Interview By: David Priest
2003 On Track Magazine.com
The pursuit of the Heavy Metal dream may differ for many, but in my eyes the ones who strive for excellence and the evolution of the genre itself are who I put my money on to carry us into the future. And I’m not speaking of the accumulative amount of sub par nu-metal bands who contain that evil regressive rock gene in their DNA. In fact, I’m speaking of those who would work against the grain and not rely on commercialization to advance their careers but instead probe deeper into their own artistic subterfuge. One such band I’ve been aware of for sometime now is Norwegian melodic prog-metalers Extol, who have gone virtually unrecognized in the underground Metal realms until recently when they signed with Century Media Records; the leaders in the underground Metal race. Perhaps one of the most underrated bands in the industry, I truly believe it is only a matter of time before these guys are soaking up the attention I know they deserve. Having already set new standards with 2000’s Undeceived LP and their debut release Burial, the guys have returned with their most experimental offering to date. Besides their obvious gifts of musical radiance, the guys in Extol have set themselves apart buy conveying a positive spiritual outlook in their songwriting. Although this has never been a completely accepted approach, I continue to insist that if people just give the music a chance, they’ll realize that this band truly are an asset to the Heavy Metal culture. I know there will always be those who are adamant about keeping Metal evil, but the truth be known, it didn’t start off as anything more than rebellion against those who sought to oppress the freedoms we value so highly in our lives and Extol, in many ways, are keeping that attitude alive. In a recent interview I spoke with vocalist Peter Espevoll about how signing with Century Media has opened up some much needed doors for Extol and what fans can expect from the band’s new musical direction undertaken on their latest CD Synergy, which hit shelves here in the states on August 12th.
OT: Well I guess it’s fitting that I talk to you this time because last time I spoke with your brother Christer.
Peter: Oh really, cool.
OT: I haven’t seen you guys in awhile, I missed you last time you were out here. You played a couple shows, let’s see; Ventura, missed that one, played in Oceanside, missed that one. I was supposed to go to the Oceanside show and wasn’t given the correct directions - I ended up at the beach. I know I was 5 minutes away but just couldn’t find it.
Peter: Oh, that sucks.
OT: Last time I actually saw you was in Santa Clarita in that gymnasium where you guys played, do you remember that? It was on the floor and it was a horrible show, there was nobody there, it was this big empty place. But you guys were good! Took some pictures and did a story, I was actually with HM Magazine at the time and your drummer was really horrified, we took a picture of you guys as a group, and he was wearing a white t-shirt and asked, “This isn’t gonna get published is it?” We said no, that it wouldn’t, and it wound up on the cover! But you guys are back and you’ve got a new album coming out. Is it out in Europe yet?
Peter: Yes it was released May 26th.
OT: Very cool, looking forward to hearing it. And I understand you guys have ‘em here tonight?
Peter: Yes we do.
OT: Good. (Laughter) Tell me about how you guys got hooked up with Century Media.
Peter: Well basically we just sent them our Undeceived CD right after we released that. That was the last CD in our Endtimes Production deal. So we basically sent it around to some labels and I guess they really liked it. We were dealing with them for one and a half years before we signed the contract, just trying to get everything the way we wanted.
OT: In a lot of circles Century Media’s considered the metal label of choice and in some circles there are people that aren’t so proud of them. Do you think hooking up with them is going to give you a boost in your career?
Peter: Definitely. They have great distribution and that’s the thing I think is good for us. Endtimes Productions could only take us up to… their goal all the time was to just get the name out and then hand us over to a bigger label. Especially in Europe, Endtimes didn’t have any good distribution at all so now being on Century Media will give us really good distribution in Europe and that’s really important to us.
OT: I assumed that was pretty much where your core fan base was.
Peter: Well actually we have sold more CD’s in the States.
OT: Really.
Peter: Because we haven’t had any good distribution at all and also we’ve actually been touring more in the States than we have in Europe, but now we’re going to do something about that.
OT: Personally I wish I was in the European scene myself, it seems that the best metal comes from there: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, it all stems from there. I’m not exactly sure how to best describe your music, obviously it’s got that death metal vibe but it’s got a lot of melody as well. The funny thing is, not to compare you to the ‘Gothenburg sound’, but you guys were doing that long before it was even around.
Peter: Yeah, well our Undeceived stuff, like you say, is more death metal but the new stuff is more straight-forward thrash: faster beats and rhythms. Along the lines of what Believer (ed- one of the best bands ever!) did in their day and stuff like that, much more progressive and also we’ve taken the melodies further. We’ve just basically taken things a step further because we felt that was really important just to survive as musicians; we really need to always look ahead and take things further or else we will just die.
OT: Well it’s good to see you guys, I’m so ecstatically happy that you’re still out there. So many are just gone now: Believer, Vengeance Rising, Deliverance and most recently Living Sacrifice just broke up and that just crushes me. There really are no bands with a Christian message out there anymore. Obviously you guys have a spiritual side to the band and there’s just not a lot of that out there anymore, so I’m glad you guys are still hanging in there and that Century Media is working out for you because we definitely need it out there. Now you guys, being from Norway, I know the scene is very heavy with the black, death metal, dark type of bands. I don’t know if it’s changed much in recent years but I know there was a lot of that going on for awhile. So how do you guys fit in? Do you have a tough time competing with the bands there?
Peter: No. It’s very exaggerated - the whole Norwegian scene.
OT: Is it?
Peter: I mean it was kind of crazy in like ’91, ’92, ’93, but still then it’s not like you get beaten up or killed ‘cuz you’re a Christian or anything. Most of the members in the bands you’re referring to respect us and we even hang out with some of the guys. They’re good people inside, most of them. Of course you always have some nutcases that are really weird, but most of them are real nice guys. We’ve never had any problems.
OT: That’s good, that’s good to know. I always like it when people can respect musicians for the musicians that they are. Everybody’s got some sort of a message to deliver and people aren’t necessarily into the bands for the message, they’re into it for the music; they have a common love for metal, so that’s good to see. Now I understand Ole recently rejoined the band.
Peter: Yeah.
OT: Did he record on the album with you guys?
Peter: On the new album? Yeah, I guess it’s almost one and a half years ago now, he came back ‘cause Tor, the other guitar player, decided to concentrate more on Ganglion, the other band, which John and I also play in. Ole was just ready to come back so it was just perfect for everyone. So when he came back we said no live shows until we go into the studio, we just really spent the time together, all of us, just making songs and making a really good unity with the music and each other and stuff like that. Everybody has participated much more on this CD than we’ve ever done before. It was really cool, very cool. And Ole, of course, is a very good songwriter and it’s great to have him back.
OT: I know there was a joke goin’ around that at first you guys weren’t gonna let him back in ‘cause he cut his hair.
Peter: But now the rest of the guys cut their hair also, so I guess that won’t work.
OT: Having not heard the new album I was really impressed with the last album and the clean vocals that he contributed. Is there going to be any of that on this CD?
Peter: Yeah, we both do clean vocals on the new one, Ole and I.
OT: But you didn’t do any on the last CD did you?
Peter: No. I did on the Paralysis EP. After Undeceived was released we did an EP in Europe called Paralysis and I did the clean vocals there and now we both do them on this one.
OT: Are you comfortable doing both?
Peter: Yeah, sometimes it might be a big problem on tours and stuff if my voice is really bad.
OT: Too much of a strain going back and forth?
Peter: Yeah, but it’s cool, makes things a bit more interesting.
OT: Right on, now I read a little bit about the concept of the album, it’s called Synergy?
Peter: Yeah.
OT: And it’s just about unity. Other than that is there a larger theme behind it?
Peter: Well to explain the synergy concept, if you have a stick and it breaks at some point because of pressure, it would be logical to think if you have two sticks they would break with a double amount of pressure but that’s not true because they would break at maybe 10 times the pressure. So alone you are not so strong, but together you get much stronger than logical. And for us spiritually and musically and being friends, the whole thing is just ‘synergy’. It’s hard to explain, but. Bla, bla English, bla, bla bla.
OT: (Laughter) Most of the interviews you do you speak English don’t you?
Peter: Yeah, except for the Norwegian ones.
OT: So you guys have played some places in Europe?
Peter: Yeah, of course, we had one tour in Europe, like a four week tour, and we’ve played a lot of single shows in Scandinavia; Norway, Sweden and Finland.
OT: Where are some of the best places to play?
Peter: Finland is crazy, it is so cool. I mean the first time we ever got there; I think it was in ’99, that place was packed. I don’t know if we’d sold many CDs there before, but they were like Black Death Metal from Norway and everybody just rushes to the shows and it’s so cool. And then we came back a couple of years later playing the biggest hard music venue there in Helsinki and it was just packed and it was so cool. So yeah, Finland is really good.
OT: I interviewed a band from there called Sentenced. Those guys are very interesting to talk to. I guess they started out as more of a black metal band and kind of went a little more commercial and pop-oriented in some ways. They were interesting guys to talk to especially in regard to their home country and the depression and suicide rate that exists there. I spent some time in Sweden and in certain parts of the country that was prevalent as well. How about Norway, is there a lot of depression and a high suicide rate that goes on there as well?
Peter: Yeah, I guess, but I don’t think it’s as much as in Finland. Up north it’s a lot more than down south.
OT: They have less sunlight.
Peter: I think that’s a big point.
OT: I’ve spoken about this with a number of other people and we’re wondering if taking Serotonin would help. When you don’t get enough sunlight your body can lack Serotonin. If people take these pills then it is supposed to help them feel better; combats the darkness I suppose.
Peter: I don’t like pills.
OT: No, but still some could take these pills rather than contemplate suicide, as long as it’s medicine or vitamins, I know there are some pills people take that have the opposite or different effects on them that don’t help the situation at all.
Peter: That’s because if you take pills you don’t go to the roots, you can’t find out what’s wrong. At least in Norway, there are 15 year old girls that are depressed that are going to the doctor, the psychologist, and then they just get pills for it. What 15 year old girl is not depressed once in awhile, you know what I’m saying? And then they pump them full of pills and…
OT: No, I understand where you’re coming from but what I’m saying is because of the darkness, we have a natural amount of serotonin in our system and we can take natural serotonin to help our bodies because there’s less sunlight in Finland and in places like that. If they just took this it would help to make them feel better physiologically. It has nothing to do with the emotional part, if there are those kinds of problems that’s another story. I was just talking about the physical aspect of it because of being in darkness so long, so many months out of the year.
Peter: Yeah, that’s true.
OT: So you guys have only done a few dates so far, how long are you going to be in the States?
Peter: Altogether five and a half weeks.
OT: Tired of it yet?
Peter: No, I never get tired of touring. Sometimes you get tired, but it’s so worth it, just meeting people and hanging out, playing music and doing what you like the most. I love it.
OT: Very cool. Well, I’m looking forward to seeing you guys play tonight.
Peter: It’s gonna be fun.
OT: I thank you so much, Peter, for your time.
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