Time For Vindication | May 9, 2002 | Q's by Stefan Lejon & Tommy Lejon

Susperia's latest effort, their second so far, "Vindication" hit us like a thunderbolt when it arrived a few weeks ago. Susperia's unique style of metal proves that there are still paths unthread within the world of heavy metal and they are walking it; heads held high. I got to ask vocalist Athera a few questions and here's is the outcome...
 

First off all let's cover the basics, which most true fans already know, but it can serve as an introduction to those still to hear your music. What was the reason behind forming Susperia - what ignited the fire to make it happen?

- The reason for forming the band was simply to offer the world a brand new breed of metal with a special groove and sound. Cyrus and Tjodalv had the idea back in 1998. They started jamming whilst Tjodalv was still in Dimmu. The music they started to create appealed to Tjodalv in a much greater way than Dimmu`s so that was also one of the factors for him to leave Dimmu Borgir in March 1999. After he so did the two of them started to look for musicians to complete the band. Some months later at the Wacken Open Air Tjodalv ran into me as we where both destined to work as crew members for the Mayhem performace at the festival. He told me about his departure from Dimmu and that he had a new band going. I was immediately interested and suggested that I should bring two friends of mine (Memnock & Elvorn) to a test rehearsel once we were back in Norway. So we did, and here we are today, 3 years later the excact same people! We just found something in eachother, we clicked from the first moment! And above all, we had the same passion and goal!

All members of Susperia has been involved in the Norwegian metal scene for a long long time. Give us a short background check on the warriors of Susperia.

- Tjodalv is I guess the most known of the individuals of the band, being one of the founders of both Dimmu Borgir and Old Man`s Child back in the early days. These two bands have been his occupation until he joined up with Cyrus and formed the beginning of Susperia. Cyrus has played in various local bands in the area he grew up in, and has always been a songwriter. He was session bassist for Old Man`s Child on a tour in 1998, and was the live guitarist for Satyricon on their 3 latest world tours in 1999 and 2000 after he was the one chosen from a massive audition. Memnock and I have been friends for 11 years and have played in various local bands together on the garage band level. He was the natural choice when it came to fulfilling the bass role in Susperia. Elvorn I got to know in 1997, we lived in the same area and shared musical interests, so he ended up as the final member of Susperia. Also he was a musician from his early teenagers

I find it quite hard to define your music but if I had to I would say something along the line of "modern thrash with death and black elements". What do you think of my description and how would YOU like to describe your sound?

- I guess you description is fair enough, I think we will get alot of different feedback when it comes to defining the style and what people think about it. We have actually chosen not to categorize our music. What`s the point? I mean it`s definitely not Black, it`s not Death…. Not pure Thrash either, it`s just Metal the Susperia way. We like to think of ourselves as a kind of a Universal band which can appeal to all the different genre people. Not label ourselves as something specific, cause then you don`t get attention from the widespread scene. It`s better to catch the attention of the whole scene and not just one corner of it.

You've recorded both albums at The Abyss Studios. Are you satisfied with the sound Peter has provided for you?

- We were very satisfied with the sound on Predominance, but Vindication beats all!! Peter did an amazing job, he also had to I guess to like go down with the flag on top of his studio ship, given the fact that it was his last producer job, maybe forver. Besides he believed so strongly in the new Susperia album that everything was just so much to our benefit, he worked his ass off for us this time, highly appreciated. We have also become friends over the last year so it was easier and a pleasure to work with him again. On the first album the press stated that it sounded very non- Abyss which was quite positive due to the fact that alot of bands have been there over the years. Our new album is some of the best sound I have ever heard him do. It`s like Norwegian Scream Magazine said in the latest issue;” if you wanna buy a new stereo system, Susperia`s new album is the one to bring to the shop for sound testing the speakers!!!” Cool.

How did the recordings run? I often hear about major complications, when interviewing bands, (music being erased etc etc) in the studio and so on. Did you experience any problems?

- No problems at all. Peter is too experinced to let anything go wrong. We also recorded with a back-up system. First on ADAT tapes and then ran it into a hard disk, so if one devise crashed we had the other, but it all went smoothly. The recording session this time was just brilliant. I recorded all the vocals in Norway while the guys recorded in Sweden, thus we had much extra time to spend on each instrument. And I could use 3 weeks on the vocals alone, instead of just 1 week.

The vocals were recorded in Norway at BBM Studio. Why is that? Were you not pleased with how the vocals sounded on Predominance or?

- I was very pleased, but this time I wanted to hire a vocal producer/coach who I could work closely with, and it was his suggestion that we should record all the vocals in his own studio in Oslo. There we could be all alone just the two of us and without outside interferrance. And as I mentioned use 3 weeks on the vocals alone, instead of the one short stressy week we would have in Abyss after all the other instruments were finished.

Vindiacation appears to be even more thrash metal to me and I (imagine) I can find elements of such bands as Metallica, Pantera and Destruction in your music. Is my observation correct?

- At least Pantera, I`m a big fan of their vocalist and he has inspired me alot, but I don`t try to copy him in any way, I use my own personal voice now and the music is also quite different all in all. I guess it`s more Thrash than anything else but I would call it Susperia metal, he he

Your vocal range is amazingly versatile – ranging from high-pitched screaming ala King Diamond, via semi-clean thrashy vocals to black/death screams and I think it fits the music perfectly. Isn’t it hard to utilise this variation in a live enviroment?

- No. I do not cheat in any way in the studio and I am fully aware that this has to be performed also live. It is my voice and my ideas, so what I did in the studio I will also be able to do live. I will not restrain myself to play in the studio just because it also has to be performed live, I do everything in my powers in the studio and take it as a challenge when it comes to re-creating it on stage!

How has the response from the media looked so far then?

- Good! As we speak I have done about 100 interviews in Europe and have not yet started on the USA wave, so it`s exciting. We just got album of the month in norwegian Scream Magazine which is quite good and the response I`ve heard so far from Europe is not negative at all! We think we can really shook some metal hearts with this new release!

There have been a lot of comparisons with other bands such as Dimmu Borgir and Old Man's Child - just because Susperia members have played in those bands previously. Do you think of this as something positive or negative?

- In a way it was maybe a bit positive regarding the attention we got as a totally unknown and new band last year. But there are not so many elements of those two bands in our music so to keep on comparing us to those is not correct. I cannot repeat enough that this is not a project but a genuine band built by 5 friends and we will forever stay the same. It just so happens that our drummer for example used to play in a band called Dimmu Borgir.

The black metal scene has gone through some major changes over the last decade. Some bands has gone more melodic and some bands are flirting with death metal. Some people even claim that true black metal is dead and gone - what is your opinion about this?

- I don`t care so much what other bands do really. If new bands come up with something slightly cool I check it out and then I stash the cd in my collection. Hardly something noticable comes along anymore, too many new “halfway” bands. The new Arcturus album was brilliant, I like that stuff and can appreciate what Garm has done with his voice. I have never been a big fan of Black Metal really, but some things are cool enough. True Black is far from dead, but all the new wannabe bands tend to wash the scene out a bit.

What are your influences when it comes to music - anything outside the metal scene?

- My huge horror film collection to name one. But in general it`s the music we make in Susperia that inspires me to write lyrics and to sing the way I do, I have also great respect for Chuck Billy who has been a big inspiration source for many years.

I expect that there will be some touring to support the album. How does the nearest future look for Susperia - anything decided yet? Will you do a package tour like after Predominance or will you be able to headline this time?

- Not a full headlining tour, that`s abit to much as of yet, but it will be a big step up and hopefully we will be able to support a more or less big band or go on a co-headliner tour after the summer. Due to the late release just before the summer there wont be any tours before the autumn. With who, where and when is too early to say. We will work strongly on it though.

Thank you for the interview. Any final words to our readers?

- Thank you for the interview too, it was a pleasure doing it! I want to encourage all the readers to go and check out the new Susperia album Vindication, I think that you will find many elements on it you can enjoy! Give it a shot and see what you think, otherwise we hope to see you out there on tour real soon, thanx for supporting!!!! Athera and the boyz

Listen to the man and get "Vindication" a.s.a.p. A virtual slab of extreme metal is what they offer and you won't be dissapointed!