HORRIFIER interview

 Hi! Your debut celebrated the primitive side of death metal, but Revelations of Gore introduces a complete narrative. Why did you decide to build a concept album instead of another collection of standalone horrors?

Adrian: I had the idea for a long time, even before we released the first album. I think it comes from my old childhood dream of becoming a horror movie director, only channelled through a death metal record. The story is really just a mish-mash of ideas from old horror movies I love, as well as my fascination with religion as a justification for violence and murder.

Sander: Also, the concept itself could not be told in just one song, we had to make an entire album in order to explore every side of the story.

The protagonist bargains for immortality through murder. Would you describe him as a victim of fear, or someone who simply discovers what he was always capable of becoming?

Adrian: I think it’s a bit of both. He initially starts out acting out of fear of dying, but the more he kills, the more he questions his motive. It also speaks on the fact that people are capable of doing more horrible things then they think or would like to admit. War is a great example. When you are traumatized and desensitized to that level, you start justifying horrible acts by seeing people only as objects.

One thing I found interesting: the creature itself almost feels secondary. The real horror is the human making the choices. Was that intentional?

Sander: The entity only gave him an opportunity to become immortal, but how he acts out on how to become immortal is of his own doing. So, in that sense, yes the entity can be looked upon as secondary. A central thought we had with this album was to focus on the human horrors rather than any supernatural horrors.

Death metal has always been obsessed with mortality, but rarely with the fear of dying itself. Do you think fear - not death - is the real villain of this record?

Sander: Fear is what drives him to seek salvation from the entity and also what drives him to kill. The death of his victims is merely a consequence of his fear of dying. 

Norway carries the weight of black metal history, yet HORRIFIER walks an entirely different path. Did you ever feel that playing filthy old-school death metal in Norway meant swimming against the current?

Adrian: No, not really. Death metal in Norway has never been commercially successful compared to black metal, so it’s never going to have the same impact. Black metal also has this entire history and mythos which makes it more popular. That being said, the metal scene in Norway and specifically Oslo is fairly diverse, and has a lot of great old and new death metal bands. So no, we don’t feel like we are “swimming against the current” so to speak. 

The record clearly worships the late-'80s and early-'90s spirit, but those classics worked because they sounded dangerous, not because they were nostalgic. What separates tribute from imitation in your eyes?

Sander: I think the difference is that an imitation is just trying to sound like another band/bands on purpose, while a tribute is when you take all the good parts of many bands, and make it your own. It is quite obvious that we are inspired by bands like Autopsy, Death and Repulsion, but we are not necessarily trying to sound like the bands we are inspired by. We want our music to sound like Horrifier and no one else. 

Adrian: The drums are also very important and can change the feel of a riff. For example, sometimes I write a riff that in my mind is very Autopsy sounding, but as soon as we add the drums it sounds completely different.

Everyone cites the obvious records. Tell us about one forgotten demo, rehearsal, or obscure release that deserves far more recognition than it gets.

Adrian: Dr. Shrinker – Wedding the Grotesque

Sander: Satans Massacre - Robbing the Graveyard and Raping the Dead

The slower passages on Revelations of Gore seem just as important as the blast-driven moments. Were those sections written to create atmosphere, or simply to make the violence hit harder when it returns?

Adrian: It’s both, I guess. When I make slow riffs, I think a lot about the atmosphere and feeling it gives me, which again helps when writing lyrics. It also creates dynamics in the sound when you don’t just blast through everything at 300bpm.

Your production stays deliberately organic. Have you ever had someone suggest "modernizing" the sound, and if so, how quickly did that conversation end?

No, never. Old school reigns supreme.

The album follows one man's descent into damnation. Was the story planned from beginning to end before the music existed, or did the riffs gradually reveal the narrative?

Adrian: a bit of both. I had the basic concept for the story even before our first album came out, and some of the instrumentals were also written beforehand. But it wasn’t until me and Sander started to sit down and write the lyrics that we knew what direction it was going to take. 

Suppose the creature genuinely granted eternal life with no hidden punishment. Would immortality still be a curse, or only because of the crimes committed to obtain it?

Adrian: It depends. If you live forever you are going to eventually forget your horrible crimes. It also depends on the conditions. Like if you have a healthy body that cannot get damaged or grow old, etc.

Sander: If I was granted eternal life, I would consider it to be a curse in the end. Everyone you know will eventually die and you must therefore learn not to establish any relations with anyone in order to not get crushed by the emotional trauma of losing them. Regardless of how one would become immortal, immortality itself would be the ultimate curse.

Death metal has always flirted with excess. Is there anything lyrically or visually that even HORRIFIER would consider crossing the line?

Adrian: Extremely violent and sadistic descriptions of pedophilia and violence towards children
Sander: The exploitation of weaker groups in society, and abuse of power balance between different people. 

If you had to remove every lyrical theme from death metal except one, would you keep death itself, disease, religion, war... or something else entirely?

Sander: I think human nihilism is a theme that would fit death metal well. The idea that human existence lacks purpose or a greater meaning. 

Adrian: horror/fear, since it serves as a springboard for exploring a lot of different concepts like the fear of death, the fear of the unknown or even the fear of your own body (body horror).

There's a strange honesty in old death metal - it rarely pretends to be intellectual. Yet your album quietly raises philosophical questions about survival, guilt, and obsession. Did those ideas emerge naturally, or are listeners reading more into the record than you intended?

Sander: How the listener chooses to interpret the album is up to them. We don't want to influence people on how the album should be interpreted or listened to. That being said, we wanted to make a more thought-out record which dealt with more existential themes woven in between all the blood and gore. 

Imagine someone discovers Revelations of Gore thirty years from now with no knowledge of today's scene. What do you hope they hear first: a faithful continuation of classic death metal, or a record that managed to leave its own scar on the genre?

Sander: If the album manages to leave its scar on the genre, then we would all be very gratified, but only time will tell. If this record is being recognised for continuing the way of classic death metal, then we have done our jobs right.

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