Good evening, thank you very much for answering these questions, how is everything going in Oslo?
Good evening! We just released our new album, and all is good, thx! Hope all is well with you too!
1. Eternity has been active since 2003, what memories do you have of those first moments of the band, editing the first two demos and choosing the name Eternity for the band?
Way back then, at the beginning of the new millennium, I had had enough of the city with all its corruption. I needed to get out, get away, to breathe freely. I left to live in the mountains. Up there in the white solitude I could finally know myself for who I was to myself, not to others. It was a long and dark period of staring into the abyss within, contrasted and made endurable by the white purity and might of the mountains without. And made meaningful by the music I made. In this air and in this state of mind, I wrote and recorded the first Eternity demo.
The Eternity name and the first sketches of the logo and the symbol that would many years later be on the cover of To Become the Great Beast came earlier, they stem from way back in the Second Wave when I realized that I would dedicate a great part of the rest of my life to Black Metal.
2. Despite having been active for almost twenty years, it is true that the release rate is not very high, Eternity's first album dates from 2006 "Bringer of the Fall" and from there a silence that is broken in 2019 with the release of the second album “To Become the Great Beast”, what happened in this period of almost thirteen years without any activity within Eternity?
That’s not so little, is it? No, seriously – even though I seem to be running on a slightly different timeline than other people, it’s true that the release rate hasn’t been very high. There are many reasons for that long pause. When I completed the Bringer of the Fall in 2006, I had been working hard on Eternity for about five years and felt that I had achieved all I could on my own and would need a full band to progress further. Also, I was tired. Bringer was a cursed production that, thanks to the chaos-magic invoked for its creation, involved me being hospitalized, robbed, mugged, almost losing an eye, almost dying – twice! It was a real horror show. I needed a break.
So I put my guitar on the wall for some time. I started practicing the bass, learning to really master that instrument instead of just playing it like a guitar. I was doing a lot of weird shit with synths; I have material for at least one album of LoFi bitpop synth music lying around that I may or may not put together one day. I was creating all kinds of stuff except Black Metal. I always knew I had to continue my work on Eternity when the time was right. After a long hiatus, it was finally time for Eternity to be reborn, and since the (re)formation of the band in 2016 we have been working constantly on Eternity.
3. If all of the above were not enough, once Eternity gets going again the restrictions derived from the pandemic arrive, I suppose this caught you in the middle of the album promotion process, as well as in the composition and recording process of “Mundicide”, how did these facts affect you? How did you face the process of writing and recording “Mundicide”? What brands of instruments did you use in the process?
Yeah, the covid regime hit us straight in the face! One minute we’re releasing To Become the Great Beast to great reviews and sharing a stage with Dødheimsgard, and the next is just PEST! Lockdown and game over. I mean that shit was bad for us all, but Eternity as you mentioned had just become active again after a long break and it was a crucial time for us. As things went, we have basically had to rebuild again from square one, crap gigs and all. Now finally things are getting better! For the actual writing of the album, I think the covid was actually a good thing. We had all the time in the world to work on the songs - nobody was getting anywhere anyway. And I was so angry and disillusioned with the world and my fellow man for going along with all the madness and I could pour all that hate and despair into the record. I think Mundicide is all the stronger for that!
The actual recording process, on the other hand, was a grueling nightmare that at times didn’t even seem would lead to a finished record at all. Limitations of how many of us could be in the studio at a time, limitations of when we could go to the studio at all, long periods of nothing. It was really hard to keep oversight, and I know that of all the band only I had some idea of what the album was going to become and the only one keeping the faith that we were indeed recording something good and worthwhile. I managed to be part of all the recording sessions except from the bass. Vidar had to do that alone and it was weeks before the rest of us even got to hear what he had recorded. Anyways, everyone was satisfied in the end when we finally got the recordings over to our mixer/masterer Tom Kvaalsvold and he started sending us mixes.
Now the instruments, and thanks for asking! Not many seem to bother with such questions anymore for some reason. I’ve been playing Ibanez almost exclusively for years now, I have four or five Ibanez guitars along with an Ibanez bass. I write most of my riffs on my precious Alhambra classical guitar, but electric it’s Ibanez all the way. So I was using my RGT6EX2 and a custom RG Prestige. J.Röe was using RG Prestige along with a vintage 70s Gibson Les Paul. Both of us used an additional 90s Les Paul for some of the fills. Vidar was playing his Fender Precision Bass and Tex his trusty old Pearl drums. For the amps we ended up with using mostly a combination of Peavey 5150/6505 and Engl Powerball on Marshall 1960A and an Orange 2x12.
4. The weight of what we could define as the classic Norwegian black sound in the final result of the album is undeniable, however there are other elements that energize and give a differentiating character to the sound of this album. How would you describe the sound of the album for Who hasn't heard it yet? What other influences from sounds and bands far from black metal have influenced the final result of the album?
For Black Metal to be effective and trigger the right emotions it needs to sound a certain way, to have certain vibrations. It’s the cold guitars, the dungeon-like space for reverb, especially around the drums, with big toms that pound out into that dark air, pound the air itself! And on top of and in the middle of it all: The sharp and lonely vocal that scream out into the blackest of nights with a cutting edge that penetrates straight into the soul...
Soundwise our goal is to make records that sound like that, that sound just right. For To Become the Great Beast I wanted an analog sounding record that gave the impression that it could have been made in Norway in the midst of the Second Wave, yet with a sound quality that is clearly up to date and just could not have been achieved back then. For Mundicide we wanted the same thing, only more of everything! More analog, more power, better sound! I think we achieved that, at least I’m very happy with the sound and the response has been good.
We didn’t really strive to specifically put other things or styles of music in there, but this is the first Eternity record that, even though it was still mostly created by me, was crafted by a band working together as a whole. I think that has opened up both the sound and the songs to take on more life, made them bigger and better. And we all have our different backgrounds and energies that we bring into the band. I am very much formed as a musician by a background in classical guitar and classical music. Vidar is an extremely skilled technical death metal guitarist that loves and needs to complicate things. Tex is the rocker type that brings a very Motorhead kind of hard-hitting Heavy Metal energy to the mix, and J.Röe remains firmly grounded in the True Norwegian Second Wave of Black Metal. All of us share an undying love of Classic American Death Metal, and when we’re drinking and partying together that’s what we’ll listen to. Put all these things together and mix well and you shall have Mundicide! Kill the World!
5. The album is entitled "Mundicide", but who is going to shit the planet, religious fanaticism, wars, the human being himself with his greed to destroy natural resources? What does the figure of Satan mean for you?
Presently our so called “leaders” are following a course of action that will inevitably lead to war, and I mean World War III. The most insane warmongers among them even seem to think that they can “win” a nuclear war. I should say “we” as in “we could win a nuclear war” but seriously! I want no part in that shitshow. The majority of us don’t have anywhere to hide so we’ll just bleed to death from the inside out while we starve and freeze under the torched sky of Nuclear Winter. But the bloody bastards can sit there in their well-stocked bunkers feeling smug, going “We won!” and be proud of having, as you say, “shit the planet”. Fuck that and fuck them! Unfortunately, the things you are listing above: war, greed and fanatism is a perfect description of the mindset of the wankers that are running things. It’s hard to see it ending good for either us or them. But the planet will be fine. Give her some time and there will come a new and glorious planetary age. She is ancient and immensely powerful. But as far as I can understand her communications, this is absolutely not what she wants. She has bigger hopes and plans for us all.
I have always, or at least since I joined Him in His Rebellion at a young age, seen myself as a Satanist. I never followed any particular school of thought, rather I went down the path that felt right to me, and I have communed with and given praise to Satan for so many years that I feel I have come to know and understand Him to a certain extent. If I have to put a label on my beliefs, Theistic Luciferianism is not too far off. In essence, that means that I believe Lucifer to be the figure most representative of the deity the Christians call Satan – the Enemy or Adversary. The Lightbringer, Morning Star, the Black Light of understanding and Enlightenment; this is my god – Lord Lucifer. He guides my path through life, and it is Him I first and foremost seek to please when I create my art and my music. To me, Satan is the aspect Lucifer puts on when the time comes to fight back against the forces standing against you. They are the one and the same god. Lucifer may grant you the understanding of what needs to be fought against and Satan will be by your side to help you fight the rebellious fight.
6. The artwork of the album has been made by All Things Rotten, in which there seems to be a relationship with the Hindu culture in the figure of the different hands that appear coming out of the earth, why did you decide to work with All Things Rotten? What does this cover represent and how does it relate to the content of the album?
Our drummer, T.Ødegaard (or Tex Terror if you will) has been working with All Things Rotten throughout many years via Nocturnal Breed, so we have posters of his work in our band space, and I had already established contact with him at an earlier point for some other work. When the time came to have the cover of Mundicide painted, the Maggotmeister was an obvious choice. I really like a lot of his work too, for instance the new ‘Breed cover for “Carry the Beast” looks awesome, and I thought he would be the right person to realize my ideas for the cover. I’m very happy with the end result too, it’s very close to what I had envisioned in my mind.
At face value, I wanted a very strong and iconic image whose meaning could be easily grasped: The Earth has given birth to a malign species known as Humans. The Humans create weapons of war, kill each other, kill the planet that brought them forth and thus, in the end, they are causing their own extinction. But I strive to infuse everything I create for Eternity with layers of meaning. And what if, instead of destroying ourselves we could somehow work together towards a shared future for both planet and man? If we put the good of All above the greed of the few, what utopian paradise could be created? Well, I’m no big optimist, and man being what he is, we would probably still create weapons and wage war. But if we could do so in Human Unity we could usher in a glorious future. An interstellar Golden Age where we could travel the galaxy and kill other species and planets instead of our own! In this potential future the Earth herself becomes a Dark Mother, a World Killer, a Mundicide, through the flowers of her offspring.
And if we don’t choose to and manage to unite somehow – and unless the crazy sons of bitches don’t bring the roof down upon our heads with a Third World War and a nuclear cataclysm, which, as I said above, unfortunately seems to be the most likely outcome at present - the bastards that run this shit-show will keep having it their way, which is the way of Conflict and of Divide and Conquer; because that is how they maintain control while they vacuum up all the resources of the planet and enslave the rest of us into abject poverty and serfdom. After the last couple of years of totalitarian “measures” and tyranny of opinion there can be no doubt about it - this is the direction they are pushing us in. The only way to avoid this is to Awake, Resist and Rebel against them. And that is the other side of the coin, one of the “hidden” symbolisms of the cover art. The allusion to Hindu gods is not coincidental, neither are the underlying energetic pathways. This is a symbol of power. A glyph, the icon of a weapon that can be wielded against our oppressor with unstoppable force: the planet itself.
7. It is the second album that Eternity released through Soulseller Records, why did you decide to repeat the release with this record label? Will you continue to be linked to them in the future?
I signed a contract with Soulseller Records for two Eternity albums many years ago. Since I had signed for another album, we did not think much about where to release Mundicide. But I will say that Soulseller has treated us fairly and I am content with our cooperation. Whether or not our next album will be released on Soulseller remains to be seen as we will have to negotiate a new contract, but it is definitely possible!
8. What remains today in Oslo of all the movement that emerged in the nineties around black metal? Is Norway still a benchmark when it comes to introducing new batches of black metal bands to the world?
I am not and have not for many years been part of the scene in Oslo, so I can’t really answer that. I left Oslo and sought refuge and solitude in the Mountains some long years ago, and after I returned to the general Oslo area, I’ve been situated in the countryside, surrounded by forest, lakes and fields. Whenever I visit Oslo, usually to play a gig, I am surprised at how vital the scene still seems to be and the amount of people supporting and taking part in it. Norway still has festivals such as Inferno, Beyond the Gates and Midgardsblot (where Eternity will be playing this year), that are flagships in the Black Metal world. A newly emerging trend I’ve noticed this year is people that played a part of the Second Wave yet did not take part in the bigger bands’ successes are coming out with really good new albums. Ekrom is one example, and our mixer just made me aware of Tales of Dhvaras. There is a plethora of great new Norwegian Black Metal coming out now. Whether or not we are still the benchmark of new Black Metal releases is not for me to judge. But for sure we are the gatekeepers of the Tradition. I guess the bands that have been really making waves in the black metal world recently are Blackbraid and Witch Club Satan, and in my opinion that has more to do with offering something fresh and different (Native American Black Metal! Topless Female Witches!) rather than quality. Not dissing anyone here, just stating a fact.
9. Eternity will soon offer some concerts to present the new album. Do you consider concerts a necessary means for the normal functioning of a band? With which bands would you like to share a mini tour?
When I started Eternity and for many years there after I was very much against the whole idea of playing live. Indeed, I thought Black Metal should not be played live at all, as it would be impossible to achieve the right kind of rapport between the music and listener in a live setting. Black Metal is spiritual in nature, live music concerts are generally not. My opinion of this was changed somewhat after me and J.Röe was part of a mini-tour with Mayhem back in ‘08. This was after the release of Ordo ad Chao, and Mayhem was at their absolute peak musically at that time. Seeing them night after night perform completely different yet all equally fantastic versions of a song as introvert, and in theory impossible to do well live, as Illuminate Eliminate - I was stunned. It was incredible artistry and I realized I had been at least in part mistaken in my beliefs about live Black Metal.
After the resurrection of Eternity in ‘16 for the recording of To Become the Great Beast, it became clear that we had something damn good going and we wanted to continue rehearsing. I was still not really thinking about playing live, but that came as a demand from the other guys. In time I’ve grown to rather enjoy the performances. And to answer your question, yes, I think it is indeed necessary for the normal functioning of a band. For the band itself it gives you something to work towards collectively and constantly and a reason to keep rehearsing and improve as musicians and as a band. And importantly, in this current time there is no record sales to speak of, apart from at your own gigs! That’s where people will come to both hear and buy your music. It’s almost impossible to reach out with your music and your message these days at all, regardless of the quality of your albums. Without doing concerts, I can’t even imagine. In this as in most things: everything was better before.
For the mini-tour I’ll go with Eternity, Bathory and Dark Throne. Hey one can dream, right? No? Ok, let’s say Craft, Eternity and Merciful Fate. And what the hell, let’s add Deicide too!
10. How were your beginnings in music: first concerts you attended, first albums you bought? What event in your life pushed you to want to be a musician?
I grew up in a musical family, and there was always music all aoround me. But the first music to really speak to my soul was when I first discovered Heavy Metal. Overdriven screaming electric guitars, double bass drums, hard men playing hard music! It resonated within me, and that vibration has never stopped reverberating to this day. The first concert I went to was AC/DC, and it was great fun. Then a few years later and the cultivation of love for a lot more extreme music, there came a series of concerts in Oslo called Death Metal Nights at a venue named Alaska. These concerts remain the stuff of legends for those of us who attended them. Euronymous standing outside of the locale in his cloak, handing out flyers against american death metal when Deicide was playing, rumors of Mayhem staging a terrorist act during the show. Stuff like that, just epic! There were shows with Obituary, Napalm Death, Carcass and fucking Death with Chuck Schuldiner! The very first of these Death Metal Nights had Morbid Angel along with Entombed and Unleashed. It was my second ever concert. It was magic. It was stage diving. It was pure bliss.
The first record I ever bought was a Twisted Sister single, I Wanna Rock. With live versions of Burn in Hell and S.M.F. on the B-side.
The event where I decided to become a musician came not too long after the Death Metal Nights. I was already playing the guitar, playing along to the riffs of James Hetfield, as I think most of us started out, and kids still do to this day, Metallica riffs! And then a lot of Death. For periods of my youth, I played guitar along to two or three Death albums back to back, every fucking day. It was all Death Metal at the time. Though I had no wish to play in a Death Metal band, I just wanted to master the guitar. But the winds of change were blowing. I had gotten a copy of Dark Throne’s A Blaze in the Northern Sky, and I thought it was pretty good but not quite as good as Soulside Journey. And we had for some reason (there was magic in the air) started listening to old Bathory records at that time, the Viking trilogy in particular. Then one day I received the first Burzum album along with a demo tape of Rotting Christ – Ade's Winds. My mind was blown. This changed everything! The deeply spiritual feeling, the Satanic sound, the purity, the depths of the emotions conveyed - so much pain! The feeling of being close to something sacred. And with Burzum, all this was done by just one man? I could do that! And so, my life was changed and here I still am, doing just that.
11. What album represents for you the essence of black metal? What last albums have you bought?
To me the three most important Black Metal albums are Dark Throne “Under a Funeral Moon”, Burzum “Burzum” and Mayhem “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas”. These all represent the very essence of Black Metal.
I don’t buy very many records these days, and for many years I have felt that not very much interesting music has been released. But in recent times this has changed and 2023 is just bursting at the seams with great releases! The most recent albums to find their way into my house are Ekrom “Uten Nådigst Formildelse” and Ruïm “Black Royal Spiritism”. I am obviously not biased at all by having friends involved in these releases, but they are both bloody good albums, and that Ruïm record is just fantastic!
12. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions for Black Metal Spirit, if you want to add something for the Eternity fans out there. I hope the questions are to your liking.
Thank you very much for the interview! And I hope you all enjoy Mundicide.
Awake, Resist and Rebel!
Hail Satan!
-Evighet-
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Thaw - Earth Ground 14,99 €
Album was recorded and mixed at Radio Katowice Studios and Maq Records Studios.
Gatefold LP limited to 300 copies.
