Naglfar
Naglfar are back two years
after the release of "Pariah" with a new all too powerful album titled
"Harvest". So this time we decided to do an interview with Marcus Norman,
the band's guitarist, who told us a lot of interesting things concerning
the band. Below you can read and enjoy everything we talked about, despite
the fact that a band phone line interrupted our chat several times...
1. CAN YOU POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS
OF NAGLFAR FROM THE RELEASE OF “PARIAH” TILL NOW?
I would say that everything form the release
of “Pariah” up to now is important because “Pariah” was the first album
we released for Century Media and it was also the first album we hooked
up with our management and booking, Continental Concerts, so after the
release of the album we got the opportunity to tour a lot and we did three
European tours in order to promote the album. With our previous label stuff
like that had been simply impossible, because they didn’t have the financial
ability to book us tours and stuff like that. So, yeah pretty much everything!
And before we started to write the album our session bass player joined
the band as a full time bassist and this is a very important thing for
us I would say!
2. NOW “HARVEST” HAS THE TYPICAL NAGLFAR SOUND
AND YET IT IS DARKER AND MORE EXTREME COMPARED TO YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASES.
WHY IS THAT? WHY DO YOU SOUND SO ANGRY?
Hmm… I don’t know! I guess that this is the
way we found to express ourselves, this is the way we are. With this album
we wanted to try something different so we worked a lot. It’s a more varied
album compared to our previous releases. We worked more with different
tempos and stuff like that. I would say that this is by far our most varied
album and also production-wise we wanted to get a different production
than the “Pariah” album which was very harsh and aggressive sounding album.
This time we wanted a more powerful and organic sound and this is one more
reason that makes this album stand out more than our previous releases.
3. IF YOU WERE ASKED BY YOUR LABEL TO PRESENT
THE ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TRYING TO BE AS OBJECTIVE
AS POSSIBLE?
That’s a difficult one! I would say it’s still
a traditional Naglfar album but of course it’s our natural progression
I’d say. No compromise as usual.
4. I’M ALWAYS INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT WHAT THE
MUSICIANS THINK OR FEEL WHILST COMPOSING THEIR MUSIC. SO WHAT’S THE CASE
WITH YOU?
It’s very different from time to time you
know. The whole creative process surrounding “Harvest” was a very different
experience than before, because we worked in a completely different place
this time around. With the previous albums we worked together in our rehearsal
place, taking our time to finish everything, but with this album when we
started working on the material in June 2006 we had already booked the
studio for the mixing process in December, so we only had 6 months to finish
everything. We did this kind of experiment to see if we are able to work
under pressure. We wanted to push our limits and try to work in a more
organized way. It was fine and a great experience, but of course you have
to be in a creative mood to write music. I’ve never really thought about
it… I guess if you are feeling too much like shit you won’t be able to
do anything.
-SO YOU DON’T BELONG TO THE MUSICIANS THAT WANT
TO FEEL BAD IN ORDER TO BE CREATIVE?
No, I wouldn’t say that. If you’re feeling
bad, when you are feeling terrible, then you can’t even get out of bed,
so this can’t be very creative I think. (Laughter)
5. DID YOU PRODUCE THIS ALBUM TOO BY YOURSELVES
OR DID YOU PREFER TO LEAVE THE PRODUCTION IN OTHER HANDS?
Well actually the whole album except for the
drums were recorded at my own studio. So, yeah we pretty much did the production
by ourselves, because we’ve been doing this for so long that we know exactly
how we want everything to sound and we know how we can achieve the sound
we want, so we don’t believe we need to get an outsider into the whole
recording process…
-DO YOU THINK THAT AN OUTSIDER WOULD ALTER YOUR
SOUND?
Well of course! He would bring his ideas and
his way of thinking. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we were certain
as to how we wanted this album to sound, so we didn’t feel like using a
producer, but I guess it might be an interesting experience to work with
someone like that, but it hasn’t been that way for us…
6. WHICH ARE ACCORDING TO YOU THE ELEMENTS THAT
MAKE NAGLFAR STAND OUT? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE TO OFFER TO THE METALLERS?
Well I don’t know! Our sound has always, since
the beginning, been a combination of melody with speed and aggression without
having to sound too “pop” with the melodies and stuff! Haha! We want to
keep it dark and this is the traditional Naglfar sound you know. Dark melodies
combined with aggression and speed and a dark atmosphere.
7. WHICH ARE ACCORDING TO YOU THE BEST AND WHICH
THE WORST MOMENTS OR PARTS ON “HARVEST”? ARE THERE ANY THINGS YOU’D LIKE
TO CHANGE?
Well of course! There is always things you
want to change! Especially me taking care of the whole recording thing
and I’m such a perfectionist that I guess I’ll never be 100% satisfied
with an album.
-AND THIS IS WHY YOU KEEP ON WRITING MUSIC. IF
YOU WERE 100% SATISFIED THEN YOU’D STOP…
Exactly! When you are 100% satisfied you don’t
have anything more to strive for. You have nothing more to give. However
I can say we are very satisfied with the album. It turned out like we wanted
it and the whole packaging the cover artwork, everything surrounding the
album turned out to be very good. It turned out as we wanted it so we are
more than just satisfied!
8. WHICH ARE THE MAIN TOPICS “HARVEST” DEALS WITH?
The lyrics deal with pretty much everything
from betrayal, self hatred and general disgust towards everything. It’s
a really bitter and spiteful album.
-DO YOU WANT TO SUGGEST SOMETHING IN PARTICULAR
WITH THE ALBUM TITLE?
The title says that the whole human race is
nothing but the harvest for the reaper. We’re all gonna die, however the
track “Harvest” has a completely different meaning because that songs speaks
more about betrayal and back stabbing. What goes around, comes around that’s
what it says.
9. I LOVED THE ARTWORK AND I SEE THAT IT WAS CREATED
BY TRAVIS SMITH. HE MANAGED TO CREATE A GREAT COVER THAT IS CLOSE TO THE
BAND’S CHARACTER AND HAS THE ESSENCE OF YOUR PREVIOUS COVER ARTWORKS. HOW
DID THIS HAPPEN? DID YOU HAVE A SAY ON THIS OR WAS HE GIVEN ABSOLUTE ARTISTIC
FREEDOM?
It was kind of both ways around. We had some
ideas and he had some ideas and we were sending emails back and forth and
he did an amazing job! Like you said it’s not feeling like it’s something
different. It feels as if it’s connected to all the other albums, which
I feel is very important. If you put all of our albums together you will
see that they have the same artistic appearance too. So, when it was time
to start working on the cover artwork, we got a lot of samples from our
label from different artists they have worked with in the past and when
we saw the things that Travis has previously done, we knew that his fire
would fit very well into what we were doing with this album, because he
has a very unique way of working. He is a very talented man I would say!
10. THE ALBUM WILL BE ALSO RELEASED IN A LIMITED
EDITION. CAN YOU TELL US WHAT IT WILL CONTAIN?
Yeah! The limited edition version will come
with a bonus DVD that contains 4 live clips recorded at the performance
we did at Party San Open Air Festival in Germany and also the video clip
we did for the song “The Perpetual Horrors” from the “Pariah” album and
also a 20 minute interview with Kristoffer, our vocalist. I think it’s
a good package!
11. WHAT KIND OF EMOTIONS DO YOU WANT TO CREATE
TO THE LISTENERS WITH YOUR MUSIC?
I don’t know! I haven’t really thought about
it! The thing that is important for me when I write music is that I want
to create something for myself. It might be a very egoistic way of thinking,
but we do this to please ourselves and to create something we are proud
of and we can stand behind and support it 100% . So, we never focused on
what others might thing of it, cause this isn’t really interesting for
us. As long as people appreciate us and we enjoy it, I’m satisfied, but
we’d never change to please someone else you know.
-SO, LET ME SLIGHTLY REVERSE THE QUESTION AND
TELL ME WHAT KIND OF EMOTIONS YOU WANT TO CREATE TO YOURSELF WITH YOUR
MUSIC…
Well I want it to be interesting and I want
it to be dark. I want the music to really grab me. A good album is an album
that when you hear it you sit down and pay attention to it, it’s not an
album that you put and listen to at the background. You really want to
focus on it and experience the whole album and all the fine details. I
want it to be an interesting experience.
-DO YOU THINK YOU ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS?
Yeah pretty much! With this album, it turned
out, when we started working on it, to be a very spontaneous way of working
because everybody was involved in the songwriting and everything, so each
song didn’t have the same way of writing. Some guy came up with one riff
and you work on another one so I’m more than satisfied, because we managed
to make the whole album feel like a unite you know. Something I consider
to be very important!
12. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR A TOUR? HOW WILL
YOU SUPPORT “HARVEST”?
Yeah! Negotiations are taking place right
now actually, but nothing is confirmed yet. The only thing we know is that
we’re gonna do With Full Force in Germany this summer and a festival here
in Sweden. Apart form that nothing else is confirmed yet, but we want to
tour as much as possible!
-WELL I WON’T EVEN ASK YOU IF YOU COME TO GREECE
THIS TIME… I ASKED KRISTOFFER THE SAME QUESTION PREVIOUSLY AND HE JUST
SAID YOU’D LOVE TO COME, BUT NOTHING OTHER THAN THAT…
Yeah! I will repeat it again: We’d love to
come and play there! All we want is to get an offer and we’ll be there,
but till now nothing has happened. Hopefully things will change with the
new album!
13. CAN YOU REMEMBER ANY WEIRD OR FUNNY INCIDENT
THAT HAS OCCURRED TO THE BAND?
Hmm… That’s a tough one! Hahaha! But I’d say
that being part of this band has always been a strange and weird experience!
(Laughter)
-SO EVERYTHING AROUND THIS BAND IS WEIRD…
Hahaha! Yes! Everything is messed up pretty
much!
14. WHAT’S ACCORDING TO YOU THE IDEAL TITLE THAT
CAN SUM UP THE WHOLE NAGLFAR ESSENCE?
15. YOU AND KRISTOFFER ARE ALSO MEMBERS OF THE
RETRO BLACK METAL BAND BEWITCHED. RECENTLY YOU RELEASED YOUR NEW ALBUM.
HOW DO YOU FIND TIME FOR ALL THIS? WHICH BAND IS YOUR TOP PRIORITY BY THE
WAY?
Actually the band I’m working with at the
moment is my top priority. All of the bands are of equal importance to
me personally. Of course Naglfar takes up most of the time, but with Bewitched
it’s not a problem, because we’re not working that much with Naglfar. There’s
always time to do other things. Right now I’m recording some new songs
with Ancient Wisdom as well. We’re recording a new album with them as well
this year, so that’s all I do pretty much!
16. HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH RIFFS OR IDEAS YOU DEVELOP
ARE SUITABLE FOR NAGLFAR, BEWITCHED OR ANCIENT WISDOM?
It’s kinda easy actually, because most often
when I sit down to write music I’ve already decided beforehand which band
I’m writing for. Especially with Naglfar that everyone is involved in the
writing, it’s never a problem really. It’s not difficult to do that, because
each band sounds different from the other 2. I never get into a conflict
with myself like “Well maybe I should use this with Naglfar or Bewitched
or Ancient Wisdom”. I always know when I hear the first riff I play, I
know this is for Naglfar or the other bands.
17. BY THE WAY WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER PLAYING
OTHER KINDS OF METAL? ALL YOUR BANDS BELONG TO THE EXTREME SOUND, SO WOULD
YOU EVER TRY PLAYING IN A POWER OR A HEAVY METAL BAND?
Hmm… No! I don’t think so! I’m pretty satisfied
with what I’m doing right now and I do a lot of different music as well,
more like instrumental or ambient stuff. Very different from what I do
usually, with no distorted guitars and stuff like that…
-BUT YOU REMAIN IN THE EXTREME SIDE OF MUSIC NEVERTHELESS…
18. SO CAN YOU TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT “SPIRITUAL
WARFARE”?
Oh well yeah! I would say it’s a kind of different
album if you compare it to our previous albums, because I think that “Spiritual
Warfare” is the most varied album Bewitched have ever made. Some songs
are really different from our old stuff. It’s a more complex album and
it displays different sides of Bewitched. We got these more traditional
songs like “Fucked By Fire” and “Black Burning Hatred”. They are more traditional
uptempo songs, but we wanted to do something different as well, so it’s
a very different album compared to our previous ones, but it turned out
exactly how we wanted it.
19. WHY DID IT TAKE YOU SO LONG TO RELEASE A NEW
ALBUM? I’M NOT INCLUDING THE EP, BUT I’M TALKING FROM THE RELEASE OF “RISE
OF THE ANTICHRIST” TILL NOW… IT’S BEEN 4 YEARS…
Well I don’t know why actually, because we
had all the material finished quite some time before we started recording
the album. You know we were very busy with Naglfar that time as well and
we also changed our label from Osmose to Regain records, before the EP
and we never feel any stress when it comes to releasing albums. We do it
when we are finished with it.
20. NOW I KNOW THIS IS A DIFFICULT QUESTION, BUT
WHICH COMPOSITION OF YOURS ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF AND WHY?
OK! Do you mean a whole album or…
-FROM ALL YOUR ALBUMS AND FROM EVERYTHING YOU’VE
RELEASED SO FAR…
It’s hard to say, but I would say at the moment
“Harvest” since this is the latest thing we’ve done. It’s still fresh and
it’s just been released and I haven’t played the song 1000 times. We still
have so much to do with this album, since we haven’t played it live yet.
It still feels like a challenge to us. I guess that’s a standard answer,
I know… Hahaha! It’s always the last album…
-YEAH I KNOW, BUT IF IT WASN’T A STANDARD ANSWER,
THEN THIS WOULD MEAN THAT YOU’RE RELEASING ALBUMS YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN
AND CAN’T SUPPORT…
Exactly! I guess this is a natural thing…
21. BY THE WAY HAVE YOU LISTENED TO JEN RYDEN’S
NEW BAND PROFUNDI?
Yeah! I got the album from him actually!
-WHAT DO YOU THINK OF “THE OMEGA RISING”?
I think it’s a great album!
-I THINK IT’S A GREAT ALBUM AND I’D SAY IT SOUNDS
CLOSE TO THE NAGLFAR SOUND…
Well, I wouldn’t say that, but on the other
hand…
-IT SOUNDS CLOSE TO “SHEOL”…
Yeah, but he’s been writing this kind of music
for so long, so I guess it’s not weird. I didn’t expect anything else,
but him releasing very good albums. He is a very talented guy and all the
albums he’s releasing are amazing, so it was really great to hear it!
22. IS THERE A QUESTION YOU’D LIKE TO BE ASKED
AND NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED YOU?
I don’t think so! People have pretty much
covered everything with their questions!
23. THANK YOU! THESE LAST LINES BELONG TO YOU.
LEAVE YOUR MESSAGE TO OUR READERS…
Well first of all I’d like to thank you for
supporting the band and showing interest. I hope the people will check
out the new album and that they will enjoy it. Both me and Kristoffer hope
we can make it to Greece this time in a not too distant future! Haha! Bye!
Christine Parastatidou
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