credits Front image and image of Myrkraverk by Elin M. K. MĂŚland/insomnia-foto.no Devil Doll picture used with permission from Hurdy Gurdy. Pictures of V:28 by Eivind Yggeseth and Maria Ă…sheim. A special thanks to V:28 for giving us their last interview ever! Black Forest Magazine is created and distributed by Black Forest Records exclusively. www.blackforest.no
Hello friends and foes! Welcome to the first issue of Black Forest Magazine. Many paper zines have been dead and buried a while now since the webzines have taken most of the market. Black Forest Magazine may be considered as a printed webzine. It is printer friendly, and have the layout of a printed zine. In this way, you can print the magazine if you want to read it on paper. Or simply read it online. Black Forest Magazine is our channel to show our support to bands and people we have been working with through Black Forest Records. We do not have any scheduled release-dates for the issues of the magazine; we simply release it when it’’s done. In this first issue we have some exclusive articles for you. One of them is the final interview with the Norwegian industrial death-metallers of V:28. We did an interview with the newcomers Myrkraverk and Elite from the cold north of Norway. We also looked at the amazing Devil Doll collection of Mathias! Enjoy!
It’s been awfully quiet on the extreme metal scene in the northern parts of Norway. Until now...
L
ooking at your list of past concerts, we can see that you already have quite some liveexperience. As far as we know you’ve even done a few tours. We know that you’ve played a lot with Kampfar the last couple of years. What do you have to say about this cooperation?
That’s correct. We’ve done two tours together with Kampfar, and they have been guests at our releaseparty for “WOTM” in our hometown. The cooperation has been nothing but great. There are certain similarities in our music that make playing together at shows a great “package”. At least
we feel that. When in addition all members of Kampfar are great guys, future cooperation is more than welcome from our side. We do in general focus on live performances. By releasing music to an audience, you automatically apply for feedback and recognition. There is no better place to experience this than during a liveshow. A good liveshow will reward you for those hundreds
of hours spent creating and rehearsing your music. We have recognized that you have changed label for each album. Why is that? Do you consider yourself a demanding band, or have you simply just not been satisfied with the previous labels? How is the cooperation with Folter Records concerning your current release?
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Now this is going to be a long story, hehe.. To keep it short, we started out with a cooperation between Agonia Records and Paragon Records for our debut, “Kampen”. Agonia did the European edition while Paragon did the US edition. To make things perfectly clear, Paragon Records is one of the most trustworthy labels we have ever worked with. Jim an all the rest of the guys are great guys that for sure put all their effort into their work!
act weird. Promises of payments that never came, stupid excuses, etc. I’ve spoken to several other bands that used to be on Agonia, and the story is the same for everyone. I don’t know what the total amount he owes us is, especially since I have no idea how many represses he ever did of our album. The only thing I can say for sure, is that we are not finished with this..
what the album title should be. The title is closely connected to the bandname, which again is a statement. You can be a part of an elite in numerous ways, but our way of being a part of an elite is by contributing to culture with an “elite” piece of art. We provide art that is founded in a true feeling, not “art” that merely exists to entertain. “We” in this case is of course us, but also a large part of the music genre that create music based
You can be a part of an elite in numerous ways, but our way of being a part of an elite is by contributing to culture with an “elite” piece of art.
The problem is Agonia Records… It all started out very well. We met Filip of Agonia Records at several occasions, even before Elite was a band. We travelled around on festivals, did some articles for his “Agonia War’Zine”, and even had him as a guest in Norway during Christmas 2003. In the beginning, everything looked promising. Here we had a friend that had a label and the knowledge to promote our album. He did his job, he just never paid us anything. Once the first payment was due, he started to
So we moved on to No Colours records once we figured that Agonia could not be trusted. The story with No Colours is nothing that dramatic. We put a lot of effort into liveshows, and No Colours just didn’t want to support their bands doing liveshows. That’s why we ended that deal. The current deal with Folter Records is working fine. We have known the label for almost a decade know, and know how dedicated they are towards their bands. Your latest release is entitled “We own the mountains”. Can you tell us a little about the title, and who are “we”? The title was conceived during our week in the studio in the Swedish woods. We had ideas for the layout and were discussing
on feeling, not money. We own the mountains” got a lot stronger production than earlier. Can you tell us a little about the process with this album, and what’s different from earlier? We decided it was time that our music got the production that we felt it deserved. We used the same studio as for “Bifrost”, Ballerina Audio in Umeå, Sweden. But this time we used Nuno Loureiro from Portugal as technician / producer. We flew him in from Portugal, spent a week in the Swedish woods and got it all on tape (well, disc actually..). He then took the recordings to his own studio in Portugal and started the mix process. Since he is in Portugal and we are in Norway, the mixing process took some time. Audio files were sent numerous times back and forth
until we finally hit a mix that we were satisfied with. Working with Nuno was a true pleasure, the only difficult part of the process was the distance between us during the mixing process. We will for sure use Nuno in the future, but then we probably have to go to Portugal. We’ll see... So, tell us a little about the metalscene further up north. We bet most of our readers knows mostly bands from the south of Norway. Maybe you can tell us a little about your scene, and some bands that are involved? To be honest, I only know of three bands in our “area” that are active (By our area, I think of cities that are close to the Arctic Circle). Those bands are us, Allfader and Iskald. We have a good dialogue with all those bands. There’s nothing more really exciting to say about that unfortunately, hehe... We see that you’ve had a stable lineup for a while now. How is this lineup working out, and what is your secret? We’ve only lost one member so far, and that is Taf who moved to USA in 2005. He is now back, but not a member of Elite anymore. He is a good friend, but his heart is in one of his old bands that has been brought back to life, Rechtum Immortalis. There is no secret to keeping a stable lineup, you just need to provide an arena where everyone’s ideas and contributions are equally worth. We have a very good chemistry within the band, we’re all good friends and have been for a long while and
we include everyone in all decisions. We are all dedicated when it comes to the band, and all of us understand the importance of dedication to achieve our goals. Earlier you used corpsepaint and blood as a part of your scene appearance. Why did you stop using it? Was it a need for change, or did you feel that it had lost its effect? We actually never felt that the use of corpsepaint was something for us. That and the fact that it have lost its effect. I’ve now seen so many stupid examples of corpsepaint among other bands that we have met during our tours that I’m glad we made that decision.
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to see on bands that are 100% dedicated to black metal, not bands like us that draw certain amounts of inspiration from it. Being an active live band, we bet you already have some live-dates and festival dates planned for the summer. Can you keep us a little updated on this matter, and give our readers a few reasons why they need to show up? There isn’t much more than one festival confirmed this year. At least not so far. That festival is
I know that we are labeled as a “black metal band”, even if we don’t feel 100% comfortable with that term.
I know that we are labeled as a “black metal band”, even if we don’t feel 100% comfortable with that term. Sure, there are elements in our music that obviously are inspired by black metal, but there is so much more. Our debut “Kampen” is more “black metal” than our later releases. Corpsepaint was something we used, but the album has to be seen in relation to who were the members at the time. New members bring other kinds of inspiration to the band, and a band progress when you give it time. At least that’s the case for us. We are very satisfied with our current position, but don’t feel that corpsepaint is a part of the “package” anymore. Corpsepaint is something I want
Under the Black Sun Festival, not too far away from Berlin. We are also working on a small tour in the Netherlands/Germany, but nothing solid yet. We are hoping for a tour a little later this year, but so far we are busy planning next year’s festival appearances. We can’t confirm anything yet, but we will be playing at least four festivals next year. People should show up to witness a hard-working, dedicated band. We’ve been doing this since 2001, and playing live is that one thing that keeps us motivated. We give it all during our concerts!
W
e guess Myrkraverk is a new name for most of our readers. The song ‘Nordvegen’ instantly reminded us of Isengard. Have you gotten any inspiration from this band? Myrkraverk comes straight from the heart, but through our years a lot of the inspiration comes from Isengard amongst others.
Rehearsals took place in old barns and houses far out in the forest. The insanity is constantly evolving completely independent on every levels.
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So what’s the story behind Myrkraverk? Myrkraverk was born on a orange cloud when walking back home from the second Hole In The Sky-festival, strongly inspired by Isengard, old black metal, beer, and evil!
strongly inspired by Isengard, old black metal, beer, and evil!
fucking important for people out there to put everything in a booth... Just like the cattle on the farm. Do any of you guys play in some other bands/projects? If so, tell us a little about it. ... I guess we express ourselves through many different artistic channels. The darker sides of our lives have inspired us, so Myrkraverk is one of many ways to distribute our thoughts and attitudes.
On your myspace-profile you have a picture of ‘Nordvegen’How will you describe your promo. Is this released yet? music? Nothing has been released yet... Music, images and lyrics speech But there will be a 7” released on for itself. Nationalnecromantic Blut & Eisen... Pretty soon. (It’s out black metal.... Because it is seems now! BFmagazine)
We’ve heard some rumors about a debut album coming? The album will be out when it is finished. Do you have any label to release it on? No... Your myspace-profile have been online since 2007, and yet there are no releases. Do you consider yourself a slowworking and perfectionistic band, or do you simply lack of time due to other projects? WHO THE FUCK CARES? The two songs that are online was recorded in Black Dimension Studio, right? That is right...
How was it to work there? Fucking great studio which fitted perfect to Myrkraverk. Will this studio also be used for an upcoming release? Time will tell. I think we will be involved there in one way or an other. Will there be any Myrkraverk gigs in the future? We have been into the though of doing a gig far into the woods... Some place with a lot of mushrooms. Do you define yourselves as a underground band? Allright, underground or not... Fucking unimportant. Think about those fucking loser record labels out there which have
contacted us from all around the world. Some of them probably sleeps in their freezers at night, and have bad corpsepaint on. Are they creating anything good? In the underground? No, but what IS the fucking underground? If you are from Norway, you can release anything your mother pukes on while you rub your sweat on untuned violinstrings. People out there still wants to earn money on you... It’s not much info to get a hold of regarding Myrkraverk. Is this on purpose... Yes... Where do you get your inspiration? Micro/Macrocosmos.. And Nekroamanita muscaria.
All things need to come to an end, and what could be more natural than a band based upon this saying coming to an end itself? V:28 has given us a foray into the impending apocalypse, and by the end of 2008 they called it quits. This is the last interview they did before putting the last nail into the coffin. Last things first; V:28 is history. What’s the rea- all lyrics and at least 95 % of the music, had a son you decided to quit? hard time getting together “VioLution”, the final chapter in the trilogy. His aim is of course to EDDIE: We had this possibility already right from make every release better than the previous, and the start, as the concept and the trilogy was set even if he (or we) also did that with “VioLution”, more or less from day one. V:28 was both a contin- it would be close to impossible to top it with uation of the previous band V:O:I:D, yet a fresh and a fourth release. Another option we discussed new start. V:O:I:D had much of the same visual ex- was to do an “Ulver maneuver” and do a radical pression and also dealt much with the war theme, change in style, but we landed on putting the but it was a bit more unstructured. band to rest. With V:28 we had strict “rules”, in particular on the conceptual and lyrical side, so as the trilogy was getting to an end we had to make a decision whether to continue or not. There were several pros and cons to sum up, and we found out that it was for the best to quit whilst on top. Kristoffer, who more or less IS the band, and responsible for
KRISTOFFER: Even though we thought about maybe continue the band from time to time, it feels like a very correct decision towards the band to quit at the point we did. The whole concept is based upon things coming to an end, and what could be more natural than the band itself coming to an end? We’re sure many people wonder about your band name? What’s the story? KRISTOFFER: When V:O:I:D was disbanded, we wanted a name that stood out from everything else. When we checked up how many bands called
themselves Void in one or another way of writing it, and I remember it being at least 20, so a name change would have been a good idea either way. The idea was to find a name that showed the industrial and technological side of the band, yet didn’t have any strong relations to anything specific. After some massive brain storming, digging in the past and multiplying it with the future, we ended up with the name V:28. Also the fact that the band concept had a very strong connection to war themes, the name V:28 struck us as a good and unique name for our outfit. There are also some connections between the V:28 name and the V:O:I:D name that we will let you figure out yourself. The key lies within the numbers, and numbers rule the universe… Why did you make a trilogy? Was this the plan all from the start?
even though it’s not necessarily a groundbreaking video generally speaking, I think it is within the metal genre. It shows a production that doesn’t pay any attention to the trends, and by using the cartoonlike animations it gives the video a whole new dimension. The video and lyrics pretty much sums up a lot of the whole V:28 concept. The main theme is things coming to an end and how we got there. The video is also a display of the role the industrialization has played for mankind. Today a lot of people lose their jobs due to robots and machines taking over because of being superior to human labor. A result of this is a huge difference in the standard of living, which results in a lot of tension, and as an utter consequence lead to terrorism, the biggest challenge the World has had to face thus far.
«The key lies within
the numbers, and numbers rule the universe…»
EDDIE: I can’t really recall WHY it became a three chapter story, it was maybe the urge to do something different, as the whole band was a sort of experiment. It was a test on “how much can you evolve, develop and experiment within strict frames”. It is not an epic story from A to Z told over the three albums, rather touching different subjects comprised by the same theme. This is definitely something quite different from what most other bands are doing when dealing with a concept album or series of albums. It is also important to stress that we never take anyone’s part in the story, neither is it seen from a religious or political point of view. The conflicts are brought to a global, individual and mental level. Raw and brutal, just like viewed on your TV in your living room.
Your video “Shut it down” looks pretty professional, and contains the mandatory death and devastation-theme, but what’s the story in the video and the lyrics? KRISTOFFER: First of all I think it’s important to mention that this video was done by a group of students as part of their bachelor degree, and I must admit the result surpassed my expectations by far. The video used a lot of techniques never used in metal videos that I know of, and
“NonAnthropogenic”, “SoulSaviour”, and “VioLution” are the three releases that constitute the V:28 trilogy. Why did you choose these titles, and what do they mean? KRISTOFFER: The album titles have a strong connection to the respective albums and represent cause, hope and solution. “NonAnthropogenic” means something like “not caused by humans”, however, that’s only half the truth of what we put into it. The title has a diversity of meanings and it’s a bit complex to explain. It has something to do with how and why the World and the whole Universe will collapse at some point, an event no human can prevent or affect in any way. However, how things have evolved the last century, we cannot blame humanity for not making a great effort in speeding things up. At the point where “SoulSaviour” kicks in, there is absolutely no way back (if there ever was one?), and humanity is gradually getting well aware of it.
thus you see all these doomsday cults popping up. One man’s apprehension is another man’s wealth. With the “VioLution” album we approach the problem on a more universal platform. It goes deeper into the nature of physics and how everything affects the human behavior in one way or another. End times, death and decay. These are phenomena humanity exercise and trigger with their own hands, but when having to deal with it on a universal time scale, we feel small and worthless. For what is a human life on the universal time axis? Each album has a subtitle that in many ways give a meaning to the main album title. I have a great fascination for using contrasts and play with words, so there’s always room for interpretation. We don’t want to give away the whole meaning behind everything we do. To get a complete understanding or impression of any of the albums, or the whole concept for that matter, it requires the listener’s full attention. After all, the concept isn’t based upon some epic story, so it’s up to the listener to bring down the apocalypse to a personal level. Why do you use programmed drums? Do you have problems finding a drummer, or is it a well-planned decision? In our opinion it adds something to the industrial, synthetic and robotic atmosphere.
The title represents the false hope people hold on to, and in desperate times they do whatever is necessary to save themselves, revealing the primal and egoistic instinct if the human kind, or any predator for that matter. Times like these also make fertile conditions for any hypocritical religious movements, and just looking at what has been going on the last years, you can clearly link it to real events. Never has the human race been closer to extinction than the last 50 years, and
EDDIE: We can go more than ten years back on this subject. Both Kristoffer and I had our separate bands in the mid- to late nineties, but with quite different approaches to extreme metal. His band was a pretty basic death metal band, drums, bass, guitar, while mine was more of a studio project, making songs and recording them. We didn’t have a drummer since there were no one around where we lived who were able to play black metal blast beats for several minutes. So the best option was to use programmed drums. I started with a tiny (and now when I look back on it, pretty crappy) shareware drum program called LeafDrums. Anyway, that way we could get together songs sounding like a “real” band. Some years later, when Kristoffer’s band was
disbanded, he had a couple of songs he wanted me to help him record. I had an 8-track portable studio and during the last days of 2000 we had a creative session and ended up with 5 tracks, which resulted in the second demo under the V:O:I:D moniker, called “Galaxy B-28.Unreal”. I programmed drums and played the bass, we split the keyboard duties while he did the guitar and vocals. So, already back then we might have planted the seed that would grow to become V:28. I also have to add that after that he have outdone me on the programming side, so when I’m still an amateur he’s now one of the best, together with XY from Samael.
fourth member of V:28 throughout the existence of the band. We hooked up with him back in 2002, when we played a gig together with Red Harvest. I gave him a demo and asked if he was interested in producing our debut album. After he gave it a few listens he told us he was more than interested in doing the job, so in the summer of 2003 we went to Oslo to record our debut album. The job he did with the “NonAnthropogenic” album surpassed our expectations by far, and the fact that he was very easy to communicate with and shared a lot of our visions made it very easy for us.
«the story we tell is So, when we were to record our second album very pessimistic and we had only one man on our list, and luckily LRZ was up for it. Once dark, while most again he did an outstanding job, and the people, even metal production fit the propeople, wants to be gression of the music as well as the concept very well. And for the happy and think third album we didn’t have to ask him, as he that everything had become aware of the fact that he had will be ok»
Even if we had a drummer playing more or less the same as the programmed drums I don’t think it would be right for us. As you said, programmed drums fit the concept, which basically is about the “war” between mankind and machines, and the programmed drums strengthen the mechanical and industrial feeling. Since we’ve always been fans of bands like Samael, Limbonic Art and Aborym we saw that it was possible to get somewhere even without a drummer. Metal fans are usually very basic and afraid of changes, so we’ve more than once been confronted with this. I think it’s more a visual thing on concerts, but when we’ve had the possibility we have used projectors and multimedia to give the audience something to watch if they’re missing the drum kit on stage. That’s also a good thing as this only enhances the performance and thus the concert experience for the audience. You’ve been working with LRZ as a producer on each album. In what degree has he been playing a part in getting the sound and result you’ve been looking for? KRISTOFFER: LRZ has more or less been like a
become like a third officer on our voyage into deep space. I think the fact that we managed to hit it off on a social and visionary level made it a very productive and creative process, and with the effort of both parts, we managed to bring out the best in the band.
We have to say we’re quite surprised that V:28 still is a pretty unknown band. You have top notch videos, great visuals and everything about you is very thorough, including the music. Do you have any idea why you haven’t had your big breakthrough? If anyone deserves it, it should be you? EDDIE: First and foremost I think we made it difficult for ourselves with the concept we had. Even if we stood out from the regulars we had this “uncomfortable” thing written all over the music, and the story we tell is very pessimistic and dark, while most people, even metal people, wants to be happy and think that everything will
be ok. And even if the music isn’t the fastest or most brutal, it hasn’t the same commercial appeal as Dimmu Borgir or Satyricon, it simply isn’t that easy to digest for the lot even if it’s better than those, hehe! Another important factor is that we’ve never toured our asses off, and touring is probably the most important thing to gain popularity and recognition for most bands. You could say that we should have done the Europe tour after the first record, but the fact is that it was impossible back then, because we didn’t know all those people who helped us organize it five years ago.
was a good idea to make a strictly limited release of the song. We made only 28 CDRs with the song “One Last Breath”, put it in a cardboard sleeve together with the album in a box made from old circuit boards. It was made from a massive, and almost two meter high, letter V which we only used at our first gig as V:O:I:D. The same cover track was later released on the remix album, “Total Reconstruction”.
«Sophistication and rebellion hand in hand, that’s the way of the Devil!»
KRISTOFFER: I also think that the listener has to do a much bigger effort to get into V:28 than most other metal bands, being it the visual concepts, the lyrics and the music itself. Most bands within the extreme metal genre always like to display their messages in a most clear and “shocking” way, using symbols and imagery, I’m sure only half of the band members know what stands for. That’s also why I think the people that take their time getting into the band are truly dedicated fans. And to us there is nothing more rewarding than getting feedback from people that have spends a lot of time and effort getting into your work! You have a lot of special editions and boxsets, for example a really cool metal box. Are you fans of collector items? And how did you make the boxes? EDDIE: Personally I’m no big fan of several versions of each release. That’s not the case with these releases though, which serves as “something extra” added to the regular formats. First it was the limited version of “SoulSaviour” that was only sold at the release gig for that album. We recorded a cover song of the American cult band Bleak when we nailed that album, and thought it
Second out was the metal box. There was a relatively high demand for the old demos, so this box was an opportunity to give them what they didn’t have plus some extra. We added a new t-shirt and some pictures to go along with it.
The final box was the wooden box, which was made to hold the whole trilogy plus the remix album. It was made by a local guy who makes all kinds of stuff out of wood. It is the most organic element we’ve dealt with, and a contrast to the highly inhuman design of the previous boxes. All boxes are now sold out, but of course all albums can still be purchased separately. You recently released the remix album “Total Reconstruction”, featuring a lot of high profiled artist from the industrial and dark ambient scene. What was the idea behind this release? KRISTOFFER: The idea behind the remix album was spawned at a very early stage in the band’s career, even before we released the debut album, although we didn’t quite know how, when or even if it would ever happen. Over the years we’ve established a lot of relationships to other artist and bands, something you can see from the numerous guest contributions on the regular albums as well, so we thought it would be a good idea to ask a selection of them if they were interested in doing their interpretation of one of our songs. What amazed me with the result was that the V:28 atmosphere was still there even though the songs sounded far from the original versions.
Most of the artist featured on the CD operates in a quite different genre than V:28, but we share a lot of the same atmospheric and conceptual ideas, and what we wanted to explore with this release was how other artist would put together the source material they were given.
KRISTOFFER: Guest contributions sometimes feel like a vitamin injection, both to the song, but also to me as a composer. Different people have different approaches to all sorts of things, and it often takes another man’s ears or eyes to find what you’ve been looking for.
Every artist picked their own track to remix, and were given 100 % artistic freedom. I didn’t quite know what to expect from it, but I was very happy with how everything turned out in the end. Often I consider releases like these more of an interesting release than a good release, but that it definitely not the case with the “Total Reconstruction” album. The songs structures are were well arranged and there are a lot of treats for the fans or fans of alternative and dark music in general. In addition to the ten remixes we added two cover tracks, the mentioned track by Bleak and “All Lined Up” by Swans.
Regarding the visuals. You have some really cool posters, merchandise and not to forget you logo. Are you doing the designs yourselves?
V:28 has also had a tradition on working with other artist on your regular albums. In what degree do these contributions affect the final result?
EDDIE: Yes, Kristoffer made them all, Atle and I only approved them, hehe! Kris never seems to get out of new and untypical ideas on this matter. Many of the designs are very far from death metal, where the stereotype is unreadable band logos and blood and corpses all over the place. So why not do a t-shirt that looks like anything but a death metal band preaching of how the world comes to an end? KRISTOFFER: It’s all about the way you approach things. There’s so many ways of seeing things, and in a generally narrow minded music scene, I think it’s important to add your personal
touch and don’t care about what’s expected. Sophistication and rebellion hand in hand, that’s the way of the Devil! Before calling it quits, you did a small European tour. How was it, and how was the response from the audience? What was your greatest moment? EDDIE: As none of us had been on a tour like this before, it was very exciting. We had thought about every little Spinal Tap-thing that could go wrong, but to our surprise, everything went just perfect! There were no logistic problems worth a mention, no engine breakdowns, no robberies, no injuries or illness, nothing! KRISTOFFER: The World Wide Bombing Tour is something that we had been working with for a long time, and we always had a plan of doing it at some point. Not having a management or anything, we had to do everything ourselves, and believe me, it’s quite a job getting eight gigs in nine days without having to drive across the entire Europe between each gig. Anyway, as V:28 would come to an end in 2008, the timing was perfect. We have had a few years to spread the name, and we played for a mix of die hard fans and people that haven’t heard us before. The response was great, and in general way better than we could ever hope for. I guess we didn’t have too high expectations when we hit the road, so it was really rewarding getting the great feedback from the audience. It’s definitely among the best experiences I’ve ever had, both as an artist and private person. You threw your last gig in your hometown Arendal, we’re sure this was a quite special night for you? Can you tell us about it?
The fact that the venue is among the best of those we’ve played at, makes it easier to do a spectacular show. We had a video backdrop especially made for this tour, but due to limitations on the other venues we played at, we only got the chance to show it in Arendal and at the Aurora Infernalis festival in The Netherlands.
KRISTOFFER: Yeah, it definitely was a special experience for us. As soon as we made the decision to call it quits, we started planning things and how to end it in the best way possible. The way I see things, the whole World Wide Bombing Tour was a sort of farewell tour, and it was to some degree a coincidence that we chose to end it in Arendal. However, we’ve always been loyal to our local fans, and it felt very right ending it here.
We were organizing the show ourselves that night, which made it easier for us to plan the set and the concert as a whole. The concert lasted for about 75 minutes, and the tracks were played in a chronological order, to sort of go through the whole trilogy from the beginning to the end. The video was also edited to enhance the lyrical theme of each track, and we’re really happy with how things turned out.
Playing live is definitely a very powerful experience and the music fits a live setting very well. It’s also worth a mention that we were invited to play support for Enslaved in Oslo and Hamar on their Vertebrae European Tour. Those gigs stand out as two among the many highlights in the V:28 career, and it felt like there was some superior universal meaning to it, as we played our debut gig as support for Enslaved in Bergen back in 2002. The circle is closed! What is left for you individuals now as your mission as V:28 is accomplished? Do you have any plans for the future, and will we see you in any other acts? EDDIE: There’s no problem filling time with music even if V:28 is history. Atle and me have had the band Ancestral Legacy for more than a decade, so the main focus will be on that from now on. Things seems to have happened in slow motion for many years, but now we have a fresh record deal and a new album soon to be released, and thus there will be a bit promotion for it, interviews, concerts and spamming on Myspace of course. I also have a little cover band project if there is any free time left. And no plans of involving me in any new time consuming bands in the future... KRISTOFFER: One of the great things about finishing off things is the feeling of accomplishment, reaching the goal you set out to reach in the first place. And as for V:28, it turned into something much bigger and better than I ever hoped for from the beginning. For me the “finishing process” almost felt like a marathon, as it drained from all my energy, but still there’s a huge reward finally reaching goal. So, the fist thing that comes to mind isn’t running another lap. It’s been great having two years off now, and I haven’t even thought about, not had the inspiration to compose music over that period. I’m also involved in some other projects, sound wise quite far from V:28, that I will work with from now on. One if them is the industrial band Kristoffer Nystroms Orkester, which is a collaboration between
two Swedes and I. We released an album back in 2006, so we might start working on a follow up to that. I’m also involved in a new project, but has just started up. We don’t have a name yet, nor started to make music, so it will be interesting to sew how things will evolve. The only thing I know is that we have some things in common, even though we come from different backgrounds.
Metal fans are known for their obsession of collecting rare records. Therefore we decided to give these collectors some highly deserved attention. In this first issue, Mathias Løken gets to show off his extremely rare Devil Doll collection. We are Devil Doll fans ourselves, so it was natural to start off with a collection that makes our eyes turn wet. Of all the things in your collection, what is the most precious item? And why? This is an unfair and difficult question; since all rare Devil Doll releases is unique in certain ways. But if I have to choose one, and if I shall choose the most rare of them all; it must be the “Dies Irae” ART LP. This LP was totally handmade by Mr. Doctor. My copy is nr. 2 out of only 3 made! It is a testpress LP with hand-painted (great art!) labels, hand made one-sided frontcover on white high quality luxury paper, additional insert on same type of paper, and a “Dies Irae” studio paper/document from Akademik Studios with messages from from Mr. Doctor to Jurij Toni + +. All 3 copies are completely different. When did discover Devil Doll, and when did you start collecting? What
was your very first collectors item? I discovered Devil Doll by coinsidence in a record shop in Oslo, Norway in 1993/1994. Firstly I remember the covers of the 4 first CD albums; beeing something completely different than the usual black metal style that I was used to (and that I grewed up to). So I grabbed them all to have a listen. I was blown away by the music immediately! It was like discovering the music that I always had been searching for; but without knowing what to search for (if you know what I mean). Well, I bought all 4 albums without doubt. And I truly had some nice moments after that. After many obstacles ca 2 years later, in the end of 1995 beginning of 1996, “Dies Irae” was finally released. This album was actually far better than the previous ones, and I remember thinking to myself “how is he capable to make
such great music, and how is it possible to top all the previous albums?”. At this time in my life, I was young and without money for collecting expensive rarities, so I was forced to live with the common CD editions only. I started to help Hurdy Gurdy to distribute the albums here in Norway (on a small basis I would say). For some reasons they were extremely grateful, and I received a package from them right out from the blue, containing: “The Girl Who Was...Death” re-press LP, “Eliogabalus” gatefold fan club LP, “Sacrilegium” LP, “Dies Irae” LP, 2 T-shirts with “Eliogabalus” and “Dies Irae” print, and the Devil Doll scrapbook along with a personal letter from Rossana Pistolato! I remember I felt pretty shocked and super lucky indeed. This was the tiny beginning of my serious collecting some years later, when economy was better.
What made you go completely nuts concerning collecting Devil Doll, and what makes it so unique for you?
To someone who has’nt listened to Devil Doll yet, where do you think a person should start, and why?
To say it short: The music is so unique! It is only one band like this in the world. Devil Doll create atmospheres you cannot find elsewhere. The feeling... The whole package... Everything is so special. For this simple reason I wanted to have EVERYTHING.
I know a lot of people who started with “Dies Irae”. Many of those people was a little dissapointed when they bought the older albums also. Therefore I always prefer to begin with the first album. Then you are able to discover how the band developes.
So I started to collect the rarities when economy was “good enough”. Also it is nice to do something with your whole heart, and with 100% dedication: Collecting Devil Doll has become a obsession of mine!
And with Devil Doll you can easily hear this phenomenon, mainly with regard to the production. The music is always great! So I think people should start with “The Girl Who Was...Death”, no doubt.