NOIRE: Hello Imperial Crystalline Entombment, I’m delighted to share this moment with you! I stumbled upon your music while listening to the now-classic "Astral Frost Invocation," which opens with that iconic line: "We Are Fucking I.C.E." That track instantly cemented your name in my mind. How did you decide to form this band?

I.C.E: There is no band only truth. We are not from one specific area or invention of the earth and we give no thought to such things. Our mortal bodies once dwelled on earth, but our souls have been consumed. We had been summoned centuries ago and the four of us gathered amongst the arctic caves of the north to sacrifice our lives and become one with the apocalyptic nature of Råvaskeith, who's origins are beyond the mountains, beyond space, and beyond all comprehension.

Imperial Crystalline Entombment is the most relevant combination of human words we could use to represent the force and power behind this seething frozen hate regime of the almighty Råvaskieth. Imperial is the army of cosmic emptiness, Imperial is each spirit of astral fluid within our icy veins, Imperial will be the reign of the blinding new order that is to come....likewise, Crystalline is the unified heart of Råvakeith's mortal servants and slaves alike, Crystalline is the writhing soul of the ancient, waiting behind the vast supernovas' of cold space, Crystalline, and Imperial this mighty force will ravage and entomb this tiny planet within it's abominable frozen grasp, destroying all life in a hailstorm of ice and snow forevermore.

We are IMPERIAL CRYSTALLINE ENTOMBMENT. The name says it all, but you will not be able to comprehend this or it's meanings until you are convulsing in terror and pain as you see the endless snow falling over your strained and wincing face. Then and only then will you know the meaning of this Imperial Crystalline Entombment.

NOIRE : Ghostly white costumes, icy riffs, frozen lyrics: your universe draws inspiration from polar landscapes. But that is also where your story is rooted. What draws you to these places of extreme weather, so far removed from Maryland?

I.C.E: There is no inspiration, we are only created as mediators that shall eventually open the cosmic aurora gate field at the chosen time. Each of us serve the same purpose - until our mission is complete, ICE and the summoning of the END, shall be the way and the only instinct we know. We know that before the transformation during that great blizzard of Råvaskieth's then unknown seventh eclipse, we were mortal souls, musicians, outcasts and astral spacetime thinkers. Those general genetics are still engraved in our mortal shells, and corporeal field, but each of us, retain nothing of who or what each of us where or from whence we came. The only thing each of us remembers from our pathetic mammalian lives is the extreme pain of the CALLING.

Everything meant nothing, but to crawl bare fleshed into the vast frozen blizzard of the north, for weeks, wondering with no nourishment or clothing, until each of us individually became engulfed with the channelled spirits of to whom we were each called. Our mortal death came slowly and painfully, as is the right of passage for such filth to have the honour of communicating with the frozen gods of old.

Through hypothermic possession we died and through hypothermic possession we live again...now stronger, filled with hate and fuelled by ice to purge this existence of all life, returning the universe to the kingdom of bleak white once again. Our history means nothing, as such is true with human existence and that of every lifeform on this planet.

This life evolution was an accident, a mistake. We are here to correct that mistake, for in the eyes of each blackhole and each dying sun, history is future, and future is history. The icy bleak kingdom of the blinding, frozen Råvaskeith came before all and shall return to all, from history to present, and back to history again, as an ever-moving force, yet always cold and always present. The fleeting sparks of warmth that created your existence and your sun are only dumfounded ants, misguided blindly within an army of a million uniform brethren. It's soon time for them to die, and your world will go with them.

NOIRE : Through this cold phantasmagoria, you invoke a deity: Råvaskeith. Who is he? How does he influence your music and your narrative? How is her cult organized?

I.C.E: The alphabetical accumulation of letters into speakable form is not the true name or calling of the great Råvaskeith. It is indescribable to human ears. All your human scientists have comprehended that the concept of time is nonexistent, and "just is" and has been, far before humans designated the linear concept of "time" to it. They also have stumbled upon the hundreds of traveling black holes that sift through this sun's star cluster alone, and yet they are still far from realizing the origin of these shifting masses and there power, as well as the empty black matter that fills the vast, cold abyss of space.

Råvaskieth came before the creation of time and before the creation of black matter and all the parallel dimensions that lie within. Ravaskeith longs to bring the mistake of creation back to it's origins and invert this creation back into the bleak blinding white emptiness that existed before all. Råvaskieth summoned our dead souls because he chose us, chose us to be the ones to lead the incantations into evoking the portal and cosmic alignment.

We are merely mediators between the ancient and this corporeal universe. The ancient anti-god needs a mediator force created from the inside in order to spread outward and freeze all creation back to the cold empty white light that came before. We where chosen, conjured and brought to the north to be the first creatures of this universe to conjure and summon the waves of ice through the ever expanding universe. We have no control nor invention over this power, Råvaskeith will make the truth known soon enough, and then all will know of Råvaskeith without explanation.

NOIRE : I had the chance to speak with Grima in another interview. They, too, are shaped by cold atmospheres but also draw heavy inspiration from nature through a pagan identity. Are you familiar with the band, and do you appreciate their artistic approach?

I.C.E: We retain no memory of our past lives and hence cannot understand this question? Perhaps these people or things you speak of were relevant to our lives as mortals, but this we can not recall. There are no immortals but those who still dwell within the strain of the frozen black holes and expanding nebulae.

If there are some forces within your world who produce similar soundscapes and sonic summoning then they are among those who instinctively feel the pull of the great orbital Råvaskeith, as we did as mortals before the CALLING.

Let them embrace the Ancient Glacial Resurgence, and welcome their deaths with open arms. When the cold winds come and the screaming begins, take your knife with you into the snow and bury yourself deep, then and only then will you who understand, perish in emptiness without the vicious pain of the astral cosmic regime.

NOIRE : More than twenty years passed between your albums Apocalyptic End in White and Ancient Glacial Resurgence. Why did you hibernate for so long between these two releases? And what led you to return to the studio afterward?

I.C.E: I.C.E. is never done and has not stopped. After years of spreading the message of hopeless frozen extinction upon the earth in 2003, we felt the instinctual call of the "Great Orbital Råvaskeith" to return our bodies to a hibernative state in our hidden arctic cavern, while our astral energies were displaced onto other distant planets and within four alternate entities.

The last 20 years were spent spreading the cold white death further amongst the stars in our alternate forms unknown to your earthly realm. The repetitive howling shrieks of the Astral Frost Invocation from the loyal mortal servants below, has opened the archaic portal and reanimated I.C.E once more to reign over Earth so that we may begin the second wave of convulsing frigid annihilation. We have been revived and have arisen from our tomb once more.

NOIRE: Speaking of hibernation, it is a recurring concept in the story you tell through I.C.E. What does this state symbolize for you? Is it a form of transformation or metempsychosis (See Bliss Of Flesh Interview)? And how is it linked to the Apocalypse that Råvaskeith will bring about?

ICE: These humans were summoned by a visceral calling to travel to the north, and to crawl naked into the vast frozen blizzard and bury themselves deep within the snow of the arctic wasteland. There they would experience an excruciating hypothermic death only to be reborn, possessed by the unearthly spirit of the bleak beyond.

They became one with Råvaskieth, and transformed into the ill-fated daemons sent to conjure and invoke the opening of the portal to the Great Råvaskieth, and the return of glacial doom.

NOIRE: Let’s get back to your music. How do you compose your tracks? What are your influences?

I.C.E: We do not plan or control any of these sonic manifestations. It all flows from us, at the same time...it is all done at the moment, spontaneously. When we gather our conscious minds disappear and the spirits to which we were called possess our astral fluid, thus controlling our moves and upheaving the ancient hatred through the tools of our corporeal extensions.

This is a very rapturous experience, as is when we gather for the invoking rituals. If this music sounds inhuman to you, then you are correct. Just by playing the album in your speakers, you are opening the eyes of the other side to peer right into you, and you feel that as the music rages on.

All these songs all come from a collective. We gather together in this form only so often to spit forth this human way of expanding the mind and soul. Our inhuman souls are constantly colliding together on the astral level intertwining, and inspiring each other, hence all these songs come forth naturally as a combined unity of power and conviction. No one person creates, we all just flow. We do not handle things as normal human men can comprehend. It is hard for me to explain...This music just IS....as we just ARE.

NOIRE: Your latest album, Abominable Astral Summoning, was released last year on the Debemur Morti label. There is a great balance between brutality and melody, and in my opinion, it is the most accomplished album in your discography. Looking back, what do you think of the final result?

I.C.E: Capturing the surprise of the mortals is a triumph but our history means nothing, as such is true with human existence and that of every life form on this planet. This life evolution was an accident, a mistake. We are here to correct that mistake, for in the eyes of each blackhole and each dying sun, history is future and future is history.

The icy bleak kingdom of the blinding frozen Råvaskeith came before all and shall return to all, from history to present, and back to history again, as an ever repeating force, yet always cold and always present.

The fleeting sparks of warmth that created your existence and your sun are like accidentally birthed cattle, misguided and blindly wandering within an army of a million uniform brethren. It's soon time for these cattle to die, and the world will go with them. The Album is just another step in the direction of death pain and suffering to everything. NOIRE: What do you enjoy most about being on stage?

I.C.E: The Stage is just a means of spreading The final goal to return all universes to that piercing and blinding white light of original ancient power that is THE ONE.

NOIRE: What are your future plans? Do you plan to go back into hibernation, or is Råvaskeith already pushing you to work on another album?

I.C.E: A new tribute to the great Ravaskieth is approaching completion and those of you who have always looked at this existence and known that something is not right, something is wrong.....you look with hate and misanthropy...ICE is for you...to open your souls and have the great eye of Råvaskieth stare into you.

Feel the hate, and when the cold winds come and the screaming begins....take your knife with you into the snow and bury yourself deep, then and only then will you who understand, perish in emptiness without the vicious pain of the astral cosmic regime.... It was such an honor to ask these questions to Ravaskieth's minions. Thanks Imperial Crystalline Entombment for this icy encounter.