Producer and musician Kark leads a new generation of torchbearers for Norwegian black metal.
Eirik ‘Pytten’ Hundvin’s work with Mayhem continues to inspire producers, 30 years on. Two of the genre’s leading lights explain how they are taking black metal forwards.
“Black metal is art in its highest mode of expression. To me, it has always been synonymous with total musical, spiritual, creative and emotional freedom.” Kark is best known as the guitarist, bassist and vocalist of Dødsengel, the Norwegian band that represents his shared vision with lyricist, drummer and scholar Malach Adonai. Dødsengel have greatly expanded the genre with their radically individualistic art, which transports listeners to new realms through the use of unusual instrumentation, unexpected ingredients such as components of classical music, haunting and often cinematic atmospheres, and mind‑bending, acrobatic versatility. Dødsengel’s second album, the otherworldly Mirium Occultum, is considered one of the best black metal albums of all time.
Dødsengel’s Mirium Occultum is a Norwegian black metal classic.
Kark handles all aspects of Dødsengel’s production, and is also an in‑demand engineer and producer, working mainly with underground acts. His clients have included the legendary Manes, Behexen, Djevelkult, Askeregn, Jared Ambience Inc (the solo project of Seigmen’s Sverre Økshoff), record label Terratur Possessions and countless others. Located in Ikornnes, Sykkylven, Kark Studios offers mixing, mastering, re‑amping, recording, audio restoration, proximity to the mountains and eloquent company. At present, Kark is constructing a second building with an even bigger room for live performances. The addition “will have the same aesthetics as the existing one with a heavy focus on atmosphere. I have always felt that recording studios should be a place for creativity and recreation, a place that feels like home.” Kark Studios’ decor conjures dark romantic vibes and a dreamlike visual experience.
Raw Power
The work of Eirik ‘Pytten’ Hundvin, profiled in last month’s SOS, has been a constant influence on Kark. “Pytten is essential. In a way, you could say that my approach to working with black metal recordings, and even other types of music, is built upon the legacy of Pytten’s work. I suppose that in most art, in a sense, you have to ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’ to reach a new level beyond the old masters. You have to keep one foot in tradition and another foot in innovation. Thus, I take the old‑school way of recording and work that into a modern setting.” Kark has learned from pioneers like Pytten that “the production is as much a part of the music as the music itself. In most other types of music, I feel that people mostly speak of sound in terms of only good or bad, and that everything is usually oriented around being as hi‑fi as possible.”
Kark believes “the idea that you have to choose between having a full‑range punchy sound and a more lo‑fi sound” is a total misunderstanding. Rather, both options “are completely compatible with each other, and should be embraced instead of shunned”.
As a musician and engineer, Kark strives to “combine technique and emotion so that they work together to bring out the full potential of each piece. Rawness is one of the key elements of black metal. Yet the kind of rawness is not limited to just one type of expression — going full‑on mono and cultivating a sound that almost could have come from a faulty tape recorder. All of Dødsengel’s recordings, for instance, have varying styles and degrees of this element. This can be summed up by having the sonic aspect match the emotional rawness. An example of this could be that very passionate vocals can drive a tube preamp to the breaking point, and this element becomes a part of the performance, rather than seen as something ‘wrong’. Another example is not to polish the guitar sound in a manner that removes the ferocity of a high‑gain amplifier. Rawness should not only be found in the actual performance, but also in how the performance is captured.”
Going Bad
As one might expect, Kark’s decisions regarding equipment depend on “taste, atmosphere, and the chosen colour. It’s not about ‘technical quality’; it’s about what fits and what you want.” He notes that although Pytten has always operated out of excellent studio spaces, he also made strategic use of “very bad gear, which gave a very unique sound. That concept can be turned in any way desired to achieve some very interesting results. So, when I record guitar, I use my Peavey Envoy 110 amp, which I have had since I was a kid. Then, I combine it with something like a Mesa Boogie MkIV and blend the tones to get something unique. So, you have the very dirty side of it and the very sophisticated side of it, and together they make something very special.
Kark’s Mesa Boogie combo is often paired with a lowly Peavey practice amp and Palmer speaker simulator to create his distinctive guitar sounds.Photo: Nicolai Karlsen
“This setup is something of a standard in my productions, regardless of whether or not they are my own, or if I am working with someone else. The usual setup is to have one of the amps miked with two SM57 microphones, using a Fredman mic clip. This clip gives a combination of on‑axis plus off‑axis mic placement, which gives endless possibilities in the blending of light and dark in the guitar sound. This is usually for the amp with the most gain. In combination with that, I split the guitar signal with a simple splitter box, and the other signal can go into another amp with less gain, which will be blended to complement the more high‑gain amp. This amp will usually not be miked up but will go into a Palmer PDI 03 speaker simulator. I am not that much into using pedals, and prefer the amp’s distortion. However, I can sometimes put something like a Tubescreamer in front of the amp, or even use another distortion pedal, and utilise only its tone colour, not the actual distortion section.
“For the bass guitar, I split the signal and use a Mesa Boogie Subway DI and whatever high‑gain dirt amp I see fit. Usually, an old Peavey Bandit does the trick. It is key to have the bass come through as both distinct in its own frequency range, yet somehow gel completely with the low end of the guitar. This is achieved by a blend of this description.
“Vocals are recorded through a Universal Audio LA‑610 MkII with a medium peak reduction rate, and smoothed even further during the mixing with a Hairball Audio 1176 Rev A compressor. The mic is a [Shure] SM7B.”
Kark: I can use my custom API console for the kick and snare drum, while the toms go through an old Peavey 701R mixer, and the overheads go to an old Behringer Eurorack mixer — a blend of sonics that make up a unique whole...
“Drums are the foundation, and their weight determines the weight of the rest of the instruments that go on top. If the drums don’t have enough of a full frequency range, then that will give very direct limitations to every other instrument as well. In other words, the drum sound, to me, dictates every other sound that goes on top. I like to create depth in the soundscape by using different preamps for the different ‘groups’ of the drums, so that while the general sonic aspect of the drums has an evenness to it, I also introduce variation within the evenness. For example, I can use my custom API console for the kick and snare drum, while the toms go through an old Peavey 701R mixer, and the overheads go to an old Behringer Eurorack mixer — a blend of sonics that make up a unique whole, brings forth the nuances, and blends gold with grit for a dirty golden flavour. As for mixing drums, I use a lot of parallel processing in order to maintain the original signal. Yet, I blend the flavours to taste, using two dbx 160A compressors. For drums, a crush bus [aggressive parallel compression] is something that is close to being a must.”
Kark deploys some unusual mic and especially preamp choices on drum kits.Photo: Nicolai Karlsen
Free Your Mind
When it comes to mixing, Kark says that liberating himself from preconceptions has been essential to his development. “Rules that have been important to break include how much EQ you are ‘allowed’ to add to a certain element. If the kick needs a 20dB boost at 60Hz, then I will do that. I listen to the mix as a whole, and I will not solo each and every track to remove things like ‘boxiness’ and so forth just for the sake of it. Some of these elements that are generally considered ‘wrong’ could actually be a big part of what makes a mix sound unique. A mix is a combination of sounds and the sum of how they work together. A comparison could be like this: The paintings that are the most alive are the ones where the lines are slightly blurred, and they have a slightly rough texture. This can be found in the paintings of Odd Nerdrum, for instance. The same goes for a mix. There should be a clear definition and separation of elements. Yet, at the same time, they should melt into each other to create a cohesive whole.
“The mixing starts at the tracking stage, and the mastering starts at the mixing stage. In other words, there is always a certain idea of how everything will end up, with as little as possible left to be sorted out later on or ‘in the mix’, as they say.” Kark aims to create “music that actually opens up when you turn up the volume, instead of just causing you ear fatigue. A good sign of a mix and master done the right way is when you find yourself turning it up more and more as you listen to it. Mixing and mastering at more conservative levels, as the loudness wars are over, does really make way for all the details to sit right in the mix when you crank your stereo.”
Kark’s passion for engineering has always been bound up with “the magic of being able to preserve a moment in time”. While Kark was playing in his first band, he considered recording in a nearby studio. However, he and his friends were warned that its operator would try to restructure their songs. “So, I bought my own equipment and started my own recordings to have control.”
He acknowledges that producing his own material can create a challenge due to a lack of distance. Nevertheless, it has ultimately helped him as a performer: “When I’m recording guitars, bass and vocals, I’m alone in the studio. I don’t have a second set of ears to rely on. So, it’s an exercise in decisiveness, and it’s an exercise in trusting yourself.”
Necromorbus
Tore ‘Necromorbus’ Stjerna has earned a stellar reputation as one of black metal’s leading studio and front‑of‑house engineers, an excellent musician, a highly sought‑after manager, a former record label owner, and more. Stjerna has worked with hundreds of clients in the extreme metal world and beyond, including Shining, Behexen, Deströyer 666, Triumphator, Desultory, Jess and the Ancient Ones, Portrait, Tribulation, Unanimated, Malign, Valkyrja, Inferno, Voodus and so on. He has recorded several of the bands with whom he has played, such as Ofermod and Funeral Mist, and has performed live with metal powerhouse Watain, having acted as their producer since 1999. Stjerna contributed session drums to Armagedda’s Ond Spiritism between producing their classic second album, Only True Believers, and remastering the equally memorable The Final War Approaching.
Tore ‘Necromorbus’ Stjerna is a leading black metal producer and engineer who operates out of his own studio in Söderfors, Sweden.
“I’m looking very much in the rear view mirror when it comes to black metal, at least,” says Necromorbus. “I’m very much in the ’90s.” It’s a reference to the “distinctly different paths that black metal went down, with the extremely DIY approach and the more polished alternative. The idea was to do everything in a very primitive way, but it was still recorded in a ‘proper studio’ and mixed by a legend. I think that marriage between the two approaches is important. I focus on trying to get the band’s identity to really shine through, and having a good variation.”
Overdoing Perfection
This philosophy stands in sharp contrast to much modern metal, which often has a homogeneous and over‑produced sound. “We have somehow got to a point where everybody seems to be walking down the same road. It’s not that everything sounds the same, but there’s very little variation. Death metal exploded in my formative years, and there was an insane amount of creative freedom back then in terms of both the music and the sound. If you put on a record from that era, very often you will hear right away what it is. Carcass sounds like Carcass, Bolt Thrower sounds like Bolt Thrower, and so on. Black metal emerged eventually, and it worked the same way, but somewhere along the way, things started going more and more in the same direction. What we have now is just sad. It sounds great, I’m not going to say otherwise, but things are so ‘put in place’. Everything is ‘perfect’ and polished, but the identity is lost. If you put something on today, you have no idea what it is until, maybe, the vocals come in, as long as the vocalist has some distinct voice. I don’t know what it is. Maybe people just don’t dare to diverge from the norm or something.
“I haven’t been immune to this development. I was trailing along in the same footsteps for a while, but I had to step on the brake, eventually. I wish more producers would do the same.”
Much of the reason why “everything is fixed and edited to absolute perfection” these days is that it has become “so easy to just go in and fix every single little detail”. Stjerna expands: “We have almost endless possibilities to alter what is recorded, but that doesn’t mean we should. Back when I started out, you just couldn’t. Eventually, that changed drastically, and I, too, started editing the crap out of things, but it sucked the life out of the recordings.
“I still do edits. I still brush up things, but I paint with broader strokes. I spend more time during the tracking to get the result I’m looking for. The ideal is somewhere in between, or even a bit more toward not getting everything absolutely perfect — that can actually be better if you want a really big, atmospheric sound. It depends a little bit on the style, as well.”
Stjerna is also wary of overusing sample replacement on drums: “Most of the time, I will blend in a triggered kick with the miked signal. With snare, it’s maybe 50‑60 percent of the time. It depends a lot on the performance. But I try to pay close attention to maintaining a ‘natural sound’. With toms, I’ll add in a bit of triggered signal... if someone holds a gun to my head.”
Stjerna enjoys providing feedback and pushing groups toward creative growth. Frontman Paul Delaney of New York band Black Anvil confirms that Stjerna is the only man who has managed to preserve the “magic” of his band’s demos while giving their records a sense of enormity. “For black and death metal, in my opinion, he is number one. On Regenesis, he gave us a new sound, based on how he heard the new songs. Way more midrange, clarity, and ultimately more life. Having been always used to and comfortable with laying in the cut bass‑wise, my tone was crushing, but it may not have been helping the big picture. Adjusting my tone live and finding a happy medium gives everything a breath of fresh air and doesn’t compromise any of the punishing factor that I pride myself on.” Not only has Stjerna’s brilliance as an engineer greatly altered Paul’s attack on bass, but Stjerna’s output with Funeral Mist, the record Salvation in particular, changed Paul’s approach to music years before the pair met.
Further Mayhem
All of which brings us back to Mayhem’s definitive De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas, the Pytten‑produced masterpiece that established Norwegian black metal as a genre. Mayhem are now on the roster of Stjerna’s artist management company NBS Production, and Black Anvil accompanied Stjerna on the road for Mayhem’s 2017 tour of De Mysteriis. Stjerna recorded, mixed, mastered and, along with Mayhem’s Teloch, contributed intros for De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas Alive — an album capturing a 2015 performance in Sweden.
When it came to the De Mysteriis shows, Stjerna affirms: “It was a matter of replicating what equipment was used and going from there.” This included Hellhammer’s famed drum sound. “We did similar tuning of the drums. It’s very low tuning. At that time, Hellhammer was using a lot of triggers, so we just kind of took away all that and just went over to mics, which is what we’re still doing nowadays.”
Fortunately, the team was able to find the same kind of amp that Euronymous used: “It’s not the very same guitar amp that Øystein used. That one is ‘buried by time and dust’, I guess. When he died, a lot of his things were just tossed out. It’s also made it difficult to figure out what he actually used, and others that he played with back then sadly don’t know or can’t remember. His [Marshall] JCM800 can be seen in several photos, though, so that was less of a mystery. He used various pedals over the years, as well, but we had to experiment a bit more with that. I think we got pretty close in the end.”
After De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas Alive, Stjerna and Mayhem recorded the EP Atavistic Black Disorder / Kommando, the studio album Daemon, and the live record Daemonic Rites. Stjerna reveals that “after the DMDS tours, we went back to Peavey 6505 for the guitars, which the band have been using for a long time now. But apart from that, I guess we’ve continued on the same path. With Daemon, what I was aiming for was to make it sound like what pops up into your head if someone says ‘Mayhem’, and I think it’s pretty clear what that is in my case — and I think most would agree. I use the same approach live.”
At the 2022 edition of the Beyond The Gates festival, Mayhem again reprised De Mysteriis with the help of Necromorbus, with a deeply moved Pytten watching.
Reflecting on his career, Stjerna states: “I’m honoured to have worked with a lot of really great bands, and I’m thrilled that people like the stuff that I do. I’m very happy that I have been able to contribute something to the world, and that I have a legacy. That’s really the most important thing for me.”
Across The Border
Tore ‘Necromorbus’ Stjerna operates from his own Necromorbus Studio, also referred to as NBS Studio. Founded in 1995, it’s situated in Söderfors, Sweden. Stjerna started out using a simple four‑track, and built his first studio in his childhood home with the assistance of his father. The fourth and current incarnation of NBS Studio formerly served as a Pentecostal Baptist church. Although Stjerna acquired this beautiful building years ago, Covid‑19 complicated his move. The renowned Swedish acoustician Ingemar Ohlsson has been helping Stjerna realise his vision. Stjerna tells us: “I love this new studio space. It’s really the way I always wanted to have things. After basically an entire career of working in less than optimal rooms, I wanted to build something without compromises. I had heard about Ingemar before, but, for whatever reason, I thought his fee would be too high, I guess, considering his fame as a designer and his previous work. After a couple of failed attempts with other designers, I decided to give Ingemar a call. Now, I like to think that I am usually very straight to the point in conducting business, but Ingemar definitely beats me in that regard, so, for me, the choice was obvious from that point. I described what I wanted, and when I received the first draft, it was basically 90 percent there already.
“You never quite know what a room will sound like until it’s finished, but when we finished the control room and fired up the speakers, everything was just perfect. Ingemar came over to measure and got great readings. I haven’t had to change one single detail! The ceiling height in the hall is around seven metres, and I’ve kept it very open in terms of sound treatment. There’s still plenty to be done there, but I’ve done several recordings there already, and I love the sound. I have room mics placed and mounted in various places around the hall, so you can play around and balance those in a way that I’ve never been able to do previously. I have a fairly large iso booth if you want a more controlled ambience. There’s one more smaller booth in the design drawing, but I haven’t got to that yet. Lastly, the area where the altar used to be can be closed off to some degree for extra separation, and it has a bit more treatment than the rest of the hall. So, there’s a nice palette of options.
“I abandoned the idea of large mixing desks many years ago for various reasons, but I’ve been through several different controllers over the years to maintain a hands‑on feel to finally land with the Yamaha Nuage setup that I’m using today. Cubase is my main DAW, so the choice was pretty obvious, I guess. I’m using Genelec 1038 speakers as mains, and the control room was also designed specifically for those. The main front end is an assortment of CAPI preamps and a few Neve clones from Sound Skulptor. I’ve been getting more and more into electronics over the years, so I’ve built a lot of the equipment I have here today. One of the latest additions is a bunch of SSL EQ clones from Link Audio Design. Various other studio staples, of course: some 1176 compressors, a couple of [Empirical Labs] Distressors, a couple of Pultec‑style EQs, and so on. I’ve also built up a bit of a collection of backline over the years. A bunch of nice drum kits and snare drums (I’m a drummer, originally, so I guess it comes naturally), a lot of guitar amps... I have way too many toys, but, luckily, I have a bit of space for it at least.”