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Syv, the majestic seventh album from MORK sees their brand of grand sounding black metal reaching new heights while also exploring various new sonic plateaus and the results are hugely impressive. To celebrate the release of this new album, we had the pleasure of talking to MORK mainman Thomas Eriksen about Syv, twenty years of the band and his continuing journey through the ever expanding realms of black metal.
We begin by discussing how excited Thomas is to be back with Syv, especially so soon after the last album Dypet, which was released last year. Ultimately, that album made Syv an easier album to create. “The previous one Dypet, I’m happy with the album and all, but it was a result of a writer’s block, and I thought maybe I crossed borders too far because I’m always evolving the music of MORK, but after the album was released, I saw that the reception was great and then my inspiration started bubbling, so the new album is a result of a lot of new inspiration.”
Thomas continues with how overjoyed he is with Syv and how he is forging new sonic ground with MORK. “I’m 100% happy with the new album, and that’s exciting, but at the same time it’s a bit scary, because I am experimenting, and it’s not just plain old black metal anymore. I think MORK has found its own way.”
Thomas continues this theme by discussing in detail about the evolution of the music of the band. “If you go back to the first album and, I suppose the second, maybe the third album, they are pretty much primitive black metal, almost like a tribute to the old stuff but there’s a slow evolution going on on each album. You can hear more and more details are blooming and this is something that has continued all the way to this day, and it will probably continue to evolve in the future.”
Talk then turns to the prolific nature of their music with Thomas explaining how he creates so much quality material. “I have a lot of time alone in my studio writing. MORK is quite an exclusive live band, so it’s not like I’m losing a lot of time because of touring. We play some shows here and there, but it’s not so much that I don’t have any time left to write. So I’m always writing, and I also released an album in March this year, the Udåd album, and as long as my inspiration is there, I will keep creating.”
The subject of those exclusive MORK live shows was discussed next and Thomas told us the highlights of this summer. “Hellfest was the highlight for obvious reasons. That is the biggest show we have played, we played Wacken a couple years ago, that was to five or six thousand people. That was huge for us back then, but Hellfest, I think was closer to fifteen thousand people and that’s overwhelming. By song three or four, I kind of attended the moment. It’s like a big wave over you. I think the show was great, and we had fun.”
As well as the new album, MORK are also celebrating twenty years as a musical force and Thomas told us of what he is doing to commemorate this anniversary, although the new album takes precedent. “It was actually planned to do something but it got a bit scrapped because of the new album and that deserves all the focus. MORK is still thriving, and I think that is kind of celebration enough, We are going to have an exclusive concert in Oslo. That is the release concert for the album, and we will perform a special setlist.”
Thomas then highlights the special moments for MORK in those twenty years, with the band experiencing many high points. “It’s a highlight that I actually found this niche to occupy my head. The MORK, black metal thing, in general. In 2013 when I got signed to a label for the first time, that was a highlight. It was a highlight in 2014 when the live band gathered and I realized that, now I will be able to perform this live as well, and that that’s a gift that’s kept on giving until this day. We played in Asia. We played in Nepal, for God’s sakes. That’s pretty exotic, going from a hobby/one man project to a garage band, to performing across the globe. That’s quite epic, and obviously, we got picked up by Peaceville Records. That’s our highlights.”
Thomas has described MORK as True Norwegian Black Metal in the past and this is something that obviously is till within him today, as he describes exactly what black metal means to him. “To me, black metal is about expressing myself and following my own rules and creating music in solidarity. To me, black metal is supposed to be lonesome and the dark side of your aspects of life and mentality, It’s still something that I’m dependent on in my everyday life.”
We finish off this great talk with Thomas as he continues the black metal discussion with the albums that mean the most to him and how the genre shaped him as an artist. “BUZRUM‘s Filosofem and DARKTHRONE‘s Under A Funeral Moon. I suppose that’s pretty much standard answers for me, because those are the two artists or entities that matter the most to me. You have other stuff too. I discovered DIMMU BORGIR and SATYRICON early on because they were commercially available and that showed me, back then, that it doesn’t need to be this conservative little thing. You can actually look at black metal as a tree with diverse branches and ways of including influence and inspiration into the music, which to me, is a bit rewarding, and then you can explore a bit more yourself through the music. I don’t really see any rules, and that’s beautiful.”
Syv is out now via Peaceville Records.
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