Black thrash(or whatever one wants to call it) seems to rising in popularity especially in Norway with the likes of Audiopain, Aura Noir, Nocturnal Breed, Ghoul_cult and so on. Why do you think that is and where do you see Vesen's place in this sub-scene?
Maybe people are finally getting fed up with black metal? Things tend to go in cycles, don’t they? I don’t know, there’s always been a lot of people into thrash metal anyway. If there’s a rising popularity, let’s just hope it doesn’t get out of hand, hyped and fucked like what happened to black metal.
Vesen is yet to establish ourselves like some of the bands you mention, but hopefully we’re up and coming, as they say.
The artwork for your Masterpiece demo is very different than most other people's art and there is a dark mood prevalent in it. What sort of message are you trying to convey with it and who is responsible for it?
“Art in violence, violence in art.” That pretty much sums up the lyrics to the title track “Masterpiece”, which I wrote inspired by a controversial Norwegian artist. Mr. Bjørnar wanted to work with us and took the pictures based on those lyrics, and I think he did a very good job indeed. They’re taken in the basement of the Elm Street pub in Oslo.
Masterpiece is such a great demo and is what I would consider album quality. Are there any labels interested in signing you? How has the response to the demo been?
Thank you. The response has been good overall, we’ve gotten some good reviews from various zines, among them Nocturnal Cult, I was pleased to read. However, we haven’t really pushed this demo on labels as much as we intended to. We’ve never been good at spreading our material, but this time we had some internal turmoil in the band just after recording it, so the release got delayed quite a bit, and we went through some relatively radical line-up changes, so all in all the demo felt sort of outdated to us when we came through on the other side.
Not that it doesn’t represent the band’s music today, but this was just how it turned out, we wanted to look forward.
It seems that the musical song structures are becoming more complicated and involved and thrashier too as the demos progress. Do you feel this is a natural progression? I know you guys were more black metal oriented when Vesen first started.
Hopefully we’re getting better at arranging our songs, at least that’s an area that we’ve been trying to improve on. You can have the greatest riffs on earth, but you’re gonna kill them if you don’t arrange them properly. I don’t think we have very complicated song structures though, I think we’re pretty straight-forward black’n’roll thrash metal. Some of the newer stuff we have now is very straight-forward, very primitive and very uncomplicated, hehe.
Thrashier, yes, definitely. I like to say that we always have one foot planted firmly in thrash, while we move the other around in other genres, like black, death and heavy metal. We’re not afraid to incorporate different styles or try new things as long as it feels good, and I think that gives us some healthy variation, but whatever adventurous trips we may make, we’ll always come round and end up back on thrash.
True, we were more black metal oriented in the past, but not just that, we were trying all sorts of things and maybe fumbling a bit in the dark, trying to find our identity. Our 2001 “From the Sickest Minds” demo goes out in all directions, hehe. But I think we always had that one foot planted in the black thrash genre, and we’ve just leaned harder on it since then.
There seems to be a strong brotherhood amongst the bands in Oslo. Sverre from Audiopain has helped you guys out. How do you feel about this community? Are there any bands you feel stand above the rest?
Norway is a small country with relatively few metal people, and Oslo is a small city, so everybody pretty much knows everybody. Personally I don’t know all that many, since I’m not a very socially equipped person, but I guess it can be inspiring to be in an environment with so many good and successful bands and so many skilled and creative musicians, like a creative melting pot or something. But I think this community can sometimes seem a bit inbred, as “everybody” is playing in 5 bands with everybody else, and I’m thinking it must be difficult to give equal and proper dedication to 5 different bands.
Bands that I feel stand above the rest in Oslo… Well, I was never the biggest black metal-fan, so I’ll easily leave those out. Aura Noir is definitely an all-time favourite of mine. Ved Buens Ende is another. But there are so many good Oslo-bands, like Dødheimsgard, Audiopain, Infernö, Cadaver, Red Harvest, Organ: … I’m just happy to be living here so I get to see these bands live a lot, hehe.
I read that people sometimes compare you guys to Audiopain. I don't feel this is fair because there are some superficial similarities but underneath it the musical compositions are different. I think you guys have a heavier overall sound with more groove. What do you think?
I agree. We’re pretty much in the same genre, so of course you’ll find similarities. But Audiopain is more pure thrash through and through, I think we have some more variation, include more elements like more melodic parts and groove as you mentioned. We’re sort of eclectic, picking what we like from various genres, and we’re maybe more thrashesque than pure thrash, while Audiopain follow that thrash agenda fairly strictly. That being said, I think Audiopain showed some interesting new sides of themselves with their latest release “The Traumatizer” (which btw is a killer release). But that doesn’t mean they sounded like Vesen, I think both bands have their rather distinctive differences, and I think anyone really interested in this type of music will hear that.
What is the deal with Smile Carved Sour? Listening to that musical insanity it proves you have musical tastes outside of metal. Why did you start it and what are your goals with Smile Carved Sour?
What is the deal with us? Haha. Well, Smile is to me the place where I can put on my dancing shoes to go play with dead children and paint invisible pictures on fluttering refrigerators. You see? Smile is the liberated Garden of Eden where everything is allowed. It’s about experimenting, it’s about just letting everything out without paying much mind to the musical consequences.
Vesen is a thrash metal band, or an extreme-metal band. It has its given limits, and that’s fine, I enjoy working within those boundaries, and that’s the way it should and will be. However, even though thrash metal may be my preferred genre, I have more music in me that I need to get out than just that. In Vesen, I just play the drums, but in Smile I do a lot of other stuff as well, and I’m much more involved in the actual song-writing process. Together with (Vesen guitarist) Ronny, I play. He comes up with some seriously fucked-up material at times that I just love, and together we run and play in this slightly deranged kindergarten called Smile Carved Sour.
Our goal is firstly to create the music for ourselves, and secondly to share it with whoever wants to hear it.
What CDs are getting heavy rotation in your ears these days? Do you think it is too limiting for a person to only listen to one style of music?
Not necessarily. Some get what they want from one genre, others need something more. It’s just about interests and preferences. For me, I guess it’s about 50-50 between metal and other stuff. I feel the need to challenge myself with new music, new expressions, and it’s a lot of fun looking for it when you suddenly find a gem.
These days I guess I’m listening to a lot of own material, hehe, since I’m trying to learn it.
What are some of your own personal philosophical and spiritual beliefs and why do they appeal to you? Do you feel that they are reflected in the style of music you choose to play?
Is this where I give my Trey Azagthoth-speech? I don’t see any reason to go into that. Apart from some lyrics here and there, it doesn’t really have much to do with the band or the music, no, I’ll just leave all that to the black metal bands, Azagthoth and Manowar.
Vesen is an interesting and strange choice of names. What are its meanings and which of its multiple meanings do you think best applies to the band?
Creature, essence, being, noise… I guess noise applies best, hehe.
How popular has Vesen grown since its inception? What is the strangest place you have ever received a letter or email from?
Hard to tell, but like I mentioned earlier, we’re not an established band yet. We’ve never been very good at spreading our material either, so I would far from categorize us as a popular band. Here in Norway I think we’re known by word of mouth. We’re the band everyone’s heard of, but never actually heard, hehe.
I don’t think we’ve gotten any mail from any really strange places. Metal is pretty much global now, isn’t it? We’ve gotten some from Eastern Europe, Brazil and The Philippines or something, but that’s not really all that strange anymore, is it, in these internet-ages? I’ll notify you once we get mail from Uganda or something.
When listening to Masterpiece I feel there is a permeating sense of old school nostalgia that runs throughout it. But there is also a definite infusion modern sensibilities as well, especially in a track like Great Whore Enigma. Do you strive for a perfect balance between old and new? Which of these influences holds sway over Vesen?
The old school-discussion is for others. We strive to play the music that we’d like to hear ourselves. Be that old school or what not, it doesn’t really matter, we’re not really all that conscious about it. We’re obviously influenced by it, and if that’s what comes out, then fine. If not, then that’s fine as well.
The guitarists write most of the riffs, and while Thomas is mainly influenced by bands like Obituary, Testament and Carpathian Forest, Ronny is mainly influenced by German thrash metal like Destruction and Kreator. But as mentioned earlier, we throw all sorts of bits into it.
When you are composing your drum lines what do you keep foremost in your mind to help you in their construction? As a drummer who are some of the other drummers out there that you admire?
To serve the song. That’s the most important thing for me, to try and build up and help the song and the band sound the best possible way to the best of my abilities. This I learned from watching a Neil Peart drumming video, hehe. But whenever I find the space, I try to add a little spice here and there to make things interesting for myself and hopefully to add some identity to the music. I think it’s important to at least try and be a little creative. The most boring drummers I hear are the straight-forward, very typical metal drummers who just read the manual “How to play the drums in a heavy metal band” and who seem oblivious to the ideas of independence, innovation and originality. You could just as well use a drum machine.
I have 3 main inspirations that I always mention when it comes to drummers. Carl-Michael Eide (Aura Noir/Cadaver/Ved Buens Ende etc), who is simply amazingly original, un-conventional, creative and good, listening to him is like being a kid at the tivoli and the candy store at once. Terje Kråbøl (ex-Minas Tirith), who does some really fascinating stuff on the old Minas Tirith demos, and Neil Peart (Rush), who I think is a master at giving each song it’s own identity just through drumming, and he’s obviously also very creative, or at least he used to be, hehe. These have all repeatedly opened my eyes to new ways of just thinking drums.
Thanks again for the interview Dag. What does the future hold for Vesen? Any last comments for the fans?
First of all we have a couple of gigs coming up here in Norway. Other than that, we’re hoping to record a full-length album soon. We have the material ready, so we’ll see what happens.
If anyone wants to order the “Masterpiece” demo, do so from www.unbornprod.cjb.net. And check out www.vesen.net.
Thank you for the interest, and good luck with your zine.
Dag Olav Husås/Vesen