BW&BK; spoke to DIMMU BORGIR guitarist Silenoz (real name: Sven Atle Kopperud) during the OFFICIAL listening session for the Norwegian black metallers' new album, In Sorte Diaboli, at the Holmenkollen Park Hotel Rica in Oslo, Norway recently. A major feature on the band is set to run in BW&BK; #103, out in late March. In the meantime here are a few excerpts from the chat:

BW&BK;: The release of In Sorte Diaboli will coincide with your recently-announced North American tour beginning in late April, with support from KATAKLYSM, DEVILDRIVER and UNEARTH. There are a number of Canadian stops on this tour.

Silenoz: "That's something I personally told the booking agents - put more Canadian shows in there. As much as I like playing Montreal and stuff, I want to play other places. It's so vast, but we know that there are places in Canada that are still underground who want to see the band."

Do you think you'll hit larger venues, possibly arenas, with the success of this record?

Silenoz: "It could happen. That's the next step. But I don't predict that that will happen anytime soon. If it does, it does. That's something we can't really think about. If it does, it's the result of hard work anyway. Everything is possible. If you sit down and say 'no, we can't do that,' somebody else might do it. This is the excitement we live for. We've made so many wrong choices in our career, but at the same time we must've done something good because we are here. This is our seventh album, and I'm barely 30 years-old. It's been an incredible ride and it still is. We haven't compromised our tastes, we've just developed. It makes me really proud to think of that."

The whole scene will benefit if In Sorte Diaboli does well.

Silenoz: "Of course. It will help open doors for other bands. Like other bands that have helped open doors for us. We've been on support tours that have helped us a lot. And that's what we are trying to do. This tour coming up, the names are already known. They aren't really underground. At the same time we like to have a varied package. Make room for bands that are less known, but who can also bring something to the table. I'm a total metalhead, but there's some stuff that wouldn't work with us live, even though I'm friends with them. There are also bands that are up and coming that have a new audience. For this tour, I made up a huge fuckin' list of bands that I personally wanted to tour with and also from the point of view of the fans - bands that could cross-over. I think it's good to have a good mix. They are all extreme in their own sense, but there is a varied mix for the audience."

What are your thoughts on this year's free Ozzfest?

Silenoz: "I don't know too much about it (he laughs). I'm sure there must be something to it. I'm not going to say anything wrong about it because Sharon Osbourne is a nice woman and she was really good to us. She helped us a lot in the States. We have a lot to thank her for because she gave us the opportunity to play on the Main Stage (in 2004). That was something that was really surprising. Of course we are really grateful for that. I'm sure she has her reasons ... let's hope it works. If she's in it for the right reasons, it will show later on anyway. It's too early to say."

After this tour?

Silenoz: "We're just going to continue touring. North America is first. For once we start on American soil. Then we are just going to do a few festivals this summer. We're going to start a Norwegian tour at the end of August. We haven't confirmed support yet, but I have some bands in mind. It's hard to do Norwegian shows because some of the places are small, and we can't bring in the production we'll be using in other parts of Europe. There are certain places in the States that we can't bring the production too either. It's going to be too expensive and I won't be able to pay my bills when I get home! And then we'll have a European tour in September/October. And then at least one more tour in the States ... maybe two more. We're going to concentrate on the North American market and see how long it takes us."

Dimmu Borgir's In Sorte Diaboli album will be released on April 27th (mainland Europe), April 24th (North America) and April 30th (UK) via Nuclear Blast Records. Complete album details can be found here.