SHAGRATH Says DIMMU BORGIR Is Now Officially A 'Three-Piece' Band

The Wicked Witch of Sonic Shocks conducted an interview with vocalist Shagrath (real name: Stian Tomt Thoresen) of Norwegian symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR on August 23, 2010 in London, England. You can now watch the chat below.

When asked which musicians will be included in the band's new touring lineup, Shagrath said, "I don't wanna tell you [laughs] right now, because we haven't started the whole thing yet. We want people more to focus on who is actually DIMMU BORGIR — it's the core members, which is me, Silenoz [guitar] and Galder [guitar]. And we don't have six-piece members; we have chosen to be a three-piece, basically for the fact that we had so many lineup changes in the past. You can work with people and then you find out it doesn't work, or whatever, so we have to decided to pay people to do a job first and see how that goes, and then we take it from there, basically. So who is in the band? It's the three of us. We have a steady... [laughs] so-called steady live lineup right now, but I don't wanna mention any names right now at this point."

Regarding whether former DIMMU BORGIR members ICS Vortex (bass/clean vocals; real name: Simen Hestnæs) and Mustis (keyboards; real name: Øyvind Mustaparta) eventually went through with their threatened legal action over their alleged songwriting contributions to the band's previous studio recordings, Shagrath said, "We had some, not like a court case but some lawyer things and business things to take care of, but it's all fixed right now. So no big problems, really."

As previously reported, Swedish multi-instrumentalist Snowy Shaw (real name: Tommie Helgesson; THERION, DREAM EVIL, KING DIAMOND, MERCYFUL FATE, MEMENTO MORI, NOTRE DAME) yesterday (Wednesday, August 25) announced his departure from DIMMU BORGIR's touring lineup — just one day after confirming that he was tapped by DIMMU BORGIR to replace ICS Vortex on the band's upcoming ninth album, "Abrahadabra", and world tour. Shaw has since rejoined Swedish progressive/experimental metallers THERION.

In early June, DIMMU BORGIR announced its collaboration with Norwegian composer and Berklee College of Music summa cum laude alumnus Gaute Storaas in addition to the 51 members of KORK (the Norwegian Radio Orchestra) and the 38-member Schola Cantorum Choir. Over 101 musicians have contributed to the making of "Abrahadabra", which will be released in Germany on September 24, in the rest of Europe on September 27, and in North America on October 12 via Nuclear Blast Records.

The cover artwork for "Abrahadabra" was created by Joachim Luetke (ARCH ENEMY, KREATOR, SOPOR AETERNUS),the German artist / painter / graphic designer who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. Luetke's artwork and layout art also graced two other DIMMU BORGIR albums: 2003's "Death Cult Armageddon", which has sold 130,000 copies in the U.S. (according to Nielsen SoundScan) and debuted at No. 7 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, No. 10 on the Top Independent Albums chart, and No. 170 on The Billboard 200 chart; and 2007's "In Sorte Diaboli", which has sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. (according to Nielsen SoundScan) and debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart and at No. 43 on The Billboard 200 chart.

"Gateways", the first single from "Abrahadabra", is available for purchase via iTunes.

The word "abrahadabra" (which roughly translates into "I will create as I speak") first publicly appeared in Chapter III of "Liber AL vel Legis" (commonly referred to as "The Book of the Law") written by Aleister Crowley in Cairo, Egypt in 1904.

"Abrahadabra" track listing:

01. Xibir (2:50)
02. Born Treacherous (5:02)
03. Gateways (5:10)
04. Chess With The Abyss (4:08)
05. Dimmu Borgir (5:35)
06. Ritualist (5:13)
07. The Demiurge Molecule (5:29)
08. A Jewel Traced Through Coal (5:16)
09. Renewal (4:11)
10. Endings And Continuations (5:58)