Finnish The Chamberlain’s debut album Draconian Magick (review) came pretty much like a bolt out of the blue in early 2025. We admit, perhaps to our own detriment, that here at ODIR we’d never even heard of them. All of a sudden, it seemed, people were buzzing about this new band and their debut album of melodic black metal. Showcasing an impressive mastery of the craft, The Chamberlain aren’t just content with making pastiche of past masters, but take the quintessence of that classic sound, and create something of their own out of it. Impressed by this achievement, we decided to sit down with primus motor of The Chamberlain, Magister Lucifugus, and find out more.
Since The Chamberlain may well yet be unfamiliar to many of ODIR’s readers, let’s start with the obvious: the origins and history thus far. Magister Lucifugus explains that the band was born a couple of years ago, but had in some conceptual capacity existed in his head already before. For the longest time, the prospect of forming a band seemed unlikely, as he lived in a small town with few like-minded souls, and going at it solo was not an option. It was only after a move to Turku in southwestern Finland that he found the right people to form a band with.
– I picked up a guitar at another band’s rehearsal place and played the other guys one of my riffs. First the drummer and then the second guitarist joined in, and after a while we had The Chamberlain’s first song, Army In Shadows. It all grew from that: we released our EP or demo, whichever way you want to look at it, Dominus Noctis (on which aforementioned song is -ed), and then our first album this year.
Magister Lucifugus is responsible for writing all of the music and the lyrics, but the compositions are finished as a band. In other words, each member has considerable input in how their own instrument is arranged in the final piece.
– I find that one easily becomes deaf to their own music and blind to their own vision, so it’s good to have others around to bounce ideas off, he says. So whilst Magister Lucifugus is the primus motor of the band, who has the final say if push comes to shove, the others are far more than mere “hired hands.”
I was not the only one charmed by how different The Chamberlain sounds in comparison to contemporary black metal, and how skillfully the band mould the archetype of 90’s melodic, synth-driven black metal into their own visage. The reviews have been favourable, but some perhaps a bit one-sided in their understanding of the band.
– Some people seem to think The Chamberlain is a sort of tip of the hat and tribute to all of the cheesiest bands of that time. And I’m not saying it’s entirely off the mark, but above all, the style and sound comes very naturally. The reason is simple: this is the kind of stuff we grew up listening to. By the time we started listening to black metal, it had already sort of broken into the mainstream, and it was these more melodic, lighter, cheesier bands we came across first. You know, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle Of Filth and the likes.
– But I don’t agree at all if someone says The Chamberlain is one-sided worship of that old sound and style. I feel we have plenty of other elements in our music. Certainly, since we all like Dimmu Borgir’s Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, you can hear its influence in our sound… but we’re definitely not interested in just re-creating it, the Magister asserts. He also says that whilst he doesn’t deny the influence of aforementioned Cradle Of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, he feels that people fail to recognize the influence from classic Finnish melodic black metal, bands such as …And Oceans and Thyrane, who have also helped shape the band’s style.
A lot of my sense of melody and how I structure songs comes from the fact that I’ve always listened to heavy metal and hard rock, bands like Thin Lizzy. Music like that taught me the importance of harmonies and a good hook. When learning to play music, it was always rock and more traditional metal, so that’s where I come from. You can hear this clearly in our songs, the Magister explains. He goes on to add that personally, when writing songs, he finds little of interest in writing repetitive, structurally minimalist stuff, that goes on for minutes without changing, which a lot of black metal is.
– I understand the point of it, of hypnotic repetition, and I’m not writing it off, but that’s not what I want to do with The Chamberlain. Our compositions are quite straightforward and in a way very in-your-face, he adds. It’s the heavy metal element, we conclude.
Comparing the first demo/EP Dominus Noctis with Draconian Magick, one can clearly hear an evolution in the sound. Which is scarcely surprising: Magister Lucifugus explains that Dominus Noctis was made quite fast after forming the band as a sort of “proof of existence”. In that sense, it’s definitely more appropriate to call it a demo than an EP – although on either scale, it is a more than passable work.
– I suppose we could have worked on the material a bit more before recording it. But if you start thinking like that, it easily becomes an endless cycle. I don’t believe any musician is ever 100% satisfied with their work.
– But you’re right, there definitely is a big leap in terms of sound and overall production between the two releases. On Dominus Noctis, I still didn’t fully know how I should go about realizing my vision of The Chamberlain’s music. In some ways, how well Dominus Noctis was received gave us a boost of confidence in our own vision; that we’re on to something worthwhile. I’m not saying we wouldn’t have continued if Dominus Noctis hadn’t been received well, but maybe Draconian Magick would have sounded a bit different.
Black metal is often seen as a very introvert genre, which is something The Chamberlain is expressly not. Magister Lucifugus stresses that with The Chamberlain, he does not want to create music that is so cryptic it becomes incessantly difficult to get into it.
– In some ways, we’re a bit on the outer fringes of what black metal can be. But we’re absolutely not a gimmick band or a humour group. There’s no slapstick in The Chamberlain.
The Magister continues by explaining he sees two extremes in black metal. In one end are the artists that take themselves far too seriously, whose concepts become overly complex and intricate, and who too carefully and meticulously construct their image. The other extreme are bands that don’t take themselves seriously at all, of which there seem to be more and more – which perhaps isn’t so surprising, considering black metal has been quite mainstream, or mainstream adjacent at the very least, for the past 20 years.
– Many bands may look the part, but there’s no real conviction. It’s just extreme metal for the sake of being extreme. That’s something black metal should never be reduced to, approaching black metal like any other genre of metal. There should always be some kind of connection to something unearthly or transcendent. In my opinion, this is what separates black metal from other genres. Certainly, there’s a lot of freedom to do whatever you want in this context, but I just don’t think black metal can be about current, mundane affairs. Or about just drinking beer. There has to be something deeper, something timeless about it.
– And then there are those bands that take themselves too seriously. Bands who call their live shows rituals, smoke incense and dress in ritual hoods. The old horseshoe theory works here: some of those bands who are too self-important and serious come across as quite comical.
If we compare ourselves to those bands who dress in hoods and call their gigs rituals and try to induce some kind of transcendental reverie, we’re more like a southern baptist church, Magister Lucifugus laughs.
– You know, fast tempos, people jumping and screaming and letting the music take a hold of them. There’s something very maximalist about it.
And so we circle back to the heavy metal element in The Chamberlain, and the crowd psychology behind getting a venue full of people joining in and screaming their lungs out with abandon. The audience doesn’t necessarily have to cerebrally understand what is happening to instinctually join in and intuitively “get it.” In a way, it is extremely inclusive.
Which, the Magister points out, is also a very double-edged sword. When making black metal aimed for a larger audience, it is easy to get lost in the very camp aspects of black metal. There is a case to be made for a certain degree of elitism.
– I mean, if a total outsider comes to one of our gigs, most likely they’re going to wonder what the fuck is going on, and who are those guys in ruffled shirts and capes on stage. There’s this quote by St. Thomas de Aquinas, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” So whilst we’re casting our nets out wide with our music, we’re not interested in appealing to everyone. Only to those who can relate to what The Chamberlain is about.
– Besides, if I wanted to make music that truly appeals to the masses, I wouldn’t be playing black metal.
Comparing black metal’s lyrics and imagery to death metal, for example, the key difference Magister Lucifugus sees is just in the timeless depth. Death metal is very literal and very descriptive in its gruesome violence. But, ultimately, there is little substance in it. Sure, there’s brutality in graphic descriptions of violent murder, but it’s purely descriptive. The lyrics rarely say anything substantial about the subject matter.
Black metal, on the other hand, sometimes even unwittingly, searches for something more metaphysical.
– You could say our lyrics paint a picture of a perfect Kingdom of Satan, and describe an evolution from a God’s creature, a creation of God, into a greater reality. In a way, it is very positive, because it contains the idea that man can free himself from, for example, the Christian worldview. Even though our lyrics also deal with classic stuff like impaling Christians, vampires and drinking blood, Magister Lucifugus reflects.
He continues that the violence of the lyrical imagery mirrors in a way the idea that this liberation can only come through harsh and violent means. There’s a sort of Nietzschean idea and worldview in the lyrics, that amidst the ugliness and violence, there’s a striving towards and a vision of a more beautiful, majestic world.
As far as The Chamberlain’s lyrics go, Magister Lucifugus admits that he’s always wanted them to have a brazen element to them, just like the band’s imagery. A little over the top and a little exaggerated – but still with genuine conviction. And sure enough, lyrics of impaling Christians and ancient vampires rising from their graves evoke very classic, overblown black metal imagery. The decision to utilize traditional imagery, even tropes, in the lyrics is not an accident. It sort of sets the context for those familiar with black metal even on a superficial level.
– I don’t consider them to be fantasy. It’s more correct to call them fantastical, evoking the listener’s imagination. Lyrics like that don’t really have a connection to the goings on of the mundane world. But it ties in with what I said before, that black metal shouldn’t be bound to the banal, mundane world. But black metal also shouldn’t just be like lines lifted from some philosophical or occult book, it should bolster a sort of will to battle, raise spirits to fight.
This is particularly important in a live setting: to instill a sort of “battle fervour” in the audience. Magister Lucifugus says he doesn’t want the audience to just stand there and watch, arms crossed. He wants to rouse their spirits. Again the distinction between the more introvert parts of the spectrum is made obvious: The Chamberlain want something of the raucous, communal wild spirit of heavy metal in their concerts.
So, in a way, The Chamberlain is romantical?
– Yes, exactly! And this goes back to not writing stuff that’s too cryptic for others to understand. Is it more important that the lyrics are a picture perfect depiction of some internal mental image, or communicate to the audience the idea through allegory, exaggeration and romanticizing? It’s important to convey an understandable, idealized depiction of your own ideal world.
Of course, all this; the fantastical lyrics, the brazen attitude, the bold visual aesthetics, easily lend themselves to ridicule. Magister Lucifugus is, as he’s already hinted at, aware of how easy it is to view black metal as excessively nerdy and silly. In this, black metal is no different to other extreme forms of music. Martial industrial and neofolk certainly have a very camp side to them as well, perhaps even moreso than black metal.
– And should you even necessarily be ashamed of them?, the Magister asks. It’s important to be conscious of them, he intones, but if you start to consciously lean too much into the camp aspects, it goes over into the ridiculous no matter how self-conscious it is. Then you have silly corpse paints on random mainstream metal festival goers and silly comic books with black metal characters in them and whatnot. But it’s no better to act like they wouldn’t exist.
– It’s important to recognize them and be self-conscious, and not take things too seriously. But there should also be some degree of elitism.
Now that we’ve gotten into the thick of it, and both Satan and Satanism have been mentioned, let’s go with that most cliché of questions. What is Satan for The Chamberlain and Magister Lucifugus?
– I’ve never liked to classify things too much, and put titles on them. This also applies to my own perception of Satan. I see no point in labeling how I see things, and classify it as Orthodox Satanism or Luciferianism or whatever. But I like to say that Satan is as real to me as God is to a Christian. This leaves a lot of room for interpretation, which isn’t a bad thing. I don’t think it’s really very interesting to talk about whether I see Satan as some kind of bearded devil or as the tragic, beautiful angel of a renaissance painting.
– It doesn’t really matter to me if people see Satan as a manifest god who has a physical form, or if they see Satan as an allegory. To me, Satan embodies a kind of primordial, animal shadowside, which Christianity and the other Abrahamic religions, and modern society with its modern values in general, have tried to conceal; something that is in us by nature, but is shackled, he muses, and quotes Necromantia’s Ancient Pride: “Our gods became your Satan, and Satan became our God.”
So, some kind of atavistic, primal force?
– Yes. And although I’ve never been one to base my idea of Satan on someone’s book or philosophy, Satan could be seen as an almost Nietzschean archetype.
Magister Lucifugus pivots to a recurring image in The Chamberlain’s lyrics, the vampire. For most people, the vampire represent nothing but a character from a gothic horror story, but in many ways, it is the perfect allegory for Magister Lucifugus’ understanding of Satan. The transition and ascent to a vampire represents rising above the human condition, the potential for which has always been in man. In essence, the vampire is free from the shackles and morals of human society, master of his (or her) own body and spirit. But attaining this freedom requires an ultimate sacrifice, embracing the ever-present shadow. And though the power of the vampire is great, it is also an existence of perpetual violence and struggle.
We return again to Nietzsche, with the vampire as representative of the overman. On the topic of Nietzsche, I suggest that people who claim to have “cracked” his system and propound the Certifiedly Correct Way to Read Nietzschetm most probably have it wrong. On some level, Nietzsche wasn’t meant to be understood intellectually, but felt – just like Magister Lucifugus has described his intent with The Chamberlain.
– Exactly. And when you get an emotional reaction, it can translate into change, make the idea flesh, so to speak.
So, in the end, the correct question is not what Satan represents to Magister Lucifugus – but what vision he wishes to convey when singing Satan’s gospel to the audience.
I don’t necessarily want to convert the large masses into Satanism. I want to reach the ones who can understand and relate to what we’re trying to say. And the rest can be those who burn, die and are impaled there on the battlefields, Magister Lucifugus reflects the tropes discussed earlier.
We return to elitism, and how it relates to The Chamberlain. On the surface, one might sense a contradiction in how earlier, Magister Lucifugus spoke of wanting The Chamberlain to be approachable musically. But is there really a contradiction? Or is it more of a question of casting the nets wide to reach those few, who can open up to the message? To use a Christian metaphor blasphemously, to fish for men?
– In a way, it’s just that. You can’t, and shouldn’t even try to “save” everyone.
Black metal should never be reduced to peddling empty, hollow mainstream nothingness. It should not be banalized by selling funny Christmas sweaters or toddler jumpsuits, Magister Lucifugus outlines. You can perform at a big festival and you can make music that’s not meant just for the initiated few, but the ethos, the dedication, the spirit and the inner flame must be authentic and true. And perhaps this is how the black metal scene has evolved in the past quarter of a century: it is now widely understood and accepted that it can be heard even in melodic and synth-driven black metal that would have been scoffed at in the late 90’s and early noughties.
During the course of our discussion, the tension of The Chamberlain’s concept has become clear. The conscious striving to be accessible in the way many other, more introverted black metal bands refuse to be; and the strong elitist streak in The Chamberlain, in how it does not even desire to appeal to everyone on a more existential level. To use a Nietzsche quote we’ve used also elsewhere: “Great things remain for the great, abysses for the profound, nuances and shudders for the refined, and, in brief, all that is rare for the rare.” The true depths of The Chamberlain are as esoteric as anything in black metal.
But how far does Magister Lucifugus think he can take the concept of The Chamberlain?
– I don’t think there’s a point beyond which we couldn’t go. In principle, I am open to the idea of performing at big festivals in Finland and abroad. Many Finnish black metal bands have proven you can do it, and still remain true to yourself, your vision and ideology, without any need to apologize or grovel. They’ve proven black metal can remain black metal on a big stage as well.
– But on the other hand, exponential growth for its own sake isn’t our goal, either. Rather, we want to find our own core audience, who understand our music and what we aim for, and are interested in our music and albums year after year. We’re not at all interested in being some kind flavour of the week discovered from Youtube’s sidebar because it’s become viral on some crappy Youtube channel.
– Gathering our legion, Magister Lucifugus sums it up.
Magister Lucifugus reveals that the next album is essentially written. There are just a few odds and ends missing. The band will probably start recording it next year, but the Magister says they’re not in any hurry to get it done. It’ll be ready, when it’s time for it to be ready.
– We’ll remain true to our sound, but naturally the sound will also evolve. But I can honestly say that if some people were bewildered by the evolution from the demo to the debut album, then the next one will also raise some eyebrows, the Magister promises, adding that boundaries will be pushed and limits broken. In other words, The Chamberlain will continue to brazen and not care about rules set by others.
And that’s a good note to stop on, we both agree.
– Ad Maiorem Satanae Gloriam – join the legion!, Magister Lucifugus declares in conclusion.
Visit The Chamberlain on Bandcamp, Facebook or Instagram
Images via The Chamberlain; Draconian Magick album art by David Thiérrée
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