ENSLAVED's IVAR BJØRNSON Discusses 'Axioma' Album In New Interview

Blistering.com recently conducted an interview with rhythm guitarist/songwriter Ivar Bjørnson of the progressive/psychedelic Norwegian black metallers ENSLAVED. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Blistering.com: "Vertebrae" was so well received, so how did you not only adapt to its success, but prepare for the next one?

Ivar Bjørnson: It was a little surprising, I guess, not because I didn't think it was a good album, I just don't have much expectations when we release an album. Music and especially the stuff we're working on, is such a personal thing. Also, I'm quite content when I finish an album. I knew he had done the best we could with that album, but I was a little taken aback as to how dignified the positive responses were. We went in a mellow direction with "Vertebrae" and a lot of times that can be a red flag for part of the extreme metal scene, but we seem to get away with it. Now I'm curious about how it's going to work when we go the other way, when get a little harder again with the new album.

Blistering.com: "Axioma Ethica Odini"'s harder and more aggressive, so did you use the same process where you secluded yourself for months at a time in order to compose the album?

Bjørnson: Yes. Even more so this time. I'd started to get ideas in the first half of 2009 while we were touring and doing festivals. The pressure started building up inside of my head for these ideas for riffs and the whole album, so at some point in August or September of last year I had to go to an empty house and get it all out on paper and onto my computer. It was an eruption, so to speak...it was really cool. It's like food — if you have a main course of something and you get fulfilled, you want to go onto something else. So with "Vertebrae", it was melodic and mellow, that's when we asked if we were really ready for something else, so that's when we decided to go in this harder direction.

Blistering.com: As for the album, you're going to get this a lot, but almost instantly, the first thing that sticks out is how much clean vocals are here.

Bjørnson: It's a pretty interesting dynamic going on there. The more discussion between the two of them [singer/bassist Grutle Kjellson, keyboardist Herbrand Larson] just proved how ego-less they both were in terms of which vocals go where. A lot of times, it's evident, like this riff needs some screaming vocals. The moment there's any doubt when one of them doesn't know what to do, we all just analyze and when they can't agree, that's when they ask me about it. The only thing that is not entirely possible is to do a whole album with neither [type] vocals. It wouldn't be only the black metal vocals and we won't do one with only the clean vocals. They're genuine about their interests, but they want what's best for the song.

Blistering.com: As for North America, you're taking on a more aggressive approach. With your direction being what it is, how do you think ENSLAVED fits in?

Bjørnson: I can't really say we had enough presence before "Isa". Having a French label [Osmose Records] and the trouble they had in setting up operations in the U.S. made it hard. We've been getting an immense response. The metal fans are more similar to the ones in Scandinavia, not like the more conservative approach they take in some parts of Europe. In U.S., it's more of an advantage to be floating in and out of the box, it makes a band interesting. In Europe, you still have to convince people, but you're not clearly defined.

Blistering.com: You're coming up on 20 years as a band next year. Anything big planned?

Bjørnson: Yeah, we've thought about it and we're working on some things. Actually, I'm trying not to think about it, because the project is totally over the top. I know the band, and we're going to pull it off. Even thinking about some of the crazy stuff we're going to pull off...it's going to be great. Once we hit the end of the North America tour, we're going to announce the "program" for next year. It's going to be weird turning 20 in 2011, but the atmosphere; it's pretty much the same in the band. We're older, but have the same feelings and enthusiasm as we've always had.

Read the entire interview from Blistering.com.