Satyricon – Frost

Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad AKA Frost is the long-time drummer and creative compatriot to Sigurd Wongraven, AKA Satyr in Norwegian black metal icons, Satyricon.  Frost is also this articles interview subject. Touring Australia in September, behind the critically acclaimed Deep Calleth Upon Deep (’17), Satyricon’s shows are a wonderful opportunity to sample the blackened genre’s leading drummer and percussionist perform “kvlt” classics from a prestigious and lengthy career.

Deep Calleth Upon Deep is an extraordinary album, released many years after the debut Dark Medieval Times (’93) unleashed frost bitten hell onto audiences. Blending Satyr’s penchant for instantly memorable minor-key riffage with Frost’s signature percussive groove, ‘Deep manages to reference the bands glorious past with an eye firmly fixed on the present. All considered it’s not beyond reason to suggest that the album is the outfits strongest effort to date. Frost summarily agrees.

“No doubt. I have been certain about that since before it was released, and so it’s no less now than what I did back then. Now that we have been performing the songs from the album live for three-quarters of a year, and those songs have really started to get under our skin now, and then I’ll listen to the songs. I’ll feel the same way. These songs are our best. The album is our best, and there’s a vitality, a profoundness in the expression, a seriousness and danger within the album that you will find on no previous albums. Truly, what makes the magic for me is that something makes the album … it’s alive. It really lives and breathes.”

As far as touring and performing for a far-flung audience who do not see the band on every album tour cycle, pleasing the Australian audience with a set that references the bands legacy must lead to a few headaches associated with selecting appropriate cuts. What sort of a show are Satryicon likely to bring in September?

“Whenever we do club shows, we play pretty long shows, so we’re trying to cover our history there also, but, of course, it’s gonna be quite a lot of Deep Calleth Upon Deep. Satyricon is not about our past or any past glory. We’re about the here and now, and we’re about current. We are proud of this album, and we think that it’s a strong mark on the tour that we’re on because it’s the reason that we’re touring also. It’s not an excuse to go out and tour playing the old songs over again.”

Does Frost get a lot of feedback from fans who just want Satyricon to perform material from Dark Medieval Times, The Shadow Throne (’94), and tracks from Nemesis Divina (’96)? For an outfit that has so much highly regarded material from the ‘90’s, Frosts’ answer is both a little surprising and inspiring.

“Well, not a lot, really. You see, what’s happening these days on our shows, when we play some of our older songs that’s actually from the three first albums, then we see that more than half the audience seem to not be able to understand what is going on, so they suddenly feel that they have to go buy beer or have a toilet break or whatnot, and some of them seem downright baffled about what’s going on, and they don’t really follow what’s happening on stage. That tells me that part of the people (in attendance) haven’t even heard the old albums, but, in a way, it’s a good sign…”

Listen to the full conversation here.

Catch Satyricon on their upcoming national tour of Australia this October.

For complete tour and ticket information, visit Destroy All Lines.

Tuesday 4 September PERTH- Capitol 
Thursday 6 September MELBOURNE- Max Watts
Friday 7 September SYDNEY- Metro Theatre 
Saturday 8 September CANBERRA- Transit Bar
Sunday 9 September – BRISBANE- The Triffid 

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