Grave Pleasures were one of those bands that had been stuck on my ‘must check out at some stage’ list, until now. In case you weren’t aware of the history, they originally formed as Beastmilk back in 2010 and put out debut Climax after which came the name change as well as a string of subsequent releases. Plagueboys is the band’s fourth full-length album overall and the follow-up to 2017’s Motherblood. Continue reading
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
Satyricon are arguably one of the most commercially successful band to emerge from the 90’s Norwegian black metal scene. Pushing the fringes of the genre as they went, they’re now about to release a unique DVD Live at the Opera (Napalm Records), of a performance in the Oslo opera house with the Norwegian National Opera Choir. Susanne Maathuis caught up with Frost, the enigmatic drummer of the band, for Ghost Cult after their show in Nijmegen, the first of their short European tour supporting the DVD.
Being that tonight was the first concert of a new tour, we started the conversation with the evenings’ performance:
“We were a bit late so we didn’t actually have a sound check, but we try not to let the crowd notice that. We had a good start, we met a crowd that enjoyed having us here and enjoyed the show that we delivered. It’s good to have the feeling of good contact between crowd and band, that is basically the reason why we’re here. We’re not actually here to entertain ourselves, but to create moments of magic with out audience. This is a good start.”
Touring to support the soon to be released DVD Live at the Opera, with the Norwegian National Opera Choir, we asked about that performance and if it satisfied expectations:
“Absolutely, and we knew it was going to be special when we came up with that idea in the first place. We had gotten to perform one song with the choir at a closed event, ‘To the Mountains’, and we felt afterwards we really just had to do a full show in that setting; The Choir and Satyricon in the Opera house. It turned out that the choir really wanted to do it as well, because they had a blast when we performed together. I think that their enthusiasm was almost as great as ours. And since they were up for it and the choirmaster was up for it, the management at the opera house wanted to make it happen. Everything that needed to be set to make it happen was set and we could make it a proper plan and then realize the plan again and actually getting to the point where it was becoming a show. All the way we were certain that it was going to be an absolutely outstanding experience for us all; for the band, for the choir, for the audience at the Opera house that day. And that’s how it was really. Given the experience we had with that one song, we understood that this couldn’t be wrong. The band could handle the setting, we were absolutely sure about it. We knew that the choir would deliver. The man writing the arrangements for the choir, which would be the same man on this full show project, he understood Satyricon. You need the composer to understand what to achieve. Basically he needed to understand Satyricon’s music, which he did. The choirmaster helped to do it, because his task was to make the choir sing along to Satyricon’s music in a way that Satyricon could perform in the usual way, without really adapting, changing, removing or adding anything. He managed this flawlessly and that shows his skills and his very professional attitude and ability.”
Satyricon, by Susanne A. Maathuis Photography
Will you do more of these special shows, one off concerts? Do you have any ideas or was this just a one time thing?
“Who knows, Satyricon is a band that enjoys doing that sort of thing. I think we’re really fit for taking upon us slightly unconventional tasks, be it this or something else. Perhaps we would do something with the choir again, but in a very different way. All I can say is there have been talks about such things. Whether or not it can be done for practical reasons, we don’t know yet, but I think there is a mutual wish to do something again in those lines.”
“But there could be other things, I mean this tour is an example of us doing something slightly different. We’re jamming a little on stage. Today we played like three pieces that aren’t even finished yet. We have just toyed around a little with this in the rehearsal place and we have started the sense that there is something there that will probably end up as songs on the next album. It’s still too early really say and it could end up being very different from what the audience heard today. It’s still a little fun to do it and it’s a slightly 70s way to do it. The old hard rock bands, they played material in an unfinished form, basically rehearsing it in a live setting, a lot before actually recording it on albums. Many of the great hard rock songs were jams to begin with, that didn’t really have a proper structure. It just came into being as the band jammed on the basic ideas, and they did it live.”
Satyricon, by Susanne A. Maathuis Photography
Satyricon’s Live At The Opera DVD will be released May 1st through Napalm Records, and is available for pre-order in their web-shop.
WORDS AND CONCERT PHOTOS BY SUSANNE MAATHUIS
The day before Easter Sunday we set out to see the Norwegian Satyricon open their latest European tour, the only one of this year they announced. Supporting their recent Live At The Opera (Napalm) DVD, the band have decided to do things in their own time and their own way this time around.
When we arrive just before the time the show is about to start we’re met with closed room doors and a susurrus of rumors in the waiting crowd. Satyricon arrived later than expected, and now the stage still has to be set and soundchecks done. The time is pushed back half an hour, and both supporting acts, Oslo Faenskap and Vredehammer, were reduced to 15 minute sets.
Oslo Faenskap, Photo by Susanne A. Maathuis
Oslo Faenskap take the stage first with fire and verve, determined to show us 15 minutes can be convincing. The crowd however doesn’t agree and no matter how much the band try to be brutal, badass and ‘fucking” make us move, most people stare at them in polite patience. The fact the band play a mix of more modern metal styles, best characterized by metalcore and nu metal influences, and their overblown stage presence as an opener just don’t strike the right chord today, while their effort is praiseworthy.
Vredehammer, Photo by Susanne A. Maathuis
After a quick changeover we get Vredehammer who are clearly unhappy about the unexpected shortening of their set. It means the band only play two songs, as quipped at by their vocalist Per Valla; “this is the shortest set in history”. The crowd responds to the Norwegian black metal outfit better than they did to Oslo Faenskap, and start to warm up. Both bassist and guitarist of the band give a valiant effort, but less than optimal sound on the drums and general mix mean some of the more delicate atmospheres of the band disappear into tinny drums and a general feeling of potential but too little time.
Satyricon, Photo by Susanne A. Maathuis.
And then for the main course of this musical meal: Satyricon. The crowd who had stayed mostly in the back of the room slowly mill forward, finally giving the venue a cozily full feeling. The anticipation in the front few rows can be felt on your skin as an almost electric shiver passes through the crowd when finally the iconic mic-stand, covered in horns, is brought on stage. The band arrives to the tones of ‘Voice of Shadows’ to loud cheers from the audience and a forest of raised fists and horns. The bar is immediately set incredibly high as the band launch into their two hour long set full speed, playing new and old tunes alike, though favoring their post-Vulcano repertoire. The crowd seamlessly answers front man Satyr’s every suggestion, as they shout on command and are coaxed to throw horns and even form a moshpit. Satyr explains that the few tours the band will do from now on will be special, and tonight they would like to share with us some work in progress ideas for songs, as they launch into three instrumental pieces. Sadly in the second of these jams Satyr’s guitar gives out and it takes half the tune to get it set again, but even that cannot ruin the performance as the fans happily listen to what might become new material. Ending the set on the classic ‘Mother North’, to which the full crowd sing along, the band leave the stage. The crowd waits in eager anticipation for their encore, consisting of hit songs ‘Fuel For Hatred’ and ‘K.I.N.G.’, after which a glowing band thank their fans with one of many bows. We leave the venue at the respectable hour of midnight, to the gentle tones of ‘Natt’ as the outro, happily satisfied that a gig that seemed plagued by Murphy’s Law at first persevered and after a rough start soared to heights only a veteran band and like Satyricon can deliver.
Satyricon, Photo by Susanne A. Maathuis.
Satyricon, Photo by Susanne A. Maathuis.
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WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY SUSANNE MAATHUIS