Interview with Dead (1989)
from Slayer #10
How come you left MORBID and moved to Norway to join Mayhem?
As everyone know .. or should now is that MORBID never was a real band. However
after the "December Moon" demo the band kinda split up. I don't know the reason
why, but we were all very different and couldn't compromise on how MORBID should
be or sound like. What't most mysterious to me is how everybody could change so
much. When I and John formed the band the band was looking for some members for
the band and asked them about the thought of having a Black Metal band as Black
Metal should be, but it never turned out that way. They all seemed to be totally
into the idea at first, but ... well .. I must say that I don't think the 2nd
MORBID demo is in the same vein as the first. But why the hell do I talk about
MORBID in an interview when the band never should have been featured???? I
talked to EURONYMOUS on the phone and he explained how his view of how the most
brutal stage show would be and we discussed the problem that everybody wants
everything to be so normal, boring and wimpy. And we totally agreed on that, I
should come over and try out some rehearsals, to find out how I would fit in the
band. And I guess I do fit 'cos I've been singing here ever since. But the
problems was that short after I joined the band we were out of rehearsal
places...
You have said that the "Deathcrush" mLP will be released again, what about it?
We want to release it again, but we just don't know how the hell we can afford
it. It was wrong to limit it and now the copies are being sold for far too much
money and that wasn't the idea at all. Those who want it can't get it unless
they are millionaires. We will never release anything limited with MAYHEM again.
Tell me about your new LP "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas". When will it be out?
Any old MAYHEM songs on it?
Good question... I wish I knew when! It's planned to contain 8 tracks and to be
released on D.S.P. as anti Mosh 003. When the 2nd edition of the MERCILESS LP
has sold out and paid, the next band will go into studio (IMPERATOR from POLAND).
When their 1st edition has paid we'll go into a studio and record our LP. After
the tour we have planned, if it doesn't fuck up, we will have a session of
concentrated work on the material that is missing for the LP. I can't say much
more about the release.
How would you describe a gig with MAYHEM, with all your effects?
We haven‘t had a real gig yet, 3 shows in Norway, but only one with parts of our
stage show. We had some impaled pig heads, and I cut my arms with a weird knife
and a crushed coke bottle. We meant to have a chainsaw, but the guy who owned it,
had left when we came go get it. That wasn't brutal enough1 Most of the people
in there were wimps and I don‘t want them to watch our gigs! Before we began to
play there was a crowd of abut 300 in there, but in the second song "Necro Lust"
we began to throw around those pig heads. Only 50 were left, I liked that! The
non evil wimps shall listen to our music. We had a great time throwing the heads
on each other. I got angry at some idiots who had their heads up in the air, so
I wiped the blood on my arms all over again, We wanna scare those shouldn't be
at our concerts, and they will have to escape through the emergency exit with
parts of their body missing, so we can have something to throw around. Some
imagine for some weird reason that Death Metal is something normal and available
for everyone. Unfortunately they are right... If you have seen pictures of bands
like DEFECTION, BENEDICTION or RIGHTEOUS PIGS etc. you know what I mean. If you
go into an ordinary school, you will surly see half of them wearing MORBID
ANGEL, AUTOPSY and ENTOMBED shirts, and once again i will vomit! Death Black
Metal is something all ordinary mortals should fear, not make into a trend! Some
years ago ut dud not exist at all. When MORBID had it's first gigs almost no one
had heard had heard that kind of music before. METALLICA or VNA... But hopefully
those who jumped on to Death Metal will leave it soon to the real people who
have always listened to it. It took some years or so till the trendy HC bands
jumped over to Grind. It took shorter time till Grind was out, and I hope it
won't take long before they leave Death Metal to us who do not choose music
after fashion. That's one reason for having a stage show. The wimps will not
ever understand it, and I won't explain it to them either. But they got pissed
off at our shows and that is what we want. If someone doesn't like blood and
rotten flesh thrown in their face they can FUCK OFF, and that's exactly what
they do. We are trying to turn the scene back to what it once was, when no Death
Metallers were wearing Adidas shit and looked totally normal. The hassle is of
course to bring stuff from the slaughterhouse to gigs abroad.
What is your opinion on Satanism and Occultism?
That's a great possession of mine! But to learn about Magic takes time. It‘s
necessary to know a lot about it before trying some curse on the neighbors or
something like that. It needs a lot of time. I don‘t have much time, especially
right now. But I'm more into legends of Eastern Europe. They are not known of
here, but people still believe in them. Each castle has got it's own history
with a bloody past... that‘s what obsesses me most. The Balkan countries is
where I want to live.
Do you relate to their bands?
Yes, some...
What are your main influences?
I think we now have captured an own style, but from the start it was only VENOM
that existed. That can be heard in the "Pure Fuckng Armageddon" demo, the one I
like the best. As for me I'm influenced by the Carpathian castles and Pophyrians."
Tell me something about your lyrics... What does the contents explain?
So far, I've written the lyrics to all the songs after "Deathcrush": "Funeral
Fog", "Freezing Moon", "Buried by Time and Dust" and "Pagan Fears". Mostly they
deal with how I feel when I wrote them. It's hard to explain, and they are very
different too. I can explain "Funeral Fog", it‘'s about a legendary place in the
middle of the Carpathian horse shoe. A swampland called Shurlock Basin which is
surrounded by fearful superstition and the weirdest beings are thought to haunt
the place. That I thought about when I write that song and started to imagine a
heavy fog lit up by the full moon. This fog oozed up from that place. Drifting
woefully in silence to extinguish the lives of the local people. And bring their
souls to Lord Satan. "Pagan Fears" is the newest song made by us, and it‘s a bit
strange. It reminds me of "Chainsaw Gutsfuck" but it is not as brutal. Anyway,
the lyrics talk of some people living in an ancient and barbaric society, (Fucking
Hell how I hate the word society, when it is used as a topic in lyrics, but of
course I don't mention that word in "Pagan Fears"!) and the idea, that the past
isn't dying, but remains in some faded reality, and that they'll not die out,
but remain in the past which is actually not dying, to haunt people in the
future, pup up in their minds. The time itself exists and is eternal, so is it
vanishing? They realize they remain forever. That was a strange idea I've walked
around with till I had to write it down. We don't have any concept in particular
in the lyrics and not only I am writing them. Before it was mainly Necro Butcher
who wrote most of the stuff and he has explained to me what it was like. He was
almost asleep, then he suddenly thought of a song title. He had to write it down
quickly. And after some minutes it happened again and again. The day after he
tried to read what he had written down that night and he found out he couldn't
read the handwriting he had written in no light and the pen had been fucked up.
But some lines were readable and they became "Deathcrush". the most difficult
one so far is the one that will be the title track on "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas".
The ›yric is about an extraordinary Evil Coven that are the book. But I must
change a lot of the lyric. That satisfied with the music so we dropped all the
music. Then I found out the lyrics weren't evil enough and it didn't describe
the enormous force enough. Anyway, we will involve ourselves very much in this
particular song.
How is the Norwegian Death Black Metal scene?
Scandinavia hasn't got any scene. Only wimps and trendies are here. Too many
ordinary people and fuckheads! Don't come to Scandinavia! I wanna move from here!
What would you think of people talking shit about you and MAYHEM? Saying that
you are posers because you have such a great live show!
I'm not interested in what they used to listen to or what they are trying to
tell me. We do what we like and that is enough for us.
What are your plans for the near future ?
That once and for all nothing will screw up and rip offs shall shut up so we can
go away on our first abroad tour, which has been delayed for more than two
fucking years now. We were very close many times, but in the last minute we
found out that no gigs were planned. Now it's been a while since I last cut
myself (and others) so I need to a live show. We really need to play live soon.
We also hope our delayed LP can be recorded soon. I hope that the scene will be
better and that people will realize that rip offs, trends and wimps are ruining
it!
Last words...
What would that be?? - Wipe your ass folks!