Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with Germany’s Metal Hammer, The Kovenant revealed that they are working on a new album. The effort will be the band’s first in over 20 years.

Vocalist/bassist Stian “Nagash” Arnesen said the following about the band’s return:

“Over the years, we kind of lost contact with each other ’cause we’re so busy with other bands. Hellhammer has MAYHEM and some of the other guys [were involved with] other [projects] like ARCTURUS and DIMMU BORGIR. Sarah was involved with other stuff, like THERION and CRADLE OF FILTH and stuff. But over the years, we kind of glided apart a little bit, but it started very randomly that we started just talking together again, and we all just clicked very easily together. So it went very fast when we said, like, ‘What if we actually fucking joined together again and started playing?’ And everyone said ‘yes’ without hesitation. So we quickly started thinking, like. ‘Fuck, how should we start this?’ So we found a really great management — Håkon Grav, he does also EMPEROR and he used to work for Scream magazine, so I know him from there, in Norway. We managed to talk him into bringing us on, and it went just really fast from there. We just met, all of us had some quick rehearsals and it was like we never fucking stopped playing. It was, like, ‘Did we play last month?, like this. It was like a natural chemistry between all of us. So it was really fun to play together.”

Singer Sarah Jezebel Deva continued:

“It did really happen so fast. It’s like all making phone calls and [sending] e-mails and reconnecting back to each other, and you’re thinking, ‘Oh, it’s gonna take ages for any of this to come together.’ And then suddenly you tell us about Håkon and then suddenly this show appears, this first show, and it’s, like, ‘Wow, that was really fast.’ You didn’t have time to think. So if you were thinking about backing out, it was tough, because your flights were booked. It was so, so fast. It’s, like, ‘Well, Sarah, can you do this? And Sarah, can you do that?’ And I’m, like, ‘Oh, I’ve gotta say yes now because I said yes to everybody else.’ And it was so incredibly fast before that first show was booked, and then more shows were coming in and more shows, and it’s, like, ‘Well, this is it. It’s happening.’ It’s like literally a matter of months, it was.”

She went on to discuss the group’s first reunion shows:

“The whole process has been so simple. It didn’t feel like hard work at all.” Nagash concurred, saying: “Definitely not at all. It was so natural. We have such good chemistry amongst all of us. And everyone is dedicated more than a hundred percent. It’s not possible to have more than a hundred percent, but it’s, like everyone is super dedicated to it. And we all talked about it to say, like, we’re not just going to do a few shows and then disappear again. We’re already writing new material. We have plans for the future. There are so many more shows which have been booked already and confirmed, but we haven’t announced them yet, ’cause contracts and you’re not allowed to [say anything about it]. But I think a lot of people will be very surprised where we’re gonna show up. It’s a surprise to us too, ’cause our managers, they just contact us and say, like, ‘Okay, you’re playing in Mexico in the summertime’ or ‘you’re going to the moon’ or wherever. It’s as much a surprise to us as it will be for everybody else.” Sarah added: “And I think the level that we’re playing on now is extremely high. I hate to bring the word ‘age’ into it, but we’re older, we know what we want and we’ve evolved so much.” Nagash continued: “I mean, without bragging or anything like this, we were already good musicians back then. ‘Cause everyone has their super talents, like, Hellhammer, Astennu, Sarah, Sverd, they’re all great musicians. So it can only have gotten better, right?”

Nagash also discussed the musical direction of The Kovenant’s new material:

“The new stuff we’re working on, it’s not going to be another ‘Nexus’. It will be similar because it’s the same bunch of people, but the new music is a combination of all the albums. But it will be more metal, more extreme. It will be a little bit backwards in time from ‘SETI’ and ‘Animatronic’ stuff, but it will still incorporate all the elements but plus new stuff, ’cause we’ve all developed as people.

We already have lots of demos done. So, in the next several months now, we’re gonna get together and put together maybe two or three songs, something like this, which we’re gonna release early, to get people to know that we are actually back, not to just wait for a new album. And I think it would be unfair to put that much pressure on everyone in the band, ’cause I think a lot of people, when they hear that ‘Nexus’ lineup is back together that it will be a ‘Nexus Polaris Number Two’, which it will not be that, but it will be similar, as I said. So I think that by us releasing maybe one, two, three new songs before an actual album comes out, it will help us to be more easy, like it will be easier to create stuff for us, so we don’t feel like, ‘Okay, people want ‘Nexus Two’, so we have to do ‘Nexus Two’.’ But we already have lots of demo stuff prepared. I even have some stuff on my phone, new stuff. Some of the stuff sounds like ‘Nexus Polaris’, some of the stuff sounds totally new, some of it has hints of ‘SETI’ and ‘Animatronic’, the first album, but for sure it will be more extreme, it will be more metal. It will be experimental, but it will be darker and more metal.”

[via Blabbermouth]