Legendary Norwegian death metallers Enslaved recently released their tenth full-length studio album 'Vertebrae', which is the bands heaviest and most musically diverse album to date! Enslaved merged onto the Black Metal scene in the early nineties along with other legendary metallers Mayhem, Satyricon, Immortal and Darkthrone, who are all responsible for bringing this amazing underground movement to the masses. Although only two founding members remain in the line-up, Enslaved have proven time and time again that their brand of powerful, dark, grueling metal will continue to stand above those bands which followed in their path. Composer / guitarist Ivar Bjornson and singer / bassist Grutle Kjellson formed Enslaved when they were 13 and 17 years old, respectively and never could have imagined that their small underground world of metal would ever become one of the most respected sub-genres in heavy metal music. As time has gone on the band have undergone many line-up changes and have had their share of good and bad publicity. Keeping their spirits high Enslaved have never been a band to take the propaganda and rumors too seriously and have fought back against those who have stood against them with the power of music. With a career spanning eighteen years Enslaved have played to audiences all across the globe but are yet to embark on their first Australian tour. As many fans are aware, Enslaved were planning to tour Australia in early 2008 but due to circumstances beyond their control the tour was quickly cancelled. The Australian Black Metal community can only hope that the continued success of the bands most recent album 'Vertebrae' will have promoters ready and willing to bring these Norwegian legends to our shores in 2009! Over the years Enslaved have been responsible for releasing some of black metal's most memorable masterpieces like 'Monumension', 'Frost' and 'Isa' and the band's latest album is sure to be another on the most memorable list! Terrorizer magazine called 'Vertebrae' the metal "album of the month"; we are calling it the perfect Black Metal album for any collection! The band has certainly broken new ground with 'Vertebrae' and it has had old and new fans praising the band's latest approach to Black Metal music! I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Enslaved's guitarist Ivar Bjornson, we discussed the recording and thought process behind the band's latest offering, how the Norwegian black metal scene has changed over the years and the bands cancelled Australian tour and possible return in 2009. The time has come for 'Reflection' as we chat with the legendary Ivar Bjornson... Metal Fanatix: Hi Ivar, thanks so much for taking the time out to speak with me today mate! Congratulations of the latest Enslaved album ‘Vertebrae’, I have been blasting it all afternoon! No doubt you were happy with the outcome? Ivar Bjørnson: Very happy yes, we were happy with the songs, the atmosphere in the songs, we feel as we’ve made the lost art of making an album, its built as an album not as single songs. We were really happy with the production too, its timeless an classic production. Metal Fanatix: I the album and tracks such as New Dawn, Clouds and Ground are fast becoming my favorites, is it too early for you to have favorite songs from ‘Vertebrae’? Ivar Bjørnson: No, they are already changing; they have been changing since the mixing session. Right now, I’m at a place where I’d say that ‘Clouds’ is a favorite, it’s a great opener, and it’s got this seamless flow through it even though it’s got so many different elements. As we’ve recently started to rehearse songs to do live on the upcoming tours I would say that ‘New Dawn’ is emerging as a live favorite, its aggressive and catchy.
Ivar Bjørnson: It’s been overwhelming, the album is so open with production and the song ideas are really out there, so we expected to get reactions, strong reactions, but we didn’t expect them to be so overwhelmingly positive. Sometimes you can forget that extreme metal is more open-minded than one would think at times, and we’re really positive and grateful for that response. We have only had one really devastating review and that was in a Norwegian magazine for Christian students, so we have to take that as mistreated [laughs]. Metal Fanatix: [Laughs] Ivar, I want to talk to you about the recording side of ‘Vertebrae’… as a guitarist, what did you try to achieve in the studio? Ivar Bjørnson: This time the focus was really simple, we wanted to get the guitar represented in the speakers of the listener exactly how the guitar is played from the beginning to end. We had a talk with our Mixer Joe, before did the album and he really pushed for us to go with that classic rock recording, where every instrument is represented once and every instrument is represented genuinely. It gives you a lot more of the hassles in the studio that we remembered from doing the first few albums, where digital make up wasn’t an option and you couldn’t hide things in layers. You had to really put the effort into that one performance that would remain on the album. We spent a lot of time finding that ultimate sound and finding the balance to keep it clear but powerful at the same time. I’m really happy that we did it that way. It was a bit of a struggle I have to say cause working with those classic metal style productions these days… you get a lot of power and results from the get go. You add guitars on guitars on guitars so it becomes this wave that pushes you forward in the recording process. Doing it the old way with a more live representation of the band is more of a challenge you have to imagine how it’s going to be with the next guitar, you have to stick and believe in the vision that it will become powerful even though it sounds a little bit raw and naked to begin with. Metal Fanatix: How about effects, did you spend a lot of time experimenting with different sounds this time around or did you have a clear vision of what you wanted? Ivar Bjørnson: We did experiment quite a lot but we’ve never spent as much focus on that before. It was very inspiring and we’re going to do it again! We have our basic set up, we use the Peavey’s and that has been part of the Enslaved sound for years. Since we didn’t do the layer thing where you could add other sounds and effects later on we did spend a lot of time using different amps. We used some different stacks from the sixties that had almost no distortion, they had more of a bluesy sound, and all the effects were done with the volume. We used some more modern things to get that distorted sound and with my guitars we used that old Swedish death metal trick of using a bass combo with a distortion pedal to get some ugly noise in the lower frequencies. Metal Fanatix: After recording for so many years, it must become difficult to get motivated in the studio, how did you push each other musically and creatively to get the best results possible for the new album? Ivar Bjørnson: It’s not that hard actually; it’s getting easier for us. You know the routine, you know where to focus and we’re very lucky, we always feel like we are having the best time and I think that we all know each other so well socially that we can tell each other stuff that’s not necessarily always positive. We spent so much time on the road after the last album, two European tours, two U.S.A. tours and almost an Australian tour which was cancelled at the last minute... we were so eager to go in and structure our ideas. We have a lot of discipline, we are really good drinkers and party people but when it comes to being onstage or being in the studio we really know what’s going on and the people around us know that this is the focus. We are good at finding what the people are good at in the band and we try to emphasize that! It’s not about getting into the spotlight for every guy in the band it’s more like... what can I do to make sure that everybody in the bands sounds and looks great! Metal Fanatix: Ivar, what are you hoping fans will take away from the new album? Ivar Bjørnson: I really hope they will dive into the album, it’s powerful and energetic at the surface but also they will find a lot of atmosphere. If they know the Enslaved history or not they should have a lot of road maps to steer them into the whole Enslaved back catalogue. You have songs like ‘New Dawn’ which we talked about already, which is heading right back to the beginning, then you have a song like ‘Center’ which is like nothing we’ve ever done in the Enslaved catalogue. There is something for everyone, it’s a heavily charged album that you could approach in any matter… if you want to put it on and have a beer listening to it, you can do that, if you want to blast it in your car, while your out driving you can do that too, it’s an album that easily works on all levels.
Ivar Bjørnson: They can expect to see a show that focuses on the ‘Vertebrae’ material, we have rehearsed it and it sounds great in a live setting. The songs had a lot of live focus when they were made and recorded and it’s be going beyond expectations. We have a lot of old material from all areas of Enslaved; it’s going to be a very intense live set. Part of the live set is going to include visual stuff, backdrop videos for some of the set, other parts will be more focused on the raw live energy of the band onstage. Metal Fanatix: It’s been almost four years since your last DVD was released, are there any plans to film some shows for a new live DVD? Ivar Bjørnson: We didn’t film any of the European tour, we are talking about doing it some place later in 2009; we want to set up a few shows, record it properly with professional recording equipment and go from there. We think it’s time to do that again, we did it after the ‘Isa’ album because we felt that the band had taken a big step with a new line-up. Even though we have the same line-up now, we’ve done a lot of new songs; and we’ve reached a new level playing live so it’s getting close to that time where we will show it once again. Metal Fanatix: The million dollar question is… are there any plans in the works to see you in Australia this year? Ivar Bjørnson: I’m betting that we will do that! There were some rumors going around last year and those rumors were true actually. Our management started working on getting our visa’s for us to go to Australia, but a by far bigger metal tour landed on top of our dates and we could understand why the promoter got cold feet, so we have stayed in touch and with Nuclear Blast handling things in Australia, I am pretty sure we will be able to pull it off in 2009. Metal Fanatix: As everyone knows, when the band formed you were in your teens, when you look back on those live experiences what was the hardest time you had as an opening act? Ivar Bjørnson: Actually it’s ironic… we’ve been running now for almost eighteen years and one of the worst dates we’ve had was playing in Texas in March last year. I don’t want to say who we played with but the guys in the band are such gentlemen, we had played with them before but for some reason we don’t think the crew was having the best of days. We flew over to do one show there and the travel time was about twenty-six hours and for some reason they came late to the sound-check and when it came to the main show we played for about thirteen minutes before we were kicked off. We have played with bigger and smaller bands but we have never had that happen! Metal Fanatix: Ivar, let’s go right back to Enslaved’s beginnings… What comes to mind when you look back on that very first Enslaved show? Ivar Bjørnson: There was a lot of enthusiasm, and we didn’t think too much, we just did stuff and tried to make the best of it. We did a tour in Mexico in 1995 and a lot of times back then you wouldn’t have a P.A. system, you would have a cassette player and a homemade microphone that would constantly give you electric shocks. It’s all good memories, there has always been a connection with the crowd, and there’s always been a wild side to the whole thing. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Of course these days you can do bigger shows and present them in a bigger, better way. You don’t go home with your back screwed up from lifting; I think if bands go directly on to the big tours they miss out on a lot of education and life experiences. Metal Fanatix: Mate, we have hit the part of the interview where our readers find out more about the real you... when Enslaved first formed you were in your early teens, tell us what it was like growing up in Norway juggling teen life and the formation of Enslaved!
Metal Fanatix: Mate, there is no doubt that Norwegian metal has had its share of good and bad press, what’s the craziest rumor you had ever heard about yourself and or the band? Ivar Bjørnson: I have heard some strange things before that we were Satanists, but I guess that one’s pretty common. There was this metal documentary made a couple of years ago called ‘Metal... A Headbangers Journey’, and the filmmakers came to Norway and they did an hour long interview with Enslaved. We talked about progressive music, seventies and they had this one question towards the end where they asked us what we thought about church fires... so at first we gave them the “against view”, we went on about how you would hurt yourself and how tax payers would have to build a new church etc then towards the end of the sentence we went on to say those of you who can sympathize with people because of the Christian occupation a thousand years ago and so on... they basically took one hour and fifteen minutes and just used that one sentence and put it just after the Gorgoroth segment talking about Satan, sacrifices and whatever. So we sent them a pretty pissed off letter, saying “why the fuck did you fool us into all that stuff if you only wanted that one sensationalist quote”? The filmmakers felt really bad about it and ended up putting the whole interview in the bonus material on the DVD Then a Bergen newspaper picked up on a rumor that we were angry, so we talked to them but they didn’t leave it at that! So when the film festival came and one of the Canadian filmmakers came to Norway to give a lecture to students, the newspaper put out headlines that the film festival had hired bodyguards and military security because Enslaved were going to attack the filmmakers! It made the front page of the newspaper, so we called the guy from the film festival and said “what’s going on man, have you lost it, we know you need public attention”? It turned out that he said it as a joke, and everyone was laughing there asses off and the newspaper decided to look at it seriously. Metal Fanatix: Are you surprised that after all these years mainstream media especially are still looking at bands like Enslaved, Dismember and Cannibal Corpse to name a few in such a negative way, rather than talking about the positive effects metal music has on today’s youth and society? Ivar Bjørnson: No it doesn’t, I think it’s the kind of sensationalism that people sometimes crave. It has a gravitational feel around it, it’s unimaginable and people sometimes will themselves to believe that Cannibal Corpse will be hacking away at fetuses and eating them, cause it’s fantastic and it’s outside of their own boring life. The same thing happened when Black Metal started in Norway… the national newspaper did a big feature on Black Metal music in Norway! They bought television cameras and crews along with police into the forest, cause there were some rumors going around that the Black Metal bands were stashing military weapons outside the town of Bergen to stage a coup and take over the city like a satanic revolution. They all came into the forest and searched this bunker to find it empty. They asked the journalist who was in charge of it afterwards on this documentary called ‘Satan Rides the Media’ “wasn’t this incredibly irresponsible, because you put this story out for a couple of days and basically people shit their pants and couldn’t sleep waiting for a satanic takeover”? He said “yeah maybe it wasn’t so probable, just imagine if that was true, how incredibly important it is to reveal it”. Right there that tells you everything… he admitted that there was no grain of truth in it!
Ivar Bjørnson: Oh man, I tend to not focus too much on that stuff. I don’t think I will ever put on a Cradle of Filth record voluntarily. I can admit that it sounds professional and it’s good, but there is something about it that’s just unappealing? It must be the whole urban gothic thing that just contrasts too much with my own former background. Metal Fanatix: Ivar, I want to thank you again for speaking with us today, it’s been a true pleasure! Do you have any last words for our readers? Ivar Bjørnson: Yeah, I just want to thank everyone for the support we’ve had over all of these years. Australia is one of the few last places that we know of the massive support, but still haven’t been able to go over to play for the fans. I am definitely going to spend a lot of energy trying to make it happen in 2009, hopefully everyone will give the album a spin, and there should be something in it for everybody. I give a big thank you to everyone in the metal scene in Australia! Enslaved’s Latest Killer Offering ‘Vertebrae’ Is Out Now via Nuclear Blast Records and Riot Distribution. Make Sure You Grab A Copy Today! Catch Enslaved On Tour Playing the Following Confirmed Dates: Sun 02/22/09 Athens, Greece Gagarin 205 Live Music Space Sun 05/24/09 New York, NY Blender Theatre at Gramercy Fri 07/24/09 Ostrava, Czech Republic Unholy Festival Grounds Tix on sale from the usual outlets. To keep up with all the latest news & much more on Ivar, & any of the bands he works with check out the following websites: http://www.enslaved.com - Official Enslaved Site http://www.myspace.com/enslaved - Enslaved MySpace Site http://www.myspace.com/insideout666ints - Inside Out 666 © Cameron Edney January, March 2009 Not to be re-printed in any form without written permission. |
