Satyricon drummer Frost (Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad) spoke with Stereoboard.com about a number of topics including their new live package, Live At The Opera. 

“We are driven by creativity and passion above anything else,” Frost says about the collaboration between Satyricon and the Norwegian National Opera chorus, who performed together at the prestigious Oslo Opera House in 2013. “We always try to observe what's happening around us to see if opportunities present themselves, because we don't want to miss them. We seek fine musical experiences that will be exciting for us, the guest musician and the band. There are probably many guitar players who would like to perform with us, but that's not what we're looking for. We want someone who will add something we have never had before, as it's motivating for us.”

When asked do black metal bands take themselves too seriously? 

“I think it's not necessarily wrong to take yourself seriously, but I think it feels a bit foul when people get too pretentious and don't realise it. There is a bit too much self-irony. Black metal is a serious genre and that comes with a price: it can very easily turn into something pretentious. It is for the wise to find that balance. We have a lot of self-irony in our personalities. Sometimes we display that on stage, but most of the time it's bloody serious when we perform as Satyricon. It's a genre where we create darkness and grimness, and there's a lot of raw energy. I'm very driven by fury when I'm on stage and that's how I like it to be – it's how I connect with the music. When I go up and play live, I don't have a lot of that self-irony. It's life or death. As a private person, I am not like that – you have to separate that.”

Read more at Stereoboard.com.

Live At The Opera is set to be released in Europe on May 1st and on May 5th in North America via Napalm Records. This upcoming release will contain the full performance DVD and double CD of this exclusive and very special concert by the legendary Satyricon.

Mastermind Satyr about the story behind Live At The Opera: "The whole thing started with us doing one song, "To The Mountains" a year and a half before the actual show. We performed at a closed event in the main hall of the opera with the Royal Norwegian Opera Chorus. It was very inspirational. I then said to the conductor that I would love to do a whole show like this. He loved the idea, I was serious about it, and he was serious about it. We spent approximately one and a half year working with composer and arranger Kjetil Bjerkestrand on the choral arrangements. When I picked songs, I was not necessarily looking at only songs suitable for choral arrangements or typical in the Satyricon live set. For me, it had to be a combination. If you look at songs like "Die By My Hand", it`s pretty obvious we`ll want to use a choir for that because it has a choir on the record too. On the other hand, there were other things I had to consider. For example, "K.I.N.G." is probably the most famous Satyricon song ever - and not necessarily a song I can imagine with choral arrangements. But just because people hear it more or less the same way always, I thought it would be interesting to take that song and give it a totally different vibe for this one time. And it`s also interesting to see if we can work it around the structure of a song that is more or less straightforward. For something that we planned for so long, put so much work into, and something this unique - of course it would be nice to film it and record it. But I made it very clear to the people around Satyricon that I`m not going to turn this into a recording session where you can buy tickets.When you hear or or watch this recording you should feel like you're there. This is not Satyricon - Best Of From The Opera, this is a show! The perfect parts need to go in there, but also the parts that are not so perfect. That`s the nature of it, that`s the real deal. It's not a live album. It's a celebration of what Satyricon stands for as a band."

 

Watch a preview of Live At The Opera below: