One of the most prolific, interesting, and musically rewarding record labels out there is undoubtedly Edged Circle Productions, which was founded by the consistently cool and charismatic Stian “Iscariah” Smørholm way back in 1997. The superb underground enterprise of his lay dormant for several years following some excellent releases by Bak De Syv Fjell, Enchanted, and Your Shapeless Beauty. Still, it blossomed once again in 2013 and has been wildly productive ever since. Their outputs and products are not merely essential listening but also the very definition of quality music with longevity to it. Covering various subgenres such as black metal, death metal, thrash metal, and so on is one thing, but to do so with a sense of class, unwavering dedication, and genuine enthusiasm is quite another. We caught up with Mr. Smørholm for a chat about all things Edged Circle Productions and also touched ever so briefly on his own musical endeavours past and present that involve stints with such blackened luminaries as Immortal, Necrophagia, Dead to This World, Wurdulak and Amok.
Greetings Stian, how are things at your end and what are you currently up to in terms of musical activities and creative endeavours?
S: Hey there! Right now, our time mostly gets occupied with preparing the launch of the new YOTH IRIA album, and this is a heavy hitter for us. Lots of videos, lots of media interest and customer relations. Customer relations take up more and more time in the daily work we see . . . people are very cautious when it comes to how to get it and how to get it the cheapest way possible. I don’t blame them in this day and age. I see that if you are nice and don’t treat a silly question with ignorance, you get a happy customer that will provide for you in terms of support for what you do. Just be nice even though sometimes you need to explain why a CD takes longer than four days to arrive in Brazil . . . just be tolerant and take a bit of time to answer. It actually saves you some time in the end. Apart from this, I’m slowly morphing into creative mode with my own musical endeavours as well, but more on this further down.
I am curious as to how music found its way into your heart and how you became obsessed with metal. Could you take us back to when you heard or stumbled on hard rock and/or heavy metal for the very first time? Do you by any chance recall what the first record you ever purchased with your own money was? When did your love of thrash metal, black metal, death metal, speed metal, and so on and so forth come into the picture?
S: I had a friend in primary school who had a jacket with lots of pins on it, and one of them was Accept with the V guitar on it. I asked him what that was and he played me ‘Son of a Bitch’ after school that day. I was blown away by it, and I think that’s where it started. I had heard earlier bands like Rainbow, Scorpions and such, but this was my first encounter with heavy metal. I actually have that jacket that my friend used to wear with all the pins on it still in my house and also the actual Accept pin that sparked my interest in heavy metal.
The first album I bought with my own money I think was IRON MAIDEN’s Live After Death on a double cassette. I had decided the day before that it was to be Killers, but when I came to the shop that next day, I realised that this new live album had come out so that was the one. A double cassette . . . who could resist?!
I got into thrash metal around 1985 or so with METALLICA’s Ride the Lightning and started moving on to bands like SODOM and CELTIC FROST, and then a few years later I heard POSSESSED’s Seven Churches, NAPALM DEATH came out, REPULSION, and then ultimately MORBID ANGEL’s Abominations of Desolation was sent to me by tape trading.
As to your upbringing, were there musical instruments in the house when you were growing up? Was the bass always your primary instrument?
S: My mother knew how to play the guitar and would sing these really terrible songs when I grew up, but apart from this there was nothing in my household. I started off early playing trumpet in primary school and then drums. My first band, which we started in about 1988, was a cover band, and I played drums in that band up ’till we started ENCHANTED in about 1992. Then I moved over to bass guitar, but not so much because I liked the instrument; more the fact that we needed someone to play the bass, so it just felt natural to change to that. I already played quite a bit of guitar by 1992 anyways, so learning the bass was not that new to me. I loved playing guitar the most since that’s how I wrote the music back then, but for rehearsals, I preferred the bass since I also did the vocals. It was easier to move around with the bass and easier to also focus on the vocals.
What are your memories of putting Edged Circle Productions together back in that murky year of 1997 and how do you feel looking back on that particular chapter of your life? Obviously, everything was different back then but no less charming I can imagine. Do you feel nostalgic or sentimental when reflecting on those first couple of releases of yours such as From Haavardstun by Bak De Syv Fjell and Songe en Dehors… by Your Shapeless Beauty?
S: You know, in the early stages of the label it wasn’t even planned that it was to be a proper thing as such. It was just a name on releases that I decided to fund from my own pocket, and in the case of BAK DE SYV FJELL, I really liked it a lot and they were friends of mine who I used to hang out with, so it just felt natural to put it out. Also, the fact that my ex-girlfriend sang on it tied me to it even further. Nostalgia? Nah, not really since the end of the 90s was kind of shite for music, I think. One day I’d like to put out the rehearsal tracks from BAK DE SYV FJELL, though. It’s been circulating a lot in the underground and is really good stuff.
And if we then fast-forward to when you re-launched the label some years later, what was that like compared to the early days? Was it a case of being just as enthusiastic and driven but with an abundance of experience under your belt from having played in and worked with so many different groups between in the interim? I would wager that some of what you have experienced on the road and in recording studios over the years has given you a unique perspective on what it means to run a record label, operate a distribution, handle band contracts, organising gifs etc.
S: Yes, you are right actually. During my years in the early 2000s, I was heavily involved in the contractual negotiations with labels and publishers, which I learnt a lot from, but the main reason I decided to start up properly was the rise of the local scene where I live in Fusa with bands like INCULTER, REPTILIAN and SEPULCHER. I really wanted them to get the attention that they deserved, so I thought I’d better do this myself to make sure! It was not like I sat down and thought ‘I really want to start up the label again’. It just built and evolved into something naturally. The main pillar and driving force for this label is to be right in there where the magic happens in the early stages of a band – the process of becoming and evolving into something great. To nurture that and see it grow is magical. To sign well-known bands or just re-release old stuff is not interesting for me. There is no magic in that . . .
It must be incredibly fulfilling to work with so many young and upcoming bands and to see them evolve over time and reach their full potential. On the other hand, you also have veteran bands who are still churning out marvellous songs and albums and let us not forget all the wicked underground gems that you have unearthed and re-issued in grand style, thereby keeping them alive and visible out there. Necrospiritual Deathcore by Amok comes to mind here.
S: Yes, the AMOK album is one of the most important Norwegian albums in my opinion, and it’s certainly one of the most unique in terms of the crossover, which is unusual for this country, I’d say. I also remember the live shows which were so intense! I’m not sure if many people know this, but we recorded an album many years ago, which was to be the follow-up to Necrospiritual Deathcore. It is yet to be released, however. VERY unique album. Maybe someday . . .
The older and more experienced guys on the label like DARKENED and IN APHELION prove again and again that there is still some life in the old corpse, one example being the latest one from DARKENED (i.e., Defilers of the Light), which is their best work to date. One of the most creative bands that we have as well. Love it!
What were your thoughts when you first encountered Deathcult and their utterly vile and sinister brand of caustic black metal? To these ears, that most unholy of creations has become something of a personal favourite of mine ever since their debut offering back in 2007.
S: The debut album sort of passed me by without me properly noticing it when it came out, but when I first got to know them and listen to it with all my attention, I realised this is something very genuine. Skagg (guitarist/vocalist) is a good friend of mine, and I know that DEATHCULT comes from the purest of streams within. It’s all from an honest and dedicated source, and that is easily transmitted to what you hear and experience. One of a kind!
And do not even get me started on how brilliant and well-written the new opus by Darkened is! Were you not blown away the first time you cranked Defilers of the Light up loud and immersed yourself in its content and textures?
S: As I said previously, it’s easily their best work to date, but it is a shame that they don’t perform live because if they did, the band could reach much higher levels in terms of exposure and fanbase. The music would perfectly fit a live environment with its phenomenal blend of brutality and catchy melodies.
Have you ever released an album or an EP where you were surprised by its success? What I mean to ask is whether you have ever released something that appealed immensely to you on a personal level but where you harboured doubts as to whether the underground metal scene would share your passion, love, and enthusiasm for it?
S: DEMONIAC’s album titled So It Goes was an unexpected success story. We were totally floored by it when we received the master, but we knew from experience that taste does not always equal top exposure and attention from the scene. This time it worked however, and the album sold out very quickly and it reached several AOTY lists. The follow-up did well also, but there was something about the energy on So It Goes that just aligned perfectly. Definitely a band to look out for on stages throughout the EU in 2025.
What did you take away from working and playing with such brilliant acts and outfits as Immortal, Amok, Wurdulak, Necrophagia, Enchanted, and The Clan Destined just to list some of the most obvious examples? I take it that no two recording sessions were ever the same and that each band had a different approach to how to go about things in rehearsals, in the studio, or on the road in some cases. The personal dynamics within each camp must have been different too.
S: Looking at the names you mentioned here, the spectre in terms of styles is very vast indeed and for sure they are all very different. I don’t really see The Clan Destined as a band per se, but it was a way for me to exploit that side of my creative need at the time. I do listen to a lot of different styles of music, and SABBAT / early SKYCLAD was a big inspiration at some point during my upbringing. SABBAT I even listen to a lot today as the two first albums are amazing and timeless pearls, I think. I would get somewhat bored if I walked from one type of music, say for instance black metal, and then started another black metal band, and I think that easily reflects in the timeline of my career. ENCHANTED is of course something I hold close to my heart since it was the first steps I made on a creative level. We were actually on the verge of signing a big deal with Century Media back in 1997, but the band split up before the papers were signed. Shortly after ENCHANTED I joined IMMORTAL, so that obviously took a lot of time as well with me occupying the role of bass player and also managing the band. It was a good experience to work with that band, and I learned a lot in terms of what to do and not to do in the business. Joining NECROPHAGIA was a no-brainer since I was such a fanboy of that band when I was asked to join. Good memories! I do miss that little man with the heart the size of a titan (i.e. Necrophagia vocalist Frank “Killjoy” Pucci who died in 2018 – ed. note).
I miss Dead to This World dearly, so I simply must ask whether there is any chance of that band ever being resurrected?
S: Actually, there is enough material for at least three albums on different hard drives in my house, and lately I’ve been blowing some dust off those and started to puzzle the pieces and the loose ends into structures. I am confident that there will be another album during 2025, and we will start rehearsals again this winter. Maybe there will be a concert soon as well . . .
Thanks once again for your time, brother. I truly appreciate this.
S: Thank you for this, buddy. Hope to have a beer together soon.
