Last month, Senior Manager Alison Booth presented a Halloween special on her weekly Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem radio show. One of the special guests featured was DIMMU BORGIR‘s Silenoz.
As well as discussing Halloween celebrations in Norway and what Silenoz gets up to, they also had a chat about what’s happening with the highly anticipated forthcoming DIMMU BORGIR album. The full chat can be heard on the audio player below and you can read what Silenoz said about the new album below. The full Halloween show can be heard on Mixcloud at this location.
“Everything is pretty much set to go and we’re still in the final stages of getting everything artwork-wise ready, photos, videos, stuff like that. So, things are taking a bit of a time – I guess after seven years, a little bit more waiting doesn’t hurt too much hopefully.
Yeah we feel we’re sitting on the best album we could possibly do at this time and personally I definitely think it’s our best album to date. Obviously that’s something that everybody says, but if I didn’t believe that we would do our best album, there wouldn’t really be any point doing a new one.
So yeah I’m really excited about it and I know that quite a few fans will be positively surprised. And yeah, we can’t wait to get this stuff off the ground and get going.”
When asked for an idea of when the album will be released, Silenoz revealed:
“Well I would say when we spoke last time I said something about around this time (laughs) or November 2017. But now, I think it’s gonna be the first half of 2018, the way it looks now. We’re lucky that Forces Of The Northern Night was something of a layover, I guess you can call it. We’re really happy about the response to that – there’s been great feedback all over, so we’re really happy about that too.”
Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem on 31st October is set to be a HALLOWEEN show starring two special spooky guests – DIMMU BORGIR’s SILENOZ in part one and also SNOWY SHAW in part two! Blackdiamond states: “We’ll be discussing all things Halloween and of course getting an update on what’s going on musically with each of them at the moment, don’t miss out on the news!”
Tune into http://www.totalrock.com from 6PM GMT when the whole show will be dedicated to Halloween related metal tracks from bands such as SLAYER, W.A.S.P., WOLF, TWISTED SISTER and many more!
Peaceville Records is proud to announce the signing of Norwegian Black Metallers, MORK, for their third studio album, Eremittens Dal, to be released October 13th.
MORK was created by Thomas Eriksen in 2004 & was primarily a side-project for Eriksen from inception until the debut album release in 2013, & since then the band has rightly earned their accolade as one of the top Norwegian black metal acts of recent years, receiving strong endorsements from their peers.
“I remember when making Mork’s debut album, I originally got the inspiration from visiting Darkthrone’s studio, & the following year I get the honour of being picked out as Fenriz’s “BAND of the WEEK”, as well as having Nocturno Culto supplying vocals to my second album. Obviously Darkthrone has been an important influence, & the fact that Peaceville Records decided to work with Mork and to release the third album, is nothing short of a huge honour and a pillar on my bucket-list. To go from making an album just for fun and being picked up by independent underground labels to then signing with Peaceville is an absolute dream come true”
“Eremittens Dal” stands as a tribute to the spirit of old-school Norwegian black metal. The album is primarily inspired by the works of Darkthrone & Burzum, complete with raw production & ice-cold riffs, but with its own dynamic and atmospheric twist; stepping effortlessly between the ferocious and the melancholy, covering themes of hate, death, seclusion and misanthropy, both lyrically and in the way that a one-man-band makes music in solitude, perfectly fitting of the title, translated as ‘Valley of the hermit’. The suitably grim pencil cover art comes courtesy of Jannicke Wiese-Hansen, who famously made artwork for early Burzum and Satyricon releases.
“Eremittens Dal” was recorded at Rottehullet Studio in Halden, Norway. It was mixed by Freddy Holm at Kleiva Studio & mastered at Enormous Door in the US (Darkthrone’s The Underground Resistance & Arctic Thunder). The album also includes special guest appearances from Dimmu Borgir’s Silenoz who contributes vocals on two tracks, plus additional bass parts from 1349’s Seidemann.
“Mork caught my attention a couple of years ago and I was immediately drawn to the atmospheric and reclusive soundscapes, enticed by the desolate and solitary approach – true to the old Norwegian Black Metal ways. It was as if I was thrown back in time. So when I got asked to add vocals on two tracks I didn’t hesitate to comply, I just instantly knew I was meant to have a part in it!” Silenoz (Dimmu Borgir)
The end of an extended period of silence from Norwegian symphonic black metal icons DIMMU BORGIR, is now upon us! The band is ready to unleash the brand new opus, “Forces Of The Northern Night” on 28th April via Nuclear Blast. On this new soundtrack of the apocalypse, you can witness two different live shows: The concert in Oslo, showing DIMMU BORGIR on stage with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and a bombastic choir, as well as the entire performance at Wacken Open Air with almost 100 musicians in action.
Silenoz 2017
Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth recently spoke to DIMMU BORGIR songwriter and guitarist Silenoz about the forthcoming release, as well as discovering updates about the new studio album. Check out some of what Silenoz revealed below, along with the full interview on the audio player:
On the release of “Forces Of The Northern Night”:
“It feels of course great to finally have this monumental documentation about our career out, after so many years. The two biggest shows you know.”
Discussing the process leading up to the live recordings, Silenoz told me:
“Well, it started back in 2009 actually, when we were writing for the Abrahadabra album. We were thinking about utilising an orchestra for that recording and the timing just happened that the orchestra approached us about doing a possible collaboration, a show. And we were really enthused about it. Because usually it’s the other way round, that the band goes to an orchestra, but it was the other way round.
So, we felt really good about that and came to the conclusion that they are going to record with us on the album at the time and then we were gonna start planning a huge orchestra show in Oslo. And it just took off from there really. A huge challenge for us, a huge challenge for them. But I think we have had this in the back of our mind for many years, that if this type of opportunity would arise, we would jump at it. Even if we had orchestras on our previous albums, that’s been in a studio setting – it’s a different thing to actually perform live on stage with a full orchestra and choir. That was kinda like a dream come true.”
Talking about when the orchestra approached DIMMU BORGIR, Silenoz stated:
“Yeah, that’s of course a huge thumbs up in my book, because that means that our type of music actually goes across other borders and reaches into the more conservative parts of the music business. So really, a sense of accomplishment on that one.”
About other projects, Silenoz said:
“I got Insidious Disease on the side and we just finished mastering the new album in January, so hopefully I get to have that out later this year at some point. Shagrath of course has been doing Chrome Division on and off too, but it’s also very important to stress the fact that these two things on the side has never been in front of what we do for Dimmu. Dimmu has always been the main priority and even if we kept pretty quiet the last few years, we’ve been working on and off with new material all the time. So we feel that once we come back with the new album, it needs to be something that beats the previous album, otherwise there’s no point in making a new one.”
On the subject of the new album, Silenoz revealed:
“We’re in the middle of it at the moment, but I would say it has even more variation than any of our previous albums. It’s more epic and symphonic, it’s more brutal, it’s more black metal, it’s more primitive. It includes everything that we are known for and what’s even better about it is that it has just come so easy. the challenge for us is always to shave off the stuff we think is not good enough. So coming up with material is never any problem, it’s just to figure out which parts to use for songs.
If we keep somewhat to the schedule that we have in mind, I would personally estimate late summer, early fall release if everything goes as planned. But it also comes down to timing and what the label thinks is smart strategically. This time we have gone to Fascination Street Studios in Sweden with Jens Bogren. We felt it was time to do something more organic for this type of record and to see what we could get out of his production skills, because we have always been fans of his mixes.
We’ve also grown tired of all the digital type of sounding albums that comes out here and there all the time. So we wanna go back to the roots in the sense that a drum kit should sound like a drum kit and a guitar should sound like a guitar and vice versa, you get my points. That’s what we wanted to do this time.
It sucks to be sitting on this for another few months before people get to hear it, but I think once the fans sit down and actually listen to this album for real, they will understand that okay, yeah it sucked waiting for this for so many years but it was definitely worth the wait.”
Guitarist Silenoz (real name: Sven Atle Kopperud) of Norwegian symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR will take part in a signing session on Saturday, March 5 at the Charitybikers booth at this year’s MC Messa in Lillestrøm, Norway.
For more information, see the flyer below.
DIMMU BORGIR was joined by an orchestra and a choir for an appearance at last year’s edition of the Wacken Open Air festival, which was held August 2-4, 2012 in Wacken, Germany.
DIMMU BORGIR‘s current touring lineup includes Geir Bratland (APOPTYGMA BERZERK, THE KOVENANT) on keyboards and Terje Andersen (a.k.a. Cyrus; SUSPERIA) on bass.
DIMMU BORGIR performed one very exclusive show on May 28, 2011 at the Oslo Spektrum in Norway with a special, never-to-be-repeated setlist with 53 members of KORK (the Norwegian Radio Orchestra) and 30 members of the Schola Cantorum choir, who were musical guests on the band’s ninth studio album, “Abrahadabra”. The concert, dubbed “Forces Of The Northern Night”, was professionally filmed and was broadcast as part of a one-hour documentary in June 2011 on NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation), the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company and the largest media organization in Norway.
“Abrahadabra”, the ninth album from DIMMU BORGIR, was released in Germany on September 24, 2010, in the rest of Europe on September 27, 2010, and it was made available in North America on October 12, 2010 via Nuclear Blast Records.
DIMMU BORGIR guitarist Silenoz is featured in a new interview with Leja Siv Harju at Hails webzine. An excerpt is available below:
On spirituality and religion: “Spirituality is individual while as I see religion as not. It’s man made and there to enslave and control the insecure and those who for whatever reason don’t dare or have given up the fight. To have a religious belief, or a religious conviction to me means you give up that birth given right to be an individual, perhaps on more levels than just the spiritual one. And ‘satan’ or referring to the description ‘satanic’ for me is being that individual as Satan is a modern metaphor for breaking out and away from what’s considered the norm and what’s considered safe and controlling. I adhere to progress, not only in scientific terms but also on a personal level and everything that concerns my own being. We wouldn’t exist without a continuous ongoing evolution and so the ‘Luciferian thought’ is a way of always lighting the torch in the dark. Without being willing to bring in light we would still be stuck in the dark. To me it’s pretty simple if you break it down symbolically.
Being religious to me also means you leave your responsibilities by the door or over to something else, a higher deity. It doesn’t make sense to me. I have never been able to relate to it nor will I ever, it’s against common sense. For me, there’s no higher spiritual deity than myself and I take pride in taking responsibility, whether it’s a physical or a mental one. I don’t rule out anything other than the fact that I’m here now and solely in power of myself and my actions and reactions. That pretty much sums up the general idea, my lifecode, whatever you want to call it. There’s no one that can tell me to fear or worship any other god than myself.”
On black metal: “From my non-judgmental and not so up to date point of view I think black metal has reached its peak in terms of rebellion and shock value, but it hasn’t died out artistically and musically. Far from it. It’s been watered down, sure, and obviously become more available for obvious reasons, but as there are several new genres born under the so called black metal banner the last few years I still see it relevant and as a pivotal addition to the music world. There’s still passion, dedication, honesty and authenticity in this form of art and as long as that is on the forefront it’ll still be life. But as real life is all about contradictions the term black metal is no exception. It has progressed, thank god – pardon the pun!”
Pro-shot footage of Dimmu Borgir performing at Wacken Open Air 2012 in Wacken, Germany on the weekend of August 2nd – 4th is available below. Originally aired by the country’s ZDF network on the Kultur program, it features live footage of the band performing with an orchestra and an interview with Silenoz.
“Everything is pretty much set to go and we’re still in the final stages of getting everything artwork-wise ready, photos, videos, stuff like that. So, things are taking a bit of a time – I guess after seven years, a little bit more waiting doesn’t hurt too much hopefully.
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 