To Ciekals and Djevel

Yesterday, we learnt about the tragic passing of Djevel’s songwriter and guitarist Trånn Ciekals. It is a shock, and it needs time to process.

The day before, the 6th of February, we had messaged about pictures for our interview as the Norwegian-written Scream magazine had its deadline that same day. In January, we published the first part with Kvitrim, and now in February, we will publish the second part, with Ciekals and Faust. It feels so insanely weird to send off the text to the editor, only to learn the day after that Ciekals is dead.

Djevel’s music spoke even more to me than most of the classics from the early 90s. The trilogy will always be an important part of my life, and I guess many others too. We had long conversations about the music, the writing process, black metal and the darkness. But Trånn had a family, and my deepest thoughts go to his two children, whom I met a couple of times. I can’t imagine what they, his ex-wife and mother of their children, and his now widow Alina Ciekals will have to go through in these difficult times.

Cult Never Dies and Imhotep have been working on compiling all the articles we’ve done in Norwegian into one major English language article for Imhotep #13, which obviously is now dedicated to Ciekals and Djevel.

Below are a few quotes from the upcoming article:

Imhotep: Before Djevel, and at the beginning of Djevel, Ciekals was involved in the bands Ljå and NettleCarrier. But this conversation is obviously going to be about Djevel, and a lot of dead songs, so, of course, we’ll start with 2011 debut album Dødssanger [Death Songs]. What was it that you wanted to achieve with Djevel, and how was Dødssanger received at the time when few were making music with a strong aura of 90s Norwegian black metal?

“Djevel was started up because I had begun to work on the second album for Ljå. In this period of time, I moved to Oslo, and it became very apparent to me that it was not going to work. It was as simple as that. I finished writing the album and had the album title ready. I informed the others, but I was not exactly met with standing applause. One of them didn’t like the album title at all, and the others were generally lukewarm about the whole thing, so we just agreed that Ljå was over for me and that I would go on, on my own. We did actually end it by texting, of all things. The last song I wrote on Til Avsky For Livet is called ‘Gjort til Djevel’, and that was it. Djevel was supposed to be a solo project, but there’s no getting away from the fact that I couldn’t play the drums, so I had to bring someone with me to the session. I was introduced to Erlend Hjelvik (ex-Kvelertak) through a mutual friend. Hjelvik was in fact going to sing on one song, ‘Djevelheim’.”

Djevel has always been anchored in Norwegian folklore and Norwegian folk songs. The intro to ‘Det eders herre lover er mer enn hva mennisket taaler’ also fits very well into that tradition.

“Folk music elements will always be an important feature in Djevel. It’s actually me singing, both the pure and the ugly vocals. Let it be said, I can’t really sing very well, but it worked on that song. I felt that the song hit me really hard when it was finished, so I thought I had to add the vocals at once.”

I think [2024’s] Natt til ende  is Djevel’s darkest album. There is no light. ‘Jesu lidelse’ is a rough track to digest. How has it been to dive steadily deeper into music that (at least the way I feel it) gives less and less pleasure?

“Jesus did experience a bit suffering towards the end of his life, yes. I think that the track is quite dramatic, and the synth that comes on towards the end of the track contributes to something beautiful. This track actually has a riff that is from the very first Djevel album Dødssanger. We took it from ‘Vi malte verden i sort’, but it is obviously dressed up in different clothing. I have stolen from myself, so to speak. In general, there wasn’t anything different making this track compared to the others, but it is probably the track with the most synth on this new album.”

Those nine Djevel albums, the Ljå album and the two NettleCarrier albums will remain as Ciekals’ musical legacy. To me, personally, the trilogy is extra special.

From the song ‘En vinter efter kommer’ (as sung by Ciekals)

Naa er natten her

Livets endelikt

(translated by me)

The night is now here

The end of life

By Roy Kristensen (Imhotep & Scream magazine)