Vortex

Silenoz

Galder

pics courtesy of

dimmu-borgir.com

Upon entering the swanky hospitality room at Milwaukee's Rave, I find ICS Vortex, Dimmu Borgir's normally towering bassist, folded on a couch that is about a third too short, cradling a laptop. He discards the computer, and reaches up to shake my hand, but his blond tresses remain firmly planted on a large brocade pillow. He apologizes for remaining in a reclining position, "We are number 43 on the Billboard list, so we had to celebrate that last night. The last time we hit the Billboard list, it was at 140 or 160 or something." "In Sorte Diaboli" marks the highest charting album ever for both the band and their label, Nuclear Blast. Vortex attributes a good deal of the increased interest to the band's appearance on Ozzfest in 2004, "After the Ozzfest thing we sold 50 percent more records in the States. We had an excellent spot, just opening for Slayer, it truly did it for us." The current tour has been equally exciting, "The Canadian gigs were awesome, a lot of people, sold out yesterday at the House of Blues!"

The band's skillful blending of the symphonic and the savage is a result of a team effort. "For all the albums, as long as I've been in the band, we just show up with our riffs and stuff, and put them together as interesting as possible," Vortex explains, "As a band we've become a very strong unit." Still, each member has areas they work on more than others, "Shag, he does a lot of the majestic keyboards and like the symphonic stuff, Mustis does that too." Vortex points out that drummer Hellhammer is still a session player, he feels he's become part of the family, "Technically he's not a permanent member of the band, he's a session member, but he's been with us for a long time now, and we're a unit. He's always there at rehearsals and photo shoots."

Despite being one of the band's two primary singers, Vortex defers to main lyricist Silenoz when asked about the record's story. "I'm not the best one to come to about that, but it's about a priest's apprentice. It's set in the Middle Ages, and he discovers that he has a lot of issues with his religion, so he turns away from it. The priests accuse him of being a Satanist, so in the end that's what he becomes," he summarizes. Still, Vortex has had some first hand experience in the revelations experienced by the protagonist, "My neighbor took me to this Christian meeting when I was 6 years old. It was pretty hardcore, people were like talking in tongues." He reluctantly admits he was tempted at first, "Being young, it was 'this seems good, everybody's ecstatic', but I decided very fast, after maybe 30 minutes, that this is just too much." He now has little respect for those who revel in such events, "They like for people to bring kids to that, and indoctrinate them and brainwash them."

Near future plans for the band include trying to complete a couple videos in between their usual summer festivals, "We were supposed to do a video on this tour, but we just don't have the time. I think we're going to shoot another one in between the festivals." They are also eager to cover more ground in the US, after having toured relatively lightly for "Death Cult Armageddon". "In the States I don't think we can ever tour enough. We had one tour and then the Ozzfest thing and that was it!" Vortex laments, "So the plan is to come back early in 2008, March or something like that." In spite of the fact that he spent the interview resting on a sofa, Vortex isn't ready to rest on his laurels, either on the road or in the recording studio, "I'm actually looking forward to doing the next album already; I think we all are. As a musician you've been living with the material for so long, and there's always things you'd wished to do, like the bass can always be a little louder!"

--Ruin

Shagrath

Mustis

Hellhammer

pics courtesy of

dimmu-borgir.com