I became really surprised when Haavard of Aftermath sent me an e-mail where he announced that a new Runemagick CD is out, and that was only 1 day before release date. Why didn't we hear about this album before? You prefer to keep it low-profile?

Yes we wanted this release to be a little surprise for our fans. We did the first recording session in July and then a long break until December for vocals and mix.

In the past, you always hinted a lot of the doom metal style in your music, yet never made the leap. How come you all of a sudden made the full plunge into doom metal with Envenom?

I really don’t know but all compositions just became very heavy and slow when we rehearsed and arranged the songs. Then when we started to record and jammed in the studio they got even heavier hehe…

I'm always interested in the songwriting process. How was it for Evenom? How much does the 2 other members of Runemagick take part in the songwriting?

I (Nicklas) wrote all the riffs this time and some arrangement ideas. Then when we arranged all songs together at our rehearsal place.

Evenom is now out, how did the recording process go? You're completely satisfied with the album? And, what do you expect from this recording?

As said before we did it in several sessions and jammed a lot in the studio to get the right feeling in the songs. We also wanted to not have so much other instruments/effects this time than drums, bass, guitar, vocals. The only extra thing is a church bell, nothing more. The sound is also very basic far away from modern/hitech studio stuff. The result of the album was our goal so we are satisfied with the album.

Runemagick are really fast, I mean...it's only 11 months between the release of On Funeral Wings and Envenom. Can we expect a new Runemagick album early 2006 as well?

Yes we are productive as long as we have inspiration (and a label). If there will be a new album in early 06? Well maybe, maybe not… hard to say now. All I can say is that I have one new song finished hehe.

Some readers of ScandinavianMetal are huge Vinyl fans. Will Evenom and On Funeral Wings be released on Vinyl? If so, when?

There are plans for it with Parasitic Records (US).

Ruemagick has been around since 1990. 15 years are very impressive for an exteme metal band. Is it your intention to keep Runemagick alive for many years to come as well?

Yes I hope that Runemagick will carry on for many years…

As I understand, you didn't do any liveshows after the release of On Funeral Wings. What about now, you got any touring plans to reveal to readers of Scandinavian Metal?

We did one gig in Gothenburg with songs from OFW. We have no gigs booked but we really want to go on stage again so contact us!!

In November 2004 you announced some info about your new sideproject entitled 'Domedag' and you even offered mp3 samples. Any more news on that front. Will we see a Domedag full-length this year? And will Domedag also be released on Aftermath Music? And finally, can you give readers of ScandinavianMetal more detailed infomation about Domedag?

Domedag is my sideproject and is more like darkwave-ambient-doom-music. The Domedag debut album isn’t finished yet even if most of it was recorded 2003 hehe. My plan was to release it on Eternal Dark Productions but I really don’t know what will happen at the moment. I’m bored of the material, we’ll see…

How much time is required for Domedag? Will this affect the release date for the next Runemagick album?

It will not affect anything for Runemagick and I almost spend no time for Domedag. But I will try to get a weekend off to concentrate on some new Domedag stuff soon this year.

How do you seperate Domedag and Runemagick? I mean how do you work? Do you think like this, "ok, it's now Monday, I better write something for Runemagick..."

And finally, do you expect to release more than one 1 Domedag album?

It’s not hard to separate the two because in my ears the music differs quite much.

Any other projects you're in that will release something new this year?

TFO (The Funeral Orchestra,Ed.) will hopefully gather again some occult date this year to complete a new album called “necro occult”.

You care to give readers of Scandinavian Metal your top 5 albums released by Scandinavian metal bands only?

Very hard to say and I will probably forget some important stuff but I will give it a try and see what comes from my head…

Candlemass – Epicus…
Bathory – The Return
Bathory – Under The Sign
Tiamat – Sumerian Cry
Entombed – Left Hand Path

Members of Runemagick, do they have ordinary day jobs as well? Are you finally able to make a living from music only?

Yes it’s impossible to live on our underground music. I work in the broadband business, Daniel in the porno business and Emma studies psychology at the university.

Thanks a lot for answering the questions! Runemagick are a damn great band and I wish you all the best in the future. Any final remarks to the readers of ScandinavianMetal?

Thanks for support!! Surf to our website for the latest news and mp3z!! Cheers!!!

[This interview was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]