Chad Bowar: Give us a preview of your new CD Kolossus.
Obsidian Claw: The fans can expect a very big and powerful epic sounding album. In my mind I think it’s the perfect successor to Armada. It takes it to the next level, and it also has a very organic production so it doesn’t sound like all those copy and paste albums of today. It’s definitely something new and fresh in the black metal scene.
You once again recorded the CD in your own studio. Is it nice to have the freedom to record whenever you want instead of being limited to a certain amount of time?
Yes, it’s perfect. But there’s good and bad. You have all the responsibility yourself, and sometimes having that much time isn’t the best thing. We end up stressing anyway when it comes to the last few days of production. When you’re working for three or four months in the studio it’s also very intense and can be hard to keep your spirits up because you hear the songs so many times and get tired of them. But it’s good to have as much time as you want. We can choose our working hours by when we are inspired instead of forcing everything in a couple weeks at a studio you have rented.
Since you didn’t do any cutting and pasting in the recording process, did it take a lot longer?
Yes, it definitely takes a longer time to get the takes and rehearse yourself up to that level. You lose the atmosphere and humanity of the album, the organic feeling when you do the cut and paste. If you listen to most of the metal albums that come out today, they sound like they have a drum machine or are programmed. They actually are, because of sound replacing and triggers and stuff like that. It’s so common these days in the extreme metal scene. The atmosphere of the music today is lacking. It’s gotten boring because everything is so perfect. It doesn’t even sound like there are people playing it anymore. You just record a couple of beats and then you have everything you need for the entire album, you just put it together. We worked to keep the organic atmosphere and feeling to all the instruments. For instance, on the song “The Mark Of Power,” before one of the choruses you can actually hear that I’m switching my guitar pedal board. That is something you never hear nowadays. You’d normally stop the track, change your sound, then start again. We decided to keep it. It’s not easy to hear, but it’s there. It’s stuff like that which adds the live atmosphere to the music.
Is there a particular theme or concept that inspired your lyrics for the album?
We have a concept and storyline going through the album. The basic story continues from Armada, where the victorious ones from the war are taking the war to the next level and going against the gods. They bring down the gods and become gods themselves. A lot of the lyrics are based on that.
With the success of the last album, did you feel any pressure in writing and recording this one?
I just create the music I want to hear myself. I have a personal inner drive to outdo myself musically, and if I feel that I have accomplished that I’m quite happy. Of course everyone wants to be noticed and sell the most amount of albums you can, but for me the music is first. I thought about that when Armada was released. I felt that I was really empty inside. I didn’t have inspiration to write a lot of music after that album was finished. I was in a situation where I wasn’t sure how I was going to outdo Armada on the next album. I had those kind of thoughts for a while, but it wasn’t long, because when I started writing new stuff I wrote a couple new riffs and it was amazing. Suddenly I had a couple of songs and they were so good that it wouldn’t be a problem. I saw that really early during the writing process of Kolossus.
You’ve toured the U.S. with Satyricon in the past, but this last tour was your first U.S. one with Keep Of Kalessin. How did it go?
It was the best tour we have ever done. The Dimmu Borgir guys also said that. All three bands got along very well personally. We had a lot of fun on the tour. There were so many people every night and the response to us was great. It was amazing at times how many people knew our songs and how many people had been waiting for a long time to see us live. We hope to go back again later this year.
Is it a goal to try to build up your audience and popularity in the United States?
Yes. The U.S. market is definitely a focus market for us. We want to go back there as soon as possible. The problem is we are not big enough to headline yet, so we have to find other bands to tour with. We have been in contact with several bands, but as a support band you always have to convince the others to bring you along. I hope that Kolossus gets the attention it deserves in the U.S. so we can get over there as soon as possible. It will be so much easier to convince everyone in the business to have us back if the album does well.
