Ronny Thorsen, founder and male vocalist for Norway-based gothic metal band TRAIL OF TEARS, is featured in a new interview with Sonic Cathedral. He discusses the band's final album, Oscillation, the fiery demise of Trail Of Tears, hints about his new band, and much more. An excerpt is available below:

Q: If I understand correctly, when you first began writing the album in 2010 and recording it in August-September 2011, it was not the intent that Oscillation would be the final Trail Of Tears album; is that right?

A: "Yeah, that’s right. A lot of things happened in the last year or last year-and-a-half, and it became clear to me after a while that it was going to be really difficult to save the band, pretty much because we couldn’t agree on the most basic things for how to run the band and where to take it from here. So, all these things kind of just piled up. The result, we all know it now. But when we went into the actual recording session of the album, it was... at least not in my mind... it was not something that I was considering at the time. This is all something that has developed in the months that followed the album."

Q: Going back and reading the lyrics now, many of them do seem like a farewell. Is that simply a coincidence, or maybe something that you didn’t realize at the time?

A: "I think it’s really easy to see now in hindsight, when you read the lyrics now, that there was perhaps a lot of frustration there that was more on a subconscious level. I think that maybe somehow these things were already there when we were writing the lyrics and the album in general. But when I read the lyrics today, it’s not something like: 'Oh yeah, that’s what I thought at the time'. It’s not necessarily representative for how you read it now. But it is actually kind of ironic when you read the lyrics today; I agree on that. So, it’s pretty obvious to me, when I read them now, that there were perhaps a little more frustration and anger there than what I would have liked to admit at the time. You’re right about that, I think."

Q: With the ending of Trail Of Tears, comes a new chapter in the musical career of Ronny Thorsen. You’ve given a couple of hints about your new band, VIPER SOLFA. Although it’s probably premature for details, can you tell us a bit more? We’re dying to know!

A: "You know, I’m dying too! (laughs) If it was up to me, this thing would have already been properly announced with the lineup and everything. But we have some pretty well-known names in the lineup, and it’s important for us that we get all the details nailed down and don’t do anything prematurely. So, we want everyone to be on the same page for when we want to announce the lineup and everything like that. There are certain contracts involved because of certain members’ involvement with other bands; there are managements involved; there are labels involved. And we need to get all these things pretty much sorted out before we can announce the lineup.

"But what I can say is that we are writing material right now for what is to become our debut album, and things are going pretty well with that. We’ve already been to the studio to record some demos and some pre-productions. I am pretty much working with it all the time right now, so my main priority right now is to speed thing up a little bit. Hopefully, we can announce this whole thing as soon as possible. I think it’s about time now. I think we now have about seven or eight songs that are close to finished, so we’re working on some orchestrations right now and finishing up vocals and lyrics.

"It will be... I think people should not expect a new Trail Of Tears or a continuation of Trail Of Tears. This is something totally different because that is what we all wanted - a new start. We didn’t want to kind of just overlap with what we had done before. We needed a fresh start, so it’s going to be something completely different. But there will obviously be hints from things that we’ve done before with each member. It is substantially more extreme, but at the same time, we have some of the same elements. It is going to be highly orchestrated; it’s going to be symphonic; and we have female vocals (obviously). So, it won’t be a complete departure. People who have liked Trail Of Tears, I think there will be plenty of things to enjoy for them as well. But like I said, it’s pretty extreme stuff, so we’ll see. Some people may find it too extreme, but it’s going to be interesting to see. It’s exciting times!"

Read the full interview here.