On the occasion of the release of their seventh full-length album, Sons Of Northern Darkness, IMMORTAL were going round in December for a promotion tour. Perfect chance to meet the guys in Dortmund and to sound them out, because it is almost to foresee, that the new album will split the fans in two camps again. So around the noon I sat facing to Iscariah who looked pretty fresh after a long and hard drunken night, on the contrary to Wolf Mühlmann from SureShotWorx who had a huge hang over *lol*.

Dajana: You are one of just a few bands who are still in this scene, who are established and didn‘t sell out themselves. How do you see this development?
Iscariah: For us it‘s been natural, you know. If people choose to say we sell out because we have signed Nuclear Blast now, that‘s just really stupid. You know, for example, we just follow our heart feeling, totally. To change the label for example which is I guess what a lot of people are referring to and are thinking about like this. We just care for the best offer. It gives us more financial possibilities, which reflects in the production and the promotion. We are just more available. That‘s all. It just gives us also better sound and recordings and other things. We don‘t go around thinking about if this is worth putting faith in, if it‘s true, if it‘s metal. You can’t think like that. So it‘s a thing we don’t really think about, we just follow our heart feelings.

Dajana: But a lot of people are pissed off a bit at the moment because you changed the label. Ok, Nuclear Blast is not really a major label like Sony or maybe Century Media. But, people and fans think now, or they are afraid that you start right now to sell out yourself.
Iscariah: Well, it‘s... you know. The thing is that you can‘t stop what you think, because of how people see it. The thing with Nuclear Blast is we are talking about freedom, they can do the help you want. I have been for two or three days in their office, they don’t tell us what to do like: „you’ve got to put this on the cover to make it sell more," it doesn‘t work like that. Many of these people don’t understand, they don’t see black metal as we do, they see it differently sometimes. But all in all yeah, it‘s really good so.

Dajana: I know that Abbath once said, that he never wants to leaves Osmose Productions ...
Iscariah: Yes, I know. He always says things like that. The thing is the plan wasn’t to leave Osmose at all. It just happened. Rumours were going that the band was available, and all of a sudden we got all these offers, I don’t know where. You know, it just was the better offer for the logistical stuff for the band. You’ve got to think about these things professionally with what’s available. You can’t stay with a label just because they’re friends of yours.

Dajana: Your new albums was produced at Abyss studios again by Peter Tägtgren?
Iscariah: Yeah.

Dajana: What do you think about the fact that Peter Tägtgren has closed down his Abyss studios, at least for his own part?
Iscariah: I think, we need still more information about that because I don’t know what stays and what goes, if he wants totally close down or if it’s just coz of Hypocrisy and Pain now. But you know, we speak with him about it, and he says he will choose just more carefully which bands he wants to work with. He doesn‘t want to be a selling point. I like the sound of him, we should go there because you can trust him. So now I really hope we can do something more with him in the future. It’s understandable that he has to slow down, because he’s overworked. He should be careful that he doesn’t get burned out. And I also think he’s focusing more on touring with Hypocrisy for a change, because during their 10 years existence they haven’t been touring that much, so it’s kind of about time. And Pain is really big now. I think first of all he wants to be a musician.

Dajana: Last week Chuck Schuldiner died ( R.I.P.). Did you know him? Did you like his music?
Iscariah: I never met him, but to me and at least this band, he was one of the first Death Metal bands we got to know about. I remember in one of my previous bands we did cover versions of them. He definitely had an effect. You don’t sit around and think very much about it before something happens. It’s a loss of course, the impact is there. We were in the office when we came here, and it caused a shock in the office. I didn’t really believe it, I had a message on the phone, saying Chuck was dead, then I went and told that to Abbath. It was a bit of a shock, but these things happen.

Dajana: He didn‘t have a health insurance for something like that.
Iscariah: I think, he had an insurance, but if you get really sick in America it doesn’t help that you have an insurance.

Dajana: He needed another operation but he didn‘t have the money for that. And I think it‘s so fucking shit that you have to die in the USA because of that!
Iscariah: Yes, you know if he would have lived here in Germany and in Norway he would have maybe been alive.

Dajana: Do you think that bands should be more political because of things like that? That people or fans start to fight against something like that, to improve the system?
Iscariah: No, I don‘t think so, not in black metal, that’s more hardcore. I don’t think there are things you should sing about. You mean the lyrics from the bands?

Dajana: For example, yes. Or various statements ...
Iscariah: Of course, I mean statements in the press if you get a specific question you answer that, we can always give it meaning, but it’s not something we would go with in lyrics. It just doesn’t fit us.

Dajana: Ok, up to your new album. You are pleased with that? It‘s great.
Iscariah: Thanks. It‘s very important for you, you’ve heard it now and you think it‘s great. That people can get it straight away. We’re very pleased with it. We’re had 4 months of hard work in the studio. It’s definitely an album we’re very pleased with. When we sit down and write an album it’s not like we look back on previous records to come up with something, it just comes dramatically. So we’re very surprised ourselves how it turned out. We didn’t know how it would be before it was done, we didn’t have a specific plan, we just did what would fit. So it’s very satisfying, when you decide that everything worked, it was a very strong collaboration with the band ...

Dajana: I would say it‘s your best album so far ...
Iscariah: Yeah, definitely!
Dajana: I think, it‘s straighter than the previous albums. I would say it is more melodic, but ...
Iscariah: You can breathe more. Without the block when it was very compact, it gives you more like a wall of sound. And this time also production wise there’s much less distortion of the guitars, which tends to make it less heavy, to get a clearer picture of what’s going on. The bridges between the arrangements too, we want people to hear them, we don‘t want to hide behind noise just to cover up these things.

Dajana: Next year you will be part of No Mercy Festival. And there will be „just" 8 bands instead of 9 bands this year. But I think that are still too many bands.
Iscariah: Yeah, it’s too many for the fans and for the bands. Standing in the crowd for five hours it can’t really be something you enjoy.

Dajana: This year they started at 6 o’clock in the evening and last band went from stage around half past 1am or something. It‘s way too long ...
Iscariah: It’s not a dream ... we don’t have the perfect place in the line-up, we went last, but that wasn’t through choice. Because people aren’t stupid, they don’t see automatically the last band as the biggest band, last time we played third to last, it just happened. We’ve done No Mercy before, and like you said, the space backstage is very small and with eight bands ...

(here follows some shoptalk about festivals like No Mercy, all the possibilities which can happen there, flus and broken vans, traffics, fucked up and sick musicians ... etc.)

Dajana: Will you do an own tour too?
Iscariah: Yes, we are doing after the No Mercy. We have another dates which we go for with Hypocrisy. So it’ll be... with just local support acts, we don’t want to put lots and lots, you know. They once tried to put more and more bands on it. It’s really funny because we sit at home and say to each other „What do you say, would you like to make an Immortal-Hypocrisy tour?"... - it’s rolling right? Cal: Yeah - ... It’s dangerous because we’re accepting we will travel until some big festival, we’ll maybe pull out, maybe withdraw because it’s too much for us. It’s kind of strange. That’s what we’re trying to avoid, getting two bands and a local band to do that. So we’ll do that in England, France, Spain and Portugal. We have like seven dates in France. Right now France is one of our biggest territories.

Dajana: What festivals are planed ?
Iscariah: The thing is that we can decide on a festival and then the people who arranged the festival come back two months later and say: „No, that was not the deal we had" and we just say fuck it. And in the end we look like assholes because we said yes and then we said no. They just changed it, it just fucks you up. But still, it’s a long time until festivals, so we’re hopeful that we can get something worked out for next year. Like this year we just did Germany, we just had a total of two festivals, so I think there will be more next year. We know how it works, we know some of them will be rip-offs.

Dajana: In October I had an interview with Emperor‘s Ihsahn and we were talking a lot about the black metal scene in Scandinavia and in general. He said that everybody is talking and nagging about possible right-wing orientated tendencies in the scene, but that no one is complaining about the fact, that the metal scene in general is very sexist and that it kind of supports violence.
Iscariah: Sexism. Hmm. You mean like on Sons Of Northern Darkness? [laughs] It works well for us, we talked about it afterwards. Politics mixed with Black Metal is not for us, Black metal should be about the right topics. To mix right wing or left wing or whatever into it just makes it wrong ... sexism and stuff, I know there’s a lot of stuff like that in music.

Dajana: Like Manowar? [laughs]
Iscariah: I’ve seen how they can be. We played with them in Greece. They treat girls like shit, they treat them like trash, just: „Come here and give me a blow job, and then fuck off", it’s true. But this is something that they don‘t see. If I was a girl I’d probably see it more...well, I dunno, but I definitely know what you mean. It’s a strange phenomenon.

Dajana: Do you think, it really must be this way, that lyrics are sexist, just to sell more records ?
Iscariah: I think it’s more or less that it’s entrenched, the fact that most of these bands, like ourselves, were inspired by the eighties‘ scene, which in my opinion is even more macho and sexist. Bands like Mötley Crue and these people, they’re very sexist. I think it’s a result of that as well. It definitely could be possible to do it without the sexism. I don’t know if it would be the same [laughs].

Dajana: Do you think many bands could sell records without sex?
Iscariah: Yeah, I don’t think there’s a rule that songs have to have sex in the topic. But you know, sex sells. A lot of bands focus on that just for the sales of it. I‘m very afraid of this. I don’t have anything to hide. I’m not sexist or false, or anything, but it’s just a very sensitive issue for many people.

Dajana: IMMORTAL already exists more than 10 years. Are there things which has changed a lot in this time?
Iscariah: For example, that was before my time, Immortal were signed with a rehearsal tape, which happened by coincidence. It just happened to have a new label, and if you see that today, it never happens! You would never get signed with a rehearsal tape today, never! You have to have a CD. Record labels, for example don’t have any tape cassette players, you have to have a CD or else they’ll just throw it in the trash because they can’t listen to it. That is the details to watch. It’s really sad, but that’s just how it’s become. But that’s just one thing, you know, other things, the whole scene has changed in what defines it. You don’t have like a tree that is Black Metal, its core, you have all these branches, like classic Black Metal, and seventies’ Black Metal, it’s all different. I don’t really see the point because people think that by putting themselves in a very special category it makes them very special or original. It’s all different now, it’s a whole different scene. But you can’t be nostalgic and dream back, you’ve got to think ahead. The size of the scene has become one hundred times bigger.

Dajana: The best „Spinal Tap" moment or the greatest moment ever you had have in Immortal ?
Iscariah: I think, the best Spinal Tap moment and the greatest was at the same time. (*lol*) Yes, because when it comes to it, it feels a bit like Spinal Tap, when it becomes very big. In a way, we’re kind of farmers. We don’t see ourselves on the world map very much. When we played last year in Santiago de Chile with Destruction, we played for like five thousand people. It was like three bands, it was totally crazed. We had a signing session in a record store, and we had to come in through the backdoor, it was like: „What’s all these police doing in here?" We didn’t know it was a record store, so we just came in. It was like looking down into a pit, and there were six hundred lucky people in the store, totally crazed, diving, like stage diving, trashing the whole store. We started sitting down, we put on our sunglasses, and went like „To hell with it." The cops had to stop the doors and everything, you know, it closed in five minutes because people had died jumping off the roof trying to commit suicide because they didn’t get an autograph. There were like sixty policemen there, as a security thing, with helmets and dogs and weapons and bikes. So we had to go out the backdoor, but when we got to the backdoor there were like eight hundred people outside. So we had to wait for an hour inside until it was clear. The police told us to walk to the car, they said, „Whatever you do, look straight ahead. Do not focus on the fans, because they will run you down if you give them any sign that you want to talk to them." So we came out and Schmier (Destruction) wanted to talk to the fans, he didn’t give a shit. He went straight towards the fans and there were policement sitting on bikes surrounding the whole thing. They just ran them down, ran over the motorcycles. We had to duck and run really fast. The strangest thing was, we drove away and we saw like five or six hundred metal people running after the car. It’s a bit scary, you know, but still a bit Spinal Tap, because it really felt like: „This is too much, this is not us." It would happen to any band, for example a smaller band could have the same experience. We have a lot of Spinal Tap moments, we have a lot of stories which we don’t want to share, because it feels too stupid.

Dajana: If I remember right, there was a video to Blizzard Of Beasts album ?
Iscariah: No, it was to Battle In The North, to Blashyrkh ...

Dajana: ... there were not many videos from black metal bands in the last time. I just remember classical stuff like Mother North from Satyricon. Why ?
Iscariah: I think it’s first because of the TV stations. Like Viva doesn’t have metal anymore. You have another TV shows?

Dajana: Yes, Viva 2, but just until the end of the year. Then it will be closed ...
Iscariah: ... yeah exactly, that’s I said. I think, that’s the reason why so much is because the labels are a bit afraid of financial practicalities. You know, getting the money back again because there’s no airplay. There’s like one black metal TV show in Bulgaria. So, for the labels and demonstrations is it much better to release it as like a homevideo, a documentary or a live concert. It is better for us. We would like to do a single video, but as long as we want this and the label just says: „sorry, we just can’t do it, we just wanna Dr. Dre."

Dajana: ... but I think nowadays ... Ok, there are no metal shows on TV, but all the people download a lot of stuff from the net. I think you could put a video on your official website, would be a good possibility ...
Iscariah: yeah, it is, but you don’t get the money back. It’s always the same, but you know, the internet for example can be a good media promotion-wise. (a fucking mobile phone rings).

Dajana: If you could do a soundtrack, if someone would ask you, what movie you would chose ?
Iscariah: um... like an existing movie or just fictional ....... ?
Dajana: Whatever, you also can shoot a new one ...
Iscariah: erm ... I don’t know ... it’s a strange question ... our music is very extreme it’s very rare that this kind of music fits a film. In certain scenes or something?

Dajana: A lot of bands wish to do music for a movie, soundtracks ....
Iscariah: like Lord Of The Rings ...
Dajana: for example ...
Iscariah: Yeah, it could be for a scene, like battle scenes, I just think of Lord of the Rings because it’s a major thing right now. So if you put like a full album, play it, and you’re supposed to have this movie in the background, that would be too extreme, it wouldn’t be a funny movie. For existing movies I think Evil Dead! It’s a great movie.

Dajana: Is there anything you can’t resist at all ? ... erm ... except German beer *lol* ...
Iscariah: I can’t resist to play, it’s a cliché. You know, but that’s true that’s one thing. And I can’t resist having total privacy. I need my time with my family and it’s very important for me.

Dajana: I have heard you have welcomed a baby?
Iscariah: Yes, it’s 3 months old now.

Dajana: Daughter or son ?
Iscariah: Daughter (... and now his eyes start to shine) That’s what I wanted. I don’t want to have a son. Because daughters they behave more. They don’t scream and shout, for dinosaurs and action figures. So one of the very important things which I need is privacy. That may be a contradiction. (Oh my god, this guy is completely naive in these things ... hehehe, I bet in around 15 years he would be lucky just to have a son who wants dinosaurs and action figures .... Cal )

Short Cuts:

Favourite beer?
The one I drink the most is Hot Stuff. I like a whole lot the Mexican beer, which is extremely expensive.

What are you listen to at the moment?
Yesterday for example, I listened to ... it’s a Swedish supposed to be very rock-and-roll girl band. They were called Thee Ultra Bimboo have you heard it? It’s very very commercial. It’s really cool. It’s so good because CD singles cost 5 DM and you get two songs that everyone likes, you don’t have to buy the whole album. What else do I listen to? I listened to Kataklysm, their new album, which I think is great. I only heard two songs yet but it sounds good. Yesterday we listened to old stuff like Celtic Frost, Sodom and Possessed. We’re basically very old, so we stay with what we know ...

... and here we had to stop that interview because time was over, tape too, and other journalists were already been waiting. It was a funny talk and I got more and more new questions in my head. Well, it’s really a big difference, if you talk to people personally or if you just have an e-mail interview or phone interviews. And yes, I know it took ages to put this interview finally online. Me lazy *lol* ... sometimes ... sorry !
New IMMORTAL album is really great so watch out for tour dates and catch them there anywhere !!! However ...