The Kovenant’s Nagash reflects on his journey as a vocalist: “Staying true means staying true to yourself”

Norwegian extreme metal veteran Nagash has spent decades moving between black metal, industrial metal and other forms of dark and experimental music through bands such as The Kovenant, Dimmu Borgir and Troll. His career has also seen him develop a highly theatrical approach to vocals, with an emphasis on atmosphere, dynamics and using the voice as another instrument rather than relying on one fixed extreme vocal style.

Chaoszine sat down with Nagash at Hellsinki Metal Festival in Helsinki, Finland on August 8th for a new episode of our My Story As Metal Frontman video series. During the conversation, he looked back on growing up in a musical family, discovering extreme metal through his stepfather’s extensive vinyl collection, learning several instruments before eventually becoming a vocalist almost by necessity, and witnessing the early Norwegian black metal scene develop around him.

Nagash also spoke openly about the difficult process of learning extreme vocals in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including losing his voice during early tours before gradually finding techniques that worked for him. He explained how his vocal approach became increasingly theatrical over the years, highlighted The Kovenant’s “Animatronic” as an important step in his development, and revealed that the band’s upcoming album will continue pushing his vocals in new directions.

Elsewhere in the interview, Nagash discussed why he never warms up before shows, how in-ear monitoring has helped protect his voice, the unexpected way the clean vocals on The Kovenant’s “Seti” ended up dominating the final mix, and the advice he would give to young musicians starting out today.

His message was simple: stay true to yourself, never turn down an opportunity and never compromise simply because someone else thinks you should be doing things differently.

You can watch the full My Story As Metal Frontman interview with Nagash below.

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