Forging a solo career after fronting an iconic metal band is never easy. On one hand, there’s Ozzy Osbourne and King Diamond who were able to break new ground musically after the departures/splits from/of their respective bands. On the other hand are the countless solo careers that crashed and burned, the artists who even at their strongest always performed best in a band environment. Hellbutcher is set to join the former category. After 30+ years of fronting the legendary Nifelheim, the spike-clad black metal warrior is set to unleash upon us his new eponymous outfit. We sat down with Hellbutcher to discuss this new venture, the roots of black metal, and the future of Nifelheim.
Greetings Hellbutcher and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Hellbutcher: I’m fine, thank you! For once it’s OK weather here in Sweden, so that’s good *laughs*.
Here in Chicago it’s the same thing. The other day it was 80 degrees. Yesterday, it was cold and rainy. Today it’s sunny again, so you never know. Regardless, the weather doesn’t stop the metal, so let’s hop into things! What events took place that led to the formation of this eponymous band?
H: Well, it’s a long story really. The whole thing with Nifelheim was getting worse and worse. We recorded a new full length album in 2019 actually. After that, the process of mixing that album and everything, it just fell apart. It just became ridiculous. The whole situation was…I couldn’t deal with it, so I started thinking that if I want to do some music, I have to do it myself by starting my own band. It was just fighting all the time between the members of Nifelheim, so I decided I’m gonna just do my own band so I can record all the songs that I do and just continue.
So this band was in the works as Nifelheim was beginning to wind down?
H: Yeah, sure. I started it almost a year before we played our last gig with Nifelheim. I think it was almost one year before that I started to try to get some…it was me and the drummer, Devastator, the old drummer of Nifelheim. We started talking a little bit on the phone and decided that we wanted to do some proper metal. At the same time, I had another friend, Necrophiliac. He was also looking for another band, so we just formed this band and we recorded a demo tape. We just continued from there really. The demo was made in mid ’22, so it was while I was playing in Nifelheim. It’s definitely a little bit before Nifelheim quit *laughs*.
It was a couple years ago you released that debut demo, Death’s Rider. How soon after this demo did things start coming together for this here debut album?
H: Well, it was quite fast actually. We started recording that full length album in January of ’23. It’s already one and a half year ago, so we are more or less prepared to make another album now *laughs*. It just took a long time to get all the stuff together. The record deals and making everything in a proper way, that took a long time when you have to start over. Getting booking agencies for the concerts and all that stuff takes a lot of time and effort. That’s why it’s taken such a long time since we recorded the demo to get this album out, but I’m glad it’s coming now anyway *laughs*.
So are we! Were there any musical or lyrical ideas on this album that were intended for Nifelheim?
H: Not really. Maybe I had some riffs that were old, but I had not rehearsed or planned to do anything for Nifelheim with this stuff. It was just some musical ideas that I had on tape, but 99.9% of the songs on the album, they were written around the same time, in between mid ’22 to early ’23. They’re all new songs.
You mention working again with Devastator who played on Nifelheim’s Servants of Darkness. What’s it like working with him and what does he add to the band?
H: Well, he’s an amazing drummer. He can come up with things that normal humans don’t know how to do *laughs*. I play drums myself. I’ve been playing drums since the early ’90s, but he’s just a one of a kind drummer. He can add a lot of things. He’s also got a lot of cool ideas too regarding a lot of other things as well, so I’m really happy he’s in the band.
As a young metalhead, which instrument did you gravitate towards initially? Did you start with vocals or did you start with another instrument like say drums?
H: When we started Nifelheim, it was the first band I joined or started *laughs*. You know what I mean. It was just random. The drummer we had at the time, Demon, he got a drumkit, so obviously he played the drums. My brother (Tyrant) had a bass guitar, so he played the bass guitar. We had a friend at the time who was playing guitar. He had a guitar. I didn’t have a guitar or anything, so I just started singing. That’s how simple it was *laughs*!
I wasn’t really much into playing drums, so I got myself a drumkit after a while. In the early days, Demon, when we rehearsed, he would play the guitar, I would play the drums, and no one was singing songs, so it was a mix of everything, just to make it function. I played drums occasionally since then. Nowadays, I play quite much. I play in a local band where I live now just for fun, more or less. It’s metal covers so I don’t forget how to do it *laughs*!
The first single released off this album was the absolutely ripping “The Sword of Wrath”. How did this one come about?
H: It was actually the other guitarist, Necrophiliac. Me and him met up at his place and he had some riffs. He had the intro riff. It was kind of the same riff, but totally a different bassline and everything. I said, “Let’s change this to, well, the way it is on the album.” *laughs* He had the foundation of the song and I added some things to it. Then, we rearranged it. I came up with a chorus, so it’s a mix of both me and him writing together. It works really great, the songwriting process with him. He gets what we are trying to do.
Would you say the songwriting process is easier with Hellbutcher than it was Nifelheim?
H: Oh yeah, definitely *laughs*! It’s a complicated thing when you have your twin brother in the same band. We get into fights in a second, so it’s almost impossible to do anything. In this band, I either do the songs myself or I do it with the guitarist. We have had no trouble yet at all. We have no fights, no nothing. We all agree and there is nothing we are scared of saying what we really think and stuff like that. We’re just like, “This riff is shit.” “Yeah, OK, well.” *laughs* We’re honest, and that’s good *laughs*!
The latest single, “Hordes of the Horned God”, was inspired by an old Dissection lyric. When did you first become aware of Dissection and what memories stand out of Jon Nödtveidt? I know he played guitar on the Devil’s Force album.
H: I was listening to some old Dissection song and just at the end of the song, he goes, “My god has horns.” I was just sitting and trying to figure out some lyrics for the album. I thought, “Well, that could be something.” It sounds…I don’t know if I’m expressing myself correctly in English, but it sounded a bit catchy, I thought *laughs*. “Hordes of the Horned God”, I thought, “I’ll go with that.” About Jon from Dissection, he was a very, very good friend of mine since I was about 15 years old.
We met. I had some common friends and we met up and got along very well from that day until the day he died. He was a very unique person, very talented in so many ways. That was, of course, really cool too. We had been jamming a lot, outside of Nifelheim. He was on the first album as well with Nifelheim, doing some solos. On Devil’s Force, he did it as well. After that, I think he was in jail *laughs* and then, in 2006, he also played some guitar solos on a split we did with the Brazilian band, Vulcano. He’s doing some guitar work on that one as well, on the CD. He did a lot of stuff with Nifelheim *laughs*.
The song is a fitting tribute. It’s a total kick in the ass black metal song, which is exactly what I want when listening to this music. Speaking of, there’s an old school first wave black metal spirit throughout this entire album. As someone who grew up in the heart of that era, what is it about this music that continues to inspire you today?
H: I just worship that kind of music. I just like it. In my opinion, it’s the perfect…it’s still metal. It’s not something where they’re going on epic and synth stuff. It’s heavy metal, but much more. That’s the thing I like. Proper guitar solos, cool songs, all that kind of stuff: I like that.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel as time went on and things became more divided, would you say there was more freedom in the late ’80s and early ’90s? I’m just thinking of those original black metal bands with those traditional leanings and, as you said, proper solos. In your view, did things become more pigeonholed as time went on?
H: Yeah, as I recall anyway *laughs*! When I started playing black metal, it was quite early in 1990. We were not the first band, but we were early in a way because the Norwegian boom came three years after. The main difference from the really early days was that everyone that I was in contact with that played that kind of music, black metal, or the really extreme stuff, everyone tried to make their own sound. Some bands were total noise more or less, like Beherit on the first album. Meanwhile, some of them were extremely melodic, like Dissection. No one was thinking, “This is not black metal.” because it didn’t sound like another band that was also called black metal. If you had the black metal attitude, it was black metal.
Hellbutcher is coming out on the prestigious Metal Blade Records. What are some of your favorite Metal Blade releases?
H: The old Slayer ones, of course *laughs*! That’s probably…also, King Diamond. I really like King Diamond as well. I know Andy La Rocque, the guitarist. He lives not far away from where I live, so I usually go up to him and hang out sometimes. He’s a cool guy!
I was pondering this question myself, and ironically, I’d have to go with Slayer as well, specifically Show No Mercy. What can I say that hasn’t been said already?
H: It’s so cool. That album is amazing. I just love it.
In 2008, you did vocals for a one off Treblinka reunion. How did that come about?
H: It was a venue, and the guy who had it had really good contacts with the old cult bands, so to speak. It was actually supposed to be Nifelheim playing with the original Treblinka lineup, but both Nifelheim and Treblinka, we couldn’t do it because some guy from the band was occupied with something else or whatever. By some weird reason, I was like, “But I wanna do it.” I was talking to the bass player of Treblinka (Jörgen Thullberg) and he was like, “I wanna do it as well. We can just join forces and do this.” *laughs* That’s how it came about, more or less.
If you don’t mind me asking, what is the current status of Nifelheim? The Metal Archives has the band marked “on hold” and strictly says to not change the status to “split up”. Meanwhile, the press release for this album addresses “the end of Nifelheim” in 2022. Would you mind clearing up the confusion?
H: Well, there is a confusion, I would say. When we started to mess up all the things, the thing I said was, “I don’t want to do more stuff if we’re not releasing the new Nifelheim album in 2019.” Since then, nothing has happened with that record. Then, I consider it to be something of the past. Me and my brother, we don’t even talk to each other anymore. *laughs* It doesn’t look promising at the moment, but…I don’t want to talk about it too much, but that’s how I feel anyway.
I appreciate that. In closing, what does the rest of 2024 have in store for Hellbutcher? Furthermore, is there any possibility us Americans can expect the band on our shores in the next year or two?
H: To start with this year, except for releasing the album in May, we are trying to get as many gigs as we can this summer because the album is a bit too late in the year to be on all the festivals here in Europe. We only have a few gigs at the festivals, but I’ve got three gigs coming up now in May here in Sweden before we release the album. It’s tomorrow in Finland and we have two gigs in Sweden also, festivals that we are headlining. It’s looking pretty good. About going to the States, I’ve got some offers, but nothing is booked yet. It’s something we want to do, of course, absolutely. I have high hopes that we can be there next year at least!
The new self titled Hellbutcher album comes out Friday, May 31st on Metal Blade Records. For more information on Hellbutcher, visit www.hellbutcher.com.