Ashes to Ascension: 30 Years of Fire with Enthroned’s Nornagest

🔥 Ashes to Ascension: 30 Years of Fire with Enthroned’s Nornagest 🔥

Belgium’s black metal institution Enthroned has never been one to follow trends or soften its edge. With a legacy forged in chaos, controversy, and uncompromising vision, the band now prepares to unleash its twelfth full-length album, Ashspawn, out December 5th via Season of Mist. A record born of personal transformation and spiritual rebellion, Ashspawn marks a new chapter in the band’s storied evolution.

We caught up with Nornagest—Enthroned’s longest-running member and creative anchor—for an unfiltered conversation spanning three decades of darkness. From the band’s gritty beginnings in a cellar in Belgium to police raids, lineup shifts, and philosophical rebirth, Nornagest opens up about the soul behind Ashspawn, the realities of touring in today’s world, and why physical albums still matter in an era of disposable listening.

This isn’t just a retrospective—it’s a manifesto. Let the fire speak.

First of all, let’s talk about the new album. Is there an overall story or concept behind the title Ashspawn and the songs?
Yeah, actually, this concept has been in the works for six years—maybe even longer. The whole album revolves around rebirth and transformation. It’s a very personal record, like many lyricists or vocalists tend to do these days, I’d say. But this title connects deeply with my own story in a particular way. I’ve gone through a lot of transformation in my life, and I wanted to reflect that in the lyrics.

I worked with a friend of mine from the U.S., Gilles de Laval, who’s an author. The concept centers around a powerful symbol of transformation and rebellion. It appears in certain apocalyptic and prophetic texts, like the Dead Sea Scrolls, where it’s associated with a force opposed to God, goodness, and righteousness.

In this context, when the Belial is invoked, it represents a force that embodies both primal human potential and rebellion against divine or natural law. It’s about going through your own principles of transformation. Belial, in this case, is the antithesis of Adam—and that fits me, and us, pretty well, if I can put it that way.

This fusion signifies a being or archetype that is inherently flawed, corrupted, and capable of both greatness and destruction—someone who stands at the precipice of human potential. So yeah, I think that sums it up.

Aside from the personal themes, was the album influenced at all by the pandemic or the general unrest in the world?
Not really. I can say very clearly—it’s a selfish album in that regard. It has nothing to do with the world, the pandemic, or other people. It’s completely centered on my own experience, something I lived through every day for a certain period of time.

I went through a very dark phase in my life and experienced a process of rebirth and transformation. I worked on it every day—crawling from the pit to new heights—and I wanted to express that through the lyrics.

Enthroned has always written about our belief system, about occultism. But this album is even more personal. I’m not going to say it’s more “real,” because everything we’ve written before was real to us—but this is more grounded in today’s world, if I can put it that way. It’s not about anyone else. It’s centered entirely on my own egocentric self.

Did you ever think you’d make it to album number 12?
It depends on the period of Enthroned. Sometimes I’d say no. There were times when we thought, “This is going to be the last album.” Then we’d make another one and say, “Okay, this one’s the last.” And again—“No, no, the next one will be the last.”

Eventually, I just stopped caring. We keep doing our thing as long as the fire is there and we have a reason to do it. The day comes when we’ve said everything we need to say, when the passion for our music, our art, our philosophy is gone—then we’ll call it quits.

But I’m not ready for that, and I don’t think the new guys are either. That’s probably why we’ve had so many lineup changes—some people felt they’d said everything they needed to say and were done. But I’m not done yet. So expect more in the future.

Tell me a little about T. Kaos—his background and how he became involved with Enthroned.
I’ve wanted to get that guy on board for years. I’m not lying when I say I’ve been trying to recruit him for at least 15 years. But it was never possible—either because of timing or differences in musical direction.

When the previous members left or were no longer in the band, we gave it another shot with him. This time, it worked. We talked and realized it was just him, me, and Menthor. Just the three of us, instead of five. And we weren’t just on the same page—we were on the same line, the same letter.

So we decided to give it a shot, and it was the best decision ever. I knew him from before—we’d played together several times with his previous bands, Adorior and Lvcifyre. I’ve always loved his playing, how he creates atmosphere and brings these dark, almost magical vibes through his guitar.

I’m so happy to have him in the band now—especially as a human being. We’re really good friends, and philosophically we’re completely aligned. He’s a perfect fit.

You’re about to release this amazing album. Is there any chance of Enthroned going on tour—maybe even in the States?
That’s going to be a tough one, to be honest. The U.S. is harder than anywhere else in the world right now. As you probably know, being from there, bands from abroad have a really hard time getting into the States these days. It wasn’t easy before either—with visas and all that—but now it’s a nightmare.

If we were to tour the U.S., we’d have to pay out of our own pockets a ridiculous amount of money. And we all have families, mortgages—we can’t just say “fuck it, we’re going to the States.” I love playing shows, but not to the point of putting myself and my family on the streets.

So yeah, the U.S. is going to be hard. Maybe if it’s a festival—sure, possibly. But again, same problem with visas. Now, when it comes to Europe or South America, that’s always a possibility. But we’ve also decided to take a bit of a step back from live performances.

Same thing—we all have jobs, we have families. Financially, it’s getting harder. The passion is still there, the same passion we had 20 years ago. But 20 years ago, we didn’t have the costs we have now, especially since the pandemic. Every time we come home from a show or tour, we realize—damn, it’s not the same as before.

We still have the fun, the energy, the feeling—and that’s the most important, of course. But we can’t do it at the same rhythm as before. Financially, it’s killing us. If it were just a couple thousand, it’d be okay. But we’re talking way more than that.

So we have to make decisions. We’re very selective now. We still play shows, we’ll still do mini-tours or whatever—but we’re really, really selective about the ones we do.

Let’s talk about a few Enthroned anniversaries. I’m going to cheat a little because there’s nothing from 2015, but let’s go to 2014 and talk about the 10-year anniversary of Sovereigns. When you look back on that album, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
I think it’s a really, really good album. That was the first one as a five-piece, I believe. And I think it’s the only one with three different guitar players. Neraath was still there. So there’s a lot of different influences in the composition style on that record.

I had this crazy idea that everyone would contribute to the writing—and it worked well for that album. It came out pretty good. Of course, I’d change a few things here and there, like any musician would. We’re never happy—we’re grumpy by nature.

But I think some of our best songs from the last decade are on that album. “Of Feathers and Flames,” for example, and “Lamp of Invisible Lights”—those two tracks stand out really well. Overall, yeah, Sovereigns is one of my favorites, I’d say.

Let’s go back 20 years to 2004—XES Haereticum. What do you think of that album now in retrospect?
I know it’s an album that had a lot of success. It sold really well. But personally, I was never totally happy with a few things.

First of all, I was never a big fan of the artwork or the packaging—the visuals didn’t do it for me. Musically, I wasn’t a fan of the production either. I think it didn’t fit the band at all. For me, it was too polished, too clean.

I’m still happy with the songs themselves—their core. But there were a lot of differences in opinion. It was a melting pot of different genres. The previous vocalist was a big fan of power metal and bands like Dimmu Borgir. I have nothing against Dimmu Borgir personally, but that influence didn’t really fit Enthroned, in my view.

There were too many different directions. The band didn’t really know where to go—it was a bit all over the place. So yeah, that’s my personal take. It was quite successful, but I was never really satisfied with it. If I could do things differently, I’d make major changes to that album.

We’re going back 30 years. 1995 was a huge year for Enthroned—the first album came out, which you weren’t on, but you did join the band that same year. When you look back on 1995, what do you think of it now in retrospect, including that album and your first year in the band?
Those were really different times. Sometimes it feels like it was another world—another dimension. The scene and the world have changed so much, it’s ridiculous. Back then, things were more… I don’t know, raw. We were still rehearsing in that old cellar in a very dark part of Belgium.

When I joined the band, the album wasn’t even out yet. We were still working on it. I was asked to take part, but I wasn’t going to ask the band or the label to book extra studio time just to add another guitar. For me, the album was perfect the way it was.

I remember that trip we took to France—we drove in this beat-up car our drummer had, all the way to the subdivision of Osmose Productions, to hand-deliver the master tapes to Hervé Herbaut. Then a few months later, we went back to pick up the physical copies of the CD. That was absolutely amazing—holding the first full-length album in your hands, seeing all the hard work those guys put in, and feeling like I was part of it.

We were already working on the second album at that time. So yeah, those days were really special. It’s hard to find the words, honestly. It’s such a nostalgic, different era. It’s almost like trying to remember a dream.

What goes through your mind knowing you’ve been doing this for 30 years?
It’s surreal. Like—fuck me. When I started with Enthroned, I was 17. Now I’m almost 50. Where did it all go?

I live day by day. I write music, lyrics, do my art on the side. But then, at some point, you take a step back. Time stops. You look at the map of your life and think—where did it all go? It’s crazy. Time flies fast, that’s for sure. Thirty crazy years. That’s a fact.

Everything a band could go through—we went through it. The good and the bad. At one point, we thought we were cursed. We had everything happen to us. People in the band died. We had police storm our rehearsal space, handcuff us against the wall, accusing us of being Satanists. Of course we were—but they thought we were involved in a coven in Belgium linked to crimes, which wasn’t true. Eventually we were pardoned, blah blah blah.

Then there were problems with labels, wars between bands, making up with bands… you name it, we lived it. Those were truly crazy years.

Do you have any message for Enthroned fans in the States who are reading this right now?
Yeah—try to do what we used to do. Buy the album. Read the lyrics. Go through the whole booklet while you listen. That’s really important these days.

People—especially kids—don’t know how to listen anymore. Especially with black metal, or bands that have something real to say beyond fantasy. You’ll feel the music take on another dimension when you’re holding a physical item and reading the lyrics. You’ll understand why the band worked so hard on certain parts of a song to create that atmosphere—because the lyrics mean something in that moment.

So I’d say that—not just with Enthroned, but with every band. Get your physical copy. Support the band. It’s hard for bands these days. Read the lyrics while listening to the music. You’ll see—it’s a whole different world compared to just streaming on YouTube or Spotify without having a clue what’s going on behind the sound.

(Interview by Ken Morton – Photo by Emanuela Giurano)

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