You could call them hells guitar chord choir, an unholy evolution evoking incantations and lyrical hymns or a five-way unholy resurrection with Denmark’s death metal necro-newcomers Defacing God at the helm. Led by the wicked hand of vocalist/lyricist and creative director Sandie Gjørtz, Her defiant desires and macabre mantras paint a burning portrait of Lilith as they see her, praising her wicked spirit though loud, darkly aggressive music and the devil wouldn’t have it any other way.
While Gjørtz provides the possessive vocal force the rest of the kin provide the noise and power behind the vicious growls. She co-founded the group with drummer Michael Olsson, with guitarists Signar Peterson and Christian Nielson and bassist Rasmus Nielson completing the circle. She’s taken the symbolism and philosophy of what Lilith represents to her creating a storyline of her resurrection on the band’s new album The Resurrection of Lilith.
A handful of new videos accompany the record, some diving into cult-like rituals usually seen in underground gory horror movies. Others show the bright power of burning flames and the bleak, dark beauty of their native land. The newest being a title-track lyric video about the album’s story as a whole.
Arisen from the bleakest and coldest area of Denmark, they’ve all performed under pressure, on camera in barren, miserable surroundings suffering extreme weather/temperatures and blood for their art. From Gjørtz’s blood spilled ghostly face to sacrificing skin and nails in older videos.
They definitely live up to their name which some might assume carries a negative, anti-religious or evil connotation. “The name Defacing God, started with me back in the day,” Gjørtz says.I think most people, think it’s something satanic, you know. We use a lot of visuals from all this satanic stuff but for me, we simply remove the mass from the so-called god. Behind the mask you’ll find humanity exposed because religion and the term God was created by humans.”
She wants to exposure the hypocrisy, violence and death caused in God’s name. “The name of God has been used in many cultures to inspire fear, manipulate and control a certain amount of people. People have been killed and justified in the name of God many times. So the name Defacing God for me was a term I used to remove the cover.”
The album is a concept about Lilith and the persecution of witches. Whatever form you choose to believe she represents person, demon, witch, mythological, supernatural entity, she stands as a symbol of power and rebellion for many of the faithful. “There are so many stories about her. For me, she’s not a person but I gave her a face on the album and a story so people have something to relate to. Lilith is more a philosophy to me, she’s part of my personality, the way you see the world. I act and live my life on my own terms. You know you have a Lilith inside because Lilith is kind of a muse to keep you strong in life, focused and not afraid of going left when everyone else goes right.”
One of the most known stories is she was the first wife of Adam, before Eve. “There’s a lot of folklore and myths about her. I’m inspired by this Christian story where she’s said to be the first wife of Adam, created before Eve. She inspired me, because she left paradise, she didn’t want to obey Adam. That for me is really bad ass. I don’t believe these stories because it’s set in religion, written by humans.” She takes it as philosophy, instead of being an Eve; be a Lilith.
The album art is a simple but striking image of persecution and freedom, “I’m really satisfied with it.” The cover is one image encapsulating the albums collective story and message. “You see this woman held down by all these hands and people. They put the cross to her face because they want her to go a certain direction. Out of the chest you see the hand come out. That’s supposed to mean, her Lilith breaks out, now she’s ready to be free and go her own way.” The cover art visually fits the theme of the album.
The woman isn’t meant to be her, “It’s not me. It’s from my own personal interests and experiences, inspired from it.”
A decorated white mask atop a branched totem appears in all official videos, so far. “That’s a mask made by my husband. He makes these cool horror masks. I wanted a face for my mic stand representing Lilith. He made it for me a couple years ago. It’s a signature for that totem pole.”
She also adorns the crimson mask during live shows appearing on camera in stigmata-like fashion. “I do all the makeup. I’m always dressed in blood live.” She enjoys playing Lilith on stage. “I could go on stage live, as me, but for me the visual part really means a lot. I want to pull the listeners into this dark universe. It’s very important to have this cinematic style.”
The presentation is pure and primal. When she steps on stage, blood stained and full of rage, she is Lilith, offering a different ceremonial side of her personality.
“The End of Times” and “Rise of the Trinity” are the two newest videos portraying the graphic resurrection. Both filmed in the same location. The original idea for “The End of Times”’ was to film in an underground cave-mine, but the location looked to commercial and touristy. “There were too much signs with history written on them. It wouldn’t have worked out. The idea was cool though to film something six feet under. It really didn’t work.”
They had to come up with something else fast and decided to wing it. “We borrowed this church, an old abandoned church in the land of rain and sorrow, in the dark north of Denmark, owned by local authorities. It hadn’t been used for 15 years I think. Inside was pretty fucking cold.” They thought, “If we’re a little creative with the whole set up and visuals I’m sure we can make this great even though it’s the same location.”
“The End of Times” video is very dark and it’s not even an intended effect. “The weather in Scandinavia is funky, cold and rainy, the scenery was amazing, reminded me of Silent Hill. It just turned out perfectly.”
The torches looked cool, but almost turned deadly, “There’s not much electricity in such an old abandoned church. We didn’t have a fire extinguisher. We had these big torches and I didn’t think about the torches sucking out the oxygen from a room when you have them on for too long. We almost ended up with smoke poison but survived.”
“Rise of the Trinity” is about the rise of the unholy trinity, Lilith and the two demons. “I saw some people were confused about these two women suddenly appearing because is mostly about Lilith. I think it would make a little better sense when the album drops because the song “Rise of the Trinity” is actually a catch up on three other songs on the album. We have three songs called “The Invocation Part I,” “II” and “III.” These three songs evoke Lilith and the other songs evoke the demon’s Jezebel and Abyzou. Then in “Rise of the Trinity” these three parts are put together as one as the trinity reunites, so to say. That’s what I tried to show in this video. If you didn’t read the lyrics or know the album concept it could be a little confusing.”
Lilith needs these other entities to be reborn. “Exactly, in the video I represent Lilith. The whole idea is she comes back to this church, this grave and invokes these two demons to reunite our forces. Together we are much stronger. That was the whole idea behind the blood ritual. We had blood sisters we had to connect through this ritual.”
There’s lots of chanting throughout record. “Some of the chants are ones I wrote myself from scratch. Others are inspired by HP Lovecraft for example, the Sumerian mythology. It’s actually a little mix of everything. Mostly the chants are written out from my own lyrics.”
“Rise of the Trinity” starts with a creepy guitar intro. “The song is a very old track we made. I think three or four years ago already. It’s actually six months or a year ago that we put the whole song together. When my guitarist made the song it didn’t have a theme or anything. It was simply just something he made. I heard it and got some feelings and ideas about it. The song was not meant to be this but became this. I think it fits pretty well, me mix a lot of styles, you see a lot of influences in our music.”
Their first official video was “Succumb the Euphoria” and a DIY brutal experience. “These two last videos, just released were really hard to make. The video for “Succumb the Euphoria” was one of my hardest most brutal experiences ever.” It was a two-day shoot in February 2020, in Demark and according to her “It’s pretty fucking cold in Denmark,” during that time of the year. “We didn’t have minus degrees but its always windy here. It’s always very rainy when its winter. Really all the Danes know if they hear it. It was a typical Danish February, with rain and lots of wind. So everything you see from our breaths, it’s not an effect, it’s authentic.”
They started a brutal day one in the forest with her barefoot crawling through muck and cold grass. “After that they had to throw me in a bathtub. The water was warm but the minute you got out was extremely cold and I got so many bruises. Even my nails on toes and fingers were totally destroyed. It was horrible, but an amazing experience. I would do it again for the sake of art. What we see in the video is authentic. I like it that way. It’s all real. I was freezing my ass off and sick for two weeks after it.”
The song’s about a loner who is normal during the day but the moment darkness falls, the darkness within him awakens. Like their version of Mr. Crowley. “At night he goes to burial grounds with the urge and euphoria to recall the spirits of the dead, like a necromancer. That’s what the title means. That he comes to the euphoria of recalling the dead.”
The lyric video for “The Resurrection” was just released. “I chose it because it’s the title track of the album and where the story comes from. I thought it’d be cool. People could read and understand the story.”
They plan on anther video for “Land of Rain & Sorrow” given the songs slower, doomsday, apocalyptic vibe, they’re going to wait till after the albums been out awhile before unleashing more chaos.
As for upcoming shows, they’ll revolve around the new record and some older songs “There are songs people from the audience already know. We want to bring them to the table, but mostly new songs.”
To date they have released the new record and singles “Succumb the Euphoria,” “The Marked Ones” and their first song “Monolith of Apocalypse Rise.”
They skipped the traditional demo phase opting to release one song then focus on the album spending time and money on quality. “It took us so long to make it. We waited until we had the chance to work with the right people.”
They just landed a deal with booking agent Decibel Touring so when more shows and tours are planned they’ll have a bigger, wider reach. When the world reopened, recently, everyone started touring again with bigger spots taken “I should know more in the coming weeks. The plan will be a few shows after the album drops, then the beginning of next year we’ll tour Europe.”
Pre-pandemic they were on the road playing a healthy schedule. Then everything was stopped and put on hold. In the midst of the global shutdown they signed with Napalm Records. Everything was reevaluated and re-planned with a question mark at the end. Like everyone else it was a massively long, fingers-crossed waiting game when the light at the end would be seen.
Lilith will always be a lifestyle and lyrical philosophy for her and the band. Inspiration may come elsewhere on future records, but the mainstay will always be the occult and witchcraft. “I think Lilith will always follow me and be my stage persona.”
The Resurrection of Lilith is known available.
https://label.napalmrecords.com/defacing-god
