interview by: Roberto Martinelli

Sweden's Thy Primordial single handedly converted me to being a fan of their country's style of black metal. Before I got into this band, everything was a haze, but when I heard their stunning At the World of Untrodden Wonder, it started to click. The previous album, Where only the Seasons Mark the Paths of Time, cemented my new found love, and since then I've been gobbling up Swedish bm like crazy. (To think, I used to not get Dawn.) The two aforementioned albums are exemplary collections of what Swedish black metallers do so well, as the high-pitched twin guitars and bass constantly harmonize with each other throughout the melodic riffs that frigidly slice in their harsh beauty. I think that's what really draws me most to this stuff: its ability to reach out and grab my heart with the duality of its passion and force. If I could cry by being moved by music, I believe Thy Primordial could do it to me. The band's third full-length, The Heresy of an Age of Reason, was a letdown to me as the high pitch of the guitars and even much of the melodic riffs that marked the first two albums were abandoned for a heavier sound. Regardless, Thy Primordial still stands as one of my favorite black metal bands, so I had to interview band leader and guitarist Mikael Andersson. Maybe some day I'll learn to like The Heresy of an Age of Reason too.

Maelstrom: Hello, Mikael. Since the beginning, Thy Primordial has been making melodic black metal without the use of keyboards. Your latest album, The Heresy of an Age of Reason, continues in that tradition. Do you see Thy Primordial ever employing keys?

Mikael Andersson: Hello, actually there was a short period during '95 that we used keyboards. Those who heard the 7" EP has heard it. Karl Beckman of former Mithotyn (rip) used to help us out with it. But when Mithotyn signed to Invasion he decided to concentrate on Mithotyn instead. Since we didn´t found any other band member who could handle the instrument we simply decided to drop it. Personally I don´t think it suits our music at all. But I don´t have problem with bands who use the keyboards and manage to add something to the music. Sadly enough there is tons of bands that only add the keyboards with a choir sound with some chords in the background, and it just sounds soft.

Maelstrom: Aside from the majestic, sorrowful melodies, I love Thy Primordial for its use of harmonies between the two guitars and bass. What inspires you to write such harmonies?

Mikael Andersson: The idea with using the harmonies is a influence from the With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness album from At the Gates, basically. I was totally blown away when I heard it. If you listen to the left channel on the stereo on that album it sounds like a different song. Harmonies add a lot to the songs. For us is the harmonies more important then the melodic stuff

Maelstrom: The melodies that are found on Thy Primordial's albums are very passionate and beautiful - I often feel choked up when listening to songs such as "The Conquest", "Svart Gryning", or "Amongst the Chosen Lost". Your melodies to me sound very exemplary of your Swedish heritage. How much inspiration do you draw from traditional music?

Mikael Andersson: Not much really. I'm not really interested in such music but there might be such influences without knowing it. Although we use pretty mush of triplet beats which is pretty well used in at least Swedish folk music. But apart from that we don´t take influences from that type of music on purpose.

Maelstrom: What does "gryning" mean, by the way?

Mikael Andersson: Gryning = Dawn

Maelstrom: The Heresy of an Age of Reason has a markedly different approach and sound than the previous two albums, Where Only the Seasons Mark the Paths of Time and At the World of Untrodden Wonder, did. The guitars on the new one are tuned lower, and the music is less melodic. Why did you decide to move away from the piercing, sharp guitar sound that established you on your first two albums?

Mikael Andersson: We thought that At the World of Untrodden Wonder was a bit too high pitched. We got bored doing such riffs over and over again. So we made riffs that are in lower keys and did more crunching riffs. To get the production of the album that we searched for we had to downtune the guitars a bit, but just one key.

Maelstrom: The Heresy…'s production sounds the most polished to date. Again, there is much more bass in the music, from the guitars to the drums. Vocalist Isidor also uses a lower and more coherent range than he did on previous albums. Please tell us what decisions led to those changes.

Mikael Andersson: Both Morth and I are sold in older sunlight recordings. So when we got this opportunity to spend 5 weeks in the studio by our self we took the chance to make the album as heavy and brutal as possible. Part-wise we have added up to seven different guitar tracks. The sounding fits the material. Heresy album is mush more influenced by older death metal stuff, something all members in the band enjoys.

Maelstrom: It's remarkable that the five-man lineup for Thy Primordial has remained the same throughout the band's four albums, including the demo. What do you attribute the unit staying together to?

Mikael Andersson: Well the unit now broken. N. Nilsson left us last year because of studies in Stockholm. So from now on I handle all the guitarworks. Right now don´t have any plans to add another guitar player. Might be possible that Nilsson comes back when he is finished up in Stockholm. Except that we managed to keep the unit tight throughout the years.

Maelstrom: Your demo, Under Iskall Trollmåne, is an interesting window into the developing stages of Thy Primordial. You can hear a lot of the same types of melodies and song structures. However, you abandoned using guitar solos after the demo. Why?

Mikael Andersson: Well it was our two first recordings, and we didn´t had any own identity. Personally I think it sounds like a mix of several other bands from that time. As for the guitar solo on the first track on Under Iskall Trollmåne, it was our way to add something different to the material, somthing that the listener should react on. N Nilsson is responsible for those.

Maelstrom: Thy Primordial is signed to Pulverised, a label based in Singapore. How did a Scandinavian band get signed to a label way out in a part of Asia not known for its metal?

Mikael Andersson: Actually we´re not longer signed there, not any other band either since they closed the label some time ago. We are now on Blackend /PHD. And they will re release all the Pulverised albums as well. Anyway, Pulverised saw our name in a magazine and liked to hear our material. Soon after I sent down the material they sent us a deal. We signed to Pulverised since they showed interest in the band and they put up a deal which couldn´t resist at the time.

Maelstrom: Are any members of Thy Primordial involved in other musical projects?

Mikael Andersson: There has been several projects and other real band throughout the years for example Niden div 187, Dawn, Indungeon and Cranium that we have been involved in. Nowadays there are no projects that features any members from Thy Primordial, except that Morth has done some guest drumming on Unmoored´s new album and Solar Dawn´s new album.

Maelstrom: There are several bands which use "Thy" in their title. Why did you name your band Thy Primordial? Was Primordial already taken at the time? How does the name of your band reflect what your music is like?

Mikael Andersson: We found out that there was a band from Ireland that was named Primoridal when Gothic signed us. There for they suggested that we should do something about name. We ended up with Thy Primordial since we thought a complete band name change would be like starting a new band again in promotional purpose. There are many translations on the word Primordial one is Primitive . It fits the music we perform.

Maelstrom: The titles you choose for your songs and albums have always been romantic and epic, and the covers, layouts and photos of your albums have always been attractive. Who makes the artistic decisions for the band?

Mikael Andersson: Both the titles and the lyrics is almost always made by Albrektsson. And the same goes for the layout ideas. He works with layout and stuff like that on a printing factory so it´s pretty natural that he handles that stuff.

Maelstrom: How does Thy Primordial fit into the vast Swedish and world black metal scene?

Mikael Andersson: Actually we don´t fit in to the style "Swedish black metal". Thy Primordial are not that known in the Swedish scene. There are several reasons for that I suppose. First we were on a label whose promotion didn´t reach up to Sweden. Second, we never play live gigs. Third, I claim that we don´t have too much in common with the bands in Sweden. We base our music more on speed and aggression then most of the other bands from this land, except for a handful of great bands. Our inspirations comes from the Norwegian early 90s bands, like Ulver, Immortal, Darkthrone and stuff like that.

Maelstrom: Which current bands do you respect/hate?

Mikael Andersson: Some band that comes up in my mind is Marduk and Darkthrone, I really respect what they are doing. While other bands has changed styles several times, they have remained faithful to what they are doing, that´s something I respect. On the other hand there are a lot of bands that should that should be banished from the earth without mention any names.

Maelstrom: Please finish by giving any news about the band, including merchandise advertisements. I thank you in particular for your beautiful music, and we thank you for your time.

Mikael Andersson: Thanks for the interview. Check out the homepage http://come.to/thyprim for news updates samples and other stuff. Look out for the upcoming album called Crowning Carnage. It shall be available during the late autumn. Re releases of Where only the Seasons..., At the World…, and Heresy… albums shall also be available in the future from Blackend.

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