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A new review section: Buried by Time And Dust

We added a new review section, coincidentally another Mayhem reference following 'The Past is Alive', with the title 'Buried by Time and Dust'. Over the years, a lot of promos have been gathering dust simply because a fresh wave of promos arrived the following month and they were consigned to oblivion. We will review them here to make a clear distinction with our other reviews. We will also use it to complete a discography in terms of reviews. Feel free to contact us if you would like to submit your music or would like to join the staff.

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Isvind – “I guess it took a couple of years before people realized how killer we are at playing Black Metal.”

Isvind, a Norwegian Black Metal band which should be well known by all fans of the scene. Already a couple of years ago they released their one and only album up till now called “Dark Waters Stir”. For a very long time I thought Isvind didn’t exist anymore but I was very pleased to read they were about to release a new 7″ EP very shortly. They are also on the vote list for this years Legions of the North festival in Hamar Norway.
Reason enough for me to get in touch with Arak and to have a small talk about the happenings in the Isvind camp at the moment. 

Greetings Arak, how are you doing?
Hello Marcel! I’m fine thanks, you?  Nice to hear someone still remembers us..

First of all,why is there such al long silence since the last (and first) album?
There are many reasons to that.  After the tour in ’97 was finished we moved away from Oslo at different times making it difficult to maintain the band, but we kept on making music by ourselves.  In 2002 we were both back in Oslo and we decided it was time to resurrect Isvind and work towards a new release.

As far as I know the only tour you ever did was the “Knights of Revelation” tour in march ’97 together with Hades, Helheim and Aeternus. Have you played gigs ever since or was there a complete live stop?
We played gigs in Oslo, Berlin and Bitterfeld earlier this year but apart from that the Nights of Revelation tour was the last one.

Your debut album was released on Solistium Records. Have you had the same problems as almost all other bands on that label? They should be unreliable and not trustworthy and is that the reason why there hasn’t been a follow-up after the “Dark Water Stir” album?
Well, after the tour in ’97 we were told that the only way Isvind could stay on the label was if I was kicked out of the band.  Obviously totally ridiculous, as there is no band without me (or Goblin for that matter).  If the word is that Solistitium/Millenium is an unreliable label I can’t say I’m sorry about it…

Your debut album has got a very simple white cover with just the Isvind logo in black. Was that the way it was supposed to be or did you had other things in mind regarding the cover and lay out?
Yeah that was excatly how we wanted it.  We wanted the same design for the vinyl as well, but Solistitium didn’t have the guts to do it and insisted on a painting.  The idea was to focus on the music and not fashion.  We’re so pleased with the way it turned out, making the cover for the next album will be difficult.

Are there any labels interested at the moment and can we expect a new Isvind album in the future?
We are in touch with some labels concerning 7″ releases and have gotten some offers for a fullenght.  After our last experience with labels we would really like to release it on our own label.  Whatever happens, we are in the process of recording new tracks this winter.  There will be a new album for sure.

How far are you with writing new songs and will there be a change in the musical style or can we expect icecold music in the vein of your debut album?
We have enough tracks for an album more or less.  We will be working on them while recording like we did last time.  The production will be different this time, more raw and demo-like…  The riffs are still unmistakeably Isvind and the sound has (d)evolved to even more primitive and straight ahead Black Metal.

How do you look upon the fact that Isvind is now mentioned as one of the cult bands in Norwegian Black Metal?
I guess it took a couple of years before people realized how killer we are at playing Black Metal.

Did any of you had any side projects going on in the long and silent period after the debut album and if yes, which projects/other bands?
Yes.  Goblin started making heavy metal oriented stuff and is currently in a band called Hogtide.  I played in Tsjuder in 1999, and I’ve been doing different types of electronic music for quite a while.

How do you look upon the Black Metal scene nowadays and are there any good newcomer bands which you like?
I don’t know.  The Black Metal scene has become very diverse and open to the public which in my opinion sucks.  There’s a lot of great new bands but very few actually play Black Metal.  I’m more into rediscovering older bands these days, like Ildjarn.  Killer stuff…

What are your future plans with Isvind?
Play Black Metal the way it should be played.  Release 7″es, demos, a cd perhaps..

Are there any other interesting things which are worth to talk about and if not the last words are completely yours!!! Thanks for the interview!!!
Thanks for the support Marcel, good luck with your zine.  We are releasing a split 7″ with Orcrist in a couple of weeks.  Check our website…

And to all interested ones, the website address is www.isvind.com
You’ll also find a link to the Legion of the North festival in Hamar Norway. Isvind is one of the bands you can vote on for playing the festival this year. So all fans out there vote for Isvind!

Isvind

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Aeternus – “… we feel we’re pretty much done with this “Death Metal element-mix” thing now.”

Aeternus, a band which doesn’t need any introduction anymore. Every self-respected metalhead around the world should at least heard something about this fantastic band. Because of the fact that Aeternus have a new brilliant album out called “A Darker Monument” and they’re finally going on a European tour after three years of silence I decided to do a little talk with Aeternus mastermind Ares once again. Because the last Aeternus interview for VM dates from long ago I decided to ask about some older subjects as well…..but enough talk from my side now. Start reading what Ares had to say!

Greetings, how are you doing?
Hello, I am doing fine. Starting to get sick again actually, but that’s life! Busy days and so forth…nothing really new really besides from the tour which will start soon.

First of all we go back in time a bit. Why the departure from Hammerheart records after all these years of cooperation?
Man, I thought this question was answered enough already. Disagreements, basically. It happens to everyone. It was time for Aeternus to move om ahead and find something different! Though we are still happy with several things HHR did for Aeternus. That should be said.

You choose to sign with Nocturnal Art Productions. How is the cooperation with them and are you satisfied the way they work and the promotion they make? Is it easier to be on a Norwegian label as being a Norwegian band?
Yeah, communication is easier and things are going fine so far. We are happy with signing to NAP and I hope they feel the same way.

Oryan is a while in the band now. Is he already a permanent member in Aeternus or is he still the session bass player? And how does he combine all his bands (Helheim, Cult of Catharsis etc.) with Aeternus?
Oerjan is still in Aeternus, yes, as a permanent bassist too yes. He also writes lyrics as well as doing the bass lines for Aeternus’ songs. This he did also on “…Monument” except from the main bass-verse line on “SlaveState”, I made that as my vision was so strong there…I had to make it myself. Not that he couldn’t have done it, I simply wanted to make that bass line. Everything else is done by him and he’s written some of the lyrics on that album too. He will continue doing all of this on the next album too and hopefully further more into Aeternus’ future as we are happy with him as a replacement for Morrigan.

How do you write the music nowadays, is it done as a band or do you still write all music yourself? How big is the contribution from all members in creating music? Have things changed alot since Morrigan left the band?
Well I made all the music on “A Darker Monument”, like I have done all along. There’s been wishes from the other guys to work more on the new songs as a band and that’s a great idea for me. So far I am the one who’s made the riffs we’re working on though. I guess things will change. The others contribution lies mostly/so far at arranging things, structuring things. I basically make the riffs and then we all discuss them. Erik does the drums alone usually, it’s not often he needs us to tell him what to do.

The composing and arranging of songs has changed in ways of course since Morrigan left. She is a very strict musician and has a strong insight in Metal music. Though the changes are not bad or good, it’s simply there, the different feel of the fact that we’re doing songs together without her. I miss her opinion sometimes, then again I don’t sometimes if you see what I mean…

Your new album is once again a very dark and heavy album. I think it is in the same line as “Ascension of Terror” which means once again alot Death Metal orientated music. Will you keep on moving to the more Death Metal kind of metal and leave the more epic heavy metal behind?
No, we feel we’re pretty much done with this “Death Metal element-mix” thing now. Especially since “A Darker Monument” ended up having allot more of it all on it than what I at least personally wanted. It just happened really. Not that I dislike that fact or regret anything at all. I truly enjoy having “…Monument” on the strereo and it’s a great album, but if I shall be real picky I would say that it has a bit to much Death Metal related stuff on it. Though I wouldn’t say it’s similar to “Ascension…”, it’s different in many ways in my opinion, but I understand the ones who says it’s similar…I also disagree.

And did you lose fans or won new fans with the slight change of music? I have to say that dedicated fans will stick to the band anyway because a good ear can hear the development throughout all the albums. How do you look upon this as creator of the music?
Yeah, well some people got sad and disappointed not having the folksy elements on the albums any longer when we on “Ascension…” really went for the Death Metal feel. Then again, some could hear what we actually did and that was to mix Death Metal with our own style that we had going all along. Those elements were “hidden” perhaps or let us say: Hard to hear, but they are there…on “Ascension…” as well as on “…Monument”!! Surely, we’ve won some fans, allot of people was digging us going into the realm of Death Metal and even Thrash a bit, but they will be disappointed this time…or next time to put it that way. Like I said, we’re done now, fucking around with Death Metal.

As the creator of Aeternus’ music style and music I feel that the Death Metal elements gave the style itself allot of good. It opened also my horizon as a composer and it allowed us to do more extreme stuff. This I feel is important for us, that we could enter the extremities within raw Metal.

We all got more technical and complex, we got more intense and this is good. Now I feel like taking another path with all of this on my back and see if I can’t keep the brutality and so forth only by not using the elements from Death and Thrash Metal!

What is your opinion about the new album? Satisfied the way it turned out? Very cool booklet by the way!!!
Yeah, the front cover is directly inspired by the album-title. Very cool indeed, also the title is very Aeternus. We are very satisfied Marcel, great sound, great mixing and mastering besides from the fact that we made 9 Darkened songs that really kicks ass in their very own way. Some of the songs has a great original feel over them and there’s allot of good old Aeternus atmosphere on this album actually.

Can you tell a bit more about the production of the album, where it is recorded and by whom?
Easy and short answer, Pytten were the man as always and of cousre we used Grieghallen Studios here in Bergen as we’ve always done on all all our full length albums. We get things the way we want it in Grieghallen so for me personally there is no way I would do this anywhere else.

The lyrical side of Aeternus is up now. What are your lyrics dealing about nowadays and are the lyrics as important as the music. Do they have a special, or even a deeper feeling behind them or is it just pure fiction?
Allot of fantasy and fiction, very often. It adds to the music, the music comes first for me and that makes me easily write fantasy stuff and “stories” (whatnot) to easily add to the “darkeness” or feel/atmosphere of the song. Some songs are more directly related top things. Such as “The Trident” who speaks of Poseidon, the God of the mighty Sea in Greek mythology. “Sons of War” is about Ares’ 2 sons in the same mythology…things like that for example.

Well, you’re finally going on tour now after three years of silence. To me Aeternus is a real live band and it was about time to see you on the European stages again. Why did it took so long because three years is a very long time (well,about the supposed tour with Windir it was obvious that venues were not interested in this package. I know all about it hehe).
It took a long time as we left HHR you know?! I can assure you we’re damn ready to hit the European stages again after all these years. We gotta show people what we got and what we still got that people already know of… The hardest thing I think, thinking of gigs, is the damn set list…it’s real hard to put together a list of songs these days when we’re going to play gigs. We got too many songs now…damned shit. Anyways, we will be ready for these 10 gigs and we hope the crowd is too…

Can you tell a bit more about this tour… The other bands, which countries and so on?
Well, the tour list with dates can be found for example on our web site http://www.aeternus.ch/. This is a tour that contains 3 bands: Aeternus, Red Harvest and 1349. All Norse bands and there’s no real headlining band, we simply play together on this tour and hopefully we’ll have something varied to give Metal Heads around Europe during these 10 dates as we’re 3 different bands playing quite different music. This should make every night interestig to the crowd and hopefully not too long and so forth.

Have you done other gigs elsewhere those years or was there a complete silence these years. I have been only at the ‘Hole in the Sky’ gig when “Ascension…” was just released (a kind of release-party) and at the ‘Inferno’ gig last year. How were those gigs for Aeternus. Specially the Inferno gig was a real killer with alot of Norwegian banging metalmaniacs! A very enthousiastic crowd indeed…
Yeah, Inferno was awesome. Though we had sound problems and I played on a shitty amp. We’ve just done some shows here at home since the Mayhem tour.

What about side projects/other bands nowadays.Do you guys have enough time for that? I know You had Corona Borealis going on and also did the bass in M-eternal (Malignant Eternal), Eric plays in Bourbon Flame (very cool!), Radek with Amok and Oryan with his own band Helheim, Cult of Catharsis and Deathcon if I’m correct so all in all that’s alot of other bands.
Well yeah…I don’t play with M-Eternal any longer as they really don’t exist really anymore. I am engaged and doing some wary efforts in a band that my neighbour has: Chaos Predicted. Here I am trying to sing differently than I usually do and these days I am giving that band some Death Metal riffs as the man behind it all wants some brutal shit for the next Demo/album (whatever). Erik will also drums here on this “project”, to call it that. Yes, Erik has Bourbon Flame too (Cool indeed) and Radek has Amok. V’gandr (Oerjan) has Helheim too and Deathcon. So, allot to do I guess, but we make it work. Basically I do shit with Aeternus, that’s what takes mostly my time.

As you know, Hammerheart/Karmaggedon will re-release the first four albums with diferent lay-out and bonus songs. What do you think of this?
What can I say, it happened and we couldn’t do much. Never knew it was gonna happen until it did. Don’t know what to think really… Haven’t totally made up my mind. This re-mastering isn’t needed for the last 2 albums we did on HHR so I am not happy about that.

What are your future plans at the moment?
We’re gonna do this tour and then continue with our work making new songs for the next album. An idea is to hit the studio during the upcoming summer.

Well, thanks alot for the interview and as usual,the last words are  completely yours!
As usual, I say: Metal to the bone and all that…

Well, good luck on the tour and we’ll see eachother in Rotterdam and share some beers again!!!

Aeternus

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Malevolent Creation – “If you’re too slow, you gotta go”

These days, Roadrunner records started re-releasing classics and best-of albums from the days they were still called Roadracer records, and featured many groundbreaking & innovative extreme metalbands. Probably one of the most extreme bands they ever had was, in the meantime existing no less then 16 years, Malevolent Creation. This seems a good opportunity to publish the chat we had last summer, especially since it (after some serious editing) is in no way outdated. We from VM (being a severely drunk (!) Loek and Grandpa Saldiac saving the day, haha) had a very entertaining conversation with the extremely good-humored ‘if you’re too slow you gotta go’ Phil Fasciana.

The fine art of … Playing live…How do you think the show went on the Wacken festival?
Well, you know, it’s an outdoorshow so you never know what the sound is like, but it was really, really good onstage you know. It was the first show, and we’re very happy with it. It was killer.

You said it was your first show?! First show of what..?
Well, of this small tour we did. Wacken, and then some other festivals, like Party-san, and we headlined one night at the Brutal assault festival in the Czech republic. Three festivals, and then go home, preparing for a tour in Brazil.

I read on your website that it got postponed. Apparently they screwed up with visa’s while you were on the Hateplow-tour.
Yeah, don’t get me started, hehe. But everything has been taken care off now, and we’re gonna redo the tour.
I take it that is a headlinetour..?
Yes.
Then why is it that every time I get to see you it’s on a No Mercy festival or so, playing way too early..?
Not much we can do about that. That’s just Metallysee, the booking agency. They’re doing a good job getting us here, but they do always give us shitty spots, hahaha! That’s the reason we don’t do festivals like that no more.

I can image. Don’t you feel offended? I mean; you deliver the goods for like 16 long years..
No, not really. Be we don’t do it again, that’s for sure. We always get fucking treated like shit.

I saw the show today, but was kinda wondering who was behind the drums? Because you do change ‘em quite often and all I could see today was this big pair o’ sunglasses.
Yeah, hahahaha. That was Tony, doing the rockstar look!

Is he a session drummer or is he here to stay?
Well, let’s just say he’s doing this tour with us as our original drummer had a lot of difficulties getting in this country. Law-trouble, you know. Stuff he needs to straighten out first. But you know Tony; he’s truly amazing. And besides his skills also a good friend of ours so we’re lucky with him. He lives next to me and basically knew all our songs, hahaha. That made stuff a lot easier!

The drummer that’s not here right now, will he return to the band?
Hehehe, you know..There are a lot (a LOT!) of people that wanted to drum in our band and for now we just choose Tony. We’ll see what the future brings, right?
Trying to beat the Spinal tap record concerning drummers?
Wahahaha, oh man. No, we don’t . We definitely don’t want that, hehe. But unfortunately we were never very lucking drummer-wise. Maybe one day it’ll stop.

And do you think that’s because of those damn drummers, or because of you’re opinion;
‘If you’re too slow you gotta go!’
Hahaha! – Little bit of both. I don’t know. There are a lot of good drummers out there but we work hard. And a lot of guys just don’t want to do the same. They’re just there for the money, baby. And since we don’t make any, they always realize that pretty soon and leave.

Now that Kyle is singing in MC as well, does Hateplow continue to exist?
Yeah, it’s a real band. But a sideproject. We did a small tour in Europe….
Been there, saw that! Massive!
Were gonna do one more Hateplow record. Just one more, grind it out. And perhaps another small tour, but we’re mainly focusing on MC. It’s more important.

As said, saw one of those shows. Were hardly any people present, probably more bandmembers then paying visistors. How do you think the tour went?
It was ok. It was shit promotion. Some German fucker, I don’t know. Hehe, I heard like it in the afternoon; ‘Hey man, Hateplow plays tonight. You coming’?’ We did some pretty good shows, mostly in Easten Europe which was really weird. We were playing like fucking compounds. Like we were in the middle of some war or so!

Roadrunner records came up with the brilliant and totally new idea to re-release some of their classic bands and MC seems to be one of those. What do you think about that?
Oooh well. We really can’t do anything about it, as they have the rights to the album. I personally don’t really like albums like that unless they’re very special. But Roadrunner put it out, we saw the tracklist. And in the end we’re pretty happy with it, they could’ve made something worse out of it. Put on a couple of livetracks. And we did a Piece by Piece-Slayercover, which is on it. Yeah, we indeed did a Raining Blood cover as wel, but euh..well..hehe..that one sucks. The drums sound like crap.

It does speak for RR that they do make it a kinda special release..
Yeah, it does. There are like 18 or even 19 songs on it, from the first three records. But hey, nothing we can do about it. They’re gonna release it no matter what. For the rest I do support the action, as some of those records are indeed damn hard to find. And for people that only know the band from now, it’s kinda cool to hear how we started. But for me, naah. It aint too excting anymore.

And if you got to choose your own favorite MC-record, what would that be?
The next one, hahaha! But serious, we have some pretty fucking intense stuff written already and it’s gonna be pretty fucking exciting. We’re fucking pumped up, man.

Whatever happened to the re-recordings of the Stillborn album?
Nothing. Hehe. It just never happened. But we booked some extra time for the upcoming recordings, and gonna redo some Stillborn songs then. The songs are really good, and I can’t wait to hear em this way, but Stillborn..Stillborn was just totally fucked up. The singer was drugged up, and Alex (Marquez) drummed like shit back then. I personally find the drumming just weak, and that’s why we’re gonna re-record some songs the way they should sound.
The new album’s gonna include these, some coversongs and probably 12 or 13 new ones.
Will it be released as a 2cd-version?
Perhaps. Maybe. Or as bonustracks. We at least don’t wanna make it limited. Gonna do some promotional video’s too. Perhaps they will be on another disc, who knows.
You never did any in the past.
No. Too much money. In America it sucks because they’re not gonna broadcast it anyway.

I spoke to In Flames earlier and the reason their clip isn’t shown is because someone shows his middle finger..
Not kidding? Hahaha..damn that’s fucking gay! That’s America. Fucking gay country.

You exist for over 16 years now. According to your site you went through a lot. Would you be so kind to please us with some amazing MC-stories?
For me personally that would be the first record. Just recording a record, and touring was something we never thought doing, hehe. Stuff like that, meeting people all over the world, meeting kids everywhere. Just Malevolent freaks. Hehe, bunch of fuckers that know more about the band then I do, haha. It’s awesome to be able to travel all over the world, doing shows like this. It rules. It rules to be around people that are into metal all the time.

And when coming home, do you have to work regular jobs?
Yes, we all do. I work for my own record label. We’re lucky that we have jobs were we can leave and come back. If possible, we of course like to live off the music, but that’s impossible. Just too much on us. We’re touring like fucking ten months out of the year. Too much being around each other all the time. Afraid we end up all killing each other, hahaha!
It’s good to take a break sometimes.

You’re now on Nuclear blast. Do you think you finally found a suitable label for MC?
Yes! Definitely. I wish we would have signed to Nuclear blast a lot earlier man. They do a lot more promotion then any other label has so far. We wanna continue working with them! As long as they want us..

Another thingie I was wondering about; why does the US have a different cover then Europe?
Hehe, they don’t. The same cover is underneath but NB was afraid that the big stores would refuse it, so that’s why.

Most of the new bands are replaying the stuff that you and Suffocation already played 10 years ago. Do you think these bands have anything to offer?
That depends, haha. There is some good stuff out there. But the bands trying to be as extreme as possible are boring to death. Yeah, it’s hard to be original. Everybody has done anything already. I honestly don’t know how more different you can possibly be.

What’s your opinion about all those reunions?
Oh well. To me like bands as Sadus, Destruction..that’s awesome! Like a week ago, before coming here, I saw Nasty Savage. And I always liked em, and they still kicked major ass! We played with em in 1990. Cool to see they’re back.  1990? hehe. You don’t wanna know my age back then..Hahahahaha, no, I guess not..

I saw quite a lot of camera’s on stage. Any dvd-plans?
Yeah, we recorded this for a DVD. Ran into John (Vesano, Nile) the other day, threw my cam in his face and ‘hello, would you please record our show?!’

Is the main part of the DVD this gig?
No, we’re filming a lot. Also the shows in Brasil, as they must be pretty huge as well, and then we’ll just see what comes out. And we shot some in Poland. Better then having only one show, especially since we change the setlist all the time. When we do a DVD we want it to be good. Also have stuff from 1987. We all have short hair and go ‘waaarrgh!’ Sound like Kreator on crack, hahaha. People gonna have a good laugh too.

Any last remarks, something we have forgotten to mention?
Last remark? Ok; this is the coolest thing we ever did. Wacken. Way better as the shit back home. I hate that guy, Jack Koshik. Rips off the bands, the fans. Basically everybody.

Malevolent Creation

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Exhumed – “Things are rotting away pretty well”

Well, some bands don’t need an introduction anymore. Exhumed is one of them. They just’ve released a new album “Anatomy Is Destiny”, a revolting good album. Things have changed since that time, so it was time for a update with the band. I talked to Matt, and pushed him through a lot of question concerning pretty everything about the band and everything involved. Enjoy this great gory talk!

Hey Sickos! How are things going?
Things are rotting away pretty well. We’re really excited a bout some upcoming shows and, of course the new record.

You just released the new album “Anatomy Is Destiny” on Relapse Records, in my – humble – opinion this is a master killer. How is the rest of the press reacting?
Most of the reactions have been really positive, which is nice to hear. We all think that the record is the best thing we’ve ever recorded, and it’s cool that other people think the same thing.

The sound was incredibly good on this last one, a big step forward, this was also the work of producer of Neil Kernon (known for his works on Judas Priest, Cannibal Corpse and Nevermore). Can you share some of your experiences with us about the co-operation with his guy. 
Working with Neil was great.  He had a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm. I learned so much from working with him, to be honest. His ear and his attention to detail are pretty damn amazing. A lot of people think that he somehow “made us” get a cleaner production, when in truth, we were telling him to make it as clean as possible- and he was telling us “are you sure it’s not too clean? This is fucking Exhumed, dude!” Working with someone of his caliber was definitely something that has opened our eyes to a whole new level of possibilities.

A step back. Talking about the things on the label; is the situation changed since you are on Relapse  instead of the smaller ones? Don’t you miss the more ‘underground’ times of the past?
Yes and no. Mostly no though. I do miss the excitement and newness of being in the underground in the early 1990s, trading demos with bands like Funeral Feast, Embalmer, Excavation, Butchery, Embalmed, Inner Sanctum, etc. That was a great time. Every trip to the mailbox was hotly anticipated! I miss the willingness to try / do anything… As time has gone on we’ve had to pare back some of the things that we would like to do, like split EP’s etc… At the same time, the band has grown so much since then, both in terms of popularity and musically, and the musical development is what keeps it just as interesting. The business side of things is pretty much a drag, but it’s a necessary evil at this point. We still have the same attitude towards our music that we always have though, as well as the same influences that have been there since the beginning.

Are you still as motivated as in the beginning? If you take the situation of today in considering, and compare it to the enormous amount of releases in the past. What makes you not releasing a lot of EPs anymore? 
Basically it comes down to time and money. We have very little of either at this point. We are planning some new EP’s by the end of this year.  We’re doing a split 10″ with Aborted (which should be out any time now), a split 12″ with Nunslaughter, and two split 7″s, one with Ingrowing, and one with Haemorrhage. We would love to do more, but it’s expensive to get into the studio, and with Exhumed’s live schedule, etc. it’s hard to work consistently enough to have extra money to do those things.

What also changed in the last period is that founder and drummer Col left the band. Do you have any comments on this? How do you see the future without him?
It will be strange without him, as he and I started Exhumed in 1991, but we have just done three shows with Danny Walker from Uphill Battle on drums, and they went really, really well. Col is sorry to go, but he supports the band continuing on, just as we support and respect his decision to focus on his career. Col is my best friend in the world, and that won’t change at all from his not being in Exhumed. I think he’s been a vital part of the band for the last twelve years and we certainly wouldn’t be where we are today without his involvement. At the same time, I think that the next step will be exciting and new and I am looking forward to it.

There are some rumors of Col doing a ‘goodbye’ concert in Germany on Morbid Fest, is that right?
You are correct. His last show ever in Europe- then September 13th in San Francisco will be his last, last show ever.

Besides you lost Col from the band, Bad Burke (bassist) couldn’t get it on the tour. So on the coming tour you have two replacements in the band. How  do you see this? Do you consider this a problem?
Yep. I do consider it a less than ideal situation, but we wouldn’t be doing the tour if we felt that the two guys we’re bringing with us, (Danny Walker (from Uphill Battle on drums) and Leon DelMuerte (ex-Exhumed, ex-Impaled) on bass / vocals) weren’t up to kicking ass at the level that Exhumed always has live. This line-up has already played three shows
together that have gone really well, and I think that people will be blown away by it. If it was a step downwards, or a step backwards, we wouldn’t be doing it at all.

There have been so many line-up changes in the past, isn’t this very hard to grow further with your band?
Well, I have always been the main songwriter, so in that respect it hasn’t been that difficult. With Col and I at the core of the band, we have been playing together forever. In the last couple of years, Mike Beams has been taking over more and more of the music, which has kind of shifted the core more towards he and I. I think that the caliber of guys we’re playing with on this tour and will continue to play with will make it easy and natural to continue growing as a band.

Talking about the tours, you first have an North American tour and right afterwards an European one, how do you manage this?
We’re doing a brief east coast tour run with Kataklysm, Diabolic, and Malignancy as support, and then blasting over to Europe. We now have agencies that book us, which makes things a lot easier than they were in the past.

The tour in Europe will be with Cephalic Carnage and Inhume, what do you expect from the tour, the bands and the audience.
We already know the guys in both bands, so we know that we’re in for a marijuana-scented alcoholocaust hanging out with those degenerates! I just hope that the tour is successful and well-attended. We’re excited to be going to some places we’ve never been to before, like the UK, Spain, Italy, and most of France. As far as the audience, we always hope to see plenty of banging heads, stage-diving, and general insanity!

What is the major difference between both audiences from the USA and Europe?
Audiences in the US tend to be more into moshing than Europeans. Both are pretty crazy though. Europeans tend to be more into the old-school approach to concert-going, singing along, chanting, pounding their fists, etc. which is more of what I’m into.

What can we expect from the show? Again a bloody show with skulls and chainsaws? It’s too bad that Bad Burke won’t be there to perform his vomit-act, hehehe.
The show will be as bloody as ever… The set list is a lot more interesting, though. We’ll be doing a lot of stuff from the new album, plus stuff from the first two as well. I think that it will be the best heavy metal show you’ve ever seen a Grindcore band perform!

Something other themes now. What do you think of the grindcore scene of today? New bands are born every week, and the quality seems grow better and better. Do you apply this? And what do you think of the trend of to play gore grind, I talked to several people who are fed up with it.
I think that the scene seems pretty healthy. Right now my favorites are Cripple Bastards and Regurgitate. Those bands both kick major ass. Also 324 from Japan is really good. There are a lot of great bands out there now, Birdflesh, The County Medical Examiners, Pig Destroyer, etc. etc. and that’s great to see. As far as goregrind being a trend, I don’t know.  I see Power Metal as more of a trend, or what In Flames is doing as more of a trend. I do think that there are a lot of bands out there doing the same things that other bands are doing, which is kind of lame, but that goes for any scene.

There are also rumours of you have problems with Impaled, what are your comments on this?
There’s not really any problems with those guys. We view it more as a Metallica / Megadeth situation. They tend to do the same things that we do, because we’ve known them for years and years and I literally taught Ross how to play bass and Col introduced him to Metal. I think that musically the bands are growing further apart, which is a good thing, but they tend to keep doing the same kinds of things that we’ve already done, especially on stage, which is kind of annoying to us, and keeps putting them right back in our shadow. I think that they would be better served to do more of their own kind of thing and try to stand on their own merit instead of being Exhumed part II.

Because you put out a lot of – quite limited – stuff in the past there are some things hard to get for (younger) fans, isn’t it an idea to re-release some of the old stuff (7″-es, demos etc.). There are rumours that the split CD with Hemdale will be re-issued, but haven’t heard about that for a while.
“Platters of Splatter” will finally be released next year. It will have most of our demo stuff on it, the split CD with Hemdale, the “Chords of Chaos” 4 way split, compilation appearances, etc. The first 1000pressed will contain an extra disc of further demo stuff, outtakes, and other unreleased material. It should be out next spring.

I hope this won’t offend you, but on your new album I hear some hardcore/metalcore influences. On a song like “Death Walks Behind You” I hear something which in the hardcore scene is called a beatdown. The thing happens after the words “Fuck It All”. Do you apply this, or do you absolutely disagree with me on this?
You’re actually not the first person to make that connection. I don’t really see it, but I also don’t take offense at the comparison. As long as you like it and think it sounds heavy, then call it whatever you want to. I think I’ve only heard one Hatebreed song in my life, so I don’t know a lot about that kind of music.  For Hardcore stuff, I’m more into old Agnostic Front, early Sick of it All, Discharge, Final Conflict, Broken Bones, Wrecking Crew, Crumbsuckers, Ganggreen, Cryptic Slaughter, Doom, Deviated Instinct, Ripcord, Gorilla Biscuits, etc. I listen to a lot of that kind of stuff.

There are rumours that you will participate on the No Mercy festivals 2004, is this correct? You are looking forward to this, I suppose?
I think that it should be fun… We always look forward to playing in Europe, and doing a support slot is always better, because it allows more time for drinking!

What are those lovely female vocals on “Anatomy Is Destiny”?
That is my god-daughter, Sakara Birdsong. She’s 10 years old. She only sings in the song “Nativity Obscene”. We were going for an Alice Cooper / Freddy Krueger type of vibe there.

What can be found in your CD player lately? 
Ummm… Let’s see:
Merle Haggard- Greatest Hits
The Essential Willie Nelson
Mark Kozelek- What’s Next to the Moon
The Velvet Underground- the banana album
Judas Priest- Sad Wings of Destiny
Amebix- Arise!
English Dogs- Onward Into Battle
Siege- Drop Dead
Killing Joke- What’s THIS for?
Beck- Sea Change
Mutilator- Immortal Force
The Church- Under the Milky Way- The Best of the
Church
Cinderella- Night Songs
AC/DC- Powerage
Johnny Cash- pretty much anything (too bad he recently passes away, respect RIP – Felix)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds- Murder Ballads

The last words are yours, if there is something you always liked to say, take you chance!
Thanks a lot for the interview, we’re looking forward to seeing all of the Slaughtercultists and Necromaniacs out there on the road, at the bar, or in the morgue!  http://www.exhumed.us/

Thanks for the interview, and see you on tour with Inhume and Cephalic Carnage in Europe! All the best…

Exhumed

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Audiopain – “Thrash you haven’t heard since the good old eighties!”

Audiopain, a Norwegian thrash band which is still very underground and hardly anyone outside Norway has heard of them. After three very good demo cd’s and alot of good metalgigs it’s about time for the rest of the world to get more familiar with these thrashers from the Oslo region.Audiopain is a band which still lets the music speak for itself, and believe me, it DOES speak for itself. Their last demo “Revel in Desecration” is one of the best demos from the last couple of years!!! I had a talk with Sverre, handling the guitars and vocals in Audiopain, and besides that also a good friend so read on what he had to say about Audiopain and other interesting themes.

 

Greetings Sverre, how are you doing?
Very well, thank you!

Because alot of our readers don’t know Audiopain well enough this is your chance to tell the history so far. And can you introduce all members for us?
We started out in ’96, but by the name Hæ?. We played some shows, and recorded one demo-casette named “L.V.T.”. After a few years we had evolved into more of a thrash act than what we were when we first started, so we changed name to Audiopain in the beginning of ’99 to have a better suiting name. By that time we had already finished writing material for the “Contagious” demo which came out about a year later. Only 8 months later we released the second demo as Audiopain, another six-tracker named “1986”. Then we had a year of concert focus, before we went to record our third six-track demo cd “Revel in Desecration”. It was recorded and released in March ’02, and was printed in 500 hand-numbered, pro-printed copies. As it sold out, we have now re-printed it in another 500 copies. Still for sale. Since then it has been live focus again, and now we are writing and rehearsing for upcoming releases, which we expect to be out December this year. In between we’ve also recorded one song to be featured on the Mysticum/Audiopain split 7″ called “The habit of fear”, and one song for the Inferno festival cd, named “Lucified”.

What were your influences to start Audiopain in the first place?
Hmmmm….hard to say really. We met at a school, and just started a band. Then it just formed itself after we got to know each other better. We started out by playing a very strange mix of whatever felt natural, but all the way on top of a metal fundament. After a year or so we had evolved into more or less of a thrash band, but as we never planned it to be like this, I can’t say just  how it ended up being what we did. I guess it is just natural, as we’re all very much into the eighties thrash metal and similar genra’s.

In Norway you’re getting quit big nowadays. How does it come that the rest of the world isn’t familiar with Audiopain yet?
Because we don’t have any distro. We are not very professional on that specific area of marketing, as we are way to lazy for that kind of administration. Neither have we ever played concerts outside Norway, so that might have something to do with it. But we have connected with some guys here and there that do some sort of distro for us, so the stone has slowly began to roll. Though, we hope to get better on this in the future.

You have released three demo cd’s which all sound very good and promising. Aren’t there any labels interested in signing Audiopain?
Well, to tell you the truth, we never send out demos to the companies in the first place, so they are never even aware of us. But still, we have been contacted. We prefer to do everything ourselves, so that’s how we stand on that matter. Simply, we don’t want a deal by now, as we like to do it ourselves. Total control!

How are the sales doing for all three cd’s at the moment? I think specially the “Revel in Desecration” cd is selling good because it is a real masterpiece of dirty music!!!
Well, “Revel…” has sold very well, considering the availability. Now the first print of 500 are sold out, so we have re-printed it in another 500. The two first demos are also selling good, when we have them for sale. It’s been a while since last time we did a re-print of them, so they’ve been pretty unavailable for a period of time. Recently we did a reprint of them as well, so I guess they’ve both sold about 400 copies. Hard to say as it’s been  four re-prints on both of them since the original releases.

Are you still satisfied about all cd’s? Anything you would like to change nowadays?
Ofcourse I would have done something different now, but still, I like them as they are. We are playing songs from all of the releases live, and I feel the older songs are just as good as the new ones.

You also co-operated with some more “famous” Norwegian musicians like Fenris, Maniac and Apollyon. How did you came in contact with them ? And can we expect more of these kind of co-operations in the future?
They are all friends of the band, so to get them to help us was only natural to ask. An honour anyway. Maniac was actually our teacher on the school where we started Hæ? back in ’96, so he’s been around since then. Whether or not we’ll do anything like this in the future is hard to say.

What are your lyrics dealing about and who is responsible for them?
The lyrics are mostly Petter’s work, but I write some of them as well. They don’t have any special theme, just everything inspiring us at the moment and things that annoy us. There are everything from day life hell, like rape and torture, to more comic-related dragon-story tales. Nothing too serious though. We’re just a band, not politicians.

How do you create new songs ? Do you write by jamming or…?
Often we write the riff’s first, and then jam these already made parts and riff’s together at the rehearsals. Sometimes the songs are written completely before we start rehearsing it. It all depends. Then the lyrics are written at last to capture some of the atmosphere of the music.

Audiopain is one of the few bands who don’t have an own website. Why is that?
We don’t feel like being a website band. There are too many bands focusing waaaaay too much on their appearance on internet and pictures and so on, that don’t give the music enough focus. I could have given you a long, lame answer on this one, but I’m not going to. Some hint’s: We don’t have any interesting/important info to offer, opinions to share, pictures, statements to spread, image to build or poser-attitude to feed. What’s left then?

Live gigs! I have seen you four times already and every time it was a real slaughter. Alot of headbanging thrashers and people going completely crazy, specially the warm-up gig for Inferno 2002 at Elm Street with Amok and Aura Noir was a killer gig. When can we expect Audiopain outside of Norway?
Thanx! But when we will play outside Norway is pretty much up to you, isn’t it ?! I believe you are working on that matter, so you know better than me, hehe. We come whenever it suits you. You can enlighten your readers yourself !

That’s true haha. At the moment I’m still working on a small Benelux tour. But…still in progress! You supposed to do a small Norwegian tour with Nocturnal Breed in may this year. What has become of that? And what has come out of the Norwegian tour you should do with Aura Noir, your partners in musical crime?
we haven’t played any concerts with Nocturnal Breed yet, and all the talk about touring Norway with them turned out to nothing. With Aura Noir we’ve played many times, and in May we did one insane gig with them in Trondheim, at an occupied place called UFFA. We were thinking of doing some more, but they are all so tied up in so many projects, so it is kind of hard to make things fit with them. We’ll see, maybe we can do something later. We have finished off playing live for now, until we have some new releases out.

What are the highlights in the career of Audiopain so far?
I believe playing at that Elm Street gig you mentioned is one of them. Other highlights are both times at the Inferno festival, and ofcourse the Hole in the Sky festival in Bergen 2001.

Haha, I’ve been at all those gigs you’ve mentioned!!! Does any of you have any side-projects?
Yes. Petter is playing in several other bands. The Happy Nihilists, which is a avant-garde band he plays in together with our designer, Kim Sølve Madsen. Virus, the side project of Einar ( Beyond Dawn, Inferno etc. ) and Aggressor ( Aura Noir, Cadaver etc. ) . A band named -M-, which is a grim metal band, also with Kim. He’s also playing in a electronica “band” with Kim, I believe. And then Bjarne and Petter have a jazz-band together named Denture.

You also produce alot of other bands, like for instance Vesen. Where do you get all the time for that and which other bands have you produced so far?
In between I take the time to work with some other bands. Bands that I’ve worked with are Vesen, Hellish Orkestra, -M-, Ghoul-Cult, Bomberos, Mysticum, Amok, Mancha Negra and some other non-metal projects.

What about the long awaited Audiopain/Mysticum split EP. Why did it took so long and when will it see the day of light? How is the relationship with Mysticum?
The Mysticum guys are really good friends of ours. The split will be out any year now I believe…he he. No, seriously, the master and cover have been send to the record company months ago, and it should be out early autumn I hope. The reason it took so long are simply some disagreement on the cover artwork, and very slow handling on that matter. After it was finished, it took some time to get the correct proportians to the cover from the pressing company, as this will be an unusual release. As it turned out wrong, that’s what met the releasing company when they received the artwork. So, now they are working on the cover as well…hehe. All the music was recorded and finished almost a year and a half ago ! We’re waiting for the test press now.

And how are things going with the Audiopain/Amok split tape? Can you tell a bit more about the release?
I have no idea of what’s happening with that release!! That is Petters thing, and I don’t think he’s heard anything from the company in Thailand since he send over the masters three or four months ago. The release itself is nothing special, just our “Revel in Desecration” demo, and Amok’s “Lava Dictatorship” demo. It has been made a new cover for the release though.

What can we expect in the future from Audiopain?
You should expect more music in the same style as what you’ve heard from us before, because that is what you eventually will get. We have already invented “The Krutt” , so we are not going to do that again, he he. We are rehearsing the new material, and are still in writing process, and we have scheduled for a release this year (year 17 that is! ). So far it seems like it will be very “Audiopain-ish” music. Maybe a bit less “in your face” than the “Revel…” demo, but some longer and more dynamic song structures. We’ve also a pretty slow song this time, which is rare for us. All in all you will get more or less the same as before.

Now I give you the oppurtunity to ask me a question so go ahead Sverre!
OK ! You are travelling around alot in the name of extreme underground metal, whitout any other reason than your die hard interest in this very genre of music. What insane reason and motivation do you have for offering so much for something as abstract (stupid?) as metal music?

Well, yes I do travel around alot and it does cost me alot, if not almost all my money, but I do it simply for my love for this music. I also like to help some bands with whom I’m friends with to spread their name and do some promotion/distribution for them. Call me stupid or whatever but this is what I like to do. And in time people get to know you at certain places and that can result in free entrances at gigs or even VIP passes and free cd’s so it will pay back a bit !!!And yes, I like to travel to Norway as well alot. I have seen alot of interesting gigs which are not be seen outside of Norway and furthermore I have alot of friends overthere with whom it’s cool to party with!!! 

Well,the last words are yours Sverre, thanks for the interview and we see eachother around somewhere again and share some beers!!!
Thanks Marcel. Always a pleasure! First of all I would like to say to you all that Marcel is a great guy, and if anyone want to hear some samples of Audiopain, you can visit him at home and ask him if he can show you. He will! He will also give you the address to our e-mail (which by the way is audiopain@hotmail.com), so you can order cd’s and merchandise from us for VERY low prices. Or he will tell you that he can do it for you, as he has done that several times before. Then he’ll give you as much alcohol and food as you want, before you’ll end up having sex for two intense minutes. Then you go home and wait for Audiopain to visit you with thrash you haven’t heard since the good old eighties! (keep your eyes on that weird looking guy that always smile to you in the public showers!). Salute to Marcel!!!  Remember, YOU are a failure!

Haha, good last words. You make me flush. Well, see you at the next drinking session!!! Take care!!!

Audiopain

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Windir – “I definitively think Likferd is the most aggressive and darkest Windir album”

Windir is the Norwegian word for Warrior and one of the most amazing black metal bands I know. Recently the band released their latest masterpiece ‘Likferd’, yet Windir is one of those few bands that only release masterpieces. It all started out in the period of 1995/1996 when Valfar started a one-man band and released 2 demos; which received good reviews. In the beginning of 1997 he released the album Sóknardalr and 2 years later the in my opinion best album of the band ‘Arntor’. After the release of Arntor Valfar decided to make a complete band from Windir. Hvàll; composer of the band Ulcus joined Windir and also all other members of that band started to play in Windir. Together with the help of Hvàll, Valfar started to write songs for the new album ‘1184’. Due to this album the band more and more builds a good name and reputation in the Underground scene and with their newest album ‘Likferd’ the folkloric black metal of Windir is ready to conquer the world! An interview with Hvàll…

Windir’s latest album Likferd is out for a few months now, how did people react on this album?
The response has been very good. We received a lot of good reviews and interviews. We will start on some live shows soon, and I think that we got one hell of a show going now.

What does the word Likeferd actually means?
Likferd does not have an English word to describe it. A Likferd is a transportation of your body going to the funeral place. On the cover of our album you can see this illustrated with the casket on the boat covered by a Norwegian flag.

The cover-art of Likferd looks beautiful, is it an old painting or is it special made for the cover of this album? Is there a story behind the artwork?
Yes, it is a famous Norwegian painting called ‘Likferd at Sognefjorden’. It illustrates a Likferd. The great Norwegian painters Tidemand and Gude did make it in 1855. The motive is taken from our home-place Sogn.

Likferd was released on 31.03.2003 in Scandinavia, yet in other parts of Europe the album was available almost a month later, do you know why the album wasn’t released through the rest of Europe on the same day?
I don’t know. This was decided by our record company, and I don’t know why the fuck they did it this way??

The last part of the last song on the previous album ‘1184’ called ‘Journey to the End’ was a great electronically experiment that gave me gooseflesh all over. On Likferd we can hear on the background of some songs also some electronic sounds, so the experiment on 1184 wasn’t just for once, do you think Windir will in the future use more of these kind of sounds?
Yes I think so. We will always try out different things to develop our sound. Valfar is very fond of working with electronic music, and has got a lot of competence on this area. I think the electronic elements used in the right way, and not as a key-factor, will be an important part of the Windir sound.

Is it correct to say that windir goes back to the roots with Likferd, because it’s a more agressive and more heavy album?
I definitively think Likferd is the most aggressive and darkest Windir album. But I don’t see it as a back to the root album. I think that it different from 1184, but also different from Soknardalr and Arntor. So I see it more as a development than a back to the roots album. But I can agree that it has a more old school black metal feeling to it, than anything we have done before. Especially songs like “On the mountain of goats” and “Despot”.

Is Likferd a concept album?
No it is not a concept album. The lyrics are based on ancient times, but not directed on any special events.

In the past the accordion played a big role in the music of Windir, now that instrument is totally gone, why?
Well, there is indeed no accordion on Likferd, because we didn’t find any place it fitted the music. But Valfar still plays the accordion, so it is not impossible that we will use it again in the future.

It’s hard to label the style of music Windir plays. Yet one thing is for sure, the style you play is quite unique. As from the first album Windir already got an own sound, yet during the years Valfar build out the style and I think we can say that the band discovered an almost new style in the black metal scene; at least an unique sound. What do you think of this?
Yes I agree with you that Windir always have had an original sound. It has developed with each album, and I hope it will continue to do so. Windir has always had an especial way of arranging the guitar melodies, often based on Norwegian folk music. But the essence of Windir has always been, and will always be Black Metal.

Since the album ‘1184’ Windir isn’t a one-man project anymore, but a real band. It does have many advantages, are there also some disadvantages Valfar discovered since Windir is a real band?
I think Valfar is very satisfied with it being a whole band now. This means that Windir can play live, there are very skilled persons on each instrument, and now that both him and I write music, it has become more challenging and opened up fore more possibilities in the writing process.

In the past Valfar wrote all the lyrics and music, is he still the main songwriter of the band, or do the other members also write songs?
For both 1184 and Likferd I and Valfar wrote 4 songs and 4 lyrics each. We will continue this way in the future.

Windir is an unlucky band, 2 times an European tour was cancelled. The first time the band should go on tour with Finntroll and Borknagar, yet just a few days before the departure of the tour everything was cancelled, because of problems with the tour-bus. Can you tell us something about this?
Well, the whole tour was booked and we had ordered tour merchandise and all kinds of things. The last couple of week’s things started to seem suspect, and 5 days before the tour was supposed to start, the Bus Company doubled their price. So Borknagar tried with some other companies, and everything just fucked up. A lot of promises, but no one could deliver a tour bus on such short notice. It was really frustrating, especially since we couldn’t do anything about it. But I guess this is the way it works in this perverted business of lying bastards. Finally Borknagar cancelled the tour since there were no tour buss, so the whole tour was cancelled.

The second time, about a month ago, Windir would play some gigs around Europe with Aeternus and Bolthorn, due to problems with finding venues to play also this tour was cancelled.
A booking agency in Holland tried to work this out. We made an agreement with Aeternus and our labels NAP and VME. Everything was ok. Several clubs where interested and everything was looking good. But then a lot of clubs just became quiet, and wouldn’t sign contracts. The whole thing became so uncertain, that the booking agency decided that they couldn’t gamble on this. But blame it on the shitty clubs, who just wants to book the same bands over and over again, and don’t listen to the metal public. Fucking conservative assholes.

So Windir still didn’t played gigs outside of Norway?
First gig outside Norway will be next week. 2 shows at the Metalfest in Milwaukee US. All contracts, tickets and everything are arranged. I am really looking forward to this, and we will do one hell of a show in the US.

Are there new plans for a European tour? When can we see Windir alive in Europe?
Now we are concentrating on the US show. Of course we want to do European shows, but we don’t have any particular plans at this moment. The problem is as I mentioned that the booking agencies and clubs just wants to work with bands that they have booked 100 times before. We will see what happens. First we will do the US and Norway shows anyway.

The lyrics of Windir aren’t just simplistic lyrics, they got profundity, is it hard to write the lyrics?
The lyrics come naturally. We are filled with this gloomy atmosphere as persons, and telling tales inspired by our ancient history and philosophy just feels natural for us. So I can’t say that it feels difficult for me. It is just expressions of our way of thinking.

Now most of the lyrics are written in English, yet in the past the lyrics where written in the old-Norwegian language, why are more and more lyrics written in English now?
Because of a simple fact, we wanted to try out something different. I don’t know how this will be in the future. But we will always have some songs with Norwegian lyrics on each album. We write the music before the lyrics, and the atmosphere in the music decides what kind of lyrics it will have, and what language it will be in.

Do the members of Windir only play in Windir or also in other bands/projects?
No. All members are totally dedicated/enslaved to Windir.

Next week you are going to play 2 gigs in the USA, do the people over there ‘understand’ the music Windir plays? Do you already build out a name in the USA? What do you expect of this experience?
I have no ideas what to expect, and therefore expects nothing. The US seems to be a good marked for Windir. It is one of the countries where we sell the most records. We receive a lot of fan mail from the US, and it seems as the interest is growing all the time. I am definitively looking forward to this trip, but have no idea what to expect from it???…

In my opinion Arntor is still the best release of Windir, although all the releases are masterpieces. What’s in your opinion the best Windir album?
Without a doubt Likferd is my favourite. Because it has by far the greatest songs, production, groove and it is the darkest album. Songs like “Despot”, “Blodsvik” and “On the mountain of goats” are the best we have ever have done. I was also very pleased with 1184, but I think Likferd is the definitive highlight of Windir so far.

What’s you personal playlist at the moment?
It differs from day to day but here are 5 songs that I have listened a lot to recently:

Hurt – Johnny Cash
Det som engang var – Burzum
Frantic – Metallica
Fuck the world – Turbonegro
Destroy – Emancer

Does Windir have a good contact with other Norwegian metal bands? Do the bands in the scene support each other?
I speak and drink with persons from different bands now and then, but I won’t say that the bands support each other. Windir has always been like a cult, doing our own thing, and we don’t really give a fuck what the other bands are doing. There are so many “rockstar” within the “black metal” scene, that we couldn’t be bothered. But I don’t mind hanging with guys from different bands, getting drunk, but most of the time we just keep for ourselves and drink.

Slowly Windir is building a good name in the underground scene, but in my opinion you still don’t get the attention you deserve. Isn’t that frustrating?
Sure it is. I feel that things started to happen after the release of 1184, and it keeps growing. In Norway things are really good, and we are among the top selling black metal bands in Norway, hopefully our distribution and promotion in Europe will get better in the future as well.

What can we expect in the future of Windir? Are there already plans for a new release?
We will play as much live as possible this autumn, and we will probably start recording a new CD early next year. Several labels have show interest, and we will probably decide which company we will sign to within the next weeks. Valfar and I have already started writing new material.

Do you have something to add on this interview?
Thanks for the interview man! I recommend everyone to drink some beers and listen to Likferd, I am sure that it will blow you away. To be updated on the future of Windir check out our website. Skål!!!

Windir

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Perished – “Your heritage, roots and culture is what shapes you as a human being”

Once again a Norwegian Black Metal highlight has reached us. This time it is ‘Seid’ from Perished. Already since 1993 Perished delivers us high quality Black Metal with melodic edges. They never played live over here in The Netherlands but since they signed to Dutch Displeased Records hopefully times are about to change and can we witness their great live performance in the near future. At this year’s Inferno festival I ran into Ihizahg, we talked a bit about Perished and agreed to do an interview for VM.

Greetings Ihizahg, first of all: how are you doing?
Hello Marcel. I’m fine, thank you! We’re rehearsing like hell with both Perished and Bloodthorn for the forthcoming Perished tour and a new Bloodthorn album. We are also writing new songs for the new Wurdulak album, so there is no time being bored.

Before we talk about the new album let’s go back in time a bit. Why did it took so long to release the ‘Grim’ EP? And why just a EP after about three years of silence, was there no inspiration?
We didn’t have any contract or money to record anything. We had a lot of songs but we saved some of them for ‘Seid’ because of the difference between the songs. The songs on ‘Grim’ are older ones. More in the vein of ‘Kark’ .

Why did you choose for Apocalyptic Empire back then? And are you satisfied about the release nowadays?
Kenneth Tiller, the man behind A.E. is a close friend of us, and he wanted to do one EP with us. We thought that was a cool thing to do, so we recorded ‘Grim’ which contains older songs from after the ‘Kark’ period plus a new recording of one of the songs from the ‘Through the Black Mist’ demo.

I’m not satisfied with the sound on ‘Grim’ . I think we were a bit to quick when we did the mix. The guitars aren’t loud enough, the synth is too loud, and also the vocals are way too loud. If I’m going to listen to ‘Grim’ today, I put on the pre-mix version I have.

After the ‘Grim’ release there has been a gig recorded called ‘Soulkick’ . What can you tell about that and why isn’t it released officially as the plans were to make a VHS/DVD out of it?
‘Soulkick’ is a song we recorded for a video. We went down to a place called Rena to record the video. It was a cold experience. Put on leather pants, t-shirt and spikes. Try to play your guitar for 11 hours in -15 Celsius. It was fucking freezing. The snot was flowing, and the fingers felt like ice cubes. We drank a lot of moonshine to get some heat in our bodies but it didn’t help much. If we’re going to make a new video, we’re going to Hawaii!

We don’t know what to do with the video. We thought of including it on the cd version as a CD-ROM but what about the vinyl version? I can’t say I have heard about LP-ROM. Maybe one day we put out a DVD or something.

How did you came in contact with Dutch Displeased Records? And are you satisfied about the work Displeased has done for you so far? For how many albums have you signed to them?
Displeased contacted us when we were recording ‘Grim’ . They were very positive to sign us, and after some negotiating we signed to them for two albums. Displeased seems to be a professional label and I’m very satisfied with their work so far.

Do you know how the sales are doing for ‘Seid’  and are you still satisfied the way ‘Seid’ turned out?
I don’t know how much ‘Seid’ has sold yet. I think we get to know it soon. I’m very satisfied with ‘Seid’ . The sound is good and the songs have a lot of variation in them. I see this record as a nice mixture of everything Perished has done through these 12 years of karskfylla. The cover art is amazing, especially the LP cover. Ymon is one of the most creative people I have ever known. And I think his cover arts show what I mean.

All your albums are released on vinyl as well so how important is vinyl for you guys?
It is very important. The sound is way better, and you can sit down with a cover you don’t need a magnifying glass to understand what is written.

Can you tell a bit more about the recordings? You produced the album yourself. Wasn’t it difficult to concentrate both on producing and playing?
The recording went well. We were in the studio for about three weeks and we used the time very effectively to get the result we wanted. But I think if we have used 4 weeks instead of 3 the result would have been even better. When it comes to play and produce at the same time, it wasn’t any problem. I recorded my guitars right after Jehmod had finished his drum tracks. Then I could concentrate on the producing.

How is the music written within Perished? Does every member writes his own material at home and is it combined at rehearsals? Or are songs written in the rehearsal room and composed as a team?
When it comes to the writing of ‘Seid’ , it was a bit different to what’s normal in Perished since two of the members had moved to Stavanger for 2 years. They couldn’t contribute that much, so me and Jehmod did most of the writing. But we all contributed with lyrics. Right now we are writing new songs and every member is involved in the writing.

You guy’s also play in alot of other bands. Which bands and how do you combine all those bands with Perished? Which band has got first priority?
Me and Jehmod also play in Bloodthorn and Wurdulak. Bruthor and Ymon play in a band called Berserkr. Bruthor also plays in a band called Likskjit, and Kunt Pelthor has alot of projects and bands. There are no problems with being active in so many bands, but there are a lot of rehearsals!!! I put down much work in each band so they are all highly prioritised.

Perished is a Trondheim based band. How is the Metal scene over there? And are there some good newcoming bands from that area?
The scene in Trondheim is growing and it’s big compared to the size of the city. There are a lot of bands that are really cool. I think it is weird that no label has shown any interest in them. Pica Fierce, Manifest and Chton are three bands that kick ass. They have released some demo’s which are really great. Check them out!!!

Alot of your lyrics are written in Norwegian. Do you think, as a Norwegian band, it is important to have Norwegian lyrics? What are your lyrics dealing about in general? And what does ‘Kark’ and ‘Seid’ mean?
On ‘Seid’ all the lyrics are in English. It’s much easier to write in English, because it is a more colourful language. So I don’t think it is important to have Norwegian lyrics. Our lyrics deal with our ancient heritage, and the dark sides of human nature. ‘Seid’ means wizardry or black magic. ‘Kark’ was the name of a slave who killed one of the local earls, and got decapitated by Olav Tryfvason (Norwegian king) according to old Norwegian history.

On the ‘Kark’ and ‘Seid’ covers there is alot of northern mythology/Viking art used. Is it important to show the world your roots and Norwegian heritage? And are you proud of being a Norwegian?
Yes, I think culture is important. Your heritage, roots and culture is what shapes you as a human being. Of course you find things in every culture that you don’t like (read religion), but you should be careful when it comes to comparing cultures to find out which one is the best. I’m proud of being Norwegian, but I’m not proud of the christian aspect of my culture. I think it is important to show that, and in my case through music, lyrics and cover art because that is my culture and heritage and the reason why I am the person I am today. Deep, huh!?!

Let’s talk about live gigs now. Although Perished exists for quit a long time already there hardly have been any live gigs. At least not on the European stages. How is it possible that the fans haven’t seen Perished live yet? I have seen you twice now, at the Hole in the Sky festival Bergen in 2001 and the Inferno festival Oslo this year and especially the Inferno gig made a big impression on me. What did you think of the Inferno gig? I think it is the ultimate gig to play in Norway so how do you look upon that?
Because of us!!! We are probably the slowest band in the world…just kidding.
I think the main reason is that we are with 6 persons in the band, so it costs a lot to send us on tour. But now we will attack Germany first, then we’ll see if we take the rest of Europe later. We had really shitty sound on stage which made it difficult for us to show what we are capable of. But the crowd was satisfied and that’s what counts. I don’t know if a festival is the ultimate gig to play. People are drinking heavily (I know I do!!!), and get tired after three days of mayhemic Metal. But it is fun!!!

In October you’re going to do a small German tour. What can you tell about that, and why aren’t you playing Holland as well because I think it would have been quite obvious to play Holland as well, especially now you’re on a Dutch label?
We don’t know much yet. It is a bit early to say anything about it, but we’re going with 3 German bands (Riger, Endstille and Graven). It would have been cool to do some gigs in Holland, and I guess that shouldn’t be any problem since Displeased are Dutch. But not on this tour I think.

What have been the highlights in Perished history up ’till now and what is the worst thing which happened to Perished?
The highlight so far has to be to have the new album out. FINALLY!!! The worst thing must be when we signed to Solistitium, now called Millenium Records.

You have got a very good looking website, http://www.perished.biz/. How important is a website for Perished and internet in general? What do you think of people downloading Perished songs? Maybe the sales go down because of the internet. On the other hand you can reach more people with it!
I think the internet is very important. Nowadays, a proper website means good promotion. There is a lot of traffic on the net and of course you should be represented where the people are. I don’t like when people download music at all. It’s ok if you’re a Metallica, because they have a solid name after all these years, but small bands like Perished have to show the number of sold copies of an album, to have the chance to release new albums. If people download our albums, it means that we are one step closer to the grave.

What can we expect in the near future from Perished?
Touring and more albums I hope!!!

Well Ihizahg, these were my questions. Thanks for the interview and I’ll see you around again somewhere! Anything else you want to share with the VM readers?
Thank you and keep on rockin’. See you on tour!!!

Perished

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Neverlight Horizon – “Neverlight Horizon is about obscurity, darkness and suffering. A horizon with no light is just like the future that we suggest…”

Finally, here it is, the interview with the Belgian Death Metallers Neverlight Horizon. After reviewing their demo ‘Perfection in Murder’s Art’ I thought it was about time we had a little chat with this great band. And after two months of waiting, here it is. Enjoy!

Hello, to start of with the review. Did you like it? And do you agree with it?
Hi! Yes we liked your review and we agree with it because you are objective in your critics and what you wrote about us seems to be true!! Rebhell, the vocalist, is very proud to be compared to Corpse Grinder!! In general we are satisfied with the different review which has been written about ‘Perfection in Murder’s Art’. it is very encouraging for us.

You are quite a new band, so maybe you could give us an introduction.
Neverlight Horizon started in 1999 in Huy (Belgium) with two of the current members (drummer and singer). At this time the band was called Born Of Fire and played a powerful deathcore. Now it plays Death Metal. At first it was just a project without real ambitions but day by day it has taken more and more importance for us. The influences are: Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Dying Fetus and Slayer…

 

I’m just wondering what you mean with the bandname, could you explain?
Our band name is just referring to some dark horizons… We like this aspect. Neverlight Horizon is about obscurity, darkness and suffering. A horizon with no light is just like the future that we suggest… It is in fact very pessimistic!

As I said in the review, the brutal Death/Grind scene is very lively, what you do you think of the scene in general and what about the Belgian?
Yes you’re right! The brutal Death Grind scene is very lively! It is incredible to see all these underground bands worldwide! There are in everywhere in Europe, in Thaïland, Russia, Japan, Yugoslavia and many other countries! In Belgium the northern part of the country is very active in metal music. The southern part’s scene live a second life with the arrival some years ago of a lot of new bands: Neverlight Horizon, Devoured, Catarrhal, Livor Mortis, Excavated, Black Bleeding, Coalition, Desdemonia, Enthroned, Emptiness, Hybrid Viscery, No Lokost… Metal is not dead in Wallonia!!!

You just signed to Deadsun Records to release this demo next April, is it going to be re-recorded or is just the same?
The first demo CD (5 tracks) has been recorded in august 2000. It is called “The Awakening”. Unfortunately the sound quality is quite bad because we didn’t have enough money to record in a good studio.

What do you think about the label? Does it do a good job supporting and promoting you?
We are very happy being on Deadsun Recs. Because it’s a good opportunity to be signed after one serious demo CD. We hope having a good impact with ‘Perfection in Murder’s Art’ because it is a quite old recording. Yes, they seem to do a really good job even if we had some problems.

What about the future? What do you expect for Neverlight Horizon?
Currently we are working on new song with the hope to release a full-length album. But before that we are waiting to see how will be the impact of the release of ‘Perfection in Murder’s Art’.

Will you participate with any (club) tours in the future? Will we be seeing you around?
At this moment we just have few dates in Belgium : 24th of may in Arlon with Depraved and Xenomorph. 19th of july in Gent with Aborted at the frontline club and many other. We should play in France for the release of the MCD but nothing is done yet. We never played outside Belgium till now and we really want to participate to some tours in Europe!!!

Are you guys involved in other bands or projects? Tell us something more.
Rebhell (vocalist) plays drums in Devoured (Death Metal) and Catarrhal (Death Metal) which are bands from Huy. He played too in a hardcore band called N.R.T.D with J-F (bass). This band split in august 2000. I (Laurent) played in Upside Down (Hardcore) which split too. The drummer started drums when he created Born Of Fire four years ago.

At last, do you have anything to say to our readers?
Keep supporting Metal!!!

Neverlight Horizon

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Grief of Emerald – “The promotion sucks because I am an active Metal freak and I read lots of zines and magazines and have not seen Grief Of Emerald in any!”

This interview is a bit of an oldie as it was supposed to be online shortly after the release of Grief Of Emerald’s latest album ‘Christian Termination’. However, keyboardist Robert, whom I sent the interview to, left the band in the meantime but still managed to get one of the other band members to answer my questions. That’s highly respected! If our dear readers would only know how many bands do not return interviews. Check out what new drummer Carl Karlsson had to say about the cool band he’s part of…

‘Christian termination’ has been out for a while now, how are the (fan and press) reactions on it so far?
Hi sorry for the delays! My name is Carl Karlsson and I am the new drummer of Grief Of Emerald. I am sorry to pronounce that Robert has leaved Grief Of Emerald for personal stuff! So I hope it’s ok that I will take care of this interview. The reactions have been very positive nearly every magazine has written very well about the ‘Christian termination’ album and us. The fans went fucking crazy when the brutal side of us showed up.

How do you perceive the album now, are you completely satisfied with it? Did the recording and production process go smoothly or did some shit occur in the studio?
The boys are very proud of the new record but if they are satisfied I don’t know. The recording of the album went quite well it was only Jonas’ arm that started to hurt badly but he managed to record everything. And yes of course there are always some technical problems. I think that you never can be satisfied. Whit an album there are always things that you can do better.


Comparing the new album to ‘Malformed seed’ it can be clearly heard that you’ve speed up the pace quite a bit. Also the stuff is more brutal (more death metal) without loosing the cool keyboardparts. Did these changes come naturally or were they fed by utter frustration?
I think it’s both, always something happens that pisses you off at work, at home, the community the fucking whole world. So it’s not strange that you want to play more aggressive!

I mention utter frustration because keyboardist Robert has put the following statement in the booklet: Biggest fuck off to the whole year of 2001. I guess he experienced some real fucked-up shit that year? Would you care to specify what happened or is it too personal?
Robert says it’s too personal.

Johnny mentions the influence of several pills (e.g. cortizon), but which interests me most is the other influence he mentions: Stalin. In what way has this dictator influenced the songwriting? Have you watched old movies/documentaries about the huge Russian armies that battles the Germans in those utterly cold winters? Perhaps these had some influence on the heaviness on the guitar sound of the new album?
Johnny got really sick and thanks to lots of pills he could proceed to record the album. It’s not only Johnny writing the lyrics, it’s Fredrick Helgesson and Jonas too and they do often research on that which they find interesting. Of course influence come from many sick things but that I don’t mention. By the way Johnny has a lot of ancestors in Finland that got killed by the troops of Stalin (Very inspiring).

The lyrical content of ‘Christian termination’ isn’t hard to discover. But why have you chosen the Christian (or any) religion as the main subject? Don’t you think that almost all things about it have already been said by bands like Deicide and Immolation?
Christianity is the main subject and others are in deeper level. We are so filled with anger and hate so we must write about it. With our own words not any other.

However, one lyric is more actual than ever (unfortunately): ‘Raped by the servant of god’. It seems many sick Christian fuckers have molested kids which is a crime which should be reconciled by hanging them sicko’s with nails in their genitals. Did the current US affairs influence this lyric or was it already written before that stuff started to be broadcasted on TV?
No it was the Italian problems. It was the popes’ disciples that raped the Children but Jesus forgave them all!

It seems as if the band has done only some sporadic gigs after the release of ‘Malformed seed’. Why didn’t you do some larger tour through Europe? Does Listenable provide you with decent (financial) tour support?
I think Listenable is great record label and we know how hard it is to run it. But the financials have been very bad!!! We did small a tour with Bestial Mockery, Sear Bliss, Skyforger and Obtest but it was Agonia Productions that fixed that tour. We hope now it shall be better because we want to reach out to our fans!

For how many albums is the contract with Listenable? Are you satisfied with their work and promotion for you? Aren’t more labels interested in signing Grief Of Emerald?
The contract lasts for three albums so it was the last record now. If Listenable won’t give us a very good contract we’ll search for a new record label and yes many are interested! The promotion sucks because I am an active Metal freak and I read lots of zines and magazines and have not seen Grief Of Emerald in any!

By the way, what happened to your drummer Jonas, I read he had some shoulder injury or something. Enlighten us please. Will he be able to continue drumming after his injury has healed?
Jonas’ arm is much better!!!!! But we have had some problems. I am sorry to pronounce that Robert has left Grief Of Emerald for personal stuff. So Jonas had to replace Robert! You see Jonas is very good at most instruments, so the new keyboard parts really kill. So I will handle the sticks in the future!

How do you perceive the current black metal scene, or in particular the ‘symphonic’ Death/Black Metal style that you play. It seems as if not much bands really play this style anymore. I can’t really think of any band. Do you think that this style has decreased in popularity or that the other bands that disappeared or ‘evolved’ into another style are just pussies?
As the scene changes from death to black and the old thrash is hot again, I think that all bands get more influenced and changes their style a little bit, even if you don’t hear it. For the moment, listen to the new Defleshed album it’s Thrash in the veins like hell! But I think that they reach out more to an larger crowd but there aren’t many bands left that play symphonic Death/Black Metal. I think that a musician shall try other things in certain frames!

What are the plans with the band in the near future? Isn’t it possible for Grief Of Emerald to get on one of the X-mass or No Mercy tours? That would really help to get your name and music more out there.
Our plans are that maybe get a new record label and tour as much as we can! We have just started to work on a new album and recorded a Celtic frost cover called ‘Visual Aggression’! And we are rehearsing like hell. Yeah, festivals would be very cool, let’s see what happens this summer!

And when will you finally play at some festivals like Graspop, Dynamo or Wacken? You should convince the organisations that they shouldn’t always book the same black/death metal bands, that’s really getting on my nerves. How many times can one see bands like Hypocrisy, Immortal, Marduk and the likes on festivals, tours etc.? More variation in bands goddamnit!
Of course, everyone in the bands want to do more festivals. The Wacken festival, that’s a dream. I have been there three times, it’s fucking great but it’s only larger record labels and bands that play there! And yes more variation but the old band Razor was cool!

I’m sorry to ask the next question but it just itches and I need to scratch…Will Decameron ever re-unite? I mean with all the reunions of old band and many of these reunions will appeal only to a small amount of old fans. But what I mean is that Decameron was a band that really had something. I really liked (and still do) their ‘My shadow’ album, it shreds. What’s your opinion on all those old bands reforming like Unleashed, Nuclear Assault, Grave, Candlemass, etc.etc.? Does anyone really need these reformed bands?
I don’t think that Decameron will do a reunion! Johannes has a new band called Seventh One and Johan and Tobbe have Soulreaper and Alex doesn’t play in another band now! I think it’s cool that old bands try it again so the old maniacs can sleep at night!

By the way, what’s your opinion on the ‘Hell’s unleashed’ album from reunited Unleashed?
Sorry, I stopped listening to Unleashed after ‘Where no life dwells’, that’s their best album!

I heard that Dissection are going to reform and do another album, which in itself is great. But do you think they’ll ever reach their old high level?
Maybe. Maybe not, I don’t know!

What were some of the coolest albums that were released in 2001 according to you?
Zyklon-World of worms
Bathory-Destroyer of worlds
Kreator-Violent revolution
King Diamond and Black Rose
Halford-Live insurrection
Krisiun-Ageless Venomous
And many more!

If you were granted the possibility to do a tour with whatever bands and to whatever countries you wanted to, with which bands would you tour and where would you play the gigs?
We have been touring in Europe, so the USA and Japan would be very cool. With Cannibal Corpse, Zyklon, Deicide and Soulreaper.

The band’s website (www.griefofemerald.cjb.net) looks very cool. You also have some press and desktop stuff on it. Would you also put some unreleased or live stuff on it? Perhaps some live video clips or stuff like that?
Yeah, great idea why not!!!!!

Okay, that’s it, infamous last words, predictions of future soccer World Championships being Sweden and similar stuff can be put down here.
I want to thank everyone that supports us in our struggle: fans, bands and friends. And stay fucking metal!!!!!!!!

Grief of Emerald

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Naglfar – “What is different on “Sheol” is that we improved the songs, they sound more bombastic. Do you agree?”

The debut album “Vittra” by the Swedes of Naglfar was a crushing release that won many fans to the Naglfar cause. The follow-up “Diabolical” came a few years later, but then a long period of silence followed… But in 2001 the EP “Ex Inferis” came out as a teaser for the upcoming full-length “Sheol”. On the latter album the band shows the fire burns brighter than ever, as they return with full force to the Death/ Black Metal scene. On March 24th “Sheol” will be unleashed, so short before that release Vampire Magazine had a conversation with founding member Kristoffer “Wrath” Olivius.

Hails, this is Vincent from VM. I’m very happy to see a new Naglfar full length, quite some time after “Diabolical”. The CD will be released on the 24th of March, so what’s up with the band just before the release?
We’re enthusiastic! So far it’s just journalists that have heard it, and also some people by the downloads as usual, but we are a waiting for everyone to hear it and see it with the booklet.
Yeah, I’m a booklet fanatic too!
It looks killer. What the fans think is most important for us, so we’re excited to see what they’ll think.

Although the CD is not out yet the promos were sent out a while ago so you must have had some response already. How has that been so far?
I’d say so far, so good. Again the most important is what the fans think. But good attention is important for a band like us, that’s still somewhere in the middle of the underground scene and making it better.

“Diabolical” came out in 1998. Did you spend the years leading up to “Sheol” working on the new album, or is the material more recent?
Some of it is over the five years, but for this album we just started writing so many songs. We wrote like 25 songs, and only eight made it to “Sheol”. Many albums that come out have only four or five good songs and the rest is mediocre. But we weren’t in a rush, I hate it when I buy an album that’s like that, as a fan I want an album to be good all over. That’s what we tried to create.

Since there was quite a pause in between “Diabolical” and “Sheol”, did you feel more pressure this time to fulfil the expectations?
Of course a little bit. But then again, we can’t feel pressure; we can only tour a lot and prove to the fans we are just as good live as on our albums.

“Sheol” is another great release by your band. It kinda struck me as a mixture of the sound of “Diabolical” and “Vittra”, with “Sheol” containing much more melodic riffs than “Diabolical”. The new album also has a much more Black Metal feeling to it. Do you agree?
In some ways I agree. The mixture of the previous albums on this recording was truly our intention. What is different on “Sheol” is that we improved the songs, they sound more bombastic. Do you agree?
Yes, I agree. The album hits you like a wall, for instance the track “I Am Vengeance”. The whole album is overwhelming!
In the mixing process we wanted to make sure everything was clear, but some distortion is a bit over the top to create this bombastic effect.

What’s in your opinion the biggest improvement since “Diabolical”?
Of course the band has improved as players. We practiced and rehearsed as much as possible. We took a few years as a break and played a lot together and that has made us close as a unit. It got everyone in the same direction.

Why exactly did Mad Morgan Hansson leave? Didn’t he fit into the band anymore, or didn’t he agree with the musical direction?
Not really, Morgan came to a point in his life where he had to set his priorities. He has a child and a new day job, and those are more important to him. We are still good friends, and we meet often. This issue played before, and he had contact with Marcus Norman and he taught him our songs. One day he broke the news to us, and although it came as a shock we were already prepared since we knew what was going on. So now Marcus is in the band instead of Morgan, and he fits perfectly.

Although you consider the whole album to be perfect, there are always a few personal favourite tracks. Which ones are those for you?
Of course there are a few tracks, but since we wrote so many songs every song has a special feeling by itself. No song is like any other song on the album, they all show different sides and skills. But “Abysmal Descent” is a great song to play live! “Force Of Pandemonium” is a great song as well, a grinding track I’d say. And “Black God Aftermath” shows a more melodic side of the band.
Yes, I agree, also because of the more mid-paced work the album is very diverse.
Yeah.

On your EP “Ex Inferis” you already recorded “Of Gorgons Spawned Through Witchcraft”. It’s clear that the vocals were re-recorded, but did you re-record the entire song, and was there a reason to remove two piano parts, and put in another one?
We recorded it all over again. On “Ex Inferis” we wanted to keep it rawer than on “Sheol”. We tried to peel off the song what was too much to fit the song on “Sheol”.

The artwork was once again done by Niklas Sundin. Besides hell (the translation of “Sheol”), is there a specific theme to it?
I wouldn’t say so. For “Sheol” we were hunting really hard for the suiting cover art, lots of guy were working on ideas for it, but many suggestions weren’t what we liked. Niklas then made a suggestion sketch and we all like “Hell Yeah, this is fucking it”! We did want some things to change, so after a couple of weeks it was perfect. We want a very abstract feeling, some sort of nightmare scenario that is abstract and everyone can see their own thing in it. A few days ago we saw the booklet and it’s fucking awesome! Especially the vinyl!

I think a lot of people will be very anxious to hear: Are there any touring plans for the near future? Some festivals maybe?
It’s all still on the sketch board, with the wishes of the label and what the promoters are offering. We’ll do some festivals this summer, hopefully more next summer. Also single shows, and tours in Japan and the U.S.
Great, have you played there before?
No. I have played there with BEWITCHED, but never with Naglfar.

Another tour-related item. In 2001 you were supposed to play Wacken, but you were re-scheduled to play earlier, and undoubtedly a lot of people missed your show. What was the reason for that, and did you have anything to say about it?
We really had nothing to say about it, it was decided over our heads. Some people from the Wacken crew just told us that we were supposed to play in 40 minutes, and if we were too late it was too bad for us. It took us about 30 minutes to find the tent stage where we were rescheduled to play, so we had like 4 or 5 minutes to prepare before we had to play. The tent was absolutely overcrowded, and it was a very violent gig. Many more people wanted to see Naglfar play, because there was not much Black metal at Wacken. It’s a festival with mostly traditional and Heavy Metal, that year there was only Naglfar and maybe DIMMU BORGIR from Norway that played brutal and maybe satanic music. But everyone that saw us liked it.

For a very long time your official debut “Vittra“ was very had to get. It was recently re-released, but do you think that things would have been different for the band if “Vittra” would have been easier to get, so that more people would have heard your material?
Hard to say, that’s why we re-recorded and re-mastered some songs on “Ex Inferis”. There is great demand from the newer fans, that’s why “Ex Inferis” is a good new introduction into Naglfar. It’s hard to say what could have been, but unlike other bands we did have the time to finish our studies. Other bands rise like stars and fall like hell, it’s a cruel business!

When you started out, you were quite young. How did your perception on the music genre develop throughout the years? Did you mature as a musician?
For myself and my personal tastes, I am now into more brutal music, and also emotional music. This is a bit of a freaky question, to mature… The band has matured, we are better at playing our instruments, better at writing.
What I also mean, a lot of bands are really excited when they release their first album and think they will make it big. That’s not always realistic.
Yeah, you’re right we had it a bit after the first album. But we’ve always been realistic, and never rush things like this. We want to put out releases that are good all over, and we like a label that doesn’t want us to deliver an album each year, but gives us the time to do it our own way.

Your old label War Music became New Hawen, and you are still on their roster. Part of their distribution goes through Century Media as well. Do you like the cooperation and until when is the contract?
For me it’s the best thing. War Music basically decided to become a sub-label of Century Media, and this helps Naglfar a lot. This way we have better distribution and better attention. A bigger label like Century Media has different influences in the industry; New Hawen is just one guy. But we do most of the promotion and such ourselves.

The members of Naglfar are also involved in some other projects. What’s the status of for instance DEAD SILENT SLUMBER, HAVAYOTH and BEWITCHED. And you’re in SETHERIAL, right?
Yes, I am the vocalist of SETHERIAL. For DEAD SILENT SLUMBER, Jens (Rydén, vocals, and only member of DEAD SILENT SLUMBER- Vincent) wrote some songs, but we’ve been working with Naglfar for some years now. His attention is on Naglfar until it’s totally done, then he might work on DEAD SILENT SLUMBER again. Marcus just finished recording the new ANCIENT WISDOM, which will come out in the fall on Avantgarde Music from Italy. SETHERIAL will release two albums: one compilation with unreleased material on Napalm Records, and a new full length album called “Endtime Divine” on Regain Records in, I think May. One week ago we finished recording the new BEWITCHED, “Atrocities In A Minor”. A new full length is coming in the fall; we are almost done with the writing of it. Both albums will be out on Regain Records.

Well, that’s it for my questions. Thanks a lot for the interview, and best of luck for the near future and “Sheol”. If you have any last words, go ahead!
I hope you will all check out “Sheol” and give it some spinning time. Hopefully we can come to the Netherlands so hopefully you will check us out live.

Naglfar

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