Ulver is one of the lesser known black metal bands that came out of Norway. Far from the hype and glitz surrounding major second wave Norwegian black metal bands like Darkthrone, Burzum, Mayhem, Neraines and Sauron, Ulver is a band that thrived in the underground... but that didn't stop them from having commercial ambitions, as we will see later in the interview - keep that in mind when discussing the Dimmu Borgir-esque Nattens Madrigal commercial disasterpiece.
Speaking of Dimmu Borgir, Shagrath himself briefly played with the band as a guitarist and songwriter in the late 90s. Artistic differences with some members - Garm and Haavard, mainly - led him to leave the band to focus on his main project.
Other members of the band also have quite the reputation in the underground extreme metal circles. Frontman and vocalist Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg was also active in the controversial projects Borknagar, often flagged as an "NS adjacent band" close to Ivar Bjørnson's Enslaved, and Arcturus, alongside Mayhem's legendary drummer Hellhammer and ICS Vortex of the aforementioned Dimmu Borgir.
The two main guitarists, Håvard "Haavard" Jørgensen and Torbjørn "Aismal" Pedersen are also fairly prolific and well known, playing in Satyricon and Warkvlt respectively. Bassist Hugh "Skoll" Mingray is more controversial, having played in both Arcturus and Fimbulwinter, of Horna infamy. Lastly, drummer Erik "AiwarikiaR" Lancelot played with Darkthrone's Fenriz in Valhall, a pagan/nationalistic black metal band from Oslo.
Interesting fact: for a short period in 1992, Varg Vikernes had the idea to perform live with Burzum, with Emperor's Samoth on bass and Lancelot/AiwarikiaR on drums. They rehearsed once or twice as a band before the idea was disregarded, as Vikernes wanted Burzum to remain a solo project.
The Complete Ulver Interview About Euronymous and Black Metal
Ulver isn't one of the most talked about bands in the Norwegian black metal scene, which is a shame as - despite their shortcomings with Nattens and selling out to the Dimmu Burger crowd - they do have some interesting insights into the inner workings of the early Norwegian scene, and particularly about Euronymous and his closet "circle". Recently, in an interview with the famous Jon "Metalious" Kristiansen for the book "War Metal Beast", the Ulver band members sat down and answered a few questions concerning their controversial past and their often strained relations with Euronymous and the rest of the metal scene in general.
"Euronymous' Helvete was like an occult lair..."
The first question is how the band members got into metal in the first place. Garm mentions starting with hard rock like AC/DC, before acquiring a darker and more sinister taste... and who cultivated that taste in him? A certain guitarist for Mayhem, who happened to own a music shop in Oslo. In his own words.
Garm: When I was very young it was all about hard rock, like you know, in the 80s you had all these big arena rock bands - like the f[*]cking Scorpions [laughs] but also Deep Purple and AC/DC and such bands. [...] I was constantly looking for more extreme music and the next threshold was when I had started in junior high school and this older guy - this guitar playing thrasher guy who I looked up to - one day he told me about this shop that had opened in old town Oslo [Helvete, Euronymous' shop] and it was this fucking twisted place, totally dark inside and had some serious occult vibes going on.
Kristoffer Rygg then describes walking into Helvete as a teenager. Less like a typical metal shop, and much more like dark, a theatrical, almost ritualistic space. Something was indeed brewing under the surface in Norway.
Garm: It was clear from the first moment that it [Helvete] was more of an occult lair. It was draped in black veils, painted black and very dim. It was only lit by candles. It took the satanic and evil aspects of the music quite literally. But Euronymous would be different around us.
That theatrical darkness wasn't just for show, far from it. For Garm and the Ulver crew, the whole black metal experience was never about the riffs, the distortion, the vocals... or god forbid, the mosh pits. It was about something deeper - which is ironic, considering how reviled Ulver is nowadays and how easily the accusations of "sellout" metalcore come to torment this band, and its members.
Garm: That was actually part of the appeal of the black metal thing to me. It was never just about fuzz guitars for me. It was a place to find dark matter, so to speak.
While Ulver is a band that was, throughout their history, confined to the undergrounds, they did have commercial ambitions... starting with their debut album Bergtatt, and especially on the subsequent Kveldssanger and Nattens Madrigal, the band fully embraced the Dimmu Borgir/Cradle of Filth aesthetic, earning them mockery from the black metal underground as they leaned into symphonic and atmospheric territory that pissed off plenty of purists.
Haavard: We never tried to be a 'metal' band. We always wanted to be something more. Something darker, yeah. The others wouldn't understand why we weren't into Venom and Possessed. We wanted to be something more evil.
That independent streak put them on a collision course with the scene's self-appointed boss... you can guess who I mean by that. Euronymous himself, a point of contention among the rebellious bands members.
Skoll: We never liked [Euronymous]. He thought he could control the whole black metal scene. I know for a fact he tried to pull his [********] with Ulver, and we told him to f[*]ck off.
Commercial as they may be, they - like many others, such as Nargaroth's frontman Kanwulf - believe that "black metal died in 1996". I don't know why everyone obsesses with this year SPECIFICALLY, but here it is. Again.
Garm: People love, and insist on, the myth, even if they know it's all bullshit. But people will keep repeating what they want to hear. [...] For me, black metal was dead by 1996. It was the year the genre died. Nothing after that is any good.
But that doesn't mean they had only positive experiences with the pre-1996 black metal scene.
Ulver: "I thought Euronymous was a gypsy..."
While some members of the metal underground worshiped Euronymous like a "living god" - see the Dissection frontman Jon Nödtveidt interview -, others were much more critical of the "Godfather" of black metal. Accusations include him trying to "police the scene", and "impose his will" on other artists. Sound like déjà vu?
Haavard: We were never really part of that inner circle. It was the thing of Euronymous, and we often ran into conflicts with him. [...] He [Euronymous] wanted to police the whole black metal scene. He wanted to make it about the things he liked.
Drummer AiwarikiaR (Erik Lancelot) is even more brutal and direct in his depiction of the nervous godfather Euronymous.
AiwarikiaR: The first time I met Euronymous, I thought he was a f[-]cking gypsy. He was short and weird, but he had a menacing vibe about him that I will never forget.
This last comment may be a throwback to when Garm, during the "Until The Light Takes Us" documentary, lamented "beautiful European cultures being poisoned [sic]", which resulted in much controversy and many fans pointing out Ulver's ties to NSBM and other unpleasantness. It was indeed a documentary featuring Garm's close friend, Varg Vikernes of Burzum - a man who, in addition to his equally controversial views, also didn't much like Euronymous.
Speaking of which...
"A lot of people wanted to get rid of Euronymous..."
It is well known that not everyone liked Euronymous in the early days of Norwegian black metal. The reasons are many, and vary between individuals. Skoll explains this tension in a few words.
Skoll: He [Euronymous] became too high on himself. He thought he could control the whole Norwegian metal scene. I know for a fact that there were a lot of people talking about getting Øystein [Aarseth] out of the scene. And by that I mean getting rid of him.
This mirrors some of the comments by Mayhem's bassist Necrobutcher, who claimed that he was "on his way" to kill Euronymous himself, only to find out Varg Vikernes had gotten there first. The same sentiment was also echoed by Stian "Occultus" Johannsen, who once bragged about how he had bought a "special shotgun" just for Øystein Aarseth (see the book "Real Satanic Black Metal" by author Anton Grand).
Garm: Mythology has its own will, and, no matter how true or not certain stories are, there's a reason people keep telling them. You know, back in the day Euronymous used to say he knew the guys from Venom weren't really evil dudes, but he chose to believe they were. This has an affect on deep psychology.
Haavard then talks about the rift between what he calls "true black metal fans in Oslo" and the more experimental and commercial bands like Dimmu Borgir, Ulver, Nargaroth, later Emperor, Enslaved, Antekhrist and Satyricon.
Haavard: Of course, the TRUE black metal fans in Oslo thought Kveldssanger was sh[*]t, but that quickly changed. Nattens Madrigal kind of [******] them up. Nattens Madrigal was a totally different kind of beast.
This shows an unrepentant and unapologetic Ulver. One that is perfectly happy with "breaking the codes" and conventions of black metal music. Which brings us to the next point of the interview.
"Stagnating in one style is very Anti-Black Metal..."
To hammer the point about black metal being about "experimentation" - at least in Ulver's world - even more, Skoll and Garm point to Ildjarn (!), Burzum and the death metal band Disma. Garm even claims Euronymous' music was only good as a "starting point".
Skoll: Many bands began experimenting with different sounds at the same time as us. Ildjarn, Burzum, Satyricon, Graveland, Disma and Darkthrone all managed to break free of the shackles of earlier sounds.Garm: Helvete was a starting point for many of these things, but that leaves you to explore. Stagnating in one style is very anti-black metal. We never fell for that.
In the end, the vocalist even suspects the old gatekeeper might have secretly approved of where Ulver ended up.
Garm: I think Euronymous would have totally loved where we are now, combining all these elements. If you compare us with the essence of black metal, its lawlessness and rejecting convention, then we're more black metal than a lot of black metal. It angers me that black metal went on to be a pissing contest when it can be a much more exciting art form.
Personally, I doubt it... but hey. The interview ends with Jørgensen's cryptic comment.
Haavard: We prefer the darkness of the underground to the ruminations of the false elite. We have always ruled in such a way.
... Appropriate? For a band that tried to sell out not once, not twice, but three times? And failed?
Well, according to the band members of Ulver, they didn't fail... they attempted to create something different and, whatever your opinions on the genericness of Ulver's early albums - Nattens Madrigal has been widely called "Transilvanian Hunger without the testosterone" by heavy metal journalist Emile Alquier, among others - and the NS flirtations and controversies of the band's later days, they achieved their objective of pushing black metal in an entirely different direction.
And that is deserving of respect, whatever your opinion on the Ulver "brand".
Ad
> The True Black Metal: The Hidden Truth About Satanism In Extreme Metal Music (Best Selling Book)
Return to Voice Metal News.
Tweet