1. Good Afternoon, Kvohst. I am browsing through booklet of your new record "Supervillain Outcast" and I have to commend it. I like that idea of comics heroes, which you support by your visage at concerts and also by great limited t-shirt, which has disappeared quicker, than i confirmed order ;). How did you get the idea for this joke and are you a fan of comics, whether from Marvel or DC or some other comicbook company?
Good afternoon. It's raining like a bitch here. Floods are imminent. I have just ordered a canoe.
The Supervillain symptom . . .It wasn't something that we decided from the beginning. As you know, this album has been some years in the making. I was working on the lyrics alone for over a year. The way we wrote the themes of the album was very much a joint effort from Vicotnik and myself. We have both been life-long fans of comic books and superheroes/villains so as the album began to slowly crystalize, we realised that you could start to compare the ideas we had to the concepts of supervillains, the true outcasts and enemies of the world. We have a red line running through each of the previous DHG albums which is kind of like this journey of the satanic character. The previous albums have been different kind of explorations or stories of the other sides of Satan and I think for this album we wanted to try to evoke an image of Satan that we hadn't seen in blackmetal before, but which is used in everything from hollywood movies to comic books and children's novels. The idea of the enemy who waits, observing the filth and degradation of mankind, for his time to take over and destroy everything. It's not as a tribute to Marvel comics, but rather a way to use their concepts to deliver our own story. I think if you are into breaking down the fundamental meaning of the world and actually exploring your life, the reasons why you are here etc . . .then you will see that there are basic principles of good and evil running through comic books and that whole side of art, which are actually primeval and go back to the dawn of man. I really related to that as a kid and still do now. It stirs something in my imagination which is every bit as frightening as the more necro and skeletal/goat-horned representation of hell and the devil. The idea that man is the devil and has the devil inside every one of us. In that way we are all outcast supervillains in some form or another.
2. I threw away your booklet, now I am examining your Myspace profile. Why "mongo berzerkers"? Are you anti-heroes, murderers of Hulk or Spider-man ;)? Vicotnik is the only one, who has survived previous battle. For new fight He has "chosen" new reinforcement, You, Clandestine and Thrawn, eventually even Jormundgand and D'Arn. Can you tell me some words about you and others members of "new" DHG, eventually remember some interesting/crazy story with Vicotnik or others?
You threw the booklet away? I thought you said you liked it!! Weirdo! I just sold my entire cd collection . . .now that hurt! If I threw mine away I would have probably cried, as it was I was almost in tears! Mongo Berzerkers was something that was part of an old idea for the title of the album - Satan Mongo Berzerkers. It's really the same meaning as Supervillain Outcast but I see it as at a bit more of a primitive and monstrous stage of the development of the character. Like the Hulk compared to David Banner or Jekyl to Hyde. One is the doctor genius and the other is the mongo berzerker. The berzerkers in Viking times were the warriors who fed up on magic mushrooms before their trip across the open sea, towards a battle. They drank their own piss so that they could remain high for longer. By the time they got into battle they were completely insane and tripping and they cut off womens heads and literally bathed in the blood of their enemies. These were the most fearsome and insane warriors on the battle field. Completely unpredictable characters. I think for at least a big part of Vicotnik's life he has been the Satan Mongo Berzerker for DHG. Perhaps now we are more like the Supervillain Outcasts, "planning world downfall" from our beds! But in any case it's a good description for a guy who at some points I have considered both the most enigmatic and frightening character in the blackmetal scene. It's been like following a true berzerker into battle just going out on town with Vicotnik some nights! He follows everything he does with conviction and strength, and at least a small dose of insanity. He he. One of the rare people I have met in my life that really makes you think of a literary description of a villain! I also feel a bit lucky to be alive following the recent trip to Germany where our drummer D'arn got possessed while listening to loud music and nearly caused our driver to crash! Leaving that tour, seeing those crazy maniacs literally fall out of the bus after drinking almost non-stop 48hrs, it reminded me of some kind of Satanic circus that rolls into town in some bizarre frenzy. I think the new people in the band compliment the true aspects that Vicotnik was trying to create with DHG perfectly. So the description fit's us like a glove, or a flesh tuxedo if you will! There is real chemistry between us both musically and socially. I don't think any of us are the worlds greatest musicians but each of us are pushing ourselves to the limit for the sake of the music and I think you can hear that when you see us live. There is some kind of magical anarchy that is real about us. We don't rehearse synchronised headbanging! It's raw and thoroughly uncivilised!
3. DHG began like relatively "true" black metal horde. Every next release pushed you further away from roots closer to the unissued experiments. With the approach of "Supervillain Outcast" you have replaced Aldrahn who has quite a special voice, which is very well audible on "666 International"... Do you have problems with old songs, when you are playing live? And How it happened that you became the singer for DHG?
I don't have a problem with the old songs in themselves because I think they are excellent of course. I have a few problems with performing the Norwegian lyrics though. I am a born Englishman and although I have lived in Norway at some stage in my life for long periods and studied Norwegian for some years, I still feel wrong to try to deliver those lyrics with the same conviction. To me those are very special and meaningful lyrics that were delivered with passion and conviction by one of the greatest voices heard in Blackmetal. We decided to translate the lyrics into English for the Norwegian songs from Kronet til Konge. This way I can sing these words and really feel more honest and true in their delivery. I am a vocalist who puts my whole self into the persona and performance. I need to really know that what I am doing is honest. I have never tried to replace Aldrahn by copying his style. I just wanted to do something that both suits DHG and offers something new to the fans. A new perspective of the same story. So now, live, people can get an english version of En Krig Å Siere for example, that they have never heard before. Some of the nay-sayers and old Norwegian fans might not be too happy about this, but I think it's more honest than hearing my ridiculous attempt to sing Norwegian parrot-fashion!
It's always going to be hard to replace a guy whose lyrics and voice mean a lot to the black metal scene. Someone was going to do it though, and when I talked to Vicotnik and heard that Aldrahn had left the band, I really felt deep inside that I was the guy who could do it and was perhaps the best person for the job. I knew Vicotnik socially for some years before and we kept up contact. I was playing in a band called Void and when things started to go downhill with that, I was invited to try out working on the DHG material. At the time I wasn't the only guy trying out for the band and I think that it wasn't until I made the second demo at home, after a year of working on the lyrics and a couple of disastrous trips to the studio with Vicotnik and Thrawn, that things started to come together. The album was still quite fragmented at that stage and all I had were rehearsals and odd songs. It wasn't until the second vocal demo I made that I had all the songs and could kind of build a whole style and lyrical structure around the songs. It was very clear to me that these were "songs" this time and not like the arrangements on 666 International. It's not an easy job to build choruses and refrains, verses and intros that are both catchy and yet at the same time sophisticated. When Vicotnik was working out to the vocal demo and listening to the songs every day, then I knew that I had "nailed it" as he said.
Becoming the vocalist and delivering a performance that I am proud of on Supervillain Outcast has been one of the greatest achievements of my adult life.
4. A lot of people are disappointed by the directness of the new album. It is true, that you didn't experiment with vocal and instrumental aspect like last time. Was it primary purpose to record an album, which will be more orthodox than "666 International", but it'll still be hard to include it in some genre? You are still fucking original and recognizable, but I am mainly interested if you wanted "Supervillain Outcast" to be same as it is, or if you were limited f.e. by instrumental skills of new members?
HA HA HA! Yeah we tried to make it sound like Dream Theater(PUKE!!!) but we couldn't do the solos so we said fuck it, let's just make it sound like it does now.
It's funny to even think a band could be "limited" by musicians like Vicotnik and Carl "Czral" Michael Eide (who performed the drums). As anyone worth their salt in metal knows, these are two of the greatest musicians the blackmetal scene has ever known.
I don't think there would have been any point in making 666 International Part 2. It would have perhaps been like Back To The Future Part 2 but could have ended up as bad as Back To The Future Part 3 or even Terminator 3. As any great director knows, it's best to move on and create something new. You may get close, but it's not the same. It would have been a pity to see the band go the way of so many others and just rely on past glories, forever repeating the same album formula, just watered down a bit more each time . . .
With this album it was the opposite of the way you think. We didn't strip our ambitions down. We set the bar several notches higher. We made an album that I believe takes the band up to a new level. Now we have "songs" and a real identity and vision. I think it sits very well with 666 International. But I think that was an album of the time and inspired a great many other bands. it's questionable as to whether bands such as Anaal Nathrahk, Aborym, Abigor, Nidingr etc, let alone the countless amounts of others, would sound the same if that album had not been produced. So we had to take the game one step further and produce something which outstrips those bands and gives the scene something new again. Supervillain sounds fresh and up to date.
I am unsure how anyone could be disappointed with the "directness" as I think it's the most direct and bold album DHG have made. It is perfect in that we built this one from the foundations up, able to withstand everything. I don't think there is a part of that album I couldn't stand for. We discussed and perfected every idea we had about it. So in that way it was still an experimental album. We improvised and tried out many different things while recording to find the elements we wanted. So as far as the vocals are concerned I feel we experimented to the full. No going back. No regrets.
5. I hope that previous question didn't sound negatively. I think that "Supervillain Outcast" is a great piece of work and moreover it came out on the day of my birthday, so it was an ideal present. How are you satisfied with actual responses? The opinions are bloody different. Do you remember some, which entertained, enraged or cheered you? By the way, is date 17.04.07, when the record came out, only occurrence, or it has some "hidden" sense ;)?
Supervillain Outcast is the most critically acclaimed DHG album to date. It is our Reign In Blood so to speak. Our classic album. So it is really that album we will have to surpass in the future and not 666! I am more than satisfied that the reviews have been overwhelmingly good. I think for every ten I find who love it, there is one who absolutely HATES it!! ha ha And that's the way it should be. We are not making something mediocre here. It's take it or leave, on the edge metal. I think that the opinions are different cause I have never heard the same band referred to twice when comparing this album. Can you think of another blackmetal album that this sounds like? It's out there on its own and I think everyone can feel or hear something of what they want in there. That's the sign of a classic I think.
The date of the release was to coincide with some bombings of religious sites that we had ordered some of our brainwashed assassin drones to carry out. Unfortunately they were captured by Super-Hadron-Collider Man and Laserscopic Necron Girl and our plans were thwarted. Damn and double drat. We'll live to fight another day.
6. You also wrote the lyrics instead of Aldrahn on "Supervillain Outcast". I would say yours are much more pleasant, they arent so overdone as they used to be. Also, there seems to be no way DHG could get rid of the attribute "anarchistic". What is the message you are trying to send with your lyrics and are you really defending the individuality of a man, independence of the system and the preference of one's own values even for the cost of possible harm to the nation or mankind? Please, tell us, what are the DHG of today actually about?
If the lyrics are pleasant then I have not done my job properly. I loved the lyrics to 666 International when it came out cause it applied to me at the time. I was a bit messed up from LSD and in a bad mental state from paranoia etc. There is no way that those lyrics really fit into the jigsaw of how I feel today, in that they no longer scare me the way the principles on Supervillain do. I don't think Aldrahn is writing those kind of lyrics anymore either - if you see he wrote the lyrics on Ghostforce Soul Constrictor. But you're right when you say that the lyrics aren't overdone. I didn't want to do as the Americans do with their bombing! This wasn't shock and awe tactics. I wasn't going to try to confuse or spout. I have a great love for the English language and really wanted to tell some stories, give some atmosphere. To really create a feeling with this album that was coherent and concise. In my opinion these are the nastiest and most horrible principles this band has ever dealt with. The echoes of the Nazi Holocaust that are present in say Foe x Foe are references to a discussion that is far more sophisticated to the themes discussed in say Zyklon B. As a friend and someone who listened to the album pointed out, you have the idea that "there's not enough gold to bury them all". All the gold and treasures the Nazi's stole from the Jews weren't enough to get rid of all the evidence. Now those ideas to me are much nastier and much less "pleasant" than most of todays' blackmetal lyrics. They are real things that happened. Not horror movie fantasy.
My lyrics today are snapshots of the world. I like to think I use words the way a Hip-hop artist uses samples of music. Some of my stuff is references to other authors, films or bands. Others is stuff taken from magazines, news articles and of course the ether of my own mind. We always like to think of our mind as this great original and ethereal thing. I think it's better to come clean and treat it the like the computer it is! It's better to be aware of the way that we accumulate facts and knowledge and the way we relate to ideas when we hear or read them. I like to use metaphors that people can relate to. I like to think of them in a visual way. If my lyrics come alive and live visually in your mind, then it's because I am using parts of modern culture and those intrinsic concepts of good and evil to manipulate those parts of you mind that were built by that information. It's like the title we had with the Code demo - Nuerotransmissions. From my mind to yours. We build the world inside us from the world outside us. So while I have nostalgic love for gothic lyrics of ravens and coffins, I think this is to shallow a palette for me to draw from for DHG. So too is the war of shock and awe lyrics in a nonsense sprawl. It is far easier to write something "crazy" than to write something that lives inside someone for the rest of their years. People are now coming to the concerts and screaming the lyrics to our music. That never happened with this band before!
I don't think I would use the word "anarchistic" to describe DHG'S principles. The music might sound a bit chaotic cause there is more going on there than in most modern Blackmetal. But I think what we stand for stems from our own personal Satanic or Occult ( as regards anything being related to spiritual phenomenon) system or structure of living and being. I use these things as tools to further my understanding of life. They are merely labels given to a way of living and thinking that some have deemed "evil" or unholy. I don't like to refer to it as "belief" because I don't think faith has a place in a mind governed by reason. I think it's not a collective religious "belief" as much as a personal way of ordering your life and building your inner self.
In any case it has nothing to do with "defending the individuality of a man, independence of the system and the preference of one's own values even for the cost of possible harm to the nation or mankind" . . . That sounds like the title of an album Terrorizer magazine would love!!! "make it album of the month!" they cry! hahahahah!
I think it has to do with probing the depths of our being. To explore what makes us tick, why we are the way we are. I am interested in the nastiest and most depraved sides of our nature and I think it is here where we gain most of our understanding about ourselves. It is in our most sordid acts that we confirm our flawed, call it "sinful" if you want, dysfunctional true human nature. Our lyrics celebrate and revel in this. We are both the voyeurs and vendors of the devil in man.
7. Furthermore, you couldn't get rid of the drugs ;). I would like to remind you of something Bill Hicks once said.
"See i think drugs have done some good things for us, i really do, and if you dont think drugs have done some good things for us do me a favor, go home tonight take all your albums, all your tapes and all your cds and burn them! Cause you dont want the musicians who made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years...reeeeeaaaaal fucking high on drugs". Do you think, that I can apply that quotation to you? Would "Supervallian Outcast" be the same, if there weren't any drugs? I am also interested in your relation to chaos magick, after all, you do use its symbol quite a lot.
I think Bill Hicks was trying to make a point about 'not being hypocritical' there.
My experience with drugs is that it can be a hindrance as much as it is a help. Yeah some great music has been made on drugs, it's true. However I always doubt if that was just circumstantial or if it was a necessary ingredient to the whole thing? Syd Barret is a good example of a guy who really lost out to the drugs in the end. He was an exceptionally creative talent before the drugs started to take hold of him, of course they had an influence on his music. But after they took complete hold they ultimately destroyed him. To the point where he stared vacantly into space onstage or could only stand at the back of the studio brushing his teeth - an unrecognisable shell of the man he once was and could have been. I mean if you're a musical genius, then that has to be there from the beginning. Jimi Hendrix wasn't high on drugs 24/7. He played some of his worst shows on acid and played some of his best sober(or almost sober I guess). I know a lot of great musicians who create or perform on drugs and I think it all depends on how you handle it or how it handles you. I certainly don't think that drugs make you a musician. A lot of people think they do though. Where Sid Vicious is concerned, then it was all about image and posing. When it's pop music and fashion then drugs are used in a different way - this is all about promotion and creating a rebel or rock and roll image. I think that's such cowardly bullshit.
I think the greatest example of drug-influenced music is Captain Beefheart, where the music sounds as if it has to have been made on acid, but Don Van-Vliet claims to have never touched the stuff!! ha ha!
The worst thing I see these days is where bands have listened to 666 International and then had songs about taking acid or pictures with syringes instead of bullets on their belts and stuff like that. It's just posturing and flirting with imagery that is NOT cool in itself. If you make music that is unbelievably cool and you also happen to be on drugs, then it does sometimes create a certain mystical atmosphere with the music and the fans. It's as if you have gone beyond the limits of yourself and reached into the unknown to pull this music out, or so some would think. It can just be a tool, the way chaos magic or other forms of magic can be used to expand consciousness. I don't try to use magic anymore because I don't believe in forces outside the world we see and encounter that influence the way the universe works. I think magic is a very primitive form of mind manipulation and simply a tool to reach a certain mental state of awareness - be that hallucinogenic or some kind of confidence booster. I like to use meditational techniques and Buddhist principles these days to attain the same awakening or state of mind where you feel outside yourself. It's a much more effective and efficient way to get to know the universe. Look within, don't play make believe.
We don't need to create music on drugs. Maybe some of the other guys take drugs from time to time, but this isn't something we have to do in order to be who we are. Those things might have been cool while you're growing up and experimenting, exploring yourself. If you don't have issues and you are a confident strong person then you can tap into this creativity and inner vision without chemical crutches. Ultimately I think drugs are a great destroyer. You have to be in control or they will control you. I have always tried to treat these things with respect. The mind is a fragile thing. So to answer your question - Supervillain Outcast was not created on drugs and is not meant to reflect any sort of drug psychosis. Perhaps there is some part of that in me that would come out in the lyrics in places, but that would be along with many other forms of experience that come into play from my life while writing. Life goes on going nowhere. We moved on.
8. "Supervillain Outcast" has been out for some time now... I suppose, that you actually don't think too much about next album, but do you have any idea, how can a successor sound? I hope, that it will be done earlier than 8 years ;). You told me in email, that Vicotnik is in a studio and that he doesn't have much time, can you tell us, what is he working on?
The next album is already written. I think Vicotnik has most of the guitars written for the album. I wont think about the lyrics and vocals until I have the demos of the music to write to. However I can tell you it's got some of the best riffs I have ever heard. I don't think anyone will be let down by the next album. In my mind what we have only touched upon with Supervillain, we will expand and advance on the next album.
Vicotnik has been working on the new album from Greek blackmetal legends Naer Mataron. They will release their new album with Season of Mist. They are a dedicated and hard-working band it seems and are going to release a really awesome new album from the sound of it. Vicotnik is doing the production job and vocals I think. I am sure it will be a really great release. We have a link to that band on our Myspace, check them out!!
9. Soon you will play at festival Brutal Assault. I saw some videos from Inferno Festival at Youtube.com and I hope, that we will see similar show! Will you play also some songs from old albums? And what would you say to to those who are impatiently awaiting your show?
I would hope that this show will be our best yet - as we have a few concerts under our belt. I would say that you can expect a lot of energy from a band that feel like they have a lot to prove and a great desire to compete with a lot of the other bands out there who have much more live experience than us. We put on a great show and are completely dedicated to what we do - we really feel and live the music and it's just a dream come true to be able to travel to other countries and celebrate this band and our love of the darker side of metal in general. All of us are really pumped and excited to be coming to the Czech Republic and Brutal Assault. There is the feeling when we go onstage that anything could happen . . .it's dangerous and alive! The wildlife reserve gates are open and the tigers have escaped!! hahah!
We always play old songs. I wont give away the setlist but we play a diverse mix of old and a few new ones. We have a great respect for our fans and appreciate that they have stuck with us through the years and through the lineups. I think at one point Vicotnik was unsure if DHG even had a fanbase any more. But it's overwhelming the response we have been getting at concerts so far. We try to make sure the setlist has enough there to satisfy people who were into all the different eras of the band, old and new.
I think the live metal scene needs a band like us to really offer something diverse, extreme and off-the-wall psycho . . .
10. Tell me, how does it feel to come to a popular band and be suddenly center of publicity? Man has to be very grateful in the begining and enjoy the popularity, am I right? Do you enjoy playing live, or are you fed up with any contact with fans?
I think it's great to have the music recognised. I think the band was severely underrated and didn't achieve the critical acclaim for 666 International that it deserved. The album has become a cult underground classic, but at the time is was hated in a lot of circles. I think at the time of the last tour for 666, and of course the mix of bands they went on the road with meant that the band had a bumpy ride with the audience. Obviously this teaches you a lot and now Vicotnik is very experienced and knows how to handle and organise the live situation well. However it must be twice as good for him now to be able to at least get some of the credit he so deserves for all the hard work he has put into this band. So I think we are all riding the crest of this wave with a real hunger. It feels great to get out there and really give the songs our all. I know, cause I feel it on stage that each and every member of the band is in love with the way it feels to play this music live. It's a great honour to perform in a situation like that, whether to 2 or 200 or 2000 fans. The goosebumps come up and the hair raises on my neck every time. I am really honoured to be part of this scene, the underground call it what you will . . .it's 18 years of dedication to heavy metal now and I'm still into it more and more every day.
11. I am interested about day, when DHG get together and "compose". Please , try to describe your "normal day" with other members of DHG to the readers. Do you have f.e. some rituals before playing live to make sure the show works ;)?
HA HA HA . . . well it consists a lot of me listening to Norwegian and replying in English . . .sometimes with great success and other times with questioning looks as I've misunderstood the conversation! ha ha . . .no no those guys all speak good English so it's kind of a mixed conversation. They rehearse a lot without me too. I guess they rehearse a lot at home too. I know D'arn rehearses drums a lot on his own and Vicotnik plays some hours of guitar every day too . . .it's a bit fragmented like that. I rehearse a lot at home in a studio, to baking tracks or with warmup routines. Vicotnik composes all of the main songs in DHG. I made the interludes on the album and of course most of the vocal structures and melodies etc. So we get together to rehearse the live material and we have a blast, maybe some beers or back to watch some films at Vicotnik's place. You know it's quite like a normal band routine! Before going onstage we growl at each other a lot!
No masturbating, nude dwarfs with cocaine trays or zombie-nun rituals I'm afraid.
12. I read somewhere, that you were big fan of DHG, before you shook hands with Vicotnik. Which three songs from DHG's forge are your favourites? My winners are surely "Ion Storm", "All Is Not Self" and most probably also "Sonar Bliss". Are there any, which you don't like too much, or which you considered hard to sing?
Actually I met Vicotnik when I had only heard the first two albums and of course I was a fan, but it wasn't until on holiday in Tromsø from my school in Karasjok(where I lived for a year) that I heard Satanic Art and fell in love with the band for life. . .
So I would have to say Traces Of Reality is one of my favourite songs and I like to perform it but it's not the most fun to sing live. I enjoy singing Final Conquest and 21ST Century Devil and The Crystal Spectre. I love all the music but of course what I like to sing live isn't the same as what I like to hear always. So to listen to I would say Apocalypticism, Ghostforce Soul Constrictor and Traces Of Reality. It changes all the time you know . . .
13. Are there any differences in the musical taste of band members or do you prefer similar or even identical music? I'd say that the tiniest difference must have influenced the preparation of the album and the wishes of bandmembers. Did the recording of "Supervillain Outcast" go smoothly or was it accompanied by disputes about the intensity of electronics etc? Are you still fully content with the album or would you try to talk the others out of some ideas now that some time has passed?
The writing was mostly Vicotnik and then when it comes to vocals and lyrics I worked together with him so our objectives and opinions were quite in sync. I don't have a clue what the other musicians felt about the album at the time. I think Thrawn played his guitar and Cladestine played the bass and that was their input. I think at the beginning everyone hated the vocals!! ha ha ha. But I am really happy that Vicotnik had the confidence in me to let me work through it and achieve my true potential.
When I heard the demos for the tracks I immediately realised what he was trying to do with the music. I think from then on he had my confidence in every decision. I went into a couple of the writing sessions for the electronics and thought they sounded really great. I agreed that they should be there to emphasize the songs on this album and not be used in the same way as the last record. I knew that was a conscious decision and it was something I agreed with wholeheartedly. I mean DHG is not Ulver or should never become a techno metal band or some Marilyn Manson/Rammstein crossover. You have to really know the fundamental aspects of what makes the band what it is and then explore that - not to take it in an inappropriate direction and lose the whole meaning.
So of course there were some problems with the Czral leaving and Aldrahn that left the band in turmoil, but as far as the music is concerned and the production of the album then everyone just knew and accepted that this was Vicotnik's baby. I trusted and believed in him and knew he would make it work. Lo and behold he produced the most critically acclaimed and successful album of his career! Though it wasn't without it's hardships and setbacks that's for sure!!
We all listen to very varied music. I think all of us are real music lovers to begin with. Thrawn works in music as a mastering technician and with his band Paradigma, Jormundgand has various projects of his own and plays guitar and sings, Clandestine plays in Paradigma and his band Nephila and D'arn is obsessed/possessed with music! Vicotnik spends most of his time in the studio producing and engineering and has a very wide taste in music. I think we have a lot in common musically but I guess that's cause I know him the best and longest in the band.
14. How did you come up with the songs "Secret Identity" and "Cellar Door" ? Were they intented that way from the beginning or are they just a bit of a trippy ride ;)? Im really interested in the background of those two weird songs
I have a home studio set up for my vocals and I spend a lot of time making "doodles" or experiments with just the sound of my own voice. I have always admired artists like Mari Boine, Lisa Gerrard and of course Bobby McFerrin for being able to produce such intricate music just by using their voice. I had been making these sketches for things that I thought might be cool if replaced by guitars or other instruments and then started to think about making a whole album with just my voice like that. I recorded some demos and left them at Vicotnik's place - not really intending them to be used as anything. He really liked them, thought they were kind of eerie, or "spectral" and told me later he thought we might be able to use them on the album. They work in much the same way as the piano interludes on 666 . . .they break down the pace of the album and create some atmosphere and breathing room for the songs to be spaced out . . .
It's been a nice experiment for me. I am working on some ideas for a solo album and it is definitely something I will pursue and kind of perfect into my own work later on . . .
15. There are a lot of other strange things...
At any rate, I am looking forward to your show! To the show of my favourite band!
Thank you for the interview. The last words belong to you, Kvohst...
Many thanks for the interview. We look forward to blowing you away at Brutal Force. I must go back to listening to old thrash and 80s heavy metal now! Morbid Saint, Death Strike, Manilla Road and Brocas Helm!
Watch out for Aldrahn's new band The Deathtrip - check them out on Myspace! Metal til death. Amen.
