A FIST IN THE FACE OF GOD - A CHAT WITH NEKROMANTHEON AND OBLITERATION'S SINDRE

I caught up with

Obliteration

frontman and

Nekromantheon

singer/bassist Sindre Solem after their blistering performance at the

Smuget Club in Oslo

a few weeks back. Well, actually, somehow the interview got deleted so I interviewed him again, this time before

Aura Noir

's excellent performance at

Øya Festival

. Here's what he had to say about the scene. Again.

Vice: So, I lost the interview from yesterday, sorry about that. Anyway, I have no idea what we spoke about last night, but did you enjoy your show?

Sindre:

I think it was fucking cool, one of our best shows, I think – even though I fucked up several times playing my bass. The vocals worked out cool, the crowd was insane, and I actually got to kick Daniel from Deathhammer in the chest to start the mosh, which was priceless.

There's a great scene here in Norway. Oslo is mainly into thrash at the moment, right?

I dunno, it's good for, like, death metal, thrash, and, yep, "cool" black metal, I guess. Oslo's scene is small but it's good, there's not always a great turnout at shows, but the music is strong and there are several insanely good bands here who will rise in the future. So the scene here is a good place for aggressive and paranoid music.

What bands are you talking about?

There's plenty: Dischord, Deathhammer,

Grotesque Hysterectomy

,

Infernö

, my bands of course,

Execration

,

Ghoul-Cult

, and bands surrounding that area, and also older bands like

Aura Noir

, who we're going to see in a few minutes. Yep, the scene is cool and there's not much between the bigger bands and the smaller bands, and that kind of has created an unholy unity.

Yesterday we touched on this whole thrash revival of the past four or five years and how it started off on the wrong foot with bands like Municipal Waste. They burned a paper church onstage here on Wednesday!

What was that about?

What was that about?

Municipal Waste! Answer me! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ABOUT?!?

I guess those guys – Municipal Waste, etc. – are just referencing one side of thrash, mainly the New York scene, the party scene, bands like Anthrax.

And Nuclear Assault.

Hey! I like them!

They're great! I also love Anthrax too, but still, you need a mix. I think it's weird that most "happy bands" come from New York, because in the punk scene it was totally different – the serious bands were from New York and the more fun bands were from California and the west coast.

So, you guys are from Kolbotn, the home of Darkthrone, right?

Yeah! Kolbotn thrashers union, alright!

Ha ha, have you been recording some new stuff out there?

Arild [aka Arse], guitarist in Nekromantheon and Obliteration, and Kick, who plays the drums in Nekromantheon and Audiopain,

have their own studio

in Kolbotn where we have recorded the forthcoming Nekromantheon album, the forthcoming Obliteration album, the Nekromantheon 7" split with Abigail, and loads of other stuff. That's a true studio, it's all analogue, no digital stuff. We have a sign over the mixer saying, "Is it necro enough?"

I think at the moment the most important thing is getting the sound of it right, you know what I mean?

The sound is half of the music. I can't listen to albums with great music and piss-boring sound. I know it's a dumb thing to say, but I feel that way. I can listen to boring music with great sound.

Who wants to listen to over-polished, over-produced stuff anyways?

I think it's insanely hypocritical. When you're making a style of music like thrash, a non-comformist type of music, it was supposed to sound like a rebellion. A fist in the face of the established world. I think it's so fucking hypocritical: "Oh we're a thrash metal band, we're hard, blah blah blah, but really we did everything that Britney Spears would if she were a thrash metal band."

Ha ha ha ha!

She is trash!

She is definitely. White trash! White thrash metal!

Black thrash attack, ha ha ha ha!

Thanks very much dude, it was a pleasure speaking to you twice.

Listen to both of these tracks below, they both kill. The Nekromantheon track is the most perfect sounding thrash I've heard in a long time.

Obliteration - "Breeding the Sick"

Nekromantheon, "Metal Vendetta"

Massive AFITFOG post coming later this week, keep it feral.

†ROCKWELL†