Interview with Hans of Diskord 2012

By Bradley Smith

Your new album Dystopics has finally seen the light.  Can you tell me about the long, arduous road that it took to get from post-Doomscapes all the way to Dystopics?  How do you feel that they are different statements about Diskord? 

Our first album Doomscapes was released all the way back in 2007, so this new album has been five years in the making. First off, we had some line-up problems; our guitar player Chris left Diskord after the Doomscapes album came out. After some time we got Espen instead, who was a great replacement. Then we had to write the 12 songs for the Dystopics album, and as you can imagine, it takes a bit of time to write this stuff. The initial recording of the album went very smoothly, it was done in three weeks on October 2010, at the helm of studio engineer Erik Rasmussen (ex-vocalist in Abominat, now Forcefed Horsehead). However, the mixing of the album, also done by Erik, turned out to be a tedious process, because we, the band members were so meticulously obsessed with all aspects of the sound (on the brink of pathological pedanticalness), and Erik was way too kind with us, so the mixing took about a year or so. Parallel to the mixing process, there were also quite a lot of problems with finding a label to release the album. We were in serious talks with a label, but first they were slow, and then we were slow, so then there was not a lot of momentum left in the negotiating process, and we decided to release the album ourselves, which was feasible, as I already operated a small label/distro. Unfortunately we’ve had a déjà vu in the lineup department, our guitar player Espen had to leave Diskord as well, for different personal reasons, so Eyvind and me were scratching our heads, wondering where the hell we were going to find a new guitar player this time. But out of the blue, our left hand paths crossed with a damn fine guitar player called Håvard, and we are now very much up and running again, and should be able to do a new album much faster this time.

Diskord’s songwriting style is pretty eccentric.  How do you approach writing such off-the-wall songs and what are you looking for in a riff that you include?  How do you use such a large array of bizarre riffs and still maintain song cohesion?

We all write songs in the band, and we all have different writing processes. My approach is to have a lot of riffs ready before I start doing a song structure. What I’m looking for in a riff, is a combination of tones that you don’t feel you’ve heard a thousand times before, but still being not too far out. Sometimes I follow scales that are not too typically used in metal, like the whole tone scale, but mostly it’s just random tones that I come up with on my guitar. Writing the riffs is for me the easiest part, because it’s putting the whole thing together that has me up sweating all night, re-organizing the order of the riffs again and again until I have a song. To maintain song cohesion, I re-write some of the riffs, so that they resemble some of the other riffs in the song, and I sometimes write a small bridge between one riff and the next. But in my opinion you can go in lots of different directions with the guitar playing with a song, but the whole thing is still kept together with your band’s sound, the bass playing and the drumming.

I noticed you used your own label for this release.  Did you see it as taking control of putting out your own album?  I mean how bad was your experience with the label that ended up releasing Doomscapes?  Did it turn you off from labels in the future? 

As I previously mentioned, we chose in the end to release the album ourselves, through my small label No Posers Please! Before the Dystopics album, I had only released a handful of vinyl EP’s. In some ways, it definitely gives you more control. We could now choose to have the album released on digipak instead of regular jewelcase CD, and the LP version on coloured vinyl. That’s an example of the kind of things that are out of your hands when you’re on a bigger label, because even if you convince them to do a special pressing, they might still license the album to third party labels for other continents, and so on. However, there are many good sides of being on a bigger label. I’m sure we would have been getting much better promotion, which could have led to more festival gigs, and so on. When I released it myself, as I’m a one man operation, I’ve been so busy packing orders, I haven’t had time to focus properly on promotion. Regarding our first album Doomscapes, it was released by a label that was dead from the moment the album came out, so that was not a good experience for us. Copies of that album has been available through the label’s distributor, VME, but there has never been any promotion of the album, except what we’ve achieved ourselves, mainly interviews like this, and the good old word of mouth. I still wouldn’t say it has turned us off from labels. Sometime down the line, it would be great to get on a label that actually helps us put our name on the map, so we could get some more high profile gigs, and so on.

I have come across the attitude from a lot of the “true” people in the scene that the only worthy death metal was from the mid-80s and the modern underground scene.  But I know you and I are of a slightly different opinion.  What period do you see as the Golden Age of death metal?  And which albums do you feel best represent that period?

I think both you and I agree that death metal from roughly '85 to '95 is well worth lending your ear to. The albums I’ve been listening to the most in my life were released from 88-92, so if you told me this is the golden age of death metal, it would be hard for me to be quarrelsome. There are too many good albums from this era to mention, I mean, being a golden age, but you can’t get around Altars of Madness, Mental Funeral, Leprosy, Realm of Chaos, Dawn of Possession, Schizophrenia, Slowly We Rot, Left Hand Path, Dark Recollections, Onward to Golgotha, The Key, Butchered at Birth, The Rack, Symphonies of Sickness, Consuming Impulse, Like an Everflowing Stream, World Downfall, Into the Grave, and Effigy of the Forgotten.

Can you tell me about the Oslo We Rot split 7”?  How did that project come about?  Who else participated and what were the criteria for inclusion?  And how big of an influence was Obituary on the bands that took part in the 7”?  I mean I know it is not really Obituary related, but with a title like that, I can’t help but think back to the early Florida scene which I grew up in.

The Oslo We Rot 2x7" split EP was released in 2010, with four bands filling the following criteria: They play some sort of death metal, and they’re from Oslo. So you have Execration, Obliteration, Lobotomized and Diskord. If you asked them, Obliteration would tell you they’re from Kolbotn, but that’s just a sleepy township bordering to Oslo. The project was initiated by Alex of the band Grotesque Hysterectomy, but his band were forced to drop out of the project due to other commitments, and we got Lobotomized instead. For the release, we got help from the Norwegian distro Unborn Productions, this became is his first release. The name and artwork came about after a long brainstorming, and is simply a tribute to a great band and album. The artwork was done by Kristian, the Obliteration drummer. He has since then also done the artwork for the latest Nekromantheon album, but most of his time is spent on doing live drums for Aura Noir.

Speaking of scenes, back in the late 80s, early 90s there were several prominent death metal scenes such as Stockholm, Tampa, Gothenburg, Finland, New York, etc.  Each one had their own distinct sound/style.  Which scene was your favorite and why?  Do you feel there are any death metal communities that are achieving that sort of status again?  I know Oslo has quite the burgeoning death metal community right now.

That’s one hell of a difficult question to answer; do I prefer oranges or apples? I would have to say  that bands from the most famous scenes, Tampa, Stockholm and UK, are definitely the bands I’ve been listening to the most throughout the years, many of which I mentioned in question #4. However, today I find the "underdog" scenes just as amusing, with the dark sound of Finland (Demilich, Convulse, Demigod, early Amorphis and Sentenced, the list goes on), the brutal sound of New York (Morpheus Descends, Pyrexia, Baphomet), the occult sound of Gothenburg (Grotesque, early At the Gates, Luciferion, Liers in Wait, Mega Slaughter, Crystal Age).  With today’s death metal resurgence, in our global Internet age, I don’t see small local scenes with distinct sounds, such as Tampa or Stockholm back in the days, but the USA and Sweden are still leading on, when it comes to the sheer amount of good bands. I so much would have liked to agree with you that Oslo has a burgeoning death metal scene, but apart from the already mentioned Oslo We Rot bands, there aren’t too many. There are a few exceptions, like Gouge, Mabuse and Flesh Torment. Let’s see what comes out of those constellations!

I know you are a Record collecting nerd as you put it.  Why do you obsess over obscure death metal vinyl?  I mean what makes it so special to you?  Does tracking down these long forgotten gems give you some of the old excitement of underground music trading?  What LPs and 7”s do you prize the most above all others in your collection and why?  Anything in particular you are still looking for?

I don’t think I’ve used the term "nerd", because of its mainly negative connotations, but I definitely am a meticulous collector, and obscure death metal vinyl is for me the pièce de résistance. Well, over the course of years, I’ve been collecting all kinds of extreme metal, black, thrash and grind and death, but I have come to the realization that collecting all of this is impossible, when you’re a completist. However, acquiring an almost complete collection of old death metal is actually tangible, so that’s what I’m aiming for. For me, the excitement comes from having a physical copy manufactured at the time of the release. So when you put on a record, look at the cover and read the thanks list, it’s like your record player is a time machine that takes you back to 1991. There are no records in my collection that I prize very high above the rest, but I have a special affection for my Autopsy collection. I bought Mental Funeral on green vinyl sometime in the early to mid 90’s, and now I have lots of stuff from them in all formats, including 33 LP’s. There’s lots of stuff I’m looking for out there, especially Mayhem – Deathcrush 12", but it’s simply too expensive for me right now. A few other records that I really need are Sororicide – The Entity LP, Demigod / Necropsy split LP, Crematory - Denial 12", and Sadistic Intent – Resurrection of the Ancient Black Earth LP.

How did your record release performance go?  I heard it sold out and that you guys destroyed the place.  Also, why did you choose Ghoul-Cult to open for you?  I love that band!

I’ve been a bit slow replying this interview, so our release gig is a few months back in time now. The show went great! The small pub Unholy was sold out (about 120-150 people), which is quite good for a small city such as Oslo. So you could say that many years of hard labor has paid off a bit; back when we started, no one cared about us or our style of music. We chose Ghoul-Cult (or Ghoul Cult, as they are now called) to open because first off, they play great black thrash, and they are good friends of ours, especially the infernal Johnny Tombthrasher. And secondly, we thought it was good to have a band in a bit different style, to keep everyone in the audience happy.

After the release gig, we’ve also done a small tour, together with our partners in rhyme, Execration. We did seven gigs in Southern Europe, Italy, Germany and Czech Republic. Our Italian friend David (drummer of Haemophagus, Undead Creep and Morbo) helped us set up the tour. It went very well, we played for 20-100 people per night, including an opening act for the mighty POSSESSED, which was of course a great honour, and we got to hang out with a lot of cool people, especially some of the promoters of the shows. The whole thing was very exhaustive, with lots of driving, sometimes all night long. Totally worth it, though, and I hope we will be able to do some more gigs abroad in the future. But due to other commitments, long tours is not that easy to do for either bands, so hopefully we will get some festival gigs or similar offers in the future.

Once again you used some very unconventional artwork for the album.  Can you tell me about the piece and what it represents?  Why did you choose it?  And what do you think of the more common use of digital artwork on album covers?  Personally, I think it is a plague.  

The artwork for Dystopics was once again painted by the brilliant artist Sindre Skancke, whom we used also for our first album. I cannot tell you exactly what it represents, the answer to that lies only within the head of the maestro. But his paintings generally seem to represent some of the same landscapes where our lyrical topics dwell, as well as our music. Sindre uses different painting techniques within each piece, and he works in the large format, his works often being 1x2m / 3x6 foot big. I have one in my living room. It’s... dominant, I can tell you that! And this piece was twice that size, two boards put together on top of each other, it was a monster! But tragically, in a burst of "artist’s rage", Sindre destroyed the painting, so the LP cover is the only high resolution depiction existing of this piece (masterpiece, if you ask me!). For me the sad fact that it’s gone forever adds a lot to the awe of gazing at the LP cover.

What else are your upcoming plans for Diskord?  Any new recordings or concerts in the near future? 

Next concerts planned are in Norway in November-December, together with Execration and Grotesque Hysterectomy. We are working hard on new material, so you can expect a new release from us within reasonable time.  Either an album, or perhaps we’ll do an EP or split LP first.  We will see pretty soon!

I’ll leave any final words of eclectic wisdom to you. 

Thank you for this great interview, Brad. And for your persistence in support of the musical underground!

“To eternally serve the dark and impure

I breathe each hateful breath

To see their minds and morals destroyed

I shall follow death”