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You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44 NIV) It’s interesting that anyone would ever buy into Satanism with statements as stern as this. If the truth of the matter be known though - common knowledge has always dictated that Satan is the bad guy; the enemy. However, for the growing number of European and Scandinavian Black Metal bands such as Norway’s Dimmu Borgir, this sort of warning is of no concern to them. Why? One does wonder. Is it simply because they don’t believe what literally billions of people have believed for centuries? Or maybe it’s because Satanism represents the purest most extreme form of rebellion. After all, it was Satan’s rebellion that caused him to be cast out of heaven to begin with. Personally I think it’s because no one wants to be told what to do and inevitably chooses to shun any sort of accountability. Everyone, at one point or another in life, has problems with authority - whether its parents, law enforcement, politicians or clergy. People in general prefer to be independent and in control of their own destinies. On the surface this may seem like a reasonable philosophy to ascribe to and one that is practiced more than you may realize. It’s often been said that we’re living in the ‘me generation’ and this has never been truer than it is today. People are all about themselves, what ever is going to give them an edge or make their lives more comfortable or exciting is what they strive for; no matter who they have to f*ck over to achieve it. I myself have been subjected to this type of irrational behavior. I say irrational because rationally, the concept of ‘all I need is myself’ is completely fleeting. No one ever makes it through this life without the help of others and it makes more sense to have people as friends than enemies. An enemy is very unlikely to ever lend a helping hand. In addition, the humanist belief that man can solve his own problems doesn’t really fly either as we still have not been able to solve the same problems we’ve faced since the dawn of human existence: e.g. poverty, famine and disease. While there may be a few holes in the philosophical and religious points of view that Dimmu Borgir hold to, their music is truly an artistic work of genius and ultimately the premise for their being. On a rather hot and dusty summer afternoon backstage at this year’s annual Ozzfest I had the pleasure of speaking with guitarist and chief lyricist Silenoz about the controversy surrounding their band, their view of true Satanism and the unbelievable giftedness that the members of Dimmu Borgir instill through their music.

OT: Ozzfest is always a hot dusty place but you guys go on in the late afternoon so it should be a little bit cooler.

Silenoz: Yeah, but for us Norwegians it’s still good and hot.

OT: I can imagine! Especially with all the décor you wear on stage. I’m sure when you’re up there playing your face paint must begin to melt. Anyway I’ve got a list of questions here and I know you’re on a tight schedule, so I’ll get started. Playing the style of music that you do in many ways limits your ability to reach a wide audience, it’s kind of a niche market. How do you feel in regard to playing in this type of market and the fact that your music is only going to appeal to a select audience?

Silenoz: The opportunity we have now, playing on Ozzfest, widens our fan base more than ever before. In addition, we don’t only have the traditional black metal sound so we reach a wider audience than the regular black metal bands. Our sales jumped up again after we started playing Ozzfest. But I understand what you’re saying, the kind of music we play is limiting and that’s just how it is; that’s the music we play we can’t help it.

OT: So you’re not interested in attaining huge commercial success then?

Silenoz: No we have achieved more success than we could ever have hoped for anyway so everything that comes now is a bonus.

OT: Very cool. There are those who consider a band like Cradle of Filth from England to be your peers and for good reason as they are the only other band in your genre to make the same headlines as you. What do you think about their recent claims that they don’t consider themselves to be a black metal band any longer?

Silenoz: Actually, to be honest, I don’t give a flying f*ck about Cradle (Laughter). We’ve gotten so many questions about them and I’m sure they’re tired of getting questions about us. I think the media just wants to push some kind of rivalry.

OT: Maybe using another band to ask my question will make more sense as to where I’m going with this. Take Metallica for instance; here is a band who changed their style of playing after many years of being faithful to their metal fans. Once their videos started being played more and radio put them in rotation, they became a commercial success and a lot of their fans took offense to that and branded them as sellouts.

Silenoz: Yeah but if we can be a band that offends people, that’s f*ckin’ killer! (Laughter) If we don’t offend people in any way then we don’t do anything right. The more people get pissed the better.

OT: That’s an interesting way of looking at it and that actually leads to my next question. Both visually and musically you come across as very shocking and no doubt are considered a threat by conservatives, religious factions, and other authority figures. You definitely offend a lot of people. What’s the story behind the dark persona that you portray? Obviously you’re trying to offend somebody, but what’s the reasoning behind it?

Silenoz: I think that’s just something you’re born with or it’s something that is chosen for you, compared to let’s say religious people, they are always on the search for something, and I guess we are too but at the same time we have a feeling that something is chosen for us and this is what we are doing in life. I mean yeah, we might offend a lot of conservative people and I’m not gonna apologize for that because if people let themselves get offended it’s just showing who’s the weakest.

OT: I wonder if you are setting out to offend those who are against you or trying to show those who are fans that this is a cool way of being.

Silenoz: I think we’re trying to show our fans that they should stand up for themselves; it’s not out of rebellion or anything like that. But it’s more like in school, especially in America and other parts of the world, people are told, “You have to do this and that and this and that.” And people just go along with it without even asking questions about it and that’s where I think a lot of things go wrong in the world when people just go blindly with whatever’s being sold to them. So instead of doing that people should try and ask questions and be more up front.

OT: I hear what you’re saying so I’m gonna ask a question right now…. What would you say if somebody says to you, ‘Well it seems like your philosophy on evil is that evil is a good thing.’

Silenoz: Yeah if you wanta put it that way, it’s like if that helps people to see things easier yeah maybe, but it’s like I don’t think we’re more evil than other people, it’s just that we’re open to explore the dark sides of ourselves and not be afraid of it. And we don’t deny that side, we’re human beings so of course we’re animals and if you deny that part of yourself all the time, that’s gonna make you a psycho. This is, in a way, our way of keeping sane, if you know what I mean.

OT: I’ve often been asked, ‘Why would anybody want to follow satanic philosophy if the Devil is supposed to be bad?’

Silenoz: Yeah but the devil has always been looked upon as the underdog - the challenger - and metaphorically, that’s where we’re also standing both as a band and as persons in society, I feel. So in that sense, we feel closer to that symbolism and that metaphor but it’s a very deep thing.

OT: In a sense you guys take things to the opposite extreme in that I’ve talked to a number of bands and they all have the same attitude of, ‘You know what? We’re not gonna be slaves to some god.’ But then when we look at someone in your position who claims Satan as master, whether metaphorically or not, the thought might occur that you’re still a slave, just a slave to a different god.

Silenoz: I guess we’re all slaves from time to time, but at least we’re in charge of ourselves instead of having someone else take charge of us.

OT: So then, despite rumors to the contrary, you don’t ‘bow down’ and worship Satan?



Silenoz: No, if I were to worship anything I would say that I worship metal. There is a big difference from being a total religious fanatic and being into metal, but in a way it’s almost like metal can be a form of worship and I believe that’s a very healthy thing.

OT: When it comes to your campaign for Satanism I think a lot of people misinterpret what you guys are about in that sense.

Silenoz: Yeah we use certain words and certain themes to get people’s eyes open; it’s just a way of getting people’s attention.

OT: So do you hold to anyone individual’s teachings more than the other, say Anton LaVey vs. Aleister Crowley?

Silenoz: No, I wouldn’t go with anyone’s teachings in particular, we take a certain amount of influence from guys like that, but we also have guidelines from everything else in the world that’s good for us, anything that’s to our advantage.

OT: What I’ve come to understand from the teachings of such individuals as LaVey or Crowley is that their philosophy boils down to humanism based on Crowley’s fabricated religion of Thelema or Thelemic Magick which of course is, “Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be the Whole of The Law”. In this way it sounds very similar to what you believe.

Silenoz: Yeah, but in many ways that belief is just common sense. If you look away a bit from the magic point of view it’s like a lot of stuff they have written, if you look at it, it’s just plain common sense, if you’re a down-to-earth kind of person and you take yourself seriously. It’s definitely in favor of the individual and that’s how it should be. It shouldn’t mean that you are never to care about people or that you should never help take care of people, but you should take care of yourself first otherwise it’s never gonna work.

OT: Perhaps, but I’ve always felt that if we were all looking out for one another’s best interest things would run more smoothly as well. Without sounding totally out of touch can you explain to me the theme behind the latest album, Death Cult Armageddon?

Silenoz: Well the album title suggests, obviously, the end of the world caused by religion and all the negative aspects of human beings and we want to try and use that title to show people that when we go down, it’s caused by ourselves; we can’t blame anything but our own mistakes, we can only blame ourselves. I guess that’s one way to describe the album title and also the themes throughout most of the lyrics. It’s not a concept album but everything revolves around the same general thoughts.

OT: So in your opinion, which is more important: maintaining the image of the dark and scary black metal band or playing exceptionally creative music?

Silenoz: The latter. Obviously it’s just in our tradition to keep that black metal imagery as well, but first and foremost, if you don’t have music it doesn’t matter how you look or how you portray yourself. If you don’t have the music to back it up it holds no real meaning - at least for us.

OT: Image has been a very strong thing in the past, I remember when Metallica cut their hair and started wearing make-up, everybody freaked like, ‘What the hell?’

Silenoz: Yeah, exactly.

OT: It would have been great if their music would have stayed more true to their roots.

Silenoz: Yeah that’s true but a lot of bands…. people get old and maybe in ten year’s time, if we’re still around, maybe people can say the same with us, even if we see it from a totally different point of view. I’m sure Metallica see it from a totally different point of view than the general public ‘cause they just do what the f*ck they want to do anyway. They don’t have to do it for money anymore ‘cause they already have that so I’m sure they just don’t give a f*ck about what other people say. For some people I guess that’s just hard to comprehend.

OT: I’m sure it is. Now the sound that you guys have with Dimmu Borgir is very original, it is an original sound. How did you guys stumble upon the formula and discover this sound? What led to your establishing what can really be construed as a completely new style of metal?

Silenoz: I guess we have molded our sound since the beginning. We started in ’93 and since then a lot of stuff has happened and we’re all really like musicians now; back then we could hardly play our instruments, now we play them much better.

OT: From where do you draw your creativity?

Silenoz: I don’t know, when I write music I just pick up the guitar whenever I feel like it. It’s not like I’m gonna sit down and practice scales everyday just to practice. You have to play when you feel like it. If you force yourself then you’ll never enjoy your art and the creativity won’t come.

OT: Do you believe it’s a natural born gift that one possesses?

Silenoz: I don’t know, I haven’t had any musical lessons or anything and I don’t feel like I play special either.

OT: It’s a really difficult thing for bands to find their own sound.

Silenoz: Yeah, that’s the most difficult thing for any band and I guess you need a certain kind of luck to be able to capture something that no one else has. I guess we have done that in some ways, I don’t know where it comes from, it’s just there.

OT: Right on. I’m bad for not doing my homework and you’ve probably been asked this a million times before but dammit, I wanta know…. What does the name Dimmu Borgir mean?

Silenoz: It’s an Icelandic name actually and I’m sure a lot of people think it’s a Norwegian name since we’re from Norway, but it’s taken from Iceland, it’s actually a place in Iceland with the same name. It’s like a lava formation from the old days and the legends about the place say it’s supposed to be one of the gates to hell. There’s actually been people who’ve visited there over the years and have disappeared and there are never any remains found. So at the time we were looking for a band name we wanted to have something that was not so ordinary. It’s difficult to pronounce and even we don’t pronounce it right ‘cause we speak Norwegian (laughter) so there’s a lot of different pronunciations going around the world.

OT: I struggled for the longest time trying to figure out how to say it. I finally just said, I’m gonna say it whether it’s wrong or not, people will know what I’m talkin’ about. So have you guys been to this place in Iceland?

Silenoz: No we haven’t and that’s kind of embarrassing since we’ve been around for so many years and still haven’t been able to go there, but we will eventually do it.

OT: Maybe you should wait ‘til you retire in case you don’t come back. (Laughing) There would be no more Dimmu albums.

Silenoz: (Laughing) Yeah exactly, that’s a good idea, actually. Iceland is a really beautiful country and it’s real expensive to go there too but from what I’ve heard from other people it’s really worth every penny to go check it out.

OT: Well dude, thank you so much for your time, I’m looking forward to seeing you guys play. I saw you guys on Thanksgiving at the House of Blues in Hollywood

Silenoz: Oh yeah, yeah ok, yeah yeah. The House of Blues was a good show.

OT: So today should be interesting, it’s definitely a much larger crowd but in the daylight, I don’t know. Anyway I’m sure you will give a great show.

Silenoz: It‘ll be good.

OT: Well that’s all I have for you. Thanks so much for your time.

Silenoz: Ok, thanks a lot.