Six years ago CARPATHIAN FOREST released their legendary demo tape «Bloodlust And Perversion». And now they are back with a bewitching album «Black Shining Leather». These forefathers of the Norwegian black metal don’t need a special introduction: they are the cult! CARPATHIAN FOREST is a perfect example of resistance to different trends, the part of the true underground scene. They are one of the few still alive legends of the genre... We present our interview with the band in the form of a monologue: there’s no place for silly questions when it’s time to talk about suicide, death and murder...


«This is the fucking grim world and for many people this is a natural and the only response to commit suicide. There are always oppression and negativity and the piles of shit surrounding us. For the weakest people this is a natural response. My mission is to bring the old atmosphere back in the music when there was a lot of negativity in lyrics. Negativity has gone and everything became nice and clean. My lyrics are about weak people, weak religions and weak nations.

«We have been always fighting against Christianity, even back then in the early beginning when we were influenced by Romanian folklore and vampires’ stories. That’s why - by the way - we decided to call our band CARPATHIAN FOREST. This name doesn’t suit us any more but now we cannot change it.

«Our lyrics are totally antichristian and thus have the opposite to Christianity purpose and values. We also write about different realistic life situations. There was a time when the churches were burning. But then it has its purpose. Nowadays it is futile. They just build a new church on the place of the burnt one. Terrorism is the way. Nowadays people should try to kill priests. That will be extreme for the young followers.

«But I am not going to do things like that. I am going to sit and watch them doing that. Doing that for me. I can’t do nothing with it. A lot of young teens of thirteen or fourteen years old are so brainwashed by Grishnak thing, that they still set churches on fire. Well, all we can do is to watch them doing it and then being arrested by police and put to jails. But I am glad that my lyrics got the «right» direction. They are on purpose.

«We have been thrown out from our rehearsal room many times by religious fanatics. We have been threaten by really extreme Christians with knives. We had to defend ourselves. I was also threaten by letters. But it doesn’t bother me. This is my life and I have chosen it myself. But it’s like a boomerang. I throw the shit out and get the shit back.

«My struggle with Christianity and my suicidal tendencies are very monumental things. I am doing my little terrorism. I send death threats to people as a response to their death threats. I would not like to go further into this subject. But it is not only words... If I receive a threat or I find someone standing on my way, I can even kill the person. I can commit a crime. No problems with killing!

«And it’s totally great some people kill gays. They do it because they are provoked. As long as these people leave us, normal people, alone they should be left alone. Otherwise they should be put on the «right» place. I don’t like homosexuals but I don’t hunt them. Though if they fucking annoy me, I put them on the «right» place.

«A couple of times people blamed us of being nazi. We play black metal and it is called black metal on purpose. Our mission is not to save people. The only reason I play this music is the total negativity. You can call us fascists, but we are not. Yet we are very nationalistic in the meaning that we are very proud of our country. We don’t discriminate nations or colors. We are just proud to be Norwegians.

«I am pretty antisocial. I am pretty silent and now I am talking only for my band. I don’t have a family but I got a girlfriend. She is totally into my thing. She is the opposite sex but she is like me. And I can always speak on the behalf of the other members of our band.

«Suicide is a part of my life. I tried to commit suicide several times. I have always been interested in suicide and death in general. Because I think death is the real stop, the real end of life. There is no second life and no second chance. For many people suicide is the only way to get out of the bad situation and like Christianity suicide is a very sacred thing. It’s nearly a Godly thing.

«Everyone had at least once the thoughts of committing suicide. I’ve tried to commit suicide two times. But somebody stopped me. I think I am lucky to be alive again. I was in a fucked up situation back then, it was five or six years ago. And I am lucky it hasn’t gone too far.

«There are so many weak people and they deserve to go that way. They go that way naturally. I didn’t choose either to be helped or to be left alone to die. It just happened. But may be I deserve the way I once have chosen.

«There are many people that are not allowed to commit suicide. There are people who should not do it. They are good people destroyed by oppression. But there are many bad people also. I don’t like the ninety-nine percent of the population. There is only one percent of the people I can like and can rely myself on.

«I am for suicide. Suicide can be good or can be bad. We want people to commit suicide. Naturally. There are so many negative aspects in life, and our world is so evil. And when it comes to the time when you can’t deal with pain any longer, when you are tired of your miserable life, you commit suicide.»