In a brand new and recently published interview by Lucem Fero's Welsh interviewer Anthony Morgan, Darkthrone drummer Fenriz discusses fourteenth studio album "F. O. A. D.", his thoughts looking back at the group's twenty years, the influence of "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" has had on black metal music, the "Transilvanian Hunger" controversy and current plans for Darkthrone's fourteenth album.
A few excerpts from the interview follow:
Lucem Fero: The album name ("F. O. A. D.") has a somewhat punk vibe to it, so what punk elements do you feel this album incorporates?
Fenriz: There's much more punk on "The Cult Is Alive" (2006), and this one has more heavy metal in it. The punk elements have been with every Darkthrone album except "Soulside Journey" (1990), our first album. We learnt from our mistake on that album - for that one, we went to a metal studio. Arrrgh. Our punk element is our nasty demo sound quality, which we have always had. Also, many of our non symphonic riffs have a punk vibe to them. We are metalpunk; it's a small genre, but important none the less. Venom, Motorhead and Celtic Frost were the most important metalpunk bands in the eighties, and thus the most important period.
Is there anything written or recorded for the next album? If so, what can you reveal about them?
We record the first tracks for our next album in thirteen days from now, which'll be a Saturday (October 27th). My song is called "Hiking Metal Punx"; it has one Motorhead style riff, one NWOBHM / speed metal riff and also a punk / Iron Maiden style riff. It's the way Puke from Sweden would do it, I guess (check out that band, who are my fave Swedish eighties punk band).
"A Blaze in the Northern Sky" is commonly cited as a classic, influential record in the black metal genre, so what are your thoughts upon that?
I just did an entire interview with Norwegian national radio based on that question yesterday. That album has a lot of death metal riffs on it, but all the fools don't hear it because of the following: it looks like black metal, and the sound is black metal. It isn't pure in any way though, as we seldom do pure albums. We didn't have totalitarian thinking in this band, other than on "Under A Funeral Moon". Totalitarian thinking is bad, but maybe good for certain albums. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHA.
Do you feel that it (the "Transilvanian Hunger" controversy) gave detractors of metal music an opportunity to admonish Darkthrone as a racist group, when in fact Darkthrone are not such a group? What are your thoughts?
People hate us all the time, so it's common. Doing popular things such as big flashy music videos, like those Nightwish does, kills metal. Extremeties, on the other hand, don't kill metal in the long run. The racist thing isn't even an issue in our world, namely the metal world. In the metal world, Jesus has no power and it's truly global. Fight the narrrow minded fools!!!
How do you feel Darkthrone in 2007 differs to Darkthrone in 1987? How do you feel the band differs from twenty years ago?
Not much. Actually, the songs we make now are closest to our song "Snowfall" from 1988! We make music now that we could've made in 1988 if we'd actually had the know-how at the time, and the experience.
To access the entire interview go to this location.
/ my profile 
