Norway has produced some seriously innovative and weird music over the last two decades. For every five acts crawling out the deep and dense Norwegian forests and resorting to cult black metal methods, there is always a group of musicians clearly bound to take a leftfield road, making music that not only is entirely their own, but it’s also challenging and irreverent. This bizarre pedigree of vanguard musicians is vast and goes from The Third and The Mortal to In the Woods, from Ulver to Red Harvest.

And the well hasn’t run dry yet as a young Norwegian collective known as The Konsortium, definitely gravitate toward the more irreverent end of this spectrum, twisting a harsh black metal with some progressive overtones and epic melodies.

There’s precious little information about the band available, its members have deliberately made an effort to hide their identities behind masks and pseudonyms. With the exception of Teloch from Mayhem/Nidingr that plays guitar and Erlend Hjelvik from Kvelertak that lends his voice to some songs, no one knows who’s involved with band, although rumours suggest that they’re all prominent figures of the Norwegian metal scene.

Guitarist and founder, simply known as One discusses the genesis of the group, their self-titled debut release and the volatile nature of their music.

Does this decision to keep your identities secret means that you prefer the music to do all the talking or are there other motifs?

No, that’s correct. But I have to add that there’s nothing mandatory about this – just look at Teloch or Ording, they have chosen to do otherwise.

Will you ever reveal the real people behind the masks?

Well, as I said, some of the members go by their birth or artist names, so anyone can find out who they are. As for myself, I prefer to stay as much in the background as possible. Privacy is an underrated thing.

How do you wish The Konsortium to be perceived, a super-group, a side-project or a bunch of kindred spirits bound to craft some irreverent metal music like the name suggests?

Definitely the latter! It’s more than a mere project, and we are not a “super group” as such. Teloch has some fame to his name of course, but what matters are his skills, not how many followers he has on Twitter.

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Even though Norway has produced enough rudimentary and cult black metal bands to congest a wide Norse forest, it also has given birth to some of the most compelling and innovative music crafted over the last two decades. This year, The Konsortium are one of the most exciting outfits to fall under this bizarre pedigree of vanguard acts that goes from In the Woods to Kvelertak. While they do indulge in some fierce and devilish black-metal, they have also been able to incorporate some progressive and psychedelic aspects into their sound, coming off like later Satyricon mixed with King Crimson. Calling this “avant-garde” however would probably be far too stretched, because even though the songs possess a bizarre and sinister vibe to them, The Konsortium aren’t really as out-there and cryptic as Arcturus or Dodsmeigard as some press have led you to believe.

Alex Grimm

Read full review here.

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