Formed by members Shagrath , Silenoz , and Tjodalv , Dimmu Borgir has been the diamond in the rough for the Black Metal genre. Well orchestrated, thought provoking songs have been satisfying fans since the band formed in 1993 in Norway.

Fears had the opportunity to speak with the band, but it took some time and coordination (due to sound checks and other band obligations) to nail down the interview. On the last day of the U.S. leg of the Invaluable Darkness Tour, we finally were able to catch up with guitarist Silenoz at the House of Blues in Lake Buena Vista Florida (Downtown Disney for reference) and for about 35 minutes, he was gracious enough to answer all of our questions.

Fears Magazine: Since the inception of Dimmu, the metal industry has had its highs and lows. What has kept Dimmu Borgir on the radar?

Sven Atle Kopperud (a.k.a. Silenoz): I think we have persisted because of stubbornness, first and foremost, and believed in what we have been doing for years instead of letting outside influences take a toll. We've just had our own mission the whole time and didn't care what other people expected from us or wanted from us. We just did whatever we thought was for us and I think that's part of the success.

Fears: Due to the pressures and overall nature of the music industry, I am sure it is hard for bands and musicians to stay true to their vision and desires. Have you all ever been persuaded (by the record execs) to stray in order, perhaps, to gain ground in the long run? Basically to see and do things their way because they think it's best?

Silenoz: Ah, no and if it has happened, then it has happened naturally. When people say to us, "You never change. You always play the same type of music all the time." Then you have the other types of people that say we've changed so much. It's hard for us band members to tell what is the real truth because we are the ones that are playing the music and making it so cannot really judge objectively on what we do.

Fears: How do you all know the right groove has been hit upon and it should be put on the CD?

Silenoz: Usually the songs that you put together really quick. I noticed that in the past that the songs we have worked on forever, some of them, has become to be really good like "Kings of the Carnival Creation" is a long song which we spent quite a lot of time on and getting all the stuff into it. But like "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse ", which is one of our hit songs, came together real easy - extremely easy. So sometimes when you have a song which you put together really easy you start to think maybe it's not a good thing because it comes together too easy. Sometimes, for the most part, that's the truth. The stuff that comes together the easiest, those are the ones that are going to be somewhat considered the hits or whatever. If you start to analyze things too much, then um, that's where things will go down the drain. For this new album (In Sorte Diaboli ), it's the most spontaneous thing we have done in many many years. That's why it comes across very good. It reaches out to a lot of different people.

Fears: Describe the new release.

Silenoz: We still have the symphonics, but at the same time, stripped down. But it has that feeling of directness, which we channel through the way we wrote this album. I mean we went back to basics. Just jamming together instead of being too concerned about putting songs together through sequencing programs and stuff like that because with today's technology, there's no limits. But we wanted to revisit the past, so-to-speak, in the sense of writing actual songs.

Fears: When I go to a concert, I want to know the individuals that I am seeing on stage are actually playing their instruments and the singer is singing. You mentioned technology, how has such advanced technology, in your opinion, hurt the music of today?

Silenoz: I think, when we play live, I want everything as much as possible to be live. There's a lot of people that rely on stuff from tape and that's cool. I mean, we could have done that for the orchestra easy you know, but after all, we're six people playing our instruments and I want the audience to see and feel that you know? That we actually can play what's on the album even if we don't have the orchestra. It shows a different side to the band because on the record, you see the perfection side to the band where everything is like neat everything sounds great, but the live side is the more intense, the more aggressive, the more straight to the point side to the band, which is not flawless. We have mistakes, we make mistakes, you play as a human being.

Fears: But you play live in the studio as well.

Silenoz: You do that in studio too, but live you only have one chance. In the studio you can take another take and another take until it sits there. I think that's the charm of seeing us play live because everything is not perfect and that's how it should be, I think.

Fears: When writing songs, are you ever mindful that a potential young audience may be intently listening to the lyrics that may not be suitable for all?

Silenoz: Yeah, I mean, that's why I have a special way of writing lyrics for instance. I write in like a riddle type, it's hard to explain, but when I have two sentences, those two sentences can have a double meaning. So you have to be grown up to understand and to actually get it. So that's why I'm not too concerned about it. It's the same when Ronnie James Dio is singing about killing the dragon. He's not singing about killing the actual dragon that's spitting fire. So I've adopted kind of that into my way of writing. It's the same with the musical aspect of the band. We don't really think too much about it. Whatever sounds good to us, we end up using.

Fears: Are you also mindful that the longer the song, the possibility of loosing the listener becomes greater?

Silenoz: Yeah. Sometimes, I think, that the only conscious decision for this album that we wanted to shorten down the songs in general a little bit, but still keep the intensity through the whole song. I think most of the songs on this album will go over very well live, in a live situation for sure. But we have a few long songs in the past, but I think they still manage to keep the interest up and that's why we still play them.

Fears: In order for a song to appear on a CD, what must all members of the band hear in order for it to make it on an album? What must a song possess in order for it to appear on a CD? Is it a majority rules type atmosphere?

Silenoz: It's democracy up to a certain point because since we're so many band members. It's kind of impossible to have a vote that everyone agrees on.

Fears: Has having a band with many members ever been a hindrance?

Silenoz: Both yes and no. There is a negative part because you can never have five or six people agree on one thing. But at the same time, we can raise up because when we make songs, everyone has input and it makes the variation so much bigger and it makes more interest, I think. That's the key trademark for Dimmu, I think, is that the variation and the balance and mix between the aggressive side and the melodic side - even both in one song. You have one aggressive part that is taken over by one melodic part.

Fears: And that is throughout the band's catalog of music.

Silenoz: Yeah. Exactly. I think that's what describes us best.

Fears: What is it about Fredrik Nordström that you all felt was good enough to ask him back for In Sorte Diaboli?

Silenoz: He's crazy enough to work with us (laughing).

Fears: Is he allowed the freedom and opportunity to let you all know that something isn't working and things should be changed or reevaluated?

Silenoz: Yeah, yeah and sometimes he can be right - he comes up with suggestions and sometimes it works, but for the most time it doesn't because we have everything written before we go to the studio. So, when he comes up with ideas, it's mostly for soundwise and that's his specialty for sure. He's very good at that. He's been playing metal for many years. He's a very good producer to see things in the big picture.

Fears: He has the ability to open closed minds?

Silenoz: Yeah, exactly. He can make us see things from a different perspective. We've always been a band that tries out things from every possible angle before we make a decision. I think that has helped us quite a few times to make it for the better. That's for sure.

Fears: In the late 80's early 90's, the metal industry and its bands at the time were on top. Then, in the mid-nineties, popularity plummeted. As you travel (especially throughout the States), do you feel the views on metal music have swayed to more of acceptance rather that the negative? As you travel, do you feel the views on Black Metal music have swayed to being more accepted? Do you still have to knock down those proverbial doors?

Silenoz: I think we're still one of those few bands that are still controversial because we are controversial in our own genre to a huge extent.

Fears: Really?

Silenoz: Yeah I think so because we're not as closed-minded as, um, into the unwritten rules of Black Metal. We've always been about breaking boundaries. That's why it's so good to not to be able to actually get that tag from anywhere because it's, to me, our music is non-classifiable.

Fears: I even made mention to a friend that I heard Yes in "The Serpentine Offering".

Silenoz: Yeah Yeah, I'm sure you can hear Rush, you can hear all different types of old bands. That's what's so good because as soon as you get tagged and categorized for something, you're immediately put into a corner and that can be very limiting in many ways. For us, if people want to call us Black Metal, that's fine. If people don't, then that's fine too. I don't care. To me, it's only about good and bad music and it's up to you and you (the listening public) to decide if you like it or not.

Fears: You are a musician, but you are also a fan of music. What constitutes a good song for you?

Silenoz: A song that has a good flow and has a good line, you know, straight through the song and has hooks. It has to have melody for me. Whether it be an aggressive melody, if there is such a thing, or a happy melody. A good song needs to have diversity.

Fears: I ask because you mentioned earlier about limiting or being limited and for you all to be musicians, I am sure that all of you must have a diverse ear for music unlike many that claim or do not like this genre or that genre. They refuse to try something new.

Silenoz: I think it's just very natural for the human being to fear what they don't know as something negative. But when I was like 15 years old, I could never think of myself as listening to Country. No fucking way. But now I do. Sometimes I listen to trance stuff and electronic stuff, but my main favorite group is metal, you know, the stuff I grew up with when I was a kid. That's what I listen to most still to this day. Even if there's new, great metal bands coming out today I still come back to the past.

Fears: And which bands did you grow up listening to?

Silenoz: Priest, Maiden , Dio , W.A.S.P., Sabbath , you name it, that's what I grew up with. But now, as I've become older, I'm more relaxed and I'm not so concerned about what would other people think about me listening to this and this type of music. It's like, 'Dude, should I care?'

Fears: Well, do you feel you all have an image to uphold?

Silenoz: The musical side to Dimmu and the artistic side or imagery, or whatever you want to call it, that's of course very important to uphold because you want to still present a full package. But as a private person, I don't give a flying F. To me it comes down to should I enjoy myself or should I try and pretend to be someone I'm not just because other people expect that from me.

Fears: Many musicians say they stay true to themselves and do not allow outside influences affect their creative side. Yet, those outside individuals do write the checks and expect the highest end sum as possible.

Silenoz: Yeah, but that's the thing though, will you stay true to yourself or will you stay true to something else?

Fears: Money? Must be a fine balance on any musicians part.

Silenoz: It is a balance, but that's how it is in life in general. You have to find a balance, I mean, if we don't sell records that can mean for the next album we don't have the same budget as the last one, that could suffer but, ah, you never know. It's like as long as I can do or we can do like great sounding albums and we have fans that are actually enjoying it, the dough is secondary. Cause I know we would still play music even if we didn't make money off of it. We just happen to be so lucky that we actually make a living out of what we love to do most in our lives. That's something I'm really proud of and very grateful to be able to do that. As you say, not many are able to do that.

Fears: Occasionally, I like to take band members down memory lane. I think it provides our readers some, perhaps, unknown insights about each band.

Silenoz: Alright.

Fears: Please comment on each album shown to you. We will start off with the first release, For All Tid.

Silenoz: That was, initially, supposed to be meant as a demo recording and we sent it out to a few labels and we were pretty young and we got really good response from a couple of them and we just decided to release it as an album. That's the story behind that. It's kind of like a tiny start of the band. Very tiny start.

Fears: Stormblast.

Silenoz: Stormblast is, um, we made a quite a few of the same mistakes as we did with the first one, production-wise. It has very good potential and I think also the re-recording of Stormblåst shows that very much. And that's the reason why we re-recorded it because the production and sound on that original has been bugging us since we recorded it. It's very laid back. It's more in the front. It has more edge to it. It just sounded too laid back.

Fears: Spiritual Black Dimensions.

Silenoz: That's a very good follow up to Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, but we tried to (pause), I guess we were too concerned about trying to get the same type of sound for that album as the previous one (Enthrone). We wanted to try and copy the sound of that one, but at the same time, what we did on Enthrone was something really special. We didn't take too many days to set the sound for Enthrone and that's why it sounds so good because we didn't analyze things too much. For Spiritual, we did everything. We analyzed too much. It came out probably a bit too chaotic, but at the same time, I think it fits most of the material on that album. There exist two masters of Spiritual Black Dimensions; one master that the band likes and the final master is what the label boss liked best. It's good too, but our version is much more tight and not as washy sound.

Fears: And lastly, In Sorte Diaboli. Is this the band's best project to date.? How do you perceive the album now, since it has been out for a little while, versus just after its completion?

Silenoz: It's too early to say it's our best album. I just perceive it now, like half a year later after it's done, as a very strong record and I'm really proud of the way we actually wrote it and the way everything came together. Certain people in the band were very skeptic towards if we were ready for the studio at the time and if the story idea would work. But I knew as soon as we had enough songs for this album, I knew it was going to be a good. So, it's still too early to say if it's our best album, but it's for sure one of our strongest albums.

Fears: Okay, final question. The band has been around for many years and many things, both positive and negative, have been said and written. Is there anything that you and the rest of the members of Dimmu Borgir want the public to know and/or understand better that has not been conveyed to your fans?

Silenoz: I think most of our fans know what we're about anyway and that we do this because we love music and we're fans of music as you said earlier. We just happen to be a bunch of guys that made it, to a certain extent, successfully. We're just happy to be doing that.

Fears: Are you truly happy because the industry can be rough at times?

Silenoz: Yeah, I am. Of course we learned from the worst. We know the worst parts of the business, for sure, and we have made a few mistakes along the road, but at the same time, if we wouldn't have been the type of band that took risks and chances, we wouldn't be where we are today. Taking those risks and chances involves, of course, that you might not do right sometimes too. But, it's part of the deal. That's how life works in general. You just have to push further. Believe in yourself no matter if all the people tries to put you down or talk shit about you because at the end of the day, they just make more promotion for you. We have always the last laugh anyway.

AND NOW A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM SILENOZ OF DIMMU BORGIR:

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