SATYRICON Frontman Hopes To Complete Long-In-The-Works Covers Album Next Year

SATYRICON frontman Sigurd "Satyr" Wongraven says that the band is hoping to complete its long-in-the-works covers album sometime next year.

The Norwegian black metal band was originally going to release the covers disc prior to the arrival of its latest collection of all-new material, "Deep Calleth Upon Deep", but unforeseen events, including Satyr's brain-tumor diagnosis in 2015, resulted in a change of plans.

"It's something that we've been playing around with for the last three or four years in between other things, and hopefully we’ll have time to pursue that next year at some point," Satyr told Australia's Heavy. "When we eventually do it, it is going to be called 'Formative Oddities', and the reason for that is because that's exactly what it is going to be about. It's gonna be about stuff that helped shape our musical taste, but I don't wanna do something overly obvious like putting covers of VENOM and BLACK SABBATH in there. There's gonna be some folk music; there's gonna be some classic hard rock, some punk rock and perhaps also we'll try to do some versions of electronica things that are not within the category of typical extreme metal or all of the obvious ones."

In a separate interview with RockSverige.se, Satyr confirmed that DEAD KENNEDYS' "Holiday In Cambodia" is one of the songs SATYRICON will be tackling on "Formative Oddities". He also explained in greater detail why recording covers of VENOM and BATHORY isn't something he is interested in pursuing.

"The way I would phrase it is that one can assume we've been listening to BATHORY and so on, but what has also made an impact on me as a music lover and as an artist is traditional folk music, some electronica, classical music, punk rock, classic rock and hard rock, and hence the title 'Formative Oddities'. Things that helped shape us musically as music fans and as professional, but not necessarily the obvious ones."

Satyr said that he initially thought SATYRICON would record "Formative Oddities" prior to the making of "Deep Calleth Upon Deep". But then "all these things happened in my life and everything changed, and I said, 'Okay, guys, now there's so much crazy stuff going on and I can't do all of this.' So I did my own stuff and we can't pick up work on the record now because we're gonna tour for a year, and once we have toured a year, then I don't know what we're gonna feel. Do we want to do nothing for a while or do we head straight into a new album? Do we never want to do this again or would we like to pick up where we left off on 'Formative Oddities'?"

"Deep Calleth Upon Deep" was released on September 22 via Napalm Records. The disc was recorded in Oslo, Norway and Vancouver, Canada, during early 2017 and mixed together with revered studio guru Mike Fraser (who previously worked on SATYRICON's 2006 album, "Now, Diabolical").

The "Deep Calleth Upon Deep" front cover is an obscure drawing from 1898 by perhaps the greatest Norwegian artist of all time, Edvard Munch.