Fawkes: Hi, Olmer. In a short period between 1999 and 2000, ORCISH BLOOD released three full-length albums. What excellent productivity! The band was widely discussed, but then just fell off the radar completely. What happened?
Olmer: Hi. Life is such a thing that you can't always do only what you want. It makes you spend your time and energy on numerous dull and unnecessary tasks. It makes you put everything else aside. So, ORCISH BLOOD was put aside, even though I knew it was worth keeping going...
Fawkes: You started as a two-man band but expanded your lineup on Moral Invalid. Were there going to be any live gigs?
Olmer: We expanded our lineup primarily to play live. We did several shows here in the North (the band is based in Severodvinsk-1 — F.). We had no offers to play in moscow, and that's a pity. We really had something to show.
Fawkes: As the main songwriter in the band, you must have been accused of dictatorship or something like that...
Olmer: Being a dictator means preventing any charges against yourself. The lineup is totally renewed by now. I'm the only one who's been here since the beginning, you know.
Fawkes: OK. Say a few words about your last (yet, hardly new — F.) album "Moral Invalid". You fully abandoned the atmospheric feel of "I See No End Of A Winter" and focused on prog-death elements. Don't you think the fans were waiting more for a sequel to "Winter" than what they got?
Olmer: Yes, you're right. With "Moral Invalid" we were aiming at a more progressive audience. We got many letters from disappointed black metal fans (:))) — F.). They kept asking where's the atmosphere, where's the screaming. Maybe I went in the wrong direction, but tell me — where is that atmosphere today? We were searching for new ways to go. We could feel that the classic black metal scene already had one foot in the grave. I think there are two main reasons we failed with "Moral Invalid". The first is that our album was released through Hobgoblin Records. By the terms of the contract, part of the total pressing was due to us. Those guys from Hobgoblin sent us our share on time, but when I tried to play a single cassette, I found that the recording was totally corrupted! It sounded like we had recorded it in a cellar using a dreadful Chinese dictaphone. I called those guys and they said that despite all that, I was lucky. They said that one band had recently gotten their music recorded backwards, you know... So I have to say that I can't agree with that! I'm not lucky, because people all over russia who had been impatiently waiting for our new album and bought it among the first, they got total shit. The album was re-issued later, but by that point most of our fans were already completely disappointed. And the second reason "Moral Invalid" failed is that it had absolutely no promotion at all. People who thought of ORCISH BLOOD as a black metal band had no interest in it because they didn't like what they heard at all...
Fawkes: What song is the most precious one for you on "Moral Invalid"?
Olmer: "Pyramid", I think. It's a heavy song with heavy lyrics. I had so many troubles in my life at that time...
Fawkes: What a strange name your band has. If you ask me, it hardly fits your music...
Olmer: This band was a joke in the beginning. People told me, "Black metal is on the rise!" I managed to get DIMMU BORGIR's "Stormblast" and found nothing extraordinary on it. I composed the first album in a week plus spent three days in the studio. And "As All The Gods Do" was released in moscow the next month. That's it. I spent all of five minutes thinking about how to name my project, you know (what about three? — F.). And I think the name is actually pretty good because most people get it the first time they see it.
Fawkes: Do you like to reveal what your lyrics mean? Do you take other people's opinions into account when you create music?
Olmer: Lyrics should reveal their meaning by themselves. And I appreciate criticism. If you don't, you can easily lose touch with reality. Take the last TIAMAT releases, for instance (can't agree with you — F.).
Fawkes: Who is your band usually compared to?
Olmer: I don't really know. Maybe DIMMU BORGIR on the first two albums. But on "Moral Invalid" it's more late EMPEROR, I think...
Fawkes: Tell me about the new material. What's it like? What about the female vocalist who participated on "Moral Invalid"?
Olmer: It'll be something unusual — far away from what we've done before. I've welcomed a new guitarist, and there will be much more guitar work. The singer is a new guy as well. The new stuff is far simpler and lighter. There's no chance of hearing Anja's voice on the new record because she left for moscow to join the pop band ARMIA (don't confuse with ARIA!!!) (noooo!!! — F.) — a real second-rate pop act, you know. Why she did that... I don't know... (Don't know either :( — F.)
Fawkes: You work as a sound engineer. How often do you deal with russian metal projects?
Olmer: I've never dealt with them! I've never even dealt with rock projects! People come and ask me to remaster already mastered material — I never turn anyone away, but... We deal primarily with jazz-pop and things like that. The worst is when people come in and say they want to sound like Igor Krutoj. We're living in a dreadful country!
Fawkes: Severodvinsk-1... I don't know why, but I get this picture in my mind: a still sky, like an exposed film, a dark forest creeping closer and closer, smokestacks spitting resin and rust... Is that how things are? Do darker places breed darker people? What do you think?
Olmer: Things are very similar to what you described. We have a facility here that produces nuclear submarines. We have a nuclear waste storage site as well (I'm not kidding!). I wouldn't say I'm a gloomy person. I'm very talkative with people I appreciate. There are always many such people around. When I want to talk, the minimum I need is a computer and a good book.
Fawkes: Considering that you named yourself after a character from Nick Perumov's books, I'm sure you're really into his stuff. Did you know that our TV producers are planning to make a movie from the "Adamantine Sword, Wooden Sword" novel? What do you think?
Olmer: They made a good series from Alexander Dumas's "Queen Margot", but she didn't throw fireballs or use any other magical stuff. So I don't know how they plan to handle all that...
Fawkes: In an earlier interview you said that your favorites are DARKTHRONE, MAYHEM, and other grim guys. Do you really take seriously all these tales about Grav Grishnakh?
Olmer: Oh, I may have fibbed a little. Now that everybody knows Fenriz works as a DJ, it seems like the guys in Norway were fibbing a little too...
Fawkes: Sex, drugs, rock'n'roll...
Olmer: a) This kind of pastime is common (just common? — F.) among humans as well as a great number of other living beings... b) Playing music, watching TV, ship modeling, and drug use are the private right of everyone... c) Rock'n'roll includes everything you mentioned and even more. The good and not so good...
Fawkes: What's stronger — love or fear?
Olmer: What a strange question. Compassion (??? — F.) is stronger than anything else. Dostoevsky put it well. For those interested in the religious question: in the first volume of his novel "The Brothers Karamazov", Dostoevsky shows evidence that the Catholic Church sold out to the devil. Highly recommended reading for all Satanists and the compassionate ones... (and for compassionate Satanists the most highly recommended!!! — F.)
Fawkes: "Left the smooth harbour for seas of grief..." Have you ever given up hope of making music here in russia?
Olmer: I would never have become who I am without living in this country. If we had a single truly powerful label, it would be enough for me. I'm confused about what the russian metal scene is. The whole scene consists of one band, and that band is ARIA! And it's something stupid! And this stupidity has been going on for twenty years already!.. Could you even imagine if we all still had to listen to Irina Allegrova and Valeriy Leont'ev? If so, we'd never get to witness the lesbian antics of TATU and the gay giggles of Lagutenko and so on... By contrast, the metal scene is choking. There are no record labels, no producers, nothing. I refuse to believe that people couldn't make big money from metal! In a country where RAMMSTEIN and HIM blast from every window you pass?! It's just stupid, I think...
Fawkes: Something you've always wanted to say, but nobody asked you about...
Olmer: If I want to say something, I don't need to be asked (lol!). But seriously — I recently tried listening to PARADISE LOST "Draconian Times" and found what a load of crap it is!.. "Icon" — waste! (save me!.. — F.) MY DYING BRIDE simply can't sharpen their axes! TIAMAT — just one good album. OBITUARY "Cause Of Death" — pure shit, really. I liked all these bands in the past!.. But I can't listen to the latest CDs from TIAMAT, PARADISE LOST, and AMORPHIS without shedding tears. And then there's ANATHEMA. "Pentecost III" — a brilliant album!.. "Enigma" — sounds pretty good!.. "Eternity" — the same thing!.. And so on up to the latest release. This is truly great music, played from the heart and with skill. Chuck Schuldiner's work is also the best. My point is that there's something essential in metal music. There's still something worth striving for...