The origins of IXXI is an unholy joint venture of three different shades of blasphemous music. Acerbus bringing his 'trademark' style gloomy devilry known from Ondskapt, Totalscorn sliding in from his more nihilistic and progressive angle (known from Zavorash) and Nattdal adding a final twist with his experience and cunning from bands such as Lifelover. This seemingly unlikely mix of competences and drives is the ultimate fundament of IXXI.
 
For almost a decade Ondskapt, Zavorash, and Lifelover operated independantly of each other - the members only meeting over strictly 'uncreative' issues like various forms of abuse. Zavorash and Ondskapt, however, were increasingly slowed down by the fact that the respective line-ups on these bands became increasingly reduced over time. Acerbus faced alot of backstabbing in Ondskapt, and thus finally decided to start a new project with Nattdal - and Totalscorn found himself stuck in a line-up with only one other member (Necromorbus) who was too busy to make any further progress with Zavorash.
 
All the original members of Zavorash had long since quit the scene all together, which meant that even if Necromorbus would have been willing to continue it would never have been what it once was. Ondskapt actually has a contract with Osmose Productions and is aiming at recording a new album this autumn - so things are looking a little better here compared to the total stalemate that has occured with Zavorash. Nattdal is continuing his works with Lifelover and Dymhymn, however, he says he will paus these projects for the benefit of IXXI for the forseeable future.
 
IXXI began as a group of likeminded 'friends' coming together and venting their excess creativity. The ambitions with our first recording in 2006 were not much higher than this. Most of us were just fed up with waiting for other people to 'let us' into the studio - and thus took matters into our own hands. It was during our second recording, Assorted Armament, that we realized that the unique combinations of minds in IXXI was a basis for potential greatness - the fact that we can freely move between different modes of Qualitative music in a way that any 'regular' black metal simply isn't able to do without instantly trapping itself in a generic sound.
 
The qualities of the other members of the band are important as well. Avsky, our bass, perhaps respresents that very archetype of 'the bassist' - in being the 'solid rock' that everyone can talk to and resect no matter how fucked up things get. If it wasnt for Avsky the line-up would have imploded after the first recording already. Avsky hails from Rättvik in the Swedish district of Dalarna, and is thus the only member of the band who is not raised in Stockholm.
 
Talon, our newest recruit for 'third guitar', definately brings the most experience compared to anyone in the line-up. Having stood on stage with Finntroll, and having attended countless gigs with his other bands (primarily Rev 16:8, ex-Bloodshed) Talon has quickly become far more than just a session-member and we are all looking forward to bringing him with us to the studio this summer. Talon also brings stability to the line-up in that he is actually fairly sane, whereas many of the other members are privately ruled by laws that defies common humanity (for good or worse).
 
Talon once mused, as a descriptive example, that in all his other bands he is always the bad apple, whereas he is just the opposite in IXXI.
 
Finally, our drummer Smoker, well, he is a smoker. We had to quickly throw him into the mix during the recording of Assorted Armament when we found that Selin just hadnt prepared enough to master what we expected of him - this event was in itself the greatest tradgedy we have yet faced, since it always sucks big time to have to 'kick' members, especially when we started out with the ambition to enjoy ourselves and make music to our own liking (rather than being hellbent on seriousness). Smoker has proved to be a very loyal and solid drummer, however, and he has the same fine ear for the music as his older brother Acerbus so his contribution to coming creations cannot be underestimated.
 
We really felt that we hit 'home' with Assorted Armament - long before all these praising reviews starting trickling in, a certainly long before the great honor of Candlelight's grace was extended on us. Assorted Armament constituted that blend of 'pure black' mixed with more groovy bits that we found had a 'new' taste to it - there are many bands that has gone down virtually the same path, but none of them will come close to IXXI in terms of originality and atmosphere when the historians look back at it all.
 
Lyrically and conceptually there will of course be references to Zavorash since Totalscorn writes practically all the lyrics for IXXI. However, the ambition here has not been to walk down the same path of bare-knuckle sterile nihilism that Zavorash represented - this isn't merely tactics, but also a reflection of the development and broadening of TS's philosophy over the years since he founded Zavorash (at age 16, only bested by Acerbus who started Ondskapt at 15!) - so the conceptual grounds for IXXI have basically become representative of the individual minds involved. The idea of 'real-politics' has become a red-line through IXXI's lyrics. This means that instead of focusing on the 'esotheric', or on strictly 'religious' standpoint, IXXI deals with the real world in the intention of displaying how (and why) this is where 'black metal' truly is relevant and truly has a future.
 
There is no ambition what-so-ever in following any kinds of icons in the scene, and people wouldnt believe the odd and degenerate influences the band actually allows itself. A reveiwer for Assorted Armament put it nicely when he said: 'Call it Black metal, it doesnt matter!' This is probably the truth in a nutshell - IXXI's music will be deemed black metal because that darkness truly is in our heart and souls, not because we are trying for it to be that way.