Label Focus

Dark Essence Records

Website: www.darkessencerecords.no

Myspace: www.myspace.com/darkessencerecords

Specialism: All types of metal (Dark Essence), rock, pop, electronica and alternative (Karisma).

Releases: 50+ since 2004.

Now entering its fifth year of trading, Norway’s Dark Essence Records is one of those labels equipped with a roster capable of sending your average extreme metal fan into paroxysms of joy. The immediately obvious strength of this organisation is its ability to showcase both the strongest new acts- Skaldic Curse, Deathcult, Malsain- and true legends, such as Taake, Helheim, Aeternus and the majestic Hades Almighty, whose awe-inspiring 1994 album (as Hades) "…Again Shall Be" gave me endless shivers way back when.

A firm connection with extreme metal’s past and a canny instinct for where the future is headed saw Dark Essence blossom in 2008. All of its releases met with universal critical acclaim, and are expected to top a number of the ubiquitous ‘yearlists’ which will be adorning the music press over the next few weeks. That Dark Essence’s acts are being heard the world over, awaited anxiously by fans and critics alike, is testament to the ceaseless promotional efforts of its staff as much as the technical brilliance of its bands, and so I was keen to find out a little bit more about their workings, origins and plans. Isn’t it easy to find quality bands in the metal hotspot that is Norway, when everybody is in everyone else’s side projects? How does the internet impact on a quality-focused label? How do you even go about releasing a record? Label founder Martin Kvam was on hand to talk me through these issues and more…

THE BOSS

Hi Martin, how are you doing?

Doing fine. Lots to do with the new Taake album and planning our releases next year.

 

Could you introduce yourself to our readers and state your role within the record label?

I’m handling most of our promotion and day-to-day communication with our partners around the world. I’m also in contact with most of our bands, and have a function as A&R together with the other guys at the label.

 

Before Dark Essence, what was your involvement in metal?
I’ve done a lot of different stuff over the years. I started a fanzine back in 1990/91 called Funeral Magazine. In the early 90’s, I also helped out some bands from Trondheim (where I originally come from), to spread their music, like The 3^rd And The Mortal, Atrox etc. In 1995 I got involved with a Norwegian magazine called Metal Shuffle, which changed its name to Monster Magazine in 2001 and is now called Norway Rock Magazine. So, I still write for that magazine. I also ran a metal radio show called Metal Daze when I moved to Bergen, from 2000 – 2004. In 2004, I got involved with the Hole In The Sky festival, which I’m still handling all the press for. I’ve also arranged some concerts now and then, and played in some bands in the early 90’s. So, I’ve been quite active within the metal scene for some time.

 

When was Dark Essence formed? Who else is involved? And where did the inspiration come from to begin a new record label?
We started Dark Essence Records in 2004. Karisma Records was already up and running at that time, and we really wanted to put out some metal bands too that didn’t fit Karisma Records’ profile. Karisma Records have always been and will always be a rock label (where we’ve also released some electronica and pop stuff too), but since we’re several metal fans running the label, we wanted to release that too. We know a lot of good bands and have good contacts, so it was quite easy to start the label.

 

Ah I see. What is the exact relationship between Karisma and Dark Essence, then?
Karisma Records was originally started by Robin Mortensen in 2003 with another guy as a pop/rock label. Then Ørjan Nordvik (V’Gandr in Helheim) got involved too after a while, and in 2004 I got involved. In 2007, we got a hold of Bjørnar Nilsen (Vulture Industries), who has done a lot of great stuff for the label so far. As I said, we really wanted to release metal bands too, so Dark Essence Records was started as the metal sub-label of Karisma Records. We found out we wouldn’t confuse the distributors and partners too much with so many different bands, so we started Dark Essence Records as a pure metal label. Karisma Records is still organised as the official label, regarding accountancy and all that, even though we put out more albums on Dark Essence Records than Karisma now.

 

What difficulties face a metal label starting out these days? What particular problems has Dark Essence had to overcome?
In the beginning, the difficulties were just learning how a label should be run. All the papers you should fill out and send in to the right people, what to use money on and what not to use money on. And then of course find a way that works when it comes to distribution. We’ve probably done most of the mistakes that can be done, but we’ve learned along the way and had a lot of help from other companies that have done this before. Just to understand how much time it takes and how much work it is to put out one album, takes some time to get into. None of us had done this before, so we’ve learned a lot during these years. It hasn’t been much problem finding bands though, but none of us are business people, so it’s been a steep learning curve you might say.

 

What is involved in the process of releasing an album? How long does it take from start to finish?

First off, you need something to put out, so you have to find the bands and get a recording somehow. We let the bands handle most of that, both how they want to record and how much time they will take on a recording. We do try to help out with some finance for recordings though, both as small recording budgets and getting funds for recording which you can get in Norway at least. We also have some good contacts here that can help out. But, when we do have a recording finished, we need cover art and to get the album mastered. That’s done in different ways too, depends what the band wants, so it can go quite fast or take time. When all that’s finished, there’s a lot of paperwork to be done. Then it takes about 2 weeks to print the album and ship it out to the different distributors, and then we want to use at least 1 – 2 months for promotion at least. You’ll never have enough time to promote an album it seems, but there’s a lot of planning involved here. Sending out promos in time, and hopefully fit in with all the different deadlines for the different magazines. Hopefully, the band has some live dates or a tour planned around the release date too, so you have a full impact around a release. But, every release is a bit different, you have to plan and time it so you get some attention on the release. It’s sometimes difficult to do that, but if you have a good dialogue with the band and within the label, it should work out quite well.

 

There are a lot of small labels out there promoting underground metal who produce lots of albums but without the same quality and packaging as Dark Essence. What is your policy on quality, and what do you think of labels like this?

Well, it’s not that expensive or that difficult to release a CD now. You can get quite good recordings at home that doesn’t cost much, and it’s not that expensive to print a CD. But, we’ve used some time to connect ourselves to really good and professional people in the different areas, and both we and the bands want to have good sounding and looking albums. When it’s so easy to download something, you should put some effort in design, look and feeling of a product so people might buy it. We have some really great designers working closely together with us, and they’ve helped us out a lot. The same goes with different producers that we know. Everyone involved is a part of the scene in some way, and it’s great to work with people who really know what they’re doing.

 

The internet must be a double-edged sword for a starting out label; it can really help you promote your bands but illegal downloading cuts away at your income. What is your view on this matter? Has Dark Essence been able to use the internet to its advantage?

Yeah, we see that all of our titles are on different torrents and stuff, but there’s not much you can do about that. Both we and especially the bands try to use the internet as a promotional tool as much as we can, and that’s really helpful and cost efficient. But we will never start sending out promos with voice over and such. We believe that will hurt a release more than if it "leaks" out on the internet, which it will anyways. For our metal releases at least, we are happy that many of the metal fans pride themselves with supporting the music and still buy albums. The challenge is probably the coming generations who are not used to buying albums, and are used to just downloading everything. We see that there’s a growing interest in vinyl, so hopefully more people will enjoy having a physical product in their hands with a great cover they can read and look at. We do have digital distribution on all our titles, and we do see that the sales there are going up. So we try to have everything available to buy on most platforms, so people can buy an album the way they want. We’re looking at ways to become even better with the digital sales. But, promotion wise, the internet is a good tool, and we’re not afraid of the digital future. At some point, I think there will be a change, and instead of having a million files on a computer or an iPod with no identity, more people want to have a good quality product again with good quality music.

 

What is your proudest achievement so far with the label?
There’re a lot of things we’re proud of, but we’re really proud of coming so far in just 5 years and have almost 50 releases out already on both Karisma and Dark Essence Records so far. We wouldn’t have believed that when we started.

 

Looking at your roster, there are some quite different styles of metal on Dark Essence. How do you choose new bands to sign? What in particular do you look for?

We’re all music fans, and like a lot of different stuff. Just the fact that we do two different labels shows that we have very diverse musical tastes. The first rule for signing a band is that we all really like the band and the album, and if the band members are great people too, it helps. We also have to believe that other people than ourselves would like the band, and that there is a market that we can reach for the band. We also would like that the band has something unique with their sound and their image. They don’t have to be the most original band ever, but they should have something of their own in their music, attitude and overall image. There’s no point of releasing a band that sounds exactly like a 1000 other bands.

 

Are you looking to make new additions at the moment or are you busy working with the artists you already have?

We’ve just signed the British band Skaldic Curse and the Norwegian band Tyrann (with ex-Tsjuder and 1349 members), and we’ll most likely release the debut from Black Hole Generator (with Bjørnar Nilsen from Vulture Industries). So, at the moment, with the new additions and the bands we already are working with, we have a lot to do! Right now we really would like to concentrate on the bands that we are working with and develop new releases with them. We’re not really looking for new bands now, but if we come across something really good and special, we will of course consider it.

 

You are still a young label but you’ve had a number of releases now and are ‘flexing your muscles’. How have things changed and developed from your early days up until today?

Well, when we started out, we didn’t really know what we went into, and got a couple of surprises. But, we’ve learned a lot along the way, and we’ve become a lot better over the years. We’re four guys who run the label now, and we have all specific tasks and jobs to do within the label. We have good communication within the label and everyone does what they’re supposed to do. We also have built up a good co-operation with our distributors and continue to try to be better with that. You need to have good communication in all areas if you want to get a release to work.

 

Do you feel ‘at the heart’ of things, being in Norway, or has geography become less important to extreme metal?

Norway has a very healthy scene, especially when it comes to great bands and that’s really good. The scene or music industry if you will, in Norway is also quite small, so everyone knows each other and it’s quite easy to get hints and tips on how to do stuff. The only problematic thing with Norway is that we’re outside the EU, so we do get more stress with customs and shipping. We try to find as many shortcuts around that as possible, but that’s the only negative thing. Another good thing is that bands from Norway usually have a good reputation, and there’s still a lot of interest in Norwegian extreme metal in general.

 

2008 was a good year for the label, with releases from Taake, Helheim, Panchrysia, The Batallion, and Obscure. Did you have a favourite album this year? Or are you not allowed to have favourites?!

I really like all our albums this year, and every release has something unique to offer. I think Helheim did their most accomplished album in 2008, and the same goes for Panchrysia. They really have started to find their own sound, and it’s good to try to introduce them to a wider audience. The debuts of The Batallion and Obscure have also been awesome in their own right. The Batallion is the coolest and meanest live band ever, and just has to be witnessed! And Obscure is so classic and doomy hard rock, and they’ve done a great job with their debut.

 

What are your plans for 2009? We know you have Skaldic Curse coming out in February which promises to be very good; are there any other releases we should put in our diaries?
I’m really looking forward to see the Skaldic Curse album released, and I think a lot of people will get into that album. It’ll be out in late February, and you can expect some extreme, cold and dark black metal that mixes Mayhem’s intensity and Voivod’s weird riffs. Around the same time, we’ll release the debut from Tyrann, a band consisting of ex-Tsjuder members and Seidemann from 1349. "Shadows Of Leng" will give you some filthy and old-school black/thrash metal. On Karisma Records, we’ve just signed a Norwegian band called Airbag, which are not far from Porcupine Tree musically, and their debut should be out in the end of March. We also hope to see new releases from at least Helheim, Vulture Industries and Dead To This World in 2009, so it seems we’ll have a lot of great releases coming up

 

In the long term, what is the aim for Dark Essence? Are there any particular goals you have set yourselves as a company, for example in terms of the number of albums you release, or a certain financial goal?

Well, I think we want to keep going as long as it’s fun and something we want to do. We don’t think we’ll ever earn a lot of money on this, and we put everything back in the label. We’ll keep on doing this because we’re music fans and we want to release great albums with great bands, and promote great music.

 

Thank you very much for your time, Martin; if you have anything else you would like to tell the world about Dark Essence, please go ahead!:

Thanks for your support Ellen! Just want to tip the metal fans on some of our Karisma Records releases, since some of them should be of interest for them too. If you’re into bands like Monumentum, Jesu, Ulver and other dark experimental bands, you should check out our releases with Corvine and Vaiping. Both bands have a really dark and cold atmosphere and experiments quite a lot. All of our titles are available from our webshop on both www.darkessencerecords.no and www.karismarecords.no

CLICK HERE FOR PART II OF THE ARTICLE: THE BANDS

DISCOGRAPHY

 

Skaldic Curse – World Suicide Machine
23.02.09

Taake – Taake
17.11.08

Helheim – Blod and Ild
10.11.08

Helheim – Yersinia Pestis
10.11.08

Obscure – On Formaldehyde
13.10.08

21.04.08

The Batallion – Stronghold of Men
21.04.08

Panchrysia – Deathcult Salvation
24.03.08

Taake – Svartenkunst
03.03.08

Dead to this World – First Strike for Spiritual Renewance
19.11.07

Bourbon Flame – Bourbon Flame
08.10.07

Vulture Industries – The Dystopia Journals
10.09.07

Deathcult – Cult of the Dragon
07.07.07

Dimension F3H – Does the Pain Excite You?
18.06.07

Malsain – The Disease
07.05.07

Ravencult – Temples of Torment
30.04.07

Vaiping – The Great Polar Expedition
26.03.07

Taake – Nekro
12.03.07

Helheim – Jormundgand
13.11.06

Helheim – Av Norron Aett
13.11.06

Deathcon – Monotremata
30.10.06

Helheim – The Journeys and Experiences of Death
12.06.06

Aeternus – Hexaeon
13.03.06

Taake – Helnorsk Svartmetall
29.08.05

Nidingr – Sorrow Infinite and Darkness
04.07.05

Malsain – They Never Die
23.05.05

Taake – Doedskvad
14.02.05

Hades Almighty – The Pulse of Decay
16.08.04