Arvas!
Arvas is a black metal band from Norway.
Seems to me, out of all the countries in the world, Norway has come out with some of the best black metal to date and Arvas is no exception.
1) Let us do this interview the easy way, shall we...
Tell me about the creation and creators of Arvas.
V-Rex: In 2006 I started to work on more material and recorded some demos, I changed
the name from Örth to Arvas, in 2009 I got Fordervelse in as permanent member
and we took it from there, so we run the band togheter and will continue to do
so as long as possible, and the rest is history.
2) In 2009 you guys released your first demo with 8 songs on it, isn't that more
like a full length? How did that demo go over with your obviously new listeners?
V-Rex: It was actually not a demo but a full length album, the 'Blessed From below..Ad
Sathanas Noctum' release was done solely by ourselves, extremely low cost and
'homemade', but it turned out great for a debut album concidering how it was
recorded and the songs we chosed to end up on the album.
The album was re-released in 2010 by a small but dedicated polish label and the album was
positively welcomed by the fans and the critics.
3) Just a couple of months ago Arvas was on the End of the world tour"
This was the tour with Deicide right? How did that tour go and how was the crowd reaction to you
guys? (Arvas and Deicide are on two different sides of the spectrum when it comes to genre)
V-Rex: Yes it was with Deicide as the headliner band, and Arvas as opening act, other bands on the line up
were Sweetest Devilry, Karnak and Destinity, awesome guys and great bands all of them.
The tour was amazing, we were only featured on the ten first dates on the tour, taking us
through most of the east European countries.
The Deicide guys especially the guitarists Kevin Quirion and Jack Owen were watching almost all
our shows.
4) I see in 2009 you also did a split with Hordagaard. Both with a total of 7 songs each.
How did this split come about and are there any more splits in the near future?
V-Rex: We had been talking for a while and Fauk came up with the idea of doing a split album. It
was a ok thing to do there and then and I enjoyed the experience from it.
I don't think there will be any more split albums in the future.
5) During your tour you went to a lot of different countries like Poland, Hungry...
Which was your favorite stop and what made it the best?
V-Rex: I liked all the places we went to, great audiences, not the biggest crowds as we were opening
acts and we played early, but those who were there really gave us great response
and the ones we talked to us afterwards were really interested and we felt that we
did an overall good job musically and visually.
6) Wow, 2009 was a busy year for Arvas. You also released your first full length "Blessed from Below... Ad Sathanas
Noctum" You even went all out and topped it off with 13 songs.
Can you in a short story walk us through the making of this album and how long from start to finish?
V-Rex: Well as mentioned we did it really cheap and efficient from our point.
We recorded it at Fordervelses farm, and we brought in a friend of him as engineer.
The drums were recorded in his barn, and the vocals, bass and guitars recorded in the guest
house. It took us about three or four days to record and the mixing process took some weeks, the
mastering in Oslo took a couple of hours.
7) Back in March you had a member leave the band(of course with no drama attached) Who was this
member, what was his position in the band and have your replaced him yet? With who? How is it working out?
V-Rex: Yeah well this was our guitarist, he was with us for a while as session member and did guitars
together with me on the new album.
The reason he quit is basically between the band and him.
We have no replacement yet, on the Deicide tour I did all the guitar on my own, and we
hired in Malignant on bass and Drakamer on vocals, both from the band Dauden.
8) So, now it is 2013, 4 years later and you are finally ready to release a new full length "Into the Realm of the
Occult" I know you are working out details with a label but we are all getting really anxious to hear some music off this album. Any chance of posting another (none teaser) song for us?? :)
V-Rex: Yes the new album is ready to be released in September if all goes according to our
plans. No new teasers will be released unfortunately so stay tuned.
9) Since it has been such a long time since we have heard new music from Arvas, should the
listeners expect any changes with this new album?
V-Rex: The difference from the 'Blessed' sessions to 'Into The Realm Of The Occult' is the
music itself, we have a little different style going on, a bit more thrashier
and intense, so it is not this 'nekro' black metal feel as it is on the 'Blessed' album.
But you can of course clearly hear that this is an Arvas album, all the elements are still
there in the music.
We have not gone pop or commercial but we chose to call it extreme metal, with a touch of all
genres we have grown up with, such as thrash, death, and black metal.
10) I have sadly never seen you guys live (but would like to one day)
Aside from live footage that I have seen on youtube and basing an image in my head off of
that, what is the experience the audience takes with them after one of your shows?
V-Rex: From what we have heard the audience are quite satisfied with what we do, and we don't
really do anything special, we show up in our war paint and kick ass. It has to be experienced.
11) The states is a big place...and you guys have been around a long time.
Do you feel your status with the American Black Metal "Scene" is pretty good and how long did it
take for your name to be heard over the seas and out of your town in Norway?
V-Rex: We don't really have any ideas on what is going on over there, but of course people have heard
of us and have heard the music. There are radio stations playing our music on a
regular basis, and from what I have heard the response is quite alright.
Looking forward to see the response on the new album when that comes out though.
12) At the beginning of this interview I stated how much I love a lot of Norwegian BM
bands. What is your opinion of the Norwegian Black Metal scene these days?
V-Rex: I really don't keep track of what's going on in the music scene in Norway, especially not the black
metal scene, I don't listen to the newer bands and I don't listen to any tapes or promo cd's I get in the mailbox or such.
I have kind of grown tired of all these new bands and their attitude, their so called fight against Christianity, negativism, misantrophy etc.. it is just not my thing anymore.
Let the music speak for itself, the days when all this Satan stuff was cool are long gone. The
attitude in black metal are still there amongst the elder ones but the younger
don't really get it right. Don't get me wrong, I like the scene and that younger bands keep playing and do what they love, but sadly most of them just don't get the idea and sounds like copycats of older bands.
I can only name 2 bands in the genre I truly follow and are fan of..Vithr and
Blodhemn.
13) I do have to ask a more personal question now....
What band or musician got you into metal music and is that band or musician still a big
influence in your life and does it reflect at all in your music?
V-Rex: I got into this when my mom came home from a trip to London back in the eighties with Venom's
'black metal' album. And that's it basically After this Venom period I got into American and German thrash metal, I was also into heavy metal and most of these nwobhm bands.
I am still into all this, in fact, this what I listen to for inspiration and I listen to death metal.
My ultimate favorite band is Slayer and I guess one can hear a lot of Slayer type riffing in
Arvas music.
In the 90's I listened to all this plus some black metal bands, mainly Brasilian ones, I also
got some music from Euronymous, amongst others; Darkthrone and Mayhem
stuff.
14) Well, the end has come and I would like to say thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
Is there anything you would like to add or say before we go?
V-Rex: You're very welcome.
Well, to all the fans out there, be sure not to miss out on our new album and
keep following our facebook site for updates.
Cheers.
You can find Arvas on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arvas/26249586006?fref=ts
You can check out a teaser from their new album "Into the Realm of the Occult" here.
http://youtu.be/QwD8AFZ-jqc
Tell me about the creation and creators of Arvas.
V-Rex: In 2006 I started to work on more material and recorded some demos, I changed
the name from Örth to Arvas, in 2009 I got Fordervelse in as permanent member
and we took it from there, so we run the band togheter and will continue to do
so as long as possible, and the rest is history.
2) In 2009 you guys released your first demo with 8 songs on it, isn't that more
like a full length? How did that demo go over with your obviously new listeners?
V-Rex: It was actually not a demo but a full length album, the 'Blessed From below..Ad
Sathanas Noctum' release was done solely by ourselves, extremely low cost and
'homemade', but it turned out great for a debut album concidering how it was
recorded and the songs we chosed to end up on the album.
The album was re-released in 2010 by a small but dedicated polish label and the album was
positively welcomed by the fans and the critics.
3) Just a couple of months ago Arvas was on the End of the world tour"
This was the tour with Deicide right? How did that tour go and how was the crowd reaction to you
guys? (Arvas and Deicide are on two different sides of the spectrum when it comes to genre)
V-Rex: Yes it was with Deicide as the headliner band, and Arvas as opening act, other bands on the line up
were Sweetest Devilry, Karnak and Destinity, awesome guys and great bands all of them.
The tour was amazing, we were only featured on the ten first dates on the tour, taking us
through most of the east European countries.
The Deicide guys especially the guitarists Kevin Quirion and Jack Owen were watching almost all
our shows.
4) I see in 2009 you also did a split with Hordagaard. Both with a total of 7 songs each.
How did this split come about and are there any more splits in the near future?
V-Rex: We had been talking for a while and Fauk came up with the idea of doing a split album. It
was a ok thing to do there and then and I enjoyed the experience from it.
I don't think there will be any more split albums in the future.
5) During your tour you went to a lot of different countries like Poland, Hungry...
Which was your favorite stop and what made it the best?
V-Rex: I liked all the places we went to, great audiences, not the biggest crowds as we were opening
acts and we played early, but those who were there really gave us great response
and the ones we talked to us afterwards were really interested and we felt that we
did an overall good job musically and visually.
6) Wow, 2009 was a busy year for Arvas. You also released your first full length "Blessed from Below... Ad Sathanas
Noctum" You even went all out and topped it off with 13 songs.
Can you in a short story walk us through the making of this album and how long from start to finish?
V-Rex: Well as mentioned we did it really cheap and efficient from our point.
We recorded it at Fordervelses farm, and we brought in a friend of him as engineer.
The drums were recorded in his barn, and the vocals, bass and guitars recorded in the guest
house. It took us about three or four days to record and the mixing process took some weeks, the
mastering in Oslo took a couple of hours.
7) Back in March you had a member leave the band(of course with no drama attached) Who was this
member, what was his position in the band and have your replaced him yet? With who? How is it working out?
V-Rex: Yeah well this was our guitarist, he was with us for a while as session member and did guitars
together with me on the new album.
The reason he quit is basically between the band and him.
We have no replacement yet, on the Deicide tour I did all the guitar on my own, and we
hired in Malignant on bass and Drakamer on vocals, both from the band Dauden.
8) So, now it is 2013, 4 years later and you are finally ready to release a new full length "Into the Realm of the
Occult" I know you are working out details with a label but we are all getting really anxious to hear some music off this album. Any chance of posting another (none teaser) song for us?? :)
V-Rex: Yes the new album is ready to be released in September if all goes according to our
plans. No new teasers will be released unfortunately so stay tuned.
9) Since it has been such a long time since we have heard new music from Arvas, should the
listeners expect any changes with this new album?
V-Rex: The difference from the 'Blessed' sessions to 'Into The Realm Of The Occult' is the
music itself, we have a little different style going on, a bit more thrashier
and intense, so it is not this 'nekro' black metal feel as it is on the 'Blessed' album.
But you can of course clearly hear that this is an Arvas album, all the elements are still
there in the music.
We have not gone pop or commercial but we chose to call it extreme metal, with a touch of all
genres we have grown up with, such as thrash, death, and black metal.
10) I have sadly never seen you guys live (but would like to one day)
Aside from live footage that I have seen on youtube and basing an image in my head off of
that, what is the experience the audience takes with them after one of your shows?
V-Rex: From what we have heard the audience are quite satisfied with what we do, and we don't
really do anything special, we show up in our war paint and kick ass. It has to be experienced.
11) The states is a big place...and you guys have been around a long time.
Do you feel your status with the American Black Metal "Scene" is pretty good and how long did it
take for your name to be heard over the seas and out of your town in Norway?
V-Rex: We don't really have any ideas on what is going on over there, but of course people have heard
of us and have heard the music. There are radio stations playing our music on a
regular basis, and from what I have heard the response is quite alright.
Looking forward to see the response on the new album when that comes out though.
12) At the beginning of this interview I stated how much I love a lot of Norwegian BM
bands. What is your opinion of the Norwegian Black Metal scene these days?
V-Rex: I really don't keep track of what's going on in the music scene in Norway, especially not the black
metal scene, I don't listen to the newer bands and I don't listen to any tapes or promo cd's I get in the mailbox or such.
I have kind of grown tired of all these new bands and their attitude, their so called fight against Christianity, negativism, misantrophy etc.. it is just not my thing anymore.
Let the music speak for itself, the days when all this Satan stuff was cool are long gone. The
attitude in black metal are still there amongst the elder ones but the younger
don't really get it right. Don't get me wrong, I like the scene and that younger bands keep playing and do what they love, but sadly most of them just don't get the idea and sounds like copycats of older bands.
I can only name 2 bands in the genre I truly follow and are fan of..Vithr and
Blodhemn.
13) I do have to ask a more personal question now....
What band or musician got you into metal music and is that band or musician still a big
influence in your life and does it reflect at all in your music?
V-Rex: I got into this when my mom came home from a trip to London back in the eighties with Venom's
'black metal' album. And that's it basically After this Venom period I got into American and German thrash metal, I was also into heavy metal and most of these nwobhm bands.
I am still into all this, in fact, this what I listen to for inspiration and I listen to death metal.
My ultimate favorite band is Slayer and I guess one can hear a lot of Slayer type riffing in
Arvas music.
In the 90's I listened to all this plus some black metal bands, mainly Brasilian ones, I also
got some music from Euronymous, amongst others; Darkthrone and Mayhem
stuff.
14) Well, the end has come and I would like to say thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
Is there anything you would like to add or say before we go?
V-Rex: You're very welcome.
Well, to all the fans out there, be sure not to miss out on our new album and
keep following our facebook site for updates.
Cheers.
You can find Arvas on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arvas/26249586006?fref=ts
You can check out a teaser from their new album "Into the Realm of the Occult" here.
http://youtu.be/QwD8AFZ-jqc