First, a little history, please...

- The band were formed in late 1992 by myself, Andreas Johansson (drums), Stefan Nilsson (guitar) and Harald Aberg(bass). First we began to search for a name for the band and Harald were the guy to find one... GATES OF ISHTAR were the obvious name for our music and opinions so we chose it. Andreas designed the logo and then we started to rehearse for the demo... In early May 1995 the demo "Seasons Of Frost" was recorded in the Lucichrist Studio. The response that came for the demo were great so we signed for one full-length album on the Finnish label Spinefarm Records. After a year of songwriting and arrangements the debut CD "A Bloodred Path" was recorded in the Finnish studio Tico - Tico in early 1996. The record was released by Spinefarm in June 1996 and the response were very good everywhere... The offers came from many labels and because of the bad promotion from Spinefarm, we changed our label to the German label Invasion Records. A contract for two full-length albums was signed and then we started to work on our second album "The Dawn Of Flames". In early 1997 the time had come to enter the studio Unisound, so we went to Orebro and met up with the studioguy, Dan Swano, to record our second album "The Dawn Of Flames". The recording went great and Invasion Records got the CD out right on time...On the 25th of March 1997 the album "The Dawn Of Flames" was released worldwide...

"The Dawn Of Flames" is still relatively fresh recording, do you want to tell me anything about it?  What is the main concept behind this album? What is the main difference between "The Dawn..."  and "A Bloodred Path"?

- "The Dawn Of Flames"  was written during a short period of time so we didn't have the time to arrange the songs that much. I personally enjoy "A Bloodred Path" much more, but if you listen to "The Dawn..." a couple of times, you'll like it, I think... The main concept for "The Dawn..." is the end of it all... time, existance, pain and religion - just pure damnation, the world dies and we all join the dead... I think that the main difference between the two albums are speed and agression. On "A Blood..." we were more on the edge when we wrote the songs, so the final result was better on that recording. On our new album I have taken me the time to make good music and arrange it properly. I hope that everyone will notice the difference between the new songs and the older ones, both tecnically and by the tempo.

What were the main reasons for changing recording studio and label? By the way, why did you choose Tico Tico to record "A Bloodred Path" in (sounds a bit strange for a Swedish BM band...)?

- We wanted to record our second album here in Sweden so we went to
Unisound to get a different sound from Tico-Tico. The reason why we left Spinefarm was that they promoted us pretty bad and the fact that they didn't pay us in time... We changed our label to Invasion Records (Germany) and now everything works great. We chose Tico-Tico only because it's located near our hometown Lulea. This made things easier for us to bring our own instruments and back-line to the recordings.

Now let's talk about one more change, this time regarding your line-up... Daniel Kohr (bass) replaced Niklas Svensson and Henrik Aberg (drums) - Oskar Karlsson, why? Oskar also plays in SCHEITAN, was this a reason for his departure? Concerning Henrik, isn't he the same guy who appears as a BATTLELUST mastermind?

- We had some personal disagreements between the members in the band so Oskar and Niklas left GATES OF ISHTAR. The reason for bringing in Danjel and Henrik was that we were stressed and needed replacements for Oskar and Niklas fast... Nowadays I can admit that this was not very good solution for our problems but at that time it seemed to work. Anyway, now we are only three guys in the band - me (guitars & vocals), Urban Carlsson (guitars) and Oskar Karlsson is back on drums. We are currently working on our third full-length-CD titled "At Dusk And Forever" to be released on Invasion Records in February 1998. Check it out and you will hear the new and improved GATES OF ISHTAR.

What equipment do you use in studio? (guitars, basses, drums, keyboards, synthesizers, processors, etc.)

- We play on Kramer and Ibanez (Universe) axes, use Ibanez basses and
Oskar destroys Premiere drums exclusively... I don't know what keyboard equipment the studioguy uses but it shure gets the job done. We use Marshall amps and mix a lot of different effectpedals to get our new & improved sound.

DARK TRANQUILLITY and IN FLAMES seem to the most famous bands on modern Swedish death / black scene... Any comments about these groups and their last albums? GATES OF ISHTAR sounded quite similar to them on "A Bloodred...", don't you think so?

- I don't know if we sounded so similar to those two bands on "A
Bloodred..." but I'm sure that we all share the same musical influences and that is what brings our styles together... I personally think that both bands are great but I like IN FLAMES better than DARK TRANQUILLITY... I think that "Jester Race" is a killer album but "Whoracle" was more a copy of themselves than a step further... I believe that DARK TRANQUILLITY can be too much sometimes, they have too many harmonies everywhere and I sometimes feel that it gets too much, even for me...

"The Dawn Of Flames" features some nice atmospheric keyboard parts, the thing whose absence was the only shortcoming on "A Bloodred..." Who came up with this great idea and who performed synth on CD?

- We always wanted to use keyboards on "A Blood..." but we didn't have any guy to compose and preform the keyboard parts. When we came to Unisound for the recording of "The Dawn..." we thought "Hey, here we have Dan and he's a good keyboardist, so why don't we use him for some songs?". We spoke to Dan and he agreed to write some parts and there you have it.

What is your view upon satanism and christianity?

- Oh, here we go again... I don't support any form of religion, but you can say that I'm more into the darker side of the force than the "good". I personally think that if you want anything to happen in your life you must make it happen yourself, instead of praying to some "gods" for their guidance or assistance... You can't blame anything on religion or some gods, if something bad happens it's your own fault and it?s up to you to get out of it in the best possible way... and of course if something great happens in your life, it's you that made that thing possible by making your own choices...

A lot of bands (especially Swedish ones) feature the following phrase on their album covers:  "Support the war against christianity!" But the only war I behold is war between different satanic movements...

- Yes, that's true... I've noticed that everyone has to be so evil this and that but I don't give a shit...  Don't support anything unless it feels right for you and your OWN opinions...

Tell me about your lyrics, their meaning and everything, that influences you during the composition process...

- My lyrics deals with a lot of thinks like: my own life, religion, death and other "deeper" subjects.  When I write the lyrics for a song I like to listen to the feeling the song gives me and then create a "theme" around it. Sometimes it works great, but sometimes I'm just staring at an empty sheet of paper... My lyrics has no greater meaning... They are my personal reflections on different subjects... If someone can relate to them it's great... but I write them for myself and not to sound cool or evil...

Does Nature influence you in any ways?

- I've made some lyrics about Mother Nature on "A Bloodred Path". "The Dreaming Glade" song was about a place somewhere in nature were everything is calm, beautiful and mirrormere... but the titlesong "A Bloodred Path" was more a predicition of Nature's fall...

Homo Sapiens. "The most brilliant being, created by Nature", "Master of the animals" - this is what we can hear some people saying... Your opinion about us, humans?

- We are a dying breed... If something is beautiful, we desecrate it and if someone is successful we envy that person instead of giving him credit for his good work... It's to kill or be killed, and most of us humans don't turn the other cheek...

Life and Death. Love and Hate. Darkness and Light. Your comments...

- I think that life is very sarcastic sometimes... I don't think of death as the end any longer, it's just an beginning of something different from the ordinary life... Love and Hate are strong words for me... I have more and more reasons to hate now than in the past, maybe that's because you learn more about people when you come to argue over shit-things like money and items...

What about paganism? Do you believe in the powers of Nature? What do you think of people, who worship gods, representing Her?

- I'm not into those beliefs... I think that people can believe what they want as long as noone else gets involved in something the don't want to... I admire those few men that can be straight with their own beliefs and opinions instead of trying to be friends with everyone... You can't like the same things as everyone else because we?re all different so just say your opinion and you'll have my respect...

Industrialization and urbanization of society... Does it have any positive outcomes?

- "Now... the end is near, I feel joy, I feel no fear... Life is just a game... Death is the same" - Agroth (hmm??? - ED)

Do you listen to some non-metal music? What do you think of ambient, such bands as f.ex.  MORTIIS, WONGRAVEN, NAOS, etc.? Do they represent the feature of black metal? Or maybe bands compiling this style with folk / pagan music (like CRUACHAN, STORM, RAGNAROK (UK) etc.) have more chances?

- I don't listen to any of those bands... I like raw and powerful black metal like EMPEROR, IMMORTAL, MAYHEM and DARK FUNERAL... That's real music and those guys will rule in the future as well...

Your music has a lot of "traditional" heavy metal influences... I guess, you are big fans of some old speed / power bands, right? "I Wanna Be Somebody" cover (which is much better than the original version!) appears as the best proof to my words...

- Of course! Metal is the only way! We all listen to acts from the 80's and on "At Dusk And Forever" you will find a cover of MOTLEY CRUE's "Red Hot"... The best powerband of all times is BLIND GUARDIAN, they are the true kings, not HELLOWEEN!!!

GATES OF ISHTAR... Did you take this name only because of it's sound, or you put any special (hidden) meaning in it?

- It's a good name and I like it because it sticks to your brain... The name is from Necronomicon and we chose it because of Queen Ishtar's might and glory...

You come from Lulea, the hometown of NECROMICON... Are you in contact with these guys?

- Yepp, I know Niklas (guitars) and Sude, the drummer quite well. We had our problems in the past but now it looks like things are ok... Their new CD is out soon so check it out!

Can you tell anything about your live performances?

- I just saw one on video last night and it's always the same... Myself, banging my ass off and Oskar destroying the drums properly... The other guys just stand there without thrashing but they are no longer in the band now so we will be more interesting live in the future.

Does your music bring you any money?

- Well, you always get some money and that's great... Invasion Records is good on paying the royalties, but I can't say the same thing about Spinefarm... They have stalled everything as much as they could and I haven't received any royalties at all for "A Bloodred Path".

There is Pierre Tornquist's (THE MOANING, SCHEITAN, THE EVERDAWN) name on your debut album's thanxlist, also he was a guy who did the cover painting... Looks like you have strong relationship, am I right? By the way, recently I made an interview with ALGAION and when I said that MARDUK is horribly overrated band and f.ex. SCHEITAN are much better, Marten answered me the following: "Please do NOT compare MARDUK to SCHEITAN, if you want me to go on with this interview. Any such comparison is an assault on taste in my ears..." Do you agree or disagree with him and why?

- First of all Pierre did NOT paint any of the covers for GATES OF ISHTAR, just helped us with the layout for "A Blood...". He's a good and honest friend to me and I personally think that SCHEITAN is better than MARDUK... I've heard the new songs for "Bezerk 2000" and they are great... Maybe some of their fans will be disappointed but many new will come...

There is brilliant guitar work on both GATES OF ISHTAR albums... Did you learn playing guitar yourselves? (I hardly believe this...)

- As I told you before the guitarplayers in GATES OF ISHTAR are replaced by me and Urban... The thing is that I played some guitars on both albums because the other guys couldn't play the songs in that speed... I have learned all I now by myself... I wrote some riffs for "A Blood..." and like 50% of the riffs for "The Dawn..." so there you have it...

Do you know anything about my country?

- It's sad to say that I don't know much about your country and I don't want to believe anything that comes in the media (right - ED) so I have to come there one day...

Future plans...?

- We will release our third CD "At Dusk And Forever" in February 1998, then we'll start planning some tour dates in Europe or maybe Japan... I hope that we'll be able to come to Russia sometime next year for some gigs but I can't promise anything.

Last words...?

- Thank you for the interview, great questions by the way... I'm sorry for the delay but I'm very busy right now... I hope that everyone checks out "At Dusk And Forever" ...It's worth waiting for... Cheers...

GATES OF ISHTAR
c/o Mikael Sandorf
V. Brogatan 26
972 45 Lulea
Sweden
Email (Mikael Sandorf):
Mikael.Sandorf@interact.se

If you fail to contact Mikael himself, try to do it through his brother Jan: jsf@solace.mh.se (or jsf@swip.net)

GATES OF ISHTAR homepage: http://www.solace.mh.se/~jsf/ishtar/
Jan Sandorf homepage: http://www.solace.mh.se/~jsf/