MORKER - Grimner

\r\nMorker hailing us from Sweden deliver good melodic/symphonic Black Metal and their name means "Darkness" in Swedish. Formed in 2004 and after a very good first full length album, "Skuggornas Rike" in 2006, Morker after two years are coming back with their second release, "Höstmakter" by Northern Silence Productions. Grimner (guitar, bass) are giving us some details about their new effort, the band as well as the reason why a full-line up is not an option for them at least for now, and his opinion about being compared with Dimmu Borgir.
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\r\nMetalzone: First of all, give us a small bio of the band for those that don’t know you yet. \r\n

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\r\nGrimner: Mörker is a melodic/symphonic Black Metal band hailing from Sweden. We’ve existed since late 2004. We’ve are three members in the band. Ascaroth (Vocals), Grimner (Guitars, acoustic guitars & bass) and Larssa (Synthezisers & piano). The year 2005 we released a demo called "Den Sista Utfärden" which was later re-released on CD by Northern Silence Productions. Since then we’ve been working with NSP. "Skuggornas Rike" was our first full-lenght album which came out 2006 and our second full-lenght, "Höstmakter", is coming out next month, make sure to check it out!
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\r\nMetalzone: When exactly shall we except the release of your new album?
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\r\nGrimner: The album will be released 25th July. It will be available as a regular CD, A5 Digibook CD and as a Gatefold LP.
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\r\nMetalzone: Although there are already audio samples in your myspacepage, what would you say that are the main differences between "Höstmakter" and your last record? Are there any new influences that mark this new album?
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\r\nGrimner: The influences has been the same since the beginning, we’ve just continued developing as a band and as songwriters. This album is by far the best we’ve done to date. Everything is better on this album, the songs, the production etc etc. Also on this album we’ve used more acoustic guitars and piano. You’ll definitely hear that it’s Mörker playing, with just a bit more developed sound, I’d say.
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\r\nMetalzone: You handled the mixing duties once again as you did with your previous album. It worked pretty well last time but were there any little mistakes back then that you’ve learned from and you tried to avoid or do some things better this time?
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\r\nGrimner: Yes, I handled the mixing this time also. There are always mistakes that you do, and try to learn from to next time, and that was something I did. The prodution on "Höstmakter" is much better than on "Skuggornas Rike", but it was not all because of my mixing, Tore Stjerna did an amazing job mastering the album as well. Hails to him!
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\r\nMetalzone: Also in the recordings you had Niklas ’Nicke’ Pelli from Cryptic Death as a session drummer. What about a full time drummer and bassist? Isn’t it time that you got a full-time line up for the band? Are you working at all to that direction, I mean finding some new members to fill in the blanks?
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\r\nGrimner: We don’t see any reason to fill in the blanks. Mörker works just fine as a three-piece band. If we some day start to play live, then we of course need more members, but now we don’t see any reason. More members just mean more opinions.
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\r\nMetalzone: But because you don’t have this full-time line up you don’t play lives. Yet don’t you think that the band would become far more known if you managed to schedule some gigs?
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\r\nGrimner: Yes, no doubt about that. But since we live so far away from each other it’s not so easy for us to rehearse, and it would be very expensive too (because of the travel etc). We need a drummer, one more guitar player and a bass player to be able to play live. Right now being a three-piece band feels just great.
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\r\nMetalzone: You chose the same studio again. Is it true it was located in a school?
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\r\nGrimner: Yes, it is located in a school. It was free and located in our home town, so we used it. Of course we could have used many other studios, but it’s all a matter of money etc. When we recorded everything in the school we didn’t have any deadline whatsoever, so we had all the time in the world to record. We had no preasure at all from any label.
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\r\nMetalzone: The cover artwork was created by norwegian Bjørn Schistad. Only this time it’s not just black and white, it’s colored and much better than the previous although there is once again a forest in the foreground. Is it connected with the title of the album and by the way what does "Höstmakter" mean?
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\r\nGrimner: Yes, the artwork was created by Bjørn Schistad. It was a photo he took in Norway. "Höstmakter" means "The Powers Of Autumn". The artwork has the colors of autumn etc. Fits the title and the music perfectly.
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\r\nMetalzone: You also changed the logo. What was the main reason for that?
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\r\nGrimner: As you may have noticed, our new logo is just a re-make of our old logo, so it’s not totally "new". We thought that our old logo was pretty lame, we wanted something more "powerful" and to make it more "living" so to speak.
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\r\nMetalzone: The feedback on your previous release must have been really satisfactory. What do you expect this time around?
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\r\nGrimner: Yes, "Skuggornas Rike" has received many and very good reviews, better than we expected actually. It was a huge step from "Den Sista" with real drums, much better production etc. And this time we have developed much more as a band, everything feels just great with this album, everything gets better and better by each album. This time for example Tore Stjerna mastered our album, so the production is much better. Let’s hope our fans like this album as much as, or even more, than the last one.
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\r\nMetalzone: Many people compare your sound with the sound of old Dimmu Borgir. Although I don’t find such a strong resemblance to them, what would you say that are your main influences?
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\r\nGrimner: When we released "Den Sista Utfärden" many compared us to early Dimmu Borgir, but I really can’t see why. We did a cover of "Raabjørn Speiler Draugheimens Skodde", that’s maybe one reason, I don’t know. We where also compared to Dimmu Borgir when we released "Skuggornas Rike", but not as much as when "Den Sista Utfärden" was released. But now I think we’ve developed a little bit more of an "own sound".
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\r\nWe don’t have so many musical influences actually, but for me, Falkenbach has been an influence in the beginning of the "Höstmakter" writing session, you can hear than on one or two songs maybe.
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\r\nMetalzone: You’ve also recorded a song for the "Sweden vs. Canada" split-compilation. When is it going to be released?
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\r\nGrimner: Yes, that’s right. The song is called "Sveafallen", and it was also mastered by Tore Stjerna. It’s not a Sweden/Canada compilation anymore. From the beginning it was only meant to be bands from Sweden and Canada, but now there are bands from Italy and USA also. Totally eight bands with one song each. We don’t have any release date yet, but I think all the bands have completed their songs now, so the only thing left now is the making of the cover artwork and layout etc. Both CD and LP versions will be available. "Sveafallen" will only be released on the compilation.
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\r\nMetalzone: How do you usually write your music? Do you all contribute in the writing process? And who is responsible for the lyrics and what are the themes they are mostly dealing with?
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\r\nGrimner: It’s mainly me and Larssa who writes the music, but sometimes Ascaroth has some ideas too. When some one of us comes up with a cool idea, we share it with each other and try to build something from that.
\r\nAscaroth writes all the lyrics. The lyrics are inspired by the nordic nature. Also death of mankind, visions etc etc.
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\r\nMetalzone: Is there any big ambitious goal for the band? What do you hope for the future?
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\r\nGrimner: We haven’t set any specific goals or anything. We just do what we want to do, which is releasing good albums.
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\r\nMetalzone: And a very common question lately. What’s your opinion about the free downloading and in what manner did the internet help the band to spread its sound?
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\r\nGrimner: Everything has its good and bad sides. Internet has helped every band out there to spread its name, no doubt about that. Free downloading is good for people who wants to discover new bands, gigs etc etc. It has also affected the record sales a lot, which is a bad thing of course. We don’t want the music business to die.
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\r\nMetalzone: After I thank you very much for this interview, let’s close with something you would like to add and I didn’t ask you or maybe a comment for our readers.
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\r\nGrimner: Thank you for this interview!
\r\nMake sure to buy "Höstmakter" when it’s released. Meanwhile you are waiting, listen to the new songs that we have on our Myspace.
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\r\nDu ser mörkret omkring dig.
\r\nMed bultande ådror går du mot dödens portar.
\r\nBefriar din själ, genom att ta ditt liv.
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\r\nwww.morker.se
\r\nwww.myspace.com/morkerhorde\r\n

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\r\nVaso Prassa \r\n

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