Interview with Morfeus of Limbonic Art.
By: Scott Alisoglu, taken from : http://www.live4metal.com

Limbonic Art’s Morfeus recently spoke to me by telephone from Norway. Morfeus and Daemon are the black metal band’s only members, which I found to be quite unique in this menacing metal genre. Limbonic Art actually started out as four-piece in 1993, but broke up soon thereafter. The band became a two-piece when Daemon and Morfeus crossed paths.

The band will release The Ultimate Death Worship in Europe and America in September. I was surprised to learn that the band utilizes programmed drums on the album. Of course, at the time that I was listening to the album, I also didn’t realize that only two musicians were performing on it. When I went back and listened to the album, it became more obvious that the drums didn’t vary from one primary beat-keeping speed; obviously, the overall sonic fury of the album is what washed over me, rather than any specific instrument. My ears did not detect anything but raging black metal, albeit with a little more variety coming through the speakers, whether from the well-done use of keyboards or the bone chilling sound effects. I found the guitar sound to be quite crushing. Whatever it is that Daemon and Morfeus did to unleash this unholy blast of black metal certainly succeeded. Morfeus shares his thoughts on the album and other matters of metal with me in the interview that follows.

I said in the review of your CD that The Ultimate Death Worship is an apt title. How did you decide on the title and what were your thoughts at the time? There are several things that kind of decide how titles should come out. I don’t know…first of all, The Ultimate Death Worship has the nice ring to it. It describes a lot of the themes, the issues, of both our music and the lyrics, especially the lyrics. You have song titles and all that kind of shit, and you kind of just decide on something. It felt like it was a good title that described both the music and the lyrics, and our whole attitude toward what we do. How would you describe the lyrical themes on the album? Well, for me, it’s like…Daemon writes all the lyrics, so I kind of have the liberty of not thinking too much about it. I don’t like lyrics that much. Good lyrics are cool, you know, but I’m not a poet myself, so I don’t really reflect much about it.

So, you’re not really comfortable trying to describe Daemon’s lyrics.

No, not really. You know, it’s about the dark side of things. Daemon writes a lot about death and darkness; those kinds of things. I feel that when I say this now, it sounds kind of cliché, but he does it in a way that is really dark.

Where do you get the inspiration to write songs like those featured on The Ultimate Death Worship?

That’s also many different things - from having a walk with my dog to something you heard on the radio. I feel that probably most of my themes kind of emerge from nothing. It’s kind of an empty head that tries out sounds and various things. I don’t really think too much about it. I don’t sit down and say, “oh, I’m going to make something like this or something like that.” It just appears.

Some of the songs reminded me a bit of Immortal. Is that a coincidence or was Immortal an influence?

I think that’s pretty much coincidence. I mean I listen to Immortal, but not that much. I like the older albums like Pure Holocaust. It’s a little bit funny you should say that because Immortal uses hardly any keys at all.

Right. I guess I was referring more to the guitar sound on the album.

The Ultimate Death Wish is a little bit more aggressive when it comes to the guitars and the sound in general is sharper than it has been before. That could maybe be compared a little bit to Immortal.

I didn’t realize you used a drum machine until I found out that there were only two members in the band. How difficult is it to keep the drums from sounding fake?

I don’t know, really. For the two last albums, I have programmed the drums with no intent of sounding human. They are programmed to the beat one, 100 percent all the time. They are like 100 percent tight. It’s probably the way I program them or something like that; the sounds I use are good sounding samples. I also heard from friends that, “I don’t know how you make this sound real, because when I program the drums it sounds like shit. Why doesn’t it sound like shit when you program them?” I just program drums and they turn out pretty ok.

Tell me about the name, Limbonic Art.

I think you can say that there are several, kind of, explanations to it. It definitely doesn’t have anything to do with dance. Limbo is kind of a purgatory-like place. To me, Limbonic Art is kind of the art made in a purgatorial state of mind or something like that. It’s something between life and death. It’s kind of a borderline place; you’re not awake, you’re not sleeping. You are kind of oblivious. I think that’s also reflected a lot in the music, both with the atmospheric stuff and the aggressive stuff.

Will you be touring in support of this album?

We haven’t planned any tours yet. We’ve been working hard for a very long time with the album. At the moment, we’re going to have a break and chill out a bit, and see what happens when the winter comes.

Do you tour as a duo or do you bring in other musicians for the drums, bass, etc?

We tour as a trio.

You add one musician?

It is not really a musician. When we first decided to go live with Limbonic Art, we decided that we wanted to do it the way we do it at rehearsals, and so on. We used sequencers and synthesizers and shit, and they’re all programmed. To make the appearance look a little better, we have a person who starts the song, stops, loads, and does all the electronic shit.

He is on stage with you?

Yeah, and everybody is yelling, “OH, he’s not playing!” And then we say it all the time, he doesn’t play.

At least you’re honest.

Yeah, and the basic thing with this extra guy is that I feel it would look stupid if I run all over the stage and load the shit and press play, and then run back. Also, what I like with it, is that I feel that it’s not totally play back because it’s actually my machine and sometimes they fuck up. It is worse when you start hearing the ticking from the CD player and it fucks up.

You pull from several influences in your music, but it’s still aggressive black metal. Will this sound change in the future, or will you always make metal music?

I think probably we will always have a metal sound. I feel that our albums have been more and more aggressive as time has passed. Maybe we’ll end up without keyboards; I don’t know. It’s only the future that can tell what can happen. It seems now that we’re getting harder and harder, and faster.

I’d like to talk about some of the songs on the album. Could you describe some them for me; like the title track?

Not really. Personally, I don’t even remember the songs distinctively like that. I couldn’t describe them if I was sitting and listening to them, if you know what I mean. It sounds like I don’t even know my own songs. There’s no specific event that makes up a song. That’s why, to me, it gets a little blurry. I feel that all the songs are kind of a part of a whole thing, so to me it’s like all the songs kind of hang a little bit together, and so on.

What is going on in the sample at the end of the title track?

It’s a sample from an execution. I don’t know which guy or whatever.

“Purgatorial Agony” is not actually a song, but it comes off very well and doesn’t sound like filler. It’s also got some terrifying sound effects. Could you talk about that one at all?

That song is a little bit special. It was Daemon who came to me and said he had some vocal lines that he wanted to do, and wanted some weird noises and shit. So we basically sat together and just found weird noises and shit, and he wanted to make it kind of like an asylum. To me, it worked great, and his vocals were great on to those sounds.

When will the album be released in Europe and the U.S?

In America, it will be released the 17th of September. In Europe it will be released September 16th. At the moment, I haven’t even seen the finished pressing.

What’s up next for Limbonic Art?

We’re gonna relax a little bit now for I don’t know how long, and start work again.

You’ll start work on another album?

Yeah.

That completes my list of questions, Morfeus. Thanks for your time.

Yeah, cool. Thanks

Scott Alisoglu
http://www.live4metal.com