Blistering.com: Which of the songs was the quickest and easiest to complete and was “Deathmoor” the most difficult?
Nornagest: The quickest one was “Horns Aflame.” It took about one hour to do. Yeah we came up with the riffs in front of everybody and then the drummer put the drums, the guitarists put the guitars and it just came together right away. So there, we had the song done in about an hour. Of course, I’m not talking about the vocal parts or the lyrics; I’m just talking about the music. That was pretty amazing because we came up with the song and didn’t change anything. “Deathmoor” was the most difficult because like I said, I wrote the opening riff before anything else but I was never satisfied with it. Finally, when I felt it was right, I showed to the other guys and they liked it, but we went to another song instead. Since it took the longest, it was the most difficult. I was never satisfied with it but the end result? I’m really happy with it.
Blistering.com: Realistically, what are your expectations for this album in the next year? Are we talking major tours, high praise and hopefully more money?
Nornagest: Hmmm… [thinks for a moment]. That’s a good question. That’s something we never really thought about. Well, we’d like to have some better conditions on tours. Not really in terms of money because money is a bonus. I mean, if somebody is going to put 30 grand on the table, you’d be pretty stupid to say no, as long as you don’t become a slut to the music and change everything for everybody else. But I hope for better conditions while touring. Generally, death metal and black metal bands have pretty shitty conditions when touring most of the time. That is something I wish for.
Blistering.com: I live here in Las Vegas and not many bands ever come through here.
Nornagest: [kindly interrupting] You live in Vegas? Oh man, that would be nice! [laughs] You must have a lot of fun. I hear things about Vegas [laughs again].
Blistering.com: Oh Vegas is great except that no great bands ever really come through while touring the States. In fact, it seems over the past few years because of the economy that many of the European metal bands don’t come to the US that much anymore. It’s too expensive and it’s risky financially. Can you fill people in on why it’s gotten so hard for European bands to do proper full-on tours in America?
Nornagest: For us, most of the time the money isn’t the problem because we usually don’t have to pay for anything. We just have to pay in advance for our visas. The problem is the US government [laughs]. It’s actually gotten worse than Russia. What I mean by that is Russia makes you fill out like five or six pages of questions for an interview so you can cross over their borders. After you fill out all those pages, they give you a paper saying you can cross over their borders and there are no real problems. In the United States, sometimes they say, “Okay! Here is your visa and you can come over our border!” But when you get to their border, they send you back. That becomes very difficult. So, for us, the real problems are the US Customs, all the paperwork, all the administrations. It’s frustrating because we have received a lot of offers to come to the States, but we’ve only been there twice in 20 years. Every time we have tried to come, it’s always something that keeps us out. It’s always this or that, or this or that.
The problem with a lot of the promoters is that they do not realize how much money a tour really costs. A lot of times these promoters [in the US] try and get us here, but they think we’ll appear like magic or pay for our own way. It’s very expensive with air fair, a bus or van, and many promoters don’t realize that. I’m not saying that’s all the promoters, but we’ve had bad experiences. Our last tour [in the US] we sometimes had to wait four or five days before our promoter could get an answer. We were stuck somewhere or there were problems with the tour bus or the driver or something else. We had to then sort it out ourselves and that’s something you just don’t want to do when you’re already not sleeping [enough] and playing shows for a month.
Blistering.com: Do you prefer doing the city-to-city tour for a month or two or do you prefer the large festivals?
Nornagest: I prefer touring over festivals. Festivals are okay, like if it’s an indoor festival with an insane crowd. But the open air festivals? Ugh… you’d have to be something really, really special or really big and the festival has to fit our type of band. We would be on a tiny little stage in the middle of the day or playing in between some deathcore band and then a hardcore band. It just doesn’t fit.
Blistering.com: When Enthroned does get out on the road and tour, what is the best country or city to play?
Nornagest: Oh that’s easy – Brazil!
Blistering.com: Why is that? Are the fans that much crazier, the women look better?
Nornagest: Everything! [laughs] The parties are the best, the fans are the best, the concerts are the best, and the women look the best. Everything is the best. You are treated the way you are supposed to be treated, the fans are maniacs; it’s just the best. It’s actually better than you could ever hope for. It’s perfect. When you come onstage, you have all these people screaming like hell, kicking the shit out of each other, bashing their heads against the wall, and they are all happily covered in blood. It’s something you always like to see when you come onstage is 2,000 maniacs going crazy. You’ll see 10,000 people in the crowd at the big outdoor festivals but many of them are just standing there doing nothing. Blech…not for me.
Blistering.com: What about places you haven’t been? Where is one place you’d love to play?
Nornagest: Well, there are many, actually. I would be curious to see how a concert in Baghdad would do [laughs]. A little dangerous maybe? [laughs]. But Australia would be nice. I hear many good things about Australia.
Blistering.com: Dani Filth told me that Australia has the best-looking women on the planet.
Nornagest: Really? That’s how Moscow is. It’s like you see so many beautiful woman, you start to count how many ugly ones you can find [laughs]. I think we found maybe three ugly ones.
Blistering.com: You’re now on the press jaunt and you’ll be doing many, many interviews for the next several days or weeks. What is one question that is always asked that you absolutely hate having to answer?
Nornagest: Oh man, there’s one question that I am asked a lot. Oh man, I cannot stand the question and I have been asked it for 19 years. It’s the one where I am asked to give a description or a bio about the band. I cannot stand it. I want to just say that our bio is on our web page and to go look it up. I mean, come on; we have 20 years of history behind us and you want me to give you the bio of our band? I cannot fucking stand it. So, three hours later, I’m still talking about the history of the band and it’s like, I have a life. I need to go [laughs].
Blistering.com: Considering how hectic your schedule is right now, I’ll let you go. Is there anything you’d like to add to this interview about Obsidium?
Nornagest: Well, just check out the new album because we are very proud of it and we are satisfied. Make your own opinion on it…I hope people like it, too.
