The man self-styled Lord Ahriman, aka Mikael Svanberg, is the main composer and guitarist of the Swedish "nu" black metal band Dark Funeral, of which he is the co-founder alongside metal legend David "Blackmoon" Parland.
While nowadays Dark Funeral is mostly known for the decline into mallcore garbage after the departure of Blackmoon, the main driving force behind the band, it seems Ahriman is not content with sitting in the shadows of his predecessors.
While many will cringe just at hearing the name "Dark Funeral" associated with black metal, it's important to hear what both sides have to say. Particularly when it comes to a band so divisive as Dark Funeral.
In the past, many thought of the enigmatic Dimmu Borgir, for example, as a mindless commercial act, but were soon to change their opinions about them once they heard the sincerity and capacity for introspection of frontman Shagrath. Let this be an example not to be too quick to judge "a book by its cover". More on that later in the interview.
Ahriman Interviewed About His Passion For Black Metal
Ahriman is a man of few words. He prefers to express himself through music. Black metal, specifically. So when he took the time to collaborate with Emile Alquier for the best selling book "Heavy Metal Master Class", which goes over not only the history of black metal, but of every extreme metal genre, naturally many were curious.
The interview starts about as you would expect, with the more "edgy" questions directed at Mikael Svanberg coming on later.
Lord Ahriman: "I just follow my Inner Demons!"
When asked what motivates him to pursue playing in Dark Funeral, and in the black metal scene, after so long, Lord Ahriman answers the following.
Ahriman: There's several things that keep me motivated: my complete dedication towards the underground metal scene; my inner demons; my depressions; my anger; playing guitar, and the music writing in itself, among many other things. [...] Basically I just follow my inner demons and transform my inner feelings and emotions into music.
Wait... motivated by his "depressions"? Plural, even? Who knew Dark Funeral had closeted ties to the DSBM scene (this is a joke, as DSBM means depressive suic-dal black metal, and yes it's a real sub-genre of black metal)?
On cross dressing, which Ahriman defines differently from the "transgender" gender identity and ideology, he states the following about "wearing women's clothes" on stage.
Ahriman: It's [a kind of] sexual exorcism. It channels the dark energies of Lucifer and the Moon into lower dimensions. [...] As far as the title "Latex Queen" and the subject it deals with isn't that stage [sic] I think.
On having to undergo forearm surgery, something that had ailed Ahriman for a long time.
Ahriman: Yeah. It's slowly getting better. I'm still a little bit swollen, but at least I can say it's like this: at the beginning of the tour, it was pushing and hurting me. So, I'm happy [to play?] now without too much pain.
This was an observation once made by the founder of Dark Funeral, David "Blackmoon" Parland, who recently passed away. He insinuated Ahriman "couldn't even play the riffs" on most songs, on the debut The Secrets of the Black Arts. He also insinuated that this was due to Svanberg "**** too much" although this was never confirmed publicly.
Speaking of that. What does Lord Ahriman have to say about his relationship with David Parland, in retrospect?
Ahriman: We had ups and downs like [everyone else], but he was like a dark brother to me. [...] Even though we had a complicated relationship for years, he knew he could always reach out to me. And he did.
There was notorious bad blood between the two men at the time they parted ways. Let us hope that they had indeed mended bridges between then and now.
"Dark Funeral Is More Than Just About The Music..."
Now we get into the more "juicy" parts of the Ahriman interview. Note that due to copyright reasons, not every word from the "Heavy Metal Master Class" could be transcribed as is. I only selected the most interesting questions, those most relevant to the recent Dark Funeral/Watain NSBM controversy, and the accusations of Dark Funeral playing "black metalcore".
On the accusation of Dark Funeral being a "commercial poser" band that places "image over sound", Svanberg is incisive.
Ahriman: I think it comes to... most people who do Black Metal, it's not only the music, there's so much more around it. Not only the image, but that's one big part of it. I've always felt that it's all gotta go hand-in-hand, and I wanna create something bigger than just music. [...] Not only music, lots of stuff. Call it boycott or whatever you wish, but I'd say it's up to everyone to decide what to buy and/or listen to themselves. If there's something out there that you don't like, don't buy it! It's as simple as that really. To me metal is a form of art and something I've dedicated my life to.
Lord Ahriman also goes on to name Ozzy Osbourne, Cannibal Corpse (lol), Sodom, Helgrind and Burzum as part of his CD collection. In his own words: "Basically, metal exclusively!".
There is also a part where he talks in depths about Jon Nödtveidt of Dissection, in which he claims to have known him personally. Ahriman also goes on to name Varg Vikernes of Burzum and Euronymous of Mayhem as his references, but says he listened to a lot of Ozzy Osbourne while growing up. He talks a great length about when he battled depression in the last decade, and how music helped him cope with the "feelings of anger". Nothing too controversial there.
All in all, I doubt the tidbits selected from this "Heavy Metal Master Class" interview will do much to change people's opinions about Dark Funeral, and the recent "black metalcore" trend. But as said before, it's always better to have access to both sides of the story in cases like these.
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