DIMMU BORGIR: black metal or not?

On the second day of Metal Camp we could also attend a Dimmu Borgir press conference. Initially scheduled at 9.30 PM, it was later moved to 10.30 PM and it was about to be canceled even then, because the Norwegians also arrived quite late in Tolmin. In my personal opinion, it would have been better not to have a press conference at all, because we met Shagrath and Silenoz who were rather tired, rather reserved (especially Shagrath, who only interfered two or three times in the whole discussion), and they also seemed quite conceited, with an air of vanity all around them, which ruined my entire evening from that moment on. I didn’t want to see the band like this, but I guess I have to realize that not all musicians are nice characters. Too bad that some of them forget they are not always talking to some insolent journalists who want to get the most scandalous news, but they might be talking to some of their fans instead.

The first question belonged to the same Italian journalist that we also met in the first episode of our Metal Camp story. He asked the band members if, in the beginning, they thought they would be headlining festivals and selling so many albums, since a black metal band is not supposed to sell. Silenoz is quite surprised: “Why is not supposed to sell?” Well, because that’s what the Italian guy thought and because he had spoken to Satyricon a month before and they also said “of course it’s not supposed…”. Silenoz doesn’t give up: “I don’t understand why it’s not supposed to sell albums.” Eventually, he answers the basic question: “Of course, we didn’t expect to come this far but it just came out like this. From the being we were stubborn and worked hard.”

About the next album, Silenoz couldn’t give much more details. It will be recorded in October, maybe also in November and, as release date, he estimates around March 2007. As for the concept about the medieval character that wants to find God, Silenoz said that the album is loosely based on a concept. When people hear about a concept, they think it’s something grandiose and long songs, but it’s too early to talk about something like that. The songs are still taking shape, the lyrics haven’t been written yet so it’s definitely too early to talk about anything.

Why did they choose Stormblåst when they wanted to re-record old albums? Why not any other old album? “Because the Stormblåst album has been bothering us for many years, the lack of atmosphere”, Shagrath interferes, “and also the rush we had in studio, we were not so experienced”. Silenoz adds: “We were talking about it for many years actually. It was the right thing to do for us and also to give to the people something almost new until the next album comes out. So that’s why we re-recorded it.”

In the early black metal days there were almost 80-100 fans of the genre, but then all of a sudden everybody jumped in that train. How does Dimmu Borgir explain that? Silenoz doesn’t know what exactly to say: “I don’t know, no comment. When we started we just did what we felt was right for us and that’s what we ever done all the way. And that’s why we’re here and that’s why a lot of other bands are not here. Maybe we’re not quite a black metal band either, we have so many other ingredients. We are a very untraditional black metal band but still we have the roots in the traditional expression of black metal.”

Silenoz believes it’s quite obvious that the sudden attention paid to the black metal music was because of the church burnings and the killings that took place in Norway in the early 90s.

This is the moment when the discussion about re-recording old albums started once more, but this time from the perspective of the sound. Are albums re-recorded only to get a better sound? “Yes, sound, and performance, too. Mostly the sound because what happened with Stormblåst are just like bad memories, we just rushed down into the studio, we didn’t get the producer we wanted at that time so it’s been like a bad thing in our back catalogue all these years so we had to wait for the original contract to expire so we could re-record it and have it the way we wanted it to sound”, Silenoz explained.

Referring to Hellhammer, somebody asked if the band considers to take him as a permanent member. But Shargrath thinks that, after so many line-up changes, “and it’s better to pay someone to do a good job and see how it goes.”.

How did they get to work with Hellhammer? Silenoz told us that they had known him for many years and that he had been a good friend also. “As you know, he plays in many bands, he’s like a professional session musician, so he said that whenever we needed his help he would be there. He lives very close to the rest of us and it wasn’t that hard to ask him.”, he added. And he’s not only drumming in studio for them, but he will also go with them on tours.

What does the band think about the fact that many bands sound very different live than they do on the records? “It’s obviously we can’t have an orchestra live because I don’t think it will work.”, answered once again Silenoz. “Maybe for one or two shows, but it takes a lot of preparation to do that and a lot of money which we don’t have for that kind of job. Studio and live are two different things. In the studio you have the really professional, technical side of the band and live it’s the energy and the attitude of the band.”

Now if we’re talking about the live performance of the band, let’s also talk about how important is the image for Dimmu Borgir. Silenoz wouldn’t call it image, but rather something that makes the band a whole. Babbling a little, he managed to explain that he could never go on stage dressed like the way he was at the moment, because it would not go with the music.

Image or not, it’s because of it that many have compared Dimmu Borgir to Cradle Of Filth, even if the two band don’t have so much in common. So what is the band members’ opinion about Cradle Of Filth? Silenoz’s answer was short: “next question”, so we pretty much guessed what their opinion was.

But there was no next question, because the manager of the band announced the organizers that the time for the press conference was over. They gave a few autographs, quickly made some pictures and then walked away.