HMT: Ave! How are things going for the Horde of Watain? You have just played at the Maryland Deathfest, including one song from the new album, Lawless Darkness. How was the response from the crowd?
Well, according to the linear concept of time - which from what I have come to understand is the common way of modern man to meassure the passing of the ages- one would probably say that the Maryland Deathfest occurred quite a long time ago. If it was 5 months or a thousand years, I could however not say. The festival was the first performance we did after we had recorded Lawless Darkness, and we were very eager to get back on stage again, and bask in the darkness of our familiars.
Perhaps you want to quell fans’ curiosity about Set’s legal issues that prevented him from playing at the US shows? Was it because of visa issues?
Set has been denied entry to the USA because of his criminal record. That is as much as I can and am willing to share. Someone once said that “nice boys don’t play rock n roll”. Well, I could not agree more.
With the release on your latest opus, Lawless Darkness, how has the response from the crowd been so far?
I always do my best not to focus too much on these things, after all they must remain secondary in favour of the artists own conception and admiration of his work. But then again, it has been quite hard to ignore the fanaticism with which our supporters have been praising the album, and it is great to see that many a thirsty metal barbarian finally could have something else than lukewarm piss to quench his thirst with. Lawless Darkness have brought us many a new follower because of its difference from the usual plastic bullshit culture of today, people are simpy getting fed up with that… They want something real.
Lawless Darkness seems to imply that there is no order to the darkness in Watain’s music. What is the actual meaning and concept behind the album title and the music?
What associations people make to the title “Lawless Darkness” will obviously differ from person to person. To me the title means a vast amount of things, but what I had in mind when I wrote the song was a very epic, silent, melancholic vision of the great unknown beyond the borders of this illusive reality in which we live our human lives. The primordial nothingness of Chaos from where the fire within my heart originates, and unto which it yearns to return. That is also why we chose to keep the song instrumental, although there is a lyric existing as well. A paradox in a way; two very simple words to express something uncomprehendable and wordless.
Where does the band draw out all the darkness to write the music on Lawless Darkness?
We draw it from within Watain. Watain is not just a band. It is a brotherhood of fire and will, a wolfpack with a divine purpose, a temple erected in honor of the great Adversary who is present in every religion. Watain was created because it needed to be created, there was a yearning for expressing the forbidden fire that is aflame within our hearts.
And actually, the foundation stone was already placed with Sworn to the Dark, as far as we are concerned. That is why Lawless Darkness could become so dynamic and rich in its content, because with Sworn we had finally reached the artistic self-knowledge required for such a giant of an album. With that in our backs, we knew we could venture far into the dark... And we did.
What is the songwriting process for the band like? As far as we know, Erik is the one handling the lyrics. What about the musical and visual aspects?
What goes on behind the walls of our Temple is reserved for us.
Watain managed to get Zbigniew Bielak on board to do the album art and he did an impressive job indeed. How did the collaboration come about?
Yes, getting in touch with Zbigniew was indeed a blessing from Hell. It made our lifes a lot easier, since we had such elaborate ideas for the artwork and dididnt really know how the fuck to actually have them realized. When we least expected it, he got in touch, and everything fell into place. We sent him long letters and talked a lot on the phone describing in detail the symbolism and idea behind every song. Meticolous descriptions of symbols, myth, ancient lore, magical work, everything that we needed to have woven into the artwork. He was surprisingly understanding of our cause and goals.
The equipment that the band uses is rarely talked about. We see Gibsons and B.C. Rich on Watain’s live shows. Are these the same equipment used in the studio? Are there any particular brands/equipment that contributes to the tone on the studio album?
The equipment of the band is rarely talked about because of this reason; it has no relevance. Our primary equipment is fire, blood, magic, love and death.
Lawless Darkness is released in 3 different versions, with the limited edition containing a cover song from Death SS. Are they a major influence on the band’s style?
No, I would not say they are. But they are a great fucking band that we always liked a lot and that we feel should be twice as big as they are now. So the choice of cover was based on that, and the fact that we believe their inmost essence is indeed Satanic.
Like most of the previous releases by Watain, Lawless Darkness was recorded in Necroborbus Studio, owned by T. Stjerna who used to session for Watain. What was the recording experience like?
We have certains traditions that sort of have made Watain what it is, and recording with Tore is one of those. Why change a beneficial concept? There are numerous advantages with recording there, but the number one is probably that Tore is almost like member when we record, we know eachother very well for many, many years, which is of course beneficial when doing something as intimate as an album recording. Watain is a special band, complicated in many ways, and Tore is one of the few persons that we have no problems working with.
How the recording experience was like? Listen to the album and imagine yourself, hehe…
Watain proudly proclaims Lawless Darkness as the “Return of Black Metal”. What exactly is black metal to you? We often see fans of Norwegian and Swedish black metal at loggerheads.
Just take alook around you, and you should understand. This genre has been going nowhere for the past decade. And noone seems to have the ambition to do something about it. But at the very moment of the its decline, when its former representatives either have become homosexuals, businessmen, rockstars –or in a few rare and honorable cases; dead- Watain has come to light the fires of the underworld again. No more bullshit. No more whoredom. No more playing around. It is time to bring Black Metal away from the low standards of today, and on to the depths for which it was intended.
Obviously people are getting tired of bands that are just joking around. Watain contitute a opponent to the charade and the circus that this genre –at least on the surface- has become. Because Watain is not just a band, it is a total experience consistant of music, philosophy, art, brotherhood and Satanism. This is something very rare these days, when people are too much in a hurry to even spend time on writing memorable songs. Lawless Darkness is a child of the Devil, it has the characteristics of a god, and of course people into metal will prefer that before some happy meal metal like Keep of Kalessin or whatever... So yes, in that sense, it is time to rip up the genre by its roots and replant it in fertile ground. And the blood of the impure shall water the new plant of malformation, and ever upwards yonder shall it rise to crucify the very fundament of paradise…
The band is definitely a big fan of Von, seeing that Watain came from a Von song title. With rumours of Von reforming (and having released a single recently), how does the band feel? Do you think it’s for real? After all, there has been a lot of speculation about whether this reformation of Von is real or not.
Well we all know how this story went now I suppose, and I do not feel I have much to add to that. You are right that we took our name from a VON song, yes. VON was a band whose primal and inhuman music still remains unmatched, and hence a suiting source. However, of course it is not as simple as us taking a bandname from a song that we liked. That would be far too... mundane. Watain is a word with multiple meanings, especially from a numerological point of view, and it has come to mean everything that Watain is and expresses; the fumes of open graves, ominous stellar signs, qliphotic transcendence, the coiling of the great Snake, the forging of swords and the carving of symbols.
Watain will be going on a European tour with Destroyer 666. What can fans look forward in the upcoming tour?
The tour was fantastic! Very harsch, a lot of wild and hard nights, which was not totally unexpected when putting bands like us and them in the same bus, haha! They do things their way and we do it our way, and I think the diversity of the shows added a lot to the whole experience. We are also old friends and we knew it would work great, especially since we share some basic views about the world. We consider them an allied wolfpack, and one of the few relevant metal bands of today.
Will Asian fans be expecting Watain to hit our shores soon?
We are indeed working on it, and we all look forward to whenever it is going to become reality. When and how that will be, is too early to tell. But it is being worked upon.
One last question: any parting words to fans, haters and hypocrites?
Approach Watain with open hearts, it is far from the freakshow that many shallow-minded people think it is. There is great experience and enlightenment to be drawn from our holy work, but it will never unveil itself to those who doubt its sincerity.
Watain on the internet:
Official website
MySpace
©2010 Heavy Metal Tribune | Clarence
Poser fag.
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