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Purgation - interview May 2001
Interview with one of the most intresting doom bands at the moment, Purgation (former Purge).

Victory: Hi Ronnie, how are you doing?
Ronnie: I'm doing pretty good. Thanks for asking.


Victory: Please tell us about the band, there are surely many out there that has no idea what Purgation sounds like, how would you describe your music to a new listener?
Ronnie:This is how we describe ourselves:
Heavy music with dark plodding guitars, impassioned solos and anguished vocals with a foreboding message.


Victory: For how long has you been doing music?
Ronnie:We've all been playing music about twenty years a piece.


 Victory: Beside you, you've two very talented musicians, how did you get in contact with them? Some friends from childhood?
Ronnie:I've been knowing Jerry Allnet (Guitar) for about twelve years and we met when I tried out for a band he was playing in at the time. I met Peppy Ruiz (Drums) about two years ago through Jerry who had been playing drums in Jerry's studio as a session drummer and we asked him to jam with us.


Victory: I have always been impressed by the way the songs are constructed, please tell me who composes the music, and writes the lyrics (I love your lyrics!)?
Ronnie:I write all of the lyrics and all of the music but Jerry will be taking over the writing of the music after we finish up this next project we're working on which is about eight more of my songs.


Victory: Could please tell their readers shortly about the songs on the new CD, what do you want to tell your listeners with your music?
Ronnie:What we're about is telling people about what God's word really says. We want people to wake up and see the Truth which is Jesus and that we as a whole need to repent of our sins and turn back to God so He will heal our world which is in dire need of healing. When we choose to run the world with out God things start falling apart as we see that now and I believe as Romans 1:28 say, " And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper..." and just as Romans 1:18 says " For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness...". So if we don't turn back to God I believe He will allow our world to keep getting worse and then His final judgement. I also am trying to say that if we don't wake up and start speaking out against the immorality going on then we will lose our rights as Christians to speak the word of God and once we lose that we will lose the rest of our freedoms. Some people might not believe this but all you have to do is look at Israel in the Bible and see what happened to them and how they started forgetting about God and letting all kinds of immorality and evil take place so God allowed other countries to conquer them and make slaves out of them. A statesman, Fraser Tyler, wrote, " The average life of the great nations of the world has been about 200 years. These civilizations have progressed through the following stages: From bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy and from apathy back to bondage. "


Victory:Please tell me about your new CD (which kicks some serious butt), I think the readers would be intrested to know about the songs, what they sound like, the lyrics and so on.
Ronnie:There are four songs on the new CD. They all are pretty heavy and have a doom feel to them but there is also some fast parts to them. The lyrics for the first song talks about how we as Christians don't speak out against the immorality going on in our world and as a result they're slowly taking away our freedom of speech and we don't say anything about it and and the world keeps getting more immoral so God has to bring His judgement down on us and that's what I mean by "Watching th World Die" because it is dying because we let the immorality go on so God lets us slowly destroy ourselves then He has to bring final judgement on us. The song "Eulogy ( Part II ) " is about someone who suffers some kind of pain and they want God to straighten things out and sometimes God doesn't do that because we live in a fallen world and things aren't perfect so they get mad at God and they start thinking that since He doesn't take it away that maybe He doesn't exist and so they're so mad and hateful towards God that they want to do all they can to destroy the thought of God in our world and one way they do it is by trying to get people to feel sorry for them like they've been nailed to a cross and they're some kind of martyr and people start thinking that if God doesn't save them from their problem then maybe ther really is no God and they start hating God too. I'm not saying that people shouldn't feel hurt from their suffering or that we shouldn't have sympathy for them. The next song " Slumber " is about how the Church needs to wake up and start speaking out against immorality so we get our world back from people who want to ruin it. And the final song " Realm of the Dead " is about telling people about Jesus and that He's the only way to Heaven but people don't want to listen or believe.


Victory: In your previous release you had some quite radical christian songs (Hate crimes), what has the response been to those kind of songs?
Ronnie:We haven't gotten much of a response to that CD. We didn't really push it. Most of the response that we did get though was from people who were just hateful towards God and Jesus. Homosexuality is and issue that needs to be dealt with though. I believe that there are two things that God really hates. Homosexuality being one of them and abortion. I believe that these two things will eventually bring us to destruction as we saw with Sodom and Gomorrah.


Victory: What do you think about the church in general, many say that it's too boring and the church many times condemn christian metal to be from the devil, what do you think about that?
Ronnie:If you find a good church that has a great pastor like I do that understands that metal is a way of reaching people who otherwise wouldn't listen to anything about God and also a pastor who preaches a good firey message to get you riled up like I do then it wouldn't be boring. There's nothing in the Bible that says heavy metal was created by the devil. The Bible says that God created all things. Satan perverts things. The only way the music could be evil is when the lyrics and the imagery are used in the wrong way.


Victory:If you had the chance to meet George Bush Jr. What would you tell him?
Ronnie:I would tell him that he needs to do more to end abortion and stop catering to the homosexuals. I would tell him that he needs to get serious about being a Christian if he really is one. I would tell him that some of the things he's doing isn't aligned with the word of God. I would tell him that if he doesn't do things the way God would want him to do things in running our country then we'll lose it. There's probably plenty of other things that I could tell him but I don't think he would really be interested in listening. I believe he's trying to make everybody happy except Christians and he's compromising in areas he shouldn't be compromising in such as his catering to the homosexuals.


Victory:You were forced to go to a lonely island and you could only bring with you three things, which three would you choose?
Ronnie: A Bible to keep my sanity and to keep close to God, my acoustic guitar and a hammock.

Victory:Finally name your Top5 albums in your collection.
Ronnie: I've been listening to a lot of classical lately and I just really started getting into it.


Victory:Thanx for your time, if you want to say something more it is up to you!
Ronnie: Thanks you for the interview and the great review of our latest CD. If anyone is interested, they can check out our official website at www.purgation.com or they can hear us at www.mp3.com/purgation