Five years after the release of their first full-length album, Axis of Light returns with To the Great Unbearing North, a hypnotic black metal odyssey that marks a subtle but noticeable shift in the band’s sound. The cover photo very much suits the album’s mix of warm hues and frigid textures, with which the band paints a loving portrait of Northern England. Close your eyes and envision the exalted hills that inspired an entire generation of British poets as well as one of the most majestic black metal releases of the year.
I reached out to A.B. and T.L to discuss the new album, their history working with independent labels, and the artists that inspired their lyrics and sound. Listen to To the Great Unbearing North below, and check out our interview after the jump!
–Alex Chan
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This interview has been edited for clarity.
Throughout the band’s lifetime (thus far), T.L. has largely handled instrumentation and A.B. has focused on vocals. How did you first meet and/or start playing together?
AB: The band was formed in 2011 in Manchester. I had just moved there the year prior and met T. one evening during a rock/metal club night held in the city. I hadn’t really any musical experience at that time and there wasn’t any intention to start a project until quite shortly before our first (and only) release under Somne, a DSBM type band which was quite short lived once we formed Axis of Light.
TL: I’m sure fans of niche metal can appreciate that the pool of people who are into it is fairly small so you end up seeing the same faces at gigs etc. I recall we first met in a Manchester night club and got chatting over the Wolves in the Throne Room shirt I was wearing at the time. From there flourished a friendship born from a shared appreciation of black metal and Tomb Raider (PS1 only of course). At the time I was writing and recording some tunes and we decided to have a crack at making music together. Over a decade later it has grown from a project where we had distinct roles to something that is more fluid with us both contributing across areas where we wouldn’t have before. As an example, AB did all the mixing and drums for our latest release.
I’ve been following Axis of Light since your 2013 split with Death Fortress, which was right around when I discovered Fallen Empire Records. That split was a co-release between FE and British label Mordgrimm, so I’m curious–what prompted the eventual switch to Fallen Empire for your next few releases?
TL: We got working with Mordgrimm back in the day who I vaguely remember had some arrangement with Fallen Empire for selling their releases in the US and vice versa. We got chatting with FE and discovered we had a lot of overlapping interests (such as a love for Counterstrike) and would chit chat via social media/email. As Mordgrimm became less and less involved in releasing new music FE was ramping up and so it was inevitable that we’d eventually start releasing exclusively with FE. It was an exciting time to be involved in the black metal scene as FE were showcasing a lot of fresh and interesting releases. FE also put us in contact with Death Fortress, who of course we released a split with in 2013.
Since Fallen Empire closed its doors in 2018, you’ve been working with Mystiskaos and Pristine Light for physical releases. When did you first link up with them, and how has that experience been?
TL: While we haven’t worked directly with Mystiskaos, we nonetheless have interacted with them informally for our vinyl releases and of course A.P. did the mastering for our latest album. Pristine Blight were a label we have been friends with due to frequenting the same online communities, and we reached out about handling a tape release of our 2020 album. We’re fortunate that, generally speaking, our experience with labels and distributors has been positive with minimal fuss.
What are your thoughts on the role/purpose of analog media in this increasingly digital age?
TL: I think analogue media adds a sense of permanence to art and media which can be taken for granted with the proliferation of media streaming and on demand content that can be withdrawn at whim. As an example, a YouTube channel I’d been following that had thousands of unique vinyl rips for 90’s happy hardcore got a DMCA take down and the entire channel got purged, which was pretty disappointing as they had many unique rips that were otherwise unavailable elsewhere. Similarly, a lot of recordings from bands I was in as a teenager are lost to time and space as I never bothered to create back ups. I like the ease of access of digital media so I think there is a place for both as I think art should be accessible to anyone who wants to interact with it.
The lyrics on your early releases focused on topics such as religion (By the Hands of Consuming Fire) and animal cruelty (L’appel du vide).
Beginning with 2016’s Northern Ascendancy, your work seems to be largely inspired by Northern England’s history and geography (I especially appreciated the interpolations of Wordsworth on the self-titled album). What inspired this thematic ‘homecoming’?
TL: We’re both Northern lads and wanted to create something that explored themes and cultural aspects from where we are from.
AB: Nice spot on the Wordsworth lyrics! Those specific ones on “Upon the Exalted Hills” were written by W.W on the fell behind my home town, which can itself be seen on the cover of the new album.
I think the thematic ‘homecoming’ was actually more of a literal homecoming, it was at that time I had left Manchester and moved back home to a much smaller rural town, and I guess it would be around this time where I stopped having any inclination to attach anything ‘real world’, in that sense, to the music. I now like to think of the lyrics more as just setting a mood, rather than adding to or taking away anything from the project. There are however still references and interpolations of local, lesser known poets, such as Norman Nicholson, who is the inspiration behind a few other Black Metal bands from the area, such as Whinlatter.
Based on the title and cover art, I presume that To the Great Unbearing North reflects this same theme/subject. However, the album also marks a shift away from the crackling, triumphant melodies of its predecessors and towards a more hypnotic and atmospheric sound.
What inspired the distinct sonic ‘sharpness’ of your previous releases? When writing and recording To the Great Unbearing North, did you intend for the album to be a departure from its predecessors?
AB: To the Great Unbearing North was originally intended to be a completely new project with no real relation to Axis of Light sonically. The album was written and mostly recorded quite some time ago, but it was only earlier this year I was able to do my parts. We had a pretty specific sound in mind from the very start, and it becoming an Axis of Light album didn’t change the output whatsoever, though going forward I think I can say for both of us that we’re still quite keen on the sound of the self-titled album and I would like to further merge the two.
TL: When we first started making music together I was really inspired by Anaal Nathrakh’s The Codex Necro and wanted to create something that had that sonic abrasiveness together with melodic, jangly guitars inspired by The Smiths. I used to remark that Axis of Light was just The Smiths with a thick layer of distortion but I think that would be a disservice to Johnny Marr as his guitar playing is significantly better than mine. Following the 2020 self-titled album we’d talked about making an atmospheric album and originally conceived it as a new band. As the album neared completion we agreed the idea of releasing it under the Axis of Light name to reflect our more fluid collaboration as artists without being pigeonholed into a particular role.
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Many thanks to AB and TL for taking the time to chat!
To the Great Unbearing North is available now via Bandcamp.
