ENTHRONED - Interview with Nornagest

For over thirty years, ENTHRONED have stood as one of black metal’s most steadfast and uncompromising forces. Their latest offering, Ashspawn, is more than an album — it’s a ritual weapon, a descent into annihilation and rebirth forged across six years of deliberate creation.

Blending esoteric philosophy, ritual precision, and feral aggression, Ashspawn captures the essence of spiritual transformation through fire.

Camille spoke with Nornagest about the creation, the philosophy, and the enduring will that drives Enthroned forward into their next era.

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Camille: Firstly, Congratulations on what will be the twelfth full length album by Enthroned - Ashspawn, out on Dec 5 through Season of Mist. What a massive achievement! Ashspawn feels like a ritual of burning away the old to make room for something new. What did that theme of transformation mean to you during the writing process?

Nornagest: Thank you. Ashspawn is not just the next chapter in our legacy, it is a weapon of transformation forged in fire. During its creation, I willingly entered a phase of controlled destruction, tearing down every stagnant form within myself with surgical precision. This was not done for introspection or poetic symbolism, it was a mandatory operation of spiritual, physical and mental ascension. Once that current was set into motion, the music began to manifest with absolute purpose through the hands of T. Kaos and Menthor. Every riff, every pulse of the drums was treated as a ritual act structured with intent to reflect each stage of the ascent from disintegration to total sovereignty of Will. Ashspawn is not at all about rebirth in the romantic sense, it is about annihilation and reconstruction, a declaration that only through fire can one become more than flesh, more than man. This album exists as a testament to that process.

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Camille: The album sounds massive — dense, aggressive, but incredibly focused. How did you shape the sound this time around to capture that balance between brutal, dark chaos and control?

Nornagest: The scale and focus of Ashspawn comes from intention and discipline. Aggression alone is meaningless unless it is channeled, what we aimed for was controlled intensity. Each riff, each rhythm was constructed to serve a purpose within the lyrics of the album, creating tension and release in precise measure. The balance you hear between raw force and clarity is the result of structure imposed on energy, of Will shaping chaos rather than being carried by it.

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Camille: Your music has always felt much like an invocation ritual than just a performance of the tracks. When writing or recording, do you approach it as a ritual act, or more as a creative process that just naturally becomes one?

Nornagest: For us, the distinction between ritual and creation is irrelevant. The music is not “performed” in a conventional sense, it is constructed as an operative process from the very beginning. Every decision, every structure, every sonic gesture is intentional, aligned with a conceptual and spiritual framework. It does not “become” ritual through circumstance; it is ritual because the process itself is. Writing and recording are extensions of that intent: music as a tool, a mean to an end, not entertainment.

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Camille: You worked with occult author Gilles de Laval on this record. How did that collaboration influence the way you approached the lyrical or spiritual development of Ashspawn?

Nornagest: Gilles and I have known each other for many years, and our collaboration was not a casual one, it was a convergence of aligned currents. His involvement allowed the lyrical framework of Ashspawn to operate with precision and intentionality, rather than as abstract expression. Each song was mapped, each concept refined, and the spiritual architecture of the album became fully realized through his guidance. This was not a matter of “advice” or interpretation, as the lyrics were written long before his implication; it was operational alignment. Gilles’ perspective as a practitioner helped codify the energies, we were channeling, transforming the material into a coherent whole. Every word, every phrase, every structure now serves the greater current, forming a flow closer to literature than conventional lyrical content. Ashspawn became far more than originally conceived, and his contribution ensured structural integrity and cohesion I had not anticipated.

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Camille: Your lyrics often read like scripture and curse at once. How do you find that middle ground between such depth and pure venom?

Nornagest: I do not write from fantasy or for shock value, everything comes from lived experience. The lyrics are the distillation of real events, personal experiences and the observations of life through the lens of the path I follow. That honesty is what allows the work to occupy the space between scripture and curse, a form of balance, in my eyes. Some may find it unsettling, even extreme, but this is not a matter of style or affectation, it is an authentic expression of reality as I perceive and confront it. Depth and venom coexist because they emerge from the same source: unflinching engagement with existence, without compromise.

Camille: The interplay between Menthor’s drumming and Kaos’s riffs is razor sharp. How much of that intensity comes from the writing process versus just letting it erupt in the studio?

Nornagest: Well… the intensity you hear is born equally from discipline and instinct, things come to be in a very natural way if you see it from our perspective. In the writing process, every riff, rhythm, and structure are considered with precision, nothing is left to chance. T. Kaos and Menthor did work within a defined framework, ensuring that each element serves the right composition and the current we are channeling. Yet, the studio is where it becomes alive. There is an unspoken energy that cannot be planned, an eruption of focus and presence that brings the compositions into their ultimate form, I would say.‍

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Camille: After thirty years and soon to be 12 massive full length albums, Enthroned still sound as hungry & venomous as ever. What keeps that creative fire alive?

Nornagest: The drive persists because expression must remain active, evolving, and exploratory. Unless creation opens new approaches, develops existing or even previously nonexistent concepts, and gradually reveals more of the Supreme Will hidden behind its veil, stagnation is inevitable, swamped by the inert beliefs of a world accelerating yet superficially conscious. The sciences of the unmanifest cannot remain at a prepubescent stage while the manifested sciences soar; the same principle applies to music, art, and spiritual praxis. We do not dwell on the past; we respect it, learn from it and we go forward doing what we do for ourselves without trying to fit in any category or to live by any codex besides our own. I have always considered the entity Enthroned as being an author, and our albums as books written by that author: some spanning as quadrilogies, some standing alone, but all following a coherent line of conduct. Never for popularity or attention but honesty, expression and as spewed vomits for thoughts and expression.

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Camille: The title track, Ashspawn, ends with “Et Verbum Caro Factum Est” — “And the Word became Flesh.” What does that phrase mean to you now that the album has come to life as its own entity?

Nornagest: Et Verbum Caro Factum Est marks the moment when intent transcends abstraction and becomes tangible reality. For me, it signifies that the Will has successfully manifested, what was once internal, unseen, has taken on form.

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‍Camille: Once Ashspawn in its entirety is unleashed upon the world on Dec 5, what’s next for Enthroned? More rituals on the road, time to reflect, or straight back into the creative abyss?

Nornagest: Once Ashspawn is released, the process does not end, it will actually intensify. We have already begun work on new material; the current has not ceased, it continues to expand. There are a number of carefully chosen live performances scheduled for next year. Each member is simultaneously channeling their respective currents through other projects (Lvcifyre, Death Like Mass, Sodality), and for my part, I will be delving deeper into my visual manifestations (drawing, painting…) furthering the same spiritual trajectory through other mediums. But let it be clear: Enthroned is not entering a dormant state. The next chapter is already being written. It will not take six years for the next emergence.

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Camille: If you could personally sum up Ashspawn in just one word, what would it be?

Nornagest: Inevitability. Simply because Ashspawn was not created as a choice or as an expression of desire it was the unavoidable consequence of Will, may it be ours or Belial’s. It is the moment where the internal current breaks through all barriers and must manifest. Not hope, not ambition, but inevitability

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With Ashspawn, ENTHRONED once again defies the boundaries of black metal - not merely performing the darkness, but embodying it. The flames that once forged them have now refined them — sharper, more deliberate, and more venomous than ever. For a band that has endured three decades of triumph, tragedy and time itself, Ashspawn is both testament and weapon; proof that darkness, in the right hands, can become creation.

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Ashspawn is out December 5th via Season of Mist.

Pre-order & pre-save: https://orcd.co/enthronedashspawn

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