foto: Jérôme Siegelaer.
Selim Lemouchi, 2012.
his death was a rational choice, an act prompted by satanic philosophy, or the desperate act of a tormented soul. Darko Groenhagen thinks deeply on this. “It was certainly a rational choice. I think that back in 2007, before the start of The Devil’s Blood, he had already began his last years. He threw himself fully into the occult, inviting his demons to speak out and be heard, and this worked out for a while. But he always knew that one day, the darkness would call out for him. Much like the devil; the fallen angel knew it was of no use to go knocking on God’s door any longer. There is no way back once you have chosen to embrace the darkness with such conviction”.
The big nothing
For years Selim signed off his mail with ‘death is the crown of all’. For him, death was the reward at the end of life. Giving everything for the big nothing, exemplified lyrically in the song ‘I was promised a hunt’ with the line “I want nothing and in return give all”. The vast majority of The Devil’s Blood’s lyrics dealt with the deep, dark topic of a nihilistic existence. “Even though my voice is choked with joy, my song is a call for grief to come” he sings in the same track. And grief finally came. Farida: “In the weeks before his death, he found value in nothing, he
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lost all interest. The last thing he was remotely interested in was a television series called True Detective, he would become quite absorbed in that. But that Tuesday evening, which was actually the last episode of the series, he didn’t even wait to watch it. I think that says a lot”. On Sunday the 13th April 2014, Farida was once again back at the 013 venue and back to perform at the Roadburn Festival. It was the only performance not be cancelled by Selim before he died. And so Selim Lemouchi’s Enemies took the main stage for the last time. They stood in a semi-circle, leaving a gap in the middle to symbolise the spiritual presence of their band leader. Meanwhile Jérôme filled the screen behind them with visual art. “That you can still deliver a performance like this, even after you are dead” sighs Walter. Selim is no more. He has killed his ego. And this had always been his goal: to destroy the ego so that nothing can stand in the way of the art. The ego is eliminated and the music is what is left. And as far as Selim is concerned, the rest can rot away in the Kruidenbuurt.
THE DEVIL'S BLOOD The reputation of The Devil’s Blood far exceeded the borders of The Netherlands. Their debut album ‘The Time of no Time Evermore’ (2009) was well received worldwide. Their second full length album “The Thousandfold Epicentre” (2012) scored highly on the review site Metacritic with 79 points; a Dutch record in fact. In its seven year- long life, the band attracted a lot of attention across Europe, and their music was especially well received in Germany. In 2010 the band played the biggest metal festival in the world: Wacken Open Air, and also played a number of other large European festivals such as Hellfest (France), Summerbreeze (Germany) and Graspop (Belgium) to name but a few. In 2012 they embarked on a successful North American tour. Despite a number of successful appearances at festivals and clubs, the band never managed to breakthrough to the general public in The Netherlands. This was likely down to the extreme ideas of Selim Lemouchi which often clashed with the existing, shall we say ‘sober’ music culture here.
Text Thomas Snoeijs Translation Laura Caffrey Illustration Anouk Essers
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