There are many ways to portray darkness and evil and it isn't all in being mean and tough.
I don't think there's anything remotely "new" or "experimental" about any modern metal bands.
Before the 90s, black metal wasn't a selling tool [and didn't] have money behind it. Then it became a pop sensation. Now that the record industry has collapsed and started to rot, things are livening up a bit again.
In the past stories have been what tethers us to the world and they've made us who we are.
Ultimately I want my metal in a bar and not an art gallery.
I think Nouveau Gloaming is a classic black metal record and I would hate to be a band that kept trying to recapture the same essence, but failing, for the rest of its days.
The religion and it's many barbed indoctrinating tendrils just start to become what makes you who you are, so you have to kind of destroy yourself to be able to rebuild yourself and make yourself whole again.
When you're trying to free yourself from a religion that has been ingrained in you since childhood, it's more like ripping out your veins and tendons.
I like what's going on in Finland, with the rebirth of Beherit. I also like a band called Oranssi Pazuzu and a band called Spiderpact. There's a great scene there where they don't really care what's going on elsewhere and create music in their own vacuum.
I think there was a brief period where Norwegian bands were evolving and that was an interesting time where it seemed like a band like Darkthrone was stuck in the midst of a lot of change and seemed a bit redundant.
I do try to pay attention to new bands and what's happening within the scene. I try to make sure I give everything a listen - even if I loathe it.
Bands are more willing to take risks and we don't need this big label over us anymore telling us what it means to sell records and get into magazines.
I think when you have a band that are so separate and isolated then you have to know each others styles and characters quite well.
People are appreciating the old stuff again and there's no MTV-style scene police to try to make us all listen to Machine Head and Pantera *puke*!
I don't think it's "true" to sit and play old school heavy metal just so that you can send it to Fenriz or get a pat on the back from the guys you admire and hang out with.
I have a lot of mental scars from being brought up Catholic and being sent to Catholic school for 13 years!
I think there's a certain limit to the number of times you can raise hairs on the back of peoples' heads before it gets kind of saccharin.
I don't want people to feel like they'd overdosed on too much candy.
Most every album - and especially metal albums these days - are made in a way that you can grow tired of them very easily: They're made to be dissected and played on radio, released as singles or stuck on at parties.
Basically every song on modern metal albums follows a formula and you get that formula in between one to three tracks.
Everyone's attention span these days is limited to how long it takes to flick the iPod wheel on to the next song.
I loathe most crossover music. Yet I like to think when it comes to Code it's something different.
I don't like bands who would play music like Code. I mean I hate most bands with emotional singing parts (I adore metal singing like Iron Maiden though!)
I don't bring any ideology or barriers with me into my music.
You never leave a band like DHG. There's very few who are insane enough to be a part of something like that and you just can't take it out of you that easily!
