DISKORD interview 2007

If I mention Norway you probably think you’re going to read an intie about a black metal band or something pagan/Viking or whatever cheesy stuff. Let me introduce yourself to DISKORD which plays death fucking metal! Deeply rooted in the 90’s death metal wave, DISKORD incorporates elements from 70’s heavy/rock/doom influences. If some old acts also switch to a kind of death n’ roll with more or less success, I can guaranty that DISKORD keeps its death metal strong with twisted and quite technical riffs and the combination with rock elements is just amazing. Interview with Hans Jørgen Ersvik (drums of doom).

-Hi Hans Jørgen, how are you, dude? I can’t believe that I am doing an interview of a Norvegian death metal band! Just kidding man! Some people, especially the youngest, may don’t know that Norway got death metal act like early DARKTHRONE, THOU SHALT SUFFER, CADAVER, etc…before the black metal wave. Where you a black metal adept at its very beginning?
Hi Jim and readers of Putrefactive Effect, how are you? Finally there’s a bit of summer in this godforsaken Northern hell, so I’m feeling fine right now, thanks! It’s true like you say, back in the late 80’s, early 90’s, death metal was really on the rise in all the Nordic countries. The Norwegian bands sounded somewhat similar to those of the Finnish scene (DEMILICH, XYSMA, DEMIGOD, NECROPSY, ABHORRENCE, CONVULSE, PHLEGETHON, VOMITURITION, early AMORPHIS etc.), namely more doomy and less melodic than their more well-known Swedish contemporaries. Many decent bands never left the demo stage, like THOU SHALT SUFFER, THYABHORRENT, OLD FUNERAL, MORTEM, BALVAZ, AMPUTATION, while bands like CADAVER and DARKTHRONE (before they moved on to black metal) went on to release great albums. DARKTHRONE’s ‘Soulside journey’ is one of the best death metal albums out there, in my opinion. I myself was a death metal kid in the early 90’s. I never was a part of the black metal scene. My bus used to pass by the infamous ‘Helvete’ shop, but I never went in, he-he. By the way, today there’s a bakery there called ‘Our Daily Bread’, so going from one biblical term to another, huh?

-OK, let’s focus on your band DISKORD which can be considered as “your creature”, right? Can you tell us the story of DISKORD which seemed to be a meeting of three lunatics? Did you meet at psychiatric hospital?
Oh no, DISKORD is not my “creature” at all! I do the main vocals in addition to the drums, but we all contribute to the music. It’s a very democratic band, so to say. One of our biggest assets, the way I see it, is that we are three individuals coming together with three partly different, partly coherent views on what good music should sound like. We started the band in ’99 with me on drums, Eyvind on bass (still there!), and Chris/Channard on guitars. Chris is now in scum-death metal-punk band LOBOTOMIZED, and our new guitar player of 2007 is Espen from NOPLACETOHIDE, cross-over noise band KILLL and various other projects.

-When I got your first album “Doomscapes”, looking at the cover I was wondering “what is that?” I didn’t expect this particular death metal. I put the CD in my stereo, listened to the first track with care and in fact I sat down and listened to the whole album without doing anything else. I was talking to myself (was I becoming crazy?) and wonder how can someone can create this piece of weirdness? Is this aim at creating this twisted, technical and old school death metal, a clear aspect of the band at the beginning?
He-he, it’s good when music enchants you to actually sit down and listen to it. If it’s only for vacuumcleaning, then who cares? When we started up we definitely didn’t sit down and say ‘We are going to start a progressive yet old school death metal band’. We just jammed out songs from bands like AUTOPSY, DEATH, ASPHYX, and as we started to make our own stuff, it was natural to bring in elements of the last decade and other genres as well. Sounding as if 1990, being ‘just’ another retro band never crossed our minds.

-How is the feedback about DISKORD music? It’s barely impossible to be insensitive towards this maze of twisted tracks but isn’t it hard to get attention in a land where mostly black metal and alike prevail? In other terms how is the response towards your music in Norway?
Black metal for sure is THE thing here in Norway, then you have black thrash, then you have thrash metal. But the last few years there has been a new rise of death metal bands, so hopefully this will change. Check out bands like ABOMINAT, GROTESQUE HYSTERECTOMY, OBLITERATION (great band with debut CD out on Peaceville now), LOBOTOMIZED, EXECRATION. I would say the Norwegian crowd has been very kind to us. Lately we played two shows with more than 150 people here in tiny Oslo. One of them we supported cross-over band SHE SAID DESTROY (debut CD on Candlelight), and the other we headlined.

-“Doomscapes” is a gathering of old school death metal like AUTOPSY, ENTOMBED, PUNGENT STENCH, DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA with some old heavy metal like BLACK SABBATH and even some 70’s rock influences especially with the use of wha-wha pedal. At least I have all these things in mind when I listen your album. Did my description can give an idea to the readers of what you’re playing or am I totally wrong or restrictive? Your comments.
Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes! Those bands have been very influential to us. I think I own pretty much everything from the four first bands you mention in my record collection. But there are so many others that have inspired me as well, early GORGUTS, early IMMOLATION, early ATROCITY (Germany) - pretty much everything ‘early’! When you mention BLACK SABBATH, I wouldn’t say no, but I’d also mention death metal bands with doomy parts or sounds, like ASPHYX, DISEMBOWELMENT, WINTER, MAGUS, NUCLEAR DEATH, IMMORTAL FATE, and so on. I’m the most narrow-minded in the band, only death metal, grindcore and goregrind for me. The other guys listen to pretty much everything from death metal to PANTERA, MESHUGGAH, indiepop, doom, raw punk, noise, you name it.

-Did the actual stoner/heavy/doom scene have an impact on DISKORD in any other way: BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, DOWN, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY and the use and abuses of weed and whiskey maybe?
There is no doubt you will find a lot of connections with doom in our music, we play doomy death metal (hey man, its called DEATH metal, how can anyone play it differently??) with some slow parts and dissonant tones, our guitar sound is warmer, less razor sharp than most metal bands, and we employ the wha-wha guitar pedal. I would say we are indirectly connected to the doom scene, because some of the bands that inspire us, like AUTOPSY, were inspired by doom bands like TROUBLE. None of us are particularly big weed smokers or whiskey drinkers, I guess. Espen is a doom fan though, this weekend we had a few beers in his place and tormented his neighbours with stuff like SLEEP and YOB on volume 11.

-Some bands who were completely death metal at their beginnings like CONVULSE, DISGRACE or ENTOMBED for example, slowly moved into a death/rock style with more or less success. Is this an orientation you would follow with DISKORD? I would hardly imagine DISKORD without its death metal roots. Are there boundaries you wouldn’t go over?
Yes, why the hell was that? The whole Finnish scene went into the death rock style. ENTOMBED got away with it nicely with the ‘Wolverine Blues’ album, I think. I guess it’s natural if you’re tired of the style you play in. We’ve been into death metal since the early 90’s, so I hardly can imagine we will turn our back to it. DISKORD is more about being open to different inputs, that’s all.

-The 8th track of “Doomscapes” called “Pervasive discreteness” really stands out from other tracks. I mean, it’s the only one which is not extreme, musically speaking of course. Call me crazy but it reminds me a song from THE MELVINS!!! Why did you include such an intermezzo, which is not so discreet, referring to the title?
The track you mention is written by Eyvind. I am not sure if he is a MELVINS fan, but I wouldn’t exclude the thought. Actually it’s ‘discrete’, not ‘discreet’, he-he.

-You recorded other stuff before which are Demo 2001, “Aural Abjection” demo 2003 and a 7”EP “HDFH” in 2005. How does this material sound compared to “Doomscapes”?
I would say each release is a brickstone to our distinct sound of today. ‘Demo 2001’ was fairly crude stuff, but ‘Aural Abjection’ is a half an hour long demo with some quite nice stuff on it. Our 7” EP has two cool songs, too bad we didn’t make it longer.

-DISKORD has performed more than 20 gigs in Norway, sharing the stage with WATAIN, ZYKLON, DISIPLIN and CADAVER. What were the reactions towards your freaky music? I wished I was here to see the reaction of WATAIN fans watching your performance. They certainly felt confused, didn’t they?
Certainly it felt natural to share the stage with CADAVER (R.I.P.), and I guess the other gigs came quite natural because the Norwegian crowd know us. The WATAIN gig was set up by Tommy of Worship Him Records (cool label), but WATAIN wasn’t yet the ‘talk of the town’ like they are today, I guess. I don’t mean to bad-mouth the WATAIN guys, but I have to tell you a funny story. Norway is usually fairly mild during the summer, but this particular day of the year it was really hot, probably nearly 35 degress Celsius. We got a ride with the WATAIN van to pick up some equipment before the gig, and there was this lurking smell of old unwashed crotch in the car. It turned out the WATAIN crew had set off all the way from Stockholm with an open 10 litre bucket of their trademark pig’s blood, probably unsuspecting of the hot day to come. You can imagine the smell!

-Hans, you also heading a small label/distro called “No Posers Please” where you distribute 7”EP and fanzines, and you have released lately bands like ABOMINAT, ENDWARFMENT and LOBOTOMIZED. Can you introduce us to these bands and how they sound like? How everything started about “No Posers..”?
No Posers Please! is indeed my small label. I call it “DIY” because at least so far I play in half of the bands released (DISKORD and ENDWARFMENT). The first release was the DISKORD - ‘hdfh’ EP, which was a collaberation between No Posers Please!, UK/US webzine Nocturnal Cult, and US cross-over label Vendlus Records. By the way, it’s still available from www.nocturnalcult.com, send Brad an e-mail. All the bands released so far are Norwegian, ABOMINAT is a death metal band which could be called SUFFOCATION worship (but they get away with it), LOBOTOMIZED is Chris’ death metal/scum punk band, and ENDWARFMENT is (was) pure grindcore in the vein of early NAPALM DEATH. My aim is to release old school death metal, old school grindcore, and old school goregrind. Grindcore and goregrind are both practically non-existing here in Norway, so I guess it’s an uphill battle. My next planned releases are a REGURGITATE/DEAD INFECTION split and a LOOKING FOR AN ANSWER/INSECT WARFARE split. Check out www.noposersplease.com. Espen also runs a label called Entartete Musik at www.entartetemusik.com, where he has released such stuff as NOPLACETOHIDE vinyls and an EXECRATION CD.

-You actually only release 7”EP. Is it a way to piss some internet music downloaders off? Will you release one day LPs, Tapes or CDs? Blood Harvest Records from Sweden also has a similar releases policy. What do you think about DIY labels releasing Tapes and CDR stuff?
Actually I am not that big enemy of downloading. I find the CD worse, such a dull piece of plastic. Of course it’s annoying to see the DISKORD album available on the internet, but what can you expect when it’s only released on CD, a format not much different from a bunch of files? I really admire the balls of bands like SKITSYSTEM, who have made practically their entire discography available online. One day maybe I will release LP’s as well, who knows? My label is just a small contribution to the scene, it’s not my new line of work, you know. Blood Harvest is a great label, I admire his ability to dig up cool new old school death metal bands. Surely a future cult label. DIY = yes, please! “You say our music is fucked, but what about yours ? At least we are creative, autonomous and more” (AGATHOCLES).

-Tell us how things are doing about “No posers…”, did you experienced some bad times? Did you have regular buyers getting in touch with you? Do you think it’s worth doing such an activity today? Do you witness a drastic change in the today underground?
I wouldn’t say bad times, but sales are going a bit slower than I had hoped. The domestic market is small here in Norway, so I have to give it some time, I guess. Also, it is somewhat difficult to expand my distro stock to the extent that I would like, because a lot of labels don’t bother to answer my e-mails for a trade. But still it’s a nice hobby. A lot of my customers are people who run labels and play in bands themselves. Sometimes I feel like the underground community is very small, just a handful of people who buy stuff from each other back and forth, he-he.

-Another good point about your distro is the fanzines distribution. Are you conscious that more and more people read webzines and don’t give a shit about paper zines, so in a sense, your run the risk of losing some money and accumulating an amount of zines?
What are the latest zines that kick you ass?
Correct, my sales figures for printmags are abominable, he-he. Webzines are a good place for news and stuff like that, but for in-depth interviews and some real musical inspiration I turn to printmags. The last zine I really enjoyed was Cerberus from Finland. Their in-depth interviews with bands such as KAAMOS, NOMINON, DR. SHRINKER and DEMILICH, combined with great layout and artwork just blew me through the roof. Too bad the current issue was the last. Deadly Illness from Hungary is a cute A5 size homemade xerox zine which is fairly new and still active. Contact: http://www.myspace.com/deadlyillness

-Let me know what are the latest releases you used to listen to? What did impress you recently? OBLITERATION - ‘Perpetual Decay’ CD, DEAD INFECTION - ‘Start human slaughter’ LP, REPUGNANT - ‘Epitome Of Darkness’ (LP soon!), MACHETAZO - ‘Ultratumba’ CD, CRETIN - ‘Freakery’ LP, DARKTHRONE - ‘The Cult Is Alive’ LP, NASUM - ‘Grind Finale’ 4LP, FRIGHTMARE - ‘Midnight Murder Mania’ finally on LP, LOBOTOMIZED - ‘Norwegian trash’ (yet unreleased album, hopefully out soon on Last House On The Right), CYNESS - ‘Our Funeral Oration For The Human Race’ LP.

-I feel I ask everything. Did I forget to ask you anything? Maybe about your future plans, releases, tours or whatever?
Hopefully there will be a New DISKORD album early next year, we have slowly started the process of writing new material, but we don’t have a deal for more than our debut album, so we’ll see. For now please check out our debut CD ‘Doomscapes’. It was released by Edgerunner Music through VME (Voices Music Entertainment). You can also buy it from us at www.diskord.net. Samples at www.myspace.com/diskordnorway.

-This is all for today, Hans. I would like to thank you for your time. Good luck to you and your mates in DISKORD. Keep creating such weird but personal death metal like you did on “Doomscapes”. I invite you to conclude this interview before going back to the absurreality.
Cheers!
Thank you Jim, for including us in your nefarious underground depravities. “It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes.”

Discography:
-Demo 2001 (Self released)
-Aural Abjection demo 2003 (Self released)
-HDFH 7”EP 2005 (Vendlus Records/ No Posers Please!)
-Doomscapes 2007 (Edgerunner Music)