{"id":22251,"date":"2014-10-31T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T00:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=22251"},"modified":"2014-11-07T18:16:25","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T18:16:25","slug":"feature-khold-10-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-khold-10-14\/","title":{"rendered":"KHOLD – Till The End (October 2014) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

KHOLD – Till The End<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nOctober 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

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Khold (l-r): Stian \u2018Crowbel\u2019 Kr\u00e5b\u00f8l, Thomas \u2018Sarke\u2019 Bergli, Sverre \u2018Gard\u2019
Stokland and Geir \u2018Rinn\u2019 Kildahl<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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A four-year period between April 2009 and September 2013 witnessed the issue of three full-lengths from Oslo, Norway-based black \/ thrash metal outfit Sarke, spearheaded by drummer and namesake Thomas \u2018Sarke\u2019 Bergli. And as well, fellow Bergli-related black metal group Tulus returned to studio activity, arriving in the form of March 2012\u2019s Olm Og Bitter<\/em>. Until the release of September 2014\u2019s Til Endes<\/em>, meanwhile, Oslo-based black metal concern Khold hadn\u2019t issued a studio full-length since June 2008\u2019s Hundre \u00e5r Gammal<\/em>. Til Endes<\/em> marks Khold\u2019s sixth proper outing overall and first in six years, Khold also boasting Bergli among its ranks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it has been a natural break, if you can call it that,\u201d Thomas observes. \u201cI\u2019m not sure why it has taken so long. There haven\u2019t been so much concerts, and stuff. I think also Gard (vocals \/ guitars) needed a big break, and I think that the years just went by. We got new management, and that helped. Then we did some concerts, and started doing some new songs. It\u2019s hard to say when writing started, because I always write some riffs and ideas. <\/p>\n

\u201cWriting was the same as always, though. I make some riffs and ideas. When we take it to rehearsal, sometimes we add things. Sometimes some of the other guys in the band also make riffs and ideas, and sometimes we take away some riffs after the song is done. On this album, I made most of it, almost everything \u2013 I would say maybe 90%. On the last album, Gard made a song or two and Rinn also made a couple of songs, so it\u2019s varied between albums. When it came to M\u00f8rke Gravers Kammer<\/em> (April 2004), I made everything on that album, so it depends on the time and the period. On this album I made the most, and Gard also made some riffs, ideas, and parts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did this album, and then of course we got a new deal with Peaceville. We had known about Peaceville for a very long time. They bought up our first albums, and so when we were done with Tabu, it was just natural for us to go to Peaceville. Luckily for us, we worked out a deal. I think Peaceville is a bigger label than Tabu, and they also have a good reputation. They have some good bands, so I think it was a good thing for us to come to Peaceville. After talking to Peaceville, I talked to the guys, and said that we were doing a new album \u2013 I guess that that was only half a year before we actually did the album. Most of the songs were written within half a year, maybe. Why it took six years, though? We don\u2019t actually know why. Time goes fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albeit penning riffs and ideas for three separate acts, the sticksman can differentiate as to which riffs are better suited to which act. \u201cFor me, that\u2019s very easy,\u201d he reckons. \u201cWhen I write music, it\u2019s the period a band is going through to release a CD, so I feel it\u2019s very easy for me to separate the bands. For me, they\u2019re very different bands, actually. I think it\u2019s mostly in my head that I can hear it\u2019s for a certain band, but when I make music for Khold, I take the time to make Khold music. I don\u2019t make songs at the same time for every band. When it\u2019s for Khold, I feel that I am making music for Khold, so it\u2019s very easy to stay on that path for that album. Sarke is a bit different \u2013 I feel it\u2019s a bit different music. It\u2019s not so easy to explain, but for me it\u2019s three different bands, and it\u2019s easy to separate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Til Endes<\/em> shares musical traits with previous Khold affairs. \u201cI would say that it\u2019s in the same style, and that we have kept everything that Khold is known for,\u201d Thomas critiques. \u201cI think this time, we have maybe more changes in the songs. It\u2019s also a bit more aggressive and a bit more uptempo I guess, but of course we still kept some of the heavy parts. We just try to make it a bit better each time, and keep our own style, and develop it a little bit each time \u2013 maybe add some small, new elements each time. We just try to make it sound even more Khold each time, so we really get our own trademark in terms of our music.<\/p>\n

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Khold (l-r): Thomas \u2018Sarke\u2019 Bergli, Sverre \u2018Gard\u2019 Stokland, Stian \u2018Crowbel\u2019
Kr\u00e5b\u00f8l and Geir \u2018Rinn\u2019 Kildahl<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\u201cFor me, it\u2019s just heavy black metal music. I definitely feel we\u2019re a black metal band these days, but we don\u2019t play so much faster. We have heavy parts and we play heavy black metal, but we\u2019re not pure like some black metal bands only play fast and they have a very thin sound. We like more to have a good, heavy sound, so I guess we are a bit different than many black metal bands. When we make music, we\u2019re not trying to copy anyone or sound like anybody else, but of course we\u2019re always influenced. It\u2019s better to say influenced rather than inspired. I would say we\u2019re influenced by everything from Darkthrone and some early Mayhem stuff, and also some death metal bands like Obituary and Death, and some Kreator and Mot\u00f6rhead, and other different bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilde \u2018Hildr\u2019 Nymoen \u2013 wife of frontman Sverre \u2018Gard\u2019 Stokland \u2013 handled lyrical duties for Til Endes<\/em>, once again. \u201cTil Endes<\/em>\u2019 is \u2018till the end\u2019,\u201d the rhythmist divulges. \u201cIt\u2019s about death, different ways to leave this earth \u2013 voluntarily, or not. It all comes down to life, and then things will end up dead. That\u2019s the main lyric. We also have some lyrics about nature and some older myths, but it all comes down to death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recording sessions took place at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden during June 2014. \u201cWe were in the studio late one Friday; we recorded Friday evening, Saturday, and half of Sunday,\u201d Thomas informs. \u201cIt was all one weekend. We worked with one guy called Johan Henriksson, who was an engineer. We always produce our own albums, because we have done this lot. Of course Johan helped out with the sound, but the songs were done and everything. It\u2019s just to do the mikes, and so on. We do the sound until we are happy so it\u2019s not like a big production, like Metallica and stuff, where they\u2019re in the studio for one year and they change the songs around all the time. We made it very simple; I just miked the drumkit and played the songs through, listening to one guide guitar. Then we added guitar and then bass, and then vocals. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes quite fast in the studio. We don\u2019t edit and use triggers, and stuff. We just put mikes on the drums, play, and then do the guitars, bass, and vocals \u2013 like I said \u2013 and nothing else. We don\u2019t copy guitars, and stuff. We play the whole songs through, so we work very fast in the studio. It\u2019s not like it needed to be produced too much, because I wanted it to be a bit like a rehearsal with a good sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

The percussionist describes Til Endes<\/em>\u2019 drum parts as being \u201cvery spontaneous. I don\u2019t make drum fills and stuff, usually. I know if I\u2019m going to play slow or fast, and that\u2019s it. In the studio, I just play what I feel like. It\u2019s a lot of first takes. For me, it\u2019s not so important if it\u2019s perfectly played or not. If it sounds cool, I\u2019m happy. When I record the track I just do the whole thing, and then if I feel it sounds good I just keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Translated as \u2018Dommens Arm\u00e9\u2019, Til Endes<\/em> includes a cover interpretation of \u2018Troops Of Doom\u2019. Authored by Brazilian metal assortment Sepultura, its original rendition was included on November 1986 debut Morbid Visions<\/em>. \u201cWe wanted to have a song to play live,\u201d Thomas reveals. \u201cIt was very hard for us to find a song that fitted Khold, but then we thought about this cover song that we did in the early 90s. We just brought it back in; we tried it at rehearsals, and it sounded good. We also thought that it would be good to have it on the album. I like the Sepultura version of course. We wanted to do it a bit Khold-like. You can still hear that it\u2019s Sepultura, but I also think that we have added some Khold feeling to it.. That\u2019s also translated, by Hildr. Not exactly, but almost. We have just a bit of original lyric on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cover artwork responsibilities for Til Endes<\/em> fell to erstwhile Sarke skin-beater Asgeir Mickelson. \u201cHe also took the pictures for the album,\u201d the drummer notes. \u201cWe just take band pictures generally, and leave it up to the guy doing the layout. He comes in with some ideas, and we either like them or we don\u2019t. If we like them, then he does the whole thing. Usually, they\u2019re much better at doing layouts than we are, so as long as we think it looks good, we keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A music video was filmed for the title track. \u201cThere is a small story added, but we also play as the band,\u201d Thomas shares. \u201cHalf of it was filmed in Sweden, and the other half was filmed where we rehearse here \u2013 near Oslo. Half an hour outside of Oslo, we have a rehearsal space, and that\u2019s out in the forest. We just recorded the band where we rehearse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Live dates are scheduled for 2015 with regards to Khold. \u201cWe have booked some shows, but they\u2019re not quite yet,\u201d the sticksman tells. \u201cWe are going to play Wacken, and some other concerts that will be announced soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of writing, Thomas has no plans with respects to Tulus. \u201cKhold is out now, and the next album that will be out will be by Sarke,\u201d he discloses. \u201cSarke has become a band now; Sarke will release a new album, but I don\u2019t see it as being a solo album. Only the first album was a solo album where I played everything by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarke\u2019s next studio platter will not feature the drumming services of Asgeir Mickelson, whose departure surfaced in early September 2014. \u201cNo, no big reason,\u201d Thomas comments of the exit. \u201cHe left the band, and we have a new drummer now \u2013 Terje Kr\u00e5b\u00f8l. Terje isn\u2019t so known. He used to play in Minas Tirith a long time ago. I have known him since the late 80s, and he\u2019s very good. I\u2019m very pleased to have him in the band. I guess Asgeir wanted to do something else, and we wanted another drummer. It just happens; it\u2019s no big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Til Endes<\/em> was released on September 29th, 2014 in Europe and subsequently on the 30th in North America, all via Peaceville Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in October 2014. All promotional photographs by Asgeir Mickelson.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KHOLD – Till The End Anthony Morgan October 2014 Khold (l-r): Stian \u2018Crowbel\u2019 Kr\u00e5b\u00f8l, Thomas \u2018Sarke\u2019 Bergli, Sverre \u2018Gard\u2019 Stokland and Geir \u2018Rinn\u2019 Kildahl A four-year period between April 2009 and September 2013 witnessed the issue of three full-lengths from Oslo, Norway-based black \/ thrash metal outfit Sarke, spearheaded by drummer and namesake Thomas \u2018Sarke\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1485],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-khold"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22251"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22281,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22251\/revisions\/22281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}