2000 – In Depth Zine - Interview with Tormentor
Norwegian black metallers, Gorgoroth, are back! Their latest release, "Incipit Satan," is a work of pure evil. The songs are a bit more refined and mature, but it's the same black metal you've grown to love. I recently got the chance to chat with Tormentor. Below we discuss the new album, the many line-up changes over the years and whether or not Gorgoroth writes love songs! Dive in and fill your head with all this extreme knowledge.
Meilani: How long did it take to make "Incipit Satan?" Lyrics and all. Tormentor: Well, we were in the studio, Sunlight Studios, we used three weeks for recording and another week for mixing. Before that we rehearsed for a couple of months. We don't rehearse very much, we just rehearse right before the album. The music is mainly written by me and the other guitarist, Infernus. We get together and arrange the music and mix it and get together with all the guys.
M: Was the recording process for this album any different from the recording process of the previous albums? T: Well, it was different. And that is what we wanted. We all live in the city of Bergen, in Norway. The studio we have been using is in the city. So, on the former albums we went to the studio and did what we had to do then got back to work or whatever and this time we got to Stockholm, Sweden. You're 100% into working with music all the time. So, you don't have other things to worry or to care about. It feels good actually. :)
M: When you feel it's ready to make an album, do you write the songs when you feel it's time to make an album or are you constantly writing songs? T: No. We're working quite different. I try to make music when I feel like doing it and I just record it on an ordinary tape recorder just to remember the ideas to bring back in when we're all together. When we release an album and we do some touring and then we don't rehearse or do anything. About 4 or 5 months then it's time to do something again. It feels quite natural. It feels very healthy to do it that way, then you don't get tired or anything. It's perfect.
M: What influences your material? Do you live by certain philosophies? T: Yeah, yeah. It's very important that we have a conflict to work with. You get a little at ease if you have certain topics that are supposed to be expressed through the album. That's what we start with to work with the concept. On "Destroyer" some of the concepts are almost always influenced by a lot of philosophy like Nietzsche. For me, it's a lot of other philosophers as well because I am studying philosophy at the University. I'm always reading a lot of different stuff. Infernus is more into the more religious things, also esoteric thoughts and religious directions. It's very important because I think a lot of the bands, they just make something. For us, it's very important to have ideas, something to lie in the background. It puts some substance to the music to the songs. That's important. M: Do you have certain works you recommend? T: For me personally, I love the works by Federic Nietzsche. There is a lot of secondary literature about the guy, which is really good just to get into the world that he deals with.
M: Who did the artwork for the album? T: The front cover is done by a guy called Nietcha (sp?). I've never read about this guy but he did some cool things. He made some paintings to his book. This picture with the eagle with the snake around it's neck symbolizes pride and courage. The sun in the background coming up is like the dawn of the new age. That why we called the album "Incipit Satan," which means this is a brand new start, the beginning of Satan. It fits the concept perfectly. The artwork on the back is done by the same guy who painted Morbid Angel's "Blessed Are The Sick." The women who made the cover for us found it on the Internet and manipulated it a bit and it looks really good and I like it a lot. She put some cool colors and background in it.
M: What is your ultimate goal or message being in Gorgoroth? T: For me personally, it's to do exactly the things I want to do. And that's just playing brutal music. I'm also a fan of the older American bands: Slayer, Possessed, Sadist, and Morbid Angel. A lot of the music is made in the spirit of those bands and also the German thrash bands. When it comes to the concept and the topics, it's more basic satanic message. Especially the freeing of the individual from the boundaries put upon them by religion and society in general.
M: Do you guys have any future plans with this album? Tours? T: Yes, well, we have a tour in May. It's a European tour. We're going to headline with this Brazilian band called Krisiun and Soul Reaper from Sweden and Old Man's Child from Norway's going to join. The bands are quite different but we all stand for the same kind of things. In the summer I think we are going to do some festivals and some single gigs around Europe. I really hope that we can go to the US someday because I have never played there before. That would be really cool to go there. I hope we could perhaps co- headline with one of the bigger American bands like Morbid Angel or Deicide. That would be perfect.
M: For those of us who haven't been fortunate to see you guys yet, can you describe what your performance is like, maybe visually and musically? T: Gorgoroth is very simple. No synth. Very easy to reproduce the songs to play live. I like to play live because it sounds pretty cool. Visually we're still doing the old fashion style with spike and corpse paint and leather. A lot of the band today have tried to move away from it. I think it is the perfect way to express Gorgoroth. It's a lot of aggression and a lot of energy live. You won't be disappointed.
M: What do you think of America so-called "heavy music" scene as opposed to Europe's "heavy music" scene? T: Well, I'm not very into the new bands in the US. The last stuff I bought which I found really good was like Angelcorpse and I still buy the Morbid Angel albums and I like Deicide. But I'm more into the old, brutal death metal stuff. When I speak with Americans, they always say that the metal scene is really bad. That, of course, is very sad. I check out albums and I find some that are decent. A week ago I bought some albums from a band called Gold Snake. I think they're from California or something. It's really great. It's in the spirit of Black Sabbath. There's a lot of good American bands though. Germany has a great metal scene.
M: I read somewhere that someone described you as "the most satanic band in the world." Do agree with that? T: (laughing) Yeah, top ten! We're the most satanic band... I can agree with that at one point. We have a message with the music. That's our definition of Satanism. It works perfectly for us. It's a little bit in the essence of all Satanism. It's very dogmatic. It's all about freeing yourself from boundaries. I don't believe in morals, but I don't believe in killing anything for fun. Gorgoroth is a very satanic band.
M: Is there anything about yourself or the band as a whole that would shock the fans? T: That's a hard question. I've never thought about it. I guess there is something, but it feels quite natural to us. We all have jobs or our studies. We are pretty normal people. We just have this art thing in Gorgoroth where we can express things that we want to express. It's not like you go home, paint and then you're evil and bad (laughter).
M: Do you feel that the numerous band changes over the years have affected the sound of Gorgoroth? T: Yeah, everybody puts something into the band which disappears when they leave the band. Infernus is the only original band member. He has always been the boss in Gorgoroth. Everybody works with the material. It's still Gorgoroth. Through the years, you can hear it's is kind of the same. The spirit is still there.
M: Is "When Love Rages Wild in my Heart" an attempt at a black metal love song? T: No, no I don't think so. Infernus wrote the lyrics and I don't know what it's about actually. It's basic satanic lyrics. We use a little bit other language. We talk about rationality and using your head. It's a little bit hard to explain. It's about the feelings and instincts related to the animal in man. It's a very satanic thing. It's very subtle. I did not understand anything when I saw it. I thought, "what the fuck are you thinking!?" with a title like that. (laughter)