Interview: Dold Vorde Ens Navn
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Interview by Commodus
DOLD VORDE ENS NAVN have been born out of friendship. Although the band consists of veterans of Norway’s Black Metal scene that have been or are still members of such important names as DØDHEIMSGARD, ULVER, SATYRICON, VED BUENS ENDE, and STRID that has never been their point or an end in itself. Instead, their focus lies entirely on creating the music that they love and want to play. The Norwegians’ debut full-length, “Mørkere” (“Darker”) is a case in point. The perspective of this album has, in the true spirit of Black Metal, expanded into something that is bound to its roots yet at the same time reaches beyond them. DOLD VORDE ENS NAVN started from the simplest of propositions: two old friends, Haavard Jørgensen and Kai S. ‘Cerberus’ Halvorsen, getting together over drinks and deciding to record a track together for fun. Both had deep histories in Norway’s second wave of Black Metal that came to infamous fruition in the early 90s.
This Is Black Metal Webzine Had a talk with them about their Project and their future plans!
This Is Black Metal: Hello and thanks for giving us this interview. How are you doing?
Dold Vorde Ens Navn: Hey 🙂 My pleasure!
Doing good here, despite work and regular day stress. There are a lot of things going on, finding the time to balance it all is the trick.
TIBM: After one EP (Gjengangere i hjertets mørke) you released your first album! What is the reaction from your fans so far?
Dold Vorde Ens Navn: The reaction has been overwhelming. We had some thoughts on it, since the lyrics are in Norwegian-what would people think outside of Norway. So we printed the lyrics in English as well, so the non-Norwegians listeners can understand the meaning.
Dold Vorde Ens Navn
TIBM: The album’s name is Mørkere, which means Darker in English. Why have you chosen this name?
Dold Vorde Ens Navn: The title “Mørkere” in a way just fell naturally in place. The lyrics are darker than in the EP, and the themes are darker than in the EP. So even if the music is slower, with more acoustic parts, and so on, the contents of the whole album are darker. No way out then-Mørkere!
TIBM: The first video you made is for Løgnens abstinenser, which is also a lyrical one. Why did you decide this song’s lyric over the other ones?
Dold Vorde Ens Navn: We thought Løgnens Abstinenser was a good way to present the album. It has catching melodies, a good beat and good lyrics. This song comes easily to most people, and this is why we chose this one as the first single.
TIBM: Er det måneskinn? is the most ambitious – and my favourite – song from the album as we hear many instruments, such as cellos, violins and acoustic guitars among others. How difficult is it for a musician, to blend his music ambitions with the creation of an Extreme Metal song, in order to be perfect, both for himself and for the Metal fan?
Dold Vorde Ens Navn: Thank you! as the bass player, I don’t have so much to do with the riff-making. My job is to properly back the song up, and make it nice and fat and tight. To do that with a song like Er Det Måneskinn, I had to feel what Håvard wanted to express and then amplify that with my instrument. Surely I could go ‘all in’ and juice it up with lots of basslines and take the focus in the song. That is not what I wanted for this song, or even for the whole Mørkere album. I wanted a tight, melodic album with the guitars and vocals in focus. I guess it was the same for the others, we all have to give each other room. This way, for the listeners, it would be something way more easy to listen to, then if we all just played a lot of solos on top of each other.
TIBM: The band members have been in famous BM bands, such as Dodheismgard, Satyricon, Ulver etc. Did you feel any kind of pressure, because the fans might have some high expectations from your music because of this?
Dold Vorde Ens Navn: There of course was some pressure, with the press giving names such as super-band, super-group, referring to our past work. However, we don’t see our selves as nothing else then Dold Vorde Ens Navn. Øyvind and Vicotnik keeps Dødheimsgard with Dødheimsgard. Dold Vorde Ens Navn has its own heart, and we have no problem being just that when we come together. And when we do, we do this because we feel very strong for this band.
TIBM: After so many years in the music industry, what is the fire that keeps you going in the BM genre?
Dold Vorde Ens Navn: Black Metal has always been the music we love to play. We have more that we want to get out, more music to make and more concerts to play.
TIBM: Do you follow the evolution of Black Metal? Which bands stand out for you? Do you miss the old times of Black Metal?
Dold Vorde Ens Navn: I don’t know if we follow the evolution of Black Metal. Thats for other people to decide. We just make the music we do, because that’s the music we have inside ourselves. But, we don’t want to sound like “any other Black Metal band” either. Referring to Darkthrones Gylve Nagell on a radio show some years ago, there where aprox 50.000 metal releases between 2016 and 2017. I guess there are a lot of bands you can’t tell apart from each other in that bundle, and there are a few that sticks out. Will the ones that stick out, ever be heard? Or do they disappear in the mass? Most of the time, they disappear. We aren’t aiming to stick out, but we aren’t aiming to be just another band in the mass either. So again, we make what comes from our insides, and we are soo lucky to be heard.
Dold Vorde Ens Navn
TIBM: Please tell us your future plans.
Dold Vorde Ens Navn: Well, we have done a few shows this summer, Hellbotn Kickoff, Imperium open air festival in Norway and Dark Bombastic Evening in Romania. In a few weeks from writing this, we are playing at Prophecy Metal Festival in the great Balver Høhle in Germany. After that, there will be a little break before we aim for the festivals next year. There will also be another album recorded, but that is a little bit ahead in the future. After that-who knows 😉
TIBM: The final words are yours…
Dold Vorde Ens Navn: Listen to metal and buy records!
TIBM: Thanks for your time!
Dold Vorde Ens Navn – Mørkere [Full Album, 2021]
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