Updated: 10/07/00

Along with Mayhem, Darkthrone and Satyricon, Carpathian Forest may lay claim to be one of the very first in the line of influential Black Metal bands. While not as famous as the others (yet), they’ve been around just as long and have an impressive catalog of music. Because of various problems in the band, releases have been few and far between. Now Carpathian Forest have a new outlook regarding their music, and are finally getting the worldwide recognition they deserve. I recently spoke with founding member Nattefrost at four in the morning California time. Here are excerpts from the early morning conversation.

Highwire Daze: Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Carpathian Forest, and tell me how long the band has been together.

Nattefrost: I’m Nattefrost, I’m the guitar player and vocalist. We have been together since early 1991.

HD: What is the Black Metal scene like in Norway today compared to when you started back in 91.

Nattefrost: In my opinion, it has lost its concept a bit. Back in the early days, there was a lot more devotion and ideology behind the music. Today it’s more less like a circus. Bands starting out today form bands with no ideology behind them – just musicians who are obviously skilled to play their instruments. But in my opinion, they lack the belief behind the band obviously.

HD: Where did you get the ideas for some of the songs on the new album Strange Old Brew?

Nattefrost: The songs are from the same period as the Black Shiny Leather songs. Mostly from 94-95 – even songs from 91 are on the new album. They’re just leftovers of songs we haven’t recorded in a professional studio yet. We had this long, kind of non-cooperation period of time in the mid 90’s and I guess this is the result of no cooperation and just pure stubbornness from both sides. So we recorded early this year in the first days of January. So it’s really old songs basically.

HD: You have another album coming out as well that’s already recorded…

Nattefrost: Yeah, that’s called Morbid Fascination Of Death. The songs on the newer one are a bit newer – they are from 96-97 till 99. I guess the new album Morbid Fascination – which isn’t released yet – will be a more correct approach of the band in the future. The new album may be a bit more complex and death metal than this Strange Old Brew, which has, in my opinion, a more punkish rock and roll versions of Black Metal on it which we made in the mid 90’s. That’s the differences between the albums. Lyrically, they’re more the same. They deal with sh*tty situations of life which we’ve also have been in – like no food and no money and the depression is building up and things are not that easy to deal with all the time under such circumstances. I guess it dwells a lot on negativity on the album.

HD: Your label told me that you recently played a live show…

Nattefrost: Yeah, it was a couple of miles outside of Milan in a place called Babylonia. It was some sort of release party of this Strange Old Brew. The real sh*tty thing about the whole thing is that I caught a really bad flu when I was down there. I had this operation in my mouth – so my performance could have been like some percent better. But it’s what we managed to pull together at the moment, so I guess we’re reasonably satisfied with the show. I could have been better, but we are quite satisfied with it. Our line-up is pretty strong nowadays – a lot stronger than it ever has been. There was some kind of sh*tty thing that happened in Milan. Me being not in shape and having the flu – and the drummer was having a bad, bad hangover the day we played. That’s not what is suppose to happen in the band – these hangovers! This time it happened. We are not satisfied with the hangovers, so what we try to do in the band is drink after the show rather than before the show or the day before the show – so you are fit to play. That is the number one rule in the band, so we had to correct the drummer so he understood our meaning.

HD: Are there plans for any other concerts?

Nattefrost: There are some live plans. A couple of plans in Norway and I guess Avantgarde is trying to set up a tour with us and Immortal – some kind of European thing. It’s in the working process right now, so we’re just waiting for an answer to play. We are ready. I just got sacked from my work, so I have all day to play.

HD: What did you do in your former day job?

Nattefrost: Well, it was very good pay, but it was a lousy, boring job. I programmed metal parts for this computer thing for farmers. It was making sowing devices for farmers. It was really a wanker job, but I earned a lot – so now I have to find something else to do – but I’m not too concerned about it.

HD: You should try and get yourself a rich girlfriend.

Nattefrost: Yeah, my girlfriend has a pretty good job, so I can be a parasite on her for some months.

HD: So what happened the Nordavind, the other founding member?

Nattefrost: He is out of the band right now. He wanted to keep the band as low budget and low profile as possible – like a demo band – no interviews and no concerts. He gets so f*cking stressed at concerts, so it was very hard to talk to him and cooperate with him. He had this weird vision of the band, so he didn’t fit in with the rest of us. In my opinion, we are more of a band now that just a project. As the situation is right now, I have the final say-so of everything because I don’t want to have permanent members before I know if I could trust them on many terms – that I could work together with them with no problems and that they understand this discipline of the band when it comes to live jobs and the studio jobs. Basically, I want a member who is 110 percent in the band – if not I don’t think it would work. But we’re really focusing now on having a good line-up for live shows.

HD: Some of your lyrics deal with themes of S&M. I was wondering what your actual interest is in that?

Nattefrost: To me, I want this band to do things that a Black Metal band normally wouldn’t do. For me, it’s very personal and for me, it belongs in my band. I can’t speak of other bands, but I definitely think it fits the band and it’s a thing that I really find interest for in many ways. It’s the only way of having sex in my way of thinking, so it has to be this submissive thing. It’s what I like writing about, so if I feel the lyrics are fitting to the song, then I will go for it.

HD: One of my favorite new songs on the album is Mask Of The Slave.

Nattefrost: Many people have criticized me on this song because the lyrics are very basic and straightforward. It’s almost childish in my way of seeing it, but it’s really true. It’s like a mass murderer/rapist kind of song. There’s people like that over in every town and there are a lot of sickos in Norway also. There were these two little eight-year old girls who were found stabbed and raped in a forest some months ago – it has really shaken the whole country.

HD: And you have another great one on here called The Good Old Enema Treatment…

Nattefrost: (laughs) Yeah, we always try to have some sort of irony and black humor. Some people have found the song totally repulsive, which I totally enjoy. It’s the goal you know, in my way of thinking. It’s from this really cool Japanese S&M movie and they are really, really seeing how much this girl can take. I remember in the old days we use to see this movie and just drink some beers and laugh our f*cking heads off. It was really very enjoyable. It definitely belongs to the atmosphere of the band.

HD: Your previous album Black Shining Leather had pictures on there from the holocaust. What made you decide to use these pictures?

Nattefrost: It was kind of a sensible thing to do. We are no neo-Nazis or anything, but we are quite taken on the subject of death. It really interests us. It’s very hard to forget about World War II when you come to deal with death. In my opinion, it has these almost theatrical pictures. I really get some sort of joy when I see those pictures – not because of the people or the reactions but just because of the whole event. The religious massacre of Jim Jones could also have been a picture in this – for us, there was no idea to publish these photos and represent ourselves as Nazis or anything. We have our views about Nazism of course, positive and negative. But mostly negative, because neo-Nazis in my opinion are kind of ruthless people. In Norway, those are the most lame people who have no brain of their own – they just follow one leader and it’s very pathetical to watch the whole thing. First it’s just great pictures of death. Our first cover was a bit censored, because then we could get a bit of shit in Germany. And we understand that and we withdrew the picture – it had this picture of five kids – we distorted it a bit, but to me it was very theatrical on how these five dead kids lay at this morgue. It was a very cool picture. It’s grim in every way and it’s very atmospheric. It was not our intention to have this Nazi cover, because that is not the ideology of the band. Far from it. We just heard our record label's advice and did some small changes with it. It was kind of annoying also, because we didn’t want to move away from what we had found in the first place. But in my opinion, it’s better to do than to have this misinterpretation of the band as a Nazi band.

HD: Have you ever had any other experiences with censorship?

Nattefrost: We had this woman’s rights group who are really bugging us from time to time who say we are a sexist band – that we are discriminating the female persona. I find this f*cking ridiculous and I get f*cking provoked by the whole thing. It’s this women organization who never get laid or who have probably never seen a f*cking c*ck in their life. But they really do know what’s happening in all the porn mags though. And they say I sing pro rape lyrics and say Nazi things about females. I don’t mean that all females are sh*tty. Most of them are. I’m not a gay man, so I can’t sing about men. But most men are also sh*tty f*cking persons! We are so much adulterers that we can’t f*cking behave ourselves! We have this one brain and it’s in the wrong head! It’s the c*ck who has the final say-so – if we see this 18 year old woman, we are f*cking lost – we’d go out of our minds just to get her pumped up. But yeah, I think they are going a little bit out of the line – they shouldn’t be so f*cking stuck up. My girlfriend also points that out sometimes, but she has also misunderstood what I was saying. I don’t have these negative views on all women – I don’t think women should take my lyrics personally. It’s for the f*cking wives and fat c*nts out there. We have a stripping club and have these really wonderful girls stripping there, and they just bunch up outside of this place and they throw garbage on the visitors and on the girls. You could f*cking destroy a person doing this. If you want to go to such places then you should. A person shouldn’t control what the f*ck you should do. In my opinion, the Norwegian women activists – some of those are gonna get hurt sooner or later.

HD: So what album or CD do you have in your collection that someone would be very surprised that you owned?

Nattefrost: I have many records like that. I really enjoy a lot of jazz music such as Coltrane and Miles Davis. I also like Kraftwerk, a German band. I have Mr. Bungle – I have a lot of weird music in my collection – not all Black Metal of course.

HD: What do you think of organized religion – do you think it’s a bad thing for all people?

Nattefrost: Yes, of course, it’s the number one war machine. Without the religion and the f*cking hypocrisies, there wouldn’t be so much quarreling and wars and sh*t. In Norway, there’s so much Christianity, you just have a little walk outside the door, you have to go back inside because you’re totally nauseated.

HD: In Norway, there’s been a movement of Christian Black Metal bands. I wanted to get your comment on that.

Nattefrost: Yeah, there are. I’ve also read about them. It’s really, really painful to see. They really have misunderstood the whole thing totally. Black Metal should be about Satanic and anti-Christian things. In the first place they should call the music something else – like fun metal or lite metal or something. I totally ignore it. I just hope I don’t get to meet such a person, because I would f*cking trash them all over the place. There is a band in Norway that is really known – they are f*cking excellent musicians – they are from this large Christian family and they’re all related to each other. The band looks like a death metal version of Hanson. They are all like identical, like The Kelly Family. The band is called Extol. They are really skilled, but what the f*ck are they choosing this music for? Had it been in the old days, like 95, they would of gotten death threats and people would have stepped up on their door and given them a f*cking warning and hit them down if they saw them on the streets.

HD: What does the term Satanism mean to you, if anything?

Nattefrost: Not much. (laughs) I’m not a Satanist – not at all. I read all the books that needed to be read. Some of it gave me something for my own personal benefit, but I can’t say that I have chosen a Satanic path directly – no. I’m just an anti-Christian misanthropist. For me, it’s the only thing to be – one with myself and just to have a f*cking good time when I am here on my terms of having a good time – not just sitting and playing play station, but doing my kind of stuff. That is the ultimate high – to be able to be myself with no people interfering in my existence. That is the ultimate for me.

HD: If there was one thing you’d like someone to remember after hearing your CD, what would it be?

Nattefrost: The negativity of course. Some people accuse us of dwelling too much on the negativity. Negativity can make you strong and negativity can also destroy you. It’s this plus or minus thing – but if you are aware of the things you do, I think that’s you’ll get further with the negativity. Because if you have a negative mind, it’s very, very difficult to get disappointed. But if you are this positive guy always hoping for the best, you will have a smash in the face sometimes.

HD: Any messages for Black Metal fans here in the States?

Nattefrost: I don’t know how easy it is to get a hold of a Carpathian Forest album in the States, but I would suggest to the readers of Highwire Daze that they should buy our albums because it’s a really nihilistic piece of work.

In addition to Carpathian Forest, Nattefrost is participating in another project called World Destroyer. It’s even more brutal than Carpathian Forest – there is only a demo available right now, but they are shopping it around to labels. In the meantime, be sure to check out Strange Old Brew, out now from Avantgarde Music.