IMMORTAL's DEMONAZ: Break Between Albums Was 'Really Great For Us'

Christopher Porter of the Washington Post Express recently conducted an interview with Demonaz of Norwegian black metallers IMMORTAL. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Washington Post Express: How is your tendonitis? Can you play any guitar these days?

Demonaz: I play guitar every day, and I make songs. I'm working on my solo project, on Nuclear Blast, that will come the beginning of next year. Yeah, I play guitar every day — I play 10 minutes here and maybe have a break, then maybe play for 15 minutes. I can't do that hard picking for an hour in a row. If I had to rehearse every day with the band, or every second day ... I will hurt myself. I can play the solos and everything with the speed, but after 10 minutes my arm is like, "OK, you have to take a break." It's chronic; I will always have the problem, maybe. But it's got much better the last [few] years. ... But it's been a long time since this happened, and for me and Abbath, the most important thing is to keep the band together. ... When I got my problems, instead of taking on a new guitar player, we had Abbath to take over the guitar and we found a new bass player instead so that we could still work together. Because me and Abbath, at that time if we were to separate, none of us could do IMMORTAL, because this is the vision we had together. I can't do this without me and I cannot do this without him.

Washington Post Express: Abbath was married to your sister, and then they got divorced. Did that situation play any role in IMMORTAL's break?

Demonaz: No, never. There was no problem. They separated as friends. ... It sounds quite strange, but Abbath and I have never had any serious issues and never had any arguments or problems that would hurt the band in any way. Even I really don't understand why it is like that.

Washington Post Express: So, why the long break between IMMORTAL albums?

Demonaz: Everything got too much routine, and that band became — everybody expected something. The industrial side of being in a band — where the record label's demanding you to do things and management wants you to go on tour, we felt the spark and the spirit were slowly drifting away a little. Things were not going up, even if you had a really big album like "Sons of Northern Darkness". And we had a lot of offers, but to just go on tour and tour and tour — there was something missing. I'll be the first one to admit, just before this [hiatus], me and Abbath didn't hang together so much at this time and we were drifting a little apart. I think that was natural because of what happened. We did the "At the Heart of Winter", "Damned in Black" and "Sons of Northern Darkness" without me [playing guitar], and still there were little problems with [other band] members. I think [me and Abbath] were drifting a little apart — if we didn't see that at the time, I can see that now. ... Everything on the outside looked good for everyone, but internally it started to lose the spirit a little. We never talked about it, and [then] he said, "Maybe we need to take a break to save the band, and we can take it up again when we want to." That was what we decided to do. We never felt like the band should be out playing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday just to get bread on the table. IMMORTAL is not a factory, it's not a job for us — it's a band, and a band needs the spirit. ... [Then] me and Abbath started to write again and we did the [side] project and we wanted to do the I album [during] the break. ... It was a big relief for us. After 13 years, just to let your band go. ... I think that was really great for us, and we could be objective toward the band for the first time in our lives. IMMORTAL has been everything to us since we started it. I think a lot of other bands should do the same: Don't go out on tour and burn yourself up and destroy your band totally. I think it's better, at least for us. We never let IMMORTAL become our job. ... It's like Abbath said, "If we have to take other jobs to save the band, that's good." So we did that ... in the break.

Washington Post Express: IMMORTAL has never been a political band, but some of your words on "All Shall Fall" feel like they are addressing contemporary situations, such as war. Is this a political album in some way?

Demonaz: Not really. I'm not big influenced by politics or religion. I try not to get too much influence from the world of politics or the TV. But the apocalypse is a thing I've always been influenced by. It's [about] apocalyptic visions as seen from a Nordic perspective — how I wanted it to look, how I want to stand on the mountain and see [the world] fall down and still have my pride. It's a little cliche, but it does it for us.

Read the entire interview from Washington Post Express.