Hail Fenriz! How are you doing?
great, listening to new burzum album while doing this
How are the reactions for your new album so far?
all the "bm" followers are hating it, which is easy to understand but still annoying because:
they are telling me to be what i was 18 year ago. if i asked them also to go back 18 years, they would be SUCKING THEIR MOTHERS TITTIES. don't ever ask a man to go back in time if you are not prepared to go back yourself.
all people who love old NWOBHM with a raw edge, persons with large old record collections like it. plus the most important thing, people i RESPECT like it.
I don’t believe it but some of our readers may never have heard about you. Please give us a short briefing in the band's biography.
with the demos we had around 20 original releases since 1988. in the beginning it was a strange mixture of wonky thrash, sludge/doom, death, punk and epic metal (88)
then death thrash and technical horror death metal in 89 and pure technical horror death metal in 1990.
black metal with some death in 1991, pure black metal in 1992 (always only inspired by 80s and 70s band, but also burzum and von from 92 and 93)
more black metal in the 90s and then more and more black ‘n’ roll as well, until doing more freestyle things since 2002, and DEFINATELY free styles of metal and metalpunk since 2005 when we finally got our own portable studio.
WE are two persons making songs on our own. we are multi-instrumentalists. we meet whenever we have one song each ready and record them. gather them up as albums. that's how we wrote 4 albums since 2005
we have fans from all layers of society and all parts of the metal and punk worlds, but now we are doing heavy metal mainly. OLD heavy metal,
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT US IS THAT WE HAVE ALWAYS AND OLD AND ORGANIC SOUND.
Let's talk about your new CD. What are the differences between "Fuck Off And Die" and "Circle The Wagons”?
not forgetting the previous DARK THRONES AND BLACK FLAGS, we now put the amp in a room of its own while recording, doing WAY more heavy metal and no more black metal riffs.. .. and i also quit double bass drums as it was the most offending thing i could imagine for those hung up on the 90s daft metal, and also it's very regressive and i believe in regressing slowly backwards in time with this band until we finally sound like old SAXON in 25 years from now
What is the message of your new record?
FIGHT NEW METAL STYLES that started in mid 90s AND STUDIO TECHNIQUES that started in the 80s
and listen to HAND OF DOOM
Which one is your favourite song from the album and why?
i never had fave songs, only fave PARTS, where COINCIDENCES makes it all click for me. however the song CIRCLE THE WAGONS is most representative for what my songs might be on the next album (already 2 songs recorded), and I can't really talk on Ted's behalf, but he wrote a real killer speed/heavy metal track for the coming album
Please tell us something about the cover artist. I absolutely love his paintings!
Dennis Dread can be easily googled by the lot of you, he is quite the serious artist and music freaks, swell guy that also likes HIKING! what a coincidence!!!
Are there some lyrics that are special to you? Tell us something about them.
i never wanted to read about lyrics of other bands, i believe talking about lyrics is killing them.
Where do you get your inspirations from?
there's no stopping it, it happens WHENEVER, and if i don't have a guitar or mp3 player (to hum it in on) nearby then i gotta hum it and make sure it sticks in my head, can't write it down very well, i am self taught on all music ways of mine, and don't know how to put notes to paper. but i got my own emergency ways of drawing riffs (!). HAHA!!
What about the recording process of your new album? Any stories or curiosities to report?
it was business as usual, i take the bus every time 3.5 hours to the middle of nowhere and there is the house we kindly lend to record in. Ted has then driven for 3 hours himself from the opposite direction to get there, we put up the studio, we learn each other our riffs and song structures and immediately start to record.
this time the choir session for I AM THE GRAVES OF THE 80s was so out of tune, it is the "best" out of 20 takes on the song HAHHAAHA, and its basically just a soccer-way of chanting, or like MISFITS choiring. anyone (we thought) could do that. but i love it flawed.
How do you create your sound? Which equipment do you use?
HAHAHHAA, I don't even know what cymbals i have, as long as they are BIG. i am not a music freak, Ted knows about these things. i am the opposite of how you might picture a studio MUSICIAN, to me, attitude is everything.
Please tell us something about the process of songwriting.
you already got it
Please name 5 till 10 bands you would like to promote.
easy peasy, from this year it's already been heaps of BAND OF THE WEEK blog i run on darkthrone official myspace, but i choose from the list of music that i discovered this year instead:
CHRISTIAN MISTRESS (thanks for sending me, Reuben, thanks for the tip Dennis (yeah, THAT Dennis))
BURZUM new album (listening to now, actually)
FEAR ITSELF (thanx Sindre for being such a maniac to pick this Boston band up. was released on WE BITE, german metal punk label from 80s)
ATLANTEAN KODEX (noblest metal there is, thankx for sending Manuel)
METAL INQUISITOR lp from 2005,( thanks for bringing it by on our beer session, Skipper)
HELL DARKNESS rockin' underground (metalpunk black ’n’ roll from Israel from Heller of TANGORODRIM fame)
SONIC RITUAL 5 new tracks from these Swedes. amazing
DEMON'S GATE/MURKRAT split 7" (inner cover art only thing gracing my living room wall now)
BLAKHOLICUS variations in death minor (one of the best current heavy metal acts. although this is their first album)
HELVETETS PORT everything
DESHONORABLE DISCHARGE 7"
AGE OF TAURUS demo
WHIP STRIKER album (Brazilian dirty metalpunk)
Please name some lately (no old stuff ) released CDs that you like to listen to at home.
see above
Do you still watch other bands play? Have there been some shows lately that impressed you?
yeah, this year DARK QUARTERER and LAMENTED SOULS were great at Metal Merchants festival
OBLITERATION, NEKROMATHEON and DEATHHAMMER are always a treat.
ANGEL WITCH were great at last years RAISE THE DEAd festival
CENTURION'S GHOST and IN SOLITIDE were great too.
What makes the difference between Darkthrone and other metal bands?
we pretty much go against the grain, and we changed our fan base at least 3 times and still survive and forge ahead. without turning to cheap modern studio trickery.
We'd like to know something about the underground in your hometown. Are you still in touch? And if so: Where do you hang out? Are there some yet unknown bands that you like?
my focus is worldwide, but NEKROMANTHEON and price winning OBLITERATION are coming to usa in may/june. ofcourse there is also DISHONORABLE DISCHARGE.
Will there be any chance to see Darkthrone live in the next months or years?
we will tour, playing only our instrumentals, in Guatemala from august-october
Are there still some bands that you would die to play with?
apart from GENE PITNEY in his 1960s heyday, i would like to point out that as a kid, i always dreamt of RECORDING ALBUMS, NOT being up on stage!
Thank you for your time! The last words are yours!
don't forget to listen to the song CALIGULA by french 1985 heroes ADX (thanks Annick)
Mein Dank geht an Fenriz und Wolf
|
