Devil's Island Featuring Aspherium.
Welcome to this weeks edition of Devil's Island! Every week we maroon a band or artist on the island and see what they get up to, how they cope with being all alone on a small island in the middle of the ocean. It's not your average desert island and we'll see just how each person copes with the extreme conditions.
This week when we arrived at Devil's Island we found Norwegian based metal outfit Aspherium sat on the beach. We thought they may have succumb to Corona virus, turns out they'd managed to escape it all by getting shipwrecked on our island!
How did they cope with life on Devil's Island? Find out now...
Welcome to The Razors'e Edge and our somewhat lovely, warm desert island. Don't worry about it's name I'm sure it's not as bad as that would suggest.
So you're marooned here on this island, but before you ended up shipwrecked you chose one album that you couldn't live without. Which album did you each chose and why?
Bjørn Tore: Dream Theater's album Systematic Chaos. It is an album that I find as a little gem in the prog universe, seems to be one of the most underrated DT albums out there. And it has some of the most tasteful drumming Mike Portnoy has ever done in my opinion.
Morten: Symphony x – The Odyssey. Because it is a great album.
Torgeir: Mastodon – Crack the Skye. Gonna be there for a while. Need an album I can’t go tired of.
Marius: I would go with Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying by Megadeth, since it has the song Devil’s Island on it. That is probably a clue, and if we play that song backwards, we win the grand prize and leave the island.
Just behind that palm tree is a shack for each of you to stay in, with enough space for you to put up a poster on the wall of one album cover. What album cover do you each chose?
Bjørn Tore: Deftones Diamond Eyes. Because I love owls.
Morten: Dream theater – Awake. Just a cool album cover.
Torgeir: King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King. Waking up to that face reminds you that you’re still stuck on the island.
Marius: Immortal – At the Heart of Winter. I think I would miss snow on this island, so this will help satiate that somewhat. Also, some mighty ravendark is never a bad thing.
There's also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to chose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What's your tipple of choice?
Bjørn Tore: "Brown Eye" because Machine Fucking Head!
Morten: For survival purposes I would go for water. If not for that I would have to go for beer.
Torgeir: Amundsen Brewery – Super Santa – Shoco Shake Stout.
Marius: Might as well go all in and have some weird fruit cocktail in a coconut with umbrellas and fireworks.
Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. Whats the merch and for what band?
Bjørn Tore: Pantera hoodie.
Morten: My Ne Obliviscaris hoodie.
Torgeir: Meshuggah hoodie.
Marius: My pair of very snazzy Dying Fetus speedos. Perfect for going swimming to catch some fresh island dinner.
You're sat on the island thinking "I'm stuck here on this island with my bandmates for eternity"... who would you rather have been shipwrecked with?
Bjørn Tore: Jack Sparrow. He knows how to domesticate sea turtles to ride on.
Morten: Bear Grylls.
Torgeir: Tom Hanks – He´ll build a better raft this time.
Marius: Devin Townsend. He will create some vast and amazing album about Ziltoid, and the album will be so good that Ziltoid himself transcends space and/or time and comes and saves us all with his amazing omniscience. He will get coffee, of course.
There's a walkman in your pocket, on the tape inside is the recording of the one live show that stands out for you. It could be any show, from any band, anywhere in the world. What show is on that walkman?
Bjørn Tore: Opeth - Live at Royal Albert Hall.
Morten: Kamelot – one cold winters night. I was there so it brings back some memories.
Torgeir: Tool – Roskilde Festival 2006.
Marius: Metallica – Oslo Spektrum, Norway. November 24th, 1996. My first Metallica show, and I have never found a recording of this show. There’s a great radio broadcast of the show the night before, but not of this one as far as I know.
You're getting desperate, you decide the only course of action is to put a message in a bottle and hope someone finds it. Your message could be to any member of any band, but should be the one musician most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?
Bjørn Tore: Christina Aguilera - she knows a genie in a bottle…
Morten: Bruce Dickinson. Maybe he can pick us up in a plane.
Torgeir: Sting – Has experience with bottled messages.
Marius: Someone who is playing the 70 000 Tons of Metal cruise. Then they can come pick us up, and we can play a show on the way home!
You've been stuck here for a while and food supplies are running low. There's only one thing for it... which fellow band member gets sacrificed to help the others survive?
Bjørn Tore: If the crew survived, we would have to take them first... But if it was just our band members who survived it needs to be Marius. The other two are too skinny anyway and I am to fluffy, so they would die of a blood clot if they ate me.
Morten: If someone had to be sacrificed for lack of food, I would have to go with Torgeir, just because lack of food makes him really cranky.
Torgeir: Me – No one really notice the bass anyways 😉
Marius: I will sacrifice all three to the volcano gods that rule over this island in exchange for a lifetime supply of chicken fajitas.
Finally, when the ship sank you each managed to save one person from the wreckage. That person is the one musician that has influenced your career the most, shaped your way of thinking and your outlook on life. Who did you save?
Morten: John Petrucci. He has been a great inspiration to me when it comes to guitar playing.
Torgeir: Ryan Martinie from Mudvayne. I had to learn Death Blooms for a school band (Marius was in it). Made me realise I could actually be good at playing the instrument. Too bad no one really notice the bass anyways 😉
Marius: James Hetfield. He is the reason I started playing guitar, the reason why I dared to try singing as well, and without him there would be no Aspherium at all… I also learned to believe in myself, conquer my fears, to seize the day, and dare to fail. Thanks, James!
Sadly there was no room on our boat so we had to leave the lads behind on the island. We left them sat round a campfire on the beach with Bjørn Tore desperately hoping Christina Aguilera has found his message in a bottle.
