Stud: Were doing bloody great and everything is all right!

Ellen: Your latest brutal attack entitled “Stronghold of Men” arrived with me recently; now that it’s released, how do you feel about the album? Is there anything you would change if you could? What are your favourite moments?

Stud: The album feels good. Good songs, good sound, good layout/cover. I would not change a thing so far, but as time goes by you normally find little details here and there, but nothing as of now. My fave moments are probably "The Spirit Of Masculinity" "Last Dawn" and "Born In a Grave". Timeless stuff.

Ellen: Have you been receiving good responses to the album from the fans and the press? Do you think there is a strong taste for old-school metal right now?

Stud: Yeah ,the response has been totally great from the fans/public. It also seems like most of the press "get it", so to speak. The taste for old school metal has always been there ever since it was new. Ha ha! Everything goes in about 20 years circles. I have always listened to the old school classic stuff and it doesn't seem to change. My mind is parked. If it's a revival nowadays I guess it will only do us good.

Ellen: It’s interesting (and cool) that you are looking back to classic sounds; what is your view on the modern metal scene? Are there any bands which impress you nowadays or does it all need to be drowned out with old-school thrash?

Stud: The modern metal scene I think is boring. There is no element of danger to it. Too many people are trying to be "artists". We are not artists. We are rocking and rolling metalheads! In fact everything that is modern is boring. I would like to live in the wild west and rob banks and win gun duels and fight in the saloons! Today too many things are too streamlined and nice. I don't like nice. There are very few new albums that impress me. I liked the I album "Between Two Worlds". And I liked Motorhead's "Kiss Of Death" and I liked Dead To This World "First Strike For Spiritual Renewance". I get these compilations CDs with various magazines and I always find myself playing through it with very few bands leaving an impression. In the 80s it was different. Then almost everything was good. People always tell me: You cant live in the 80s forever. I will until I find something better, I have not yet.

Ellen: Which bands and albums of the past have particularly inspired you during your careers, and influenced the old-school sound of “Stronghold”? What was the main inspiration for all the members to get together and form this band?

Stud: It's bands like Sodom, Celtic Frost. Old Slayer, Old Metallica, Motorhead, Destruction, Darkthrone etc. You know the classic bands. The main inspiration was rebellious anger in the mind combined with the love for the old bands and old times.

Ellen: What does it mean to be ‘the most masculine band in the world’?! Do I have to renounce my status as a fan, being a girl?

Stud: Ha ha, I think that was something the record company came up with after they heard the song "The Spirit Of Masculinity". It wasn't our line, but it's fine with us. You don't have to renounce your fanhood being a girl. You just proved that you have an eye for real men! Ha ha. No, we love women. They are our natural counterpart. He he. I fucking dig the band Girlschool. Great girls and good music. I've had the opportunity to drink with them a couple of times, and they are just great people! Total respect. I also live together with Morrigan (ex Aeternus , ex Obtained Enslavement) and she was a girl last time I checked.

Ellen: You’ve already established your reputation as a live act; which show has been best so far for The Battalion? Is the live experience central for you as a band?

Stud: We love to play live. Inferno Festival was great and so was our release party and The Festung Open air Festival. Maybe Inferno was the best one, cause they had great sound and a even better light show. Festung was great 'cause it was outdoors and I could smoke cigarettes on stage. Release party was good cause we were on home turf and it was like playing to close friends. Good party it was.

Playing live is essential. If you can't cut it on stage, you don't cut it at all.

Ellen: What are you future plans for touring; I believe you will be smashing up a few festivals this summer?

Stud: Yeah, we just got a new booking agent in www.photograve.net . They also have great acts as Immortal, Emperor, I, etc. Hopefully that will get us some good opportunities to get around. We wanna play as much as possible, That's it. Some festivals are confirmed, but I'm not allowed to tell em yet...

Ellen: How does the song-writing process work with The Battalion; do you all bring ideas to the rehearsal room or do one or two people mainly do the writing?

Stud: For the album I wrote the riffs to 9.5 out of the 11 songs, but Lust does all the solos and make them. Morden comes up with all the drum beats, and Kane all the bass lines. I do all the lyrics. When any of us has a riff we beat around it a bit in the rehearsal room till we have the groove, and then I go off and put some lyrical sense into it.

Ellen: The lyrical themes on “Stronghold” are straight to the point, as the reader can see from song titles such as “Man to Man (Warfare)” and “March of the Veterans”; do you treat lyrics as a bit of fun or are they really important to you?

Stud: Some of them are serious ,and some of them just meant to entertain in a brutal way. "March Of The Veterans" is a serious one and is actually dedicated to my grandfather who was sentenced to death during WW2 . He was supposed to be executed May the 16th 1945. Then the war ended on May the 8th and he survived. If the war was only to go on for 8 days longer, I would not have been here today, Strange thought.

Ellen: Talking of veterans… do you consider yourselves to be veterans of the metal scene? As The Battalion is your main priority and a full studio and live prospect, do you get sick of being asked about the other bands you have been in, or is your background purely to your advantage?

Stud: You never get rid of your heritage. I am proud of most of my previous musical work and so are the other members of theirs. As a new band it's probably an advantage as people always tend to need a reference point. I think maybe we can be considered veterans as we have all been involved in music for quite some time. I myself started in Old Funeral in 1988 when I was just 15. So it's been 20 years. Some of this time I was not active writing music, but I have always been a fan and collected records, read magazines, and gone to probably more gigs than was healthy for my ears. He he. I have also been in Bombers, a Motorhead tribute band, with Abbath since 1996 and still going.

Ellen: You are attached to Dark Essence and Bjørnar has been heavily involved in the production of your releases; clearly you enjoy working with this label- what is so special about them?

Stud: They are dedicated people and we can trust them. They are not the biggest label in the world, but they believe in The Batallion and are always interested in our activities. They agreed to put out vinyl and picture disc formats of our album and that's important to us. They are also geographically close by so the communication is easy and personal. No hassles either way so far.

Ellen: All right…. Thank you again for your time, and congratulations on the awesome album. If you have any further messages for the world, please go ahead:

Stud: The message is : Never let the bastards grind you down. We were all born in a grave, all right!

For more on the band check out www.myspace.com/thebattalion666
www.darkessencerecords.no

Interviewed by Ellen Simpson

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