Nearly 20 years ago, in 1999, a black-metal supergroup formed from major players in the metal scene including Norwegian titan Fenriz of Darkthrone, Necrophagia's Killjoy, Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo and Satyricon singer Sigurd "Satyr" Wongraven. While the collective had potential to make it big on heavy-metal star power alone, it never materialized beyond a few demos and remains one of the great "what might have been" situations in the genre's history.
Satyr recently sat down with Landry.Audio to discuss the abandoned project's premature fate and what hope there might be of Eibon ever being resurrected. "Being brutally honest, Philip and I could do Eibon without Fenriz and without our late brother Killjoy, but I think that we should have finished it when we were working on this back in the late Nineties, early 2000s," he stated.
Going into the reasons behind the supergroup's brief lifespan, Satyr explained, "Frankly speaking, it was Philip's addiction at the time that ruined this whole project ... he was beyond fucked up. Yeah, but he really was. We were in the studio trying to do things. I'd come out from the recording room, I'd find him lying, passed out on pills, heroin, whatever, on the floor, with his entourage surrounding him, not wanting to interfere or do anything that could offend him, because he was the big guy."
Despite how the project went south in its original incarnation, Satyr said that he's open to collaborating with Anselmo again in the future. Asked if he would consider reviving Eibon, he said with a laugh, "Every time when my brother Philip and I meet, we talk about it. So that's surely something that we would love to do. But it is hard to make that happen." He added, "I consider Philip one of my very best friends and an outstanding musician, so, in one way or another, I would love to do more music with Philip at some point, that's for sure."
Below, watch Philip H. Anselmo & the Illegals play an epic rendition of Pantera's "A New Level" live at Brooklyn's Saint Vitus:
