Fenriz - Darkthrone 'If The Dogs Are Barking, The Train Just Keeps On Running'

Fiercely independent and driven solely for and by the love of their craft, Darkthrone‘s legacy and importance extend far beyond the Norwegian black metal scene they helped put on the map. Now seen as one of the most prolific acts in the metal underground, the duo’s new release It Beckons Us All is a triumphant, instantly-satisfying slab of genre-expanding, raw-as-hell metal – not too shabby for a group some 20-odd LPs deep into their careers.

Wall of Sound has been lucky in the past to question Darkthrone founding member, chief guitarist and co-lead vocalist Ted ‘Nocturno Culto‘ Skjellum on two previous occasions; this time around we get to fire off some Qs in the direction of the two-piece’s slightly more eccentric member; drummer, metal historian, cat-enthusiast and Oslo councillor Gylve ‘Fenriz‘ Nagell. With It Beckons Us All amongst Darkthrone‘s most satisfying work to date, Wall of Sound grilled Fenriz about the new album, the recording process, musical influences and – er – ‘Bird People’.

Hi Fenriz! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer our questions in regards to the new Darkthrone album It Beckons Us All.

Hi there, thank you for listening to our riffs and caring enough to send an interview with all the thoughts that lie behind it. I haven’t interviewed many bands myself, but I know that it takes quite a thought process to get there.

With It Beckons Us All out for a week now, how has the feedback been – if that sort of thing vaguely concerns you?

I absolutely avoid all kinds of feedback, whether it is good or bad – feedback is ALWAYS creating excess noise and doubt in my mind instead of SERENITY, and the fact that I am always working on the next album will also have to be taken into consideration here, as we are merely just playing in our own sandbox with full creative control. Luckily for us, it has always been this way throughout the decades – decades where the music business has changed a lot, but luckily we escaped having a record contract. Back in the ’80s, ’70s, ’60s, and beyond, labels usually had a lot to say concerning the artist’s output and even how they looked, so I guess Ted (“Nocturno Culto” Skjellum) and I were born at the right time. What is important to us is making the albums and being READY TO METAL hehe. So if the dogs are barking, the train just keeps on running.

How would you say it compares/differs to 2022’s Astral Fortress? Was the writing process any different for It Beckons Us All? This is also the third time in a row you’ve recorded at Chaka Khan Studios in Oslo; what keeps bringing you back there?

It seems Ted [with] these last albums has a routine of starting to work intensely on crafting songs circa 3 months before studio time while I am always working with a new album, be it lyrics or riffs; I get my riffs mostly while watching sports so I never know the inspirational source, I can just say after the album is done what my riffs remind me of. It’s been this way now since at least the recording of Arctic Thunder back in 2015, and since then Darkthrone has also worked optimally, and we are getting old now so it seems like it will last into the foreseeable future. The whole studio situation though changed drastically after Old Star when we were forced to find a “normal” studio again after having recorded ourselves in the most primitive way imaginable since 2005’s The Cult is Alive album. We are really cozying it up in Chaka Khan studios with (studio owners) Silje and Ole and their tons of vintage, expensive equipment. When it comes to the album and any differences to Astral Fortress, I do not go into the process of thinking or discussing direction or style on any new album, we just put together our riffs (me) and craft songs (Ted, more likely) and set off recording them. We change up a few things between albums; like guitar sound, or fuzz on the bass or not fuzz on the bass, and snare sound setup. This time I actually bought a pad that reduces the snare sound output octave several times – but this pad it’s physically makes it very hard to play on the snare, so you can’t really play a roll, and ghost beats are difficult. Those kinds of things.

Ted wanted us to be more collaborating, so on the back of the album it doesn’t even say who made which songs. All ideas are welcome and I remember this album session as being the most fruitful ever in that respect and brought us all closer together, and we look forward to the next album with even lower shoulders than before. So we felt that It Beckons Us All just has more of everything than Astral Fortress in many respects, but each listener is allowed to make up their own minds about such things. We also gel really well with Ole and Silje, and they are helpful and easy to be around. We don’t really sound like anyone else as they are not ‘metal people’, per se, and this probably benefits us, as we end up with an interesting soundscape compared to many other bands that are old like us or older that seem to just go for a metal studio with a SAFE sounding end product.

What gear did you play on the new album? How much has your kit evolved over the last albums, if at all?

It’s still the same drumkit Carmine Appice used when he played with Rod Stewart; I used my old ride cymbal that I had on every release since the Cromlech 1989 demo but bought new crash cymbals (BIG ones) in the 00s. This time I used the old hi-hat that I’ve used since 1989 and up to at least The Cult is Alive. But I am not a “gear guy”; Ted is the person to ask there. I brought my own MicroFreak synth and a Cerberus guitar pedal to get the modulator effect in the ‘falling’ part of ‘The Lone Pines of the Lost Planet’, but what kind of amp and effect pedal and guitars we used; I am completely oblivious to such things and have always been. I hyper-focus on getting work done in the studios and since Ted doesn’t really make solos in this new studio situation, I tend to end up having to make synth chords and equally importantly – finding the right synth sounds and I also make harmonies to go with mine or his songs, so I am more in that kind of headspace in a studio. There are so many coincidences to what eventually comes out soundwise in a studio that no matter what you read about a product before going into the studio, I think that it often will sound different than what you think it will. So I work more on just creating.

Also, it is not my drum kit. For a drummer, any studio session is painful because it is a new setup (especially for me) to play on a borrowed kit. So I just make the best of it, there are many tricks and stunts I cannot play because drums are not where they are supposed to be in correlation to, let’s say, my muscle memory. There are also microphones in the way and I play very hard so the headset often falls off and there are a lot of those things to focus on instead of playing the actual drums. So I HAVE to be hyperfocused. Imagine if guitarists had to have tiny little microphones here and there on the guitar fretboard while recording in the studio! They would go apeshit! Meanwhile, these hurdles are “normal” for a drummer.

The album art is amazing (and a completely different style to Astral Fortress). After working with Zbigniew Bielak on the Goatlord: Original release, was it an easy choice to get him for the new record? Did you give him any directions or is it an original piece of his?

He first popped up when we had that competition 15 years ago for new album covers for some of the Moonfog releases. He did the new album cover for Plaguewielder I think. I don’t know about the Goatlord release, it was right in the middle of us launching the Astral Fortress album so I had even forgotten that this new version of Goatlord was going to come out. Suddenly in an email from Paul (Halmshaw) at Peaceville we saw the album art and just went “WHOOOOAAA”, but again I had many cover ideas for the next album. But Ted seldom reacts to my ideas. It is no secret that album covers is our biggest problem, as we seldom can seem to agree on anything, and perhaps our tastes are very different. I have said that in the future, we do not even book studio time before the cover is READY; I like to have the image ready beforehand. Now, it was a situation of commision. Which is the absolute least favourite of mine considering our own album covers. It turned out great but it wasn’t ready until like 8 months AFTER the album was recorded. Zbigniew’s ideas came out from titles and such, but when it comes to my album titles and song titles I need them to be absolutely untouched by any visual backup because I want everyone to get their INNER vision of the titles. Yeah, that feels like I am taking myself too seriously but from back in the day when I got into Celtic Frost (great mystical song titles), I just liked making my own visions about them. Zbigniew had ideas for this album cover around Manilla Road’s Open the Gates and the Nuclear Death Spider, and those are cool references for sure, but in my mind, we are making more mastodontic riffs and songs that are more LARGE images and even ROUND or meaty. The cover enhances our more spaced-out musical parts and lyrics so I’m good with that. I still haven’t seen the cover art up close (I still at this point only have the test pressing), so I am perhaps not the right person to ask. I have been feeding Ted at least 20 images for future albums and he agreed on ONE but I think we actually have to have a dreaded phone call meeting about this album cover situation in the near future. Still, a phone call wouldn’t change our profound album cover preference differences HAHAHA!

It’s not that bad, it’s just that I like to plan ahead a lot on this distinct point. I LOVED it back in the early 90s when we had the album covers ready before the albums were ready, and this also happened on Eternal Hails; I just love love love having the cover ready beforehand. I am sure Zbigniew and a lot of artists have a lot of work lying around that we could have used but it seems like artists prefer this commissioned work (working in parallel with the album’s creation) and that breaks my heart haha. In short, I would not like to tell anyone what I want on an album cover. I like to simply find an image/painting and then *POW* – “I can use that as an album cover!” For Zbignew’s and our part, it is interesting that we now have 3 album covers done by him (he also did a box set); One that was part of a contest, one that was just suddenly showing up, and one that was a commission work.

The new album features some clean vocals from yourself – specifically ‘Eon 3’; was it a conscious decision to write music to fit singing, or did it come naturally?

All spontaneous decisions in the studio – but the whole ‘Eon’ poem was done after I came home from a recording session for Eternal Hails, I think it was the 2nd session for that album, first one was in November 2020, 2nd session was in January 2021. I wrote that poem and it was just coming to me and I thought “well this isn’t a lyric, it’s a poem” and then the whole idea that for a poem it will have to be ‘proclamated’? Proclaimed? Recite! Recite a poem. I let Ted try first on ‘Eon 2’, but it is very hard to recite someone else’s poem; he isn’t a very dramatic person either BUT I AM so I figured I would do this one – AND TO RECITE POEMS one does not need regular songs, one needs INSTRUMENTAL. So each ‘Eon’ (2, 3 & 4) will be instrumentals with the ‘Eon’ poem recited over it. Now, when I have a microphone I get into full creative mode so anything can happen; it was done in the spur of the moment. I never rehearse my vocal lines, I am born to sing hahahaha – and by the way fuck autotune, what the fuck is THAT shit. The whole thing with the clean vocals; it was also a part of the new ‘Darkthrone collaboration endeavour’!

Speaking of vocals – It Beckons Us All contains an excellent instrumental track ‘And In That Moment I Knew The Answer’, how did that cut come to life?

Ted just said “For this album I made three songs….and oh, I also have an instrumental”, “OK!” I said. “I don’t have a title for it, can you come up with something?”, he asked me and I said “sure!” – it cements the differences between us that he made a musical piece and had no titles whereas I always always look for a good or fitting title for Darkthrone. This time I went for a vocal sample at the end of The Infinity Project’s song ‘The Answer’; after 10 minutes that sample comes in and it always feels really profound; I’ve had it on vinyl for almost 30 years now. Anyway, it’s Ted’s song, but he has this riff in the beginning on it that could have been on Dr. Shrinker’s legendary ‘The Eponym’ demo from 1990, and then he has an end riff on it and after we recorded it I told Ted “No worries here, I have plenty of ideas as your last riff is simply adorable”, and I started to work on synth sounds and chords, and I also did the bass lines on that last riff. You see how much we collaborate now?

One of my favourite songs on the new LP is ‘The Bird People of Nordland’. The ending packs some old-school whammy-bar abusing soloing – who got the pleasure of playing that fun part?

I’ve literally only played that kind of guitar effects one time in my life; on a one-off Isengard (Fenriz’ side-project) track called ‘Kingdom of Fire’ that is unreleased. I was never good at the ‘vib-arm’ (as we call it in Norway), it was me who said that I wanted Ted to do it there, and so he did. He could have done it 3 times, but we are not really excessive in the studio yet. However, for the choir part in ‘Black Dawn Affiliation’, it was Ted who had the crystal clear idea to do it – he wanted me to do the lighter notes and Silje just said “Just keep doing voices for that choir, it’s gonna be great”; and it was. So again with these ideas and collaborations, it feels great! Ok, so ‘The Bird People of Nordland’, Ted’s 2nd single for the album, and as usual he is not saying ANYTHING about it, so I just have to say I LIVE FOR the 3rd riff that sounds like Queensryche in 1984; you can actually hear how much we enjoy playing it – I want to move in with that riff and live there permanently.

Touching on the lyrics for that song, what and/or who are ‘The Bird People of Nordland’?

The people that since the dawn of time had a symbiotic relationship with the eider bird. Then came the layers of death, and oil spills, which put a damper on the whole situation. It’s an example of how sad humans can make this world. We suck – but we got rock ‘n roll haha.

The clean guitar intro of epic album closer ‘The Lone Pines of the Lost Planet’ is a different feel for Darkthrone – what inspired it? There are definitely some ‘Heaven & Hell’ vibes when the big main riff kicks in too.

That’s one of my songs! We did it (clean guitars) on the previous album as well, on the ‘Sea Beneath the Seas of the Sea’. I Tell Ted each and every time that I’d like him to make the clean guitar thing. Within songs, one of the first things I did when starting a band in Xmas 1986 was making those, as it was a thrash metal stronghold to have them; totally normal but I loved it always, so we had it on demo 1 (Land of Frost, early 1988) demo 2 (A New Dimension, late 1988 demo) and demo 3 (Thulcandra, early 1989). But we kinda moved away from the style but there is no secret that one of Ted and I’s favourite Darkthrone songs will always be ‘Snowfall’ on A New Dimension and so it is natural for us to incorporate this now. Anyway, I can never seem to make those parts to fit within songs, so they end up starting my songs now and then. I need Ted to make one of those parts WITHIN one of his songs but it doesn’t seem like it will ever happen *sobbing quietly*.

OOOOOOOOHH expert comment!! CONGRATULATIONS with the Heaven & Hell comparison; it’s been a huge part of my life since I got the Live Evil on cassette tape back in 1982 (I think). (To make the gong sound) I think we used my upside-down old hi-hat bottom that I have been using as a china cymbal for maaany albums now, no one ever seems to ask “What is that weird cymbal sound in there?” and then recorded it on its own and then took it down some octaves and BOOM we had a gong sound… Anyway when that riff breaks through I was thinking it reminds me of a track I like even better from The Mob Rules album, and that masterpiece is called ‘The Sign of the Southern Cross’! Anyway, absolutely brilliant comment, thank you, finally someone hears the same as I do.

At this point in your careers, is it a strange feeling knowing that Darkthrone’s back catalogue vastly out numbers virtually all of your influences and peers?

Yeah, but we never really toured so a lot of the bands were busy doing that and then touring will get you into quarrels with bandmates, and then that will lead to problems so they had it harder than us. We haven’t just released an album for the hell of it, this is our modus operandum and I always wanted to release albums anyway; it’s been a dream since I got Sweet Freedom by Uriah Heep in late 1974, so it’s cool but we could have done a whole whole whole more lotta albums, but it’s so much fuss around every album now. Back in the 90s, there was really nothing happening, not much press, no emails. Every album kinda takes two years now, on and off. Also, it’s not a contest releasing the most albums either. I mean there are tactics involved, surely, a band like ours, long in the tooth and whatnot… I mean we are lucky that someone still lends an ear or cares, and usually a band that’s been around in the 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s, 20s…..it is not always welcomed that we release five albums a decade, usually, bands at this point will release an album every five years or less BUT THEY ARE TOURING. We are not. So there is that to be taken into consideration. I would like to think that we will live to do several more albums but let’s take one at a time – except for album cover plans. I’d like those cemented already hahahaha – we need help hahaha.

Since It Beckons Us All was recorded approximately a year ago, can you share any insights into any new music yourself and Nocturno Culto are working on currently?

Well, Andrew! Ted, is as I said, not picking up the guitar for that until 3 months before studio time, and also as I revealed we are not thinking of albums AS A WHOLE, we are just making riffs and tracks – but I still have shitloads of riffs lying around since the late 2010s but usually, I like to use a lot of the riffs I get right before the studio session. But there will be no surprises – oh wait, did I tell you that we will start playing crossover now, like Cryptic Slaughter and Crumbsuckers? Nah, won’t happen, but I once ripped off a whole little music part from the 2nd Crumbsuckers album Beast On My Back for a part of our Thulcandra demo. Thoughts like suddenly starting to play crossover comes solely from doing these interviews or getting the tip of the comment iceberg when someone tells you that you are repeating yourself and then you suddenly think bollocks like; “I know what would really surprise them!”. Funny thoughts, but would not normally pop up if it weren’t for this noise AROUND releases and therefore they are kind of artificial. It wouldn’t enter our minds when working on Darkthrone. Here it got to be existential and interesting, and now I gotta go cuz my back hurts from sitting crouched over the laptop writing with my touch screen instead of doing yardwork.

THANK YOU ALL!

TREAT ANIMALS RIGHT

Interview by – Andrew Kapper.

Darkthrone‘s It Beckons Us All is out now via Peaceville Records.
Order here and read our review here

Darkthrone – It Beckons Us All tracklisting

1. Howling Primitive Colonies
2. Eon 3
3. Black Dawn Affiliation
4. And in That Moment I Knew the Answer
5. The Bird People of Nordland
6. The Heavy Hand
7. The Lone Pines of the Lost Planet

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