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!!!