Dark, evil, technodeathmetal are three extreme words that classify Darkthrone as one of the best bands in the underground! The talent is here, the sound is here, and the style is here!!! What more could you ask for in a band? At the moment I can't think of anything else!!!! Hopefully, very soon these guys will have scored the record deal that they have always wanted!!! Here is the interview I got to do with my great friend Gylve (drummer and vocalist) for my favorite band at the moment, Darkthrone!!!
I understand that Darkthrone has gone through many changes since the beginning! Are you set with the line-up now? Explain!
I wouldn't really say that. We started in X-mas of 1987 with a guitarist that quit after three months to be replaced by our current lead guitarist Ted. That's all, this line-up won't split!!! I mean, me and Ivar for instance, have played together for three years now. We know each others style, and we like what the other members play when it comes to music style changes, we've always had them. We started out with the first shit demo, which was truly metal and death/thrash metal. "Thulcandra" was almost pure weird thrash metal and we all fucking hate it!!! So that leaves us with our third and most recent demo "Cromlech" which is us!!! It's pure horror technodeath metal. It was this tape that did things for us, like the record deal.
Your "Land of Frost" demo is totally different from your style now, as you say! Do you still consider this tape part of Darkthrone?
As I said before, yes this tape is very different from our current style, and no, I don't consider it part of Darkthrone!!! That kind of goes for "Thulcandra" too, but we spread it in over 200 copies, so I guess (sadly) that it is part of our history which many will remember us for. Don't do that!!! We don't play that crash metal anymore.
Darkthrone had one song appear on the "No Slow Thrashification Vomit" compilation tape! How did this come about?
How? Well, what can I say? Min wanted us to send him our rehearsal, so we sent that shit music down to him. He wanted to put us on a sampler and we're the worst band on that tape!!!!
You did a promo tape called "A New Dimension"! What songs were included on this recording?
Just one song which was nine minutes long!!! It's a kind of grinding doom metal, but we never play that song anymore. The other dudes hate it, but I still find it listenable! That song has nothing to do with the kind of music we play now.
Your "Cromlech" demo was recorded live! Why did you decide to do it live? Explain the demo song by song!
Well, we were thinking of doing the "Cromlech", and we had already booked Valhall Studios. But then Dag got a hold of this soundboard tape on a show we did at Bootleg November 1, 1989. I thought the sound (especially drums) was fucking great, and we mixed out the three new songs of ours from the tape and released it! This is "Cromlech" song by song, it's hard to describe because all of our songs tend to be filled with all aspects of horror/death metal. So it could have been one song rather than three really!!! I mean we don't have refrains or anything.
In 1989 you recorded your second demo entitled "Thulcandra"! I really like this demo! Why do you think that it is complete shit?
Because I think that it is complete shit! I mean that is the bands meaning of the tape. The guitars weren't tuned because of the studio tape recorder.
You've got a few record offers now! Who do you think Darkthrone will sign with? Peaceville or Deathlike Silence? Any others interested?
We're signing with Peaceville now. It's what we want and it's the best label for the moment. I like Peaceville best of all labels. Our debut album "Soulside Journey" will be out in the end of 1990. We also had loads of other labels offering us various deals, but Peaceville is the only one.
How come you recorded a two song rehearsal which contained the two songs "Soulside Journey" and "Cromlech" only for record companies?
Well, it was meant for that. I mean rehearsal means for us to put a tape recorder at our rehearsal place and try to record the songs on tape once!!! We just wanted record companies and other important people, friends and so on to hear what our newest songs sounded like. We later even added a newer song "Neptune Towers" to this rehearsal, but we don't record it to anyone anymore. We make one song per month by the way!
All the members of Darkthrone are completely self taught! Why didn't anyone take professional lessons?
We never had money to do this, or thoughts about doing it. I think we all found that we could cope fine after the first year, and the evolution from there was obvious. We still have high ambitions as musicians.
Norway isn't exactly Florida as you explained! But what other bands beside Darkthrone are rising from the tombs? Are your faves?
Well, Cadaver is truly fucking great!!! Especially as a live band, they will blow your brain all the way through your veins. They've got the debut album out soon on Necrosis Records. If you death metal freaks out there don't buy this album you're fucking fakes!!! This goes for those who don't buy the Entombed and Paradise Lost albums too!!! In Norway we also have the veterans Mayhem, who are gods of weird satanic death metal. Their album "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" will be out soon. Other Norwegian bands are Valhall, Isengard, Amputation, N.S.M.F., Balvaz, and many more!!!
You are also in a band called Isengard! Is this a full time band as well as Darkthrone? What about Valhall?
I am Isengard/Esgaroth and I just wanted to record the tape the way I wanted to. I wanted to prove to myself that I alone could fight Christianity. Also I needed to prove to myself that I could master all instruments. I quit Valhall sometime ago. The reason I did this or ever played in Valhall is that they are my best friends but I don't like playing with them. I might record another demo with them because they have rather major problems in finding a proper drummer!!!
Juicy, immense, flaming hemorrhoids are oozing out of your asshole and taking over the maggot infested earth!!! What's your solution to the problem?
Do you know what hemorrhoids are? (Yep, I sure do!) You must have extremely wild fantasies about them!!! (Yep, I sure do!!!) I just read that they are mostly harmless actually. But, that could mean that the harmless ones will conquer the earth!!! My solution is this: put on a good Rush album and cool it!!! Fuck as much as you can if you really believe in this!!!
Anything else to add?
My serpent god has horns!!! Thanx for reading!!!