By: Eline Location: Melkweg, Amsterdam, Netherlands Date: 10/4/2016 April seems to be a good month for us folk metal lovers living in the Netherlands. After the shows of Ensiferum, Skyforger, Ereb Altor, Månegarm and Equilibrium just a couple of days ago, it’s now time for Korpiklaani and Moonsorrow to hit … Continue reading →
By: Eline Venue: Maassilo, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Date: 2/4/2016 On the second day of the “Return of the one man army” tour, Finnish folk metal gods Ensiferum played in the almost fully packed ‘Maassilo’ in Rotterdam. Of course I wanted to see them, since they are one of my favourite … Continue reading →
Amorphis is currently touring through Europe again with their ‘Under the red cloud’ headline tour. Last year they released their 12th full length studio album and not so long ago they toured together with Nightwish as support act.
Before their show in Tilburg Tomi took some time to talk with me about their latest album, Finland, tattoos and more.
Ephyra is a Melodic Death Metal band with Epic and Folk influences. The band already toured all over their native Italy and beyond, appeared in radio shows and festivals such as “Fosch Fest”.
Often sharing the stage with acclaimed international bands such as Satyricon, Carcass, Finntroll, Elvenking and Furor Gallico.
Not so long ago they released their second full length album. Time to get to know them a little bit better!
Artaius and the Gaulish Gods Around 2008 the project Artaius was born. At the beginning the aim was the recipe to find a perfect harmony between metal and folk music, but the band has always been wide open to various influences. So gradually their work evolved into an experimental music … Continue reading →
The band already exists for 20 years. How do you look back on those 20 years?
“We had a great time! Sure we’ve had up’s, for example to play together with bands like Eluveitie, Finntroll, Hagard and In Extremo) and down’s (when Geige Gygax , Daniela and Simu quit the band) but altogether we’ve had and still are having a great time.
We’ve met so many really interesting people and we saw so many cool places. But even more important it was never a waste of time! Maybe to mention one of the biggest changes in the last 20 years are for sure the social medias like Facebook, Youtube and iTunes. In the early days it was really hard work to get a little bit ‘famous’ (and also expensive).
Today, all you need is a computer and with less than a few mouse cliques you reach and receive the whole world!”
When the Paganfest tour came to Tilburg, we took the opportunity to talk to Jukka from Wintersun about what Wintersun had been up to the last months, their 70.000 tons of metal show and of course about Time 2, the album we are all so eagerly waiting for.
Continue reading →‘Folk-metal.nl’s own’ Eline had a nice chat with Paolo of Furor Gallico.
Congratulations on your new album ‘Songs from the earth’, could you please tell me more about the making of this album?
“Thank you so much! This album has been an opportunity to improve ourselves from how we started with the debut album. We did not want to lose sight of our origins, so we tried to add some new details to our music.
In some tracks we tried to conceive a sound not so easily linkable to other music.
As for the technical aspects of the album, we spent the last two years refining its sound. Moreover, several technical hassles put back the release date (the album had been recorded in 2013) and so, once it was finally out, we couldn’t believe our eyes!”
How has the album been received by the fans and critics?
“So far, so good! We are absolutely glad to see that our fans like both songs on the album whose sound and atmosphere are closer to our debut album, and other songs, such as ‘Diluvio’ or ‘Steam over the Mountain’. Those two songs are rooted in our idea of how we see folk metal, which is: “Folk metal does not exist, folk metal is what the hell we chose to do!”
At our first gig supporting ‘Songs from the Earth’, many people already sang some of our new stuff, from the beginning to the end! That was definitely touching!”
Can you tell me something about the history of Vanir? How did the band get together?
“The origin story is quite random actually. It all started with Phillip, Lars and Martin, the founding members of the band. They started jamming some tunes about 6 or 7 years ago.
A violinist was added to the band, which gave a really cool sound. Then we got the idea to mix the whole sound with metal. The rest of the guys and girls came along. After some line-up changes, we’re stronger than ever now!
We like to write lyrics about history and consider our music melodic death/black metal with folk instruments. Some might call it ‘Viking metal’
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.”
