1. Hello Per, and thanks a lot for your willingness to answer my questions. Before touching upon your really interesting musical life I would like to ask you how the things are going on and what you are up to right now.
Contemplating upon how smart it actually was to go ahead an get a facebook profile, hehe. Besides that im always up to something chaotic and creative that usually expresses some for of annihilation of something be it lyric or „art“. Working on 7 lyrics, (helldiver (nor) and nettlecarrier), a zip hood (orcustus), some tshirts (djevel + nettlecarrier) and a reissue of a cd of a hardcore suit and tie porn band im occasionally involved in called Haggis amongst SEVERAL others. Bandwhore. All this and drinking coffe, watching tv listening to music and reading multiple books . Things around me are on, and when bored i just switch and do this for a while and then that and so on. Books lie open everywere, its mainly occult / magick related litterature, i read books many times if i like them, because with magick, there are different levels of understanding one subject, when decrypting the scriptures always backtrack to se if you missed something or get a better understanding of how to unlock a secret of chaos. Ive come across quite a few individuals who red some books and go, | yeah, im a black magician now | , haha. Thats almost as bad as calling your self a satanist and follow anton laveys church, that my friend is about as satanic as a potato. (and no im not adhd, just like to do shit, be full on).
2. I would dare to ask you about your youth ages as I persume that was the time when your musical carrier started. Could you recall who brought you close to music and what kind of music it was at that time? Did your parents play an important role in that or did you find the power of music by yourself during your adolescence?
I shared a record collection with my older brother, it basically started with Kiss, a norwegian band called Stavangerensemblet and Asfalt. But we soon parted ways as he got more into A-ha (wich i like as well), Dire Straits, Guru Josh, country music and rock like White Lion , Bon Jovi Guns n Roses. I went to punk, hardcore and thrash like DK, Sex Pistols, Agnostic Front, Misifits, Death Angel, 411, Black Flag. But im not one of those retards that say they started listening to Venom when they were 2 years old or was the first one in the universe to do the sign of the horns (fuck you alice cooper you fucking wanker), its a a big blur i happened all natural, that i constantly needed something heavyer, darker and faster , we didnt buy that many records, there were cassettes back then, so we copyed of eachother what we managed to steal in shops, the money we got went to alchohol and smokes, but we stole that as well. Where i come from Black Metal individuals are criminals, goons and bullies, i know other places its opposite. But dont get me wrong, smart goons, evil ones.
3. And now let us go to the gist itself. When did you discover metal music and black metal particularly? Do you remember what you felt when you came across black metal for the first time?
The thing is there was also a radio show called Heavy Rock Show , transmitting from a shed at a place called Hinna outside Stavanger, and there i heard King Diamonds – The Candle for the first time and from then on i dived into darkness. Alot happened from 88 – 91; Bathory Merciful Fate, Kreator, Slayer, Entombed, Carcass Morbid Angel. Black Metal came with the supreme albums of Darkthrone, Burzum, Mayhem and Immortal for me, or at least the Norwegian style of channeling this direction within music. I can recollect how it energized me into a different mindset and got me inspired. Raw, intense energies, a cold wind of a darkness i recognized but was i awe of how much it awakned me. And a huge doze of misanthripic, dissecting razors towards anything social and intera tion towards other „humans“. Now i didnt do good at school, i didnt give a fuck about school or grades, i hated that way of learning anything, espcecially since it was all dipped in christendom, and that i was even against before i heard black metal, but those times and albums awakend something deeper and closer to my ancestors, and we better not fucking forget how christ got so popular either. The church has not only blood from battles on their hands but lives of innocent tortured individuals. Who the fuck is this good god huh?
There are so many things a 12-13 year old kid can do, i know at least 2 individuals who started their career at this age, but i had different obligantions, and i may have heard, traded and stole WASP, Helloween, Judas Priest and Accept cassettes, but at that age i was more into feeling a tit than save money for a record. Outcast and drunk on moonshine, coming down into a smokefilled cellar room with ACDC Hells Bells playing, hashpipes, pills and weapons. Girls being fingered in the sofa. Shit came natural when the wooden supression chambers started to light up, you dig?
4. The main instrument of your musical carrier are drums, though you play other instruments, too. Could you tell us how you discovered the charm of playing the drums and what is your attitude towards this instrument today?
I guess why im writing so much lyrics is because i actually wated to be a vocalist, i dunno , i dont care, i actually dont even have a drumkit, i have some cymbals and pedals. When 15 in Norway, some of us stand conformation, a ritual. I was against this, but my parental units threatened me that i could not stir the way it has been before me, and the carrot in this is you get moneygifts. So i took the money and i bought a drumkit and started to play antichristian music, you know FUCK YOU.
Not many individuals were into metal, or this new rising, so it was natural to seek eachother out and get introduced, i got word from mutual friends of Gehenna who lived in another area. And from then on it is what it is.
I have an interest in drums, if not i would have swapped it out for a saxophone (ave yannis papayannis). When i listen to music i dont just hear the drums but everything as a whole, some drummers are like this and some are not, same with the other instrument abusers, they vary in intensity and stupidiy. Never learned notes, or anything, never went to school to learn how to play, i play what i feel or transmit what the riff is saying to me when im not told by a guitarist who dreams of becoming a drummer, what i should play and how many times i am supposed to play it. Wich is good because i can only count to three. The instrument of choice is a weapon of magickal will, i have a healthy respect for anyone who can wield its power. I play alittle bit of everything, its because im restless and preparing for my solo album. Haha
Thanks to Chuck Buiscuits, DH Peligro, Fenriz, Tannenberger, Lombardo, Phil Rudd, N Andersson, Andy Gibb, Kim Russ, Masters Hammers drum machine and Alex Van Halen (hot for teacher, the playing and fills on this song is great).
5. Another important part of your artistic life is writing the lyrics and a graphic designing. How did you come across these fields? Are you a keen reader who is anxious to put his visions down on a sheet of paper? And how did you discover graphic arts? Is it just your hobby or are you a professional in that? The cover arts for „Monumension“ or „Orcustus“, for example, do not seem to be a piece of amateur drawing…
Lets not get ahead of ourselves, its photoshop, i didnt draw that. Its cut and paste and maybe i can stretch to say i have some degree of understading esthetics and how to combine different stages of symbolic imagery. ALL my graphics are alkhemical in meaning, behind what is actualy seen, there is always a dual perspective, but it rarely depict a light and dark aspect, its 93% of the times a negative portrayal with an even more negative shadow. I like writing as expression, and lyrics, poetry , haikus etc
I enjoy an LP version of a band who has taken the time to make it into a sit down with the band and lets the listener to what the individual is comprehensible of into a trance, a possession, with lyric and imagery. But i actually think the first lyric i wrote was because we were missing lyrics and i just said ill write some.
Want something done? Do it yourself. And the Monumension art btw is Truls Espedal's work.
Black Metal is for the Individual, the maker of his own ways, and HIR thrives in HIRS own company.Its relation to nature suspends on the untamable energy the music transmits, in comparison its wild, possessive and will eat you alive if you turn your back on it. It opens doors to a spiritual enhancement into wich one wields and channels what need | naudr one is obliged to release. Those who have met me personal, know im not in it for the money.
6. You have frequented a large number of bands in your musical carrier, so far. Would you make a sort of a chronological survey of those bands? What did your participation in them look like and how important were those bands for you?
Its not that deep, of course some of these bands and its constellations connect more than others and many members in these bands are my Brothers. But its more like, the individual is okai, can play and is accepted. We all play in eachothers bands because when Brothers make music together there is a deeper connection and understanding of what is to be channeled and transmitted further. We are not tryng to be supergroups, i dunno what fucking idiot came up with that description, we just know what we want and understand eachother in manifesting our lament. Some can only play a certain way, like they dont have it n them to let go and be possessed. They need to tune, and count riffs, and then read a magazine about the instrument after and elaborate on different types, models sizes all that bullshit. So few ppl i know are allrounders and can adopt the feel of what power the riff and beat should have, and it makes bands unfortunately, and we dont give a shit. Reifert las like a man, and enjoys it, falls into it, its not a day at the office where every cymbal is placed exactly 7 cm apart, unless, the individual misses them? Fuck off. If you are a drummer you sit down on whatever is there to sit on, and you hit the snaredrum with one of your sticks 4 times and then play. I am well aware that its impressive and exhaustive for someone to be good and professional about something they want to do, then they should also be able to handle critisism and old fashioned bullying.
7. Now, I would like to focus my questions on the individual bands. If I am not mistaken, your first significant band post was playing the drums in GEHENNA on their first three albums (btw. their „Malice“ is, by far, the most favourite of them for me). How do you recall these times?
Great times, extreme in every manner. I dont see this extremity in many new bands, only a few, and they usually consist of a member from back in the day.
We were all crazy, and still are, to the bone. I miss the attitude of the scene from back then, and the magick surrounding a release. That is almost completely lost these days, but then again it depends on where you look, over or underground.
I just dont get it when it comes to big labels, with a distribution network from here to cyngus, thats the big catch? And give you 100 000 euros to use on recordings and the rest. Do you really deep down need that? I didnt use the Nuclear Blast distribution line to order Sacrôfago CRUST? I found the adress to who released it and ordered it. Whats the trouble? There is no app to find the adress? And bands go to the music store to check out their own albums because the store got it before them.Gehenna has never lifted a finger to try and be all that, and then some, with getting big, Gehenna has always remained Gehenna, true and dark. And that demo was the mark of what was to become 3 of norways most influential black metal albums. The band had no intention of that, other than to get signed.
8. I persume that the years spent in GEHENNA did influence you a lot, as playing in the band was your first big artistic experience. Is it right? Why did you leave the band after they put out their third recording? Was the main reason the fact that you started playing in ENSLAVED?
Yes, of corpse. It ws a part of shaping who i am today. We were getting on eachothers nerves, and constantly being in the way of one another was gettng tiresome. We had been busy and had finished our third album and started working on the 4th, there are demorecordings as bonus tracks on the reissues from Peaceville. It felt right to change the scenery,Enslaved were at the time close and especially Grutle my drinking buddy, we just shared a natural fascination for absurd humour and alchohol. I guess it all had something to say, i would have left Gehenna anways, i think. At the time we all got possessed by the blastbeat, and it really went fast on occasions. I still play shows with Gehenna on occasions to this day, so i guess that says it all. Im really looking forward to Hellfest.
9. In ENSLAVED, you spent the most prolific period, I guess, as you partook in five of their albums. Next to playing the drums, you also helped with some lyrics, musical effects and graphic arts. Well, how would you describe the six years spent with ENSLAVED and how important were these times for you?
I wouldnt have done it any different and i regret nothing. They are important , because i evolved as a medium for the energies i wanted to transmit and still do. Although Enslaved have a more neutral standpoint as Norse do, give advice rather than preach, for me its always about Darkness, Emptiness and Silence. With them, as in the past, change comes and tells you its enough. I just have different goals with this, its not about big crowds, sales and autographs. Nor is it about popularity and showbuisness, for me its about that razor of a possession , when one hears just by the first 15 seconds of a song that has a strong uncanny vibe that it transports you into a mood and attitude, aggressive-primal instinct-anti social ,be alone and enjoy that.
Monumension is my favorite album, from my time, but favorite Enslaved album of all its Vikingligr Veldi without a doubt.
10. The year of 2003 might have been a hectic one for you, as you did two full-lengths for ENSLAVED and started playing in ORCUSTUS, one of your current bands. How did you manage to live through that year?
Im very open minded to listen to all kinds of music, and i like a whole lot, (joe tex to diamanda galas to sadistic intent to mûm / one tail one head to bob logg )some are abit uneasy that i have such a varied taste.unpredictable chaoist. But i have an extremely narrow minded look on how and what is black metal, i feel i succeded in extremiis with Orcustus, Hail Taipan, my Brother! We share respensibillity for that abhorrence, and with that, it makes it more personal, as it is for one who has made an entire album alone in his room and presents it to the band, you know? And we have absolutely no sense of time in when we go public, make an interview or release something.
11. ORCUSTUS is quite an interesting project. When I interviewed Infernus some time ago, he told me that it might be the most shy-working band in the world. You have made a single full-length and a bunch of shorter recordings so far. I guess the line-up changes may add to the slow process of the band´s work, is it right?
Its Not a project its a band, and why are we slow? There is no calender or clock ticking in Orcustus, there are no obligations as to how anything is done exept what we think and how we do it. This is ritual black metal, and when it manifests it manifests.We constanly work with Orcustus, its a possession, ideas, plans, descisions, release something when we are ready, not when some cunt in a suit and tie that did well in economics in school tells us. And why the fuck do people all of a sudden need to get a distribution down to were they are at the local fucking gas station because they dont know how order a fucking record? Word on the street is a lot quicker then any fucking retard with a camera and typewriter. Dont get me wrong, i praise zines, i just hate when it looks like readers digest and has basically the same questions, :“ you drank abottle of whiskey yesterday, when you were on the tourbus, and in the street outside the tuorbus“ crazy fuckers
12. All in all, the past of ORCUSTUS seems to be a complex issue, starting from your very beginnings (I mean the use of the band´s name, inspired by Faust´s magazine) and going through all the formal changes. What is the current health shape of ORCUSTUS? You have a new member in the band, called Enzifer. How did you manage to recruit him?
We are always in the making of someting, that is channeling, planning or discussing some form of manifestation under the banner of Orcustus. Yes, the band is complex in a couple of ways, we are very critical to what we use in riffs, structure, visuals and lyrics. Its all very well planned. We do not just release something as soon as we have it, we perfect it so it has evoveld into its most potent form of infecting its target. Our aim is always to be as close to satisfied as possible and being able to let go of it, when it cant or we cant alter its expression and form. We are not apart of anything, our abode is the abyss, hence we have no indication of time. The name stems from Faust's magazine indeed, as much as the inner meaning of the name intrigued us, it is a respectful hail to the past. Enzifer is with us now, yes. He fits right in.
13. NETTLECARRIER and DJEVEL. Would you say something about these two bands?
Both bands are satanic and traditional black metal. NC being more straight forward and Djevel keeping more up with norwegian style of playing BM and focusing on Norwegian Devil Worship, NC is just Chaos and Satan in every form.
14. The current line-up of DJEVEL is based on the one of NETTLECARRIER, in fact, plus the vocalist Erlend Hjelvik. What is the raison d´etre of the two bands, then, when they virtually share their members? Which of the two is closer to your dark soul?
They are both close or else i wouldnt have been involved. Ciekals has had a vision for years he asked me before, many years ago, that when the time was right we would do an album, and we did, naturaly he wanted more, so i was invited into Djevel as well.
With these two bands we work well together so the line up remains like this, and we can do one off shows with material from both bands. Erlends vocals are getting more and more sinister by the second. We are not a touring band, so his involvement in Djevel is limited due to his exhaustive Kvelertak campaign. But we function when needed and have a show set up in 2015, we have to plan alittle a head you might say.
15. Is Trond Ciekals the sole mastermind of the both, DJEVEL and NETTLECARRIER, or do you have your artistic share in them, as well? Where do you find the essential difference, comparing the musical concepts of DJEVEL´s second full-length „Besatt av Maane og Natt“ and NETTLECARRIER´s eponymous debut?
He makes the riffs, and we all have free artistic involvement with our own weapon. Its raw natural and unstressed, as we all do what we want.
I write some lyrics for both bands, Mannevond does also lyrics for NC. Djevel is all Ciekals, we just add our understanding of his riffs with our own instruments.
16. Talking about the present days, what are your plans for 2014?
Finish all my previously mentioned obligations, record with The Superficial Black, also Odessa, a new band with Manuel Tinneman, plus a member of Irkillian Oracle and Kvarforth. A new Nettlecarrier album. TBA Orcustus, SECHT and Helldiver (norwegian doom metal) and some more, but i cannot give any info at the moment.
17. I know we have missed a couple of things in this interview, but if you think that something interesting should be mentioned about your participation in the bands AURA NOIR, GORGOROTH, NATTEFROST etc., just feel free doing that. I guess the fans of these bands would be more than happy…
Well its an honour to be asked, and i dont listen , hardly ever to things i participate on, years will go by. So i kind of go from being a devotee to henchman , if i would have recorded an album with Gororoth, it would not hardly ever listen to it, i tink i can say the Destroyer album is played often. I personally feel that when you eat and shit a rehearsal for a record then studiotime, then cover then go and do shows on it, it becomes a bit stuffed. I get stuffed after the studio bit. Its good to také a break for a few years then, haha. Completely exhausted by ones effort to wield something in conformity with HIRS bands, and its when the drummer wakes up in his own puke behind the kit one rehearsal and says : welll..i have a riff“ thats when youre going somewhere, to be a big star. Haha
18. I can´t resist temptation to refer to my country, the Czech Republic. Did you have a chance to meet or play with some of our bands? Did you visit our country? And what about our metal scene, are you familiar with it? Or does the Czech Republic associate in your mind just with beer, girls and ice hockey?
Sure i think ive been there at least a cuple of times 3-4 times i dunno. Pilsner, Maniac Butcher, Krabathor, Masters Hammer GODS! And Root? Yeh, .. cant think of any .. oh ye Cult of Fire! Great country, no complaints at all! Hail
21. Enough of the questions. Thanks a lot for answering them. I hope we will have a chance to meet each other when you come to the Czech Republic next time. Take care!
Sure thing, respect.
www.orcustus.bandcamp.com
