Interview: Dødsengel 2011

This interview with Norwegian Black Metal Band Dødsengel was conducted in early 2011, shortly after the release of their self-titled ep.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

"...you can never know that I were ever real."

Thank you for the opportunity of conducting this interview.
As far as I can tell, there is only little reliable information about Dødsengel. So first of all, could you please introduce our readers to the band? When was the band founded and what were your hopes, intentions and expectations? Why do you work as a duo? 

M.A: Dødsengel is our personal magickal journal and tool. It is a vessel by which we express the gnosis and experiences we have received and channeled on the inwards journey. Coincidence brought us together, if you believe in such things.

KARK: Dødsengel was founded in january 2007 by me and M.A.
It`s important for us to be two separate individuals with big similarities and big differences, so that we can fulfill eachother both as pepole, and as musicians.
Our intention was, and still is, to create a sondtrack for our inward journeys.


You have been a quite hard-working band. Since your foundation in 2008, you have released six pieces of music, four of them during 2010. Interestingly, Terratur Possessions explains, that all these releases were recorded long time before they were published. Is there any particular reason for this disjointed release order?

KARK: Label problems in the first years is to blame for that.

M.A: Things aren't just magically released the moment they are recorded; it's a long and painful process, especially for an underground project. Suffice to say that the releases finally manifested when they themselves found the time fitting.

„Visionary“ was recorded in 2007, Dødsengel were, according to my research, founded in 2008. How did this happen?

KARK: We started the band in january 2007. Visionary was recorded a couple of months later.

After the release of „Mirium Occultum“ in 2010, you released a series of EPs, starting with “Arkaik” and ending with “Dødsengel”, earlier this year. Again, all these EPs were recorded a lot earlier, but, especially “Ecstatic Horror” and “Alongside Choronzen”, released in a very short time. Is there an overall concept which combines all these releases and makes them belonging together?

M.A: Alongside Choronzon was recorded in february 2008, and it took two and a half years before it was released. Ecstatic Horror was recorded in July 2009 yet somehow they were released at the same time. The themes seem different to me, but perhaps they are telling us that they are more connected than they seem?

Your most recent output „Dødsengel “ again proves the unique sound of Dødsengel. Therefore the question: How does the typical writing process look like? Do you work intuitive or structured? Are there regular rehearsals? 

KARK: The writing process varies from each and every recording we do.
But the one factor that has remained the same is that we get ideas from ideas, wich then leads to more ideas.
We always allow the musick to breathe and live its own life, instead of strangeling it with over-produce it, or to over-analyze it. With everything you create, the main rule should be to let it live its own life, and to let it evolve naturally. Never force it to be something that it dosent want to be.

We only rehearse when we are either making new music, or if we have a concert to play.

M.A: The writing processes differ from time to time, as they are but tools and need to be used at a proper time when you are working with a task proper to its nature. We usually try to channel an idea or an experience musically and try to let it tell us where it wants to go, where it needs to go to fulfill itself.

Because you are working as a duo, the overall sound with all its details and different instruments cannot be realised before the recordings. How does the typical recording process look like? Do you have any guest musicians or does your producer have any affect on your music?

KARK: Our approach to recording is really quite simple. We always records the songs live in the studio, always in one piece from start to finish. No punch-ins or "fix it in the mix" stuff.
Once we have done the basic guitar and drum tracks, i add one or two guitar tracks, bass and vocals. Other stuff that deems fit will be added by eiter one of us afterwards.
I usually do some preparations with the guitar sounds, bass sounds and also making sure that the current studio equipment is up for the task. But even with the preparations, one always has to remember that all the preparations may get rejected if the musick calls for something else.

M.A: We have our own studio and handle the whole process ourselves, with the odd guest musician or writer joining us from time to time to add to the spell.


With the ruminant beginning and ending, „Dødsengel“ sounds like a recorded ritual. Is it a ritual and if it is one, which is it supposed to achieve or invoke in the listener?

M.A: It a ritual designed to make one more disconnected with the macrocosm, and in rare cases this should participate in forcing a personal crisis to emerge which will in even rarer cases culminate with the magickal ordeal known as the Tower. It is a comemmoration and paian to my own Dark Night of the Soul which was crowned by the Tower, but with this being said – Your interpretation is your own and your experience of Dødsengel is every bit as real as ours, even more so since you are the sole God of your own existence, and you can never know that I were ever real.

Your new EP is named „Dødsengel“. Usually, the first release of a band bears the band’s name. Do you feel that this EP reflects the essence of what Dødsengel stands for? Or is there another reason for the name of the EP?

M.A: It is a peek at the transformative essence, and the word Dødsengel has so many delicious symbolic meanings and powers depening on the context or system in which you use and interpret it.

The strong occult or religious orientation of Dødsengel is not only visible in your presentation, but also in your lyrics, which deal with satanism, occultism and black magic. Is there a golden thread which connects all your lyrics together? An occult background or concept, which works as a source of inspiration for you?

M.A: My own journey into myself and initiation into the mysteries.

KARK: Night, light, death or life, is all one. Is all none.

Last year, you celebrated your first concert on the Nidrosian Black Mass Part III. Did the concert fulfilled your expectations and how did you approached the gig?

KARK: It knocked us out of balance, and only made us stronger.
It was an intense experience to all the senses and emotions. The fingers on bouth hands seemed to have lost their bloodflow, and took me the first half of the first song just to regain my breath. After that the air and the blood returned.

M.A: It was an interesting experience, and I feel that I learned and grew a lot from it. Honestly I didn't know what to expect, but I think it worked out well and I have a lot of ideas on how to make it a more complete ritual now that we have the preliminary experience out of the way.

For all of those who were not able to witness your concert: How do we have to imagine a Dødsengel concert? Especially because you are a duo. Do you use live musicians? The use of stage-effects?

M.A: I trust that no Dødsengel gig will ever be the same, but at NBM we were joined by a live bass-player and a noise-duo named TARFIELD. Hopefully we'll keep cooperating with this trinity in the future.

Terratur Possessions announced on its website, that there will not be any Dødsengel releases in the near future. So, what are your plans for the upcoming months and years? Further live concerts? Or will „Dødsengel“ mark the end of your band?

M.A: It is but the trumpet heralding the end of the old recordings waiting to be released. The gate will open again, but in what form?

Thank you for your patience! The last words are yours!

M.A: Die daily, and remember that the Mind is a dis-ease of semen.

KARK: For he is ever a sun, and she a moon. But to him is the winged secret flame, and to her the stooping starlight. 

(2011)

Homepage  Dødsengel