Martín: Hi Øyvind! It has been a long time since the beggining of ANTARES PREDATOR to the release of the first full lenght album “Twilight Of The Apocalypse”. What happened during these years?
Øyvind: Antares Predator has been through many phases during the past 16 years. It started out as my solo project WOLF327 that would stay in the shadows of my main band Keep of Kalessin until I quit Kalessin in 99 and WOLF327 got main priority. The project evolved to a 5 member lineup involving VYL (drums) and Ghâsh (Vocals) from the original Kalessin lineup, changed the name to Antares Predator, and started rehearsing for the release of our debut album. This lineup came to an end in 2003 when I and Mikal (Bass) moved from Trondheim to Oslo before an album was recorded. In Oslo we had to start all over trying to establish a lineup but this took quite some time as other personal events took priority. It was not until 2008 the pieces started fall into place when Steffan (Vocals) and Jan Benkwitz (Drums) completed the band and we produced the “Twilight of the Apocalypse” album.
M: How were the recording sessions of the album? Are you satisfied with the results?
Ø: The album is mixed and mastered in Kohlekeller studios near Frankfurt, Germany. They are specialized in extreme metal doing bands like Crematory, Agathodaimon, Six Reasons to Kill, The Oath, Benighted, and numerous more. I started looking for a good German studio at the time Jan Benkwitz (drums) came into the picture. The plan was to record the drums first, so I was looking for an experienced metal studio in Germany that would help us do that part. Norwegian studios tend to be more expensive and there are not too many specialized in Metal. Besides I wanted to get out of the country and give the process full focus. I searched the web for German studios and listened to various productions they had done. I really liked what I heard on the Kohlekeller website and contacted them to book a recording session. We ended up recording drums for only 3-4 days, but in that short period of time it became clear to me that I wanted to mix the album here as well. We completed the guitar and vocal recordings in Norway and went back to do the final mix. Kai and Kohle at Kohlekeller have taught me more about sound recording than anyone ever did and they have simple and logical solutions to anything I previously considered a problem in the realm of sound recording. It was certainly a pleasure working there. When it comes to the final result I am very satisfied, but there will always be something I think could have been done differently. It is a challenge in itself to know when you must let something go unless you plan on working on improving your product forever.
M: Your music is as brutal as cold, with a mixture of Thrash, Death and Black Metal. How do you define your own music?
Ø: Honestly I find it a bit difficult to define it because it is a mixture of different genres. The sound of this album I do agree is cold and people usually like to label it blackened thrash metal, something I do agree on. The problem for me personally is that as bands tend to mix and explore, the genres start to lose their meaning on a detailed level. When referring to black metal for example, the reference relates to the sound of the 2nd wave of black metal bands during the early 90s, not the satanic content. As most people agree black metal should have satanic contend, it can be argued that this reference is completely off the spot. I usually refer to our music as aggressive metal anyway to make it simple. The thrash reference usually comes from a tight and heavy palm muted guitar riff fundament in our music. The vocals can be seen as close to the sound of the 2nd wave black metal bands, and the drums very intense; close to the works Dark Funeral style wise in my opinion. Sometimes we use samples, orchestrated sound effects like brass or strings, to underline a melody line or a riff. I would say there are no rules in this band to what we will do with our music, so I expect we need a few more albums to develop a signature sound.
M: What themes inspire the songs? Is there a main concept behind “Twilight Of The Apocalypse”?
Ø: The concept of the album very much deals with the darker side of the human race; we are a primitive warlike species out of control, easily drawn to bullshit ideas in the field of pseudo science and religious doctrine. The title certainly has nothing to do with all those apocalyptic stories you hear like 2012, Nostradamus prophecies etc. To put it somewhat mildly, I’m not very fond of most people and we as a species are the twilight of the Apocalypse as I see it. Individual songs are not directly related, but they all deal with aspects of our downfall as a race.
M: “Twilight Of The Apocalypse” has a very special artwork. Who is the artist behind it? Tell us about the artwork and its “mechanical” image.
Ø: The cyborg on the cover was done by the Swedish artist Pär Olofsson that also recently did the artwork for Immortal on their “All shall fall” album. It is influenced by the M.A.R.K 13 cyborg in Richard Stanley’s movie “Hardware” from 1990. M.A.R.K 13 is a military self regenerating drone created to “control” an exploding population. The name relates to the 13th chapter of Marks gospel where Jesus is depicted as giving his followers an extended prediction of a coming apocalypse. Being an anti theist myself I find this quite outstanding as this man made cyborg set out to “control the population” under the banner of a man made biblical apocalyptic prophecy. This led me to this character on the front cover who is heavily influenced by the movie, but not a spitting image of it. As this idea grew on me during the years I started thinking of Mark 13 as seeing itself as the angel of death sent by God to eliminate all humans. Religion backfired on the human race, something that very much relates to the title of our album “The Twilight of the Apocalypse”. As a race we are basically a hazard to ourselves and our world. Religion, blind faith and pseudo science is our greatest enemy and we are not smart enough as a race to handle the inventions of evolved individuals. Mark 13 is, at least for me, a metaphor for this which made me ask Pär Olofsson to paint the cyborg with delusions of grandeur, and mechanical wings like an angel as the cover of our album.
M: What can we expect about ANTARES PREDATOR ´s live on stage?
Ø: There are no live shows planned for the time being, but it is not out of the question. Presenting music on stage is very much the essence of playing. The hard reality of having an underground band in an underground genre though, is that it is a lot of hard work doing gigs and tours with minimal pay, and while most of us used to be in a position where it was no problem leaving everything and focus entirely on the band, it is not as easy anymore. This means we probably will not do large scale tours or anything like that, but perhaps festivals or single gigs if time permits. Nothing is planned at the moment though and we approach this process one battle at a time.
M: Many extreme bands are making videos to promote its songs, are you planning to film one?
Ø: There are no concrete plans, but I would very much like to do a video sometime in the near future. I wouldn’t do a video for promotional purposes mainly, but because I enjoy the creative process and to work with visual media. I have a lot of ideas for many of our tracks but I have a feeling the limiting factor would be the cost of actually making those ideas come to life.
M: Norway is probably the most important country for Black Metal music. What is your opinion about that and how is the scene nowadays?
Ø: I see black metal as a myth that grew out of proportions in a time where Norwegian churches burned every week and being a black metal band from Norway became a selling point in itself. There are still an enormous amount of bands around, but most have started to explore a wider range of genres compared to the black metal acts of the early 90s. The term black metal is very much washed out; originally it required a satanic content, but as the 2nd wave of black metal bands like Emperor, Darkthrone and Mayhem developed a distinct sound, the sound itself became the reference point instead of the ideology. I find it a bit amusing as those who claimed to be true satanic black metal bands stated it was not based on theistic Satanism (worshiping Satan as your deity of choice) but rather using Satan as a symbol of human traits. This means you can ride the wave of Norwegian black metal as a selling point without actually believing in Satan at all. People can do whatever they like for my part in this regard, but the term Black metal is totally washed out as far as I see it, and there is not a significant black metal scene going on to my knowledge by the theistic definition. The scene of extreme metal on the other hand is as potent as ever. A few weeks ago Keep of Kalessin gained 3rd place in the Norwegian finale of the Eurovision song contest after qualifying by public votes. The news papers had headlines like: “Keep of Kalessin historical! First black metal band to ever qualify for the national finale”… Kalessin is not a black metal band, but the term has evolved to something you soon find on kids clothing besides Pirate sculls, emo effects and Motorhead shirts in chain stores like H&M etc. Metal has become something everybody can relate to here and you see more bands than ever competing for attention, but rarely under the theistic banner of Satan.
M: In your bio we can read about your past with KEEP OF KALESSIN, tell us about these years.
Ø: I met Ghâsh (original singer in Kalessin) at Heimdal College of music in 1994. He played guitar and did vocals in black metal act called Ildskjaer back in those days, with Obsidian C (guitarist in Kalessin) doing the drums. At this time we were around 16-18 years old and there was certainly enough of drinking and partying going on. I agreed to join as a bass player for a gig over too many beers, and soon found myself a regular member. About a year later we decided to record a demo but the guys didn’t like the result. Despite that I sent some 20 tapes out to different labels resulting in a record deal with Italian Avantgarde music. We released 2 albums under the Avantgarde banner before I quit the band in 1999. The band was put on ice because of personal disputes between the remaining members the same year. The years from 95-98 was certainly turbulent; we had problems keeping a rehearsal room because of lack of payment, or because we thrashed the place during heavy partying. This was absolutely not the organized and professional Keep of Kalessin you see today. Around 2001 Vyl (drums Kalessin) and Ghâsh teamed up with Antares Predator making us 3/4th of the original Kalessin line up until 2003. Thebon, the current Kalessin singer was also involved with Antares Predator at some point, and I worked with Ghâsh until 2008, so our paths have crossed many times during the years. Playing in Kalessin was very hard work I remember; Obsidian would do his signature riffs and I tried to fill the lower frequencies by playing bass as if it were a guitar. Often 2-4 string chords usually at full tempo, and palm muted picking with maximum distortion through an Engl guitar amp. This is something that continues to influence and characterize my guitar style even today. Speed picking on a guitar seems very easy after attempting that for years on a bass, but I have later realized that this is not the way a bass should be handled if you want a heavy sound of course.
M: Thank you very much for your time. Here you have space to write what you want as farewell.
Ø: If anyone wants to contact us for any reason, give feedback or whatever; feel free to send a few lines to 666@antarespredator.com I recommend people to join the Out campaign http://outcampaign.org/ to unite atheists around the world, make a unified stand against religion and to promote skeptical and rational thinking. I also urge you to check out Steffans band Harm at http://www.myspace.com/harmmetal for some heavy duty thrash metal. Thank you for the interview!
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