Summon: How did the band get started?
Øyvind: The band started early off by playing covers of bands like Mayhem, Black Sabbath and Darkthrone. When we started making our own music it was more black metal oriented. Some line up changes made the band explore more thrash and death metal and it slowly turned out to be the dark and brutal death metal that defines Chton today. It’s brutal death metal, but I guess you could say that we kept some of the dark atmosphere from our black metal days.
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
Øyvind: Well, as I said, we usually describe it as dark and brutal death metal. We describe it like that to emphasize that it’s not only the usual focus on brutality, but also a dark atmosphere in our music. But if you talk about genre, it’s death metal – as simple as that.
Summon: How has the fan response been?
Øyvind: We released our debut album “Chtonian Lifecode” in 2004, and did a lot of live shows promoting that album. But after that we had a lot of line up changes and were not able to follow up with another release. Now, however, we’re finally releasing our second album “The Devil Builds”. It’s really cool to see that our old fans haven’t forgotten about us and there are many that are enthusiastic about Chton rising from the grave. So to answer your question, the fan response has been surprisingly good.
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Øyvind: The name Chton is derived from the word chthonian, meaning: …pertaining to the deities, spirits and other beings dwelling under the earth and is pronounced [ktôn]. The name is inspired by the dark and mysterious world created by Lovecraft. Some of our lyrics also draw inspiration from the writings of Lovecraft.
Summon: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Øyvind: I guess I’m gonna answer this question the easy way:
Craig: Vocals
Espen: Drums
Øyvind: Guitar
Torstein: Guitar
Ola: Bass/backing vocals
We’re all doing our part in creating the dark blasphemy of Chton.
Summon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Øyvind: We’re all part in making the music in Chton. It usually starts out with me or Torstein bringing new riffs to the band rehearsals. Then the fighting and bloodshed starts, ending up in the evil tunes that everyone can sign with their own and the other band mates’ blood. We all have a part in writing the lyrics as well, but when it comes to lyrics the writer usually end up writing for a complete song when he’s at it. So there’s a little less fighting in that department.
Summon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Øyvind: We find a lot of inspiration in books and movies. I’ve already mentioned Lovecraft, who has been a big inspiration for some of our lyrics. We do also have lyrics that mock Christianity and other religions. The most important thing for us is that the lyrics back up our music. That means that we’re trying to get them as dark and brutal as possible.
Summon: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Øyvind: That is totally my view. Not that I believe in any of the stuff, but I like the theme. Satan is like the man-made most evil thing we can come up with. Of course Satanism and Occultism is great for making extreme metal lyrics and imagery.
Summon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Øyvind: “The Devil Builds” will be our second full length album to be released. So keep your eyes out for it 15. September 2012.
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Øyvind: I guess the album will be more varied than our previous album. Some of the songs are faster and more to the point, like “Death Awaits”, “Faustian Resolve” and “Lord and Master”. The song “Death Awaits” was released as a digital split with the band Cleaver and can already be found at all major digital stores and streaming services, such as iTunes, Spotify and Amazon for those of you that want a sneak peek. We’ve got some songs that contains a little more melody (don’t expect any happy tunes though) like “Gods of the Flesh” and “Babalon and the Beast Conjoined”. Some satanic chanting in the song “Black God” should also be expected. We also do a cover of the great song “Ratbag” by the band Abscess.
Summon: Do you have any side projects?
Øyvind: Some of us play in a thrash/death metal band called Cleaver. Torstein plays in band called Drontheim (and played in Manes when they existed). Craig also sings in a death metal band called Demontera. So I guess you could say we’re involved in a few other projects.
Summon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Øyvind: These are of course different for all of us in Chton, but I guess most of us can agree on bands like Immolation, Morbid Angel, Slayer, Black Sabbath, Darkthrone, Bathory and Deicide. No big surprises there.
Summon: Which current bands?
Øyvind: I guess you would like to know which bands I’m listening to these days. Right now I’m listening to Repugnant. I’ve had a period now where I’ve listened a lot to Bathory, Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Testament and Diskord. But it usually varies a lot. I’m not the kind of guy to stick with an album for months not listening to anything else. But I do have times when I’m mostly listening to a certain kind of music or some bands that I’m a big fan of.
Summon: What is the band like when you play live?
Øyvind: As I said before we play dark and brutal music and that is what we like to bring to the stage. We don’t have a strict choreography with synchronized head banging and specialized moves. Don’t expect a stand up show between songs either. We go up there, do our thing and let ourselves be part of the music. Expect lots of energy and brutal music.
Summon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Øyvind: We have actually never played outside of Norway. It’s been planned before and we’re making new plans now, but so far I have to answer no to that question.
Summon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Øyvind: That varies a lot. The biggest crowds we’ve played for were when playing support gigs for bigger bands like Mayhem, Behemoth and Zyklon, and on festivals like the Inferno festival and the Hole in the Sky festival. I guess there were between 500 and 1000 people at those shows. We haven’t done any headliner shows for a long time now, but back in the day we usually got between 50 and 150 at our shows. We’re hosting a release party soon, at which we’re hoping to draw between 100 and 150 people.
Summon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Øyvind: We had a great front man doing the vocals who did an amazing job getting the crowd going back in our earlier days. Now we have a new vocalist who’s going to do his first show with Chton soon. I expect no less from him.
Summon: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Øyvind: The US Death Metal scene has been a great inspiration for Chton. I guess you can say that’s where we got our main influences from. I don’t have any relations to the US Black Metal scene though. When it comes to Black Metal I usually listen to the old Black Metal bands from back home here in Norway.
Summon: What do you think of the Overseas scenes?
Øyvind: Well, I’ve listened to a lot of the Death Metal and thrash metal from the Overseas scenes, but apart from that I don’t have many relations with it.
Summon: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Øyvind: Some great Norwegian death metal bands like Diskord, Obliteration and Execration. I could also mention bands like Solstafir, The Devils Blood and Svartidaudi. But of course I still listen to the old death and black metal bands when they come up with new albums.
Summon: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Øyvind: We are already working on it, so hopefully the amount of time between the second and third album will be far shorter than the time between our two first albums.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band??
Øyvind: World domination!
Contact them at:
http://www.chton.com
http://www.facebook.com/chton666
http://www.twitter.com/chtonband
http://www.youtube.com/chtonband
http://www.myspace.com/chton
