SLAVES OF FASHION – Interview with guitarist Torfinn Sirnes

SLAVES OF FASHION has recorded a brilliant album! “The History of Heavy Metal” is like a musical audiobook about the history of Metal music, in which you will hear arrangements characteristic of many genres of Metal music from the 50 years of existence this music. This album is “must have” for young Metal fans who are just starting their Metal adventure. Although old Metal fans will undoubtedly hear something for themselves here as well. However, this is only the latest part of the band’s work…

For who does the band’s name refer? Are you, as musicians, slaves of fashion? Or slaves of fashion are potential listeners of Metal music?

We are not slaves to fashion, not when it comes to music, clothes or anything else. We’re pretty much unfashionable in any way thinkable. So, just think of the band SLAVES TO FASHION name as irony… 😉

Ok. Let’s start from the beginning… First, a long time ago there was P:O:B with the great Progressive Rock / Metal album “Crossing Over”…

It was a bad band name, but the album turned out fine. It was very exciting to write and produce a full-length album. The music and concept were clearly inspired by Queensrÿche as we are huge fans of their work up until “The Promised Land”. Back then the band was basically just vocalist Johannes Støle and me and we hired the other guys to play on the album. Still proud of the album though!

After changing the line-up and the name to SLAVES TO FASHION, you recorded the second album “Artistic Differences” still following the path of Progressive Rock / Metal…

The second album was more of a collective effort where we wrote and recorded as a full band, hence the title. John Lind (bass) and Vidar Ingvaldsen (drums) completed the band and around the album release we played live a lot. The label for this album even took us to play in Germany several times. The album is a bit more modern sounding but it’s still progressive metal as a basis. Great memories!

However, really and literally you showed the artistic differences in the next album “The History of Heavy Metal”. As the title of the album indicates, it takes the listener to a musical journey through 50 years of Metal’s existence, to pay tribute to the legendary giants who shaped this music. This was a huge undertaking that you really succeeded! Where did the idea to record such an original album come from?

It was my idea. I can’t remember the exact moment, but it came from a string of presentations I had some years ago about the subject of heavy metal history in schools, cultural centers, bars etc. When I was looking for good music examples for the presentation, I think someone mentioned that I should try to write an original album around it. I think it was back in 2015. The idea grew on me and I started to write down ideas and do a lot of research for subgenres I wanted to learn more about. I was thinking about doing the album under my own name for a while but when I presented the idea to my former band mates, they really wanted to play on it. We reformed the band when the first recordings were to find place.

What are the music press reactions to “The History of Heavy Metal”?

The reactions have been really supportive, with a lot of great reviews. I don’t think I have even seen a bad review yet! Just lots of 10/10, 9/10 and 8/10. Humbled and happy!

And how do potential Metal fans perceive this album?

It’s been great! We get a lot of cool feedback for the album from all over the world, so that’s just great. Hopefully some of them will still like us when we return to our own sound, whatever that will sound like 😉

I admit that long time ago I created music. I even had a band and to be honest I wanted to play every kind of Metal, because in every genre I found something that attracted me. Currently, I cannot say which genre is best for me. Yes, I like some more, others less, but I still love Metal as broadly understood music. How is it with you?

Definitely! I have been fascinated by all the different subgenres in the metal tree for a long time. Even genres that I didn’t listen to so much fascinated me as a teenager, like old school Norwegian black metal. Also, writing this album involved a lot of research of music and really opened my eyes and ears for even more different tyles of metal. Heavy metal is a great story of 50 years of creativity! That said, there are some genres I like more than others and I still slightly favor the melodic style so of metal over the very extreme ones.

I am 100% sure that Metal is not the only kind of music you like to listen to…

That is totally correct: Progressive rock (like Rush, Yes, Genesis). Thinking man’s pop (like Peter Gabriel and A-ha). Some classical music. Even a bit of jazz if the mood is right. Different kinds of metal surely dominate though!

In order to perfectly recreate the essence and atmosphere of many genres of Metal music, you invited various guests to record each song. Were they some famous musicians or just local friends?

Most of them were local talented friends. None of the guests them are very famous but Hugo Ribeiro (drums) plays in MOONSPELL and Bernt Jansen (bass) plays in the Norwegian glam metal band WIG GAM.

Of course I associate Hugo with MOONSPELL…

I have included a lot in my review about the album. But however, let’s focus on a few matters…

During of record the track “1970” to give it a typical sound and atmosphere of those years, you used old analog equipment. Was it difficult to get such equipment?

No, we rented a studio in Norway called “Athletic Sound” where they record everything on analog tape machines like in the old days. They also have a lot of analog instruments, amps etc. We also have music friends with a lot of analog equipment, like a real Hammond B3. So, we had no problems there. It was really cool to record the basic tracks of that song live in the studio. We also did the drums and bass for “The Priest of Maidenhead”, “Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll” and “Garden of Chains” in the same studio to capture a retro feeling for those. Great fun!

And who came up with the arrangements for each song? I think some guitars riffs were supposed to be confusingly similar to the famous Metal songs. Just like the timbre of the vocals.

I wrote and arranged most of the music but got some help from my band mates. For instance, bass player John Lind wrote the riffs for “Black Knights of Northern Darkness”; the black metal part of “Expressions of Extremity”. You’re right, the guitar riffs were meant to provoke certain associations with well-known riffs but without being rip offs.

And the lyrics?

I wrote most of the lyrics as well. I tried to find the typical vibe of each the subgenre, like the party thing in “Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N Roll”, the introspective angst-ridden “Garden of Chains” and the glorious revenge of “The Power of Metal”. “Thrash of the Titans” were built around famous thrash album titles and “The Priest of Maidenhead” is made up a mythological story. It was very interesting to research the different lyrical approach to each genre.

To more illustrate the genres of Metal, you have chosen a separate cover-art for each song, which was created by different people…

Yes, as we released one new song each month of 2020, we needed cover artworks for all the song. Again, the idea was to make a typical covert art for each genre, and I think we succeeded quite well. All those single cover artworks were included in the booklet of the CD. They were done by different talented artists and three of the single artworks were painted by Dimitar Nikolov, who also designed the actual album cover.

Also, each song received a lyric-video kept in the atmosphere of a given genre… Are these all your own ideas?

For the lyric videos we mostly gave general ideas and instructions to the video artist. All but one of them were made by Razvan Alexandru from Absynthe Moons Films. He is a both a very talented video designer and metal musician and he made a great job finding the right vibe for each song!

You have dedicated songs to some genres of Metal. Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Glam Metal, Tharsh Metal, Grunge or Nu Metal. Why these genres?

It was a bit difficult to make those decisions, but we ended up with standalone songs for those subgenres you mention because they were influential and/or successful. The classic hard rock and heavy metal were obviously very important for the whole genre and subculture. Thrash metal forefronted the whole extreme metal thing. Glam metal was extremely (!) popular in the 80’s. Grunge changed the whole metal scene. Power metal took traditional heavy metal back. NU metal spearheaded the last 20 years of American metal.

In turn, you have combined other genres in individual songs, such as Speed Metal, Progressive Metal Death Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Grindcore, Symphonic Metal, Folk Metal, Stoner Metal and several other varieties and sub-genres. It is a pity that you did not devote separate works to these genres. Although it would probably have to be a three-disc album, hahaha…

Yes, there are three songs on the album that includes different genres: The extreme metal medley “Expressions of Extremity”, the progressive 90’s subgenres epic “The Evergrowing Tree” and the closing song encompassing 20 years of metal “Too Close (To See Clearly)”. We actually have some plans to expand some of those subgenres into full songs. The first one will be the doom metal song “At the Gates of Doom” which we will play at our postponed release party on May 22nd. Some day that triple album might see the light of day… 😉

Or maybe do you have plans to continue this album with other types of Metal?

My brain will explode if I try to find more subgenres. I will rather write a country album 😉 But I think we will release a new version of the album in 2030. It will be interesting how look at the last 20-30 years then!

And so Metal music is so widely developed and expanded that it is impossible to include everything. For example, the recently fashionable Djent Metal or Post-Metal, or the less known Funk Metal and other subspecies and hybrids are missing. Is there any type of Metal that you don’t know?

I don’t agree when it comes to djent. I think we have thrown it in there. In part three of the “The Evergrowing Tree” there is an instrumental passage inspired by Meshuggah. Also, the new wave of djent is present at the end of “Too Close (To See Clearly)”, as a progressive NU metal thing. I’m not sure if we succeeded, but we really gave djent an honest try. Funk metal is just hinted at in part one of the same song. It’s right after the Yngwie neo-classical solo. Post metal or avantgarde metal was deliberately left out though. I just didn’t know what to make of it as it has no distinct sound to my ears. Also, it would take a lot of time as the music is usually very slow, loosely structured and layered. It was on my list, but I’m sorry, I had to kill that darling!

There are so many motifs in these songs that it’s hard to hear them all, hahaha… Everything is developing so fast, new terms are created. Thanks to you, I learned that there is a term like Kawaii Metal. But these are not the only rarities. There is also Synth Metal and Ambient Metal, which it would be seem that synthesizer or mood music does not match Metal…

Kawaii metal was a funny and energetic one! Is synth metal really a metal genre? I left that out because I think metal is all about the guitars. Distorted guitars define metal. Many bands have successfully used synthesizers together with the guitars though. Even our beloved Iron Maiden did that in the 80’s.

Yes, distorted guitars are essential but we have some examples in our website:

Synth Metal: https://www.metalcentre.com/tag/synth-metal/

At the polish version of Metal Centre – Ambient Metal: http://www.metalcentre.pl/2021/02/distant-dream-point-of-view/

Heavy Brass Metal: https://www.metalcentre.com/2018/12/ottone-pesante-apocalips/

Moreover, everyone knows the APOCALYPTICA and probably VAN CANTO performing “a cappella power metal” is also known… hehe… Let everyone judge for himself whether it is still Metal.

… You need a lot of theoretical and practical knowledge (and of course skills) to create such mixes. Are you musicians by profession?

I’m not a professional musician. I’m a historian and work as a high school teacher, so when it comes to the subject of history, I’m a professional. Only one band member is a professional musician. Namely vocalist and organ player Johannes Støle. Many of the guest musicians are professional musicians though.

Listening to new bands, what kind of attitude do you think is better? Back to the roots or progressive eclecticism?

The latter. It might seem strange coming from a band that just released an album based on all the subgenres from 50 years of heavy metal but usually I prefer originality. It will be interesting to see where our next album goes!

Was FishFarm Records established only for your own needs?

Yes. We used this label for our first album. When the release for “The History of Heavy Metal” were coming up, there were some interested labels, but we turned them down. We wanted to release one single each month of 2020 to celebrate the anniversary of the genre and they didn’t get the idea. It was quite expensive, but we decided to do it ourselves to get the artistic freedom of the album.

Do you invite all the guests from the album to the concerts?

No. But I would surely like to! There are 22 guest musicians from all over the world on the album so if I’m a rich man by then I will invite everyone for release party the new edition of the album in 2030 😉

Ok. Thanks for the interview! Finally, I would like to ask for your plans for the rest of 2021.

Thanks! Great questions!

The album came out February 13th and we were scheduled for a release concert that very evening. It was postponed because of the pandemic and the new date is now May 22nd. We’re now in rehearsal for the release concert and following shows when society permits. The concert will be a mix of metal classics and our own songs from the new album played chronologically. Should be fun! We hope to get out and play live more when society opens.

Also, there will be a limited vinyl release of the album in the fall with three bonus tracks. These tracks add to the story filling out some gaps. One of the tracks is a mid 70’s hard rock track in the style of KISS and AC/DC. This is an important part of metal history, but it was left out of the original album.

Rock on!