Svartsyn are a jewel of Swedish black metal and stand on equal footing with such illustrious names as Arckanum, Sorhin, Grafvitnir, Setherial or Ofermod. Five years after the great “Requiem” album, the band recently released a new album via Norma Evangelium Diaboli. In the interview with Ornias, who has been living in Belgium for several years now, you can find out to what extent this work also closes a circle to the beginnings of the (predecessor) band and why there will be no more live performances by Svartsyn (unfortunately I missed the band in Cologne on the joint tour with Behemoth and Desaster in the distant year 1997). But read for yourself...
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Hello Ornias, welcome to the interview. The new album “Vortex of the destroyer” has been out for a few weeks now, how do you rate the album with a little distance and how have the reactions been so far?
Hello and thanks for getting in touch for the interview. I haven't read that many or seen any reviews. But it seems that people enjoy the album very much. For myself I think the album is very strong but how it stand against all the other albums its too early to say. Since everything is new and fresh I would say in about a year when the recording process and the hard work behind it all is out of the system, than I can judge it a little bit better. But ranking your own albums is hard of course, since every album is taking a piece of flesh from your soul. At least I think all the albums contain high quality material.
This is the first time the Chalice tracks are recorded properly apart from rehearsals and recording on a portable home studio back in 1992. I always had in the back of my mind that this was something I want to do. It's just I waited for the right moment to it do. I really didn't want to release it as a mini album, since people really don't pay much attention to these kind of format, so it needed to be part of something bigger. But this project has been in the works for about 10 years, more or less. And I spoke to Norma Evangelium Diaboli about it, and they were on board as well. So the time was now or never. But the new tracks are, as you say, more hypnotic and a bit more monotonous. It feels different because I wanted it that way. I always try to bring in new ideas and never work with ideas and thoughts that have already been used. And you can hear my musical identity from the early days and now.
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"When I wrote "Nightmarish sleep" back then I had a period I woke up very early, before work, and I had such s strange feeling in my body. "
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What is the process of creating a new album like for you? Is it catharsis for you? Would you write or paint if you couldn't make music, simply out of an inner urge? And do you listen to your own music, do you associate some albums with certain times and memories in your life?
After recording an album and working very hard and intense with it I usually don't touch my guitar at all until the album is out and for a couple of months and sometimes even more after that. When I feel that the recording process is behind me, I start playing, developing ideas, working with them and so on; when I feel I have something to work with, then there is the spiritual drive that drives things forward. When I wrote "Nightmarish sleep" back then I had a period I woke up very early, before work, and I had such s strange feeling in my body. It felt like in twilight and creating and coming up with strange riffs while having this obscure feeling in your body. I can have periods when I listen to my own music and sometimes it can even inspire new approaches to ideas.
The last time Svartsyn played, if I've researched correctly, was in the distant year 2000. Have you ever thought about bringing Svartsyn to the stage again, at least sporadically? You might already have a drummer in Ignace “Hammermann” Verstrate. Or is the subject finally closed for you?
Yes, we played last time at Under the black Sun festival in 2000. When we recorded "Wrath upon the earth" we were looking to play live. But at that time I changed my mind and went in another direction. I had some people ready for a line-up and when it was time to it realize it, this didn't work out for practical reasons. After a while I lost interest in doing it. And now that's out of the question. I have offered Hammerman a position as a member but he declined that offer. He just want to play on the albums.
Let's say I live not far from Brussels not saying to much. People here are more stressed and take things far too seriously. In Sweden it's more easy going, less stressful.
I have always found Svartsyn to be very authentic, in the sense that there were no stupid sayings, but you always delivered very intense and awesome music. At the same time, I always got the impression that you lived a rather withdrawn life and that you didn't follow newer developments and albums or find them relevant. Is this impression true, or are you sometimes to be found at concerts? And how do you rate the Belgian black metal scene? Especially bands like Ancient Rites, Enthroned, but also newer ones like Moenen of Xezbeth are really good bands, I think.
I follow the bands I like and check out new bands that are recommended to me. I don't search for new bands to listen to in that sense. I hardly go to concerts; last time I went to go see Unpure. I try to go see Marduk when they are here but I'm not of a big concert goer, but yes, it happens. I heard Enthroned but that's about it to be honest. There are far too many bands, so it's more than enough to concentrate on the bands I like. I don't know that many people here either so life is withdrawn. And I'm not really interested in people, in what bands they play in and so on. Social media doesn't interest me as well. I rather like the images of bands in the early days who hardly took any pictures and didn't expose themselves as much as they do nowadays on social media and without corpse paint. When I was a kid I loved Kiss, I loved their make up and all and thought they walked around like that. It was the mystery of it all, the same case it has been with the early Norwegian black metal bands that came around, Burzum, Thorns and Emperor for example.
Which bands and releases have impressed you recently or still do in terms of all-time favorites?
Merihem "Incendiary Darkness", Verberis "Adumbration of the veiled Logos", Drastus "La Croix de Sang" are albums that have impressed me lately. Of course Antaeus, Aosoth, Nightbringer are bands I regularly listen to. I don't listen that much music to be honest. All time favorites are Sepultura "Morbid visions", Napalm Death "Mentally murdered", Crematory "The Exordium", Morbid Angel "Abomination of desolation" and Tormentor "Anno Domini". Even though it's been a long time since I heard the first Burzum album, together with “De mysteriis dom sathanas” by Mayhem, this is a classic.
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