www.facebook.com/blacksunbrotherhoodnorway
Sounds like: Metal
From: Norway
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name "Black Sun Brotherhood" and is there any meaning behind it?
The “Black Sun” concept is taken from alchemy, and the “brotherhood” is from the Orwell book “1984”. It’s a mish-mash of ideas/views I am inspired by. If I remember correctly, I came up with the name and we all agreed it was a good fit.
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
I think the power of metal music (or any music perhaps?) is it capacity to take you out of the mundane, humdrum of everyday life and into another realm of the mind or one’s imagination. We want to take the listener to the dark side of the psyche or the “shadow side” - if you will. Hard to articulate properly, but I hope that makes sense.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
I think it can be described as a mix of all kinds of old-skool extreme metal. A dash of thrash, a bit of death and a splash of blacker than black metal. It has some elements of punk and more experimental parts thrown in for good measure too. It’s all done with a wee bit of perverse gallows humor. Metal fiends should check it out for themselves and make up their own twisted minds about it.
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Well, in a perfect world we would tour with Chelsea Wolfe. She really put a powerful spell on me, and I think I now love her/worship her in my own kind of demented, non-stalker-ish way). Secondly, we would bring Quorthon back from the dead and he would crush with his mighty Bathory. Lastly, Slayer would re-unite and obliterate everything with their timeless killer tunes (we certainly would bring Hanneman back from the dead too). That would be some serious chaos magic for sure!
5. How has Covid affected what you do?
Well, it kind of sucked because we were trying to release our debut album when the pandemic struck. So it caused a lot of problems for our label, a lot of delays and it made promotion of the band and the album a lot harder than it normally would be. So it was a really fucked up situation no doubt. Anyway, I do not want to be such a whiny little bitch about the whole mess. Personally, I have been among the lucky ones. My problems during the pandemic were peanuts compared to what many others suffered through. From a band perspective is sucked indeed, but we do write songs about the hardship of life and/or the dark side of the human condition, to that is the irony of if all. Anyway, we must soldier on as best we can – as we all must do I suppose.
6. What’s your take on the current state of Metal?
It’s a mixed bag I feel. There are quite a few dull bands out there, but there sure is many great bands out there too.
7. What’s the current music scene like locally there in Norway?
The scene here is a pretty decent. As far as the metal genre goes we have legendary bands still going strong, and newer bands making their mark in a powerful way too. So, its not too shabby. Right now, we are still kind of coming out of the pandemic mode, so we will see how live music evolves going forward.
8. What’s your take on the royalties that streaming services pay out to artists?
Those “royalties” are a joke. The juggernaut of new technology cannot be stopped I guess, and things always change, but it seems to me that streaming will exterminate a lot of culture in the process.
9. What's next for Black Sun Brotherhood?
We are writing new songs now and will play live and record going forward.
10. Any shoutouts?
Big thanks to Tobias of Metal Blast Records and Stian Occultus of Old House Records!
