Benighted Interview

Well, the idea to form Benighted was mine. I used to play in a band called Immemoreal but I grew tired of it and wanted to form something of my own, this was in 1999. But nothing really happened until I decided to leave Immemoreal and contacted Salle who was without a band and willing to play. We started rehearsing in 2001. Benighted hasn’t existed for very long, but both me and Salle have been playing in different black and death metal bands for over 10 years now, so some experience I guess you can say we have.

Black metal to me is a music, that if done right, forms an emotional connection for the listener. What sorts of emotions should Benighted’s music evoke from anyone who listens to your unique creations?

I couldn’t agree more. There are so many bands out there just putting together some crappy riffs and blasting drum beats to it as fast as they can, without any emotions attached to the music at all. Emotion and atmosphere is the key words to our music, and that is without using synth (although we're not gonna exclude the idea of using it some time). I'm not sure what emotions people get from our music, but what I read and hear in reviews etc they are very close to what we try to do: solitude, sorrow, coldness and also submission and weakness which I find way more interesting than strength and domination, although we do have powerful parts in the music as well of course.

How do you feel you have developed between your two demos and where do you see your music moving to in the future?

Well, personally I think that "Heljarför" was more following a "straight line" sort of, even though a riff changed the feeling in the music was still in the same "rhythm" (sorry, don’t think I can explain better how I mean hehe), and it wasn’t as much contrasts and the riffs were not very Whereas the new demo has more complex riffing and more contrasts, and the guitarsound is more fuzzy and for lack of a better word - grim. Other than that I guess we develop as most musicians do, we get better at our instruments and new ideas spring to our minds. Personally I think the lyrics on "Avgrundshjärta" are five hundred million times better than on "Heljarför". Well, right now we are working on what will eventually become a self financed 7" vinyl release, the music on this release will be very slow and creeping, in the vein of Burzum's "Filosofem" and "Hvis lyset tar oss" and some older Samael I guess (if we have to compare). But after that we will speed things up again. But I shouldn’t say too much about a far future, the riffs are not done yet so!

Based on the strength of your demos have you garnered any label attention? Can we expect a full length album from you in the near future?

Yes we have gained attention from several underground labels actually, but nothing which has been interesting. Another key word in Benighted is control! We're not going to just release an album on any label out there, actually we are planning to finance a full length CD ourselves, released through what would then become our own label. The reason for this is like what I said - control. The mere thought of having a label interfering in how we want things to be done truly sickens me.

The production on your demos is very reminiscent of the early days of black metal with the ample guitar fuzz and the haunting undercurrents beneath the riffs. How did you achieve this sound?

If you mean the actual guitarsound I can say that it's not a problem at all, these days anyone can buy good recording equipments for a decent price and create whatever sound they want to. I've even heard of some bands recording full length albums on their computers with a good result! I guess we just wanted to give our music the kind of sound the riffs demanded, our first influence comes from old Scandinavian (mostly Norwegian) black metal and that's the sound we wanted. We could have given our music a more clean sound or whatever, but that would ruin it I think. Other than that I think much of the sound comes from the very riffs too, the way we put them together with rhythm and lead guitar creates a lotof atmosphere alone.

Another question relating to Production. With the right kind of production it seems to me that there is a lot to be gained as far as mood and atmosphere goes. What do you think is the right kind of production for Benighted?

I think we have already managed to create a good production for what our music demands. Of course we have only released two demos yet, but if/when we record a full length we will spend more time in the studio of course, but that is mostly to work on small details. The way we play our music doesn’t demand an overly clean production. So we are happy with what we have. We record our stuff in a friend’s studio (Inapt Studio, run by Peter Derenius of the Swedish death metallers Maleficio), and even though it's a small studio he's still got very good equipment so there are still a lot of room left to experiment etc. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the right production for us is what we have but at the same time we're not going to limit ourselves. It's hard to know how the production of a Benighted release five years from now will sound like, it's often a question of how the very songs sound.

It seems to me that Swedish black metal has gained some of its magic back. Your musical output is a perfect example of this. How do you see the Swedish scene developing these days?

Actually I’m not so involved in any scene at all, I’m aware of many Swedish black metal bands coming out like Pest, Misericordia etc. But I don’t listen to them or check them out, it's not about being arrogant or anything, I’m just very happy with the stuff I usually listen to. But of course I’m always glad to see good music thrive.

As mentioned above you guys were birthed in Sweden but I detect a strong Norwegian influence on your sound and style. What do you think in regards to this claim?

You are completely right, our first and main influences are from Norwegian bands. When I got the idea to form Benighted I was listening a lot to old Enslaved albums, early Darkthrone, Burzum etc. The black metal boom in the first half of the 90's is what I grew up to and that's the music I listen to nowadays as well. Of course I have a wider range of taste but I guess those bands made a direct impact on the influence to Benighted. But there are other bands as well which has had a more or less indirect influence on me, like Summoning, Samael, Bathory etc.

It seems there is a deep rooted sort of philosophy that provides a sort of driving force for Benighted. What are some of your personal beliefs and how do they affect your artistic output in Benighted?

Well personal beliefs, I’m not satanic or religious at all, nor do I have any deeper philosophies which influence my decisions. Some years ago I used to read a lot of stuff from Sartre and other philosophers, but I stopped doing that. I got to the point when I realized that life just plain and simple sucks. I realized that boredom is global and nothing we can escape, and that what I really strive for is just inner peace. I’m mostly like any other metal fan out there, I hate to work, I enjoy a good festival with an excess amount of beer, I enjoy tattoos, I want a motorcycle one day etc. I think for Benighted that the driving force would be unawareness and apathy, used as a shield, to enjoy isolation from the surrounding world through the help of not being aware of what's going on. I think the planet we live on is perfect, but that the humans inhabiting it can fuck off. It's mostly through my lyrics that this takes form in Benighted. There's a line from the text to "Into the sea of nothing" on "Heljarför" which goes "Into the dark, submit to the apathy", which somewhat means that just admit to yourself that you do not give a fuck, forget it, give up, submit to it, you are human and nothing matters.

Do you pay attention to events in the world at all or do you pretty much stay hidden in cave up there in the forest? Heh heh. What are some of your opinions on current events these days?