Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
I’ve been fascinated by extreme metal lately, and one of the bands that most intrigued me was Extol. I had the opportunity to chat with Ole Børud, guitarist and vocalist of that band about their new album “Aura of Decay”, touring and more.
I’m here with the wonderful Ola from Extol. How are you doing today?
Ole Børud: I’m very fine. Thank you.
Awesome. The band is back with a new fantastic album, which I’ve had a pleasure of listening and it’s just amazing. How was it working and writing music again for Extol after, you know, the last album, which was quite a while back?
Ole Børud: Absolutely. Yes, it’s been a while and we finally decided upon writing again together, which is always a treat. And I would say the writing process this time was even more demanding just because of the fact that we are older.
We have done it so many times and that leaves us with some expecting of what we come up with. So we don’t just go for like the first and the most “easy” solution to what we write. We work on it several times, we meet up and we throw ideas back and forth and everything.
And so because of this, the process takes time. On top of that, we are all family people. We have kids and we have obligations during everyday life. That also takes up a lot of time and basically means that we’re not able to spend as much time writing together in that sense. But we have absolutely been meeting up and we have had sessions where we work on the songs and everything. Well, the proof is basically in the pudding.
So I, for one, am really happy with the album and I’m actually quite proud of it because it did take some time, but we made sure we spent the proper amount of time to make it as good as possible, basically. So it’s always a treat to write with the guys. Yeah.
You said that it was sort of like coming back to creating again. So I guess the creative chemistry between the four of you has evolved since the beginning of the band.
Ole Børud: Oh, absolutely. And as you did mention, and it’s pretty clear if you just look at the catalog, you will see quite some intervals between the albums, which means that we have obviously been doing other stuff as well. And so as for me, I do solo stuff and I even did the Fleshkiller album between the last Extol and this one.
And so just a lot of different stuff going on. David and Krister did Azusa. So, yes, all of these things eventually lead to us obviously evolving as writers of music.
Basically just life happening also has a lot of impact on the way we write now. I mean, of course, it’s going to be different from when we were like 20 years old or anything. So, yeah, that’s the way it is.
One of the things that also I really loved about the album was the cover art. Can you share with us maybe how did that sort of happen with his time that Hugh Syme worked on the artwork?
Ole Børud: Yeah. Well, actually, it was a bit of, I wouldn’t say rushed process, but we eventually found ourselves in a situation where we had to decide upon how to solve the thing with a cover. And we did talk about checking to see if Hugh would be interested.
Obviously, he did the cover for “Synergy”. That was kind of like the reason why we tried to get in touch with him again and see if he would be interested in doing the cover. So that’s basically the premises for why the cover turned out the way it is. It’s all Hugh Syme. It’s his artwork thing and touch. Yeah.
Phenomenal. Really rounds out the whole album concept. And I think that the title also is super evocative, like Aura of Decay. What does decay signify for you personally? Is it spiritual, physical, social or something different?
Ole Børud: “Aura of Decay” is one of the sentences from one of the songs, the lyrics were written by Peter. On this album, I didn’t write any of the lyrics. I have written some lyrics previously, but this time around, I’m pretty sure it was mostly Peter and Christa and maybe David did like one or two.
From what I understand, I’m quite sure that those lyrics were “Aura of Decay” come from is a lyric about their mother dying from dementia. So it’s actually like a quotation about that type of situation happening in life. So, yeah, it’s physical.
Oh, my goodness. Well, that’s very profound. I’m studying to be a psychologist, so we do deal a lot with dementia patients. And that’s something very deep. And, of course, not nice when it happens, unfortunately.
Ole Børud: Of course not. But I mean, life happens and the older you get, the more you are likely to encounter things that you didn’t expect to happen, basically. But that’s just the way life is.
Coming back a little bit to the beginning of Extol, like in the 90s, you were already being pioneers, in my opinion, because you were blending extreme metal with some very interesting themes. And it was a bit rare, back in the day. Do you feel that the world has become more open minded since the band started?
Ole Børud: As far as the metal theme goes, yeah, I would say so. I would say that people have opened up more to the idea of just basically, you know, cross-breeding as far as what’s even possible, but also what’s kind of allowed. And so maybe we took some liberties back in the day.
We basically just wrote what we felt like was, this is cool. I mean, we just wanted to write something that was full of energy, but also had some emotion to it. And then also, obviously, we enjoyed playing riffs and stuff like that.
So we kind of just tried to combine all of those different parameters into what became Extol. But I would absolutely say that I think that people are more open to exploring somehow these days, which is great.
I mean, obviously, there’s a lot of stuff that still needs to be worked out, but at least now it’s better than the 80s or the 90s.
Ole Børud: Yeah, I mean, I’m speaking specifically to the metal community, because if you go back to the 70s, there was a lot of exploring, but that really wasn’t about metal in that sense, even though metal probably started around that time. But there was just that explosion of people just being creative with music, and then you got prog rock and you got psychedelic rock and whatever, you know, a lot of different fun stuff. And so, I mean, sometimes you might miss days like that.
But my point was basically that when we started writing our music, we probably were a bit of an, maybe not awkward, but at least a bit different type of a band, incorporating some elements into extreme metal that probably wasn’t that common at those days. But as I said, these days, it feels as if people have realized that you can pretty much do whatever you want. So, and I like that. It’s cool.
Absolutely, yeah. And I mean, I really like the album, as I told you, so I was wondering if there’s any plan to maybe do a tour, some shows or something, even in 2027?
Ole Børud: Yeah, well, we are scheduled to do a few shows next year. They will most, for the most part, it’s going to be in Europe and not too many. The thing is basically that even if we were to try to see if we could do a tour, there are so many things that would have to work out in the best possible way, because we’re all, as I said, family people.
I live as a full time musician, so in that sense, I probably could go on the road, but the other guys have jobs, which means that you can’t just leave job for so many weeks or days or, you know, without losing a lot of money. And then if you go on tour, chances are there’s going to be a lot of expenses and so forth. So, I mean, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to add up as we would have hoped.
But then again, every now and then we get a request and sometimes it works out fine. And so because of this, we’re going to do some shows next year. And mind you, it’s going to be not with Peter because he doesn’t do live anymore.
So when we do live shows, we do it with Karl Fredrik [Lind], which is a very good friend of ours. And he’s the vocalist from Drottnar, which is another Norwegian metal band. So great guy.
That’s amazing news, though. Hopefully I can make it to one of those shows. Can you share with us your family’s reaction to the band?
Ole Børud: Well, I can only speak for my family. As for my wife, she has been part of what we have done with Extol ever since we got married. Next year we will be married for 25 years, actually.
She actually joined in on a tour that we did with “Synergy” back in 2003 in the United States. So she’s been a part of quite a long journey and has attended quite a few Extol shows back in the days.
Before we got together, we were kind of part of the same subculture community. And I knew that she had some albums of some super extreme bands at that time. And I was like, “Why don’t you listen to that type of music?“
She knows what it’s about, basically. And she’s super supportive. I have two sons, 11 and 13. And they are probably a little bit more into other types of music. But they’re super supportive, absolutely.
That’s awesome. That’s really nice. So your wife is a metalhead.
Ole Børud: Well, I actually wouldn’t say that she is a metalhead. But she used to have some quite extreme albums when she was young. She’s probably more of a 70s rock lady, I would say. She really likes Rival Sons and stuff like that.
So you said in the album you didn’t contribute to the lyrics this time. How about music?
Ole Børud: Oh, music. Yeah, absolutely. I have probably written approximately half of the album when it comes to music. When some of the other guys come with a certain passage of a riff or whatever, I will chime in maybe and contribute and arrange and maybe tweak and stuff like that. So I sometimes get that kind of role to come in and see what is possible to stretch and tweak in a riff. I’ve always been a fan of stuff like that. But I have definitely contributed when it comes to music.
Amazing. Can I ask you which software do you use? Are you on Pro Tools or Logic?
Ole Børud: Oh, I love that nerdy question. That’s really cool. I’m a super fan of Cubase. Yeah, and I’ve been using Cubase forever. I’m never going to change it. I love it.
Get ready for a nerdier question now then.. So when you’re working on Cubase, I’m guessing that when you work, the projects that you save do not have the song’s name. So can you share with us maybe some weird or strange name of a project that you saved that is not the final title, obviously? Even if not from this album.
Ole Børud: Oh, okay. Yeah, because I’m currently working on some songs for a different project that I’ve started now, which is just my thing. And yes, I absolutely just make up some names for songs.
And then I kind of try to make like not like real lyrics, but just like, you know, sort of gibberish, but sort of trying to fit it to what the name is. I have this one song called “Mandrake City“. Then I have another one called “Holy Water“. And then I have, I think, a song called “Golden Dew“.
So, yeah, it’s very true. I always have to just, you know, make up some name and just get going. Every now and then it actually makes for a sort of, you know, idea for some sort of lyrical theme. Every now and then. Not always.
Actually, now that you mentioned it, I realized that a lot of the ideas that I served to the guys during the Extol period, I basically just named them the date I made the idea. So you have like “28-2”, which is like, you know, the 28th of February.
So for the longest time, everybody, you know, referred to the songs as “28-2”. I think we’ve kind of gotten along now and I think it’s getting to us that we have titles and lyrics now. So I think we’ll be fine.
That’s amazing. Awesome. So if you had to choose a track from “Aura of Decay” to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest with Extoll, which one would you pick?
Ole Børud: I don’t know if I’d pick anyone to the Eurovision Song Contest. It’s really not my thing. But if I had to, I’d do “Vital Path“.
Great choice, absolutely. So last year was, I mean, an incredible year because so many great albums came out and so many things happened. But also, you know, we lost the godfather of heavy metal, Ozzy Osbourne. Was he or Black Sabbath an influence for you? Or did you listen to him? Or was he ever on your playlist?
Ole Børud: Not really, I have to be honest, because I never got into the old school metal thing. First was Rush.
So I got hugely into Rush, and that actually was one of the main influences in the early days for Extol, because both, especially me and David, we were just total Rush geeks. And so we’d listen to, you know, like “Permanent Waves” is one of my favorite albums, and I’d listen to the crap out of that album.
But then also, if we’re talking about old stuff, I would probably go in the direction of Genesis and Yes, for my part. And then some, you know, Outskirts, other bands in that genre. But I never really got into, like, Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin.
Even though I have heard quite a few Led Zeppelin albums now, because my wife likes it. And it’s pretty cool, absolutely. But as I said, I never got into that thing. I listened to some, a few metal things, and then it quickly turned into thrash metal for me. I just wanted it to be all extreme and then it got into death metal. And so around 89, 90, I was, like, totally into the death metal thing.
Rush’s influence now makes a lot of sense, listening to your albums.
Ole Børud: Yeah, and I would probably say more, for me, The Godfather would probably be Chuck Schill Wiener from Death. That’s more like the influence that I can draw from, at least to a certain degree. Even though everybody could say that, yeah, but Sabbath was the first band.
But I never listened to it. So I couldn’t say that. It’s the same as, like, I didn’t listen to Jimi Hendrix, even though I think blues can be really cool and whatnot. I love the song “Manic Depression“.
If someone pioneers something, it’s not like it’s for everyone. I mean, for example, I love the Beatles much more than Black Sabbath.
Ole Børud: It’s probably the same for me. I’m really, especially like “Abbey Road” is such a great album. Fantastic album. I would 100% agree with that. It’s way more important for my musical upbringing.
And probably actually for Extol as well, because all of those melodies and all the stuff that I’ve been listening to, I’m quite a huge fan of good melodies. And that’s probably not the first thing you think about when you think about old school death metal. And that makes sense.
The point is that Extol tried to fuse those things, like old school and extreme metal with melodies. And so, yeah.
Awesome. Ole, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me. Is there anything else that you want to add to our viewers and readers?
Ole Børud: Well, basically I would just say to all of those who have been checking out Extol, thank you so much and thanks for the support. I hope that you will check out the new album, it’s out now. I hope that people will check it out and give it a good listen, and get to know it. That’s the fun part of music.
