Blood Red Throne
Wywiad przeprowadził Wouter Roemers
Over the course of 5 albums in the last decade Kristiansand, Norway-based death metallers are probably one of the most consistent genre bands the country has to offer. "Souls Of Damnation" – the band's third record for UK label Earache Records – is the most concise and brutal effort they have written to date. Masterful Magazine arranged an interview with Daniel "Død" Olaisen to talk about the new album, their touring plans and goals for the future.
Hello! Thanks for doing this interview with us! What are you and the rest of Blood Red Throne currently up to?
Well, both Vald and I (Død) just returned home from a local festival and a week ago we played a couple of shows in Estland and also in our hometown. Next month we're playing in Romania for the first time, so we look forward to that!
This new record was recorded, mixed and mastered at Deadline Studio by Valle Adzic, who also mixed your previous record "Come Death". This is the best sounding record to date - were his facilities and expertise more fitting for Blood Red Throne, do you think?
"Altered Genesis" and "Come Death" also have killer production I think, but all in all it was better to do everything at Deadline Studio this time and we knew we would get a perfect sound again! It was great to work with Valle and everything was just smooth and cool!
"Souls Of Damnation" is named after a track of your debut album "Monument Of Death". What's the significance of that? Did you feel that you were straying from the band's early sound on the last record?
The title is inspired by the "Poltergeist II" movie. A preacher allures a bunch of people into this cave claiming that doom's day is here and tries to salvate them.
Was the songwriting once again split between Tchort and Dod? Did drummer Anders Haave and singer Vald have some input in the new material?
Jipp! Tchort wrote 4 songs and Død 7 tracks for this album. Vald wrote some of the lyrics, but also had some friends helping him out with some lyrics. Anders pretty much played what I programmed with my drum machine, but of course he had some inputs and at least at Tchort's songs they improvised a bit! Erlend adds his crazy bass playing without too much interference from the rest of the band, hehe!
Many bands play really fast today and that is sometimes illegible for uninitiated people. Do you feel that Blood Red Throne is a contrast to all those bands? There are lots of underlying melodies and tons of groove in your music that is not always played at inhumanly fast tempos.
We have our share of fast shit too, but in BRT we need to have the groovy and heavy stuff as well. Listening to a whole album played in 270 bpm is really intense. There are more melodies this time too, but no cheesy stuff, more like Death and so on!
The artwork by Lukasz Jaszak is also the most darkest and evil to date. Was this the first time you worked with him? Who came up with the concept for the cover artwork?
Lukasz did the 3 latest albums of ours and I still think "Altered Genesis" is the most "evil" he's done for us. We explained the title, "Souls of Damnation", and he came up with a perfect fitting cover once again!
"Souls Of Damnation" comes in a lush digi-pack that includes two bonus tracks and a DVD detailing the recording sessions, an interview, promo clips and a live teaser. Are there any plans to record a full DVD anytime in the future?
I think many dvd's are boring if they're too long or just not interesting. Here you have a cool dvd featuring everything you mention as well as it has some funny clips too! But yeah, of course we will record a full dvd sometime in the future for sure!
This is your third album for UK label Earache Records. I take it you are satisfied the way they are promoting, marketing and distributing the band? For how many albums have you signed with Earache Records? How has the label been accommodating the band's needs?
We have one more album for Earache and lately things have worked great with them. "Come Death" lacked a bit of promotional work, but it seems that things are better this time!
Your first three releases were released by Hammerheart Records/Karmageddon Media at the time. Are they still easy to find considering the label has closed down years ago?
No problem at all. Plenty of them at e-bay! I've bought several copies myself from e-bay!
Any concrete plans on how you will promote the release of this debut outside of Norway? How is the touring cycle for this album shaping up so far?
Indeed! We will do a headliner tour in Europe in October for the first time and we're also planning a US/South America tour in 2010!
Are there any recent or relatively new bands, regardless of genre, that managed to impress you? Or are you too busy with your own musical endeavours and day jobs to really get acquainted with new bands?
Oh, I'm so into music, both newer and older bands. I'm not like those musicians claiming they don't listen to music or at least metal music at all. It' s just nonsense. Why do they play metal then?! There are many good bands and they deserve all support! To support friends of mine I will say KNine and Circus Maximus. Excellent Norwegian bands!
How do you perceive the advances of technology and the internet changing the music industry in the future? Will the CD as a product become a fanatic's item like the LP is nowadays? Will record labels become redundant? What effect will it have on festivals and tours?
I guess I'm one of the few that still wants the CD. I mean, I have collected CD's for 15 years now and I think it's a ok format. LP's are cool because of the big covers, but very non-practical. I totally dig the USB stuff too, but I need the original CD as well. I don't know what will happen in the future, but playing live becomes more and more important!
Last question: five albums into your career, having achieved quite a lot for a band in the underground, what remains the biggest driving force in this band?
I've actually released 12 albums in my career, but 5 with BRT indeed and our goal is to get bigger but never losing our sound and just have a good time with our fans!
Thanks for the interview! Good luck with all your future endeavours. I would like to extend my praise for your a killer and abrasive fifth album. The last words are yours.
Thanx a lot man! Truly inspiring to get such good feedback. Expect some more heavy death metal from Norway in the future. Check www.myspace.com/bloodredthrone666 and drink it up!
Info: www.myspace.com/bloodredthrone666
Booking: www.theflamingarts.org (Russia, Europe) / www.sublifeproductions.com (Scandinavia)
