Alex Haber of Heavy New York recently conducted an interview with bassist Jørn "Necrobutcher" Stubberud of Norwegian black metal legends MAYHEM. You can watch the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On whether MAYHEM's forthcoming "Daemon" studio album is a continuation of 2014's "Esoteric Warfare" or something entirely new: Necrobutcher: "It's definitely not anything to do with that album. This time, first of all, this is the best work, what I'm most proud of since, let's say, 'Chimera'; that came out in 2004. This is our best stuff in 15 years. Mainly, I think, probably because this one… for a lack of a better word, it's 'live friendly.' It means that it has elements that can be reproduced live. The last two albums didn't really have that, 'Esoteric Warfare' and 'Ordo Ad Chao'. It's more like those were great albums, but it was hard to reproduce live. But this one is not. This one is live friendly. Half of the songs we are going to do live. So it has nothing to do with the last two albums at all. I think maybe that these guys now, being in the band for nine, ten years, it had to take some time to mature. Plus I think it sounds a little bit more mature. It's stupid to say. When I listen to it, I was thinking to myself, 'Some of the riffs build on emotions and something you have inside.' To be able to share that with people, you have to be pretty mature. I think that's what happened to both [guitarists] Ghul and Teloch. They now felt more free to do whatever. Then this is more of the truth. The rest was riddled up in all mathematical formulas and the lyrics are all conspiracy theories and stuff. Now, we came down to this, which was a very natural thing for us to do." On whether his "Necrobutcher" stage name is an extension of who he really is: Necrobutcher: "No, I'm the same guy always, but the name 'Necrobutcher' has nothing to do with being a necrophiliac or something like that. The name spawned when I was around 16 years old. All of my favorite bands like HELLHAMMER, VENOM, they all had cool nicknames. So, we basically stole the nicknames out of CELTIC FROST and HELLHAMMER. [Drummer] Hellhammer [Jan Axel Blomberg] is HELLHAMMER. [Former vocalist] Maniac [Sven-Erik Kristiansen] is [HELLHAMMER song] 'Maniac'. Necrobutcher is Slayed Necros, who was the [bassist; Martin Eric Ain]. That was just some names we picked out for ourselves. Somebody told me that 'Okay, you can't put these two names together because it's wrong grammatically. Necro-butcher. You can't really put these two names together.' And I'm thinking, 'This is perfect! Because it tells people that this guy must be fucking insane to come up with this name that's not even grammatically right or correct.' I was thinking to myself, 'That's perfect. I'll keep that. Let's keep that.' Now it's been with me for 35 years. I walk down the street, anybody says 'Necro!' I don't react anymore. It's a nickname. I don't think people really think that 'Oh, he must be a necrophiliac.' I don't get that feeling. Nobody has talked to me about that. It's the same, to put in comparison to THE ROLLING STONES. When you break it down, okay, it's built that on 'Momma was a rolling stone.' [Editor's note: THE ROLLING STONES were named after the Muddy Waters song 'Rollin' Stone'] It was a Bob Dylan track. No, it was Bo Diddley… some old guy had a track, then THE ROLLING STONES picked it up and named their and after that. When you break it down and think about 'THE ROLLING STONES'. That's a fucking stupid name. That's a retarded name. Today, nobody thinks about it. Everybody calls them 'STONES'. It's like a pet name. THE STONES." On whether he is inspired by the fact so many other black metal bands have been infliuenced by MAYHEM: Necrobutcher: "Of course. It's the best, if you call it a 'critic,' that a musician can get that other musicians pick up on what you do and do their version of that and take your ideas to the next level where I would never think about it. That's very fucking interesting. Of course, I'm flattered. I feel flattered. Of course. I never took anything for granted in my life. All my fans, I never took them for granted, so I really appreciate all of our fans. When it comes to musicians that get inspired by us, that's nothing better for a musician to hear that. That's awesome." "Daemon" will be released on October 25 via Century Media. Pre-orders for the 12-song album have been released. A variety of limited-edition and special variants are available, including a limited deluxe LP boxset (various colors), a limited CD mediabook in slipcase, a standard CD, a limited gatefold LP (various colors) and, of course, a digital version.
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