How would you describe Euronymous as a mentor for the other bands?
“He had a very strong position. He defined what was accepted and not. And I understood why. He had come a longer way in his search musically compared to the many others, and he had pretty much stopped using distortion pedals. He used some simple things, and he worked a lot with his amplifier, and he was probably the Black Metal guitarist that had the most traditional Rock gear. He used the red Les Paul guitar - single coil I believe, and a Marshall 800 or 900 and a standard Marshall cab, 4 x 12. He did not try any absurd things, like trying 3 or 4 pedals in series. And this was a relief for me, because I didn’t know much about those insane guitar sounds and pedals other artists would bring to the studio, so I appreciated his traditional approach. I totally understood why people were looking up to him, he could define the directions, and he could do these extremely good compositions. One of my big moments experiencing one of his compositions was when Attila came and played with ENSLAVED at USF, and I was on the side stage looking at Ivar, and we knew this was a once in a lifetime experience. That was a really strong experience.”
Pytten for the DMDS 25th anniversary interview
