Sulphur

Interview with Thomas Skinlo Høyven (vocals) and Øyvind Madsen (guitar) conducted by Linn-Elise Jenssen in 2010

The Norwegian metal band Sulphur from Bergen, formally called Taakeriket, is out with their second album, “Thorns In Existence”. Sulphur started out as an old school black metal band, but changed their musical style over the years. Today they’re playing experimental, progressive, black and death metal. This interview is done with the vocalist, Thomas Skinlo Høyven and Øyvind Madsen, one of the guitarists in Sulphur.



You have recently released an album, “Thorns In Existence”, which is your second release. What thoughts do you have about this album, compared to the first one?

Thomas: We have also released two demos: “A Relic For The Damned” in 2000 and “Outburst Of Desecration” in 2005, which led to record deal with the French Osmose Production and our first full length, “Cursed Madness”.

“Thorns In Existence” is a much more accomplished and whole release than the debut album, “Cursed Madness”. Finally we have a band with enough members, and each one of us is very dedicated. Other reasons might be that the tracks fit together in a better way than what they did on our last album, “Cursed Madness”. Actually the gap between the tracks varied from about seven years from the beginning to the end. The production also has a higher quality, and easily you can notice that Bjørnar E Nilsen with his “Conclave Medie Studio” has got a lot of experience over the last years, which we spent on writing some new materials. This time we also used another studio for the mastering of the album, which gave a much better result than before.

How is the response from fans and media, compared to earlier?

Thomas: Our fans have only given us nice words, and that’s absolutely great. Friends that were forced to listen to our music, have also been very positive and they like the new material very much. I guess most of them are much more satisfied with this album, compared to the previous one and that's nice. It would have been tragic to make a worse second album……

When it comes to the media, things goes a bit later than it did with the debut, and we can blame it on that the disc is only released in Norway as we speak. The release date in Europe is March 1. But we've got some reviews from abroad, and they have been very promising, lots of good words that made us very happy and high on ourselves. Norwegian reviews have also been very good, and local newspapers such as BT and BA have lifted us high up. We cannot say other than that it’s very nice to get such good feedback on what we've worked hard and long with.

But of course there are some assholes who wish to pull down the average, ha, ha…..There are only two reviews which we’re no happy with, so we can only hope that they will remain unread. In general, we are very pleased with the feedback, and we’re hoping for some more when the disc comes out in Europe.

You were on a four days tour in Bergen, in October, with the band The Sickening. 6. November you also played on The Dark Essence Festival 09 in Bergen. What was that like…? A good experience, or…?

Thomas: Actually there should be 8 concerts, so yes, it's relevant to call it a tour, but because of bad communication with some clubs and the dates that did not match, things ran out in the sand, so we ended up with only 4 concerts.
The concerts went well, despite the fact that it was a good while since we last played live. It felt good to start playing again, after spending a long time creating the album. So now the plan ahead is to promote the album and follow it up mostly with live playing.

When it comes to musical influences, which bands has influenced your music most? I think “Thorns In Existence” is a very solid and intense album. The idea that struck me when I heard “Revelations” was that you are a bit inspired by Opeth, is that so?

Øyvind: I get inspiration from a very wide variety of music, so you can probably find preferences of many different bands throughout the album. I am a big fan of 70’s progressive and psychedelic music. Bands like King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Camel, ELP and Genesis, have inspired me a lot over the years. On the other hand, I'm also inspired by 90’s black and death metal. Bands like Dissection, Satyricon, Emperor, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, are some of the bands I could mention.

How are you working when one or more of you gets an idea, a great riff to work with, so it becomes a complete song at the end?

Øyvind: I have a home studio where I create and organize virtually all the songs. The difference between “Thorns In Existence” and our previous album, is that Eivind Huse also have helped me to create a couple of songs, unlike previously, when I did it all by myself. When I have a song which is almost done, I send it out to the others in the band so that they can learn it. When everyone knows the tune, we meet in the rehearsal room and practice. If we feel that we can make better music by changing the structure in the songs, then we change them. It often happens while we are practicing.

Why death metal? There are many other styles that may provide greater scope, purely creative and musically than this genre?

Øyvind: I won’t place Sulphur in a pure death metal genre, but we make music which contains absolutely a good dose of death metal. We have lots of scopes to mix, everything from black metal, rock, progressive rock, and industrial items, etc. When you say death metal, I think of bands like Cannibal Corpse, Deicide and Morbid Angel. Actually, I think that Cannibal Corpse has got less scope than we have.

The track “Hunting Sickening Seas” has got quite many elements, which makes variety in the sound picture. Why did you create the song with such huge contrast?

Øyvind: Basically I had not planned that the song should contain as many elements, it just happened. It’s the song on the record with absolutely most items, but I think it creates a good variety on the disc. It contains perhaps too many elements for someone, and therefore it requires a little extra of the listener.

Thank you for your answers. Is there anything particular you want to say to the readers of Beat the Blizzard?

Thomas: It was a pleasure to do this interview. We will recommend all the readers of Beat the Blizzard to check out the new super-product, which we have worked and struggled with for some years in order to satisfy metals ears. “Thorns In Existence” is an album for everyone who likes metal with a slight twist, combined with experimental elements. If you’re curious and interested in this type of music, then perhaps you want to buy our album in the store or via online. Also check out our earlier album “Cursed Madness”.
Thanks to you for a great review and an excellent webzine.