Uten Håp Interview
All the life withers, the trees drown in tears. Cold rain falls down from the dark grey sky, touching the lonely ground. You can hear it. Tears in the eyes, falling into the soil of the fresh grave. There is no point of existence; life is a unbearable torture. Why do we live when we all die? Meaningless. Everything is so meaningless.
Pain. So much pain. Shattered by the grief, you are standing alone in nothingness. Alone – without hope. Deep scream from inside. Roaring through the soul and the body. Without hope. The fingers are touching the blade of the knife…Uten Håp.
– Hello, Danthor! Welcome to Blessed Altar Zine!
– Hallo Vladi! Thank you so much guys for taking time to chat with me!
– Who is Danthor Wildcrow?
– Danthor Wildcrow was born as Danthor Bjärmyr in Sveagruva (Svalbard, Norway), in a family of musicians. I started to play very, very young, that helped me to enter in a profesional band with a lot of great musicians, of which I’m still learning a lot. That was an amazing opportunity for me, thanks to this I have been able to travel a lot, know many people, countries and cultures. When my colleagues saw that people didn’t know how to pronounce my name, they nicknamed me as Wildcrow hahaha. So just a norwegian musician lost in this wicked world.
– What is Uten Håp and what did make you create Uten Håp?
– Uten Håp is a depressive suicidal black metal solo-band (yep, all of those words :P). Curiosly the creation of this project was linked to another of my bands: Rive. When I released my first work with Rive, people started to send me some messages, in those messages they said that were suffering from depression and anxiety and my music was helping them to feel they weren’t alone. This was something that touched my heart, but Rive is very personal to me, so I wanted to do something for them, to be grateful for all that people that listen my music every day and take their time to send me a message to say “Hey thank you, now I know that someone have felt this too, I’m not alone”. But at the same time I really wanted to show the world that this genre of music can be more, a genre of music that trully can show how depression is, and how depression feels. And in that point I decided to create something new with this idea in my mind, that’s why I chose this sound in particular and leave aside the lyrics, and seems to work, because now I receive ever more messages of people that uses Uten Håp daily to feel accompanied, that someone knows how they feel inside. And that’s the purpose of Uten Håp: not only serve as entertainment, but help anyone who needs it.
– Are you a dark and lonely person? Depressive black metal as a state of mind? Why did you choose this direction?
– I have a very dark part inside of me, but no, I think I’m not dark or lonely, I appreciate every second I have with my friends. But life teached me some things, so I try to keep the most of people I don’t trust away from me. Those who don’t know me can describe me as reserved, but my people can tell you that I am a very friendly and positive person.
Depressive black metal is just a music genre. But this genre HAVE TO MAKE YOU FEEL SOMETHING, if you are listening to one band that plays this kind of music and they don’t achieve to transport you to another place or to another mood like melancholy… That band aren’t playing real depressive black metal.
I started my path with Rive as I mentioned before, I had good luck in my life, but also bad luck, very, very, very bad luck, and in some moment I needed to express what I was feeling, that was the reason I started, and now you know why I continue doing this too :).
– Is really everything so hopeless and painful? Why do you think like that? Painful memories too?
– Life is a good gift, sometimes something bad can happen, yes, but it tries to balance itself. People are what make things hopeless and painful. Yes, painful memories, but have traveled so much and saw a lot of things to have the opportunity to say that.
– Your first full length album “Life obliteration” is about to be released. Tell us more about it.
– Well, lot of people asked me for a full length, so after a year I thought it was a good moment to release it. Cult Of Osiris have helped me a lot, and motivated me to do it, so finally after a lot of work the right moment arrived!
When I listen to my releases I can feel an evolution in my music, as a musician I try to be very critic with my own work, and I can say that “Life Obliteration” is the best album of Uten Håp at this moment: so powerful, it transmit the idea of Uten Håp perfectly. I know that people who listen to Uten Håp usually will love it, and the ones who are seeking something different will found it.
– Who were the kind people who participated and helped you with the recording of the album? You had some guests there…
– Yeah, my family. Arkra was the norwegian band I mencioned before, my first professional band, the people to whom I owe everything, and they did some voices in “Path Of Sorrow”. Christian and Laura are also part of my strange family 🙂 they are great musicians from Spain, very nice people with great talent!
– Is life really in obliteration?
– In process, but absolutely. People are destroying the world. People are afraid to feel. People are afraid to be humans. At this moment people like to play with others, no matter the pain that cause. We need to care about others, this situation of hate and selfishness is killing everything.
– So far you had a dozens of EPs released over the past year, and a mindblowing 4 hours compilation! Seems you have a lot of ideas. Where do you get so much inspiration?
– As I said I have a very dark part inside of me, still fighting against it, but it gives me enough inspiration for a few years more :P. I would love to say that my inspiration comes from movies or books, but it’s everything inside me, just express what depression is doing to me.
– So there is a light in the end of the tunnel, at least with releasing new albums?…
– While Uten Håp continues to help people I will continue to work and releasing albums, is all I can say about this 😛
– You play in a lots of other projects. Tell us more about them. How do you manage with everything?
– Yeah, right now I’m in 20 musical projects at the same time, without counting bands of my work as a musician. Are you sure that you want me to tell more about them? Hahahaha.
As I said, besides Uten Håp, I have another depressive suicidal black metal band: Rive. Also in the black metal genre you can find Ov Mhurn (black ambient) or Stormgaze (black metal), but if you are looking for something special inside black metal you should check out Wintercrown: fast, agressive, cold, atmospheric… We shared stage with people like Nocturnal Depression, Asphyx, Psychonaut 4… We are very proud of what we do. And very soon IÄ will come, a very cool project, very fast and technical.
If you like death metal you can listen to My Own Demise (death/groove), Helhest (melodic death), Sepulcration (total old school), Krovork or Nekrose (brutal technical death metal).
You can find me playing goregrind in Costra, as drummer in a noisegrind project called Sporocysts, brutal technical death metal in Brutal Castration, slam in CPJ, crust in Inkrust, even doom/funeral doom in Frostvein and Anhelo.
Maybe if you want something different you can check out my pop/piano band called Lys.
And there are a few projects more to come, like a death metal project called “Costner” (yeah, waterworld for the win!), or “Utter Defiance”, a hardcore/punk band (with my boss from Cult Of Osiris doing vocals) and more…
Now the hard question: “How do you manage with everything?” I sleep very few hours and I am always working. I don’t have anyone to wait for me, so work is everything for me at this stage of my life. Sometimes having a “full” head is good to avoid thinking in anything else.
– What’s the role and the meaning of Uten Håp for you among all of them?
– I have a special love for Uten Håp. I try to put something of me in all my projects but maybe Uten Håp is giving me more chances to make people feel and to help them, and I really hope that Uten Håp grow up to reach more people and make a small change in world. Depression is a very serious disease, and music can help to explain what it feels to people who don’t know it.
– Which are your favourite bands and styles?
– I try to listen and study all the musical genres I can, but let me say some names that are important for me: Ludovico Einaudi, Yann Tiersen, Willie Nelson, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Robert Johnson, Yiruma, The Rolling Stones, Nobuo Uematsu, Bud Powell…
– Would you play some other style of music? Maybe you will create another project if so?
– Yeah, I already play in lot of bands with different styles, but I’m always open to something new or to work with new people.
– When are we going to see Uten Håp live? What are your plans?
– I’m working right now to make it possible, so maybe in 2019 or 2020. I will compose a few new songs for the live shows, with lyrics, and Uten Håp will visit several cities of Europe, so stay tuned!
– What is your message for everybody who is just about to meet Uten Håp?
– Expect something different, a sound universe that gives an idea of what hopelessness, despair, the monotony of living without purpose, feeling desperate to the point where suicide seems like the only rational option actually feels like. No words because none of them help you when you are suffering from depression.
– Thank you very much for your time and for this interview! Will be looking forward to more news around you and all your projects!
– Anytime! Thank YOU for helping underground bands to have a place where are treated with respect!
The rain continues to fall down, making the world much more lonelier. Desperate. Silent. Hopeless…
Interview by Count Vlad
