There comes a time when we as listeners feel like we should take a break from listening to various extreme metal sub-genres, and just enjoy some good old heavy metal. Of course, this rule also applies to musicians who work or have worked on many various bands and projects, that suddenly decide that they should just instead work on something catchy, simple and effective, without an excessive need for over-saturating their music. The case and point here is the heavy metal two-piece Impending Triumph, formed by François Blanc (Angellore, Abduction) and Déhà (Wolvennest, Drop Dead etc.). Both dedicated themselves to form a heavy metal project which will focus on a fantasy setting of their liking, while the main goal is to make music inspired by the likes of Accept, Helloween, Running Wild, Manowar, Grave Digger etc. So for this occasion, I've decided to share a few words with these two fine gentlemen and see what they have to say about the story behind their project, Impending Triumph.

Vladimir

Greetings! First of all, I'd like to wish you a warm welcome on behalf of the MetalBite crew!

François: Thank you and thanks for your interest in the band! 

The beginning of Impending Triumph dates all the way back to 2020, and fast forward 3 years later, here we are with your debut EP which is soon to be released via Jawbreaker Records. Could you please tell us something about the project's early days? What truly inspired the two of you to start Impending Triumph, considering the fact that both of you are coming from a background of various extreme metal bands/projects?

The whole adventure started in the most unusual way, actually! Some time in May 2020, a drawing artist I admire posted covers of old books he found in his attic on his Facebook page. These were all fantasy stories from the 80's, with epic visuals showing stuff like dragons and barbarian warriors in flashy colors. When I saw the post, I commented and wrote something in the vein of "wow. How cool would it be to have a drawing like this as the cover of an old school heavy metal album?" And, rather jokingly, the artist answered and said: "you do the music, I'll take care of the artwork". That totally took me by surprise and really got me to think. After all, I had been a heavy metal fan for as long as I could remember, as my sisters, who are much older than me, were addicted to this music when they were teenagers and blasted Manowar and Accept all the time at home when I was a kid – much to my parents' dismay. I had always wanted to sing in that style but genuinely didn't think I had the right voice for it. But these past years, I had worked a lot on my clean vocals, especially with my progressive black metal band Abduction and my confidence grew. Déhà had always been the best of producers and vocal coach for me, so I thought this random Facebook comment could possibly be the sign I was waiting for without even knowing it. I asked Déhà if he would be on board to start a heavy metal project with me, as he is a skilled composer that can also play many instruments. And turns out although he had always been into heavy and power metal as well, he never had the opportunity to express himself in that genre either! So, we decided to give it a try, and see what we could do together. And as soon as we finished ‘Armies Of The Conqueror', which was the first song we did for the project, we knew that there was something there and decided to go further with it. And to conclude the story, the comic book artist that involuntarily started the project did provide cover artwork that was absolutely stunning, but a bit too far from what we had in mind. We might use it someday, but meanwhile, I asked another comic book/graphic novel artist, Sébastien Grenier, to do the artwork. He's the metalhead, he really is into that type of sword and sorcery universe, and he fucking nailed it. Sorry, that was a rather long answer, but that's exactly what happened.

Heavy metal music and epic fantasy has been the most common combination utilized by many bands throughout the ages, and you certainly seem to be an exemplary band that keeps the tradition breathing. Are there any specific tales, movies, games, illustrators/painters, writers of the fantasy genre that inspired the world you crafted for your project?

Yes! Since it was a comic book artist who gave me the initial push I needed to start the project, I decided to hide some references to the graphic novels and comic books I loved as a teenager in the lyrics. Aside from the introduction "Dawn Of Death", all the song titles in the EP are taken from comic books that I love. They are famous here in France or in Belgium, but probably not so much abroad. I still advise your readers to check the Thorgal saga ("The Invisible Fortress" is the 19th book of the series) and The Quest For The Time Bird, which is an incredibly deep and moving story. That's how I got the idea for the "Temple Of Oblivion". The lyrics of our songs have nothing to do with these books though. Aside from that, books and movies like the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy, the old "Willow", "Dark Crystal" and "Neverending Story" are definitely inspirations, and regarding illustrators, I would name Frank Frazetta, Ken Kelly, Jean-Claude Gal, Victor De La Fuente and Simon Bisley as my main idols. I also love more classical painters like Peter Nicolai Arbo. Just looking at their paintings makes me wanna create music. An endless source of inspiration!

How do you perceive this entire "New Wave Of Traditional Heavy Metal"? Do you look at this so-called "wave" as a revival for the old school sound or more like a preservation of traditional heavy metal music in the modern age where everything rapidly develops?

I would say both, to be honest. I think it's a great and fascinating scene, and a very active one. You can tell that most of the bands that brand themselves "NWOTHM" are playing this music out of pure passion, and not because that they want to become millionaires. I love that! It preserves the original heavy metal sound, but it's also kind of funny to see that while all the bands in the eighties were working hard to get the best possible productions for their records, most NWOTHM bands are trying to align to these old standards instead of abiding to today's norms. They feel like they need a dirtier approach if they want to sound "real" or "authentic". And as ironic as it may seem, it usually works very well.

Considering the fact that we've touched the subject of "New Wave Of Traditional Heavy Metal", were there any bands particularly in this category that you specifically looked up to and inspired you to do heavy metal music as well?

When I entered the vocal booth to record my very first vocal lines for Impending Triumph, I thought "okay, I'd like to sound like a slightly more aggressive Markus Becker (Atlantean Kodex) if I can!". But that's it, really. I love bands like, well, Atlantean Kodex, Enforcer, White Magician, Freeways and a few others, but although I was inspired by their approach of the sound, with the big reverb on the vocals and the slightly gritty, crunchy guitar sound, when it comes to the music itself, we took inspiration from the pioneers and not from any band of our era.

According to your official source, the tale behind the EP is that it's about a fictional empress which presents herself as a defender of liberty, but is in fact a tyrant in disguise, while her story is told by one of her most loyal followers and biggest admirers. Could you explain a bit more in detail what exactly is this story which is being told?

The story takes place in a medieval type of universe, where mythical creatures are real and brutal fights rather common. The typical heroic fantasy decorum, and the perfect setting to describe epic rides, fierce battles and depict weird, ominous characters. We thought it would be the best possible way to emphasize the importance of always being critical and really think about what's going on around you without sounding like arrogant, annoying preachers. I like to keep the lyrics rather vague so every listener can make of them what he wants, but we thought it would be interesting to walk in the steps of this unknown soldier, who is blindly following orders and is deeply convinced that Puritania is the best possible ruler for the queendom. He literally worships her and would do anything she asks without a single hesitation. But in due time, the events are going to deeply change his perspective and he's about to experience a rough awakening that will completely change his perception of life itself. That story will be developed later, on future releases. So, yes. Impending Triumph is all about the rise of a hypocritical, self-absorbed, evil ruler in a fantasy world. Hence the name of the band!

I hear quite a lot of influences in your songs, varying from Running Wild to Grave Digger and even Manowar. While working on your songs, did you directly focus your songwriting on aspects of these specific bands or was it more on the fly?

Actually, your first hypothesis is correct. Before starting to work on a song, I would play to Déhà some of my favorite heavy metal tracks so we could draw inspirations from them. The idea was never to copy one song or another, or one band or another, but just to analyze some elements of songs we loved and try to make them ours. For example, I took the idea of having a leitmotif for the second part of "Temple Of Oblivion" from the Accept song' "Princess Of The Dawn". These two songs are nothing alike, but you have the same idea of having one simple yet catchy idea as the basis of a long, epic composition. And before writing "The Invisible Fortress", we listened to "Thor (The Powerhead)" by Manowar. I thought it would be awesome to give more space for the vocals in the verses, and to have a lead guitar playing with the choirs in the chorus. It was very pleasant and so far, we've been keeping the same approach on the upcoming album. But nevertheless, the songs were kinda written on the fly as well. Déhà is very quick to come up with some ideas and a very efficient songwriter. When we start to write, we don't stop until the song is finished, because once you get in the right mood, you just feel the passion burning and you follow your instincts. Sometimes something magical happens when you sing a vocal melody or play a guitar solo for the first time. And that energy can never be perfectly recaptured, so we tried to save those precious moments when we could.

Although it is still a bit early to talk about your future plans since your EP is yet to be released, what are your next steps that you'll be taking if this EP succeeds?  Will you be working on a full-length album or perhaps even some live shows with additional members as well?

The success of the EP won't have any impact on the course of Impending Triumph's career. Of course, I hope some people will dig what we do, but even if we end up selling ten copies, we will keep on working on our first album, which is already half-written and recorded. We are so much into it and can't wait to share our new songs with the world! Regarding live, we are definitely up for playing some shows as well. We are too busy to tour, unfortunately, but one-offs here and there would be awesome. We have some talented friends that have already expressed some interest about playing with us so time will tell if the next step will be our first album or some shows somewhere in Europe. If a festival wants to book us, that might speed things up on the live front!

This might be a bit of a difficult question to ask but how would you sum up your music, especially with this fantasy setting of yours, in a very picturesque manner?

That's a great question, and not an easy one to answer. I feel like the cover artwork pretty much sums up the essence of our music. Check out "Haggarth" by Victor De La Fuente or "Epopées Fantastiques" by Dionnet and Gal – that's pretty much what I have in mind when I write my lyrics or sing them. Shadows of warriors in silver armors riding through untamed, desolate land below a blood-red sun, with smoke coming up from the soil. Something epic, big, empowering, and deeply melancholic at the same time.

There are so many great releases already out this year and plenty of more are along the way, including your EP. Are there any upcoming releases in particular you're excited about, besides yours of course?

I'm a big fan of Tenhi and Saturnus, and both bands are releasing new albums this year, so that's exciting. Sorry, this is quite far from the heavy metal universe! Aside from that, I don't know. I don't have much time these days, but I'm always up for some old-school heavy metal. One can make great discoveries just by going from band to band on YouTube. And Déhà and I both have several releases coming up from our other bands and side-projects that we are excited about.

Thank you so much for doing this interview! Are there any final words you'd like to leave to all the people reading this?

Thank you for reading this interview, hope my answers weren't too long and that you dig what we do. Déhà and I both thought these were really interesting questions and hope to talk to you guys again when the album is done!

Whenever you look back at the evolution of the metal scene in Sweden during the 90s, it's impossible to overlook all these great melodic black and death metal bands that came out during that era, from masterminds such as Dissection, Vinterland, and Unanimated to the main topic of this interview, the one and only Sacramentum. Ever since their return in 2019, this band has had such a magnificent revival with their infernal live shows, even performing as headlining acts at some Deathfests on a couple of occasions, while their fanbase is ever-growing and remaining as loyal as ever before. For the past couple of years, there have been talks about the release of a new version of their second album The Coming of Chaos, which was carefully and successfully restored to its envisioned glory thanks to the studio magic of the renowned producer Dan Swanö, who did a brilliant work with the remixing and remastering, as well as the inclusion of a new artwork by none other than the great Kristian "Necrolord" Wåhlin. Although it took some time for the new version to finally come to life, it all changed when Century Media Records released a visualizer for "Dreamdeath", the first track of the sophomore album, which showcased that history from 1997 is about to be changed forever, while also announcing the official release date of December 13th with open pre-orders. Personally, even though I am highly skeptical when it comes to reworking classic albums, I put all my doubts aside when I heard the remixed version of the song, so I figured it was probably a great opportunity to chat with their vocalist Nisse Karlén about the new version of The Coming Of Chaos, while also discussing other things like the current plans for the new Sacramentum album, the impact that the band still has worldwide, and we also talked a bit about the sad news regarding the death of Iron Maiden's former vocalist Paul Di'Anno who had passed away on the same day of this interview. I truly hope you will enjoy this conversation, because I have been highly looking forward to it, especially as a longtime fan of Sacramentum and other great Swedish melodic black metal bands of the 90's.

Vladimir

Hi, Nisse. How are you doing?

Hello. How are you? Nice to see you.

I'm doing pretty well. Though I'm kinda shocked because of the death of Paul Di'Anno.

Oh, fuck. Yeah, I saw that. I'm actually drinking whiskey in honor. So, cheers to Paul Di'Anno.

Yeah. Cheers.

An icon has left us too soon as usual. Most of the good, only the good die young.

Yeah. Were you at least lucky to see him perform live before he passed away?

Actually, yeah. I've seen him live a couple of times. This is a weird story, but, when I played in Gothenburg, in '95 or '96, there was a guy standing at the bar which I really, really hated. So, I was drunk and I threw a beer glass at him, and it hit Paul Di'Anno.

Oh, shit hahaha.

So, Paul Diano, he rushes in front of me "What the fuck, man?!", he stood screaming at me and I said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry". And then Nifelheim brothers, Pelle and Eric, they came directly up to me and said "Just so you know, we would have helped him to fight you".

Yeah, Hellbutcher and Tyrant are fucking Iron Maiden maniacs. So, if you ever diss on Iron Maiden in front of them, you're fucking dead.

Oh, yeah. I've known them since they were 14 years old.

So, you know the band since their very early days, I guess?

Oh, yeah. I have been with them since the first demo days. A very close friend of mine, he was the first guitarist of Nifelheim and wrote some riffs. He has another cool band now that's called Rite. Check it out.

Okay. Thank you for your recommendation.

Old school, brutal shit, and it's really, really good.

Do you know anything about that guitarist who said that he was fired from the band because he had a girlfriend?

Yeah. It's him, the story goes that they asked him "if it's okay if we write that in an interview?" He went "Yeah. Yeah. Whatever." It's all part of the show.

That's absolutely fucking crazy. So, the reason why I invited you here is because I saw the great news of the re-release of the remastered version of the sophomore album The Coming Of Chaos. And, wow, when I heard that new version of "Dreamdeath", I got so excited. I mean, it already sounds superior to the original version. The fact that you have Kristian Wåhlin's artwork, it made me feel so much more optimistic about it. This has been talked about for years now, but how come it came to happen in 2024?

Ever since the album was released, I have felt dissatisfied with how it came out. So, since 1997, I have had this in me all those years. You know, someday I will do something about it. I saved the original tape reels. It's 24 channels, 1-inch/2-inch tapes, really big tapes, which really were Century Media's property, but I told them that "No, no, there were no tapes". So, 4 years ago, I started to really, really look for someone who can transfer them into the digital world, because these old tapes, they have been very securely stored at my place, and, you know, many movements of over the places, but I always kept them really, really safe, because I knew someday, I would do something about it. But it took me another 2 years to find someone who had a recorder like that. I asked around a lot of people, even Dan Swanö, and he told me "No, no. If you find someone who can do this, you know, please let me know because it's very unusual". I finally found a guy in England, and everything went well because you have to bake the tapes first because they can get sticky, and then it's all over. So, just shipped them over to England where I just did it on chance because there was no one who wanted to send some insurance on that kind of thing, and if they were lost, then there wouldn't be any remix. But anyway, I got the digital files, and I sent them to Dan Swanö, and he had listened to 2 songs on that, he was ecstatic and lyrical, he "What the fuck is this?" And even one of my greatest friends, Kristian "Necrolord" Wåhlin, he always supported me in whatever I do, I went "What do you think about this idea", but he said "No, no. Remix is a remix". So, no one believed in this project, and I didn't fight it for anyone more than myself, because I felt so. It wasn't a complete album as it should be. I've written 4 pages of extensive liner notes explaining all the process. It will be printed on the CD version on The Coming of Chaos release. And, what can I say? I mean, we started shipping files over the net. It took over 2 months, I think, and when I got the first mix, I brought it down to Kristian, and "Hell yeah. Well, listen to it". I went "What do you think?" And he was "What the fuck? What? Now I get it. What the fuck?" I've known him since the old days. And it's very, very rare that he gets excited about something unless it's Beherit, Bathory or Blasphemy. And then I played it for Anders and I asked him "What do you think about this?" He started listening and he said, "What? I don't remember this". And I said "Yeah, well, mhmm". During the process, I listened a lot in my car, and my wife told me "I never heard this album before". And I said "Yeah, you have, but not in this way". So, I didn't even, in my wildest dreams, would think that it would be like this. It was like recording it all over again when we had the shipping files. I already had the cover, the cover of the Cosmic Key Creation that they did with the burning yeah. But Kristian asked me over the phone one day, and he said "You know what, either you do it or you don't", and he rambled on. And because he has a lot of these really secret stuff, and he feels a twitch, he pulls out a painting and says "This is the Coming of Chaos". It was only half done and I said "What the fuck Kristian? You can't do this to me". because he lives 3 hours away from me, so I couldn't go to him for 3 weeks, I think. And I told him "Please send me a picture. Send me something." And he of course, didn't. When I saw it, I stood there stuttering, and then he got anxious. It's been such a process, and it has been for me, getting back into the roots of Sacramentum and living on a higher level in so many ways. We needed all this break to be able to do this now, what we do, and then Century media went "What about a new album?", I said "Yeah. Just wait. Listen to this". When they heard the test song, they were also "Yeah. Yes. It sounds amazing". So, yeah, I try not to compromise my shit, but, you know, this is not an ordinary remix, and you have to read the liner notes. I explained everything from back in how it was in those days when we recorded it and we recorded it with a fantastic person and a great musician, Andy LaRocque. But he's a heavy metal musician. So, it really felt like we recorded the album all over again.

Speaking of the final result as of what I've heard recently, it really seems like you guys were trying to bring it closer to the original first album Far Away From The Sun, especially with the updated cover art. I mean, your first album Far Away From The Sun is still regarded as an essential Swedish melodic black death metal classic and a timeless masterpiece. But out of curiosity, I want to know how was The Coming Of Chaos, the original release received back in 1997? Did people constantly draw comparisons between the 2 albums?

Oh yeah. The thing was, you gotta understand, I don't know how old you are, but still, back in those days in '97, we would do the thing that would be that smart thing to do. If you wanna be a popular band, then we should go with a faraway sound. But we were like this. We hated the fucking scene that was growing. You know, we were ashamed to even be associated with black metal fucking clowns and idiots, so we did the opposite. We turned down the melody, this in the mix. It is that natural progression of Far Away From The Sun. And in my opinion, much more a better album overall, even though I understand it's hard. It's the music, especially Far Away From The Sun, I created the entity that is the core of Sacramentum, and yeah it has a huge will of its own, and it has proven to me that I'm not in control. The entity is in control of me, us now. And it was calling to us so strongly, so we just couldn't deny it anymore. When I got back into it, I realized that, fucking hell. I really love everything I do on stage nowadays, and that's why I choose to only do the vocals. And I always wanted to do both in the vocals live, but couldn't find suitable musicians back then. It was impossible because either people were idiots or they were playing in several other bands. So, we have shared members with Dissection and we were all friends, and Lord Belial, we were all friends and still are friends. We were helping each other, but we couldn't take someone we supported. It was a very small scene back then and there were only 3 black and death bands on the west coast of Sweden, and it was Dissection, Sacramentum and Lord Belial. And we all hung out and knew each other. And, in Stockholm, we had Unanimated, and I remember I was at a concert opposite Stockholm. I bought the Unanimated Fire Storm demo. I don't remember who it was, but yeah. And Micke the vocalist, I'm talking to him from now on. Now he's moving back to Stockholm again. So, it was for a couple of years after he got out of prison. I missed all those things so much, but I didn't really allow myself to do that because I had something else I had to do. And I pursued a lot of other interests that I didn't have time to do, when Sacramentum was taking all my time, but I've gone very, very deep into myself and called out every demon and confronted them and almost died in a process a couple of times, but no. I'm still here.

You're pretty much holding it strong, and it's great to see that Sacramentum returned back in 2019. For a great and influential Swedish band such as yourself, you really left such a big mark and you're still regarded as one of the influential and most important bands worldwide.

I just wanna say thanks. Thank you.

You're welcome. But I wanted to ask you. Since your return, have you had the impression that Sacramentum came back at the right place and the right time?

Probably. Yes. And the reason why we got back together was because I had started to write new songs for Sacramentum and I had asked Anders repeatedly "Isn't it time to, you know, get Sacramentum together?" And he said, "No, I don't want to". I went "Okay. I won't do it without you". So, then I thought maybe I'll start to write things and play it to him so he might get interested. And I've written a lot of really good stuff, which I am still working on, but I didn't get the chance to show it to him because he called me and said "Hey! How do you feel about putting Sacramentum back together?" and I was like "Shut the fuck up.". And I said, "Well, it depends. I have some demands first". And he went "Yeah, whatever you're open to". Finally, we were getting headliners of all the Deathfests around, headliners at Maryland Deathfest, which was amazing, and California Deathfest, Netherland Deathfest, UK Deathfest, and we got a ridiculous amount of pay for those shows. So, it's now or never. And, both me and Anders were like "Fuck yeah! Let's go!" And when we rehearsed the first time, it was fucking hell. We had missed it so much, and Anders told me "Fucking hell. Your vocal, it is insane". I know. I hadn't sung in like 20 years. So, I don't know, it has evolved by itself as well, I guess. But to answer that question, right time, right place, yes. Did we choose it? No. Not really. The entity was calling so hard for us and gave us this enormous opportunity, and I felt, anyway, to go all in, and that's what I did, and that's what I'm still doing. And that's why the new album is delayed because it has to be perfect, but I need to feel satisfied or otherwise, we won't release it at all. And I will never ever release another album without Necrolord's artwork on it, and Necrolord is a great friend of mine. He's a fantastic artist, a real artist in every aspect and in every way. So you can't rush things. And, on the phone, he told me that the vortex of The Coming of Chaos album, he redid it over 100 times. This is how insane that man is. He's very much like me, just much more laid back and, but he's got that feeling when if you don't feel it, then no, it won't happen. So, the album has been done for over 2 years, but because of reasons which I won't go into, Kristian had a lot of different difficulties, and I said "It's done when it's done. It's no problem". And yeah, I didn't have any rush. I waited since 1997.So what the fuck? A couple of more years? Yeah. I want it as I really would have wanted it back then. Ego was big back then, and the scene was a mess. Century Media was on us and everything just went to shit really. I was so fucking mad and angry when The Coming of Chaos album was released with a shitty cover. The first time I saw it, I think I was, in essence, you know, when the whole Century Media came into the tour bus and were very, very, very angry at me and said "This is not a nice conversation, man". And I said "Well, what the fuck? What is it now?". And they said "You've been talking shit in interviews about Century Media" and I was like "Woah. What do you mean? What shit?", then they said something and I said "It's not shit. It's the fucking truth". What the fuck? At the end, we became good friends again, but I said "If you can't deal with us, cut us loose. We don't wanna work together". And now all these years later, I had to tell them a couple of times "What the fuck? Haven't you learned anything yet"? If you say jump, I will never jump, fuck you. We're not that kind of band. It's not for anyone, and that's what Sacramentum always has been. When we started, in my wildest dreams, I would never even think that it would be what it has become. I mean, I'm so humble and grateful for the fact that we have been able to just tour for the last 3 years with Far Away From The Sun alone. And it's still Far Away From The Sun show. And now, we have The Coming of Chaos. So, at the end of this year, we have a really special release party in Gothenburg and you are of course invited if you want to, it will be a real party.

I gotta say, I'm really happy to see Necrolord come back to do the artwork for the remaster of The Coming Of Chaos. And I'm actually curious to know, have you probably considered including some of his additional artwork in the booklet or inserts on the new album?

Of course. I have a lot of plans. We talk about things like that all the time. I am in creative chaos mode when me and Kristian meet. We see each other roughly one time at a month, or even more often because we have other musical projects together that are just for us, but I kept coming up with a lot of ideas all the time, and he and I asked him "Is it too much"? He said "No, no". Fuck, I love it. So, I think I have three Sacramento albums maybe now, but I will compromise it to one masterpiece. Well, I can't say masterpiece because it's not something that I can choose if it would be a very, very good album that I would feel satisfied with and the entity the true spirit of Sacramentum. On the new Coming of Chaos album, it has the infernal seal, it's a painting that Kristian has done as well, and I have all the originals in my home because he has so many paintings. We help each other and I'm just blessed. I'm so humble to the fact that people like yourself are living for it. If one person is living for it, then it's all worth it. And that's pretty much how we did it back in the days because I come from a little shithole town in the middle of Sweden, and people were hating me all along, but still, I had my goal, and I do this. And hey, we were the first band from that town who got a record deal, so what the fuck?

And a major record deal at best because Century Media Records is a very big respected label. It has Tribulation, Necrophobic, and Marduk, so many great bands on the roster. And having you still be a part of that family is a big deal. The fact that you still have so many big fans, maybe even more fans than it had back then in the 90s, it really shows that they show appreciation to what you guys do and that, you know, they respect you as an artist. I mean, times have changed. Back then, labels felt the need to interfere with albums. Nowadays, they do it much less. But the problem is nowadays, people have trouble finding labels, and they cannot find labels no matter what genre they play. Even if you're great, you just cannot find a good record deal. And it's so important that you guys are still under their wing.

Yeah. This is nothing that I haven't really thought about, but still, we had gotten so many fucking deals, you can't believe. All of the people at Century Media, they were road crew managers, they are old-school guys and they are running Central Media now, because Robert Kampf, the founder of Century Media, he sold it a couple of years back and now it's only those guys who we met back then in like 1995/1996, and we had a great time. Meeting them again is like a class reunion or whatever, and they are business persons, but still, they know that you can't push it too much. And I have told them that so many times, if you're pushing it, hey, then it's all over. So, we're still negotiating about the contract on Century Media. And, I got the question just a couple of weeks ago if I still wanna release the new album on Century Media, and I said "Yes, of course", because they weren't sure because I had turned down every deal they made us. I'm in no rush.

Exactly, because nothing should be ever rushed and nothing should ever be forced. There's a very good saying, someone I know actually said this: "You should not force art because art is like a fart. If you force it, it's shit".

Oh, yeah. That's good. I just have to rephrase it so I can remember. That's how I felt about the old Coming of Chaos album because that was rushed and so was The Black Destiny, but that's another story. So, the new album, why it's not out yet, has so many reasons, but everything has its own time and it's ready when we feel it's ready, but we are working on it and I think it sounds amazing, the things we have. That's what I love about this process of making music, which in my opinion is the ultimate art form because it's poetry, lyrics, it's like theatre. It's artwork. And when it all comes together, then it's pure magic. And it's what I do because I'm a fan of this music. I'm a fan of everything, and I love when we're all playing, as soon as I can get off the stage, I'll go out to talk to people, drink beer and hang out with them. And if we're at festivals, we always stay for the whole festival because we wanna see the other bands. And we are the only band that really wants to stay a whole festival. Everybody just wanna go home, and I don't understand it. What can I say? I'm old school as fuck, and, I have respect for people. Nah. Most bands are fake, I would say, in my opinion. Music is good, but is there any substance behind it? Yeah. In a lot of cases, there is. I have actually been really surprised when I got back into the scene because I've been out of it for over 20 years, and when I got back and met younger people who were fucking hell. I have a tremendous amount of respect, and that's why we're in this genre because it's ever evolving. It's pushing the limits further and further and further and further away. When I don't feel like that anymore, like going up and just performing, then I will stop it again. I will stop Sacramentum again. And that's why I stopped Sacramentum back in the early 2000 because I didn't feel it anymore. I was fed up with the shit. I didn't wanna belong to these people because 2 or 3 percent of the people were actually what they said they were. The rest were, I don't know.

When you guys disappeared back in the early 2000s, the funny thing is back then, a lot of other bands similar to you such as Dissection, Unanimated, Vinterland and Gates of Ishtar, were not even around at the time as well because it all disappeared. You had bands that were following your footsteps like Thulcandra from Germany and they even said they really looked up to what you guys did. They didn't just say "Oh, we're just into Dissection, and we wanna do music like this". Steffen Kummerer, who is also the vocalist of Obscura, said that he and his friends were into Dissection, Sacramentum and Unanimated when they were younger. This is my kind of guy because it's not like that tree-hugging black-and-white pictures in a forest type of black metal. They said the melodic and artistic and theatrical side of black metal, that's the kind of black metal they are into.

That's the spirit of it, he gets the spirit of it. I haven't personally met him yet; I will talk to him over the phone and so on. But in January, we will do a tour with Thulcandra, and it was Stefan who approached me 2 years ago and asked "Would you be interested in doing a tour with us?" He's a great guy and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. He does it by feeling, and I know. Kristian Necrolord has done a lot of their covers, so they're good friends. And I gave Kristian the infernal seal pin at some point, and Kristian gave it to him because he knew how much he liked Sacramentum. And Kristian said, "They're writing new music". And he gave the pin to him and everything. Afterward, I also read that Steffen had a Far Away From The Sun reissue. So, he has helped us a lot as a prominent musician because he's such a talented musician. He's a really, really good musician. But that feeling side of it, he wants that and he wants to understand it. So, one of my closest friends who died 2 years ago was David Andersson, from The Night Flight Orchestra. I grew up with him and he lived here in my sanctuary for weeks at a time, a lost period of his life. We were doing a lot of music together, and he really, really wanted to release an album with me. And, even though I refuse to see it, I saw him, you know, slowly taking his life on my fucking floor. But still, I have. I am that person. I don't judge. And if I had judged, he would just withdraw, and then I wouldn't have all these fantastic memories which I have with him. And we haven't created the amazing music that we did. I will never release that or maybe be in some other project, but that's another thing. He was a fucking master and he was such a talented musician. I got him pissed off. He threw my old Ibanez guitar at me and it just hit me and it hit the floor, and I were like "oh, fuck". I was looking at all the original paintings. I think everything was okay and the guitar broke which I had since I was 16, and then I looked at him after. Everything was good, and I looked at him and said "Now you're getting it, David". And then he looks up at me with his "That's why I love you, Nisse. That's why I need you". That kind of rough feeling that can't be taught in music school or whatever. Either you got it or you don't. I don't wanna say that I'm special in any kind of way, I'm just expressing how I feel about it, and very few groups of others are like that the way they're doing it, like Kristian for example, with covers. It killed me back then. The Coming of Chaos coming out with my fucking sketch on the cover because they were rushing the fucking album, because we were going on tour. And so, for all these years, I have lived with that. But I knew I would do it someday and I never ever dreamt that in my whole life this enormous welcome and those who really can hear it and really are into it.

I know that the new version is gonna perform well because it already got so much positive feedback from the new single, but I really have to ask, do you also plan to do a remaster for the third album, The Black Destiny, or do you want to focus on the new album as soon as possible?

That's a really tricky question, and I don't know the answer to that yet. But how I feel and how I think, now I wanna focus because I have lived with this Coming of Chaos album since 1997. Now I am feeling I can let it go and it will be such a fucking heavy burden to finally let go. So, I'm feeling when this is released, then I can focus totally on the new album. So, I would say that we I have the original tapes of the remix and they are digitalized, but The Coming of Chaos album is the development of Far Away From the Sun, and The Black Destiny is developing in showing the middle finger to the fucking scene. So it was, you know, more in-your-face kind of lyrics and aggression, it was death-thrash. I like that, I like all that, but it's not Sacramentum really. So, The Black Destiny is half of a Sacramentum album. For people who want it, we will do another. I would do the remix, but I will probably use those songs, bonus tracks and maybe the first single of the new album, because that's how I see each other release, one demo version of a new song and, you know, something special, like, I don't know, live version as a teaser for the real recordings. I'm an old-school fan. I mean, I love all that shit. I'm an asshole that collects vinyl still. You probably are as well. What can I say? I love this kind of stuff, and that's what I want. How do I want this? Am I doing this for the right reason, or am I doing it for others? This is the kind of struggle I always have, and it's not the best way to make a living or whatever. It's art, artists have always, you know, been underdogs, and I love that. I love underdogs because they have some interesting views and they can teach you a lot, even though they might be very disturbed or whatever. But, you know, they see things from such a perspective that you need to fuck yourself up to really understand it. That's what I've been doing since I was 16 years old. I've been killing myself in a way and rebuilding myself, because, who am I? Am I a person that parents, school, my friends, or whatever society wants me to be? How do I know that that's what I am and what I think? So, it has been a very, very, very destructive journey in many ways and maybe still is sometimes, but that's how I do it. I gotta feel it in the fucking depth, or I don't know that someone else has implanted that feeling or opinion or whatever in my head and it's easy to fool yourself sometimes. The ego is fucking tricky, but I'm standing behind myself. Yeah, it sounds too much to say, but I'm really proud of what I have become really by all these hardships, it has been fucking hard, but I will do it all over again. I will change nothing.

That's the essence of an artist. There's a saying that goes "No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness", and there's even a saying that I have. One of my sayings goes "Every artist suffers for his art. If you have never suffered for your art, you're not a real artist or you're not a genuine artist".

There you go.

That's like I said, even if you have art schools, they don't teach you what art is. They teach you about art forms. You'd have to discover art for yourself, so that's what I think is, that there has to be an individual pattern to what you do. You need to understand it for yourself, you need to have your own perspective rather than have somebody teach you a perspective of what things are.

Thank you, my friend. You're a dear, dear friend of mine now. Just so you know, I fucking love it. I mean, I didn't even hesitate when you wrote to me because I felt that this is good, and I chose these things. I don't know if you know, but my first interview I gave in over 20 years was to a Spanish magazine, which is only written in Spanish and is printed in 500 copies. And I got, you know, offers from a lot, but I turned everything down and I've just felt it and that was the fucking most in-depth interview I've ever done. First, I got 6 or 10 pages of written questions, and then after that, when I answered them, it took several months, then I asked him to call me up and we could sit and chat like that. And we talked for 6 hours, and, you know, it became a massive article. And, yeah, I chose right, because South America, fucking hell.

They're maniacs.

Yeah. They are. And I love it. I'm a maniac myself. As I said, even if it's one person, the die-hard person in the crowd or just one person at the place, it doesn't matter. It's a full show. It's everything. That's all that I got on stage.

I gotta wrap up this interview, but I wanna firstly say thank you so much for this opportunity Nisse. It's been such a pleasure talking to you, man. I am highly looking forward to the release of this remastered version of The Coming Of Chaos, and I wish you and all the guys of Sacramentum all the best. And just as a final word, is there anything that you'd like to say for the fans?

I would like to say thank you. We are humble to the fact. And when you see us and when you see us walking around in the audience, don't be afraid. Come up to us and talk to us. We wanna take a beer with you and hear your story because that's why we are there. And we fucking love it. We love you. I mean, you are feeding us, and fucking hell, otherwise, I would be standing in the crowd, and I do anyway.