Contributing writer Chris “Potable” Krovatin is the author of two young adult novels, Heavy Metal & You and Venomous. He is currently working on multiple new writing projects, as well as new material with his New York metal band Flaming Tusk. Many people call Chris an alcoholic. He prefers the term “mixologist.” Join him as he makes a series of potables inspired on songs and albums by his favorite extreme-metal bands and serves them to his unwitting friends.
Plenty of modern-day kultists laugh at black metal’s corpsepaint-and-leather imagery, but no one fucks with Immortal. While many black-metal bands were shying away from the Kiss-like origins of the scene, Immortal were owning it. And as if it weren’t enough that they’re grimacing badger-faced night warriors who worship a raven-headed deity in a mountainous wasteland they made up—the music, man. Songs like “Damned In Black,” “Tyrants,” and the inimitable “Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)” stripped away the genre’s newfound love of goth symphonics, returning it to the shred-heavy thrashiness that made Venom and Celtic Frost the legends they are.
My Immortal drink had to reflect the band—abrasive, swift, awesome, but still straightforward and simple. I also wanted to use ingredients from the band’s native Norway. A boiler maker-esque shot-drop would do. For the beer, I decided to use Norwegian Bøkkol, or Bock beer, a heavy brew meant to be sipped and savored, not pounded. For the shot, I decided to do a half-and-half of Jäger—hail Satan—and Linie Aquavit. Linie is fascinating—to obtain its nutty, biting flavor, the liquid has to be transported by ship over the equator twice (the word ‘linie’ means ‘line’). It is, I imagine, a beverage oft enjoyed between frozen raids on the mountains of Blashyrkh.
[futureusgallerycaption id="attachment_16543" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Immortal's 'Norden On Fire'"]
Immortal’s “Norden On Fire”
1 bottle—eight to 12 oz—of Bock beer, preferably Bøkkol.
Jägermeister
Linie Aquavit
Pour beer into pint glass. Pour a shot equal parts Jäger and Linie. Drop shot into beer and drink swiftly.
Reactions From Friends:
Alex: Blargh!
Andy: Hugh!
Bernard: Ugggh!
[futureusgallerycaption id="attachment_16545" align="alignright" width="225" caption="The author"]
Final Rating:
Fail! The flavor of Jäger-diluted Linie and full-bodied beer is a sudden assault on the senses that results in gagging and stomach trouble (See photo). More so, all of these ingredients are far better served on their own or chasing another than as an epic single gulp. Only consume if you’re preparing for the most ferocious battles in the north.
If you or your dirtbag friends can come up with metal-themed cocktails, send your recipes to krovatinc@gmail.com. Remember, though, these should be metal-themed and original, not the usual headbanger fare like Blacktooth Grins and Butt Burners. Use your imagination, and get slaughtered!
]]>Check out the title track from March of the Norse below:
Immortal lyricist (and ex-guitarist) Demonaz Occulta will release his first solo album, March of the Norse, on May 17th in North America (April 1st in Europe) via Nuclear Blast Records. It will be available as digipak-CD, colored vinyl (black and blue), picture disc and a mail-order edition, which is strictly limited to 500 copies worldwide and comes in a “lush box” with a poster flag. All versions can be ordered at this location.
Back in 2007, Demonaz released demo versions of two songs—”Over The Mountains” and “Dying Sun”—via MySpace. Both tracks were recorded in 2007 at Soundsurf Studios in Bergen, Norway with Ice Dale (Enslaved, Audrey Horne) on guitar, Armagedda (ex-Immortal, I) on drums and fellow Immortal member Abbath on bass and backing vocals. According to Demonaz, his solo material is described as “another cold dimension in my musical and lyrical world.”
Preview a new track, “All Blackened Sky,” below.
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Brandon Geist
Editor in Chief
Tombs, Path of Totality
“This badass NYC band totally blows away their last record with this new one, which isn’t out ’til June 7. A great mix of muscular black metal, shoegazing post-rock, and gothy miserablism.”
Kvelertak, Kvelertak
“Chris Krovatin gave this three stars (read his review here). And it really is just a three-star record. But that doesn’t mean I’m not addicted to it. Rippin’ black-metal-inflected punk rawk, and the perfect soundtrack to a barroom brawl in some Norwegian dive.”
Slayer, God Hates Us All
“Started listening to this again while working on our Big Four special issue, which is out everywhere on April 5—and kicks ass, IMHO. I love Lombardo and it’s cool that he’s back with the band, but this really is the last truly awesome Slayer album, full of memorable riffs and scathing, anthemic lyrics that don’t tip over into self-parody.”
Kory Grow
Senior Editor
Ozzy Osbourne, Blizzard of Ozz, Ozzy Live, and Diary of a Madman Reissues
“These classic albums and newly discovered live recording sound great, thanks to some expert remastering—they come out on May 31. Plus, the previously unreleased Randy Rhoads solo, ‘RR,’ might not be polished enough to challenge Van Halen’s throne for the metal guitar solo on ‘Eruption,’ but it’s pretty damn good.”
Demonaz, March of the Norse
“Finally, the original guitarist in Immortal has released his solo album after tendonitis forced him to bow out of his guitar duties in that group. Guess what? It sounds like Immortal.”
Mogwai, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
“Not has heavy as previous releases, this record still has plenty of the gargantuan shoegaze-style riffs that were ripped off so frequently by bands like Isis early last decade.”
Josh Bernstein
Creative Director
Volbeat, Beyond Hell/Above Heaven
“This has been on my weekly playlist since it came out. I have yet to grow tired of it, and enjoy the Hetfield-isms in the vocals more and more each time. ’16 Dollars’ is definitely the new fave.”
Social Distortion, Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
“In listening to so much Volbeat and reading their cool interview with Mike Ness, I ended up having to naturally revisit some classic Social D. I think I still have the cassette around somewhere.”
Lamb of God, Wrath
“In preparing for my upcoming wedding, I go to the gym every morning, which is brutal— the only thing that gets me through it is this album and Sacrament played back-to-back. I imagine Randy yelling at me to lift more weight.”
Stephen Goggi
Art Director
Lifetime, Hello Bastards
“I’m listening to this album because I have Jersey pride and its the best ’90s punk album to come out of Jersey.”
Radiohead, King of Limbs
“I’m a Radiohead fan even though it seems like every other album they put out is kind of crappy. Haven’t gotten a good listen to this one yet, but thus far I’m digging In Rainbows quite a bit more.”
Bad Religion, No Control
“This one takes me back to high school and cutting class to skate. Ahhh, nostalgia.”
Jimmy Hubbard
Photography Director
Nails, Unsilent Death
Discordance Axis, The Inalienable Dreamless
Red Fang, Murder The Mountains
Samantha Xu
Associate Photo Editor
Ghost, Opus Eponymous
“I like how the singer sounds like Weird Al.”
Death From Above 1979, You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine
“Jealous of all the people who got crushed to death in the riot at their first reunion show at SXSW.”
Electric Wizard, Black Masses
“Pot.”
Josh Hart
Web Producer
Mogwai, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
“It’s virtually impossible for Mogwai to please all of their fans on a given record, but for my money Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is easily their best record since Rock Action. I normally listen to Mogwai for the instrumental goodness, but I don’t even mind the appearance of some auto-tuned vocals on ‘George Square Thatcher Dance Party.’”
Oceansize, Self-Preserved While The Bodies Float Up
“Oceansize are one of my all-time favorite bands, so I was pretty bummed when they announced their breakup recently. Their last record was undoubtedly their heaviest, but like all of Oceansize’s albums, it takes a few spins to really make a strong impression.”
Biohazard, Mata Leão
“Came across ‘These Eyes (Have Seen)’ on shuffle one day this week and had to go back and give Mata Leão a listen. The name means ‘lion killer’ in Portuguese, which is also the name of a blood choke used in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and that’s pretty fucking metal.”
Every time Norwegian black metallers Immortal hit North American shores it’s a special, exclusive event, with extremely limited tour dates and only one special guest opener. As such, tickets go like hot cakes and old and young ‘bangers alike crawl out of their holes to experience the trio’s frosty, hard-rocking metal.
For their latest six-city assault, supporting their 2009 album All Shall Fall, the Bergen heavies tapped cult American black metal group Absu. And unfortunately for me, I arrived at the sold-out New York show just as Absu were finishing up their last number, “Never Blow Out the Eastern Candle.” I was bummed, as the crowd was seriously excited by their set.
After a very long wait and an epic intro tape, drummer Horgh, bassist Apollyon and the one-and-only Abbath (guitars and vocals), marched onstage with conviction, and ripped right into All Shall Fail’s title track, followed by “Sons of the Northern Darkness” (from the 2002 album of the same name) and another new one, “The Rise of Darkness.”
Despite their unabashed energy, the set got off to a bit of a shaky start, mostly due to minor technical problems. Unfazed, Immortal soldiered on with their signature brand of frostbitten extreme metal. Abbath—who has got to be one of the most entertaining and charismatic figures in black metal—never fails to deliver with stage banter and theatrical presence that recalls Kiss and Motörhead more than Slayer or Possessed.
IMMORTAL LIVE IN 2007 “SOLARFALL”:
Throughout the 75+ minute set, the band delivered a good amount of tracks from All Shall Fall (including “Hordes to War” and “Norden on Fire”) and Sons of Northern Darkness (“One by One,” “In My Kingdom Cold” and the fan-favorite “Tyrants”), with only two tracks from their genre-redefining album At the Heart of Winter (“Withstand the Fall of Time” and “Solarfall”). They also worked in the title cut from Damned in Black, “Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms, from Battles in the North, and “The Sun No Longer Rises,” from Pure Holocaust.
I enjoyed the All Shall Fall album, so seeing the new songs was a pleasure. Although I would’ve liked to see the band play a broader selection of cuts outside of Sons, the thrashier style of their later albums works well live.
All told, even with the truly brutal admission price ($45, before fees!) and thin supporting bill, fans still raged heavily with the Norsemen. The Sons of Northern Darkness deliver again!
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Chris Krovatin is the author of two young adult novels, Heavy Metal & You and Venomous. He is currently working on multiple new writing projects, as well as new material with his local New York metal band Flaming Tusk. He is a contributing writer for Revolver and generally comes off as a good-natured pain in everyone’s collective ass.
On February 19, I saw Immortal play with Absu at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. Here’s what I saw.
Percentage of my hangover from last night’s Eyehategod show: 72%.
General attitude about the world: Poor.
Temptation to take one of the seats at the back of Gramercy: High, but I can’t, man. Gotta take pictures. Besides, it’s a fucking show.
Number of long-sleeve Emperor shirts witnessed: 3.
Number of wispy Toki Wartooth-style mustaches witnessed: At least 640.
Number of dudes who might of have been skinheads: 3.
Skinhead or not: That guy has an awesome old-school Death shirt.
Number of bands playing tonight: 2.
Price of a ticket: Almost $80.
If you didn’t think black metal was mainstream: This many metalheads paid this much to see a Norwegian black metal band?
Merch situation: Not great. Lots of shirts, no patches, no nothing. Just shirts all around.
Doesn’t matter: Jesus, the merch table is mobbed! Took me a while to even see that there weren’t patches available.
First on: Absu, from Plano, TX.
Sounds like: A swirling blizzard of gold-tipped razors flying around at the behest of a heavily-tattooed wizard, his hands chapped, his lips cold.
Notable feature: Absu’s lead singer is also their drummer.
How does that work: Dude wears a mic strapped to his head by a studded headband.
Get out: I mean, he also wears weird spandex arm-stockings. And some Celtic Frost-esque eyes-only corpsepaint. He’s going for a look here.
Type of metal that said drummer Proscriptor insists Absu are: “MYTHOLOGICAL OCCULT METAL.”
Bummer: The dude from Absu’s stage banter voice makes him sound a little like Megatron mixed with the Great Gonzo.
Highlights of the set: “Four Crossed Wands (Spell 181),” “Swords & Leather,” and of course, “Nunbarshegunu.”
Back patch of the night: The dude with the gnarly Manilla Road patch.
Number of beers bought: Two. I owe Matt from Heavy Metal Happy Hour a beer, and shit, hair of the dog…
Shameless plug: Heavy Metal Happy Hour at Arrow Bar every Friday from six to nine! Two for one drinks! The only place to hear Deströyer 666 and Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart” back to back.
Number of fans witnessed in actual Immortal-style corpsepaint: 11.
Number of front-row Immortal honeys reenacting the Battles in the North cover: 2.
Eventual dream in life: To mack a chick in corpsepaint.
You or the chick: Both of us. All smearing our corpsepaint together. Spiked leather just starts clattering to the floor.
And now: Immortal, from Bergen, Norway.
Temperature: Grim and frostbitten.
Awesome stage effect of the night: Dropping the logo banner to reveal a massive backdrop of Blashyrkh itself, bathed in the cold light of its black sun.
Band mythology: Many of Immortal’s songs take place in or give reverence to Blashyrkh, a mythical kingdom of stoned and frost invented by the band that’s ruled by a raven-headed god named Mighty Ravendark.
So: There’s that.
Crowd response: Utterly rabid. Everyone’s packed together like sardines, fists in the air.
Outfits worn by the band: Insane studded leather armor.
Number of times singer Abbath does a Gene Simmons impression while playing: 75, 116.
Actually: Overall, these guys are pretty unabashedly proclaiming their love for Kiss. The face-paint, the synchronized headbanging, all of it.
Scowl of guitarist Demonaz Doom Occulta: Immovable and overwhelming.
Best tracks of the set: “Sons of Northern Darkness,” “Damned in Black,” “Tyrants.”
Holy shit: The ultra-long pause in “Tyrants” is such an awesome mindfuck.
Favorite Abbath song banter: “MMMHERE WE GO AGAIN.”
Personal wish: That New York clubs allowed fire-breathing.
Percentage of hangover left upon exiting club: 28%.
New cure for a hangover: Gale-force blasts of wintery hatred, apparently.
Norwegian black-metal legends Immortal conclude their four-date North American tour in support of their excellent new album, All Shall Fall (Nuclear Blast), tonight. This week and last week, we have been posting a lengthy interview Revolver did with frontman Abbath Doom Occulta about his career. For the final entry, he talks about Varg Vikernes (née Kristian Vikernes), the man behind the one-man black-metal group Burzum and one of the most controversial musicians in black-metal history. Vikernes was imprisoned for murdering Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth, the guitarist of the Oslo black-metal group Mayhem, as well as church burnings in the early ’90s. Prior to all of this, Vikernes played in the death-metal group Old Funeral with Abbath across the country from Mayhem in Bergen. Here, Abbath remembers Vikernes from the time before the controversy. Click 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 to read the previous parts of the interview.
REVOLVER Before you were in Immortal, you played in a band called Old Funeral. Burzum’s Varg Vikernes was also a member of that band. What do you remember about him then?
ABBATH Well Varg, or Kristian as we know him, before he changed his name to Varg, was very good guy. We never had problems with him. I remember I invited him into Old Funeral a short while before I left the band. One things for sure, Varg was not the reason I left Old Funeral. It was those two other guys. They didn’t develop in the same direction as me mentally, and I met with Demonaz and we clicked. Since then we have been brothers; we are fucking soul mates. But you know Varg, he wanted to be involved with me and Demonaz’s thing, but we couldn’t involve any others at that point, but he went on with his stuff. And he also got into contact with Oslo, and the rest is history. Now he’s out and I wish him well. I hope he lives a good life for his family for the rest of his life, you know what I mean? I mean he’s been in jail for many, many years, how many years, like 17, 16?
17.
Yeah, I think, sure, he has many of the same ideas about things. But come on, I don’t think he wants to go back there, and he has family and kids. I wish him a good life. Actually he has served his time, and I hope he follows the right path for himself.
But it was a tragedy what happened. Euronymous was also a guy whom we got to know a lot. We had a lot of contact with him. We were not involved with his projects; he was not involved in our projects, but we had a certain kind of respect for each other. And we got to meet him. We came over there sometimes; he came over here sometimes. But Varg. he got very, very involved with him and the scene over there and it all was out of our hands. And what happened was just very tragic, very tragic, I’m still very sad about it.
A lot of things happened back then and after a while, people even got killed or passed away. A lot of young people, like Erik, our old drummer . He was out of the band, we had to fire him —not for his personality—he just didn’t improve. He had to move on and he had problems with depression and he was on medicine. His death happened years after, but I mean a lot of people died for the wrong reasons. Like Mayhem, Euronymous. If he focused more on Mayhem back in those days, Mayhem would be the greatest, biggest bad on the fuckin’ planet right now. Euronymous wanted to do everything himself. He didn’t want to involve anyone and then he got involved with Burzum. I mean we were up there the whole time. We didn’t see everything.
I don’t think Varg will bother anyone anymore, and I don’t think he wants anyone to bother him either. You know what I mean?
I appreciate you being so candid about everything.
Well, usually I don’t talk about Varg, or that whole thing, so please be cautious with what you write.
Old Funeral LP featuring vintage pictures of Abbath (who went by his real first name, Olve) and Varg (miscredited as C. Vikernes)
By Kory Grow // Immortal photo by Peter Beste; Old Funeral image found on Cult Metal
Norwegian black-metal legends Immortal are currently on a four-date North American tour, supporting their latest album, All Shall Fall (Nuclear Blast). For this installment of Revolver’s lengthy interview with frontman Abbath and the band’s lyricist and former guitarist Demonaz—who had to stop playing due to severe tendonitis—we talked about guitar riffs, both for Immortal and Abbath’s band I, which he formed during Immortal’s hiatus. Click 1, 2, 3, and 4 to read the previous parts of the interview.
REVOLVER How did you record All Shall Fall?
ABBATH Horgh went to Abyss to record the drums and I did the guitars and the rest here in Bergen. Then I went to Peter Tägtgren’s place and mixed it. When it came out, the final results of All Shall Fall, it was like “Wow.” At least five of these songs are great live songs.
We’re trying to stay a little fit, none of us are in our 40s but very, very close. I think Demonaz is first, he’s 39 now, and Horgh is becoming 38, and I’m 36 and Apollyon is also 36. We can’t—and we don’t want to—party like the way we did, you know. When we’re out touring we never party the night before a show. If we go to a festival I don’t drink the day before we travel or the day after, you know, and I just can’t wait to get up on that stage you know.
Demonaz, you don’t play in Immortal anymore, but you still play guitar. Did you contribute any riffs to All Shall Fall?
DEMONAZ There was this night I was sitting at my home, very late at night. I couldn’t sleep ’cause I got into this strange mood and had this vision of an opening of a song and I just call Abbath, and said, “Hey, what about this?” It became the opening of “Norden on Fire.” I didn’t even play it on guitar. He worked on it and it came out just the way I showed it to him.
What time of night did you call him?
DEMONAZ 2 o’clock or something.
Did you wake him up?
DEMONAZ He was awake, ’cause he was also in the working process that night. I think that it’s a little telepathic. I can’t explain it when I called him, he was like, “Yeah, just wait two seconds.” He found his guitar, and it just like that. We know that even if we didn’t speak… it just happens sometimes.
Abbath, what other elements inspire your riffs?
ABBATH You can also hear on, for example, At the Heart of Winter, some of the main riffs there are inspired by AC/DC, the “Hells Bells” song. The opening riff on “Mountains of Might” is inspired by Star Trek, the song when the Bird of Prey from when the Klingons come flying in, with the disguise… And you have this riff on Pure Holocaust, which is inspired by the imperial march for Darth Vader, from Star Wars.
But for example, the opening riff on the I album, “The Storm I Ride,” that’s inspired by “Ladies in Waiting” from Kiss, from the Dressed to Kill album in 1975. On the I song “Cursed We Are,” felt more that the opening is inspired by “Bark at the Moon” from Ozzy and at the same time the whole thing is inspired by “I’ve Had Enough (Into the Fire)” from KISS from their 1984 album Animalize.
Why do you think the I album was a success?
ABBATH I didn’t have to prove something to nobody else but to myself with I. I just felt free to make and do an album that I felt like, at that point, without thinking Immortal and it became a very special album I think.
Interview by Kory Grow // Photos by Peter Beste
Norwegian black-metal legends Immortal are currently on a four-date North American tour, playing Brooklyn, tonight. Since we’re excited about this tour, we have been posting a lengthy interview with frontman Abbath and the band’s lyricist and former guitarist Demonaz (read part one here and part two here). For this installment, the duo discuss their relationship, which they’ve both called almost psychic and which as been the band’s foundation since the beginning.
REVOLVER You’ve often spoken in interviews about the connection you guys have, you just described it as telepathic. When did you first kind of start feeling that connection with him?
DEMONAZ When we started this band and when we started to work together. I think that when we work together I know his shit and he knows my shit, in a way, ’cause we never disagree. When we did this album, I think we never disagreed on anything… I really don’t understand it myself, ’cause I work with a lot of other people, too, but with Abbath and me, it becomes Immortal; it becomes this kind of thing, which is very crucial to us.
ABBATH Maybe that’s a problem: We agree too much. But we have Horgh, he doesn’t always agree with us and that helps.
Well how are you different form one another?
DEMONAZ Well, I’m more like ummm… thinking through things. Abbath is more impulsive, and he is a live character. As persons, we are different but we agree on everything. I understand his skills, and he understands my skills, you know, and together we have the skills. It becomes a two-headed monster.
Since you’re talking about the close bind you guys had, what was it that actually led immortal to disband after Sons of Northern Darkness?
ABBATH The band’s spirit was not there. Me and Horgh, we were out, we did the studio, we did the music, the touring, everything, and Demonaz only did all the lyrics. He wasn’t that much involved, just the lyrics, and we didn’t have a permanent bass player. Saroth, he was good onstage and all that, but we didn’t feel like a band at the time you know. So the band’s spirit was not there, so we just took a break and now and also because we were kind of fed up, especially me. We could have continued and made more money, but that’s not the first issue in this band. Immortal is about the brotherhood; Immortal is a sacred thing, you know, it’s not only for the money.
DEMONAZ I think that there wasn’t an issue between me and Abbath or Horgh or anybody else; it was more like everything around us wasn’t right at the time. We didn’t have proper management, and the industry was more interested in us for the money side than the musical side. We felt like it was maybe time to say, “Well let’s put the band on ice for some time and do some thing else ’cause we’ve been doing this for a very long time and we had several issues which happened to us.”
What brought you two together as friends again, what rekindled that?
DEMONAZ Two weeks after we put the band on ice, we didn’t stop seeing each other. Me and Abbath hooked up on doing a project together, ’cause even if the band stopped, we didn’t stop writing music or writing things. Abbath came with his riffs and I came up with this idea of a band name: Instead of making a new band name and trying to make a new band, it will be different. We just want to make “I,” like a monument. He came with his riffs and arrangements, and I came with some ideas and he also worked a little with Ice Dale for the preproduction. Even before the I album came out me and Abbath started to talk about doing immortal again, ’cause during this process we saw that well, I told Abbath, “We have to do Immortal in 2007 and we have to go for a new album.” And he said it to me or I said it to him. We just hooked up on that. It got us back together.
What is it that you learned about Immortal when looking back at it objectively?
DEMONAZ I learned that the band was much bigger for everyone than it was when we were in it. I also realized how much the fans really understand what we do, the die-hard fans, they really understand Immortal much more than I ever was hoping for.
Abbath, what did you learn most from the I project?
ABBATH Maybe that now we can do anything. I found out that my way of writing music is kind of paramount for what this is all about.
Below, I (Abbath is second from right)
Interview by Kory Grow // Immortal photo by Peter Beste
]]>In the second part of Revolver's interview with the members of Immortal, we discuss the way the internet has affected the band. As previously mentioned, the Norwegian black-metal legends will be playing four dates in North America beginning this weekend. To read the first part of this interview, click here.
REVOLVER In the seven years between albums, the internet has become a lot more prevalent in promoting bands. How do you feel about that?
DEMONAZ Only on the internet do they make a lot of parodies. Maybe we should make a Benny Hill T-shirt with Immortal on the front? No, seriously I don’t mean that… Bloggers are always wanting to write some shit about you. I don’t know, I think that is something that follows every band.
Abbath, do the internet parodies bother you?
ABBATH No, no not at all. It did in the beginning, because especially after ’99 when we released At the Heart of Winter, there was this mistake. We were experimenting with this guy and had this photo session with him, and none of the pictures came out right. So with the outfits and everything we had on us, so we decided to not use those pictures. But only a couple of pictures of me and Horgh’s faces, which came out really good. And we sent those pictures on a disk to Osmose and but some-fucking-how all those fucking pictures came over to Osmose and suddenly the whole booklet was full of them and after that, you know, the internet was coming up and we were sitting duck. In Immortal, we have self-irony; we understand, we can have a laugh about it too, but we are a serious band, we take it serious. I mean we still have the same image.
I still use that axe on the new album, you know. People have a laugh about that axe because it was on the Sons of Northern Darkness cover, but for me that’s the ultimate axe. I love that axe and if it for some people looks like a butterfly I can understand that but hey, so what? Maybe it is a butterfly. Maybe that’s the meaning. Like what’s more evil than a butterfly, black butterfly, or a fucking bat? They all come from the freaky kind of nature. Whatever. I mean we’re gonna have the last laugh anyway. The people who do not take us serious… I think it’s our fans doing this.
What do you mean?
ABBATH All this manipulating of Immortal pictures on the net and all this video stuff like “The Call of the Wintermoon” video we did, the first video. That was just a total mistake. It was out of our hands. There was this TV company who just wanted to do this thing with us and we said “OK.” And it was out of our hands suddenly. What can you do? It came out, and now it’s on YouTube for everybody to see, and I thought, That’s shit. That’s fucked. But then I saw they had manipulated it; they had made like a Benny Hill version of it with the Benny Hill music and the fast-forward filming. And then I thought, Fucking hell, that’s funny. That’s really funny. Now I can finally laugh about it, too.
Interview by Kory Grow // Photos by Peter Beste
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