As mentioned, the groups sound has long been defined by its cavernous sense of space, not merely distortion, but reverberation wielded as an instrument in itself. Translating such spectral vastness into a live environment is no small feat, yet the band has always insisted that their atmosphere must be felt as much as heard.

NEGATIVE PLANE: “Reverb is just as important for us as guitar distortion! The varying degrees to which we use it depend on the setting and the acoustics in the room we are playing in, but usually the more, the better for us! The only time we'll tone it down on a particular instrument is to highlight it's use on a different instrument, so we'll avoid using it on the bass guitar, or certain parts of the drum kit so that it's heard more distinctly on the guitars and vocals.”

'Stained Glass Revelations' remains one of those rare records that refuses to age. Not through sterile perfection, but by virtue of its idiosyncratic production and writing choices. Yet even the band themselves seem to regard it as a document of compromise rather than completion.

NP: “If we could go back to then knowing what we know now, we'd probably use a different kind of reverb, and mix it ourselves instead of at the studio, as it's quite hard to communicate to other people what we're looking for in an album's sound. We have demo versions of three of the songs on the album, which are much more massive sounding with guitars in our collective opinion, but we're also quite conscious of the fact that once something is released and finished that it should be left alone, rather than being tampered with at a later time. There are so many old albums that I've tried to purchase again after quite a long time of not owning them, only to find that I can no longer find an original mix that I was quite happy with back then, due to the artist or record label going back and remixing or remastering the album with a different sound that may have possibly been what they had wanted back then, but is nowhere near the sound that I had grown to know and love as a listener.”

Back in 2019, the group performed inside an Irish church for the 20-year anniversary of INVICTUS PRODUCTIONS in Limerick, Ireland. An alignment of theme and setting few bands could justify without irony. NEGATIVE PLANE, however, sounded as though they belonged there.

NP: “Invictus really picked the perfect setting for the 20th year anniversary of Invictus, and for us, this has been a dream for as long as we can remember, especially since so many of our songs involve churches and cathedrals. We specifically tailored our live show to fit the setting and did our very best to capture the essence of the lyrics while playing. Hopefully, we can do something like this again one day.”

The night was ended by the band finishing their set with a perfectly executed version of ‘Black Sabbath’.

Though unmistakably rooted in black metal, their sound is difficult to reduce to one genre alone. Making use of chorale voicings, bell-like motifs, and cathedral resonance that all seep into the compositions. Such breadth in their sound suggests a listening palette beyond straightforward extremity.

NP: “Musically, I can say that we're metalheads first and foremost, but of course, like most creative people into metal, we will now and then delve into a few other genres and therefore influences from other kinds of music will occasionally pop their heads out and find their way into our sound.”

Lyrically, the band leans into esoteric symbolism without ever lapsing into abstraction for its own sake. There is a structure to their mysticism, or rather a method to their madness.

NP: “The music is always written first and then the lyrics come afterwards. I usually have a theme in mind when writing, but sometimes spontaneously a line will come into my head that matches a riff, and things will develop from there. Also, I'll either have a song title far ahead of time or it'll be the very last thing that I'll come up with. I find that writing lyrics is one of the hardest parts of writing a song, because one needs to fit just the right words with the correct timing in the music, which seems obvious, but it's still a challenge for me to restrict what I want to say to a certain number of syllables.”

NEGATIVE PLANE’s evolution has been far from linear. The group has been shaped less by strategy than by necessity, with some lineup shifts, and relocations. Yet through all of it, the core vision has only sharpened, spearheaded by frontman Nameless Void.

NP: “This may take a while, so I'll try to give the shortest version that I can. At the very start of 2001, it was only me attempting to restrict the songs to just bells and organ music, but that was short lived, and then it was just guitars and a drum machine played by hand by a member who left in 2003 around the same time as Matthias joined. Before Matthias joined however, the 'Surreality' demo was recorded. After Matthias joined and the other member left, Matthias and I attempted to play with a terrible drummer while Matthias did the vocals as I couldn't play and sing at the same time back then. Sometime in early 2004 I believe, we realized that we were wasting our time with the terrible drummer, as even without owning a drum set Matthias was far better at playing the songs than this person was, so we let him go and it ended up with Matthias on drums and I finally learned how do both guitar and vocals at the same time.

The revolving door phase continued, one of those classic underground realities rarely romanticised but universally understood by many in the scene. What was to come was a debut album that is heralded as a modern classic.

NP: Matthias and I then recorded 'Et En Saecula Saeculorum' in the summer of 2005 as a two piece. From that point, we attempted to play with a lot of different bass players, but they were either too lazy to show up to rehearsals or unable to handle playing the material. In 2008, we moved from Florida to New York, and we quickly found Diego to play the bass and we then recorded ‘Stained Glass Revelations’ with him on the bass in 2010. After that, we were invited to play in Europe, but due to Diego's visa status in the United States, he was unable to leave the country, so we had Luis take over the bass and had Diego take over on second guitar. However, Diego's visa status was finally resolved about 2 years ago, so we can now travel as a four piece and finally, we now have our friend Robert helping us with sound and live keyboards.”

Since the interview was conducted for FLAIL OV VENOM Issue 3 years ago, NEGATIVE PLANE have since released 'The Pact', which is arguably their greatest achievement to date.

This post contains interview excerpts originally printed in Flail ov Venom, Issue 3 (Autumn 2022).