Zombitrol Productions presents a new interview series for these strange times, Zombitrol At Home, profiling how some of your favourite artists are dealing with the current shutdown both on a business and personal level.

First up is an exclusive and far-reaching interview with guitarist Silenoz of Dimmu Borgir. Chatting from his home in the Norwegian countryside, Silenoz reminisces about Dimmu's early '90s and Death Cult Armageddon eras, and touches on his new role as homeschool teacher to his young son. An excerpt follows:

“I think we have always been a controversial band, and we still are,” says Silenoz. “That’s something else that makes me proud because that means we’re doing something right. We have the two polarities, either people hate us or they love us. That’s the perfect spot to be in, for me at least. But we don’t do that on purpose. It’s just a result of who we are and how we make our music. It’s an honest thing, and if you’re loved and hated for doing something that’s honest, then nothing is better than that.”

But even before concerts and album releases ground to a halt, it did feel as though the band was conspicuously absent from touring and press. Their most recent album, 2018’s Eonian, was their first in eight years, and it arrived with much fanfare. But now two years after its release, there didn’t seem to be much noise from the Dimmu camp.

“Since the album came out up until April of this year we’ve done close to 70 shows, which is not really a lot when you consider the stretch (of time),” he says.

“From the outside it looks like we haven’t done that much, and I guess we haven’t. We’re a touring band, but we’ve never been a heavily-touring band, at least not in the last decade. We’re trying not to play just to play. We wanna obviously take it to the next level, and you gotta try and be smart about it. There’s so (many) expenses in what we do, just to put on one show.”

Perhaps the long wait between albums was part of the problem?

“Over the years, since we haven’t played as much as other bands on the same level, we have made ourselves kind of exclusive in that sense,” says Silenoz. “Once we do put on a tour, it (has) really good attendance. That’s the upside of it. But let’s say if we were going to put on a run in the U.S, the thing with how it’s become so strict with visas, you don’t really even know if you’re going to get it on time. To have so much at stake, there’s so much money involved. There’s still a chance to take because how the climate has evolved over the last few years, even the last two to three years before we released the latest album, so many changes.”

To read the complete interview, visit this location.

(Photo by Per Heimly)