Norway’s Northern Krig approach black metal with little interest in making their ideas easier to digest. Their latest record, Worship Files For Anthropophagolagnia Predators, continues the band’s interest in concept albums, while a second part is already being prepared for release later this year. Grenjara and Morfran spoke to AFRICA.ROCKS about the thinking behind the record, how quickly their songs can take shape when the right moment arrives, and why they see personality as far more important than geography when it comes to black metal.
“Playing black metal is one thing, but you can only truly convey its essence if you’re cut from a different cloth.”
Worship Files For Anthropophagolagnia Predators is a brutal title even by black metal standards. At what point did you know this record needed to carry that name?
I don’t know. Like the previous album, we’re dealing with a concept or a story. This time, it’s this theme. We’ve also noticed that it’s not a welcome theme everywhere, but we don’t care. If not in black metal, then where are the boundaries to be crossed? It used to be that, in black metal, boundaries were crossed, and there was also music involved, sort of on the side… With so many bands, a lot has become watered down because every wannabe poser picks up a metal band as a way to unwind in their free time, sings about “dark halls of eternity”, looks incredibly bored in the band photo while wearing Adidas shoes and glasses, and calls others “edgelords”. Playing black metal is one thing, but you can only truly convey its essence if you’re cut from a different cloth. Anything else is just a cheap imitation of the thousandth band…
I’m not interested in constantly having to adapt everything in today’s society just to be considered socially acceptable. Should we all create our music in a way that avoids causing offence? It’s bad enough that nothing works anymore without Spotify. I don’t even have a CD player at home and could only listen to my own album with great difficulty.
To cut a long story short… we had a theme, and we wrote the songs. We deliberately designed the story and concept of this album with long titles and no lyrics to give the listener a wide range of interpretations. Since we put so much heart and soul into writing and crafting all our albums, we don’t want to go into too much detail. Especially with certain topics, people often twist our words when we make statements.
The sequel, Return Of The Elfking, is coming soon. The concept and the story aren’t quite finished yet.
Your debut full-length, Concept Of A Suicidal Journey, had a strong conceptual pull to it. When you started writing the new album, what did you want to push further this time?
This album is also a concept album. The second part of Worship Files For Anthropophagolagnia Predators will be released at the end of the year and includes the “Soul Journey” and the second encounter with the Elfking. It will be released as a strictly limited double-vinyl edition.
What we definitely wanted to develop was making the story tangible and emotionally impactful. We want to make the story as real as possible for the listener, so they can immerse themselves in it.
Everyone has different images in their mind. Personally, we have different images in our minds with each of these songs. We like concepts, we like stories and the ability to get lost in them, because if there’s one thing black metal can do – though it often fails to do so – it’s unleash unlimited emotions.
The new record is described as a tighter follow-up, built to hit fast and leave nothing hanging. When you were shaping these songs, what told you they were landing with the right kind of force?
We record songs. If the songs are good, they make it onto the album; if not, then they don’t. We don’t sit down and think about how to make our music particularly brutal or aggressive. But what do we know? Maybe that’s how it’s done.
The songwriting takes about an hour per song, but finding the right day, when you’re in the right mood to get the most out of that song, finding that moment… for us, that’s a very intimate and sensitive phase, with a very small window of time. That’s the art, and that can take longer. Most of it is done in one take.
“The style of music has nothing to do with location, but much more with the kind of personality you have”
Northern Krig come from Oslo and Tromsø, which already gives the band two different northern settings to carry around in its sound. How much does place still feed the way you write and hear this music?
No. We think origin plays a very minor role. Why should black metal sound different in southern Norway than in the north? The style of music has nothing to do with location, but much more with the kind of personality you have. We’ve had a lot of changes over time, and currently, for example, no one is from Oslo anymore.
You are part of the first AFRICA.ROCKS sampler CD, which is being distributed in South Africa. What made that worth joining for Northern Krig, and what do you hope someone there picks up first when they hear the band?
We want to spread the unholy message of Norwegian black metal throughout the world. What the listener makes of it is something we cannot and will not influence.
Stream and support Northern Krig on Bandcamp: northernkrig.bandcamp.com
