DARKTHRONE - "Nobody Ever Sounded Like Voivod"
February 12, 2006, 18 years ago
BW&BK; recently caught up with DARKTHRONE frontman Nocturno Culto to talk about the duo's latest slab, The Cult Is Alive (to be released Feb 27th via Peaceville Records). As previously reported, the band pays a bit of tribute to VOIVOD on the new album and in one of his more recent press photos, Nocturno Culto himself was sporting a Voivod t-shirt.
“When I really thought about it, Voivod always been such an inspirational band for us," says Nocturno. "Whenever I pick up a Voivod album, I can’t really get bored of it. After Piggy died, way too soon, I realized that Voivod has the same position for me in the same vein as BATHORY."Well, quite a few Norwegian bands have a Voivod feel (consciously and even unconsciously) in their guitar riffs/sounds. Would you agree with this?
“I think because Piggy’s guitar sound, I mean not only the sound, but his riffs are like… I mean I remember in ’88 we had this joke like, ‘Hey shouldn’t we play a cover song? Maybe we can try something from Voivod?’ And then everyone would be like, ‘Yeah, right!’ Like we could never play a Voivod cover… I mean it’s such intricate music and I think it’s really risky and try to take on such a task. But anyway, if we were to do a cover song of Voivod, it will not sound like Voivod and that probably wouldn’t be a bad thing either. I think we just have too much respect for the material that we wouldn’t even bother (laughs).”
Favorite Voivod album?
“Well that’s really hard to say. But I kind of tend to land on all the first five albums. I have this Outer Limits album; I need to listen to this again because it’s been so many years since I heard it. So I’m kind of curious to pick it up again… But nobody ever sounded like Voivod. And the cover art that Away did… it’s like nobody did stuff like that! Just fantastic artwork! And I remember very well, when Killing Technology came out, it was like a breakthrough because they found something really strange with that album.”Watch for a major feature on Darkthrone in BW&BK; #95, out in late March.
