Dimmu Borgir Interview

Interview
Erkekjetter Silenoz
Dimmu Borgir

Lineup:
Shagrath (Stian Thoresen) - Vocals
Erkekjetter Silenoz (Sven Atle Kopperud) - Guitars, Vocals
Galder (Thomas Rune Andersen) – Lead guitar
ICS Vortex (Simen Hestnæs) - Bass, Clean Vocals
Mustis (Øyvind Johan Mustaparta) - Keyboards, Piano

1/16/06
Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale

"We’re just gonna stick to what we do and what we think is best for the band and say, “fuck off” to everyone else!"

Misanthropy - hatred or distrust of mankind …Dimmu Borgir introduced a resurgence of Black Metal to the metal community by not depicting themselves in the press as a church-burning band serving up sacrifices but as sensational musicians from the fourth tier of hell! Only their appearance mirrors their astounding theatrical performance. All of that seems to go out of the window when you meet them away from the menacing gear equipped with spikes and black leather. The band’s latest offering Stormblåst was brilliantly remastered by producer Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy) along side Silenoz and vocalist Shagrath, this reissue which just hit the shelves on February 7^th, is suppose to tide us over until they unleash their next assault of melodious black metal in 2007. In the meantime co-founder Silenoz, guitarist, was kind enough to phone in to the FourteenG offices to discuss where Dimmu Borgir has been and where they are going hauling us by the hair, gleefully kicking and screaming. Read on…

Karma: Ozzfest seemingly opened doors to new fans for you and to the black metal in general to the States. Why do you think we are last country to embrace the Black Metal Scene?

Silenoz: I don’t I think the underground in the States have always been focused on death metal, and that type of music, you know. Black metal hasn’t really been too much in the face and hasn’t had much exposure in the States up until the recent years. I think you can tell its growing. It’s different now than it was five years ago.

Karma: Definitely! Being in the scene since '93, how has black metal changed since the early 90’s?

Silenoz: It’s changed a lot in the sense that it’s become known, you know and everything is out in the open so to speak. It wasn't like that before, you know, that’s both good and bad I guess but it’s just how the evolution goes. You have to just move along I guess. [Laughs]

Silenoz: We have all of our shows scheduled already but so far nothing in the States but we are open to any offers! Of course, we would love to come back to the States, we haven’t been there since Ozzfest, and that’s quite a while, you know. [Laughs]

Silenoz: [Laughs] Yeah, it has but we’re mainly gonna concentrate on writing the new album, you know and that’s gonna take a lot of time. If we’re gonna, do some shows this summer I doubt that we will be coming to the States, but you never know. [Chuckles]

Karma: Well no matter what, we’ll be looking out for you. [We both laugh] I was reading an interview of yours you were commenting on how the success of your band can be attributed to you not following the “black metal-rulebook”. What do you consider the trappings of that sound?

Silenoz: I don’t think us a band and persons fit into any category at all really. At least not the so-called “rulebook of black metal”, you know! [Laughs] Because we always considered our music and our band as some kind of underdog, a bit on the outside of everything else and that’s where we like it anyway. I think we’re just gonna stick to what we do and what we think is best for the band and say “fuck off” to everyone else! [Laughs heartily]

Karma: Even though this incident happened a billion years ago [in regards to the interview DB did for Clear Channel radio station in Cleveland]. I think its fucking bullshit what happened in Cleveland and security escorting you off the premises…Bottom line since it is a large radio station they should have had the person there that censors live occurrences.

Silenoz: Yeah, I agree with that too but that’s censorship for you. It’s not only in America where stuff like that happens but I guess we’re just unlucky. The guy at [radio station] didn’t say and we didn’t know that we we’re allowed to use those kinds of words. Although we should have known because we’re grown ups. It just made it so fucking cheesy and silly so we’re just like, “Okay, it’s good exposure”.

Karma: Which could further and strengthen your staunch stance on hypocrisy and misanthropy.

Silenoz: Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally! I just hate it when people come up to us and tell us, “You should do this” or “You shouldn’t do that!” and blah, blah, blah. We’ve always done what the fuck we want, we have maintained that arrogance so to speak, and I think that’s why we’re still here. That’s why it has to be some positive arrogance because we are still around, you know.

Karma: There you go! Speaking of hypocrisy and misanthropy, I kind of wanted to talk to you on some “religious” matters so to speak, right quick.

Karma: In regards to your viewpoint against Christianity, I have heard you say that when you use the word Satan you don’t necessarily mean “devil riding the horse” kind of thing.

Karma: So then can you explain through the forces of darkness, you feel brings forth a constructive positivity that is contained in your subconscious…

Silenoz: …yeah, I would say so. I’m a depressive person but I get some outlet through the dark and negative aspects of myself through the music and through the lyrics. For me it’s like channeling my existence through something positive and constructive. No, I don’t see anything wrong with it all.

Karma: Oh no, I see nothing wrong with it. I see your point. To get a better understanding, it’s not as you’re calling on Satan to be your personal saviour or something.

Silenoz: No, not really, it’s all about not having anybody to answer to except yourself so it’s really that simple. Religion is supposed to be good for people but all I see it makes people a lot more unhappy than they could have been with it.

Karma: Very true, it has been the source of a lot of misery for a many of century. Still in today’s society, anything debunking or demystifying the ideals of the Christianity is looked down upon by Christians of course. The wave of exposing Christian beliefs has become quite popular, a movement of self-thinking especially amongst the metal musician. We should all be entitled to our beliefs no matter how uncomfortable the idea of Satanism or any of the other subjects for that matter makes some to most feel.

Silenoz: That’s true, it’s kind of almost a paradox that black metal music is suppose to convey a dark and evil feeling but no matter how much we’ll work for this, we’ll never catch up to what Christianity and religion have done through the last years you know, the evil that they have done. It’s like a constant struggle. [Laughs]

Karma: Well thank you very much for that explanation. Let’s move on to the new release, Stormblåst, tell me how was it working with Peter [Tägtgren] again?

Silenoz: Oh, it was great to go back to Peter again this album, Stormblåst was actually the album we released before we went to Peter the first time.

Silenoz: Over the years, we have gotten a lot of bullshit for selling out because we wanted to have good sound on our albums and stuff. Of course, we wanted to have good sound on our albums, Peter was the one that did that on our third album [Enthrone Darkness Triumphant], that’s why we thought we should go back to him and re-record this album because it was the first one before the kind of breakthrough album we had.

Karma: Looks like you will enjoy double the success with Stormblåst the second go round, which is pretty awesome!

Silenoz: I guess [laughs] but the Stormblåst album hasn’t really been distributed good enough and that’s also one of the reasons we chose to re-record it. Not only because the sound and the production on the original release was total shit but a lot of fans that we have gained over the last coupe of albums they haven’t been able to get a hold of the original ‘cos it has been distributed really poorly, not at all even. Yeah, so we thought we should do it this way and release it through our current label and get proper distribution for it.

Karma: Would you say it's harder to remaster an existing work as opposed to working with brand new material in relations to recording, etc?

Silenoz: For this one it would have been. If we just would have remastered this one, first of all we wouldn’t have been allowed to do it because we don’t own the rights to the recordings. So that’s the reason we had to re-record everything basically. Remastering the recent album wasn’t much easier either because it was so poorly recorded. It’s just so much you can do to enhance the sound but we had to re-record it.

Karma: What’s the one question about the album that you wished someone would have asked you?

Silenoz: Ummm… I don’t know, it’s hard… These are the types of questions I can never answer. Actually, I should start writing them down so I can have the same answer for them. [Laughs]

Karma: Love the new single “Sorgens Kammer Del II” and the other new song, [“Avmaktslave”] were they recorded at the same time or are they older songs too?

Silenoz: Everything that you hear on the re-recording is recorded in one session over the summer. “Sorgens Kammer” is actually a bonus track and it’s made up of old ideas that we had lying around for a while. We just thought we should put the song together for this re-recording and the same goes for the second bonus track “Avmaktslave”. It’s a really old song from even before the first album [For All Tid] that we for some reason forgot about to put on that one. [Laughs] Basically, it’s two new songs, in a sense… We made a video for “Sorgens”.

Silenoz: Yeah, hopefully they will show it in the States but I’m sure MTV’s gonna turn it down because [of] its explicit content. [Laughs] It’s good promotion anyway.

Karma: Exactly! Considering you met the original directive/mission of “being bigger than a garage band”, does this raise the stakes for you since you have exceeded your original goal? Have you set a new one?

Silenoz: Not really, because everything that would happen in the future is just a big bonus unless it’s negative. We just take it as it comes. We’re just really proud and happy and of course very grateful that we are able, to stay at the level where we’re at right now. But we of course know at the same time that it can all change tomorrow. It’s no guarantees; it is the music business you know! [Laughs]

Karma: I know you made mention of wanting to produce your own album after the collective gained more experience etc…

Silenoz: …yeah that’s an option; I mean we’ve always produced albums ourselves but it always had the co-producer like Peter or Fredrik [Nordström] you know.

Silenoz: But for us to do it all by ourselves, I think it’s still too early. We have our own studio and stuff but it’s not good enough for the production that our music requires.

Silenoz: Oh, it’s hard because I don’t judge our own music; it’s easier to judge someone else’s. [Chuckles] To be honest, I really don’t have a particular favorite but there’s always songs you like to play live more than others.

Silenoz: There are several like “Kings of the Carnival Creation” is good to play live, “Mourning Palace” of course is always good to play because people recognize it so well and they get hyped about it. It always depends on the mood too.

Karma: If you could commission a band or an artist to cover a Dimmu Borgir song, who would do it and which song would they cover?

Silenoz: Oh that’s hard, it would be cool to get the old guys, maybe someone from Priest or Maiden, WASP and stuff and they could play some of our technical songs if they could. That would be cool to see and hear [laughs] but…

Karma: Do you find that any of the bands’ side projects tend to get in the way?

Silenoz: No actually, they never have for us; so far, I have to say. The reason why we have the side bands is because there’s always gonna be a certain part that we make musically that will never fit Dimmu’s style, you know. So I just think it’s healthy and good to have an outlet for that in something else.

Silenoz: That way you won’t drag a lot of shit ideas that don’t fit Dimmu and drag the band’s name in the mud or whatever. You use that for something that doesn’t sound like ourselves.

Silenoz: Oh yeah, yeah, he is. We still have the same lineup as we had in Ozzfest. It’s just for the re-recording for Stormblåst it was only me and Shagrath from the original lineup so we didn’t feel it was any sense to bring in current members in the band just to have more expenses in the studio and it would take longer, you know. We already knew what we were gonna play anyway so we just got some help from Mustis, our keyboard player, and Hellhammer on drums to finish the album.

Silenoz: The Stormblåst album was just a formality to speak so there really wasn't a point in bringing in the whole band and everyone in, and then we would have to of course, teach all of the members how the songs were and stuff. We chose not to do that because it saved us a lot a time too.

Karma: Understandable, totally understandable. Are there any are new and up & coming bands to watch out for?

Silenoz: It’s hard because I don’t really follow the current scene or whatever. I just tend to listen to a lot of different types of music, you know.

Silenoz: Umm, the new latest Nevermore album [This Godless Endeavor] is my favorite this year for sure and Strapping Young Lad [Alien] …not much else really. You tend to hear about good releases sooner or later. Of course, I still listen to the usual old school black metal stuff because I like the old school better than the so-called “new school”. [We both laugh] I’ve always been a big huge death metal fan too.

Karma: Role reversals, if your job was to interview a band, whom would you interview and what would be the one thing you would want to know about them?

Silenoz: I’d probably interview Judas Priest, Rob Halford and I’d ask him what he meant by the sentence, “Spread-eagled to the wall. You're well equipped to take it all”. [We both laugh hysterically] I started to read Judas Priest lyrics from back in the day because after Rob Halford announced that he was gay, you have all of those references back to the lyrics when they were big, you know.

Karma: Yeah, funny how it all made sense after his announcement. Here’s a little more role reversals, do you have any questions for me?

Karma: Well now that’s funny, no one has ever asked that of us. It’s rather simple, the founder’s old apartment number used to be 14G.

Silenoz: Uh, not really, I just hope our fans in the States still remember us even if we haven’t played for them for a long time. But we’re gonna do extensive touring the next time when [the new] album comes out. So I’m sure we’re gonna tour all over the States again. If we don’t see them before that, hopefully they’re patient. [Laughs]

Silenoz: No, not a working title but we have started working on songs already and we’re all pretty excited about it. It’s just good to be back in a relaxed environment, you know, just working steadily on the materials. I guess I don’t really have an idea on when the album will be out but my estimation will be early 2007. Because it will probably take us a few months to record it and then the record label needs at least a good three months for promotional stuff and that’s already almost half a year, you know. We haven’t really written all the songs yet so, it will take a while still.

I'd like to thank Silenoz for speaking to FourteenG and to the PR Dept at Nuclear Blast for making it possible.

q Click here for photos / review of Dimmu Borgir during their 2007 headlining Tour (Invaluable Darkness)