Dimmu Borgir’s Silenoz Shares a Strength of Their Band

At 33 years and 10 albums in, Dimmu Borgir are definitely doing something right and founding guitarist Silenoz told Full Metal Jackie one of the secrets behind their success.

While speaking about his long-running musical partnership with singer Shagrath, the guitarist shared, “We have been steering the ship since day one. It comes with a lot of ups and downs of course, but the ups definitely trumps the downs, that’s for sure. We have a very good creative working relationship because after so many years everybody knows their position in the band, including us.”

He reveals that as the two longest tenured members, they’re often trying to extricate the positive within the band. “We might not be the best of friends, but we definitely agree more than we disagree,” he offers.

While speaking about one of their biggest strengths, he concludes, “[We] both have [something] in common, which is the ownership to the band and the brand and also being aware of the fact that the name of the band is bigger than anyone involved.”

Within the chat, Silenoz speaks about the making of the Grand Serpent Rising album, reflecting on the band’s musical history and he gets into the exit of longtime member Galder with Damage taking his place on guitar. Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie. Very excited to welcome back to the show the one and only Silenoz of Dimmu Borgir. The band is back with their 10th studio record, Grand Serpent Rising, and it truly was a labor of love. It’s been said about this record that it reflects every era of Dimmu Borgir. Silenoz, can you speak about what went into recording this album and how it’s reflective of your band’s history?

Once we started embarking on this journey with the new album, which was already, right after Eonian came out, we started just collecting ideas as usual and things started to take shape. Everybody knows things happened and we got sidetracked with the world happenings. So normally we wouldn’t take another eight years. But I guess that’s our new cycle now.

No, so we were working on and off with new material and these things take time, basically. We wanna take the time it needs and once we’re done with the effort and send the album off to the label for manufacturing, then it’s already a success for us.

So it took us a while, but here we are.

DImmu Borgir, “Ulvgjeld & Blodsodle”

That truly is a powerhouse track. So epic and sung entirely in Norwegian. I understand the song addresses themes of heritage and bloodline. What took the band down this path, and how much at 30 years in do you consider the band’s own legacy and what’s being passed down or stands the tests of time?

Well we have quite a history now with 30 plus years and I think this first single is, in many ways, quite a ballsy move from our point of view. First of all, it’s a Norwegian text. We’re back to E standard tuning in this one and we approached it with a little bit of our history in mind. Not on purpose, it just turned out that way.

For this time it was quite challenging to figure out which track to deliver to the audience first, you know? Not any track in particular stood out in that sense, so we just went for this one and that maybe is shooting yourself in the foot with Norwegian lyrics and all after eight years, but hey, there you go.

I think it’s safe to say that every track on this new album stands on its own for itself. And the way we approach the music is that we want the listener to give obviously the whole album a run. And this is just a tiny snippet.

It’s like you’re opening a door and you see the light come in a little bit. So it’s a tiny start, you know? So yeah,  it’s great to finally have new music out there. We have had a couple of releases in between, but this is the first time in eight years we have a proper new album out.

As you mentioned, it’s been an eight-year gap between records, but that is also due to some extent on purpose. There’s always trial and error to get what you want and sometimes second guessing after things are complete. Music continually evolves even after it’s put down to record. But within your process, when do you know it’s ready to share with an audience? Is there any sort of test or markers to let you know that the time has come?

Not really. Apart from when we have sent the album off to the label, then it’s already kind of considered a success for us before it even reached the shelves, you know? Because we have achieved our goal, which is to complete a new, album. Obviously if people like it, then that’s the big bonus, right?

To be able to then later share that energy with people in a live setting, that’s like the cream of the cake. So yeah, we’re looking forward to what the future holds for us now. We look really forward to taking on the world again.

As stated earlier, Grand Serpent Rising reflects every era of the band, but it’s also been said that the serpent in the album title reflects renewal, growth, knowledge and liberation. Do you see this record as not only an acknowledgement of the past, but a bridge to the band’s future?

I think we approach pretty much every new album as somewhat of a renewal and a bridge, bridging the past with the future. And we never really look back in that sense. We have quite a few albums under our belt now and we don’t feel like we have to prove anything.

If we do, it’s proving to ourselves in that case. we put a lot of labor and effort into the work and blood, sweat, and tears is definitely in there as well. So it’s about looking ahead and thinking within our realm, so to speak.

We’re always thinking new, but at the same time you, you are what you are, right? You’re trying to do what you can and do it the best way possible. So that’s where we’re at.

Silenoz, at 10 albums in, there’s a lot of history and roads traveled musically. There’s two ways you can go: trying to navigate something completely new or revisiting what’s worked before and finding new jumping off points. How do you continue to challenge yourself?

I think that’s just the natural process as an artist and a musician. You don’t wanna copy anything you have done before, but then again, you have also a certain style and you work with certain modalities that has been renewed over the years and upgraded, so to speak.

I think it would be easy for us to redo or come up with an album that sounds like Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, for instance. But why would you do that, to have an album sounding the same as some favorite album of many people, you know? Then you have two album competing and I think that would be selling out, ’cause that would be the easy way out. So we always look at challenges and try and renew ourselves within our own realm, basically.

Over the period of time since the last album, we’ve seen the exit of Galder and the introduction of Damage on guitar. How has that transition gone and have you seen it change the working dynamic of the group as you’ve worked through this new album?

I think once things went down the way it did,  it was kind of like a blessing in disguise that Damage was there, you know? He’s been a friend of ours for many, many years and has also played with Shagrath in his Chrome Division band. He’s also been behind the scenes with us for a couple of years in helping out the crew and stuff.

READ MORE: Dimmu Borgir Member Exits After Nearly 25 Years in Band

He’s definitely a player that should be onstage, you know? He’s a great guitar player, great friend, a positive guy, really cool to be around with. And that’s very important now when you get older. You need to have your things in order from a musical point of view and artistic point of view, but also from a personal point of view. Especially when you’re gonna spend so much time together. So that’s just as important, if not even more important.

At over three decades in, the constants in your band have been yourself and Shagrath. What has it meant to have him as your partner in this musical voyage, seeing the band through this entire journey? And what can you tell me about what you’ve picked up on how to work with his voice as the muse?

We have been steering the ship since day one. It comes with a lot of ups and downs of course, but the ups definitely trumps the downs, that’s for sure. We have a very good creative working relationship because after so many years everybody knows their position in the band, including us, right?

So we try and extricate the positive within everybody in the band. That works out really well.  I think that will show in this album even more than before. So I’m really proud of it. We might not be the best of friends, but we definitely agree more than we disagree.

If you look at other bands that has great creativity, they might not hang around for coffee every day either, you know? But they have something really special, which they both have in common, which is the ownership to the band and the brand and also being aware of the fact that the name of the band is bigger than anyone involved, you know?

In August we’ve got the band’s first North American tour in eight years. Let’s talk about the European tour, though, in the fall, which also brings an amazing tour pairing, Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth hitting the road together and let’s throw in Dark Funeral for good measure. It’s the kind of lineup you dream of. What are your thoughts on this bill and what’s your history with the two bands?

Well, we go far back with Dark Funeral, even when they played their first show in Norway, actually. I think that was in ’94. And then of course in ’99, we did a long tour together in Europe, which was kind of like everybody turned from being a boy and then you came home as a man.

We’ve been talking about touring together again for all these years and then same with Behemoth basically. We did a really successful tour in 2007 I think it was, 2008, in the States. And that was great. And we’ve been friends since the early ’90s and since the tape trading days even.

So to go out together with this lineup is great. I think that’s a great package basically and we all look forward to it.

Thanks to DImmu Borgir’s Silenoz for the interview. Grand Serpent Rising is out now. Stay up to date with the band through their website, Facebook and Instagram accounts.  Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.

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