Thulean Archives

How did I record Filosofem? And what kind of equipment did I use? And what was the idea behind it? Let's find out.^[1] For all the albums I had recorded until then, I had borrowed Padden's drum kit. That would be Padden from Old Funeral. But this time I didn't. And instead I went to the studio and borrowed a drum kit that belonged to another band that had recorded right before me.^[2] And I paid them for the service. I don't remember what kind of drum kit they had because I never really paid attention to such things, but it was a pretty good, decent drum kit. And the only problem was that it had only one bass drum. And^[3] we had to go to a music shop nearby and rent a pedal, you know, got a little pedal(?) that allowed me to use both my feet on the same bass drum, so I could play double bass drum anyhow. The problem with this was that it sounded terrible.^[4] So we rerecorded everything without a bass drum, whilst Pytten was^[5] programming the drum so that it sounded as if I played double bass drum when I really just played on one.^[6] I made the, the synthesizer track on that album, a 23 minute long track, and I did because there was a synthesizer there^[7] and yeah. So I actually made that track in the studio and it took shorter to make the track than it did to record it. And again, I didn't record that one live like I did with "Tomhet" on "Hvis lyset tar oss".^[8] I recorded only a part of it, and we looped each part for, you know, sometime,^[9] and then played a new track. Looped that and so forth. So it's not played live, actually. So even though I could play the bass drum like it's played on the album. I didn't actually play it like that on the album,^[10] because when I did, with one bass drum, it sounded terrible, and we just looped my one stroke(?) instead. And I may add, if you think that's terrible, this is routinely done by all sorts of bands^[11] including the bands you listen to. When it comes to bass guitar. I borrowed one from Pytten, probably one of his, and used that. I don't remember the type or anything. For the vocals, I used a headset in the studio. And I did that because I wanted a cold, raw sound that was completely different from that of others. And I took the headset and I sang right into it like that.^[12] The result of that, of course, as you know, was pretty original, and I was very happy with it. For the guitars, I used a "Boss Overdrive", a yellow fuzz pedal,^[13] and I connected it to my brother's stereo. So I didn't actually use a guitar amp at for that album. I used a Sony 1980s amp for stereo.^[14] And I did that because I wanted this demo tape kind of sound that you have on that album. Like for all the pre-prison albums, I used a Westone Pantera X300 guitar.^[15] I used a "Jazz III" pick for both the guitars and the bass, of course. From the moment I entered the studio to the moment I left the studio with a complete master tape, it took 23 hours.^[16] So it was all recorded in a hurry, in a sense that I didn't spend a whole lot of time. Because I really knew what I wanted. I had already been in a studio before. I knew what I wanted, and I went in there, did what I wanted, and left. Like I said, the synthesizer track on that album was actually made in the studio. So it was improvised, you would say. And the Dunkelheit track, which is originally called The Burzum track, was from, I think it's August 1991. And I tried to record it once for "Hvis lyset tar oss", but I failed because I changed tempo. I wasn't used to playing that slow. And for the Filosofem album, I used a click track for the first time. So I could just keep the steady rhythm. I didn't use a click track for the earlier albums. And if you listen to "Hvis lyset tar oss", the album, you could hear That it's actually wasn't necessary, really, but it was necessary for the Burzum track because it was very slow and I sucked at playing drums. And in case you wonder, yeah, I still suck at playing drums. I was also able to record in only 23 hours because I didn't have to spend a couple of hours carrying and rigging and adjusting the drum kit. I have already explained in earlier videos that I wanted to have a different type of music. I wanted an anti black metal album, because this was completely different from what was already at the time, defined as being black metal, and I didn't want anything to do with that. So I made Filosofem as an anti black metal album. Because black metal had been a revolt in 1992,^[17] starting in 1991, you could say, against the trend of death metal. Every band sounding the same and so forth. And now in 1993, all the black metal bands started to sound the same, wanted to sound the same, and I wanted to protest against that. So in a sense, it's an anti black metal album, but in another sense, it's actually still a black metal album, because that was the black metal spirit and a trend. And per se, there's nothing wrong with following a trend. If you like it, do it. But if you are a musician and you want to play something that is different, then, of course, following the trend is not good. Do your own thing instead. Although it was recorded in March 1993, as you know it was not released until 1996 by Misanthropy Records. I think it's a pretty good album, and from a commercial point of view I think it's also the one with the most success, although I'm not actually sure, I haven't looked at it in detail.^[18]

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1. This one.
2. Some jazz band, as far as I know.
3. We could not find another bass drum to rent.
4. For the Jesus Tod track, only, I may add.
5. The other tracks are played live.
6. That is, he looped a single drum beat.
7. I went to the studio expecting to find time to make a synth track,
8. I also improvised Tomhet in the studio.
9. Record music like you build LEGO.
10. Yeah, still talking about Jesus Tod here.
11. Only a few are HONEST about this, though.
12. Not this one, but something like this.
13. This one.
14. Not this one, but something similar.
15. I still miss you.
16. Come to think of it, maybe only 19.
17. The term black metal could have been replaced by anything.
    It had nothing to do with the Venom album with the same name.
18. Let us end this with some pro-ReconQuest Propaganda.