DIMMU BORGIR Guitarist: 'Black Metal Will Never Again Be The Same As It Was Back In The '90s'

ThrashHits.com recently conducted an interview with guitarist Galder (real name: Tom Rune Andersen) of Norwegian symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ThrashHits.com: Having just heard the [new DIMMU BORGIR album "Abrahadabra"], it seems safe to say it's going to surprise a few people.

Galder: Yeah, I think that's fair enough.

ThrashHits.com: Was this deliberate?

Galder: As soon as we made this album I knew this was going to be an album that would surprise. And yes, it was sort of intentional. We wanted to do something different to what we'd done before — not too extreme, but we wanted to fool around and experiment a lot more. There are a lot of samples here that are from the Norwegian natives, for instance, that we've never done before, and lots of crazy samples. And also the music, too, is a bit different from what we've done before. So, yeah, we always knew that this would surprise. It's an album you need to listen to more than once because there's so much going on — so much orchestration, so much choir and so many samples and guitar and vocal stuff. Shagrath has been experimenting so much with his vocals, too.

ThrashHits.com: Even by DIMMU BORGIR standards, this is a very dark record. Given the lineup changes, was there a dark feeling within the band that might have contributed to that?

Galder: It drove us to push ourselves to make it harder, because we were afraid the fans would be saying, "The band is over and it's not going to happen anymore because those two people left," so we were thinking, "No, that's not true, we can be even stronger." Even though it was very hectic at that time because they left the band in the middle of this process, it really pushed us to want to make it stronger, to make it aggressive. So, of course, maybe there is some of that stuff shining through in the end result. It's hard to say, but there might be something in there — a little bit more aggression maybe than the previous albums.

ThrashHits.com: One thing that's very noticeable is that it's very black metal riffing on pretty much every song. Does being seen as black metal still matter to you?

Galder: Black metal is the roots of DIMMU BORGIR and has been surrounding the band, but we don't really look at it as old-school black metal, because we know it's not. We know it's too well produced to be old-school black metal. We like to keep it a bit primal and to have black metal riffs, but even with the guitar riffs it's more new black metal than old black metal. We keep the riffs very open and very simple, so that's not very DIMMU but maybe more of the new black metal — kind of MAYHEM-ish, more of the picking type.

ThrashHits.com: What do you think about the world of black metal at the moment? Do you think it's doing well?

Galder: It's doing well, but black metal will never again be the same as it was back in the '90s. If you ask me, that's just a train that's left the station. It's sad to say it, but all music moves along. Black metal moves along, and it can't be the same, you know? It can't all sound like DARKTHRONE today because it wouldn't be the same. Studios evolve, musicians evolve. It's cool, and we still have black metal today, but it won't be the same as it was back in the day. But that's good because all music needs change, it needs to go in new directions otherwise it dies out, and black metal has survived for a very long time. Twenty years it has survived and it's still going strong so that's very good. Not many musical styles go for that long — death metal didn't really last for twenty years. I'm very proud of black metal surviving that long. Hopefully it will last another twenty years — with good digital sound!

ThrashHits.com: Do you think black metal moving beyond the territories it started in to be a much more global force will help keep it alive?

Galder: It will keep it alive, but at the same time it's always the original stuff that, for me, is the best. I think the Scandinavian bands are the best but it's cool we have bands from other countries. That's just how the story goes — like how death metal started in America and moved out to Europe. If that's the way it needs to be for black metal survive, it's cool — as long as it stays true to its roots and as long as black metal stays evil and about the dark message. I'd rather that than for it to die out.

ThrashHits.com: You're touring the U.K. with KORN in September…

Galder: Let me hear it!

ThrashHits.com: Well, they didn't seem like the obvious band for DIMMU BORGIR to tour with…

Galder: No.

ThrashHits.com: Were there any concerns about doing that tour?

Galder: We know it's different, and we knew that people would go "KORN?!?" because we were thinking "KORN?!?". We just wanted to do something new, and it's not like we're selling out, because if we want to make money we'd go on a headline tour! That's not why we're doing it. We're doing it because it's something new and we can play in front of more people and see the reaction and see "how's this going to be?". It's not like we're going to tour with KORN and then evolve from that to go on tour with all punk rock bands or whatever, we're going to go back and tour with ENSLAVED. It's just a cool thing for us to experiment with there and then, and see how it goes. It's a new thing for DIMMU to do. We've toured so much with other black metal bands, and for 17 years DIMMU has only toured with metal bands. It's about evolving, trying stuff and seeing how it goes.

Read the entire interview from ThrashHits.com.