DIMMU BORGIR Guitarist: METALLICA 'Ruined Everything' When They Used An Orchestra

Blasting-Zone.com recently conducted an in-depth interview with DIMMU BORGIR guitarist Silenoz. Several excerpts follow:

Blasting-Zone.com: What prompted the group to turn down an offer to tour with KORN? Was it because they have such a different target audience?

Silenoz: "For us to play for such a different audience would have been a challenge we would have considered more if the timing had been right, ya know? We'd hate to play for the same audience over and over again, ya know? We don't have nothing to compare to KORN. I don't really like their music, but for us to expand our audience, it could have been a good move. It was bad timing and economically not good. Maybe under some different circumstances. Maybe not KORN, but some other band that has that same kind of big audience."

Blasting-Zone.com: At this point, what is your overall opinion of the current black metal audience?

Silenoz: "There are a lot of 16- and 17-year-old kids that show up and try to tell other bands how to play black metal. It's like, 'Hello? Where were you ten years ago?' (laughs). There's a lot of that, 'I know better than you' mentality, so to speak. I don't even want to fucking think about that stuff."

Blasting-Zone.com: With that in mind, have you ever considered attempting to distance yourself from the black metal genre?

Silenoz: "I think we've always looked upon ourselves as some kind of underdog in comparison to all the others. We've always said we were a black metal band, but not purely a black metal band because we have so much more in our music, ya know? …If we were just black metal, we'd be painting ourselves into a corner and that's something that we won't do because we have a lot more to show than just our black metal roots."

Blasting-Zone.com: Have you found it difficult to re-create the symphonic element of "Death Cult Armageddon" within a live setting?

Silenoz: "No, not really. And I've never heard a fan complain about it, either, which is always a good thing. I think it would probably be cool to play with an orchestra live, too, but I think arrangement wise, it would be too much. It would sound totally different than what METALLICA did, that's for sure (laughs). They just failed miserably."

Blasting-Zone.com: Do you think your next album will be stylistically similar to "Death Cult Armageddon"?

Silenoz: "I can say that it will definitely sounds like us (laughs). I guess it's too early to say what the whole album will sound like. …I don't think anyone in the band is too into the idea of using a full orchestra again. We're just gonna try to make it on our own. If there's some parts here and there which totally requires orchestra, we'll think about it. We shown ourselves that we can do it without orchestra as well. …There's a thin line, ya know? You have to know what you're doing. That whole METALLICA thing went real bad. I know a lot of fans probably thought we were going to ruin everything like METALLICA did when they used an orchestra, but we know better. We need people that understand out music to help us conduct the orchestra parts. …You have to have someone that really understands what you wanna do. If we would have used the same guy METALLICA did, it wouldn't have worked at all, trust me (laughs)."

Read the entire interview at Blasting-Zone.com.