HIGHWIRE DAZE interview with Tormentor - 2000, by Highwire Daze Formed in 1992, Gorgoroth represent the true spirit of Norwegian Black Metal! With a fifth album entitled Incipit Satan now being released on Nuclear Blast, the band is bringing their venomous brand of metal to extreme music fans all over the globe. Along with Satyricon and Darkthrone, Gorgoroth are one of the most respected Black Metal bands in the world. We recently had a chance to interview one of the members – it was one of our legendary early morning phone calls – for while it is 5AM here in California, the time in Norway equates to a chilly early afternoon. And it is now that we say greetings to the mighty Gorgoroth... Highwire Daze: Introduce yourself, what you do in Gorgoroth, and tell me how long the band has been together. Tormentor: My name is Tormentor and I am the guitarist of Gorgoroth – there are two guitarists in Gorgoroth right now actually. I’ve been in Gorgoroth since late 96, and this is the second album I performed on. HD: Where is the band based from and what is the music scene like there? Tormentor: We are from the Western Coast of Norway. Most of the guys in Gorgoroth now live in the city of Bergen which is the second biggest city in Norway. But it’s rather small, compared to the cities in the U.S. None of us are from Bergen, we just live here. It’s really a great place for the music scene, because you have Immortal, some of the Enslaved guys live here, Malignant Eternal, Hades – all those people into brutal metal. So it’s a nice place to live. HD: How do you think the new CD Incipit Satan compares to the other ones? Tormentor: I think the new CD is very, very Gorgoroth. But it’s kind of a natural development. I like the old albums a lot, but I think the sound is much better. We wanted a raw, brutal sound but you could still hear what’s happening. The worst thing that can happen is when the sound gets too smooth. So we try to make it a little bit heavier. We’re all into the old black/death metal bands like Possessed, Slayer, and Tormentor from Hungary. HD: Did you write any of the lyrics? Tormentor: No, I don’t write lyrics. I made a couple of songs – I made the title track and some of the others. But all the lyrics were written by Infernus and Gaahl, the vocalist. HD: What does the term Satanism mean to you? Tormentor: We have some different opinions on that within the band, but they all fit pretty well together. To me, I’m a totally anti-religious person. We just use Satan as a symbol of a chaos element, which I find meaningful in my existence. We all agree on that point. I think Infernus is more into the Satanic religion spiritually, but I’m not very into that kind of stuff – not the spiritual aspects of any religious views. I’m totally against it! HD: Is organized religion a bad thing for everybody? Tormentor: For all people? Yes, especially religions like Islam and Christianity and Jewish beliefs. I think it’s really bad – it puts in all the wrong kinds of ideals. I’m not an evil person who wants people to have a bad life. I think it’s the responsibility of man to make a meaning out of his life. Most religions and ideals like social democracy are not very healthy for the development of man. HD: What is a live Gorgoroth show like to those of us who have not seen you yet? Tormentor: We’re quite primitive when it comes to the live appearance. We try to make a brutal and raw expression. We don’t use any pyro effects or anything like that. We use the corpse paint and the good old spikes and leather and stuff. That’s about it – it’s important to have a total focus of us on stage and not everything else we can bring up on stage. Because of the music, there are no synths or a lot of female vocals, so it’s easy to reproduce it live. We are quite a good live band, and that’s mainly because it’s easy music to play live. You can concentrate on getting the right atmosphere and energy into the music. I think it fits us very well to play live. HD: Any chance of Gorgoroth playing here in the States? Tormentor: Yeah! We’ve been hoping for a U.S. tour for quite a while. I think the best thing for us would be to play together with another band from the U.S. – perhaps a bigger band. Of all the bands we’ve known that have been (to the States), they had some problems when they were headlining over there. But to me, it would be very cool to play with Morbid Angel. We toured with them before Christmas and they were great guys! For me, it would be a great thing. And bands like Angelcorpse, I’m into them. And that would be a great tour. The person working for our label in the U.S is trying to make a Black Metal tour happen over there. That would be perfect for us. I’m looking forward to that! I hope it can be fixed in the near future. HD: What bands do you like that aren’t heavy metal? Tormentor: I listen to a lot of shit actually. But a band like Laibach – they’re from old Yugoslavia – they’re really great! And I like Non, a band from California. I like some classical stuff as well. But it’s mainly metal, black metal and old thrash metal like Destruction and Kreator. And U.S. bands like Sadist and Possessed – they are really great. HD: Do you think Black Metal will become more popular, less popular, or stay about the same? Tormentor: I think it will stay about the same. That kind of Black Metal like Dimmu Borgir and Emperor and Cradle Of Filth – they are doing well. And I think we are a little bit in another division when it comes to Satanic metal. We also try to speak a little bit more to the old style. I think for us, it’s really hard to be really big – but it’s not my aim either. I just like to make this music. It’s what I’ve always liked and we do the best of it. Of course if we can get some money out of it, that would be great. But I don’t want to base my life on that – to make money on the music I want to play – I don’t think it’s possible actually. HD: Do you guys have any day jobs outside of Gorgoroth? Tormentor: Yeah, I think all the guys in Gorgoroth have. Some of us are students – and we all have jobs at the same time. We don’t make money at all out of Gorgoroth. We get some when we’re on tour and sometimes from the label when an album has been out for a while. But it’s nothing much. HD: Do you have any messages for Gorgoroth fans here in the States? Tormentor: Just to support us and check out the album. I think it will hit the old fans and new fans. Because it’s still Gorgoroth and we’re still doing the true Black Metal. Many thanks to Nuclear Blast USA and Tormentor for the interview! Buy Incipit Satan now and worship at the Black Metal altar of the great Gorgoroth!.