Interview from 2001, from the since 2008 defunct Full Metal Mayhem website.
Gloon from the Full Metal Mayhem team caught up with Damien Midvinter, brainchild of possibly the most unluckiest band in metal history. Read about the Midvinter Curse, why Krille was the band punching bag and Damien's unrelenting battle againts the most ridiculous odds.
Firstly 'The Curse', I know this is well documented on your web site (now defunct) but just briefly for those who don't know. What is the Midvinter curse and when did it all begin?
[Damien] Sometimes i get the feeling Midvinter was more known for its curse and all the events around the band rather then the band itself, or its music. I think it would be hard to say when it all started, but if you read the story at our site how the first demo really saw light, which explains abit about the creation of Midvinter, it would be easy to assume that we had a sligh slew of bad luck from day 1. And from then, it only got worse. Back then we didnt think much about it ourselves, most of our lifes were in misery at best, and shit out of luck was on the daily menu it felt like. It was rather the scene people and close friends who proclaimed the band to be cursed. When we got to think about it for a minute, it all became rather clear. It doesnt really matter what we were trying to do, no matter important or not. Something had always got to go wrong. The band was so infested, especially me. That not even such an easy thing as taking the plane from Gothenburgh to Sundsvall to rehearse would go un-pestered. Being 50 metres from the check-in gate and still suceed to miss 4 planes in a row. Normally that would mean the person himself had to be pretty stupid. But i guarantee, if i were to fly to Stockholm or Italy .. anywhere to do something that didnt involve Midvinter, then that would never had happened. People who wish to get a complete coverage of Midvinter past should take a visit to our site at www.midvinter-studios.com (now defunct) for a few laughs.
Midvinter seems like a high-risk job, how did the band first form and how did the band get on as a whole?
[Damien] The band first formed as a private project, just some of us having fun after apollgon rehearsals, with me on the drums and bjorn on vocals + kalle on strings (Apollgon, Fogbound). The part were Midvinter turned into a "real" band was really nothing but some rather stupidly coincidences, resulting in a series of events that lead to the recording of the "Midvinternatt" demo. This story is also covered on our homepage for those who wants the complete coverage. At the time Midvinter became a real band, it consisted of me, Bjorn and Krille. Me and Bjorn had been friends for a long time... Krille.. i dunno..
He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time i guess, sure he had his moments, but somehow i dont think anyone of us took him really seriously, especially not Bjorn who consistently made jokes about krille having geysex with his stepfather and stuff. I was probably the one who did atleast try to understand him, but even i failed as i later came to break some of his ribs. The core of Midvinter for sure was Me and Bjorn then, we had a very close brotherly relation (im not implying on anything sexual here.. hehe). It was a complete blow under my belt when Bjorn vanished, said he wa staking a few days off going to visit his sister. He never came back, and it took almost 1 year before i got to know that he flipped out and was laid in mental hospital. After that it would take several years before i even saw him again. And when i finally did, he was far from the same person that i used to know. This pretty much sums up.. after all Midvinter didnt get on very well by any means. I was however still determined to not put the band to the grave. Alot of things happened in and between, and several different line-up theories were on the menue. For a while it seemed like Adde from Naglfar would be 2:nd guitarist, and Stoffe Naglfar/Bewitched on bass, but that ran out in the sand. At lastm we settled with Kheeroth (Ex Setherial, V�lnad Ur rymd) on vocals and zathanel (Setherial, Blot Mine, Sorhin ...) on drums. And me doing all the guitars,Bass,keys. We were pressured, by time schedules, bad economics... and ofcourse the curse.. But we did get that album out after all.
On reading the 'Moments' section on your site, it seems that Krille was the band bitch and suffered pretty much every indignity under the sun. Any particular reason? Or was it just a matter of 'Fuck it!' Krille's a dickhead lets bash him!
[Damien] Krille for sure was the bands bitch, i should add that most of us had a pretty sick sense of humour as well, which Krille more then once would come to experience. He didnt really have the same state of minds as me and bjorn, which probably placed him aside from us, thus contributing to him being the subject for most bashing. Sure, it was fun, for us atleast. Things like fooling him to drink urine 6 times in a row... i mean how stupid can u get? Luring him into digesting female hormons saying it was drugs.. coz we were hoping that he would eventually start to develop breasts and more femine looks.. wicked.. but sure fun.
For better or worse Blackmetal use to have an aura about it a certain evilness. The church burnings, the murders, the shootings it all helped to almost reinforce the blackness of the music. Now most blackmetal bands are living comfortably and selling to an almost mainstream audience, what are your thoughts on this? Is 'true' blackmetal dead?
[Damien] I Dont think its so much a question wether "true" blackmetal is dead or not, its more like a question has there ever been such a thing as "true" blackmetal? If you try to really define the term "true" by the standards it was supposed to represent, having the facits today, we all know no band really lived by what rules they preached. This was for sure, more a image "gimmick" which many sought to use, since it would improve their status and popularity in the scene. The fact that you shoot someone doesnt say much about you, other then the fact that you will have to take the consequences. Anyone with a gun in his hand can point and click... its like surfing the web. Killing someone over a current mental state of hatred is just an act with dire consequences unless you had planned it carefully and made sure you wouldnt get caught. As we can see all murders within the scene were never professionally planned and/or performed. Meaning, the one who did it had not seriously planned this, its more a act of impulse. Moreover, what does this have to do with music? the more you think of it... it doesnt really make any good sense. defining a "true" blackmetal band.. lets say, we do have a God and, Satan as pictured by oldschool religion. Now, this is a bit stupid and hypothetical theory, but its just a basic way for easy understanding. So satan is sitting down in hell watching the people, now anyone who actually DID read the bible (i did) would know that everything satan represents is anti-life, anti-love, anti-anything positive you can come up with. He represents the most purest form of opponent and inverted version of the entity called "god" by oldschool religion, or take a batterycell for an easy explanation, you have a minus pole, and you have a plus pole, complete opposites. Now, satan doesnt really care shit for life, he rather sees it annihilated. Then some of the feeble creatures called humans starts to paint their faces, and making music where they try to praise him. For what good cause would satan the almighty benefit from this, does anyone really believe it would amuse him the slightest? Or is anyone stupid enough to believe that by playing black metal satan would grant them a life eternal, seriously no. So, lets say you get more serious about this, you burn a few churches, sacrifice animals, hell even humans in the name of satan. You think this would amuse him more. Sure he would laugh at you, being the purest form of evil, he would not have any mercy on your soul no matter what deeds you do in his name here on earth, because you cannot hide your heart, mind or thoughts in front of a god. If you truly do worship this form of evil, then why did you even hesitate the slightest to kill you family and as many you possibly could and then kill yourself. If you truly were devoted to what this entity does represent, you would not had hesitated the slightest. But instead you choose to play music, and make hymns to him.. sure anyone must see the irony. You partied with you friends.. that was fun heh? Well, bad news, because satan doesn't like when you do have fun. You just won a million on lottery.. bad news, this is not what Satan expects from you. However, there are of course many diversions of religion in modern time, and many different types of practicing them. I was referring to the old school religion, which basically covers most modern times "commercial" religions. But does practicing any of these offspring religions entitles your band if you happen to have one "true" or "false". I think these terms were just interventions to set people aside. It all started with Therion, everyone was digging Therion.. hell yeah. Jon of Dissection even arranged gigs for Therion, praising how cool they were. That was until Therion for the first time published an album with the lyrics included... when McDonalds and Coca Cola showed up, the more "evil" part of the scene were disgusted, and thereby Therion was entitled Life-Metal, and everything not in the veins of ”Therion" was "true". Problem was that at this time, new bands popped up daily and everybody claimed to be "true". Now, it didn't make much sense if every freaking band was "true", so the rules got tougher. And proving your "true" image wasn't just done by words, unless you were a good writer. Burning a church.. yeah. That would set you apart from others. After this... it all evolved into a big boiling soup.. which in the end collapsed. With this, I'm not saying that we don't have people in the scene who were deeply religious, and did believe in something, and even have today. Reason I know this is because i myself have been there. I did have strong religious beliefs, and i believed in what i practiced. And it almost took me to complete misery. I was involved with a sect, which by now is known by many and i don't think i need to go further into it. But one day, i don't really know what happened, but i was beginning to think, and all this thinking drove me nuts, i started to see so many flaws in what i was doing and what i had believed in and worshipped for so long. So one morning i looked myself in the mirror and said, this is not me. I broke free from this "sect" which was something that wasn't really possible, nevertheless.. here i am today. Only a few months later the remaining core of the sect, which was 2 other people was arrested for murder and are today doing time behind bars. Had I not woken up that day and faced the truth, i would be sharing the same faith as they do now. And for what possibly good? This doesn't mean i buried religion behind or converted to christian. All modern religions have flaws, are corrupted and spreads false information. Especially christianity, this itself is a contributing fact that people will start to hate the religion, its people, its preachers, and its houses and turning to something opposite. We same the same story happening again but in another form today.. you hate nig**rs, you hate j*ws.. you turn to nazi societies. It is by weakness that man seeks shelters in existing forms of religions or ideologies. If you are strong, you make up your own mind, and you believe in what YOU believe is the truth, not by what others are trying to convince you to believe. I have made up my own mind, and i do have my own beliefs, i dont try to enslave it unto others, and best of all.. i don't need a "manual" to know what i believe in. Damn.. i could go on forever it seems heh.. better stop before someone chokes to death.
Please report dead links!Midvinter was pretty much put on ice due to your disappearance, now your back and Midvinter lives again. What made you return to the scene and are you and Midvinter back for good?
[Damien] Well, much things in my life has changed during the last few years. And even though i have been living "normally" for some time i did not again make contact with the other members. It was when i saw that people were still listening to our music, and that we had a lot of fans still out there when my desire to "wake the curse" started to burn again. I, and Midvinter for sure are back again, for good? Never underestimate the curse....
Now that your back from the wilderness, who else will be enrolled to continue the Midvinter legacy and are they aware of what they are getting themselves into?
[Damien] Kheeroth is back on vocals again, he sure does know what he is getting himself into. About the rest of the line-up, its still abit to sketchy for me to be able to announce anything official. But as soon as it is set for sure, we will anounce it.
It has been 4 years since the release of 'At The Sight Of The Apocalypse Dragon' that's a long time between drinks, what can we expect from Millennium Midvinter? any surprises installed for us on the new album or is it business as usual?
[Damien] our debut album could had been done so much better then it was, but i guess considering the circumstances then, perhaps it was the best that we could come up with. Ofcourse, 4 years does alot to you in means of progression and development. Our sound has changed alot i dare say, much more varied music now but it still has the Midvinter touch so old fans should not be hesitated. The use of orchestral samplers, and normal female/male vocals are better used. The new songs are not so long, and not becoming monotonous, which was one of the greatest problem on the "ATSOTAD" cd.. And yes, there are a few surprises.. But you wont be able to experience that until we have something recorded for the masses. Currently we are working to get a 2 track promo done to show our current sound, and to start promoting the band again.