METAL REFERENCE interview with Infernus - September 2003, by Metal Reference
One of those early afternoons in September, 2003, Gorgoroth guitarist and unofficial band leader, Infernus, phoned yours truly in order straighten things up in the wake of the sixth full length from the Norwegian, Bergen-based act. The album entitled Twilight of the Idols - In Conspiracy with Satan has been issued on Nuclear Blast Records as we speak, and Infernus is seemingly satisfied with the product.
”We basically began the writing process following the recording of Incipit Satan (the previous album, the editor) in 1999, but it was our bass player, King ov Hell, who wrote most of the music”, Infernus tells me.
“And as you might know, our vocalist Gaahl went to prison for a year... and then he was suddenly incarcerated a second time, and this caused quite a delay. We never thought about replacing Gaahl, but it was obviously a huge problem that our vocalist was absent. I have no problem with the fact that King ov Hell wrote the music, because he was the one with the right inspiration, and the album turned out quite well. The title refers to Nietzsche’s book The Twilight of the Idols, which was his grand declaration of war on all the prevalent ideas of his time.
We decided to use a local studio in Bergen, Shimmer Recordings. On the last album, we used Sunlight Studios in Sweden, and before that Grieghallen (notorious studio of infamous producer Pytten, the editor). We could have gone to Florida to record the album if we wanted to, but we decided to stay home... and this was necessary as the recording process took over a year to finish. We’re the first metal band to record in Shimmer Recordings, which is known for recording pop music, but we don’t care. We’ve previously mixed our music in Polar Studios (famous studio, where Abba recorded several masterpiece, the editor)”, Infernus continues.
We’ve just begun touring in support of the album, and we’ve recruited a new second guitarist, Apollyon (renowned member of Aura Noir and Cadaver, the editor), who shares the same philosophy, musical ideas and background as us, and he’s a perfect match. It’s not up to me to explain or discuss, why Tormentor (previous guitarist in Gorgoroth, the editor) resigned from the band. We’ve just performed with Apollyon at the Hole In The Sky Festival in Bergen, and we’re on the verge of touring South America. We were supposed to perform a few shows in Serbia, but the arrangers had to cancel in the eleventh hour”, Infernus concludes before rounding up the conversation with the usual diplomatic phrases and Hails to Satan.