Interview With SATYRICON
Interview By Arto Lehtinen
Transcription by JP
The Norwegian black metal combo Satyricon’s main members Frost and Satyr were
interviewed in the end of last year here in Finland. The main issue was of course their
latest effort, Volcano, which was now nominated as the best metal album in the Norwegian
Grammy awards 2002. Congratulations to Satyricon for that. Besides the album, the
Norwegian metallers talked about the Black Metal scene in general.
You are doing the Scandinavian tour with lots of small and bigger towns in Denmark,
Sweden, Norway and so on. How did this opportunity come up? It is not that common for
metal bands.
Satyr : It is clearly a result of the upwards going scale that we have had in
Scandinavia that started with Rebel Extravaganza. That album went into the charts in
Norway and overall in Scandinavia it sold a lot better than what is usual for the genre so
that helped create a new market for us in that part of the world. Also with all the fuss
before the album was released made it possible for us to start touring, such an extensive
route, even after the release. We could have done more of the tour had been a bit later.
I read that all the gigs in Norway were completely sold out.
Satyr : Not ALL the gigs were sold out but the main cities were sold out.
You did a live recording for Swedish radio?
Satyr: Yes, in Stockholm. The SRP3.
You have toured a lot and you have toured Europe two or three times before. I saw
your first gig in Lepakko, Helsinki in 1997. I remember that very well as people were just
standing there and watching you.
Satyr : What I remember is that the band that was warming up, a Finnish band, had
trouble getting any response whatsoever, and I remember that I thought it would be one of
those nights where you just had to do your best but realize you could not get them moving.
The crowd was not a responding crowd at all. I also remember that we were positively
surprised that we got them moving near the stage, as far as I can remember, the response
all over was very good that night. They were kind of being a little still but I don’t
know what you remember.
But at the Tuska Metal festival, I remember the audience was going all around there.
I guess it was outstanding in the beginning and it was better [the audiences behavior].
Satyr : I agree. It was much better at the Tuska show. I like them to be as energetic
as possible.
What kind of places do you prefer playing at: small venues or huge festivals?
Satyr : Big clubs! Of course only if there are going to be a lot of people there! Some
times you play at a place that is too big based on your sales or popularity in that
country or city or wherever, but we prefer to play 1000 seaters. That way the stage is
bigger, we have six people on stage. Usually the venue, they have a better PA system, a
better lighting rig…
Like on the Pantera tour!
Satyr : Everything is just better. Bigger back stages - all that stuff.
How was it to play to a completely different audience, which are not into Black
Metal that much?
Satyr : I’d say that 80% of the shows we did turned out to be good ones. We
always, regardless, we got a good response and often we had a lot of our fans turn up for
those shows. Some shows we had difficulty in the beginning but in the end we always
managed to win them over, which was pretty much the situation Pantera had themselves when
they toured with Judas Priest.
It was over ten years ago when they toured with Judas Priest.
Satyr : I remember they told me that was the situation back then.
VOLCANIC METAL
Speaking about the new album, I guess there is about three years from your previous
album?
Satyr : Yeah, about three years.
I have noticed there was another three years between Nemesis Divina and Rebel
Extravaganza…
Satyr : That’s about how long it takes to make a good album I think. There is a
combination of the time it takes to write the actual album, music and lyrics, the time it
takes to rehearse the album and the recording, the photos, the typical delays that occur,
so that is just how long it takes.
Do you think that the writing and composing new material for the new Satyricon album
was more difficult for you or does it come just as easily for you?
Satyr : It just a different way, when you are new to writing songs there is this
overflow of riffs and ideas and it’s not like that anymore. You have to work a little
bit harder to come up with the magic but you are also more experienced and you can use
that experience to your benefit a lot more when writing songs.
What is the most challenging part of writing the music?
Satyr : I guess the challenging part is to keep it quite strict and minimalist but keep
the level of interest level up through an entire song and entire album for that matter.
When you are writing new material, do you think that there is some perfect aspects
that you have to top yourself in order to go beyond the older material? As a matter of
fact, do you consider yourself as a perfectionist?
Satyr : I am a perfectionist in everything I do, and it’s not only writing songs.
Frost : What he says is very true. He writes the songs and basically what I’m
doing with the drums is a bit different than before. Satyr has started to record the
different guitar themes that are usually the basics for all the songs and he gives me the
tapes and I start working with drum patterns based on what I hear and then I present them
to him at a later point and if he likes it we take it from there and if it isn’t
coherent with his ideas of how it should be we try to work out something else. He will
explain in what kind of way he would like it to be done, so now it is more of a creative
process instead of going through and through…it is more work but it is a way to get
better solutions. It is a better way to work I guess. I think it is a lot better to do it
that way. Also a lot more can be done by each of us separately. We don’t have to go
through all the rehearsal paces, there are better possibilities of preparing the themes
and songs.
Satyr : By working that it means we haven’t given up anything, we still sound
extreme and brutal and raw as well.
Frost : I think so. There has to be…
Satyr : It is what we demand from the music, there has to be edge in whatever we do.
With the new album I can say that, I noticed there are some old school metal
elements. It is a really good head-banging one…
Satyr : I think all the Satyricon albums have old school elements in them, which is
self explainable in a way in that the musical background of the band is what is referred
to as ‘old school’ today. It is where we come from.
Frost : Thrash metal!
Satyr : Well that too! It’s just extreme metal music from day one. That is where
the liking of the band lies and therefore there will likely always be elements like that
in the music.
Frost : This too as a band is half and half. Pure innovation in terms of Black Metal
and the other half is a reflection of our own musical taste.
I was just wondering about the title of the album - Volcano; a reference to some old
band?
Frost : No it has nothing to do with that.
Where did you come up with the title, Volcano? What background does it have?
Satyr : Like I always say, the title of a Satyricon album is a conclusion of the
content of the album, be it music, lyrics, visual presentation…it is all meant to be
a summary of the entire content. Volcano is a very suitable way to sum it all up in one
word.
Like lava? I’m just wondering, does it have some kind of connection between the
whole album, or I was wondering if it had some sort of volcano background?
Black Lava is the closest we get to a track on the album. Other than that, I’m not
sure what it means. When you ask what it means, do you mean what the ‘word’
means or is there a connection?
Well yes…what is the cobra on the cover?
Satyr : Cobra?
Ehh…Cobra that snake on the front cover?
Satyr : It’s a python! (Laughs) What about it?
Oh Sorry, well where did you get the idea for the front cover?
Satyr: It is a great symbol of darkness. It’s a very traditional symbol and I
think the snake also reflects the emotions and lack of emotions…the cold…the
dark feeling that lies there. It is a great symbolic effect. I always liked the snake
myself and it’s not a picture that was taken from a book or something. It was a
picture taken by the designer and there were various ones that looked good but this one
was particularly good because the snake was coming from…falling down… you know
what I’m saying?
Yeah !
Satyr : He was coming down against the photographer and looking directly in the lens,
so it was a good pose right there.
Frost : There is also an organic element, like the title, it is a very organic feel and
they are interconnected very nicely.
TO BIGGER LABEL
Tell us about the Universal label thing a little bit, as it has got a lot of press
in general. Did you get surprised by how much attention you got from the black metal fans,
as they didn’t accept it in the first place that you are on the big label?
Satyr : I never heard that anyone had a problem with that.
Well some people have said you have sold out now.
Frost : They should be happy on our behalf.
Yes, that’s true indeed.
Satyr : Actually the thing I find really interesting with the whole thing about our
signing is that there has been a lot of talk from the press, that elements of the black
Metal scene have very strong feelings about this. I’ve never seen it! I’ve never
talked to anyone like that, I haven’t seen them at shows, or anything. So to me it
looks like we are getting past that age where people are more concerned about politics
than music.
Frost : Of course there are those who have to claim that we have sold out or whatever.
If that was the case we would not have done a deal with Nuclear blast and did a licensing
deal with them as well. There people who knew such things and can’t avoid it. also
one should notice that a lot of the bands that are duly credited by die-hard people, like
Venom and Celtic Frost and Bathory were all on bug labels and did it in a big way all
over. The press seems to forget that.
Yes, that’s true! Tell us about the new video clip for “Fuel For
Hatred” and Jonas Akerlund directing it. How did you get him? He is very known for
the big projects and the big bands.
Satyr : Well, I know him. The way I got to know him is that I got in touch with him
when we did Rebel Extravaganza and I just sent him some of our stuff and I explained to
him the idea of the band and how we do things and that I wanted to do a video. At the time
it was not possible because he was doing his movie project and he was also doing stuff for
Madonna. Later on after finishing his movie project, he contacted me and actually wanted
to use parts of the Mother North video for the movie. He wanted to use it in a scene for
this movie. And that’s where we picked it up and started talking about our ideas.
Should we try and do a video for this album, and yes we had many, many conversation on the
phone. I went over to Sweden to visit him and talk and finally it materialized. I must say
it was a great honour to work with Jonas and I’m extremely satisfied with the outcome
of our collaboration.
I’ve just checked out your website and there are pictures from the video and
they look pretty cool! So, I want to talk about the old-school stuff that you have covered
for example - the old Sarcofago tune INRI and Motorhead’s, Orgasmatron. Do you have
any other plans to cover old tunes like Slayer or Sabbath?
Satyr : Well We have done that quite a long time ago. We had done that one and half
years ago. I don’t know…it’s a song we used to play live as part of the
encore.
Hmm, like in the Tuska metal festival where you played Slayer’s Reign in Blood
and concluded with a Black Sabbath tune.
Satyr : Yeah! Then we asked by this label in Germany, to record it for a Slayer tribute
so we just did that. I don’t know if they ever released it, but we recorded it
anyways. In the same session we just did a cover of a band with some of our friends called
Turbonegro. We did a song called, I’ve Got Erection. That was fun, friends and blah,
blah…it turned out pretty cool. Then in ’95 I think we did a Bathory cover.
Turbonegro: they split up and got back together again?
Satyr : Yes, they are back together now and they are doing a new album. I think they
are going to do well.
BLACK METAL HYPE OVER?
Speaking of Black Metal in general - do you think that the biggest hype is now over
and that the strongest ones are going to survive, like you?
Satyr : I think that happened many years ago. I think that it has been that way for,
let’s say, five years because, I think that if you look at a very
typical…that’s when I realized the way it is. When we released,
“Hostmorke” by Isengard through Moonfog, I must say that the promo for that
album was certainly done with the best intentions, but looking back it is now, it was
shit. It was simply not good enough the way we worked the album and it still sold over
10,000. Later on we did the Admirion Black album by Gehenna, that album has been hugely
surpassed by the masses but I think it is clearly the best Gehenna album. With that album
we spent a lot of money promoting it, a lot. WE had never, ever used so much money
promoting an album and the reviews we got were great, five out of five, six out of six,
nine out of nine, ten out of ten, but we only sold only 11,000 or 12,000 records. Before
that, they released the Malice album and the label did a terrible job, and they still sold
15,000 or something like that. Now, selling 10,000 records of an established band in the
big league is quite an achievement. I talked to someone about the Red Harvest album and
from what I see the reviews all over and good and people like that album and you know they
have been out promoting it, and playing live and the last I heard it had sold a little bit
over 200 copies. 2000 is nothing.
Do you think that it is a good sign that Death Metal and Black Metal, even Thrash
Metal are getting back to being united? Different kinds of bands are touring together in
Central Europe. Of course now there is Testament, Morbid Angel and some Death Metal bands
touring together.
Satyr : No, I don’t think it is good at all. I don’t see what it has to do
with being united. What I see is that there are less possibilities all over the land. So,
what you call united, I call desperation. What these bands are trying to do is…they
can’t fill up the venues anymore with shows of their own so they have like 15 bands
on one bill and hope they can pull 300 people. It’s pathetic.
Frost : It is also unfortunate for everybody, I think it will be everybody’s loss
when these things happen.
Satyr: Look at Morbid Angel. The last record they did was a really good record I like
that a lot, but if you look at the band the way it used to be, they used to tour the world
and they had to bring their own console and own mixing table and system so they were
really good. Morbid angel always had a great sound and always looked very impressive. In
order to get people coming to their shows now they have to bring at least two established
Black Metal bands to pull people to the show because they just can’t do it themselves
anymore. And that’s unfortunate.
Frost : Yeah, another very bad thing is a lot of promoter and booking agents will only
work with those tours where there are lots of bands and they have that makes it a lot
different. They have six bands on one bill in a tour.
Like on the No Mercy Tour?
Frost : Yeah, whatever, it makes it very hard for all the bands to do a very good job
and makes it hard for the crowd to give a good response to all the bands you know? It is
the desperation principle that comes in again...it is less intense live and poorer overall
for all the bands.
Speaking of Morbid Angel there are only two guys left in the line-up these days!
Let’s conclude this interview by asking you a question about your side-project.
What’s up with that, you are doing a new album I guess?
Satyr : As soon as possible we are going to complete the album. Half of the album is
already complete and the music for the rest is also completed so we just have to record
the second half.
Alright, my time seems to be up now. I, for one, thank you for the interview.
Thanks for the interview!
Band Website: www.satyricon.no