In a world crowded with heavy music, SLIM0 has found their own space. The Copenhagen-based trio has enough creative bandwidth to interpolate a Dido song and at the same time kick out a brand of minimal doom legit enough to have a Pacific Northwest hesher headbanging. Made with the producer Aase Nielsen, their debut record, FORGIVENESS, is a study in melody and dissonance, in folk traditions and contemporary sonic brutality. There are haunting tunes, big guitars, and big ideas. We wanted to learn more about the record, so we sent over some questions to the band, whose roots extend from Denmark to Montenegro and Iran. Read their answers and listen to FORGIVENESS—which comes with additional bonus tracks that are now on Nina—below.

Where does the title of your newest album come from?

SLIM0: “Forgiving” is unique because it doesn’t just respond to what caused the hurt—it creates something new and free from the past, releasing both the person who forgives and the one who is forgiven. By setting a scene for accessing the emotional nuances of forgiveness, FORGIVENESS embodies both theatrical points of view, fragmented characters telling half stories by singing their truths. It definitely is one of the most beautiful words we know—it’s also a wish. It’s super harsh, and yeah it’s a commitment. But it also gives us the ick, there are things that are totally unforgivable, the horrors that are going on in and around Palestine. The rise of fascism in the West, Elon Musk heiling, at least four more years with Donald Trump. To us: Unforgivable, but that makes it even more important to try and forgive the things that are possibly forgivable, smaller scale things. Be brave and make commitments, so we can stay together and be strong in the resistance.

What is your usual songwriting dynamic? Is it in any way affected by the band’s intrafamilial dynamic?

Ha ha ha, that intrafamilial dynamic! I think exactly because of that dynamic, songwriting is such a magical thing for us, we have a lot of trust and know each other so well, so it comes very naturally. Often one of us brings an idea, could be lyrics, a melody, could be a riff, could be Mija or a beat—and then the others add on, like a layered jam session. It quite often happens that we forget how the song was made. Now, on FORGIVENESS, we worked with producer Aase Nielsen, and that process has been quite different. She gave us individual homework assignments, chopped up live recordings and then we made songs and recorded additional stuff—this was a very fruitful process for all of us!

Can you tell us a little about the five "missing tracks" from FORGIVENESS that are now on Nina?

To create an album, you have to leave out some tracks, ‘cause of time limit and ‘cause of the album as an experience, even though they are close to your heart—every song stands in relation to one another on an album and affects one another and these five songs are leftovers from dinner, but that doesn’t mean you can’t eat them the day after. It’s also great to be able to stretch out—or prolong the excitement of releasing new music together—and not closing the work fully but allowing it to open and close again, with a sloppy kiss. <3

You interpolate Dido on “I Have But One Heart.” What prompted that choice?

Oliver Laumann—Mija’s partner, Lena’s brother-in-law and Simin’s good friend (who is also a great musician) came up with this idea for us to mash up Dido and Earth. This happened while we were printing merch—we were listening to Earth; later on, Dido came on the radio, Oliver started humming Dido’s melody on top of the repetitive riff from Earth’s track called “Introduction.” We tried it out and loved it immediately. There is definitely something about us being millennials, having grown up with Dido as a prominent figure on MTV, with her silky melancholic voice (and great fringy hair). It’s romantic, and after playing it a few times we knew that it fitted into FORGIVENESS—her lyrics are so doom, so slacker.

The video for “TRENCHES” is really good. How did that come about?

Lena wrote the script and directed the video, as we wanted to create a visual narrative expression for “TRENCHES.” During the process, it became clear that the song speaks to the experience of saying goodbye to grandparents who live far away—something that resonates deeply with all of us. This shared longing and emotional connection became the foundation of the music video. 

Lena worked in close collaboration with cinematographer Stephanie Stål Axelgård, production designer Camilla Silvana Navarro Howalt, and animator Oliver Laumann, all of whom played a crucial role in shaping its visual identity. The project was further elevated by the incredible performances of Zlatko Burić and Dragana Milutinović as the grandparents. Having such amazing actors was a privilege, as they instinctively understood the emotional core Lena sought to bring to life.

Lena wanted with the music video to encapsulate a memory of belonging, longing, and saying goodbye. The story is rooted in memories that all of us band members share. "TRENCHES" has this raw, outwardly directed anger and grief that reflects a feeling all of us band members remember as a child, having family in different countries. The song’s intense, repetitive nature mirrors the cyclical ritual of goodbyes to someone and somewhere you love deeply. We watch those we care about grow older, and each farewell becomes heavier, more significant. This video is about those farewells—the ones that feel endless, yet fleeting; those moments when you realize that every goodbye carries the weight of time passing. This is Lena’s way of bottling up that feeling and a reminder of the nostalgia and bittersweetness of longing.

What role does your band play in the Copenhagen activist community?

All of us are active, organized in different groups on the leftist scene, this is a natural part of our lives, just as much as the band is. We often talk about how a band can be active, so we try different things out. We like the idea of unions in solidarity with political causes—we don’t really have that as freelance cultural workers, so we try to be strategic about how it’s possible for us to use our voices and and the moment attention is directed towards us. This could be either playing at soli-events, the Students for Palestine encampment, creating a choir primarily for activists, being outspoken at concerts to raise awareness about causes that are important to us—and of course, boycott, divest, sanction. We are a band of comrades. :’)

Do you think your sound has gotten heavier over the course of its lifespan?

Oh yes, it’s been something we desired for a long time—retrospectively we see how our last EP Lifespan (hehe) was bridging in that direction. And we have had the great privilege of working with producer Aase Nielsen, she really picked up on that desire and helped us move in a heavier and more dense direction. Finally people see that what we make is minimal DOOM! When it’s soft it’s still doom, doom just is a beautiful state of mind.

Favorite sludge or doom metal record?

Ouff, hard to choose. We love Altar from 2006 by Sunn o))) and Boris! But also really into Faetooth’s Echolalia and Donna Candy’s new EP, both have more experimental noisy elements. Of course Dopesmoker by Sl33p. We’d even go as far to say that Alice Coltrane's album Eternity is one of our favorite doom records of all time.

What is the state of guitar music in 2025?

We’ve actually been talking a lot about that! We named 2024 “the year of the axe.” We’ve been exposed to much more guitar music in the past years, as samples in hip hop. Indie is back! Or is it out again? Just in general string instruments ... There is definitely something going on with the guitar, it’s also much more present in the Copenhagen scene in all different genres! We predict 2025 to be “the year of the floor tom (18”)”—open for interpretation.

Photo Credit: Julie Reichmann