Djevel guitarist, Trånn Ciekals, is a mystery. He is perhaps the most elusive person in Norwegian black metal. This is not because the man is a hermit living in an ice cave in some distant fjord. No. The man, in fact, is quite a successful business man. He is a family man. Believe it or not, he lives a fairly ordinary life as a productive member of Norwegian society. That being said, when it comes to his beloved black metal, which he holds very close to his dark heart, he chooses to cloak himself in the shadows and let Djevel‘s music and message do the speaking for him.
When he does come out of the shadows, which is very rare, he is discerning who he invites in. We at Allfather-Metal were fortunate enough to get an hour with Trånn at his hotel in central Bergen, just prior to Djevel‘s stunning performance at Beyond The Gates Festival 2024 in Bergen, Norway this past August. Having never met the man, and never having seen a picture of him (I’m not sure there are pictures of him to be found), I did not know what to expect. When he walked into the lobby of the hotel, I would not have been able to pick him out of a crowd. He is as normal looking as any other person going about their business that day in the hotel lobby. I think this speaks volumes to the man’s character and intentions of his music. It’s not about him. It’s not about the spectacle, the self, or the ego. It is, simply put, all about True Norwegian Black Metal.
On the early scene in Stavanger and how it compared to the larger scene in Norway that was happening at the time…
It was a very small scene in Stavanger in the early 90s. Maybe like six people in the beginning, which was mostly the guys that ended up starting Gehenna. I had a friend at the time who ended up joining them as a drummer because the guy who did the drums on their demo left the band. The black metal thing actually began for some of us in a very underground skateboard shop where the local kids hung out. Everyone there would be smoking joints while reading porn magazines and listening to metal music. We were like 13-14 years old at the time. At some point, myself and Sanrabb, guitarist and vocalist of Gehenna, started our own black metal band called Neetzach with another guy on drums, and we recorded a demo called Pinselstronen. We were a small crew listening and playing this stuff, which, in many ways, was much different than the Oslo scene where there were many more bands and people as I saw it.
From there, Gehenna started taking off which kind of led to more attention on the Stavanger scene. I think without them, the Stavanger scene might have gone mostly unnoticed, except for maybe Incarnator, but if I remember, Bård, the guy behind it, was rejected by Euronymous. It was around this time that bands such as Dimmu Borgir and Emperor started playing shows. Unfortunately, I was younger than everyone else I hung out with. As a result, I was not in the position to travel around to Oslo when the bands started being more ‘outgoing’ and meeting up. So, I stayed in contact mostly through letters.
Back then we had to do everything ourselves. There was nowhere in Stavanger that we could go buy things like bullet belts or spikes. In fact, we would go to these weapon stores and buy different parts and put them together with super glue. And these things weren’t light. They were actually meant for shooting, so they had some weight to them. On top of this, the bullets would always fall off. So, they would just be laying around the schoolyard [laughs].
Things began to rapidly become criminal with all the church burnings and grave desecrations and stuff like that. I was not involved in that myself as I never saw how any of that would lead to any good for me as an individual. Let’s just say I was right. I get the point that you would gain a reputation and some position, but you would also gain attention from the police.
But, it happened and then led to all this attention from the police and stuff, as one could only expect. So, what we were doing in Stavanger at the time was on the heels of what was happening in Bergen. It definitely became quite destructive. We were mostly isolated in Stavanger from what was happening elsewhere in Norway. I mean, there was maybe one guy in Stavanger who had a drivers license. What we were doing was exciting as fuck. It was amazing. Pure magic and very creative times.
On leaving Stavanger…
It wasn’t until a bit later that I left Stavanger. This must have been in 1998. In fact, I completely left the black metal thing in around ’96. When the focus became the criminal part of it you started seeing these outsiders that were joining purely for the destructive and dramatic part of it. They had nothing to add and were just looking for fights and stuff. So, it disturbed some of the reasons we were into it, which was the music and the stand against Christianity, which, in my mind, does not automatically involve being a pothead and a thief, if you know what I mean. There needs to be some meaning behind it, and a goal.
After that, I finished my schooling and then went to a business school in Bergen. I had decided already from the first day in 1992 that black metal was not something I would ever do for a living. It can’t really pay the bills, and I still think it can’t. I mean, I guess some can make a living at it, but it’s not the way of life I wanted to have, and the ones who do actually pay the bills from headlining Wacken.. don’t even get me started.
So, I finished my business degree and then got into black metal again. I started playing again because I felt that there was so much missing. I missed out on the whole period of latex, foam spikes, and velvet dresses and all that shit. That escaped me, luckily.
Personally, I preserved my idea of black metal – the stuff from 1993 and ’94 – which is where I still am in terms of black metal. When I didn’t find any albums of interest through all those years I thought, well, I should probably just make it myself. And that’s what I did. At the same time, I also had this space for my professional career. I didn’t have to worry about making any money from black metal, I could just do what I wanted 100%. I didn’t have to worry about signing to labels. I didn’t have to do shows. So, that’s how I got started again.
It was around 2002 that I came back to it. I started in a band [Ljå] while I was working in Stavanger for one year and released two albums. I was in the process of writing the third album but then I moved to Oslo which was my plan all the time, with the rest of the band remaining in Stavanger. At some point, I told the other band members that I had written a new album. They were like, oh you didn’t even tell us, and I’m like, no, because I just wrote it. We agreed that this situation was not going to work. I realized that I didn’t need them for this.
On forming Djevel…
The last song on the Ljå album was called ‘Gjort Til Djevel’ [translation: ‘Made into a Devil’]. After the band dissolved, I took the last word of this song and started Djevel instead. So, the first Djevel album was supposed to be the third album of this band. As it relates to Djevel, I didn’t have any desires except for creating something that I considered to be Norwegian black metal because I felt that this was kind of lost in so many bands from my days. I’ve never been influenced by anything except black metal when it comes to creating black metal. I was never really interested in thrash or death metal. I didn’t grow up on Celtic Frost and stuff. I’m not from this classic metal upbringing with the older brother giving me a Judas Priest record for my birthday. For me, it was all about Bathory and their Under The Sign Of The Black Mark album. I think that kind of hooked me onto black metal in ’91/92. For me, it really started with the early Norwegian black metal demos. So, that was always my sound. I basically went directly from A-ha as a kid into three months of Swedish death metal and also Deicide‘s Legion before it turned completely black.
On efforts to keep the Djevel sound pure…
For me it is about the sound and spirit of Norwegian mountains, forests and the spirits you find in them. Black metal for me is music but then again not music. It’s a feeling, dedication, and opinion with music to it.
On being labelled a metalhead…
No, not at all. I’m a musichead. I love electronic and ambient music, and stuff like post rock. It can be whatever. Black metal is something else to me than just music. So, I don’t put them in the same basket.
On being attracted to black metal…
I know that I’m good at creating black metal because I have a sincere and honest reason and approach; the melodies and all the composing, the hate for Christianity. It’s just in me. It’s very natural for me. I actually don’t spend much time composing the music. It just comes out very pure because it’s 100% based on a feeling inside of me that comes out in the melodies. It’s nature and hate that speaks through me and ends up being like this. In fact, I have no knowledge of notes. I have no musical theory training. Everything is composed in my head. I don’t even know the names of the different parts of the guitar. I sit down with the guitar, and then it starts flowing. I mean, most of the songs are made within an hour.
On any issues or limitations as it relates to lack of technical expertise…
I can’t work well with other people because most of them know this stuff and they will speak to me in a language that I don’t understand. When they say can you do a C whatever thing and I’m like, I’m blind… you have to show me. I can play it but I don’t necessarily understand it.
The way I learned to play guitar was by listening to albums and just playing the songs and making melodies in my head. I would find the correct places on the guitar and just start playing. I went to a guitar teacher for six months, the son of my mom’s friend. He asked me if I wanted to learn notes.
To that, I gave him ‘Under The Sign Of The Black Mark’ and said I wanted to learn this. He showed me it. And that was that in terms of learning how to play guitar by someone else. After that, I just listened to albums I liked and I would play them on guitar myself. As an example, many of the songs I have created, including our most recent single that we just released, which is like six minutes in length, took me twelve minutes to write. It’s like I just instantly hear it. I just go into this room I have in my house where I have all the posters and flyers from the 90s and things like that. It’s basically like a time machine in there. I have a view of a lake and forest. It’s very inspiring in that sense, and I just sit down and start playing. Usually, there’s a song after an hour that ends up on the album. So, this is how I work.
On the consistency of Djevel’s output…
I’m constantly making music. As it relates to the new album, for my part, I was done with it a year and a half ago. And now I have two more albums recorded on demos that are just waiting for Faust and Kvitrim to get to. So, I am someone who is constantly an album ahead of the album that’s coming out. This is good because I have piles of stuff in me and eventually I will explode if it doesn’t come out. If I wasn’t constantly writing I would probably have this constipation thing going on inside of me all the time.
On touring and their relationship with record label Aftermath Music Norway…
Doing tours does not really interest me. How many people will come to a show and all of that is extremely unimportant to me. Djevel does not exist to fulfill a contract with the label or release an album and then go on a big tour. Our label, Aftermath Music, is the perfect home for us. We have plenty of these bigger labels approaching us saying they have this, this and that distribution. To me, that sounds stressful because it means more interviews and festivals approaching us. Since that’s not important to me, I politely thank them and let them know that they will be disappointed because I’m not interested in that stuff.
As far as Aftermath Music, Haavard is a one-man show over there, and I am a one-man band in the sense that I create everything. I mean, the other guys definitely contribute in their own ways. We signed a contract with Aftermath twenty years ago and we have never updated it or anything. If there’s something that needs to be changed, it’s a text message. It took ten years before I met Haavard at Aftermath. It’s funny, you know, we live like one hour flight apart and it took me ten years to meet him and that was by accident. I didn’t plan to meet him. I also understand that he has to do some promotional things, like different colors on the vinyl because that’s what people like.
So, from his end, he also needs something out of this. It helps him out. And that’s fine. I would prefer not to, but some compromises had to be made. He has always understood my position on these things. If someone approaches him about Djevel playing some show or festival he will always tell me, but he knows I will likely just say no. He has a good sense of what I like to do or not do.
On the intentions of Djevel…
It’s an outlet for myself, and a way of preserving what I see as Norwegian black metal, both with the lyrics and the sounds and the melodies and stuff like that. I mean, someone has to preserve it when so many choose the wrong direction yet claim differently. Of course, I understand it’s normal for a band to evolve as people get older and such, but that is not the case with me. It’s similar to all other areas in my life. I have definitely evolved, especially family-wise, and with my career and all that stuff.
I started my company and all that, but as it relates to black metal I’m still an angry, Christ-hating fifteen year old. This will always be my attitude toward this. And now I’m able to preserve that and keep that close to me and I don’t bring it into other aspects of my life. I’m not like walking around constantly trying to be black metal as fuck. It’s deep inside me and although I carry it with me all the time, I only let it out when it’s correct to do so. You really can’t have a pleasant and successful life solely making this music. Everybody who has made black metal their life full, have failed in that regard as I see it because at some point you will end up playing for the money at Wacken. Wacken is where black metal goes to die.
Then you have other bands that bring black metal into everything they do, and still claim it’s black metal… bands such as Satyricon and Dark Funeral. When a band like Dark Funeral have big billboards with a new album where they are wearing corpsepaint in the middle of the street? Sorry, man, it doesn’t cut it for me. All it does is weaken everything. It becomes something it was never meant to be like a pleasant commercial thing.
There’s a bit of a dichotomy here because you can look at a band like Satyricon and where they’ve gone. Satyr, himself, is quite successful. I love their first two albums. They’re my fucking go-to albums. Just amazing stuff. My issue with them is that they’re constantly doing new stuff but still claiming it’s black metal. I’m sorry to say, it’s not. I have an enormous amount of respect for a lot of stuff Satyr has done and what he has accomplished, but it’s not black metal to me. There are other examples, like Marduk, who have still managed to keep it black metal. I could write a book about this stuff and the issues I see, etc.
On the younger generation of Norwegian black metal bands…
I have an issue with some younger bands… bands like Mork. There’s nothing wrong with being born a bit later. That’s totally fine. It’s fine to be sixteen years old now and get into black metal and stuff. But don’t pretend and claim that you are this true Norwegian something, because you’re not, and you shouldn’t be. Do your own thing. Set your own standards. I don’t mean to pick on Mork, but stop trying to sound like Ravishing Grimness-era Darkthrone. When I hear a band like that, I don’t feel anything. There’s no feeling. It’s only about trying to look this way or that. This constant striving to be the new poster boy. This is not black metal. It should never be about a person. It should be about black metal and for the greater dark. My person, who I am, should be of no interest to people who listen to us. It should only be about what I create as a composer and my lyrics. It’s strange to me when people want to take a picture with me. I really don’t get that whole thing, so I don’t do it .
If you were a part of those early days you have something in you that is just not possible for the younger generation to capture. And that doesn’t make it a bad thing. Satyricon has this line from one of their songs on Volcano where they mention the ‘smell of black metal’. Yeah, there is a smell of black metal. It’s like Autumn turning into Winter. That smell when you walk in the forest like we used to do when listening to all these demos and rehearsal tapes that were being sent around in the early days. I think every genre goes through this. Look at hip-hop. Someone needs to stand the ground for it… hold the flag still. If not, it will totally go off the rails. And I think that’s the case with black metal in many ways because the majority of people DO NOT GET IT.
On the general state of black metal in 2024…
Back in the early 90s people would always say what they felt and meant. Now, people are afraid of saying, as an example, that they think the new Satyricon is off the fucking rails or that Mork is fucking stupid and annoying stuff. That’s extremely weak in my eyes. I mean, I wouldn’t be offended if someone thought my stuff sucks or that we made the worst album they’ve ever heard. Again, I don’t give a shit because it’s not made for them. It’s made by me and I don’t give a shit if you don’t like it. People are so scared of being honest.
It’s all about being inclusive. Everybody is friends. Oh, you play black metal? I also play black metal. You want to be my friend? Fuck off.
I mean, what is that? It doesn’t make any sense. You see all these bands and they are all like brothers because they all have the same shirt or something. A lot of people get annoyed because I am unafraid to name names in interviews and say what I think about them and their band ruining black metal. And then I hear from other people that these same people are asking around about me and why I am so angry with them. You know, it’s not like I’m necessarily angry. I’m just saying what I think, and why should that be so fucking difficult to do?
On living the black metal lifestyle 24/7…
There are probably people who do it. Back in the day, everybody was so young that they were still living at their parent’s house. We didn’t have any bills to pay. I mean, all you had to basically care about was waking up in the morning and brushing your fucking teeth and getting to school. This allowed me to be black metal 24/7. Even at school I was listening to demos with ear plugs that my long black hair covered. When you get older you can’t do that. If you do, you start dragging it into everything else you do and you will lose track of why you’re doing this stuff.
So, yeah, at one point I had the luxury of diving head-first into black metal. That was the only thing I did. From the end of ’92 to mid ’95. I didn’t do anything else. I probably saved my parents lots of money on electricity bills because I only had candlelights for three or four years in my room. That was the only thing I cared about. I didn’t even allow myself to step outside the door without the bullet belts and whatnot. You can’t keep on with that. I mean, there was this Niflheim interview once where they were saying you should wear a bullet belt and spikes even when you sleep. And I was like, yeah, sure, I’d like to see that.
In fact, we played with Nifelheim in Sweden two years ago or something. There was this festival, December Darkness, and it was really cool. I’m sitting there in this very costly, small hotel in the city of Norrkøping. There was a fireplace burning, and it was snowing outside and there was even a fucking Christmas tree in this living room. It was this old lady who ran this small hotel. So, me and Faust are sitting there like having coffee and stuff and suddenly we hear all this commotion of spikes and chains and stuff going on and in comes Nifelheim for breakfast, and they look like they’re going on stage. So I had to give it to them. I’ll give them that. They actually live this way. Yeah, not for me, but still impressive in its own dedicated manner. That being said, how later in life are you going to navigate the workforce? Who will hire you looking like this? How do you withdraw money from a bank machine with all these spikes constantly in the way?
Of course, at the end of the day, you have to have a sense of humor about it, because what it really is about is the inside and having the heart and hate in the correct place, not the amount of bullet belts. Anyone can wear five bullet belts, but not everyone can deliver a proper anti-Christian message accompanied by the correct notes.
On choosing to play Beyond The Gates 2024…
The reason we chose this festival in particular to play is that I feel like they’re doing it for the right reasons. It has its history. I mean, I know some of the guys behind it and I was at the very first one here in Bergen that was held at Garage. Of course, Bergen has always obviously been very close to black metal. Also, I hate traveling and it’s not far for us to get here.
