Auðn: Prisoners Of Daydreams

The Icelandic Black Metal Scene co-existed quietly with its Nordic neighbours in the nineties, but would not become widely recognised until landmark releases by SVARTIÐAUDI and MISÞYRMING brought international attention to the bands operating from this remote island in the North Atlantic. Nowadays, Icelandic black metal has become a byword for both quality and innovation. Among this new generation of bands are AUÐN, whose atmospheric and hyper-melodic approach distinguishes them from the fire-and-brimstone sound of their peers. Their second album Farvegir Fyrndar was a well-studied refinement of a classic sound, but their third release Vökudraumsins Fangi represents a new level of sophistication for the sextet. We spoke to guitarist Andri Björn Birgisson to hear the band’s story, and the importance of a good coffee machine.

“It’s kind of a cliché story,” admits Andri. “I had put one or two songs up on the internet. One of them was the first title track, but in a very different form from what it ended up being. Hjalti [Sveinsson] had been playing with Aðalsteinn [Magnússon] and Sigurður [Kjartan Pálsson] in this death metal band for four years or so, but they wanted to try something different,” he recalls. “They approached me, and we met in a cabin in mid-December. That influenced us a lot, because that’s where we wrote our first song Sífreri, which means permafrost. It was minus twenty degrees. There was also a lunar eclipse, where the moon turns red and becomes a blood moon; that became the name of the second song, Undir blóðmána. Then a few months later, half year at the most, I was auditioning with DYNFARI. That’s where I stole Hjálmar [Gylfason] from!” He laughs guiltily. “So that’s how the original line up was formed. With the new album, we have Matthías [Hlífar Mogensen] on bass and Hjálmar has picked up the guitar. So now we have three guitars.”

Plenty of bands have used the ‘triple axe attack’ to exquisite effect, and AUÐN use it to reimagine the atmospheric black metal sound, where their densely layered guitars played in unison creates a natural reverb effect, from which melodies and descants emerge and fade. “It may have evolved from us being lazy bastards!” Andri jokes. “We have such different ways of playing guitar, and so we have difficulties learning each other’s riffs. We never play the same thing the same way, but so long as it all fits together it works,” he shrugs. “There’s no point having three guitarists playing the same thing. We all intuitively switch between playing lead and rhythm, high and mid-range. Now we have three guitars, we try to cram all of the melodies in. If anything, we write too much, and end up with a lot of material we don’t use. The bottleneck is in releasing the music! Right now, while I’ve been in Switzerland, they guys say they’re almost ready with a fourth album!”

We ask if there were any early common influences which brought the band together in the beginning. “I think GORGOROTH and IMMORTAL are probably both bands we can all agree on, and some of the MAYHEM albums too,” Andri explains. “I love Grand Declaration Of War. I’m a big fan of Blasphemer as a guitarist, and Maniac as a vocalist,” he enthuses, “He sings like he is being crushed to death! I like DRUDKH and bands like that too, MGŁA as well. If it’s melodic, I’m interested. I think VIRUS is probably the perfect middle ground for me now, because they’re really dissonant but they’re not exactly black metal. It sounds like black jazz.”

The classic black metal acts AUÐN have drawn on all project a very definite image, and AUÐN’s artwork has become integral to their aesthetic as well. The tumultuous, ethereal landscapes which adorn the covers of their albums are the perfect complement to the band’s elemental sound.  “The artists name is Víðir ‘Mýrmann’ Þrastarson, and he works next to our rehearsal space, in the next room actually. It’s all part of an old elementary school, which has been taken over by cultural entities. A lot of the time he’s painting as we play, and afterwards we’ll go in and look at his paintings. There was a lot of back and forth. The previous two are also by him, but we had picked them out of his catalogue. This time, we asked him if he’d like to paint something new which we could use. It was a bit more hands on.”

For many Icelandic artists, the hostile beauty of their homeland is an enduring source of inspiration, and AUÐN are no exception. “We’re still in the same mood as the other albums,” Andri explains, “Depressed about living in Iceland and all that! Aðalsteinn looked into the past of Iceland, the 18th and 17th centuries, where not only was there was no electricity but your house is literally made of dirt. It was all about trying to get through the winter in that hellscape,” he says. “One song is about someone trying to just get home, through all the snow. Another is about cabin fever, when the walls start screaming and you don’t know what’s real anymore, but there’s hope for better days in the spring; trying to get through it all without losing it. It’s not exactly a concept album, but most of the songs touch on that feeling of barren hopelessness. We always throw a bit of hope in there,” Andri tells us. “Hopelessness isn’t that bad if you also have hope!”

Vökudraumsins Fangi (Prisoner of the Daydream) was recorded in Sundlaugin, or ‘the swimming pool’, which was converted into a recording studio by post-rock royalty SIGUR RÓS. “We’re basically in the bottom of the pool, and the monitoring station is in a room on the upper floor,” explains Andri. “It’s a very nice place. I really like it there. SÓLSTAFIR have recorded there too, I think they were there the week before us. I understand why they would go there, because it’s perfect for recording live.  They also have a very good coffee machine, which is important,” he laughs. Vökudraumsins Fangi was captured in just four days: an impressive feat for such a detailed album. “We try to be efficient! It always happens when we have rehearsed so much. Some of the songs we got on the very first take. The last day was just experimenting, adding overdubs and other stuff. There is even a Hammond organ on one of the songs, but I don’t think anyone would notice if they didn’t know it was there,” he reveals. “It was a more laid back process this time. If you’re stressed and playing, everything sounds like Slayer. Especially with a good coffee machine.”

As our conversation wraps up, we discuss AUÐN’s plans for the future. “Right now we’d like to just get back on tour, which seems like an insane thought. Hopefully, we can just keep doing what we are. When we started this band, my ambition was to play Eistnaflug festival, and we’ve done that four or five times already. My expectations have been wildly surpassed years ago. I don’t know what to do except keep going. Keep writing albums and playing festivals. Maybe in 2030? We’ll see. We’re selling facemasks at the moment! The track Drepsótt translates to plague, so we have that on a facemask. We’re terrible disaster capitalists in that way! We wrote it early in the year, and then everything just went to shit.”

Vökudraumsins fangi is out now via Season of Mist.

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