Longing for Wacken
For the readers who don’t know you yet, could you please introduce yourselves and tell something about Incused?
“Hi everyone! We are Incursed, a Pagan/Folk Metal band from northern Spain. We’ve been fighting since 2007! We have recorded three albums and we offer epic, folk
based metal. We have just released a new album, ‘Elderslied’, and we hope to make ourselves a name worldwide!”
You mentioned pagan/folk metal, is that the best way to describe the music you make?
“Yes, we basically make pagan/folk metal. But our music is fed by different genres and subgenres of metal. You can find epic moments, followed by a sudden blast beat that leads into black metal. Some other parts are quite folkish, with traditional instruments and clean guitars. It is a big compilation of styles that result in a recognizable one. We’ve been trying to keep our this own style throughout these years.”

What are your greatest inspirations/influences?
“We have been influenced by many of the big bands that play our style, such as Finntroll, Moonsorrow, Turisas, Ensiferum. But our influences are so different and multiple! We like bands as different as The Algorithm or Mike Oldfield. We also listen to traditional folk music from many countries around Europe and Asia.”

Can you tell me more about your new album ‘Elderslied’? Is it a concept album?
“It is a varied but homogeneous album that many people will like. More complex and with a better production. In “Elderslied” we have changed our guitars to seven strings, which gives a heavier sound to the album as a whole. You can find slow songs, faster ones, epicness, sad moments, blackened ones… About lyrics, many of our songs are about Nordic mythology, but we also write our own stories about warriors and gods, wars and heroes. We don’t think it could be considered a concept album, but it is enough coherent by itself as a whole.”
How about the process of making this album?
“Our keyboard player, Jonkol, has composed most of the music and lyrics. Of course he was being helped by the rest of the band in some different ways. Each of us have changed, improved or modified the songs where we feel that a change is making them better. We do this at home. When we think the song is ready, we take it to the rehearsals. This album has been composed having the whole thing in mind. This is different from ‘Fimbulwinter’, this album had some songs composed two or three years before making the album. ‘Elderslied’ has been composed with the main idea there, so this is why this album feels so homogeneous and complete.”

When listening to ‘Fimbulwinter’ and ‘Elderslied’, It sounds like you’ve made a lot
of progression. Do you think the same way about this?
“We absolutely agree. The new album is richer and deeper in composition. Also, the quality of the audio is way better, as we chose a different studio to record ‘Elderslied’ (Chromaticity Studios). ‘Fimbulwinter’ is a nice album, but ‘Elderslied’ takes Incursed to the next level.”

All the lyrics are in English, have you ever considered singing in Spanish?
“Well, in fact, not all the lyrics are in English. We have a song in Basque! It is ‘Suaren Lurraldea’, which means ‘the Land of Fire’. We have talked about writing in Spanish, but we prefer English as it has more international projection and (in our opinion) sounds way better than Spanish when singing.”

In what way is Incursed different from other folk/pagan metal bands?
“This is a tricky question! It is difficult to be completely different from other bands, especially when Pagan Metal has become a really popular genre and there are many, many bands out there! We try to have our own style when making music. Visually, we wear ragged robes and fur capes in our shows, far away from the classic ‘warrior’ look, who wears swords, chainmail and armor. So we are like the poor ones! Also, we really like humour and, even taking things seriously, we like to joke and fool around. We prefer to have a good time rather to look like pissed off Vikings that will cut you in halves if you even look at us!”

What was the best gig you played so far?
“Probably, our best show was in Ukraine, at the Carpathian Alliance Fest, in 2013. What makes it the best is, mainly, the fans there. People are crazy! We made really good friends and we hope to play again there soon! We also met some nice guys from other bands and shared the stage with big bands as Immortal or Eluveitie. It was like a dream come true.”
And where would you really like to play in the future?
“We’d like to play in any of the big fests which are made across Europe. Playing abroad is an incredible experience. So Hellfest, Wacken, Summer Breeze, PaganFest, Ragnarok, Metal Days… any of them would be awesome!”

Do you think people are prejudiced because you are a folk metal band from Spain? Do you think It may be more difficult for you to get recognition than, for example, a folk metal band from Scandinavia?
“Many people, when they first hear of a Pagan Metal band from Spain, think that nothing good can come up from there. But when they listen to us they realize that it does not depend on where are you from, it depends in if you really like what you are doing and put your effort in making good music. Many of the reviews we received of ’Fimbulwinter’ said this. There were also some people who really got offended because we were Spanish. But hey, we do not expect to please everyone in the world, so I guess they won’t listen to us anymore!
As we said before, we take things with humour, so we decided to do something special in this album. ‘Tidal Waves’ is about Vikings who go surfing to England and Ireland, plunder towns there and then go surfing to California, where they spend their summer surfing. The last verse of the song says something like: “We are proud
of what we’re doing, so blame us or send us to hell, we’ll be doing it for fun forever”!

Pagan Metal is not a common style here in Spain, so it’s hard to make a name when few people talk about you. We think that things may had been
different if we were northern Europeans. But who knows? We like challenges!”

Thank you for this interview. Is there any last words you would like to share with us?
“Thank you too for your questions and your support! You helped us to spread our music when we released ‘Fimbulwinter’ and this counts for us! We hope to play in Netherlands someday so we can meet you and share a drink with you guys! Remember to follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/IncursedOfficial), you can listen to us in Spotify and you can buy our music in Bandcamp, iTunes and Amazon.

Thanks to everyone who supports us, anywhere in the world, and we wish everyone a happy, pagan 2015!
Keep pagan guys!”

By: Eline