of Misfortune”, the third GRAND BELIAL’S KEY album includes re-recordings of previously released EP tracks, such as “The Tricifixion of Swine” and “Hobo of Aramaic Tongues”.

DEMONIC: Gelal and I looked at what we had, and there were some songs from various seven-inches and splits we felt deserved better exposure. For instance, “Kingdom of Poisoned Fruits” – that’s one of my personal favourites, and I thought it fit well on the album.

GELAL: We changed nothing in terms of arrangement, speed, or style – they were just recorded in a more professional way. It’s not like new members radically alter our sound. Songs like “Shemhamforash” have been played by every G.B.K. line-up; the music remains, what varies are the musicians performing it.

DEMONIC: That said, I think the inclusion of older material is one of the album’s weaker points; it disrupts the overall cohesion. “Judeobeast Assassination” is the purest, most distilled iteration of GRAND BELIAL’S KEY – it is its own world entirely. “Kosherat”, by comparison, had more of a patchwork feel; still strong, but less seamless.

The drumming on this record is spectacular. While performing the re-recordings rather faithful to The Black Lourde’s original beats, The Gulag really brings mid-tempo parts like the one in “Son of the Black Ram” to life.

DEMONIC: The Gulag came from MORBIUS, and while his style there was more particular – maybe not quite what I’d have chosen in a different context – he adapted to G.B.K. really well. He didn’t go overboard, which I appreciated. Cazz (The Black Lourde), for instance, could be a bit much at times… those fourteen-measure drum rolls and so on <laughs>.

My main concern leading up to “Kosherat” was the vocals – The Black Lourde left behind a considerable void to fill. Luckily, I felt greatly relieved upon hearing the result, which is quite similar to “Judeobeast Assassination” in both approach and delivery.

GELAL: As a genuine fan of GRAND BELIAL’S KEY, Rich understood who he was replacing and what the band aimed for. Demonic and I were present in the studio, coaching him throughout.

DEMONIC: That’s when we discovered Richard’s inability to keep time – which was unexpected, having never been a problem live. Studio hours are expensive, and we were burning them fast. Eventually, we had to splice everything, manually placing each vocal line where it needed to go.

GELAL: You could hear him struggling at times, but Rich gave it his all; “Kosherat” was the most important thing he’d ever done musically. He had a good voice range – capable of both low growls and higher screams – and I encouraged him to experiment. Ultimately, we were pleased with Richard’s efforts.

 

“Mocking the Philanthropist” focused on the New Testament, staying relatively close to conventional black metal themes. Its successor, “Judeobeast Assassination”, reached further back along the Abrahamic timeline, highlighting the inseparability between the teachings of Christ and their Judaic foundations.

With “Kosherat”, the emphasis shifts entirely to pre-Christian traditions. Continuing Gelal’s inverted theological arc, the album examines Judaism’s sacred texts, rituals, and cultural frameworks through a critical lens.

GELAL: Our lyrics were never as superficial as the typical black metal clichés, like ‘Fuck Jesus, rape the nuns’ and similarly meaningless shock-value bullshit. Most bands just scratch the surface and don’t consider the implications – how all this shit ended up ruling Western civilisation.

Even in secular European societies, the foundational texts of Christianity have shaped the moral, legal, and cultural architecture – from early Western law and ethical codes to notions of authority, guilt, redemption, and social order.

GELAL: The metal scene has this imaginary boundary where it’s fine to criticise religion after Christ, while anything before his birth is somehow off-limits. Ridiculing Christianity is perfectly acceptable – but veer into pre-Christian or Talmudic Judaism, and suddenly everyone gets bent out of shape.

In a GRAND BELIAL’S KEY interview for Daniel Lake’s USBM: A Revolution of Identity in American Black Metal – published by Decibel Books – Gelal explained that the “Kosherat” lyrics were based on meticulous research.

GELAL: The people who get upset typically have no fucking clue about the subjects we discuss. I don’t know what they assume, but whenever I write lyrics, I spend extensive time researching religion, theology, cultural practices, and historical interpretations – digging into old and obscure writings. I always take this seriously.

Titles such as “The Red Heifer” might sound odd or even comical but actually refer to deeply symbolic elements of Hebraic eschatology. According to biblical prophecy, the ashes of a red cow are required for ritual purification before a new Jewish temple can be built on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount – currently occupied by the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.

This future sanctuary is known in religious discourse as the Third Temple. The First Temple, erected by King Solomon, was destroyed in the Babylonian conquest of the 6^th century BC. A second rose in its place but was razed by Roman forces during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Therefore, the prospect of a Third Temple carries tremendous theological weight. For devout Jews, it would usher in the long-anticipated messianic age. In Islamic tradition, by contrast, its construction heralds the coming of al-Masih ad-Dajjal – the false messiah – preceding a catastrophic era of upheaval and deception.

GELAL: The whole thing about this fucking red cow and all the crazy prophecies surrounding it is incredibly interesting and fascinating. But as you can see, even G.B.K. lyrics that may seem cynical or even funny carry profound substance. This isn’t just some random bullshit, you know? In fact, our themes are far more grounded in reality than most black metal.

For centuries, the crimson heifer remained little more than a theoretical requirement. Ancient law mandates an entirely red, unblemished animal never put to work – a rare combination of traits. In recent decades, however, a concerted breeding program in the United States has aimed to fulfil these criteria.

In 2022, five red heifers bred in Texas through this initiative were flown to Israel by Christian Zionist groups in cooperation with the Temple Institute, an organisation committed to preparing for the temple’s reconstruction.

The arrival of these fateful beasts was hailed by some religious factions as a prophetic milestone, while others viewed it as a destabilising provocation. Following the October 7 attacks in 2023, a Hamas spokesman referenced the ‘bringing of red cows’ to Jerusalem as evidence of Zionist intentions to desecrate Islamic holy sites and ignite wider apocalyptic conflict.

GELAL: The deeper you dig, the more absurd it becomes. At one point, I worked as an office manager at an Orthodox church. I’d be alone inside this huge fucking building with full access to religious texts and materials, often preparing sermons for the priest’s Sunday services. He actually really liked me.

I’m assuming he was unaware of your musical exploits.

GELAL: He had no idea, of course; I wasn’t exactly walking around in DEICIDE shirts. But that’s how it goes – if you’re seriously studying something, you’ve got to immerse yourself. You must get in there and see firsthand what’s really happening, like a war journalist on the frontline.

The same goes for ARGHOSLENT?

GELAL: Oh, for sure. Actually, even more research goes into that band because it’s such an expansive universe compared to GRAND BELIAL’S KEY, which strictly deals with theology. But just like G.B.K., people don’t seem to understand ARGHOSLENT’s lyrics.

As self-styled purveyors of ‘totalitarian death metal’, Gelal and fellow ARGHOSLENT guitarist Holocausto consider the presence of offensive topics as essential to the genre’s spirit: extreme, aggressive, and heretical.

ARGHOSLENT explore themes of human conflict, conquest, and subjugation – chronicling encounters between the Old and New Worlds, such as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, along with various theatres of war. A recurring thread is that each scenario ends in tragedy, underscoring both mankind’s cyclical self-destruction and the inherent negativity of death metal.

GELAL: I always bring up the CANNIBAL CORPSE comparison: they sing about horrific things, but it’s all tongue-in-cheek. Fiction, like a movie. KISS don’t wear their stupid makeup at home. Gene Simmons takes off those big faggot boots so he can eat his matzah balls and bagels. He’s just a fucking hedge fund – it’s all for show. But our shit is real, and people can’t handle that.

 

In addition to the original material, “Kosherat” features GRAND BELIAL’S KEY renditions of two songs by American hate-rock act CHAOS 88 – “Holy Shit” and “Doom Generation”.

DEMONIC: I’m not really into most of those bands, to be honest, but CHAOS 88 are criminally underrated. I genuinely think their debut is one of the great hardcore releases – primal, angry, and direct. Plus, it had a unique sound, solid production.

GELAL: CHAOS 88 was bad news from beginning to end – raw, aggressive, and totally non-PC, even within their own scene. They sang openly about gang violence, attacking the homeless, punching girlfriends in the face, and shit like that. People were saying, ‘Wow, his is just way too much.’ <laughs>

DEMONIC: Think of someone like GG Allin – not a hero to us by any means, but the same visceral, aggressive energy. CHAOS 88 had a similar vibe: vicious, clever, and emotionally charged. To me, that’s pure punk rock.

GELAL: Back then, many hate-rock bands had started taking a more serious, political approach – becoming straight-edge, going to the gym, and trying to be role models. But these Atlantic City maniacs were genuine outlaws, doing their own thing since day one. We thought CHAOS 88 reflected our position in the black metal scene perfectly. Do you like them?

I’ve tried, but I can’t stand those vocals.

GELAL: Dude, you’re missing out. That first EP and debut album… pure energy. Sometimes vocals are bad in a good way – so terrible they’re actually great. Take VIO–LENCE, the band we love so much. Their singer had an unusual style: rushed and manic, squeezing way too many words into a short time. It almost doesn’t fit, but ends up sounding amazing.

 

In August 2005, Drakkar Productions announced both a December release date for “Kosherat” and a European tour early the following year, featuring GRAND BELIAL’S KEY, NACHTMYSTIUM, and Portugal’s INTHYFLESH.

GELAL: The fact that NACHTMYSTIUM even agreed to play with us felt strange. By then, they were famous enough to be a real draw in Europe on their own, so the tour was gonna be a big deal. But a few months later, this NACHTMYSTIUM dude, Blade, started acting like a total pussy.

DEMONIC: Problems arose early, many of them tied to NACHTMYSTIUM. I never felt particularly close to the US scene, so I had little faith in joint efforts with other American bands – especially ones who used certain imagery purely for shock value. It turned into this strange trade show of theatrics, and that’s not how we approach G.B.K.

GELAL: Things got worse by the day, and soon enough, conditions were vastly different from when NACHTMYSTIUM first signed on. Blade kept beating around the bush, giving bullshit excuses about not being able to get a passport, band members with criminal records, et cetera – just stalling tactics.

DEMONIC: I wasn’t directly involved in the business side, but I recall a lot of silliness. On top of that, we faced issues of our own – mostly with people in the scene becoming increasingly hostile toward us. That was the first time we encountered organised resistance overseas.

GELAL: In reality, I think Blade was trying to distance himself from the growing negativity surrounding GRAND BELIAL’S KEY. I called him out on it, and he got both offended and apologetic, yet denied any fault. We still blame his ass for tanking the tour.

How so?

GELAL: Well, the cancellations started because NACHTMYSTIUM no longer wanted to come, and G.B.K. alone wasn’t enough of a draw. Even if his reasons were partially true, it doesn’t fucking matter. If you agree to go, you make it happen. We went to Europe without Cazz, didn’t we?

Around the time “Kosherat” came out in late 2005, a number of tour dates had been cancelled – some due to NACHTMYSTIUM’s withdrawal, others following pressure put on venues. One of the latter shows was meant to take place at the classic Elm Street Pub in Oslo, Norway, with KOLDBRANN.

GELAL: That KOLDBRANN guy might’ve written to me once; I have one of their records here somewhere, so we probably traded at some point. But in general, looking back over the years – from the 90s to now – GRAND BELIAL’S KEY had practically zero contact with Norway.

Not intentionally, I presume.

GELAL: No, we never had any beef or issue with Norwegian bands. Maybe they just didn’t like us, man. Who knows? In thirty years, perhaps five people from Norway contacted me. Honestly, I have no idea why anyone would even try to book a show there. Finland is a different story, though.

 

Fortunately, one can always count on the Land of a Thousand Lakes. February 2006 marked the first time GRAND BELIAL’S KEY visited Finland – a nation with a special breed of metalheads.

GELAL: When we arrived, one of the Helsinki promoters, Saku, asked, ‘Hey, you wanna go out for some beers?’ We’re like, ‘Sure’, so off we went in the snow. I was surprised at how mainstream metal had become there – cab drivers listening to METALLICA, random bars hosting metal karaoke nights on a weekday.

DEMONIC: I remember walking into a grocery store and hearing “Fear of the Dark” (IRON MAIDEN) playing over the speakers – which absolutely blew my mind. I’d never experienced anything like that in the States. I thought, ‘Okay, this country is actually pretty fucking wild.’

GELAL: Saku took us to an underground bar in Helsinki – a full-on heavy metal karaoke place, something we’d never seen before. Guys were lining up to sing songs by HELLOWEEN and QUIET RIOT <laughs>. We just stared, like, ‘Wow, this is insane.’ Those Finnish fuckers definitely live metal differently; that’s no joke.