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Interview with
Fenriz of Darkthrone
By Crin - June 2010 |
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Black Metal mavericks now
mutated into a sound wholly their own. Darkthrone need
little introduction as all that can be said has been.
Norwegian Black Metal pioneers from the very beginning;
this band has survived the mainstream trappings afforded
to fellow countrymen, Satyricon. They have avoided the
lacklustre tedium churned out by the likes of Borknagar
and Immortal [in my opinion], and for all intent and
purposes, Darkthrone have reached their cult status
without playing a single gig of note. Now, apart from
the mighty Bathory, that is an incredible feat that just
gives more credibility towards the music. They are also
the most prolific [fifteen albums] and reliable [more
quality than shit] of all the Norwegians and that again
is more down to being a studio outfit and having the
time to write music without disappearing on the road for
half the year.
The new album, Circle the Wagons, is a truly new
experience in a genre that never fails to surprise me. I
put a few questions to the ever helpful Fenriz
Circle the Wagons brings to mind a western battle
scene, with Hollywood stereotypical Red Indians hooting
loudly and innocent white men blasting feathers off
their head dress. I presume this has nothing to do with
your choice of album title?
To know that setting is quintessential to understand the
idea behind it all; we are the native conserving and
defending the primordial metal land, the pioneers are
the modern metal producers and those who accept their
terms. It's on!!!
The album has a kind of a musical collision of The
Accused, meets early Gravedigger in a stew of Motorhead
and Sigh. Would you agree a fan could perceive this as
such?
Never heard Sigh so couldn't comment on that, I love the
namedropping you did and as much as I like The Accused I
actually was never personally inspired by neither their
vocals or riffs, they are a bit too spastic to pull into
the Darkthrone setting, but I grew up with them and it's
a very cool reference, so I'm pleased regardless, HAHA
HA. Same with Grave Digger, but I understand where you
want with the speed metal edge there, but really, the
liner notes in the album booklet or the Myspace page
gives a more accurate or at least widespread musical
inspiration-chart.
Here's a helpful list:
Our music fits more in with current bands like these
now, perhaps.and by current, I mean 90s, 00s, 10s. the
60s 70s 80s list will be listed at the bottom here.
Gehennah Sweden - Metalucifer - Blizzard Germany - The
Lord Weird Slough Feg - Wolf - Alpha Centauri - Metal
Inquisitor - Portrait - In Solitude - Helvetets Port -
Speed Trap - Atlantean Kodex - Christian Mistress -
Demons Gate - Doomed Beast - Sonic Ritual - Aura Noir -
Harbinger - Enforcer - Blackholicus - Natur - High
Spirits - Whip Striker - Noia Italy - Old - Aria/Apur -
Trench Hell - Shackles, Zöldïer Noïz, Noia, Bunker 66,
Wastelander, Black Magic, Crystal Viper - Lonewolf - Résistance - Ghost - Satinblack - Iron Kobra
- Argus -Funeral Circle Etc
The old bands, mainly 70s 80s that we may or may not be
influenced by;
Motorhead, Diamond Head, Head Head Head (Just Kidding!),
1st Metal Church, Agent Steel 84-86, Manilla Road,
Fingernails '88, Fates Warning 2nd And 3rd, Anthrax
83-85, Accept Up To '83, Savage Grace Master Of
Disguise, Griffin Protectors Of The Lair, English Dogs,
Metallica 3 First, Satan Court In The Act, Jaguar Power
Games, Early Saxon, Ozzy '80-'86, Helloween 2 First,
Iron Maiden, Tröjan, Black Sabbath '70-'82, Exciter
Heavy Metal Maniac, Queensryche First Ep And The
Warning, Gotham City, Witch Cross, Mercyful Fate, Thor,
Heavy Load, Adx, Holy Terror, Overkill, Tyrant's Reign,
Brocas Helm, Cirith Ungol, Angel Witch, Witchfinder
General, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Ostrogoth, Tank,
Scorpions 70s, Uriah Heep, Rush, Pentagram Usa,Baron
Rojo, Trust, Samson, Ac/Dc, Kiss, Flotsam And Jetsam
Doomsday For The Deceiver, Omen '84-'86, Deaf/Death
Dealer 1st, Deathside, Asta Kask, Puke |
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Not since Plague Wielder have
you written a track reaching the seven minute mark. The
thrash like, Stylized Corpse. Part of the songs end
descends into what reminded me of the riff from Nuclear
Assaults ‘Brain Death’ track. What are your thoughts on
this?
Yes, before filming the piece for the special edition cd
(talking about albums that might have inspired our
album) I told Ted about that part, and then he instantly
went "ohhh, yeah I know what you mean", we've been
digging The Game Over album since it came out and hail
the strange guitar sound on it. That song has heavy
metal, death metal, Black Sabbathy riff, thrash, and the
last part is kinda NWOBHM-like, very varied song
Does your writing style have a any limitations to
length/ or are you just happy to keep the tracks short
and simple as opposed to the meandering epics of the
more symphonic bands out there. To put it simply, does
the basic guitar/ bass/ drum formula warrant short
compositions?
I've been happy doing EFFECTIVE songs but as my
instrumental on this album shows, I might venture into
some more epic stuff in the future, but we never make
any plans, it's a song by song mentality with us in
Darkthrone, all pro/regression comes natural when it
comes.
I don't listen to ANY symphonic "BM" bands, it is one of
the genres that came after 93 that I really cannot
stand. But we've had some epic tracks since 1987, in
1988 we had the over 9 minute long Snowfall track, and
in 91 I made the even Longer "Kathaarian Life Code" for
instance.
The final track, Bränn Inte Slottet, has a peculiar
spoken intro and sets off on a crazy instrumental. Being
not fluent in the tongue of this intro, I felt as if it
were an incantation to raise a troll from its slumber in
some distant ice cave. What was your motivation for
writing such a track?
It was the one I first started to make, it was the last
one to be recorded, I worked on it for over a year, haha,
on and off, making decisions and then changing my mind,
etc. but I could've just as easily have written it in a
couple of hours, sometimes it just takes time. the intro
started when I saw that old Swedish movie and they
started to chant "bränn inte slottet" in the movie, the
idea was born to take the chant and make some heavy
metal to it. In summer 2008 that was.
Whilst your fellow countrymen, have either split up,
progressed beyond the fabric of the Black Metal enigma,
or entered the mainstream of wider acclaim, you have
remained untainted by the lure of excessive
experimentation [orchestra’s, choirs, ethnic
instruments, female vocals, electronica etc] Do any of
these will in the future appeal to your musical ethos?
Still, we always changed. And since 2005 we've phased
out the black metal until we have the personal style we
currently own.
But basically, I feel we do not need any additions to
our sound, we need the instruments old Saxon needed.
Still, we have small changes, like extra gears always at
our command, point is we bring them rather SLOWLY into
the pro/regression of Darkthrone. Like how we phased in
my vocals more and more over several albums, and then I
started phasing in clear vocals more and more a little
later, combined with the new album actually having the
guitars recorded in another room than the drums (so they
wouldn't leak unto each others tracks) and slowly we've
added a bit more bass overall in the sound every album
since 2005. Small changes, extra gears.
In the early days many some Norwegian bands had a very
Nazi kind of ideology; I have letters from Mortiis and
Shagrath, Gaahl, signing their letters with a swastika.
Apart from Burzum, most bands have relinquished these
views to progress into the more liberal mainstream unit
sales. Even Darkthrone were also painted as such with
the infamous ‘Norsk Arisk Black Metal' (Norwegian Aryan
Black Metal) slogan. What are your views on this
controversial subject?
We've all done extreme things in our lives. The
difference is that I have to face it every day while
others have the luxury of hiding it in their
subconscious.
It’s been said you look like the movie star Steve
Buscemi. Have you ever been asked to sign an autograph
under this name?
I already have a double, and it's way more funny since
it's a woman: Henriette Lien (Google her, then draw a
beard and a moustache on her and she IS me. She's a
Norwegian actress/media person. Somebody already tried
to draw beard and moustache on her photo and YES it
looked extremely like me. Also, I have another double,
one of the guys from the band Gerilja. |
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Which one is the real Fenriz? |
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The stigma of the TRUE BLACK
metal sound [typified by Transylvanian Hunger] is a
legacy you have spawned. This anti-Christian, icy
musical medium is something you helped to create and
must therefore feel a deep affection for. How do you
perceive the whole TRUE statement now?
It was true as hell at the time. Who knew it would start
getting watered out already in 94-95?! With true
Norwegian black metal I meant that:
1 that album was real black metal (it was Under A
Funeral Moon, no?), yeah I coined the phrase in 92 for
Under A Funeral Moon (recorded in summer 92).
2: we were a Norwegian band. We hardly played much of
the Norwegian typical style I think, drawing 95% of our
inspiration from Hellhammer/Celtic Frost and Bathory
The initial murder, church burnings, grave violations
and dastardly goings on, are well documented. I have
even heard Ishahn was never a bad boy because his father
was a police man. Do you know if this is true?
I know nothing about that guy
Do you keep up with the new Black Metal bands in
Norway, band like Koldbraan, Slavia, Black Majesty,
Selvhat, Sarkom and others?
I listen to Black Magic, Deathhammer, Aura Noir,
Faustcoven. They are the bands that give me black metal
vibes, among other things, as they sound free and not
tied to anything, like it was in the 80s, like the first
possessed album for instance had something to give to
death metal, thrash metal AND black metal.
What’s next for Darkthrone?
Well, we always used to continue writing new tracks
after recording is done for an album, so we did two
tracks and recorded them in February. Now it's a tiny
hiatus for us, these come and go and are never planned,
I got another song ready but I doubt if we'll record
anything until autumn now.
Check out the band of the week blog on our Darkthrone
official Myspace. And remember: all Facebook or Twitter
or Myspace profiles of me are fake. I only do the
Darkthrone official Myspace.
Thanks for your time
Website:
www.myspace.com/officialdarkthrone |
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