You can only be a purist so much of the time before you need to let loose. I imagine all metal fans have a set of silly pop music they enjoy when inebriated, or that Spotify playlist they have set to private (and listen to with “Private Session” turned on, just to be sure). And according to Satyr from Satyricon, through an interview from Dayal Patterson’s new book The Cult Never Dies: Volume 1, drunk Scandinavians really enjoy belting out tunes from their local superstars:
“Trying going to a metal karaoke bar – and I have had that privilege a couple of times- and people will listen to metal all night, but when people are really drunk and then someone sings Abba or something non-metal, that’s when people come alive…”
With the group’s unbelievable popularity, it’s no surprise even Norwegian and Swedish metalheads have their music buried in their subconscious (keep in mind that Abba was one of the few western acts that even achieved popularity in the Soviet Union, that’s how huge they were).
There’s also a fun anecdote about Pantera in the book as well. In the year 2000, Satyricon and Pantera toured together (!) and it actually resulted in a collaboration with Phil Anselmo and several black metal luminaries:
Phil and Satyr would continue to collaborate, forming a project called Eibon that also featured contributions from Fenriz, Maniac of Mayhem and Killjoy of US death metal legends Necrophagia. Ultimately however, this supergroup would release but a single song, ‘Mirror Soul Jesus’, which appeared on the 2000 compilation, Moonfog 2000: A Different Perspective.
“We actually made almost a full record, five or six songs,” Satyr comments. “Every time I see Phillip – and I mean every time – he keeps talking about those songs.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZWy6W7dmD4[/youtube]
I can definitely see that! And I don’t blame Phil- if I got to collaborate with Satyr, Maniac and Fenriz, I’d never shut up about it either! But I’d be even happier to see more from that collaboration. If Satyr has even raw demos, it would be great if they saw the light of day.
Anyway, aside from fun gems like this, the book is filled with fascinating and detailed stories on several black metal bands from Norway, Poland and the depressive-suicidal black metal (DSBM) scene. The book is the sequel to 2013’s excellent Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, and is the first in a series of books dedicated to diving deeper into the world of black metal.
Along with the aforementioned Satyricon, the book also gives a voice to great, but lesser-known bands like Evilfeast (seriously, go listen to them now) and Arkona (the Polish one, not the folksy Russian one), along with rising stars like Kampfar and the neo-traditional Wardruna. The section on DSBM godfathers Strid is particularly fascinating, if not a little frustrating too (here's hoping for that full-length soon).
For those of you still wondering about all the other countries out there, I can’t say what exactly Dayal is going to cover next. Though I have a hunch that Sweden, Finland and Central Europe are probably good bets. As far as the English-speaking peoples are concerned, that might have to wait. But judging by the quality of his books thus far, it'll be worth it.
Check out The Cult Never Dies website to purchase the book, and don’t forget to read our review of Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult and our interview with author Dayal Patterson.
