Purified In Blood | Interview with Sander Sagblad Loe and Hallgeir S. Enoksen
Surprisingly, one of the most ferocious and hard-hitting releases coming from Norway this
year wasn’t created by a band covered with paint, dripping with blood or praising the name
of Satan. Please meet Purified In Blood, a group of friends with a shared love of metal’s aggression,
punk hardcore attitude and a concern for environmental issues.
Guitarist Sander Sagblad Loe and vocalist Hallgeir S. Enoksen talk about metal, veganism
and global freedom.
Flight of the Dying Sun, the third album from Norway's Purified in
Blood, is one of the most potent and surprising records of the year.
Filled with bone-crushing riffs, thunderous rhythms and some blistering
solos, this new effort touches a wide variety of styles with astounding
results.
In the press sheet, vocalist Hallgeir S. Enoksen defines the new effort
as “… the missing link between «Reaper of Souls» and «Under Black
Skies»”, adding that “Flight of the Dying Sun” fuses the rawness and
intensity of the first record with the more organic and varied sound of
the second album. I take it this was conscious decision of the band, to
encompass all the traits of your past efforts into this new work right?
Sander: No, that was never the idea and I would not put to much weight
on what Hallgeir said in the press sheet. We always try to look ahead
and try to come up with new stuff that we have never done before. So
if anything we try to avoid doing what we have done in the past. I am
easily bored and I think it is important to always come up with new and
exciting stuff to keep myself interested. We will always keep it hard, aggressive
and heavy, but still add new dimensions and flavours to keep
pushing the boundaries of what you can and can’t do in metal. The idea
is to never stagnate. Development and evolution is key.
I think one the most charming factors of “Flight of the Dying Sun” is
that it touches a wide variety of musical ground without ever loosing
power or sounding disjointed. While songs like “Storm of Blood” and
“Mot Grav” are punishing tracks set out to inflict maximum aural damage,
others like “Escape to Solace” and the title theme sound a bit
more restrained displaying a seething inspiration from 80’s punk/rock
music. Was it intentional or do you all have overlapping musical tastes?
Sander: Everybody in the band listens to different music in many different
directions. I rarely listen to metal anymore because metal bands
these days sounds too one dimensional. They seem to either copy each
other or rely on only one recipe on how to do things. It gets boring very
quickly. However MAKING metal is a different story. What I think is very
exciting about making metal music is that you have a great deal of freedom.
It’s all about having a heavy sound. Jazz, classical, flamenco, blues,
you can incorporate anything you want as long as you have enough gain
on your guitar and heavy drums. Powerful vocals helps too. Realizing
this just opened a whole new world. It’s like finding the door that leads
to the outside of the box. Once you are outside the box you realize how
much it sucks being INSIDE the box. You are able to create so many deep
and different feelings with your music once you open your mind and expand
your horizon. As long as it doesn’t sound too crazy or too goofy.
We come up with a lot of crazy shit when we rehearse but our intuition
tells us if it is passable or not. It’s all about going our own way in the
heavy music business. We do what WE do. Nobody is plowing the path
for us. We are not part of a sub genre. We want to be a band that can
bring variety, excitement and quality to the table. We want to make albums
that sound as fresh in 20 years as they did the day they were released.
In my mind that is the definition of a good album; an album that
can withstand the test of time. Now only time will tell!
Read full review here.
David Alexandre
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