Updated: 10/03/04

Ancient has returned to the world metal scene with Night Visit, their strongest album to date. With their members based throughout the world, this Black Metal band has achieved a unique sound due to their various musical influences. Our interview is with drummer GroM!

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Ancient, and how long the band has been together?
Hey! Ok, this is GroM the thunder behind Ancient's music, drummer in other words and I handle many of the interviews for the band. The band has actually been together for quite some time. It was formed by Aphazel, the lead singer / guitarist, in 1992 in Norway. It has been one of the cult founding acts of Black Metal which has been an extremely important movement for metal music throughout the nineties, although our music now is really a mixture and cocktail of many different genres. The band released 1 album and then signed a deal with Metal Blade Records, which still holds today. The band moved, or let's say re-located, in the U.S. after the second album 'The Cainian Chronicle' and released the subsequent 'Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends' as a 3/4 American and 1/4 Norwegian act. After a while Aphazel decided to re-locate again back to Europe and moved to Italy where the band reformed with the current line-up, with the exception of Kristin who left the band prior to the recording of this album 'Night Visit'. This is our 8th studio release and so far the most satisfying for us. At the moment the band is 1/4 American, 2/4 Italian and 1/4 Norwegian...a real cosmopolitan global act! We all think this really contributes greatly to the inspiration and style of our music and is really what makes up the special character of 'Night Visit'. So more or less this is the history in a total nutshell...

How do you think Night Visit compares to the other Ancient releases?
Well I think that the most immediate and in some ways the most superficial aspects is the production and the image of the album. This time we really planned things well in advance and we really knew what kind of sound we wanted to achieve, pointing towards that and managing to obtain it through a series of studio selections. Fredrik Nordstrom (Dimmu Borgir, At The Gates, In Flames etc...) really managed to give us what we wanted for this album. We knew we wanted a crystal clear, powerful and present sounding record to bring out all the details and depth of the arrangements and the single instruments, but at the same time we wanted the dirtiness that an extreme metal album has to have. He is really one of the few producers that is capable of creating this amalgam and we are totally satisfied with the result! Also, the artwork and image of the album is different from the past. We really pointed towards something very professional and attractive and thanks to Metal Blade we also had the possibility to include the full version of the video and have a silver printed digipack release for Europe. The 'look' of the album and the photos is more fitting to the music than it was in the past, more attention was placed on the quality of the artwork and layout and it shows. The main difference though is the music...period. We knew we had to create the best album we could this time around and we figured out that the best way was to combine efforts, to unite our heads and forces and create an album that was really representative of this line-up's capabilities. The previous album 'Proxima Centauri' is a great record but it is not really 100% representative of this band's formation. We all have very different musical cultures, tastes, influences and styles and this is the first time we wrote the album completely together in 'real time' including all of our different ideas and musical characters. There was the same amount of writing and composition for this album from every single member and the result is 'Night Visit', a far more mature, complete, deep and evolved album that really has a lot to say and can offer many things to many different people. I truly believe that this album has something for everyone that likes heavy music and not. There is something in there for every taste, a lot of variety. It's really packed with expressiveness and ideas and we also experimented for the first time with more melodic and deeper arrangements. We have also grown a lot technically as musicians from all the touring we have been doing in the past years and you can clearly hear that the band has matured from this point of view as well. There is more musicianship and more attention to performance, which really helps to capture and communicate more musically. In my modest opinion 'Night Visit' is a real ride!

Where did the ideas come for song of the lyrics this time around?
We basically had loads of inspiration this time and took ideas from our own personal listens at home, experiences, personal life situations and just the plain and simple verve to play and kick ass as much as possible. We all listen to very different things from each other. I listen to a lot of prog and more sophisticated rock like Tool, Perfect Circle, Borknagar, Arcturus, Toto, Ark...our guitarist Jesus Christ listens to loads of horror rock like Danzig. Dhilorz is very into thrash and death metal and Aphazel is the pure Norwegian component of the band. So as you see when you bring together all these things, the result is 'Night Visit'.

Tell me about the video clip that was made for the Night Visit.
Ok, the video was shot for the title track and it was made in two different versions. One is the TV edit version that circulates on the various music channels and that you can download from our website. The other is the FULL / UNCUT version that we decided to do for the album. You can only find it on the CD and we did this as a sort of 'thank you' and as a prize, something extra, for those people that make an effort nowadays with the crisis in music, to buy the albums and support the bands instead of downloading and copying records, which is a real problem for music nowadays.

Are there any plans for Ancient to tour the States for this album?
Definitely! We have nothing 100% confirmed yet but our management is working hard to book a U.S. tour around January. We really want to come to the U.S. because we have loads of fans and followers there and we would love to play such a great country as America is for music. Time and possibilities will tell but we are optimistic!

Have you ever toured the States before, and if so, how did the shows go and what did you think of this country’s metal scene?
The band was based in the U.S and there was a U.S. tour back in the late nineties. It went great and the entire band wants to get back there as soon as possible. I think America is a great country for music, it really is and everything is really professional and efficient but I also think that a great weakness of the U.S. is the trends that are simply way too strong. Too many people simply listen to what MTV passes and genres that are more underground or less exposed have very little chance to come out and get noticed for what they're worth.

What was it like to play Israel and did you ever worry about the violence that usually takes place in that country?
It was great! The people were really enthusiastic and the band was treated with real respect and consideration. It was definitely an honour and a real privilege for Ancient to be one of the few bands to have played countries like Israel, Bulgaria and Romania, which are usually not visited by bands. We were not worried at all because in the end it is a normal country just like any other. Even in Europe and the U.S. there is constant violence and danger, nothing more nothing less really.

Are there any Ancient groupies wandering throughout this doomed planet?
Hahaha...I hope so! Please get in touch with us through our website! Hahah...jokes aside, we have a lot of female fans and followers and this is just the proof of the fact that Ancient's music nowadays can really reach everyone.

Why did the Deadly Kristen leave Ancient and is she involved with any other projects at the moment?
As far as I know she is not involved in anything definitive at the moment. The reason she left the band was practical. She was living in Sweden and was almost never available to come to rehearsals, tours etc... so we simply thought there was no point in having a member that was never there. It was unjust towards the fans to have someone on an album that was never there live. It was a mutual decision and we wish her all the luck in this world.

Where did the “!” go that was once attached to the name of Jesus Christ?
He decided to take it off to become a bit more serious.

Are you still involved with Hortus Animae and what does/did that band offer that you could not find with Ancient?
Yeah definitely! Things are going as promising as ever at the moment. We have completed the pre-productions to the new album, which will be called 'A Blow Of Furious Winds'. It will be a huge concept / opera album which should turn out to be extremely interesting. The new songs sound killer and there's a lot of melody and piano, very emotional and expressive. We also have great ideas for artwork and photos and the label has also given us the chance to release the album on a limited edition leather book shape version. It will be released in early 2005, always through Black Lotus Records. I am really excited about it! I think the thing that Hortus Animae offered me that I couldn't find in Ancient was the artistic flexibility. I am really a listener of ALL music and with Hortus Animae we have the freedom to really play and record what we feel like in that moment. Soft, loud, melodic, aggressive, progressive, gothic...anything...you name it. It's great and it is very important for an artist to be able to express himself fully and freely. With Ancient this cannot happen because we have genre constraints and there are many more eyes pointed towards these things in Black Metal. The band has a name that it has to support and it's cool, that's the way it should be. For me though I needed something alongside that gave me the liberty. I also played in a heavy metal band called Doomsword, with whom I released the second album and I also have a prog-metal band I am working on. I can't stay away from too much work! You can visit Hortus Animae at www.hortusanimae.com.

Please comment on the passing of Quorthon from Bathory.
It was a very sad day for metal. Sounds cliché but it was. Quorthon and Bathory have always been a great source of inspiration for me and for Ancient and you can clearly hear that on 'Night Visit'. Unfortunately these things have to happen and he will definitely not be forgotten.

How do you feel about bands who mix Black Metal with racism and political movements?
Not interested. I have political ideas but always on a national level, for my country and for making things work in a way I prefer here at home but I feel that these themes kind of kill the pure artistic and emotional expression of music. We are not into that, although everyone is entitled to do what they want of course.

Do you have any messages for metal fans here in the States?
Yeah! A great 'HAIL' to all of you guys who have supported the band throughout the years and we are sure that we will be seeing all of you soon. I totally invite you all to go check out 'Night Visit' and let us know what you think! Take care!

If the world were to suddenly come to an end, what song would you hope to hear as a soundtrack for the final explosion?
Iron Maiden, 'The Evil That Men Do'.

Night Visit by Ancient is now available from Metal Blade Records!

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