Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult

by Dayal Patterson

  A fairly early shot of the band in Kill Yourself zine.

  “The demo was recorded during a hasty weekend in Sound-suite studio, which has later on become a much-used studio by metal bands—but prior to our demo the only other extreme band that had recorded there was Incarnator. We had close to no money, and hence could not afford too many hours in the studio and simply did not have time for multiple takes and overdubs to make it flawless. I think it has stood the test of time quite well though.”

  All the more remarkable given the short time spent recording, the material’s distinctive character may in part be put down to the band’s isolation from the rest of the Norwegian scene. Much of this was due to geography: the band lived in the southwestern city of Stavanger, a location lacking the black metal community present in other cities like Oslo or Bergen.

  “Isolated would be a good word for it,” considers Dolgar. “We did not have any contact with any other bands at all until after the demo was released. And I am honestly very happy about that, because that kept us isolated from outside influences during that crucial time when we were forming the band. Sure other Norwegian bands probably had some influence, but Bathory no doubt was always the main influence. We just kept to ourselves in the beginning.

  “That changed when we released the demo of course, and also when [bass player] Svartalv joined the band, because he was originally from Oslo. But still we did keep more to ourselves than people in Oslo or Bergen did I guess. I am not going to criticize, but looking at some of the other parts of Norway during the early nineties, I think perhaps there was a bit too much of that interchanging of band members going on. I mean, at the most extreme, you could see the same people in a handful of different bands, and that seems a bit unhealthy in my opinion.”

  Though all bass and keys on the recording session had been handled by Sanrabb and Dolgar, a photograph of bassist “Svartalv” (Kenneth Halvorsen) appeared on the Ancestor EP, since he had become a member by the time the photo shoot was taken. By the time the record sleeve was being put together, the band had taken on yet another member, and thus also to be spotted was the name of a new drummer, Dirge (or Dirge Rep, real name Per Husebø) who had recently replaced Sir Vereda. The latter’s exit was largely due to his incarceration for the arson of Revheim Church in August 1992—one of the county’s very first church attacks—as well as the arson of a Christian community center (an attack carried out with Sanrabb) and, allegedly, some drug-related charges.

  The band would head into the studio in January of 1994 as a four-piece with the aim of recording a debut album, but the session would be quickly aborted due to a misunderstanding between the studio and prospective label No Fashion Records regarding budget. It was perhaps fateful, since prior to the next attempt to record, the band would be joined by a keyboardist named Sarcana. A talented player who was originally given the name Walpurgis before changing it for the pseudonym of her own choosing, she had approached the band after their live debut in Stavanger in February that year, a show heavily opposed by members of the church and other protestors.

  “The ‘church citycommision’ [sic] protested our gig, but they lost,” the band explained later in mid-nineties zine Kill Yourself. “The reason why they protested was because we were a death cult, and we were against all the good forces that protect life, etc., and because of our ‘satanic’ stage act as well as the contents of our lyrics. The ideological direction of the band was compared to fascism. And this, as you can imagine did not really charm these people. [But] politics have absolutely nothing to do with this kind of music.”

  Shortly after Sarcana joined the fold, the band headed back into the studio and recorded First Spell, released through Head Not Found, the label owned by Slayer Magazine’s Metalion. Only twenty-six minutes spread over five songs, it was originally intended as one half of a split album with labelmates Ulver, though it was later decided to release the recordings separately to allow each band greater control over the sleeve design. The First Spell cover has in fact proved iconic, its low-contrast, monochrome photograph of two figures (Dolgar and Dirge Rep, as it turns out) with horses, seemingly taken at night, proving just as mysterious as the music within. “Sanrabb and Garm argue to this every day [sic] over what the cover would have been,” Dolgar later joked in the Kill Yourself interview.

  Regardless of its brevity, First Spell proved a stunning and unparalleled work, one whose sound is as unique now as it was then, exhibiting a style rarely revisited by any band since. Slowing the pace even further—a point highlighted by a brooding rerecording of the song “Angelwings and Ravenclaws”—the record was saturated in synth, often in the form of an organ voice, resulting in a truly mysterious, almost mystical atmosphere. The five tracks also carried a funereal overtone, not least the closing number “Morningstar,” which actually featured a riff adapted from Chopin’s iconic “Marche Funebre.”

  “We spent a lot of time in the woods and in a local cave at night during those first years, trying to soak up the atmosphere, discussing our interests in the occult, talking about different ideas for the music and the band, so it all came from there. We lit a bonfire, watched the shadows play and listened to the sounds of nature. Perhaps that sounds like a black metal cliché, but that is actually the way it was. I know Sanrabb wrote the music for the song ‘Morningstar’ after attending a funeral, and that the lyrics for ‘Unearthly Loose Palace’ came from a dream, but I think those nights in nature’s embrace were the biggest influence on what we wrote at that time.”

  The First Spell mini-album, 1994.

  First Spell brought the band to the attention of many new fans, and they soon joined the roster of Cacophonous Records, a UK label that had already signed many of the scene’s hottest names, including England’s Cradle of Filth, Japan’s Sigh, and Ireland’s Primordial. The first product of this union was the group’s debut full-length, Seen Through The Veils of Darkness (The Second Spell). Another striking opus, the record contrasted stylistically with its predecessor, and though it too utilized slow sections and sedate keyboard passages, the material was generally far busier, frequently shifting mood and tempo, unlike the more flowing songs of First Spell.

  As with First Spell, the lead vocals and guitars were split between Dolgar and Sanrabb, with Ulver’s Garm making a guest appearance, contributing his voice to “Vinterriket.” Once again keys played a prominent role, frequently soaring alongside the other instruments in a symphonic manner very similar to Emperor’s In the Nightside Eclipse, released the same year. Combined with surprisingly catchy riffs, the result was an epic and driving collection of songs, and arguably the most accessible chapter of their career.

  “Close to all the basic song structures for our second album were already written when we recorded First Spell,” explains Dolgar of the band’s evolution, “so the development had already happened. The songs selected for First Spell were simply chosen because they had that common approach of being slower, mid-paced songs. We had actually recorded the Seen Through album before First Spell was finally released, which proves how slow things moved in the underground back then, mostly because of a lack of money.”

  1996’s Malice (subtitled Our Third Spell) proved a natural successor, the symphonic black metal style refined with slightly more technical songs and a far less mystical atmosphere than Second Spell. The production was clearer, and though it did little with the bass (now played by newcomer Noctifer following Svartalv’s return to Oslo) it ably separated the guitars, drums, vocals, and synths, the latter proving varied and adding a dreamy and carnivalesque vibe to the proceedings, a stark contrast with the nasty-sounding riffs. If the ethereal forest atmosphere of the past had been laid to rest, then the fourteen-minute-long “Ad Arma Ad Arma” was the nails in its coffin, the nuclear war-themed lyrics bringing a contemporary vibe as much as the industrial sounds utilized in its musical content.

  “For this album we felt very strong as a unit, and it was sort of refreshing getting to start working on something new
, considering that most of the previous albums were written simultaneously. It is perhaps our most complex album and again we experimented with one of the songs in the studio, ‘Ad Arma,’ based on a few existing riffs and a concept. At this time I guess we spent more time in the rehearsal room and less sucking up the atmosphere in the woods, which may or may not explain the different atmosphere on the album. In addition to this, Sanrabb and Sarcana wrote a lot of the music together, instead of her being presented mostly finished songs to write keyboards to.”

  The record received praise from fans and magazines alike and in the same year the band also set about a tour of Europe with Swedes Marduk and fellow Norwegians Mysticum, helping to raise their profile even further at a time when black metal—and keyboard-heavy exponents of the genre in particular—was beginning to break through to a much bigger audience.

  With that in mind it’s unsurprising that 1998 album Adimiron Black—which was preceded by a three-track single Deadlights—proved baffling for longtime fans. Now signed to Moonfog, the band had undergone a significant lineup shift, losing all members save for founders Dolgar and Sanrabb, and replacing them with newcomers E.N. Death on bass, Blod on drums, and Damien on keyboards. Stylistically, the band accentuated the nastier side of Malice, the synths taking a backseat on an album that introduced death metal influences at a time when it was still controversial to do so.

  “We recorded a three-song demo just before Dirge Rep left the band, trying to see which direction we wanted to go musically,” reveals Dolgar. “One of the songs, entitled ‘Embryo,’ sounded like a continuation from the Malice album, one—an untitled song—sounded more like a heavy metal song, and the last one was the song ‘Adimiron Black,’ which was the direction we eventually went in of course. After the demo was recorded, Dirge Rep left and soon after that Sarcana left. Eighty percent of the album was written after she left, so I do not think musical differences were part of her decision to leave. As you may know, she did not pursue any musical career after Gehenna, so I figure she was fed up with the whole thing. I also know she did not get along too well with Blod, who had replaced Dirge Rep on drums halfway through writing the album.”

  “We did want to go in a different direction after Malice, we wanted a crueler and less melodic style. We basically felt Malice was as far as we could go in that direction without it losing that sense of cruelty we feel black metal should have. Blod came in the band with a whole different background—from thrash and death metal—and Damien was more into electronic/ambient stuff, so we took advantage of their fresh (to us) approach to music.”

  Aesthetically, the band had also undergone a thorough reinvention. The cover for Adimiron Black was free of occult overtones and featured a gruesome scene of a dead, half-naked women and her gun-brandishing killer, while the record’s lyrics delved into tales of war and murder, a far cry from the mystical-leaning, nature-inspired lyrics of old. To some extent this reflected the members’ move away from the Satanic/occult mindset of their younger years toward the philosophies its members hold today.

  “Being sixteen/seventeen years old, obviously we did not have a whole lot of life experience, and some of our thoughts from those days will seem a bit naïve looking back at them now. I guess everything was just more black-and-white, yes-or-no, back then. But reading some of our old lyrics, I still think there is a lot of great stuff there which I am not sure if we would have said or done very differently today. We are still very much the same people today; only like most other people (and a good bottle of wine) we mature with age.”

  “I do not read as much about the occult today as I did back then, but that interest is still a part of me. I never did consider myself a Satanist in the conservative, biblical definition of the term, but if you ask ten people what a Satanist is, you are very likely to get ten different answers. Science and philosophy are more important to me now, but keep in mind that some of what we call science today was considered occultism yesterday, and some of today’s occultism/magic may be called science tomorrow. The borderlines between these are ever-changing. I do think most Christian believers interpret their Bible too literally, and it amazes me how little they question what is written.”

  In terms of musical output, Adimiron Black proved to be a mere sign of things to come. If that album had flirted with death metal, then the 2000 follow-up Murder was evidence of a full-on love affair, the band dispensing with a keyboard player and diving headlong into a world of chugging guitars, growled vocals, and even death metal-style guitar leads.

  “On Murder Damien had left the band and we decided to just not use much keyboards when writing that album. Personally I feel Murder went a step too far into the realm of death metal, and I actually left the band before the recording of the album was completed. I think it is a fairly good album, I just don’t think it is a very good Gehenna album.”

  With Dolgar gone the band soon ground to a halt. Despite their high profile in the early days and the gems within their discography, the band went out with more of a fizzle than a bang. Even today they have yet to earn the respect they deserve, especially given their pioneering role in creating black metal that celebrated atmosphere and melody without ever falling into overly commercial territories. Few bands have since touched upon such haunting territories and many, including Head Not Found’s Metalion, have expressed surprise that Gehenna did not become as big as outfits such as Emperor. The reasons for this arguably illustrate the factors—aside from music quality—that can dictate a metal band’s success.

  A Cacophonous Records advert for Gehenna around the time of 1996’s Malice release.

  “I think there are a number of reasons,” reflects Dolgar. “I’m not sure if it was the best time for us to leave Cacophonous after Malice, because whatever else Cacophonous can, and have been, criticized for, at least they did get us out on tour. Sadly that never happened with Moonfog, although Moonfog certainly were a better label in many other aspects. If we had done more touring during the last half of the nineties—and further on of course—I think we would probably have been a better-known band.

  “We get a lot of praise for that album now, and a lot of people think this is our strongest album, but it needed time to grow on people it seems. People expected a continuation of the melodic style from Malice, but when Adimiron Black was something very different, people did not know what to think at first, and so the album failed a bit commercially in the crucial short time period after its release. Artistically it was the right album at the right time, but commercially it was not. Murder probably just pushed things even further into the ‘what-the-fuck’ category. We were inactive as a band during the period of time when black metal went from the underground into the mainstream media with the focus on music instead of crime, which made it more acceptable as an art form and thus gave it better financial support.”

  Thankfully the story did not end there. In 2005 the band returned from the apparent dead with one of their most ferocious efforts yet, an album entitled WW. As the title makes clear, the work continues with the war themes explored since Malice, complimenting these with icy compositions, perhaps apt since Satyricon’s Frost appears as a session musician on drums. With all symphonic elements gone, there are obvious similarities with Adimiron Black, and even more so with hypnotic early nineties Norwegian black metal such as Darkthrone, Burzum, and most specifically De Mysteriis-era Mayhem.

  “WW is my favorite album of them all, no doubt,” admits Dolgar. “The guitar sound alone on that album is enough to give me shivers down my spine, cold and harsh as the barbed-wire fences during the world wars. Probably our least accessible album; extremely raw and stripped down. I guess it does not appeal to everyone, even within those familiar with modern black metal, but the critics were much in praise.”

  While Gehenna is still certainly far from a full-time proposition—and indeed seems unlikely to ever become so again, due to other projects, work, and family life—the WW album marked a return of sorts, one eventually followed by 2013’
s Unravel. With its long, drawn out riffs and stripped down execution, it is perhaps the band’s bleakest effort yet, and cements the band’s reputation as a group unwilling to compromise their artistic vision. Meanwhile an almost entirely consistent and essential back catalogue remains available for exploration.

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  GORGOROTH

  “For me Gorgoroth has always been one of the mainstays here in Norway as far as black metal goes. Through lineup changes and conflicts Infernus has led the horde of Gorgoroth through the ages, never lacking in quality. They are also one of the bands that has this element of unsafeness [sic] and you never really know what is going on. Norway needs bands like Gorgoroth.”

  —Jon “Metalion” Kristiansen (Slayer Magazine)

  FROM THEIR CULT BEGINNINGS in the early nineties, through major-label tribulations, artistic reinventions, and periods of occasionally perplexing output, the career of Norway’s Gorgoroth has been nothing if not varied. One of black metal’s most recognized and notorious acts, Gorgoroth have made lifelong companions of both strife and controversy, becoming as well known for the strong personalities within the group and the events surrounding them as for the often brilliant music they have created.

  Hailing from Sogn og Fjordane, some two hundred kilometers from Bergen, the band’s lineup has always revolved around guitarist (and occasional drummer, bassist, and vocalist) Infernus, whose real name is Roger Tiegs. One of black metal’s more memorable personalities, Infernus makes for agreeable but intense company, and even after several meetings with him, his sometimes unnervingly serious and carefully controlled manner remains striking. To this day he remains a contentious character, and readily admits that he is not an easy man to work with, a notion perhaps supported by the fact that around thirty musicians have passed through the group during its history.