Welcome to “The Right Talk”, The Online Talk Show where The Right Hand Path speaks to Celebrities from the world of Metal music. Our Celebrity Guest today are Sergei Pismeny & Gil Blouin, Founders & Owners of Israhellbanger Records, the Metal Record Label based in the city of Kiryat Motzkin in the Jewish State of Israel in this Exclusive Interview to an “Indian Metal Music Magazine’’.
The Right Hand Path: Mighty Metalik Shalom From India’s The Right Hand Path!!! How are things at Israhellbanger Records Headquarters?
Sergei Pismeny: Hi! Thanks a lot for your interest in our Metallik activities! Everything is fine here, though it could be nicer if there was more free time, since now I’m combining studies for the 1st degree in economical science (like Wager Antichrist!) with 2 jobs, but I’m not the one to quit!
Gil Blouin: Israhailz V.Ganesh! Everything’s pretty good down here. Label wise, we are finally gonna release the long awaited Bestial Death tape this month. Personally, I’m getting ready for a 10 days vacation in Berlin, where I will get to see some killer bands like Desaster, Vulcano, Blasphemy, Order From Chaos, Mystifier and many more – Total Hellbanging Mayhem!!!
The Right Hand Path: Some Non-Mainstream music companies tend to use “Records” or “Recordings” in their name; otherwise, all other music companies have “Music” or some other “standard music company” name. What do you have to say about this with regards to “Records” in your record label name?
Sergei Pismeny: One could say it’s wrong to put the “Records” word in our moniker, since we don’t release vinyl (maybe one day it will happen, but not in the near future), but it’s not that the stuff released by those pop labels you’re talking about has anything in common with music, so when all is said and done – I think that adding the word “Records” is pretty natural ad I see no real problem with it.
Gil Blouin: I guess that at the time “Israhellbanger Records” simply sounded better than “Israhellbanger Productions” or something like that, no big plan here…
The Right Hand Path: When I first saw the name Israhellbanger Records on the Internet, I thought somebody by the name of Isra [I thought the name Isra sounded Jewish] had this record label/somebody having affinity for Israel had started this label and lastly it reminded of the USA based Hells Headbangers Records with regards to somewhat similarity in your and their name. What do you have to say about this?
Sergei Pismeny: HHR is a great label that we support constantly, but the “Israhellbanger” has nothing to do with it. I thought that it could be a good name, because it’s obvious that it refers to Metal for maniacs pure and it’s Israeli, but the idea is taken from some e-mail written to me by Gil, where he wrote “Gil, an Israhellbanger”.
Gil Blouin: HHR are indeed a great label / distro but the name didn’t came from them. I came up with it 2 or 3 years ago as kind of a “nickname” I used in emails, so when Sergei said we should use it for the label I of korpse agreed. To me, it was kind of a mix between ‘Israheller Productions’ (an old Israeli label/distro) and the German ‘Hellbangers Moselfranken’.
The Right Hand Path: Talking of Israhellbanger Records website at http://www.israhellbanger.com, visitors are now redirected to http://www.israhellbanger.x10hosting.com/content/index.html. Apart from that, the Black & White logo of Israhellbanger Records with a bullet belt, machinegun and the name “Israhellbanger Records” in Iron Maiden style fonts, what is it all about? A reflection of everyday strife that your Nation as a Jewish State is witness to in a hostile neighbourhood in The Middle East through the Black & White background colours or your days in the Israeli Defence Forces reflected through the bullet belt and machineguns? [is the machinegun depicted there the world-famous Uzi sub-machine gun?]
Sergei Pismeny: The redirection is yesterday news; the website is working properly right now. The story behind it is that I finally decided to start using the internet-related knowledge I scored at my work and made the mistake of removing the website from the crappy server it was hosted on, before I finished doing the upgraded version and uploaded it. Now WWW.ISRAHELLBANGER.COM works properly and soon I’ll add a nice and user-friendly e-shop section there.
As for the logo – Iron Maiden is my and Gil’s favorite band ever, so who needs any other font? 
The weapon is M-16 and it was Gil’s idea and in general – military service is usually a greatly working tool to separate the posers and to split local poser so called “metal” bands. The majority of those chameleons deny any connection to heavy music after a 3 years military service (usually already in the middle of it). The bullet belt? What can be more Metal than spikes, bullet belts and chains? It just fits… I find it hard to believe that Gil’s aim was whining about how dangerous it’s to live here and somehow raise the awareness about it among others through this logo. None of the 2 of us like the idea of “life metal”-politics related stuff.
Gil Blouin: About the logo – The Maiden ‘font’ is due to the fact that they are the best band EVER! The bulletbelt is used as a kind of connection between metal and the army and the M16 assualt rifle is simply because I’m quite a militant guy and this is my ‘weapon of choice’… Thinking about it, it might have been more ‘Israeli’ to use the Uzi instead, but fukk it, I think Milovan Novakovic did an amazing job. The black/white colours has nothing to do with the “Israeli reality” in the Middle East though, it simply looks better than a pink / yellow logo, hahaha….
The Right Hand Path: On August 2, 2009, Israhellbanger Records website stated the below-mentioned
“Israhellbanger Records is an independent label, formed by 2 Israeli headbangers, Sergei (aka Werewolf, the xeroxed “Evil’s Best” zine editor) and Gil. Our aim is simply to support Metal bands we like by releasing their material on tape format and distributing Metal releases in various formats for honest prices.”
Right To Left: Sergei Pismeny & Gil Blouin
Is this something you do as a Hobby or Passion for Metal or as a Professional & Independent Metal Record Label supplemented by your Evil’s Best zine? Could you be kind enough to tell the Readers of The Right Hand Path and people into Metal music something more about how this began for people who are hearing of Israhellbanger Records for the first time? In addition, are you influenced by any Metal/Non-Metal record label in this venture?
Sergei Pismeny: Gil is the one who has a beer in his right hand and a goat on his black shirt and I’m the one with the pint in my left hand, wearing a black shirt with a goat on this picture! Trying to live from it or making big profit has never been our aim. For that target we have our daily jobs, so yeah – the label is just a kind of expensive hobby to satisfy this perverted Metallik lust!
The idea of starting Israhellbanger Records came to me when I started to distribute my “Evil’s Best” fanzine anywhere I could though trades, and since the printing shop doesn’t accept cd’s, tapes and zines as payment for printing services, I had no choice but starting a distro. Combining it with my own releases seemed to be not less logical. I knew that Gil wanted to start something like that himself in the past, so he was glad to cooperate.
I think that the quote you mentioned above sums everything up pretty well. We just do what we feel like doing – spreading the plague of True Metal among those inhuman outcasts, devoted to Hell’s music!
We aren’t influenced by any labels, we are who WE are!
Gil Blouin: I’m (Gil) the one with the Blasphemophagher t-shirt and Sergei is wearing a Bathory t-shirt. About the ‘history’. …OK, back in 2005/6 e.v. I was working on a printed metal zine which never became a reality. So, I began thinking about doing a tape label with the intention of releasing the Hangman demos on tape, as they were only released as cd’rs which I don’t really like. It didn’t manifest as well, but I kept the idea in my head. In 2009 e.v. I kontakted Sergei after getting the 2nd issue of his zine and we started trading and stuff like that. Some months later the label was born. I don’t like the word “influenced”, but personally, I was inspired by the works of some respected UG tape labels like InCoffin Prod. (Thailand), Witchhammer Rec. (Thailand) and Sodomistic Rituals Prod. (Germany)
The Right Hand Path: Please tell us about the artistes/bands signed onto Israhellbanger Records and since you aim to release their material on tape format and distribute Metal releases in various formats, don’t you think you are limiting Israhellbanger Records commercial viability with regards to bands signed to it by sticking to the tape format? Haughty Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives, the Canada based Internet Database for Metal shows 174 Metal bands presence in Israel. Of them, 1 is Tangorodrim signed to the Norway based “Satanic” Metal record label Forces Of Satan, what is your take on all of these?
Sergei Pismeny: TANGORODRIM is a wolf among local sheep and I give my total support to these drunken kunts! They never wimped out and I wholeheartedly believe they never will, so as long as there’s a label supporting them – good for them! I know that F.O.S. Now owns the rights to their first 2 albums and TANGORODRIM also used to be signed in “Southern Lord”, so I’m not sure how reliable the information about their current label is at the moment.
As for other local Metal bands – there are very few diamonds you can find in this pile of crap, so other nowadays active bands than TANGORODRIM, HELL DARKNESS, MORBID TENDENCY, SONNE ADAM, BETRAYTOR, STRIDENT, BEERAGE don’t really deserve any attention in my opinion, unless you’re some “metal”core hypester and it doesn’t even make any sense to read this interview for you… As for no longer active bands or those who play something totally different nowadays – check out SALEM’s pre-1998 materials and try to find any traces of “Unholy Bands from the Holy Land” 12” or tape compilation, this is a historical document that proves that there used to be some really good Death Metal bands here in the early 90′s.
As for Israhellbanger bands – HANGMAN is the best local Thrash Metal band ever and it really sucks they aren’t active anymore, but both me and Gil used to like this band a lot back in the days of their activity and it was great to have an opportunity to immortalize all their stuff in the compilation we released through Israhellbanger.
BETRAYTOR is a young local Thrash Metal band and they released a cool demo recently. I heard their rehearsal recordings, made with a simple, old boombox, and surprisingly it sounded really great for such a low budget recording, just like a real early 80′s demo! Let’s say that the release followed only a few days later and I doubt if I’ll ever regret this decision!
BESTIAL DEATH recorded their demo “Suicide of the Immortal” back in 1986, but never released it properly. I heard about this ghost demo before, but was recently lucky enough to contact their original drummer Dror through SALEM’s bass player Michael (who drew the original cover for that demo back in the day!) and got his agreement to get it released on tape, as it was meant to be done almost 25 years ago. For various reasons this project keeps being delayed, but next week I’m finally going to send the materials to the factory at last, so it will be released SOON! Expect nothing but raw sonic torment that will make “Morbid Visions” sound like “Arise”!
After BESTIAL DEATH – we’re planning to release a tape version of the upcoming debut album of the Chilean band EVIL MADNESS. Expect some serious Black/Thrash overdose there!
As for the tape format limitation – I’m convinced that there is a big correlation between those who listen to True Metal and those who have tape decks. I don’t see myself obligated to feed mp3 blogs by doing CD releases, but prefer to spread the word about our releases as much as possible among those who care about such music. If there’s still demand for a sold out release we made – I won’t seclude a reissue option, to get more tapes spread.
We’re also not trying to join the bandwagon of those who make various versions of the same release, make their releases super duper limited and hand-numbered etc, so unless a few people want to save on shipping and prefer to buy a few copies of a tape we released – it’s usually a “1 man – 1 tape order” situation here, which I think is great, because I consider it really useless to have a print run of X tapes sold to X/2 collectors that will barely listen even to 1 copy.
Gil Blouin: The current bands I support from Israel are: Arallu, Bartholomeus Night, Betraytor, Hell Darkness, Infernal Nature, Morbid Tendency, Mucous Scrotum, ShworchtseChaye, Sonne Adam, Spawn Of Evil, Tangorodrim and Tsorer. About the tape format – personally, it’s my earliest and favorite music format and I think there are way too much cd / vinyl labels around, so I see no point in creating another one. Those people who think the same are probably the ones buying/trading our releases and I reckon there aren’t too many of ‘em out there anyway…
Gil Blouin, Moti Of Arallu And Yosi Of Bartholomeus Night
The Right Hand Path: Sometime back, I saw a program on Israeli military personnel on the Russian television channel Russia Today, in that 1 female Israeli military officer almost seemed resigned to the constant strife in and around Israel but at the same time preferred War over Peace and was proud of being Jewish and the Jewish State? Is that a sentiment shared by you [and your colleagues when you were in the Israeli Defence Forces], how much does being Jewish, Jewish State, ideology like Zionism shape and affect you as human beings, metalheads and Israhellbanger Records?
Sergei Pismeny: If that chick prefers war over peace, I think that she’s dumb. No matter how much those who have no clue how it feels when bombs fall near your house try to present war as a romantic phenomenon, there’s no charm in it in my opinion. My family didn’t come here because of Zionism or religion, I’m an atheist to the bone and don’t care about politics. Moreover – I hate it when Metal becomes a stage for politicians! There are enough politicians to deal with that crap. I don’t feel ashamed of who I was born, but a wise man said once that when a man has nothing left to be proud of – he starts to be proud of his nationality. It seems that this is the way it usually works and I find it pathetic. Maybe our sales could be better if we were located in Europe or the US and maybe we would be trading with some shitty NSBM labels if we weren’t Jews, but as long as the local postage service costs are so low here – I’m really glad to run a label from a country where I can charge a 5$-ONLY flat rate price for any package I send to our customers, while probably no other underground Metal label on Earth can’t offer such a luxury to its supporters!
Gil Blouin: I have no problem with being called a Zionist. I am not religious in any way, but I do feel free to take from Judaism what fits me as a person without being a mindless “worshipper”, pretty much like I do with everything in life. I was born in Israel and have no problem to die for this land if the situation calls for it. As I mentioned before, I’m a pretty militant guy and still do my time in the IDF’S reserve forces (around 2-4 weeks a year until I’m 40, so still 9 years to go…). About what that officer said, well considering that the so called “peace process” which has been going on here for the last 17 years has caused nothing but more bloodshed, she has a point. If I have to choose between a fake peace which is used to slowly destroy me or go out to war and destroy ‘em – the choice is obvious. Basically, the situation in Israel is so complex, that I guess you have to live here to fully understand it. To sum up my personal views towards this topic: VICTORY IS MY PEACE – ISRAEL FOR ISRAEL!!!
The Right Hand Path: I see that you describe yourselves as “Headbangers”, are you inclined more towards Metal from that era instead of the one associated with the word “Metalhead” today?
Sergei Pismeny: Excuse me? Pardon my ignorance, but how do “Headbangers” differ from “Metalheads”? I really need this knowledge in order to know the difference between those who listen to Metal and those who listen to Metal…
Gil Blouin: I don’t really go around calling myself a “metalhead” or “headbanger”, I’m just being myself and I guess that does include being addicted to metal and bang my head when I feel like it, wether in a front row at a gig, a metal pub or in my living room…
Gil Blouin At An Arallu Gig
The Right Hand Path: As Israhellbanger Records grows and your international contacts and correspondences increase, would you be registering Israhellbanger Records with the Government so that you don’t face any business/company, tax and other hassles when you produce your Israeli/International label artistes’ albums in Israel and export/import them?
Sergei Pismeny: So far there’s no urge to do it, but never say never. I’m pretty sure it will never become a full time job though. I didn’t expect that I would make a living from writing, definitely not just a year and a half after having started to release the fanzine (no, my job has nothing to do with Metal, I’m not making a living form a fanzine!), so who knows what the future will bring?
Gil Blouin: As for the moment, we are way too small/ug for the “financial authoritiues” to notice us and I hope it stays that way as I totally despise having to deal with bureaucracy and bullshit like that.
The Right Hand Path: What is your take on the Israeli Metal Scene since Israel has a multi-racial population with European Jews, Black/African Jews and Indian Jews of Asian origin who have migrated to Israel after converting to Judaism from Christianity [like the Bene Menashe Jews from India’s North East considered to be 1 of the 11 Lost Tribes of Israel] apart from Israeli Arabs. Please don’t get me wrong when I ask if Metal in Israel is considered to be a White Man’s music or it’s played and listened to by Israelis irrespective of their racial origin
Sergei Pismeny: There are many immigrants from the ex-USSR, who are into Metal here, but in the scarce cases I meet a like-minded maniac, I couldn’t care less about where his ancestors used to live hundreds of years ago.
Gil Blouin: Israel is indeed quite a melting pot with people from almost everywhere. I am actually ‘half Jew’, as my father is Canadian. I really don’t think of metal here as “white man’s” music or some crap like that and I have many friends here who has ‘darker’ skin than mine – but honestly, who cares about such a stupid thing ? Shit comes in all colours!
The Right Hand Path: How do you go about selecting and signing Metal bands for Israhellbanger Records, what are the parameters based upon which you analyze, evaluate and sign bands? Do you regularly go to concerts, check out music on sites like MySpace, SoundClick, MP3.com, ReverbNation, GimmeSound, Last.FM and PureVolume to name some? Are you the only person involved in this or does you have an Israhellbanger Street Team chip in with their thoughts? What should a Metal band looking to be signed on to a record label like yours take care of and look forward to?
Sergei Pismeny: Parameters? As long as a band plays good Heavy/Thrash/Death or Black Metal and its members aren’t wimps and both I and Gil like their music – any band that fits these parameters will do. Rarely do I go to gigs, since the better local bands don’t play any gigs and the other ones usually either suck or I don’t have the time to go and see them performing.
From the websites you mentioned – I use only myspace (I have a last.fm account, but I found this website absolutely useless) and I discovered many good (mainly newer) bands through it and gained many contacts with Metal-obsessed bastards worldwide. I also get some promos from time to time for the fanzine, but they’re mostly crap.
Street team? Get a grip!
We’re not that big to finance recordings in gigantic studios or finance multi-galactic tours. What we can offer is either exhuming a decrepit corpse from its grave (e.g. HANGMAN and especially BESTIAL DEATH) or help a new band that has no worldwide contacts whatsoever (such as BETRAYTOR) get its name spread, before they hopefully advance to something bigger. If it’s not enough for one band or another – c’est la vie…
Gil Blouin: I think there only 2 generes of Heavy Metal: good and crap! So if a band belongs to the 1st category and are not a bunch of wankers we will work with ‘em if they are intrested and our “budget” at the time allows it. I personally doesn’t listen to any music on my computer, so I basically discover bands through printed zines, trades, dubs I get from friends, ‘word of mouth’ or simply buying stuff ‘blindly’, which I’ve been doing all my life and I rarely made the wrong choices…Who needs mpshit, ect. when you have good “metal instincts” ?
The Right Hand Path: What is your view on Metal bands/musicians/organizations associated with Metal who believe and use “Judeo-Christianity”, the words, National Socialism, Jew, Zionism and Jesus Christ in connection to Israel and Judaism in a manner offensive to the Jewish people’s religious sentiments and their history of unjust persecution and disinformation of them in the past and present.
Sergei Pismeny: Life is too short to care about morons!
Gil Blouin: I am not “offended” by anyone or anything and big words without action behind ‘em means nothing anyway. However, that being said, I don’t listen to stupid NS bands at all, since there are enough worthy bands to support out there. I do make a difference between ‘attacks’ on Judaism as part of the monotheistic religions, which I have no problem with and the pure racial stuff or anti Israeli themes, which I don’t tolerate. Anyway, in the big picture, let’s just say I am way more concerned about the real threats to Israel from the Islamo-Nazis and their allies, so I really couldn’t care less about the stupid lyrics / interviews of bands like Graveland, Der Sturmer or As Sahar…
The Right Hand Path: Which Israeli/International Metal bands in your opinion are up, coming, and have a great future?
Sergei Pismeny: Israel – TANGORODRIM, HELL DARKNESS, SONNE ADAM. World – there are too many of them, so let’s say GRAVE MIASMA (UK), MANZER (Pictavia), MANDATORY (Germany), HERETIC (Holland), BAPHOMET’S BLOOD (Italy), IFINITUM OBSCURE (Mexico), INFERNAL CURSE (Argentina), just to name a few of those who got me seriously impressed lately…
Gil Blouin: From Israel – see answer no. 6 above. From the rest of Planet Satan – Acrimonious (Greece), After Death (USA), Annthenath (France), Arphaxat (France), Assaulter (OZ), Cerekloth (Denmark), Communion (Chile), Dead Congregation (Greece), Deathhammer (Norway), Demona (Chile), Diocletian (New Zealand), Doombringer (Poland),Funeral In Heaven (Sri Lanka), High Spirits (USA), Hour Of 13 (USA), Ignivomous (OZ) ,In League With Satan (Italy), Godslaying Hellblast (Turkey), Kurhan (Poland), Maledicere (USA), Maniak (Phillipines),Midnight Rider (Germany/Japan), Morbid Yell (Spain), Necrolisis (Costa Rica), Necrovomit (Italy), Nihil Domination (Ecuador), Nocturnal Evil (Argentina),Profanation (Argentina), Pugnator (Denmark), Recrucify (Peru), Riotor (Canada), Ruins (Germany), Sacriphyx (OZ), Sanguish Imperem (USA), Set (USA), Speedwolf (USA), Sperm Of Antichrist (USA), Stench Of Decay (Finland), The Royal Arch Blaspheme (USA), Trench Hell (OZ), Tribulation (Sweden), Vault (Malaysia), Wastelander (USA), Zygoatsis (Thailand), Zuul (USA)…I think that should do for now, hahaha – happy hunting!
The Right Hand Path: I hope it has been as much a delight and pleasure for you like it has been for me to know and interact with you for the first time through this interview. Is there anything that you would like to tell the Readers of The Right Hand Path and people in general?
Sergei Pismeny: First of all – thank YOU for your interview, spreading the lack of ideology of Israhellbanger Records is very important for our secret master-plan! Thanks a lot to the readers as well! Stay tuned and follow our updates at WWW.ISRAHELLBANGER.COM , or feel free to contact us about anything through werewolf12345666@gmail.com !
Gil Blouin: Well, I don’t really like typing that much, but your questions were good enough, so I made it to the end…Thanxxx alot for this cool intie. V.Ganesh and good luck with all your current/future metal (and other) activities! I sure hope metal in India will grow more in the future, it’s not like you’re short on population there, haha. Thanx for anyone who read the intie. You can send your questions, empty threats and nude female pics. to metalfukk@yahoo.com I hold my beer high for all the real metal maniacs in India – Cheers! Oh, and can someone please send me some jaras…?
