WATAIN

Unleashing their most direct sonic assault yet, but with a controversy or two along the way, it was a typically quiet year for the Swedes

Watain albums have always been totemic, each one a visceral marker point along a spiritual journey. In that regard, Watain’s sixth album, Trident Wolf Eclipse, was no exception. A devout offering to the band’s own past, but also an incendiary new statement of intent, the 42-minute album was Watain in concentrated form, boiled down into a sonic stampede that only let you draw breath to choke on its sulphuric fumes. Released on January 5, with a spectacularly savage launch show in Stockholm, Watain started 2018 as they meant to go on: with no fucks given.

“It was obvious that this year was going to be in its shadow,” says frontman Erik Danielsson, “and indeed it has been, mirroring the nature of the album quite perfectly: turbulent, boisterous, triumphant, full of both struggle and invigorating force. A year of the wolf indeed…”

As much as Watain albums are fiery sermons for their devout and all-devouring Satanic beliefs, they’re also testaments to a personal, if challenging path to enlightenment. “Trident Wolf Eclipse is to a great extent built on a primal ferocity, an outburst of power and force that can be said to be a direct result of venturing deep in The

Wild Hunt’s contemplative abyss,” says Erik of the album’s shift in sonic temperament. “This is an album to clench your fist to, to draw force from, to crush your enemies with, but also to know the strengths and weaknesses of your inner self by. These are all sentiments that can be found on earlier Watain work as well, but on Trident Wolf Eclipse they were definitely given a more central role.”

Since the album’s release, Watain’s numerous triumphs have included the rampaging and rapturous show that closed Bloodstock festival. Their most infamous struggle occurred in March, after a photograph surfaced of live guitarist Set Teitan throwing a Nazi salute, with the rest of the band looking on. Set stepped away from the band, but Erik refused to apologise, saying the gesture was in jest, and did not reflect the band’s beliefs.

“This modern-day online snitching system, combined with a general hysteria regarding what these self-entitled scene cops think the ‘ethical codes of black metal’ should be, has been quite a handful to deal with,” says Erik of his accusers. “May all we do with Watain serve as a curse and a violent deathwish upon all who are foolish enough to stand judge to the sacred work of our temple. That is the only attention they will get from us and our kin.”

What lessons has Erik learned from the year gone? “That Watain is ever-evolving and ever in need of new mechanisms and new thought patterns in order to escalate the way we intend. Every tour is a new lesson in violence and madness, which I always try to walk away from wiser and with more experience. We have fought our way through many shitstorms and come out of them victorious. I am also very eager to start looking in to the next chapter. Many ideas are already brewing, and not all of them album-related…”