THE SEARCH FOR INTELLIGENT LIFE  

Four years have passed since the latest album, but The Kovenant are now finally ready with "S.E.T.I."

With their third album "Animatronic" from 1999, The Kovenant achieved tremendous international success and besides a European tour together with Zeromancer and a US-tour in the company of Amorphis and Moonspell, they furthermore played on established festivals such as Waldrock, Gods of Metal, Quart Festival and Roskilde Festival. The expectations from fans and Nuclear Blast that the band would quickly follow up on the success were however not satisfied and not until now, four years later, are The Kovenant ready with the new album "S.E.T.I.". Vocalist, bassist and driving force in The Kovenant, Lex Icon, called up monsieur Bo Black to talk about the time period since "Animatronic" – and of course the band's new album.

"We released "Animatronic" four years ago. The reason that it took so long was that I grew tired of the record industry and all the things that you are instructed to do in connection with an album release. The record companies put a great deal of work in getting the music out, but I don't think they always take the musicians into account, if you know what I mean. I play music because I'm enthusiastic about it and the whole thing about going on tour and promoting our albums is also something I love, but not when it comes to point where it controls your life completely and you can no longer decide yourself what you are going to do in the nearest future. That was what I experienced eventually in connection with "Animatronic" and that was why I needed a break. At no point was I in doubt as to whether The Kovenant would return, but I just had to get away from it all for a while. This long break has given me the will and the inspiration back and we are now ready with "S.E.T.I", which is an abbreviation of "Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence". The Kovenant has always developed from album to album, and this time we have taken the idea from "Animatronic" and incorporated a heavier approach to the music as well as a futuristic soundscape. In general, I would say that "S.E.T.I." is a more 'mature' album than "Animatronic". As has happened before there will probably be some fans who will abandon us on the new album while others will join. That's how it has always been and it would probably never change. I know we have fans who only like our first album and that's okay with me since I know that there are also fans who are still following our development with great interest even though we have nothing to do with black metal anymore."

EXCOMMUNICATED IN NORWAY

#With the new album there is no doubt that The Kovenant are back with a vengeance. The album seems a lot more systematic and integrated than "Animatronic", and the inclusion of guitarist Angel has given the band fresh blood with new ideas.

"Thanks to this long break to contemplate things I have an appetite again to dedicate my time to The Kovenant, and we are going on an extensive tour with "S.E.T.I." which I hope will brings us back to a lot of places. It will also be interesting to see if our critics in Norway have forgotten us or if we will once again be banned from playing a couple of cities. When we toured with "Animatronic" there was a good deal of places where they told us we would never be allowed to play there again because I tore up the Bible and burned it on stage. The funniest thing was when we were supposed to play on the Quart Festival; then the bishop and the mayor showed up and asked us not to burn the Bible during that concert. Unfortunately for them, they talked to Hellhammer so it should be pretty obvious what answer he gave to them, haha! That gave us quite some coverage on TV where they showed clips of me burning the Bible during the concert, and the mayor contacted us and told us that we would never play in his city again. What is even more ironic is that when The Kovenant is touring in Norway, there is a whole bunch of priests and Christians who are fighting to stop our concerts when even Marilyn Manson is playing up here. I take that as a compliment. That will not make us stop; on the contrary it just confirms us in that there is a need for a band such as ours that can create a commotion in Norway. We plan to continue for a long time and as I said we are going on an extensive tour to show that we are back. The next album is almost written but since we are going to tour a lot in 2003, we will probably not have to enter the studio before next year. Incidentally, the new material shows a new development in the music and can probably best be described as early Nine Inch Nails. On top of that, we are going to release a dvd this year which is going to be divided into two or three discs. It will contain a rockumentary on the band's history and a whole lot of other material. We also have plans of releasing a cd this year on the occasion of the band's ten year anniversary and it is going to contain cover songs and remixes of older tracks. So it's safe to say that we are back, haha."

ANTI-RELIGIOUS MESSAGES

#The lyrics on "S.E.T.I." revolve further around the text concept that Lex Icon developed on "Nexus Polaris" and they deal with his fascination of the possibility of finding life other places than on Earth. Moreover, they signal serious criticism towards all religions, multinational corporations and governments who force down decisions in their own interest with no thought to the individual.

"The key word on "S.E.T.I." is that it's not an anti-Christian album, which you could expect from a Norwegian band, but it is anti-religious. I do not only lash out at all shades of Christianity but also Islam since that is probably the most dominant religion of them all. Religions are one of the most ridiculous things man has invented and they only nurture themselves on people's trepidation. How many religions can you mention that carry out things for their worshippers and not only for themselves and their position in society? None! They preach about forgiveness, humility and understanding but their concern is power, money and influence. Wake up, human, make your own decisions! You do not need a shepherd who even exploits you grossly to make it through life. The same is true about multinational corporations. How long will we have to be bombarded by their products before they are satisfied? Each and every day, we are subject to such a violent bombardment of commercials from all media that it borders on the grotesque. They are trying to create the illusion that there is nothing else but their product so you can eventually ascertain that there is only one true God to worship and one real product to buy. And exactly the same goes for politics. Everybody tells you what is real for you but when it comes down to it they only care about themselves and make decisions over the heads of the populace. On the one hand, I would hope that one day it will turn out that there is life on other planets than Earth so people can wake up from the slumber that religions, corporations and governments have put us in, but on the other hand I hope that they will never try to contact us. Because I bet it won't be more than five minutes before we launch our first rocket at them. Because here we witness the arrival of someone who can actually make us think about something else than going to church every Sunday, be a good consumer and vote in the interest of the country... Man has been brainwashed to just follow suit and that is from where we have derived the title of the album "Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence." We couldn't find any intelligence on Earth so we hope it's there somewhere in the universe."

-->> Conducted and written by Bo.