Aeternus – “We got connected way too much to Black Metal, something that wasn’t in our interest at all.”

Aeternus a name that probably rings a bell to most metalfans, who doesn’t know them by now? After 3 full length albums, 2 mini albums and numerous tours they sure have managed to establish their name in the metal scene. Today Aeternus is on the edge of releasing their 4th full length opus which is entitled “Ascension of Terror”. Another classic masterpiece that is filled with extremely powerful battle hymns, brutal lyrics and overall intense power. I was fortuned enough to receive a copy of the new album and decided to stalk main man Ares the exact same day. Check it out and let the wrath of Aeternus curse you all…

Hail Ares. How’s life treating you these days?
Great, we just did a kick ass show here in Bergen last saturday. Now I’m cooling it.

Cool, Was this the first show without Morrigan on bass?
Yes, she was there and she liked it alot. It was kind of weird not having her there. She was in the crowd at the front.

Who replaced her? And will he stay as a permanent Aeternus member?
We now have V’gandr of Helheim on session bass. For now he’s just a session member, a permanent session member one could say.

So he will accompany Aeternus on the future gig from now on? Aren’t you afraid his work for Helheim will be a problem in the future?
Yes, he will be there with us as long as he is available. Not too much will happen with Helheim and Aeternus at same time I think, we’ll take those problems as they come anyway….

What’s up with you and Vrolok? Are you still involved in any other bands? I know you quit Immortal and Gorgoroth but what’s up with Corona Borealis (Ares’ folk project)?
Erik has a band now, with Janto from Hades Almighty and Arve from Malignant Eternal It’s called Bourbon Flame, Heavy Metal Rock’N’Roll stuff. 1980 shit U know? I am not involved with anything besides Aeternus these days. I couldn’t either due to lack of time for that. I don’t think much will happen with Corona for a while either.

Too bad… you’re wasting your talents! When I spoke to you last time you were really enthusiastic about your project? Why did you end this? Lack of time?
Yes, lack of time is the thing here, it’s sad too cuz this I really burned for..

About your new album. I was fortuned enough to receive my copy extremely early and have listened to it 6 times already today….My compliments. Aeternus has changed its style a bit over the last years, you have grown a bit more  Death Metalbut still keeping your own elements in it. An excellent combination! How did the recording process go? Went to Grieghallen again?
Yes, we used Grieghallen again. Here we get what we want, Pytten, the Producer understands our stuff 100% and this means alot. We needed more shred and cleared up sound this time, dryer vocals and it all worked out very well. The idea to mix Death Metal with our own stuf did alot of good to our style.

Yeah some vocal-parts got even deeper and heavier this time, you often remind me of Glenn Benton…. Has the touring with death-metal bands involved aeternus in any way?
Ares First of all we are not trying to turn into Death Metal! But yes, the inspiration was there, yes, Benton inspired me a bit too on vocals. I felt like doing some deep, deep shit like i did on “Denial of Salvation”.

The songs got also a bit shorter and easier to get in to in my opinion. This is a big improvement for Aeternus in my view. You have also lost the corpse paint and now Erik goes under his own name instead of Vrolok? Why is this?
He wasn’t into the artistic name anymore as it simply didn’t appeal to him any longer.

And what about the corpse paint?
We got connected way too much to Black Metal, something that wasn’t in our interest at all. For us it was War Paint, but it was so boring and stressing telling everybody it hadn’t anything to do with Black Metal so we dropped it. About the shorter songs: We felt like doing shorter song due to the fact that we were mixing Death-elements into the songs. This was then suitable, also the songs becomes more suited for live-performances. Doing long songs with a thousand riffs are now an era that basically belongs in the past I think…

I fully agree with you both statements. The album was recorded in February and the release date is November? What takes Hammerheart so long? I heard you had some problems with the cover?
Man, I don’t wanna get into all that stuff. We recorded this album last summer, it was suppose to be out around April 2001. Problems occurred, disagreements, shit from Hell in different shapes… It’s in the past now anyways, no need for remembrance really. It took us 2 months to do the cover because of the low working conditions. This caused the last delay, not on Aeternus’ shoulders though. It was out of our control anyways, November IS the month now…

What’s the link between the titel and the cover?
Well you got the band there in the sky, lightning coming down under us which hits the ground and that conjures and unleashes a Red demonic Tornado of War and Terror. Right on brutal Aeternus atmospheric stuff man.

Aeternus has done so many tours and all, what is there left for you to achieve? What are your goals?
Make more music, maybe get some more money in from it so we can spend more time making more music and not work our asses of to get food on the table you know? For me that stands first I think….

What are your plans to promote the new album? More tours i guess? With what band would you like to go on tour if you could choose?
We got some shit going on for January at least, that’s 1 good thing. Plus we’ll do a show here in Bergen in December to promote the album. Maybe some German shows. It would be damn cool to do a tour with Morbid Angel for sure or with Enslaved or Immortal…….

What is your favourite country to play in and why?
Holland and France perhaps? The crowd is cool there! I mean, that goes up and down all the time, one never really knows how people are gonna be…

What do you know about the dutch scene any bands you know or like?
Yeah i know some: God Dethroned rules…. Ancient Rites Rulez……..and Pentacle was it? or Pentecle? Dutch Heavy Metal band who knows their good old Metal.

It’s Pentacle and yeah they are extremely cult and old school! What about internet? Aeternus now has it’s own official website AT LAST! What do you think about internet?
It’s BIG and great, you are right too, at last we got that shit going as well…… The web-site is a very good tool, we have a great web-master and I work closely to him so updates and news are at all times fresh. People who’ve seen the site really like it as it’s fast, simple and very much to the point.

Ok, well we all know that you are an alcoholic that’s not a secret anymore (i have been on tour with you guys myself so i know..) haha! What else do you do besides aeternus and drinking?
I’m not an alcoholic yet, but I do drink in the name of Metal man. Not much actually, I have no spare time as I need lots of time to work on new material and do interviews, write lyrics etc etc…

Ok man great! Anything else you like to add or share with our readers?
Check out the new CD when it comes. Tours and shows will always be announced on the web-site that you can find through www.aeternus.ch Stay fucking Metal and seek knowledge and wisdom nowhere else, but within yourself. We are the Gods or Godesses. Know it, it lies within us all.

Good luck with Aeternus and thank you very much for your time, see you in January for some pure ASCENSION OF TERROR in the lowlands!
For sure man, thank YOU for this interview.