Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult

by Dayal Patterson

  That said, he is also disarmingly helpful and hospitable, and even though his sometimes evasive answers make it clear that interviews might not be his preferred activity, he is generous with both his time and space. Indeed, the majority of our interview took place at his home, in a meticulously neat living room that faces out onto a panoramic mountain view and hints at the personality of its owner due to the candles, guitars, weapons, and the numbers “666” mounted upon one wall.

  “In the beginning when I was a kid I listened to all kinds of heavy metal bands without really having a direct, passionate approach to it,” he begins, his voice so low that at times it’s little more than a whisper. “Then around my early teenage years I started listening to early black metal bands and thrash metal bands like Destruction, Sodom, and Bathory. It was kind of an awakening, and brought with it something extra, which made me more devoted to the music and had an effect that would be life-lasting. It was a result of my passion for music and metal that I wanted to play and perform and create something myself. To the degree that it’s possible to rationally explain why—whether there were other sources of inspiration, or voices telling [me] to do so—would be difficult to explain. I started rather late in time, playing guitar aged seventeen, I think. In retrospect I would have enjoyed having, say, piano lessons in childhood, but coming from a background like mine that was difficult. My parents enjoy music, but not as a passion I would dare to say.”

  Living in a thinly populated, predominantly agricultural area, like-minded musicians proved few and far between. Nonetheless, Infernus found two other suitable individuals, namely vocalist Jan Åge Solstad, who performed under the pseudonym Hat (meaning “hate” in Norwegian) and drummer Rune Thorsnes, otherwise known as Goat Pervertor. Thus in 1992 Gorgoroth was born, the trio taking their name from J.R.R. Tolkien’s book Lord of the Rings, and more specifically a barren and lifeless location in Mordor, the land of darkness and fear. The following year saw the band debuting with an almost painfully raw three-track demo entitled A Sorcery Written in Blood, named from a line in the Bathory song “The Return of Darkness and Evil.”

  “They were from another village some twenty kilometers away,” Infernus explains of his original bandmates, “so we didn’t get to know each other before the age of sixteen. We were living in a small countryside area, located some three hours north of Bergen, and one had to be selective who one hangs around with. The ones you did tended to be the ones who were most similar in musical preferences and maybe their ideological views. It was an exciting time, spirits were very high—getting on with it, that is what mattered.”

  The unholy opus—which Infernus explains took four months to write and about four hours to record—would not only earn them a contract with France’s Embassy Productions, but also land them on the front page of regional newspaper Firda, which took umbrage with the Satanic imagery of the band. Other than this burst of attention, however, the band kept largely to themselves during these early years, having limited dealings not only with those in their locality, but also with the rest of the Norwegian black metal scene, though they maintained sporadic contact with Euronymous and the Helvete circle thanks to occasional Oslo visits. It was in the capital that the band would eventually make their live debut, at a 1994 memorial event for Euronymous.

  Infernus’ dealings with the Oslo crowd also led him to meet Samoth of Emperor, who joined the band on bass for the debut album Pentagram, recorded in early 1994 at Bergen’s much-favored Grieghallen studio. Opening with the utterly searing “Begravelsesnatt [Burial Night],” the half-hour recording proves a consistently ferocious listen thanks to memorable riffs, an almost constant percussive bombardment, an unfussy yet effective production, and Hat’s utterly possessed, almost bird-like screeching. Despite its emphasis on speed and aggression, the album also includes brief nods toward atmosphere, most notably on the four songs written by Infernus, such as “Måneskyggens Slave [Moonshadow’s Slave],” which contrast with the more driving approach of those written by drummer Goat Pervertor. Now widely regarded as a classic album, the ever-pragmatic Infernus is nonetheless not keen to give his own recollections or evaluations.

  Antichrist, released 1996, showcased Gorgoroth’s more atmospheric face.

  “You have a goal and the intention is clear, then you try and make it according to plan,” he explains coldly. “To speculate to which degree everything turned out as planned or not is… it appears to me empty talk. Listening to a musician or painter talk about what he did at the time… I get a bad feeling when I listen to such talk. On the day of the release of an album, or the finishing of a painting, then the bonds should be cut off; to talk about how things were and how things came is not decent I think. I liked the album and when it was being released I was very happy with what we’d achieved, whether I like it today or not is not important.”

  Following the release of Pentagram, the band opted to sign with German label Malicious Records. Despite turning down an offer from Moonfog—the label of Satyricon’s Satyr—the band did begin working with one half of the Satyricon duo, namely Frost (Kjetil Haraldstad), who joined as a session drummer following Goat Pervertor’s decision to leave the band. Also exiting around this time was Samoth, leaving Infernus to handle all guitars and bass on second album Antichrist, recorded sporadically between December 1994 and January 1996. A twenty-five-minute gem, Antichrist saw a considerable expansion of the Gorgoroth sound, with sole composer Infernus developing the epic and melancholy atmosphere that he had touched upon in Pentagram. The slow and lurching “Sorg” introduces chanted vocals combined with surprisingly emotive guitar passages, while the despairing, self-titled number “Gorgoroth” utilizes fast, treble-heavy guitars and surprisingly expressive bass work to hypnotic effect.

  While Infernus blames himself for what he believes was a step down in production values, the album’s co-producer, Grieghallen resident Eirik “Pytten” Hundvin, who produced the first album alone, is positive in his recollections: “Gorgoroth developed from Pentagram to a colder, more hardcore black metal sound … Roger is a really hard-working musician. He’s got really clear ideas about stuff and he was working hard both in keeping the sound as he wanted it and doing his own guitar parts.”

  Despite a short play length, Antichrist proved a varied work, with contrast provided by a number of more thrashy, straightforward songs such as the stomping and surprisingly catchy “Possessed (By Satan).” A similar swagger is evident in the sleeve notes where, after thanking the other “great and skilful [sic] musicians” who appear on the album, Infernus states that “He will also use this opportunity to congratulate, and say thanx to himself for doing his mesmerizing electric guitarsolos, hunting the Christians, writing his poetry of Darkness and Satan, for raping the nuns and kicking the lambs of Christ in the head…” Not far beneath this statement is a dedication to Euronymous (who Infernus explains was originally set to sign Gorgoroth on his Deathlike Silence label) and a large picture of the man himself.

  “I met him some times and spent some time at his place but I would not say I knew him as a person,” Infernus reflects. “He was charismatic and strong-willed I would say. Maybe one should in retrospect say confused, but he was an early part of the history, forming the direction of a scene, so if we should cut it down to the basics I would say he had a hard will and charisma. He was some years older and to the degree that I look up to anyone who has drive, who has ambitions, I would say, yes, I looked up to him. He made himself goals and did what it took to go there.”

  Half the vocals on Antichrist were performed by one Thomas Kronenes, otherwise known as Pest (Norwegian for pestilence or plague), who joined the band after Hat (who Infernus describes as “a good guy … but tired of metal, and black metal in particular,”) left the group during recording. Pest had been introduced to the band thanks to a drummer known as Grim (Erik Brødreskift), who had previously played with Immortal and would also appear on Gorgoroth’s next album, 1997’s Under the Sign of Hell.

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��It was back in September 1995 as I remember,” recalls Pest. “I was doing a show with my other band Obtained Enslavement and at that point I guess Hat had already left the band. Infernus and Grim came to the show to get a feel for me as a singer and came backstage after the show to ask me if I would be interested in joining them, at that point just for the London show with Cradle of Filth and Primordial … but one thing led to another and I guess we were all satisfied with the way things worked out.

  “I knew some of the vocals had already been recorded and it wasn’t my album or even my songs, so it wasn’t a big deal, it was just cool to finish it. I’d say that definitely Hat is a very, very extreme vocalist and at no point whatsoever can you really catch any lyrics. On songs like ‘Possessed by Satan’ I worked a bit more on the pronunciation of the lyrics. I think it was more appropriate for that song to do the vocals a little bit differently, the feel of the song is more like Bathory, so there’s that half-screaming, half-singing where you can actually hear the words.”

  The next album (the third and final chapter in what is sometimes viewed as a classic trilogy) was released with the title Under The Sign of Hell (surely revealing another Bathory inspiration). It proved another storming record, combining the driving aggression of Pentagram with the melancholy and epic atmosphere found on Antichrist. The bluster in parts of that latter record is also present, as evident in the gloriously pompous “Profetens Åpenbaring [Prophet’s Revelation]” and the irresistible black thrash of “The Rite of Infernal Invocation.” Curiously, the band would eventually release a complete rerecording of the album entitled Under the Sign of Hell 2011, though predictably fans unanimously opt for the original, despite—or perhaps because of—its rougher sound.

  “I still look at it—and I think a lot of our fans would agree—as some of the strongest material as far as Gorgoroth releases go,” comments Pest. “For me Under the Sign of Hell is like Slayer’s Reign in Blood, or [Metallica’s] Master of Puppets, along those lines. I also thought it was important for Under the Sign to have some of that vocal extremity so you can’t catch everything, although that was largely due to the production.”

  With three warmly received records behind them, the group set off on their first headlining tour, and while in Germany were approached by representatives of the native label Nuclear Blast, with whom they soon signed. This move would cause no small amount of controversy within the underground, since the label—who were in the process of signing several successful black metal bands including Dissection and Dimmu Borgir—were considered to be a major label and also had Christian connections.

  Certainly, the first product of this surprise collaboration, the 1998 album Destroyer (or to give its full, Nietzsche-inspired title: Destroyer, or About How to Philosophize With the Hammer) did little to put fan’s minds at rest. A combination of new and older, unreleased material, it was undoubtedly an incoherent experience, not helped by the fact that the album features no less than nine musicians, with a lineup variation on almost every song. Infernus handled, at various times, guitars, bass, vocals, and drums, with second guitarist Tormentor the only other real constant. Under the Sign drummer Grim had departed soon after that recording (sadly killing himself two years later), as had vocalist Pest.

  “We did a support tour with Dissection and Satyricon in ’96, then another tour that we headlined in ’97 with Mystic Circle from Germany, then in between the two tours we recorded Under the Sign of Hell,” Pest recalls. “It was during the second tour that made me decide to leave the band, it was nothing personal with the band or anything but I had Obtained Enslavement going and the plan was to concentrate on that, though it didn’t exactly work out. A lot of Destroyer had been recorded ahead of time, because when we did the ’97 tour and I decided to leave the band, there was an agreement between myself and Infernus that we would finish up a few tracks in the studio.”

  Predictably, the record felt more like a compilation than an album, not least due to the inconsistent production and the fact that no less than four vocalists appear over the course of eight songs. “Destroyer was recorded over a long time span and much of it… well, I would say it was the weakest album of the band,” admits Infernus. “We were too much in a hurry and wanted to release something, and it was something which was not solid or mature enough.”

  The album is perhaps most notable for its introduction of Kristian “Gaahl” Espedal, a vocalist who would eventually play a large part in bringing the group to greater notoriety, both within the black metal movement and outside of it. “We come from more or less the same area and we went to the same schools at some time,” explains Infernus. “I’m a bit older than him, and we didn’t socialize as kids, but I was aware of him and chose him when we needed a vocalist due to his work in [his solo project] Trelldom.”

  Raising Hell: The original lineup of Gorgoroth: Goat Pervertor, Infernus and Hat, in 1994.

  Gaahl duly accepted the invitation but joined the group so near to the album’s completion that he could only contribute to the opening title track, and indeed is scathing about the album, describing it to me today as “the worst album I know within black metal.” It would not be until 2000’s Incipit Satan that Gaahl would appear as the primary vocalist, recording in Sweden’s Sunlight Studio with guitarists Infernus and Tormentor, new bassist King Ov Hell (Tom Cato Visnes), and drummer Sersjant (Erlend Erichsen), also known for his work in Bergen death metal act Molested.

  Having a more traditional lineup certainly didn’t make for a more traditional-sounding album however, and Incipit Satan proved an even more bewildering listen than its predecessor, due in large part to the industrial elements added by guest member Daimonion, better known as Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved. First emerging during the opening title track—bringing things to a brief but jarring standstill only a minute into the song—the synths and electronics return sporadically throughout the record, most notably on the ambient number “Will To Power”—another Nietzsche phrase.

  “We wanted to produce more sound effects on the album and I was hanging out with Ivar of Enslaved, so it was a natural thing to see if he could make his mark on the product,” explains Infernus. “I was fond of the sound of the Sunlight Studios—I liked the production of [Darkthrone’s] Soulside Journey and early Entombed—and wanted to try out something like that, that’s why we recorded there. I was also tired of the process of making an album in Bergen—you can’t separate work from slumber or socializing. At that point in time I wanted everyone to be prepared to go to the studio and stay in the studio until it was done.”

  If the electronic touches weren’t enough to shock the longtime Gorgoroth fan base, then the final number surely was, thanks not only to its name—“When Love Rages Wild in My Heart”—but the crooning Elvis/Danzig-style vocals of Michael Krohn, well known within Norwegian rock circles for fronting the band Raga Rockers.

  “I was from earlier in this band having two different vocalists on an album,” Infernus comments, “and also after two weeks the vocalist we had on the album went home without finishing the product. I wanted something different and a friend of mine had some time available, and we’d been socializing somewhat before that and we needed a vocalist and I like his vocals—although in a different setting—so I said, ‘Let’s try it’ and we enjoyed the result. If people want to cry about such things let them do so, it’s not a concern. We don’t feel a duty to please, the only thing that I should be able to feel is that it sounds right, that’s the only thing that matters.”

  Incipit Satan is clearly something of an experiment, and it’s notable that it was released at a time when many of the band’s peers were also moving beyond their more conservative black metal beginnings. As to the surprisingly positive song titles, most notably “A World To Win,” “Unchain My Heart!!!” and the final track, Infernus is unwilling to confirm whether these reflected a more positive attitude in the mind of their creator.

  “I wouldn’t go into discussing the lyrics in particular,” he says, frownin
g. “I’m not a very… I would say that I don’t have big shifts, my psychology is rather stable. It’s not as if I am very much more affected by such issues as love—or am a happy guy—one year and not the next. I would say I am emotional, but I’ve never regarded myself as exceptionally so.”

  Whatever feelings Infernus was experiencing during the writing process, the atmosphere during the actual recording does not appear to have been a happy one. “It’s an album that carries more anger in the studio than on the recording itself,” explains Gaahl. “There were maybe too many egocentric persons, especially referring to my good friend Erlend Erichsen, the drummer. He’s a character that works solely with his feelings, logic doesn’t need to be present in his performing and I think that to find solutions to make that album was very interesting. It was extremely tense. Insane at times. We couldn’t be in the studio at the same time, some of us. We knew what would happen if things didn’t work a bit, so we were good at staying out of each other’s way. A lot of artistic credibility in a way, especially with the drums… if [the drum parts] would have been changed or repaired it could easily have turned into a bloodbath.” He laughs. “Of course, I stick to the side of the drummer in this situation … He’s probably more of an extreme than I am. I’m like… I won’t do things if I can’t put myself into it, but he will force himself into it, no matter what. That’s also the reason I don’t sing on the final track, it’s not a song I want to touch. I’ve heard it through once and it’s just bogus in a way, there’s a lot of good melodies but it’s been cut to pieces … I think the vocals are completely bullshit.”