Interview with Patrik Jensen of Witchery
March 2006: by Chris Davison

Jensen, may I start by saying that I’m really, REALLY enjoying the promo album (which I’ll be reviewing very soon), and ask, was it hard to write the new songs after such a lengthy hiatus? Five years might not be a long time between albums for some metal acts, but for you guys it’s at least three albums!!!
No, not really. First of all it hasn’t been a 5 year hiatus for us. Symphony was released in 2001, and we recorded this new album in Aug 2004, so that’s 3 years, but that still pretty long by Witchery’s standards. We could’ve released the album later on in 2004, but both Necropolis and MFN had disappeared, so we had no label either. When I finally got the time to get that stuff sorted we were already halfway thru 2005. We signed with CM, and the released was pinned to Feb/March 2006 

The formation of Witchery has been pretty well covered in the metal press, but what isn’t so well known is how you happened across Mr D’Angelo (Arch Enemy, Dismember, Mercyful Fate, Spiritual Beggars among others!) and new skinsman Mr Axelrot (Bloodbath, post-Witchery Satanic Slaughter). How did you all get together?
I met Sharlee at a party at a friends house. There was a snow blizzard that day, so the only people that ended up making it over to the party was Sharlee and me. That was when I met him for the first time. I later on asked him to join the band when Satanic Slaughter founder Ztephan Dark left us and took the name with him.. So, Sharlee was in fact with the band from day 1. At this time he was only a member of Mercyful Fate. He joined all the other bands (incl. Arch Enemy) after joining Witchery. Martin is from the same city as the rest of us in Witchery. He joined the band just 2 weeks before we recorded Symphony. That was when we found out that Mique had left the band. We knew that Martin was a great drummer, and he really saved us back then with the studio booked and everything. Martin has now also started to do the drums for Opeth, a band I hold in the highest respect.

I read a few pieces in an American magazine a few years ago, commenting that the reviewer didn’t “get” the band at all. From the people I have spoken to that also know your band, Witchery seems to be a very “love them or hate them” kind of band – why do you think this is?
I don’t know. Maybe some people think you need to be super serious to create something that deserves their respect.. Or maybe they just never got into the old scene, like Destruction, Celtic Frost, Exodus, Mercyful Fate etc

“Don’t Fear The Reaper” features many of the things that made your previous releases great: a respect for and influence from classic metal acts, a modern sound and great songs, but this time you seem to have branched out a bit. “Ashes” in particular has a definite modern Dimmu Borgir style electronic section – was there a definite focus on new influences this time around?
No, we write songs on a very tight time schedule. Whatever we come up with during this time is what we will use. Its all a matter of what surfaces within those 3-4 weeks of writing. But I do agree that this album might be the most modern-sounding album so far. 

Once again, there’s a great album here with no filler tracks at all. How does the songwriting and rehearsal schedule work for you guys? With you all in so many bands between you, does it become difficult to come up with these original riffs and song writing?
No, its much easier to write for Witchery than for The Haunted, for example. I don’t know why. Maybe cos in the Haunted we all come from different musical backgrounds and someone with an idea has to convince the other guys that his idea is a good one, whereas with Witchery, all of us instantly know what the guy with the idea is up to.

Who dreamt up the “W” hand signal ?
Sharlee and I.. 

This is your first outing as a band for Century Media: The Haunted are already signed to the label following their departure from Earache – was it a natural progression for Witchery to follow suit?
CM had a the best offer, plus both Sharlee and I were on the label already, and we knew the people that worked for them already.

Can we expect to see Witchery touring any time soon? Does arranging a tour become difficult because of every ones “other band” activities?
Yeah, it’s a big problem, but we definitely want to tour and play live. If everything regarding touring fails, then we will at least do a bunch of summer festivals this summer. 

I just wanted to share a theory with you! Some reviewers in the past have called you “blackened thrash”. I don’t agree with that in the sense that you have any particular “modern” black metal influences, but I have heard some “classic” black metal influences, notably in the great guitar melodies and macabre atmosphere of the songs. Have the great spectres of Mercyful Fate and King Diamond been as great influences to you as I think?
I cannot praise Mercyful Fate and King Diamond enough haha! With out them, no Witchery… But yeah, classic black metal, like Bathory etc, is pretty noticeable in our music.

Witchery are one of the few metal bands that my wife (who is a confirmed metal-hater) will willingly listen to. She reasons, “they’re so camp, it’s obvious that they’re having fun” (her logic, not mine!). The image portrayed by the band in previous CD inlays did owe more to Hammer Horror than to any serious horror – are Witchery the band to make the dark side of metal fun again ?
I don’t know… We aren’t out there to become the Spinal Tap of metal...far from it. I love this band and I take it very seriously. We put a lot of effort into writing the music etc… but, having said that, I do think that you don’t need to put on a stone face all the time... Playing live is supposed to be fun…not a struggle to get the chords right, or to portrait yourself as the grand master of Evil, ha ha!

O.K., dream time. Witchery collectively win the euro-lottery, but under the pretext that they must spend some of their money on going on tour and allowing five bands to support them. Your call – which five bands, from anywhere in time (Dr. Who presents you the winning cheque!) are you going to take with you?
Exodus - Bonded’era, Celtic Frost - Mega Therion’era, Dark Angel - Darkness Descends’era, Infernal Majesty - None Shall Defy’era, Mercyful Fate - the Oath’era. 

Anything else you’d like to say before we wind this interview up?
Thanks for the support and look out for Witchery on the road. We are a live band first and foremost… so if you like us on record, then you’ll love us live… METAL!! 

Thanks to Patrik for his time in answering the questions. Witchery really are both fucking ace and a load of fun – a combination missing in much of the metal output of today. Do yourself a favour and catch a listen to one of their cd’s, and should they play live in Britain again, I’ll see you there!