IamA Death metal vocalist from the cold and grim land of Norway, AMA!

What are your favorite non-death metal bands?

Good one! I rarelly turn on other kinds of music myself. But there is occasions where I find my self in a car with nothing but the radio. I then listen to whatever goes on there. But if I had to choose probably Adele, or Taylor Swift. Because of their pretty pretty voices!

That made my day! I love metal the most, but i like other music too and Adele and Taylor Swift are two of my favorite non-metal artists. And it always surprises people that i love metal (i look like i would listen to soft rock or such...i guess)

Any favorite songs by Adele or Taylor Swift?

Lovely! I like them mainly because of their voices, but there is something so some of their songs. Not the new dubstep piece, but the older with nice guitarplay and so on. But as a friendly reminder, I dont put this on by myself.

What do you do to treat your voice after presumably wrecking it with long metal sessions?

First of you SHOULD warm up your voice. I dont always do this. But its smart to do a little doremifasolatido backstage before a show. I normally dont get a problem with this either. But who knows, maybe I cant talk in 20 years from now..

Afterwards you should drink something I guess. Chocolate-milk is said to be the best. So I naturally drink a whole lot of this. Beer and redwine fucks the voice up, but a little doze of booze does the trick!

Warm up like this, right?

hahahaha, YES!!

as a black metal vocalist, i agree, warm-ups are a MUST, and i personally drink a shit ton of tea beforehand

Hmm.. Tea I never tried. But sure will now!

I work in the industry. Best thing I recommend is don't drink or smoke. But otherwise a trick that was taught to me by Wendy Dio. Hot tea lemon ginger and honey..

As an opposite to 95% of all the metal-people in Norway I actually dont smoke. But I have noticed that smokers often have grimmer voices. But hot tea lemon ginger and honey.. Written down!

I've heard from the band 1349, a blackened death metal group from Norway whom I fucking love, they prefer different beers for different vocal styles. I saw a video of it a while ago, but if you really want to drink beer then you should be able to.

Epic! When I drink beer before growling I find my growls to be "dryer". And not in a way I like.. So I try not to.

Is it true that since I'm Jewish, I'm not allowed to be a real Viking and therefore not a true AxeMan? ;_;

I have nothing against that. But if your beliefs are strong, and your gods deny you the greatness of beeing a viking, theres nothing I can do.

why is norway in canada

I had to check Google Maps there for a second. And it turns out Norway is someway not in Canada.

There is Nor-way that it's in Canada...

Wow! Fantastique! There actually are a Norway in Canada.

To answer your question: I simply dont know. Why did Canada surround Norway?

You mentioned that, 'I think people out in the great world look at metallers as very frightening, or interesting people,' what kind of reactions do you get when you tell people what you do for a living?

When my girlfriend (of 3.5 years) took me home too her parents I eventually showed them my music. And they went "ooooh, is that so?". People under 30-40 are more open to the thought that metallers dont pray to Satan and slay people on stage. But people over 40 normally gets a little bothered when I tell them what I do. And after 5 minutes of showing who I really am, its all fine. Normally.

And I dont to this for a living. On the day time I am studying to become an Engineer.

Thats interesting. Have you always wanted to be an engineer? Or in the middle of a shred session did you kinda just realize you wanted to? Also, you have some phenomenal vocals! I dont want to ask too much, but do you have any tips for practicing growls for a younger generation musician?

I have actually always wanted to, yes. My grandfather in an electrical-engineer, and he did a good part of awesome stuff. So I wanted to be a computer-engineer. After I found out that I wouldnt actually play with physical components, I also changed my mind over to Electrical-engineer. And I have my first exam tomorrow.

And to answer your question; To start of, try to whisper the words you are to scream. Then whisper some more. And if you do this over and over, it will eventually be loud enough to be a growl. But its super important that you dont scream for an hour straight if it hurts. If its hurtfull try to go for 3-4 sentences a day, and your vocalchords will adjust to this new thing. And also drink chocolate-milk! Or some lemon tea with honey on topp.

What do you think of Carlsen winning the world championship?

Pretty cool actually! For the first I share his first name. And for the second I have played my fair share of chess over the years. Not that I studied his every move. But it was fun overall!

If you could perform with your band in any one venue in the world that you've never been to, where would you choose?

We would definitely play at Wacken Open Air, in German!

What do you think of Dethklok?

I love Dethklok! The series at last. I havent got my hands around their albums and so on. But I find the series hillarius! Especially because average metalhead around here often is the nicest people alive.

Their albums are pretty good. Have you seen the Doomstar Requiem?

Nope I have not. I will in about an hour though;)

And yes, their tunes are pretty cool! Dethklok, Dethklok!

How hard is it for Norwegian black metal bands to get into America? Carpathian Forest was supposed to play this years Maryland Death Fest and couldnt make it due to visa issues...and in past years Norwegian bands always have issues getting here. Taake is supposed to play next years MDF and they better freaking make it.

p.s. that song is quite good

Thanks for that!

I think that depends on the band. "Visa issues" could be code for broke. Or that they had to pay up front and then get the flight money back from their record company etc. but didnt have the money to do so. I believe that metal is a genre u wont make much money out of. And especially not black metal. And for the bands doing this all the time, I dont think the money reaches.

My band has used well over 100'000 NOK ( 16500 USD aprox ) on albums and so on. And this once we made 2'000 NOK from a show.

I always thought the "visa issue" was odd since these visa issues came up when they were at the airport on their way here the day before they play. Arent visa things sorted out way in advance??

Follow up question - Church Burnings....those happen anymore there?

Were they really on their way? Really? I have no idea actually. Normal people (at last in Norway) buy plane tickets long before the day of the flight. So the payment part should be all good.

And Church burnings! The first church burnings actually took place on my first days on this planet. Strange thing But I guess that stopped after Vikernes was put to jail and so on. There are offcourse people having burning churches and the profile pic on Facebook. But nothing more than that.

Does your throat hurt afterwards?

It did in the beginning. That is well over 8 years ago, and I try to scream as often as I can to maintain my vocal-chords. But as long as I dont scream for an hour streight, it usually goes fine.

I happen to get tonsillitis (where your tonsils swole up and your throat gets sore) a lot. But nothing more than that.

Just curious, how did you obtain your voice? Is it something you can practice or does the start have to be something natural that you just improve upon?

This is varies from person to person. Someone just wakes up one day and screams the shit out of people. Other/normal people like myself have to work on it I think. I started out when I was around 14 yo. Im 21 now. But I have no idea how my voice would turn out if I didnt scream a note 'til this day.

Do you have any vocalists that have influenced the way your growl sounds?

The first metallband I started liking is called Satyricon. The first times i tried growling i did it to them. So I guess I got some influence from there. Later on my one true idol is Jari from Wintersun. But growling is something you kindof have to learn on your own. If you try to much to imitate other growlers you will eventually fuck up your chords. I have found my own way of doing so, but I think the outcome sounds somwhere similar to Jari. (Atleast I sincerelly believe so!)

When are you going on tour?

Currently we got out of a 1 year writing process. So in the time comming we will focus on recording our new album ( which is quite expensive here in Norway, around 15 k USD usually gets u somewhere ). When that is done we hope to travel through Europe. And some time in the future hopefully USA.

Hiya! Thanks for doing this AMA! As a budding death-metal vocalist, I've been having a hard time with growling properly. I know that this is a very broad question, but can you give me some tips for growling without permanently ruining your throat? Thanks!

Hey! No problem.

I tried to answer this before, so this will be a copypasta from the past: To start of, try to whisper the words you are to scream. Then whisper some more. And if you do this over and over, it will eventually be loud enough to be a growl. But its super important that you dont scream for an hour straight if it hurts. If its hurtfull try to go for 3-4 sentences a day, and your vocalchords will adjust to this new thing. And also drink chocolate-milk! Or some lemon tea with honey on topp.

Hope this helps!

What do you think of Varg and the whole church-burning fiasco?

Well.. I have nothing more to do with that, than that I was born on the day of the first church burnings. I find the things those people did amusing, and I have later written a couple of school assignments around this. I am personally also somewhat against Christianity. Not that I would go as far as burning down a Church, but I didnt like the Church was our national religion, and that everyone was a member of the church and so on.

I find the things those people did amusing

Thanks for your reply but I hardly think burning down centuries old churches is amusing. It's one thing to be vocally against Christianity but its another to do something like that.

Haha, what I meant was the I find the whole black metal era here i Norway pretty amusing. Its amusing that they went as far as actually burning down churches instead of just talking about it.

Which Bands have inspired you the most? :) You guys are Kick ass, btw.

For the whole band there is a lot of bands in the equation. Like Opeth, Wintersun, Between the burried and me, and so on.

Personally my biggest inspiration would be Wintersun. The voice, the guitar, the orchestrals and the atmosphere!

And thanks! Be sure to like us on Facebook:)

Do you process thoughts on a death metal voice?

Im not sure I understand this 100%. But if you mean if I process my thoughts outwards to the audience with my voice that would be a no in my place. Many lead singers use their choosen words to express feelings. YES, this happens in metall as well. But we focus more on epic story-telling of battles and conflicts.

I think he meant, do you find yourself walking down the street and upon seeing a squirrel run into the street, think to yourself 'No dumbass. Go that way'. But the voice in your head is the death metal voice. Side note; there used to be a death metal show on CMU's radio station and the DJ would read the weather and do public service announcements using a death metal voice.

Haha! That would be quite brutal! But I am afraid I dont. But I have this mean side of my self sitting up there. Telling me that I could kill everyone in this room, with this knife. And for some reason the voice is always talking in English (note that my native language is Norwegian). And somethimes after watching Dexter, he runs the show. But not a death metal voice. I would understand my own self that way..

I'm fascinated by the many different ways that growlers can sound. Like compare the style between cradle of filth and amon amarth. How did you decide on your style and are some styles very hard or impossible for some?

When I started out I loved Cradle of Filth. I tried imitating his voice, and that didnt turn out too good for me. I think a nailed it from time too time. But those high pitches... "Your growling voice" is something you have to find for yourself. This is possibly some of the more "personall" aspects of growling. Allthough you wouldnt think that way naturally. Someone can only deliver high pitches, other only dark. And some can do both.

Thanks for the reply, if you ever go to Uppsala, I will come check you out!

Thanks for the question! I think I was there a couple of times as a kid! But it could also be Uddevalla(?)

Uddevalla is closer to Norway so that was probably it. While we are on the subject, favourite swedish metal band?

Opeth. No doubt about it!

At least your close enough to see them live from time to time right? Last saw them May this year

Yeah, I saw them at Norwegian Wood a couple of summers ago. I wasnt super into them at that point. But that started that day.

It's great to see a professional growler who isn't afraid to give Dani Filth some credit. I may think everything after Damnation and a Day is mostly worthless, but before Dani got sick and lost his voice (and the writing talents of Gian), I think he was perhaps the most technically gifted growler in the business. I simply can't understand, even after 10+ years of amateur practice myself, how he nails those shrieks.

I have a lot of respect for all professional growlers, and especially when they think of it musically and actually change notes and tones.

Agreed! I actually liked the song Nymphetamine, with that Norwegian girl! But its what you said, downwards from that point and on. From the Cradle to enslave is still one of my favourites!

Norway is known for producing excelent metalbands. Which one is your favorite?

My favourite Norwegian metalband would definetly be Satyricon.

Just to let you know, I visited Hammerfest the day before yesterday. I live in the Netherlands. A friend and I drove all the way up there just to be there for.a day. Now we're stuck with a broken car just a little.south of Narvik. Hehehe.

Hahaha, perfect! And that far north.. xD

Proof you are the singer?

http://imgur.com/2dU9sKe Close enough?

Do you eat a lot of fish? What kind?

I actually love salmon! And we eat it around once per week. Cooked, fried, on Sushi, you name it!

Well, if you do tour the US someday, be sure to stop in Seattle then, we know how to salmon. (hint, hint.)

Will do definetly!

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The dude is running away from me. Its all parts of the lyric. Where the dude is a dude who tried to stand up against "the greater". And that greater evil turns to kill him.

It all hangs toghether in the story that is told in the album. You could go to http://www.thefallendivine.com/music/ and read them if youd like!

How did you get into singing? Do you think that death metal growling is something most people can do or is it a unique talent?

I think most people can do it if they want to, and give it time. But I think it is a unique talent to go through with it. Not many people like growling, which leads to them not wanting to learn to growl.

Personally I got introduces to metal by an old friend. I liked it, and I sang with it. And here I am:D

I think people out in the great world look at metallers as very frightening

I used to tend bar in Oslo. We allways had to stock up double on pear cider for Metal events.

Thats because pear is the fruit that the great odin loved! Not, jk.. Many people dont like beer, for some reason.. And they drik cider instead I guess.. Did I mention I like beer?

Do you have any insight as to why Norway, in particular, has birthed so many terrific death metal bands?

I was wondering if Norway's Pagan traditions and the encroachment of Christianity has anything to do with it.

I would say that the uttermost reason would be out nature. From the age of 2 our parents get us out in the nature going skiing, climbing mountains and so on. And the nature over here is quite epic! If you go to Finland its evenmore Skyrim-er, and they host Wintersun. So I think that has something to do with it. But we offcourse have the church. Many people dislike the church, and the best way to show that off is to burn churches and write music about it. Even though the burning side of it has vanquished as of the later years. The music remains though!

If you go to Finland its evenmore Skyrim-er, and they host Wintersun.

I do love Wintersun, but Finland has produced far more great bands than just them. Insomnium, Norther, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Sonata Arctica, Swallow the Sun, and a lot of great folk metal bands like Turisas, Finntroll, Ensiferum, Moonsorrow, and Korpiklaani just to name a few.

Speaking of, what are your thoughts on Folkmetal? Some of my metalhead friends feel it's a parody of "normal" metal but I'm a big fan of it myself. It may be just because I've always enjoyed the fantasy genre.

Yeah, those bands to mention a few I guess:P

Some folkmetal can be quite silly indeed. But if you just have enough hint of folk its cool. We as well are bringing some folkmetall into our song. But just enough, I think.

Do you have any interesting "on the road" stories?

Well.. We have only played around 40-50 concerts. And most of them where within 2 hours of driving. But the first thing I think about would be this one concert. It was pretty close to where I grew up. (To feed you with some backstory, I lived in a place called Ski. Which is around 1 hour of driving, on the other side of the capital Oslo from where the 4 others of my band live) There was a whole bunch of other band playing at the same festival, and the playing time was pretty strict. If we didnt start at the given time, we couldnt play at all. When the time came around for our concert our two guitarist where still missing. I called them, and they had no idea where they were. I tried my best to get them on track, and on the minute the concert were to start they parked the car outside. We ran up and started playing as if everything was cool.

I've always found the death metal fan base to have the mindset of, 'I listen to one thing and that's it'. What are your opinions on other kinds of extreme metal such as trash, metalcore, black, symphonic, sludge/doom (my personal favourite) ect...?

Personally I dont check out what kind of genre it is. I listen to songs, and if I like it, I like it. If I dont, I dont. I love symphonic metal in particular. But for me, as the singer, I often determine my liking over the vocals. Some bands have the best music, but the vocals..... I tend to love the bands who have a natural singer, and a growler. Which The Fallen Divine is producing as we speak!

Normally I hate death metal, but I really liked your songs. The baseline reminded me a bit of Miley Cyrus' new stuff, which is really good!

What is your favourite pop song at the moment?

Thank you soo much!

That would probably be Miley Cyrus' new stuff i guess! (And some Taylor Swift and Adele offcourse)

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Yeah, sometimes we could be Melodic Metal. Maybe Melodic Death Metal? We are no where near the traditional Death metal, but we have some things from it.

1 Have you ever heard of ADE 2 What does your bassist play 3 Corpse Grinder or Barnes 4 Your Opinion on NSBM

1, If the name is straighforward ADE. I think not. 2, He plays on a 5 string Schecter of some kind. (He really is a guitarist though. A pretty talented one as well) 3, Really havent listened that much to Cannibal Corpse. Not my cup of tea:) 4, If you by NSBM mean "National Socialist black metal". I have non. Other than that I am not a nazi, I swear!

Nå må du ikke snakke så ned om Norge, jeg savner mitt lille land mer enn noensinne her jeg sitter fast i Florida!

Hehe, Norge er vel det beste landet i verden (etter hva jeg vet). Ville aldri flyttet herifra, men det er noen ting som ikke er 100% her vel å merke. Du slipper hvertfall minus 10 gjennom julen!

Why do you choose to sing lyrics in English rather than your own native tongue? This seems to be a common trend among Norwegian/Swedish metal bands and I've always wondered why.

Thats a good question! Mainly its because Norwegian consists of only 60'000 words or something around there. And the english have that times 10 or something. The norwegian lyrics often sound stupid compared to the english. I myself THINK in english, because that sounds better.

Would u rather shit on a porkloin or sniff a rooster?

Damn, now I want to eat porloin!

Watched your music video and now I feel like working out! Too bad it's midnight. :\

What are some of your favorite Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, or whatever metal or punk bands?

For Black metal its the earlies Satyricon. Death metal would be Opeth, Gojira, Bodom and so on. (Even though this are under genres). But Wintersun is still at the very topp! Im not that into punk, but I attended to a Green Day concert once!

Hey man. Just checked out your band and it's pretty brutal. First question

• How did you meet the other members of your band?

• Why do so many Norwegian bands sing and title their bands in English? Does everyone on Norway speak the English?

• Do you watch Metalocalypse?

-I met them online actually. There is a great page where you can post a note and meet other likelyminded. - In Norway we start to learn english in the kindergarden. So I guess the level of english is pretty high. -YES

Whats your opinion on Insane Clown Posse?

Not my cup of coffee.

Why is Scandinavian metal the most brutal?

I think its because of out nature. And the fact that we are all vikings. But most nature i guess.

What is it like being a Death metal vocalist from Norway, a country with a rather deep rooted connection with Black metal? Do tensions between the Norwegian Black metal scene and the Swedish Death metal scene still exist?

I havent noticed this tension, so for my part thats a no. I am not a true norwegian black metaller either. So I guess this doesnt concern me in any ways:)

Your song, "northern lights..." What's that about?

In the song "Northern Lights" the main character reflects upon how he got to where he is. What started out as a goal to save himself and hes people turned him into something he didnt think was himself. He understands this and this turns his mind. Read the lyrics here: http://www.thefallendivine.com/music/

Hi! Could you recommend a PA system for simple jamming/practice use? I'm getting tired of growling and screaming at my computer screen. Thank you!

Im not a good sound technician, so I dont have a good answer to this one. But any set of speakers who make so much noise that you still can hear yourself is a good start. Its also smart singing into the mic, if you have one. Just to hear what that sounds like!

If you had to pick 2 or 3 bands to go on tour with, which ones would they be and why?

Wintersun, Opeth and Satyricon. Easy as that.

Thank you for doing this AMA! I've practiced doing metal vocals for a few years myself, I feel like I have a good grasp on growling/screams but I have never been able to sing on key for as long as I've been practicing.

Do you have any insight on how a person who growls would learn to sing? Are the two similar in any way? I've tried many different ways but can't even seem to get it close to sounding right

Nada problema!

I can sing normally. Well I can, and I can hit the notes, but its not epic.. I think growling and singing is like coffe and tea. Some can do both, others cant. I try to just sing with the radio to get better. But as of now it doesnt work that good..

Nathan explosion?

Cool guy indeed! Happy hes not my father.

Do people make fun of you because you are a hipster death metal vocalist instead of the good old mainstream black metal?

Hehe, the good old black metal dudes are required to have long black hair. I dont. I am more of a viking-type-of-guy. And I will hopefully get a carrier as an Engineer. So no long black hair on me. And no, they didnt.

Wait... the engineers in Norway can't have long black hair?

Or do you mean that many people in Norway still tend to look down upon metalheads?

It would be doable to have long black hair as an engineer, but it would be harder to get a job. We Norwegians are a bunch of people who doesnt like to talk to strangers, and specially not those who are scary as fuck.

And I have grown my hair for around 4 years, and its nowhere over my titties.

Why don't death metal bands try something slightly more mainstream? It seems like it would be very hard to achieve any success targeting such a small market. I like a lot about the sound of death metal but I really don't like the growling.

Some Death metal band do. Some dont. This really depends on the attitude of the band-members. Some metal guys is all about NOT going mainstream. Because they want to be REAL METAL. And if you get mainstram and everyone likes you, you are the opposite of metal. Part of the problem is that the more likeable the music gets, the less complex it gets. And metallers is all about showing of huge tallent in their music.