Track By Tracks: Svart Lotus - Som et Vondt År (2024)

1. Fyrelogi (intro):

The album needed something to set the mood, and I experimented with noises and voices to get it dark, ugly, and beautiful enough. The title means prologue, but also mission or literally «tongue of fire»

2. Distraction Industry:

Lyrically this is inspired by books by Shoshana Zuboff and Nicholas Carr and people who are on their phones at all times. Musically it is a pretty straightforward banger with a reprise of and variation of the ending riff of «1993» from our previous album.

3. Som et vondt år:

The title came to me almost immediately after finishing the previous Svart Lotus album, but the lyrics did not come until I passed a decaying farm in my hometown and saw that they had fallen a massive tree right in front of it.

«Tuntre» was an old tradition in Norway where you planted a tree where the original builder of the farm was buried so his spirit would inhabit the tree and watch over the farm. Felling that tree was considered extremely bad luck and would make the spirits hostile.

The lyrics deal mostly with alienation.

Musically it is slow, heavy, and a bit progressive. I was massively inspired by Portishead when writing this.

4. Indifference and Wrath:

The title here is a homage to Celtic Frost. The lyrics deal with disappointment with humanity and the hope that mighty Cthulhu might rise from his slumber and get rid of us all.

There is a certain death-metal vibe mixed with punk.

5. Hat og Forakt:

S: The main riff came to me while watching the Warbringer; Sylvanas cinematic in World of Warcraft where the titular character says «life is pain. hope fails» The song itself grew from the one riff and found its form quickly, but the lyrics eluded me for years. I had given it up as an instrumental until I by chance had sent it along with some other tracks to Eldur from Fortid and he immediately told me «THIS is the clean vocal song»

K: The lyrics to Hat og Forakt are about my hatred for the way humanity destroys nature for profit and that powerful people are making a fortune from it.

6. Cryptic Lights:

This song began with the absolutely last riff, as I was fixated on Kool & The Gang at the time, and grew backward out of that. It became a ridiculously aggressive song.

K: Cryptic Lights is about what you see if you close your eyes and take a journey into the mind and beyond.

7. Lurking Fear:

The main riff came to me while listening to a colleague playing «Hardingfele» which is a traditional Norwegian folk instrument.

Lyrically I wanted to evoke the feeling of being alone in the woods when darkness comes suddenly.

8. Svart Lotus:

The riffs here had been lying around for decades but never really fit in anywhere, very old-school. It felt like a natural way to end the album as it twists and turns from the oldskool to the nature-mystical.

Lyrically it speaks of the black lotus and its origins, but also of the inner journey needed to grow as a human.