The US has had a dominating year in folk metal and the new album from Wilderun solidifies it even more. Their 3rd full length album “Veil Of Imagination” has recently been released and has been astounding every listener with it’s overwhelming musicianship and song writing. We had bassist Daniel Müller take these questions for answering regarding the new album, the song writing, the touring, the recording and a few other items of note (this interview was done prior to the album release on November 1st and the tour for it) …Check it out…
Romania’s An Theos has certainly been on my folk
metal radar since their first album “Seminția Dacă” and they have yet to
disappoint. 2019 sees a darker/heavier album come from them in “Renăscând”,
their 3rd full length released independently in September. The band
was able to answer some questions regarding the new album, the song writing
process, the touring, the scene and a few other items of note….check it out……
When Folk-metal.nl’s path crossed the one of Knaat at the Volk Metal Jacket festival in Vienna, it was time have a talk with these guys again. What happened since our last chat in 2012?…
Don’t worry, there’s still an interview for you here today. This time it’s one Jan Vervaeke did with Vanaheim. He did everything himself, from talking to the band and filming to editing the video.
Dear Folk Metal community my name is Juergen and it is my pleasure to introduce myself to you as a new interviewer for Folk-Metal.nl. I am based in the city of Vienna in Austria and will focus in the future on the Folk Metal scene in Central and Central Eastern Europe and hope that I can introduce to you some interesting news and interviews of bands which are active in our area. Today I would like to introduce to you to one of the most well known Folk Metal band of Austria, namely Alphayn. Please find the interview below:
It is my pleasure to meet you and thanks a lot for your time. First of all I would kindly like to ask you to introduce yourself to our readers. Cari: “Hi to everybody, we are Alphayn, a Folk/Viking Metal band from Vienna and we are active as band since 2012. We already released two full studio albums namely “Heimkehr” in 2014 and “Wanderschaft” in 2018.”
Ukraine’s Gjallarhorn have made an epic comeback of sorts in 2019 with a
brand new concept EP called “The Black Tower”. This is their first new music in
a few years (not including singles) and they have picked up where they left off
with a contender for EP of the year for me. We were lucky enough to have 3
member answer questions for us in Onswar, Nameless and Doomor regarding their
“return”, the new EP and the concept behind it, the latest from Ukraine and a
few other things…check it out….
Steignyr released their new album ‘Myths Throught The Shadows of Freedom’ a little while ago. Jon Thorgrimr, vocalist and guitarist of the band answered our questions.
Hi there, congratulation with the new album. Are you satisfied with the reviews on it? “Honestly yes, people have to be critical, otherwise everything would be perfect and boring.”
‘Myths Throught The Shadows of Freedom’ surely sounds folky. You like to describe the sound yourselves as Celtic. Our reviewer Jeff felt he couldn’t discover the Celtic elements, and feels it’s rather folk-metal. But that’s just an opinion and Celtic is something which is open for discussion anyway. In what way do you think the music is Celtic influenced? “What is Celtic? What is Folk ?, Folk is traditional music, and we don’t do that. We mark our line of work. They can say what critics want, but we do Steignyr.”
The flaws of the last two albums was a bit in the mixing/producing, do you make use of a producer for this? “We self-produce and record all our material, we cannot afford to hire anyone.”
I assume you have to cut costs in the album-process, where do you spend the money on and where do you really have to cut the costs? “If there were money we would spend it on better production.”
The previous album was released in 2016, so there was quite a gap in between the last two albums, what was the reason for this? “Personal problems of some members who, unfortunately, are no longer in Steignyr’s ranks.”
Since 2014 the line-up is very stable, how do you manage to do this? “No Manage, only live the moment.”
There are no real flutes and violins anymore in the music. Do you feel the keyboard can take this role completely? What are the pro’s and cons of this decision? “There is neither pro, nor against, hundreds of bands do that, Equilibrium is one of them.”
In our previous interview you said you had lots of plans. Videoclips, new songs and lots of shows around the world. Do you think you have succeeded in this? “We’ve been around the world with ‘The Prophecy…’, and it has been very satisfying. Videoclips are a several problem, but no have time to recorder.”
Do you think the Spanish (folk-)metal scene has changed for the better? “No”
Is there anything else you like to say to our readers? “This world is ours, don’t forget this.”
What’s a better opportunity to talk with the guys of Månegarm then when they’re out in the open, wild and free at their own festival in Sweden? I managed to slip into their busy schedule for a nice chat.
Our reporter Assia, flew to Denmark for Udgårdsfest 2019. Besides the beautiful festival itself and many great acts, she had the pleasure to interview Ville from Moonsorrow.
It was nice to get a folk metal related release from Slovakia this year in the form of a new EP by Achsar. Formed in 2004, it has been 5 years since their debut album (“Septentrionalis”) and they have finally gotten back together with “In Battle I Was Born”… 5 tracks, 18 minutes of epicness and a great comeback of sorts for them. I was able to have vocalist Milan and guitarist Peter answer some questions regarding the new EP, the long layoff, playing live and a few other things…. check it out…..
