Rockezine.com interview with Immortal on Mar 11, 2002

with Abbath on Mar 11, 2002

Although a bit tired after a doing numerous interviews in Paris, the illustrious and always outspoken Abbath found the time to answer our questions. A few coffees did the trick and in the end even coaxed a tentative promise from him to do something extra-ordinary at the upcoming No Mercy festival in the 013 (after all it takes place on April’s Fools Day!)
		Congratulations with your new album. Are you completely satisfied with the way Sons of Northern Darkness turned out? Yes (a bit hesitant). ..yes (more firmly) we are! I think we have got much stronger songs this time. We are also very happy about the way some of the songs turned out as they were a bit of an experiment, for example ‘Tyrants’ and ‘ Beyond the Northern Waves’. In the past we had been trying this and talking about making some heavier songs but we didn’t have the right feeling ‘till to now. It is not that we were afraid of people’s reactions, we just didn’t have the right ‘gut’ feeling, the right inspiration to write that kind of songs. It’s a very diverse album, probably the most interesting Immortal so far and also the most listenable one. Even though one could say that this is album for a bigger audience it still is definitely Immortal. My hope is that more people will get into this kind of music, this old fashioned heavy metal stuff. There is a new generation coming up these days and they have no links to the old metal scene. We want to be the messengers as you don’t get to hear much of this type of music nowadays. Although many bands are trying to do brand-new things there unfortunately is so little music nowadays that is stimulating or inspiring me. I therefore go back to the old roots to find my inspiration. So I’ll just draw inspiration from my heart, the things that are in the back of my head and the unconscious.
		This is quite a different approach than in your previous work.. It is but it’s not that we are changing radically. After ‘Blizzard Beasts’ we found the links to this other path, this other level and took these up. Moreover working with Peter (Tägtgren , MK) has given us a wider view. We are our own producers but he is collaborating with the production and he has a great understanding as to what we need and what we want. We get our own thing out of working with Peter. A lot of other bands work with Peter but it doesn’t turn out to be that exceptional. We have always been able to communicate really well with him and we have this thing going on with him. We will continue to work with him until we feel that things are stagnating but right now I don’t see that happen.
		Your last two albums were highly acclaimed by both fans and press. Is it difficult to write a new album without thinking too much about the expectations of the listeners and still maintaining your artistic integrity? Of course we are curious about the reactions to ‘Sons of Northern Darkness’ but it’s not that we are anxious about it. We know that we are 100% satisfied ourselves which is the most important thing. It is all about being true to yourself and follow your own heart and not making anyone tell you want to do or give you directions. People can basically say whatever the fuck they want and it’s just a big bonus for us if people are positive about the album and giving us good critics. We are not making this kind of music for the big reputation and the big sales or just to become famous. If we did we would be playing a totally different style.
		Believing in yourself is what it is all about, we are Damned in Black, this is our destiny. When we started this band there was a big market for death metal, a totally different style. Nevertheless we did what we wanted. We think big in another way, artistically. Thus we are our own gods and work our own mysterious ways. No-one can tell us what to do and tell us what’s wrong and what’s right. Only the ‘gut’ feeling is telling you what’s wrong or right. People can laugh or do whatever they want and we have been laughed about in the past. We just we laugh back and as you know that those who laugh last always have the best laugh.
		If you look back at where Immortal was about 5 years ago and compare it to today.. A lot of people never believed in us and they saw us as a big joke. Some of the bands that started out playing blackmetal in the same period as we did now see that we have progressed. With all this new stuff coming up many of those have quit the corpse-paint, the imagery and started playing different styles of music. As if there is now something new to follow and they’re not true themselves. Maybe they’ll laugh at us as they think we don’t understand that there’s a new thing on the block. But there are no new things on the block for us, this is what we do best. Fuck ‘em all. People that are making fun of us are not on our priority list, only those who believe in what we are doing, in our band and our music. And it pays off because we are also growing as musicians.
		We are getting better at we are doing, creating stronger songs, and coming up with stronger productions. We have preserved our brutality and the Immortal atmosphere. It also makes it easier for others, new people to get into that thing. If they’ll get into this new stuff we are doing now, these same people will be more interested in the old stuff as well. In this way you could say that we are strengthening our whole back-catalogue as well. The ties are stronger as well.
		Your new album is, in my opinion rawer than the previous releases Damned in Black and At the Heart. What were your main objectives when writing Sons of Northern Darkness?
		Can we see this as a combination of the ‘older’ and the ‘new’ Immortal? Reflecting back to the old material is something we always do. Compared to the previous album I don’t know whether it is rawer, though it is certainly tighter. In my opinion the changes are not that dramatic compared to the Damned in Black album. Many people say that the new album grips back at At The Heart of Winter. Maybe it is just a strengthening of both those albums, tightening it all up to this big ball and with the next album the ball will only be getting bigger.
		And when you compare Sons of Northern Darkness to your earlier work? With the Blizzard beast album we bit off more then we could chew. We weren’t ready for that kind of album and we didn’t have the right studio to work with either. We kind of slowed down a little bit with At the Heart of Winter. We needed to decide at what level to start from now with the next album. How good are we as musicians and what kind of songs would fit us best. In that period I took over the guitars and Horgh had gained a lot of experience from the Blizzard Beasts tour as he only joined the band when we were about to enter the studio for the Blizzard Beasts album. Afterwards with At the Heart..
		we started out just trying to find the right direction while jamming and working out all these ideas. Moreover Horgh was now also part of the creation period and we had a lot of time to work on new material as we were also still waiting for Demonaz to recover from his arm-injury. Then when Demonaz told us that there was no way that he would be able to play again Horgh and I continued to work in the same way. In that same period we also received an offer from Peter Tägtgren who was very interested in working with us. This time the songs were all ready when we entered the studio and Peter also had certain ideas about the bass-parts to make At the Heart.. sound heavier.
		I assume that Demonaz again contributed to the lyrics? Demonaz is still a very important member of Immortal; he is the hidden source (or perhaps hidden sorcerer..ha ha). For the new album Demonaz contributed in an earlier stage during the songwriting process. We had a better insight and stronger picture from where to get going. I only had ideas and titles and in which parts of the songs I wanted to sing. What kind of songs would go with the music as my compositions always form a picture and give Demonaz ideas as to what to write. And I also had ideas about what to write and I discussed those with him. The lyrics are stronger now as he is back again mentally since the injury occurred. Right now we unfortunately don’t see him picking up the guitar again but we have managed to adjust to that situation. More importantly he is still around of course which is a good thing for both him and us. He is our brother.
		Ever since the beginning the lyrical content of the Immortal songs pretty much covers the same topics. Do these still provide you with enough inspiration to continue writing about it? We don’t see an ending to that. This particular subject is always coming up; these new ideas and new thoughts towards that concept. We hope that the ending of these ideas is not near. As long as the music invokes that feeling, there will always be new links to this concept. Demonaz has his own way of explaining things which I myself sometimes do not even understand. It’s the same thing the other way around as he sometimes doesn’t understand where my compositions come from but we form a unit and together we are strong. It’s an immortal thing. We feel that we are doing something that is unique and timeless. You won’t see Immortal without that image, that concept and style. We just cannot come up with a an album that has nothing to do with what we have done previously. We are too damn proud of the name, we have too much respect for the name. As long as we care about the past we can look into the future as well. There is no future without a past. Whatever you do in life echoes in eternity. That’s the way we think and it perfectly fits the Immortal concept. Hmm.. I wish I came up with this phrase!!
		Sons of Northern Darkness is your first album for Nuclear Blast. What has the co-operation been like so far? Does it live up your own expectations? The dialogue with Nuclear Blast has been great so far. There was one slight misunderstand when the record company pressed some things without informing us but that’s all been straightened out. It won’t happen again. Nuclear Blast gave us total priority and they are very satisfied with the new album. And we are very satisfied with the way we are treated. We still have total artistic freedom, no one can tell us what to do. I just hope that we will remain pleased and that they will be pleased by the recordsales. If this album sells a lot it just shows that there’s still a scene out there. And if for some reason the scene is going down I hope that we can contribute to building it up again with our new album. I just hope that the Eighties and early Nineties–feeling will come back.
		It will of course never be the same but I hope that this initial feeling comes back again. There is a market, a scene out there but in my opinion the scene is very confusing nowadays. You just need the right bands to write the right music to get things back on track again. We really want to be a part of that, but more bands need to be involved. It is really cool that for example bands like Destruction and Kreator are still around. Unfortunately a band like Emperor has quit but on the last albums they became more or less style-less. It’s not like the earlier albums and they ended up playing some sort of jazz black metal. One great song here and there but I think it was just too much, too chaotic. For the regular listener it’s quite difficult to beat your foot to. It’s not banging music it’s just chaos. Metal is something you should be able to bang your head to.
		What are your expectations for the upcoming No Mercy tour? Looking forward to it? Yes of course. We will headline the festival and that’s a dirty job but hey someone has got to do it! The venue is often like a sauna, the audience is completely exhausted and is almost having blood running out of their ears. It is not a very good thing that there are so many bands involved, too much I would say. Afterwards we will continue to play together with Hypocrisy which will give us some more fresh air.
		I’m probably not the first person to ask you about Chuck Schuldiner. Anything you would like to say in this respect? It is strange even though I haven’t met him personally. Nuclear Blast asked us to donate some stuff for an auction. This auction was set up in order to help out his family as they ran into great debt. If the metalscene wants to honour Chuck’s name they should support his family. But there is a lot of unity in the scene and that’s what makes this metal thing something special. Die-hard legions of steel! And as far as Chuck Schuldiner himself is concerned: he is a legend now!
(Maura Kampstra)