Blood Red Throne: A Death Metal Congregation

For the past two decades, BLOOD RED THRONE have taken their place at the table of Norwegian extreme metal as kings of Norwegian death metal and as they are about to release their tenth album Imperial Congregation, we caught up with founding member and guitarist Død aka Daniel Olaisen to hear all about the past twenty plus years of BLOOD RED THRONE and how after all that time, they’ve just made the best album of their career.

Imperial Congregation is BLOOD RED THRONE‘s tenth album and is packed full of razor sharp riffs, deathly melodic leads and brutal grooves and is an an album that Død is rightly proud of as he tells us that the making of the record went incredibly well. “From the very first riffs two years ago, I knew this would be strong and epic material. Most songs came pretty easy, but I spent some time adjusting the leads to perfection. We had a really good feeling from start to the end and it feels like we have a masterpiece this time! Our 10th and by far best album.” From someone who can count albums like Altered Genesis, Souls On Damnation and Union Of Flesh And Machine and time in SATYRICON on their musical resume this is a bold proclamation but Død states enthusiastically, “this is my 25th studio release, but I’ve never been as proud as this time,” and the results are both undeniable and stunning.

Having been part of the extreme metal scene in Norway since the early 90s, it is inspiring to hear Død still sound so passionate about Imperial Congregation after so many years in service to metal and he also sounds excited about having a legendary metal label in Nuclear Blast releasing the album. “This has to be the ultimate metal album I’ve done. Of course I’m excited. Having the world’s biggest independent metal label on the team is pretty sick too. The feedback on the singles is outstanding and I know the album will be noticed in the scene. I feel many of our albums have suffered from bad promotion. This will not be the case this time!”

Død told of Imperial Congregation‘s lyrical themes which is an ethos that BLOOD RED THRONE have adhered to throughout their career. “Most of our lyrics deal with anti-religion and supporting individualism. The bottom line is that you are your own master and you’re good enough. There’s not one single path for everybody. Enjoy freedom, enjoy life. Do not become a slave.” Musically, the band are firing on all cylinders when it comes to their precise death metal and the inspirations from the best the genre has to offer. “There’s never been this long and melodic leads before, but they are in the spirit of almighty DEATH and really add some tasty edge to the songs. I think it’s the most groovy and heavy BLOOD RED THRONE album for sure!”

The reaction to the album has been as positive as Død is about it as he tell us, “I can’t remember the last time we had such a reception. Any fan of death metal should find at least some cool stuff here. Everything is just correct with this album!” And we definitely agree that everything you love about death metal is executed perfectly on Imperial Congregation.

Delving into the history of BLOOD RED THRONE explains a lot about the death metal purity of this new album and how far he goes back in Norwegian metal as Død explains as he talks about when the band first started and what their influences for their new project were and how different it was from the scene he was in. “I guess everybody expected Tchort and I to come up with a black metal band when we started BLOOD RED THRONE. We were both in SATYRICON at that time and Tchort also had played in EMPEROR and later on CARATHIAN FOREST and EINHERJER. However, the truth is that Tchort and I worshipped death metal, and still do, and we never talked about anything other than starting a death metal band and maybe incorporating some black-ish riffs. I’m totally inspired by the US death metal, but maybe we did bring something new to the table adding some Norwegian black metal riffs also.”

With that death metal lineage, it’s unsurprising that BLOOD RED THRONE have been delivering the goods for as long as they have, as Død proclaims. “We’re here to deliver quality death metal. No surprises, but our songwriting has become much better over the last decade. I don’t want to change too much. It’s all about the killer riffs and great songs. I wanna keep the pace and become the greatest death metal band on the planet!”

The band’s modus operandi hasn’t wavered since their inception and will continue for as long as they are a band and as much as they are proud of their past, their present and future is what truly matters now. “I started BLOOD RED THRONE because death metal is my passion. I’ve invested a lot in this band for 23 years. I won’t stop now. We got much more to give and at some point we have to get our breakthrough I hope. There’s been hard times, but not once have I been thinking about ending the band. For some reason I’ve known that everything will pay off and good times will come. The future looks bright for us!”

As well as releasing the new album, that future also contains a long awaited return to the live arena as we asked Død what it has been like without playing live for the past eighteen plus months. “Like time stood still. This is in our blood and we’ve done so many shows.” With live shows returning, the anticipation is high for BLOOD RED THRONE to take the stage again. “We can’t wait though. There’s nothing better than playing kick as metal and the audience going apeshit!” When they do, the new material from Imperial Congregation will surely go down a storm and Død confirms how much of the new material they will be playing. “We’ll definitely play at least two, maybe three songs from the new one. It all depends how long we get to play. It’s hard to exclude those classics, but we’ll find a cool mixture.”

Imperial Congregation is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. 

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