We sat down with Gildas Le Pape — the Oslo-based multi-instrumentalist behind VIA DOLORIS and a longtime live guitarist for SATYRICON — to talk about his solo project's debut album, Guerre et Paix (War and Peace), out now via Season of Mist. Le Pape wrote, recorded, and even illustrated nearly everything himself, leaving only the drums to his SATYRICON bandmate Frost, whom he calls the best black metal drummer alive.
In the interview, he breaks down the Breton bagpipe drone buried inside his signature "chainsaw" guitar tone, explains why he keeps his black metal and jazz sides strictly unmixed, and unpacks the internal war-and-peace themes running through the record — plus why the cover art has zero pentagrams.
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