Written By Chris Norris
Where History, Nature and Modern Black Metal Converge
In this ISVIDD interview, Björn, the creative force behind the Stockholm-based atmospheric black metal project, explores how ancient Nordic history, the beauty of the natural world and a bleak view of humanity influence his music.
He comes to ISVIDD with five full-length metal albums recorded in previous bands, a background spanning folk, black and progressive metal, and formal training as a pianist. Away from the studio, he leads historical walks through Sweden’s Viking Age, Vendel Age and Nordic Bronze Age. His interests extend well beyond music and history, as his answers make abundantly clear.
That breadth of experience gives ISVIDD its character. The single By the Other Side of Midnight, inspired in part by an exhibition linking Swedish folklore to environmental concerns, imagines mythical beings confronting the destruction of their habitats. Björn also draws inspiration from forests, lakes and the Nordic landscape, sometimes experiencing colors as sounds through synesthesia.
With collaborators including Sascha Samayoa and vocalist Alonso Ramos, he blends atmospheric and melodic black metal with symphonic arrangements, ambient passages and less predictable musical influences. The completed debut album, Iron Nocturne, is being introduced through singles, with further material already taking shape.
But behind the music is a man whose curiosity ranges from ancient civilizations to modern technology, and whose sense of melancholy is not the same as despair. We spoke with Björn about the myths musicians perpetuate, the limits of humanity, the memories that enter his lyrics and the freedom of making music on his own terms.
ISVIDD Interview Q & A With Björn
Metal Lair: You’ve recorded five full-length metal albums with previous bands, yet you’re introducing ISVIDD to the world almost from scratch. After years of musical experience, what’s it like being an established musician in your own life but essentially a newcomer in the eyes of your audience?
Björn: Well, that distinction doesn’t mean very much to me. I’m quite successful in many areas of my life, and music is another facet of what I do. I thought I was done with music altogether, and I didn’t touch an instrument for seven years. But after focusing on my health, I felt inspired again and decided to start a solo studio project. I’m not particularly concerned with other people’s opinions, so for me this is a form of self-expression and personal fulfilment, rather than a quest for rock stardom. =)
Metal Lair: Your previous musical projects gave you the technical experience to develop ISVIDD’s sound, while your work as a historical guide exposes you to centuries of human conflict, mythology and cultural memory. Do those two sides of your life ever compete for creative control, or have they become inseparable in the way you compose music?
Björn: There are even more sides to my life than you’ve mentioned. I’m an engineer specialising in electromagnetism and high-speed electronics, and a well-known expert in my field. I’m also a traveller, a history blogger, something of an artist, and a poet. It’s hard to list everything. I describe myself as a Renaissance man and a shard of old Europe.
All these different sides of my life inspire ISVIDD. You could call it reflection and self-examination, perhaps even an exploration of the world around me. In that sense, I feel quite well balanced.
Metal Lair: You’ve spoken about leading historical walks through Sweden’s Viking Age and earlier periods. Black metal frequently romanticizes that past. What’s one popular belief about Nordic history that you wish more musicians would stop repeating?
Björn: As a Nordic person, I’d prefer to avoid telling other musicians what they should or shouldn’t do. =) But there is something I often mention on my historical walks. When participants call me a Viking, I tell them that I see myself more as Ahmad ibn Fadlan: a scholar observing and describing the Vikings from the outside.
The Vikings weren’t people a modern person would necessarily be happy to meet. They had a very dark worldview and a deeply fatalistic religion. They were entirely comfortable with slavery, rape and plunder. As we see in the sagas, stealing was frowned upon, but killing everyone and burning down the house after robbing it was Odin-approved behaviour.
Nevertheless, I appreciate the culture and grandeur of that age. So it’s a very complex question. =)
Metal Lair: You’ve expressed a deeply pessimistic view of humanity while describing nature as a source of extraordinary beauty. Do you believe humanity is capable of changing its relationship with the natural world, or has something fundamental been lost?
Björn: Yes, I’m quite open about my belief that the “human project” has been a complete failure. I’m not sure that changing our relationship with nature would change much, because we ourselves are an integral part of nature.
The more serious problem is that we now live under a dictatorship of mediocrity. And these mediocre people could easily lead us all into a nuclear war or something equally disastrous. I have no remedy for that, so I prefer to spend more time alone in the wilderness. While it still exists.
Metal Lair: You’ve made an interesting distinction between melancholy and depression when discussing ISVIDD’s music. What separates those emotional experiences for you, and do you think listeners sometimes confuse darkness with despair?
Björn: The difference, for me, lies in inner strength. I’ve made some major changes in my life that required extraordinary inner strength, and I can say that depression isn’t part of my own experience, in either the clinical or the everyday sense of the word.
Autumn is melancholy. A storm is melancholy. But calm comes after the storm, and spring eventually follows autumn. It’s very important to be able to feel good in all circumstances. In summer, for example, I spend most of my time travelling. In autumn, I write a lot of new music and lyrics. I make the most of the moment and enjoy it.
As for the listeners, I’m not sure. People are very different.
Metal Lair: Where the 9 Shadows Fell incorporates an unconventional 5/4 time signature and jazz-influenced harmony. How far are you willing to experiment with musical structures before you feel a composition begins losing its black metal identity?
Björn: Well, that comes from my previous band, Equinox, where we played female-fronted progressive metal. To paraphrase Aramis in Twenty Years After, the musketeer in me hasn’t quite died yet. =))
The next albums will feature plenty of influences from other styles. Perhaps we’ll add a “post-black” tag to them. To give you an example, a couple of weeks ago I recorded a jazz bass solo for the second album.
Metal Lair: You’ve described dreams involving encounters with people you’ve lost. When experiences that personal enter your songwriting, is music a way of understanding them, preserving them, or simply giving them somewhere to exist?
Björn: Absolutely. There will be a song on the second album dedicated to my father’s memory. As I’ve said, ISVIDD is a reflection of my emotions, so those dreams also have a strong influence on some of the coded imagery in my lyrics. Even the title of the second album, Askelund, comes from dreams like these.
Metal Lair: You work with musicians from different countries while maintaining a strongly personal creative vision. Has a collaborator ever interpreted one of your compositions in a way that changed how you understood your own music?
Björn: My guest musicians have a certain amount of freedom with their parts, but the final decision is mine. I listen to their ideas, value their suggestions, and approve about 80 percent of them. So I’d say the album versions are quite different from the original Guitar Pro sketches.
Metal Lair: Your future work may incorporate literary influences including Dante and Federico García Lorca. What draws you to those writers, and do you see common emotional or philosophical threads connecting their work with Nordic traditions?
Björn: As a Renaissance man, I feel an affinity with them. Nordic traditions don’t really come into it here.
I’ll definitely be drawing on ideas from Wagner, Grieg and Paganini on future albums. I’ve done something similar before, when I wrote several songs based on texts by my great ancestor, Adam Bernard Mickiewicz. This autumn, in Kraków, I listened to that album near his tomb and memorial, and felt that I was on the right path.
Metal Lair: You have an unusually substantial amount of music in development while ISVIDD is still establishing its audience. As an independent musician releasing material in today’s digital landscape, how do you balance the demands of visibility and promotion with the creative freedom that led you to build this project?
Björn: It’s quite simple: I have people helping me who make active use of modern technology.
At this stage, ISVIDD involves more than just music. There’s also social media marketing, which I delegate to some very interesting and talented people. So while I’m roaming through the forest, writing new songs, things somehow keep moving along.
In this ISVIDD interview Björn explains that this is more than a musical project. It is an extension of a life shaped by history, nature, intellectual curiosity and personal reflection. Unconcerned with convention or commercial expectations, he approaches black metal with the freedom to explore whatever inspires him, whether ancient mythology, classical composition or memories carried through dreams.
With Iron Nocturne completed and Askelund already taking shape, ISVIDD offers a glimpse into an artistic vision that refuses to remain confined to one genre, discipline or era.
Metal Lair thanks Björn for sharing his perspectives and taking us inside the creative world of ISVIDD.
ISVIDD ONLINE
About the Author
Chris Norris is the voice behind Metal Lair’s global metal coverage, World Metal Weekly. From funeral doom in the north to thrash born in the streets. Known for spotlighting bands before algorithms notice them and for writing with the precision of a scalpel… or a well-sharpened guitar pick. Vinyl collector. Night-shift journalist. Believes heavy music has no borders.
Read More From This Author:
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