Formed in 1993, Norwegian Christian Progressive Death Metal band Extol rose through the ranks of the metal world, touring with the likes of Mastodon and Opeth and releasing a celebrated four-album discography before disbanding in 2007 without much word on the matter. The band’s influence can now be seen in many modern extreme prog bands, namely The Faceless.
This year though, rumors of a reunion were sparked with the tease of a new documentary focusing on the band titled Extol Film. As it turns out, the rumors were true; three of the core Extol members have reunited to work on a new studio album due out in 2013. In our excitement, we reached out to Extol frontman Peter Espevoll to get his word on the reunion, the documentary he’s co-producing, and the new album.
For those who may not be familiar, who are you and what do you do?
I’m Peter Espevoll, husband and father. I’m the vocalist in Extol, I work with an aid organization and currently also co-producing the documentary about Extol.
As a band, you’ve all been very open about your Christian beliefs. I was reading an interview from 2004 where Christer stated the music isn’t really “Christian” or “non-Christian.” People can be pretty closed-minded about that kind of thing, though. Has your faith ever made you or your music a target of discrimination or animosity within the genre?
Over the years we’ve had some experiences with those kind of things, yes. People that wouldn’t even want to give our albums a listen, or press that wouldn’t write about us, threats from people in the black metal scene and even some Christians have opposed us and what we do.. But this is not the majority. In general we’ve had great response to our music and many have also appreciated lyrics that talk about different themes than most metal bands have.
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