Metal Hammer German has issued an interview with ENSLAVED guitarist Ivar Bjornson. The following is an excerpt:

On how KISS brought him to metal: "When I was a kid we saw this show on the national broadcasting about a family – where the daughter was in love with GENE SIMMONS and PAUL STANLEY. She kept having dreams where they played, and I like the whole thing with the sound and image. I collected KISS toys and finally my granddad gave me a cassette for X-mas when I was five. Shortly after I started looking around for something harder and metal has been my life since then."

What Heavy Metal does mean for him: "I guess metal means different things, but I’ve never been too enthused about the anarchist approach where you think “do what thou wilt” means puke where you want to. It is something deeper and has potential for being a shaper of society: entertainment, rebellion and strength in one."

And what the future of Metal might be: "It is so huge and popular now. I think we will see more of the bands from the middle section, those beneath METALLICA and SLIPKNOT and those guys; coming up into the mainstream with radio and huge gigs. Metal will maybe become more of an “ordinary” thing like in the 80s. That also means there is a very real possibility metal will get surprisingly killed like it did when grunge appeared in the early 90s. That is not something to fear, if it happens it happens. Last time it happened, a new wave of Extreme Metal got invented underground – maybe Metal needs rough times some times to remain cutting edge?"

Read the full article in English and/or German.