When the debut album "Another Return" was released in 1988 Norwegian metal wasn't much to celebrate. At the most you'd be forgiven thinking that TNT was cool but that was it. Today the picture is different. The Norwegian black metal explosion we've seen has also meant that Norwegian metal is looked upon differently today. Despite this Artch managed to get Kerrang! and sadly missed Metal Forces to go bonkers over their debut. And rightfully so. In the light of what was released in 1988 "Another Return" was a colossal album, not least from such a small heavy metal country as Norway. 14 years later the debut doesn't sound totally out of place. When time came for a second album the situation looked different. Their deal with Active, who released the debut, had run out and left the band with a new album but no deal for Europe. "For The Sake Of Mankind" (released by Metal Blade in the States) went rather unnoticed. A destiny it didn't deserve, with it's harder, more thrash like sound it isn't too scabby. To find out more why Artch didn't make it and the deal behind the re-release of their albums last year I caught up with Cato André Olsen. 

Artch had signed a deal for only one album on Active in Europe but for five with Metal Blade in USA. A strange way of doing it, isn't it? 
- Record labels and contracts is something new to any heavy metal musicians. Active was a small label but very enthusiastic but they didn't really want to sign a new band to a four year deal. Slightly bigger labels like Metal Blade secure their artists by signing a longer contract. We received a deal from Roadrunner for seven albums in 3 years that we turned down. 

With a second album that wasn't widely released in Europe the feeling you had at the time must have been of the more unpleasant?
- Of course. We had distribution in Norway and it was released in Sweden and Denmark but it never reached places like Germany f x. We didn't really have the right competence to releases albums on out own. You can't really send a tape to any which label and get them to sign a deal with you. In hindsight there are a lot of things we could have done that we didn't do. 

So much of this came down to you being young and new to the business?
- One thing that happened was that small Active Records delivered 6000 records to Norway and Sweden. After that Marianne (the distributor) went belly up and we never got paid. That was a hard blow to Active. So we had our minds set on getting the second album distributed. The deal with Metal Blade should fix distribution in Europe but that didn't happen. 

Now finally the albums are released again on Metal Blade. Was there a specific reason for it?
- What is a coincidence is that we have a very good friend here in Norway who Scream Magazine and they were having a party to celebrate their 50th issue. So they called us asking if we could play the party which we did. At the party there was two representatives from the European part of Metal Blade. When they heard us play they got in touch and wondered if we wanted to release the albums all over again since people had been asking for them. They sent us a deal that looked good and we said yes. Heavy metal has always been accused of not having intelligent lyrics, something that's not always true. In these times of PC-ness a song like Power To The Man" from "Another Return" would have been slaughtered. It didn't escape totally unharmed back then either. It caused some minor conflict in Norway. What was that all about? 
- It's really a text made to create some exposure. At that time the media in Norway spent a lot of time on women's issue women and they were often on the Telly. The song was meant more as a kick against them. But it was also a comical way to provoke. It's just a text but with all the bad texts in heavy metal you get noticed if you have something to say that can be misunderstood. We are not chauvinistic bastards; it was more a swift kick in the direction of the feminist legions in Norway

On the extra CD for "For The Sake Of Mankind" there's two new songs. The first one "Daredevil" sound like Artch but the second track "Jezebel" has a different ring? 
- "Jezebel" fell into place when the bass player came up with the guitar rhythm. We started to play it in the rehearsal room and thought that it was good. So that one is a result of a rehearsal. It's not always that we plan the songs. We make music that we like and we do not throw away a song just because we're afraid that of what others might think. All Artch-songs are special. If you listen to all Artch-songs they're all typically Artch but there's a big difference between them. "Jezebel" is simple and heavy and done the way we
like it. 

That there are two new songs on "For The Sake Of Mankind", does that mean that you still write new songs?
- We are a bunch of musicians that are doing different things and it's heavy metal that's closest to the heart. We produce music and we all have some material lying around so when we meet it comes down to it being used as Artch material. We have ideas and material and we will most likely continue to play together. 

Does this also mean that we might expect a new Artch album in the future?
- That comes down to two things; time and a label 

On "For The Sake Of Mankind" there's also a demo recording. Was that recorded before the album or did it happen later?
- It's in a way material for the "For The Sake Of Mankind" LP. Before we were about to enter the studio we got hold of some really good 16-channel stuff that we tried recording on just to hear what it sounded like and get some friends to comment on the material. At the same time we could try and see if something needed to be changed. If you listen to these some are different versions. The label thought it was fitting to add them as bonus. 

On "Another Return" there's a song called "Another Return To Church Hill". If I'm not mistaken I remember that Artch is an abbreviation of Another Return To Church Hill. What I wonder is which came first; the track or the band name?
- The name came before the song title. Artch is an old name. A long time ago a friend came up with the name and also drew the logo. We thought that Artch was a good name with no meaning to it. 

When you were at the top Norwegian metal wasn't something that was spoken about to frequently. Was it hard to taken seriously when you came from Norway?
- Norway is a small country and there's nothing big internationally that comes from Norway. We were really young back then. I think we were 17, 18 years old when the debut was released and we were about to release it in the States. We corresponded by phone and they couldn't pronounce ä and ö so we took artist names. We got pretty bullied over our artist names. It resulted in us feeling less than the big wave. Big Norwegian and
Swedish international artists are today using their own names and everybody can conquer the world even if you're from Norway or Sweden. No big artist came from Norway back then and there wasn't any big heavy metal bands from Norway. To answer your question, I think we were too small. Everything didn't happen in Norway.

When "For The Sake Of Mankind" was released it didn't sound like "Another Return".The sound had become harder. Were there influences between these two albums that made this second one harder?
- When "Another Return" was released we got very much positive criticism but a lot of the songs were old. "For The Sake Of Mankind" became a bit heavier because we were listening to more heavy bands like f x Anthrax, Metal Church, Metallica and these bands changed our look of the world. We also had a totally different deal for the studio from the label. That also contributed to the way the sound turned out. 
- We tried to have our own sound but of course, we got influenced by other big bands. A sort of commercial way of thinking heavy metal. It was a result of time and the situation.