Satyricon is known to have the seed of their album writing sessions come from jamming. With their new orchestral collaboration finished, the last studio album from the band being stripped down and new music on the horizon; we asked Frost about the challenges of creating new work, but keeping with the high expectations for the band:
“It (Satyricon, 2013) was a very demanding album in many aspects, but they mostly had to do with the musicality of it. Getting everything to sound right and in accordance with the ideas that were the fundamental of the different songs. We had to enter a territory where we hadn’t really been before and we had to bring dynamics into the music that we had never done before that albums. This was definitely demanding. But when it comes to the soul and spirit of it, that will always be there. That’s an attitude, and it’s also about a feeling. Both Satyr and I are people that feel the fire burning, that is never something that we doubt. For us it is truly Black Metal because it has that vibe and that energy and that atmosphere. It couldn’t really be anything else, but it doesn’t matter for us what it’s being called. Trying to label something very often has to do with standards and conventions for many people. That is the type of thing we would like to avoid. We don’t want to have all these standards and conventions to adhere to. The way we see it Black Metal is not about all those. It is a very creative and open musical genre. That also means that you could fall pretty long if you do it wrong. It could easily get pretentious. Trying to master something that is dramatic, dark perhaps even theatrical. Something that is epic, something that is grim and cold, all the imagery, everything around it. To manage all of that and do it well, without becoming clowns because of the way you do it. That is actually difficult.”
Satyricon, by Susanne A. Maathuis Photography
Are there any other acts out there right now you feel manage to strike the balance?
“Not that I can come up with, no. Maybe if I got to think a little longer but I really had to say very few do it. We had a discussion, a couple of us, on the bus on the way here earlier today. Which bands have that nerve to it, and only that has that kind of purity. For most part you only find that among the older generation of bands. I think understanding the spirit and the attitude is fundamental. But you also have to be able to express it musically. No make-up or spikes or bullet belts will help you. If you choose to have that, that’s simply because you feel that it is part of the identity and it pertains to a certain tradition and all that. It can never be worth anything in itself. It’s all again in that attitude and feeling. The previous Satyricon album is an example of an album that is really filled to the brim with it. Even if it is varied and if there are ambiances that are something else than pure darkness, that just makes the darkest parts feel even more menacing and gloomy. There is a deeper darkness to it, which you can feel more because of the contrasts. That kind of vibe and feeling quite dominate the album. There is a lot of grimness and aggression. When that beast is roaring you can feel that it is alive. It is not a dead album with dead music on it. I know the next album will also be very vital. Perhaps even more varied and even weirder than the previous one. Because we felt that many doors were opened for us. There will be lots of different types of music, but it will all carry the Satyricon vibe and the Satyricon musical signature. We have to continue to develop and explore other parts, and try to get further. To improve and to learn, that’s the fundamentals if you want to be creative. That’s the driving force here.”
Satyricon’s Live At The Opera DVD is out now from Napalm Records.
WORDS AND CONCERT PHOTOS BY SUSANNE MAATHUIS