Thurs are a Viking metal band from Norway, fresh onto the scene at the end of last year with the release of their demo, “Mot Nord”. Mixing up a potent concoction of black metal, death metal and Viking sounds, they look set to garner a lot of attention from fans of pagan music when they unleash their debut full-length effort. I caught up with the whole band to discuss the demo, their influences and their plans for the future, as well as the perils of head-banging in full chainmail!
ES: Hail Thurs! Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed by us. How are you doing?
Thurs: We’re doing just great, thank you!
ES: As you may be new to a lot of our readers, could you perhaps tell us the history and origins of the band?
Thurs: Well, we started up in the end of 2005, under a different name and we did not have so many goals. We started playing cover songs of Burzum, Mayhem & Carpathian Forest, and just fooling around & having fun just playing. After a while we made some songs of our own (witch got thrown away later) and things was going ok. In the beginning, we had two members who aren’t in the band today, Andy on guitars & Kim on drums. They were replaced by Kaalfinn (drums) who joined us in early/mid 2006, and Hammerkamp (rhythm guitars) in mid 2007. After a while we wanted to settle us on a music genre we could recognize ourselves in. It ended with a genre that is inspired by Vikings and Norse mythology, and musically is a melodic mix between black, death, Viking, pagan & folk metal.
ES: There are a lot of ‘Viking’ bands landing on my desk at the moment, and pagan bands from all over the world; what do you think makes Thurs stand out in this scene?
Thurs: We have our own style and we do not try to sound like any other, we just play our music in the way that suits us best.
ES: Does your paganism and your Viking past affect the way you live your lives?
Thurs: None of us lives a heathen life today really, but our Viking past has put its mark in Norwegian culture, and is much of the reason why this kind of metal was born. And we are very found of mead of course!
ES: You’ve just released your first demo, ‘Mort Nord’. Are these songs you have been working on for a long time? Were you happy with the way the demo came out?
Thurs: “Nord For Åsgard” and ”Skogens Grusomme Sang” were put together pretty fast, really, we actually put a lot more work in “Slaget”, believe it or not. On our demo we spent a very long time getting the drums as good as possible, because we used a very crappy studio to record the drums, which affected the rest of the sound in the songs. We just wanted to get the demo out, we did not have more time or money to spend on the drum recording, so it just ended up that way.
ES: I believe the photographs that make up the demo’s artwork were taken in a special place near your homes; can you tell us more about that?
Thurs: Well, that photo session was taken just outside Stavanger, in a place called “Jernaldergarden” (“Ironagefarm”). It is a kind of museum where they have restored old long-houses, like the Vikings used to have about 1000 years ago. You can actually read more about the farm here: http://www.jernaldergarden.no/, we think it is a cool place to shoot photos for our band, so it might not be the last time!
ES: You seem to take influence both from other Viking bands and from the classic black metal sound; how would you describe your sound? Which bands do you enjoy listening to the most?
Thurs: We would describe our sound as a melodic mix between death metal, black metal, Viking metal and folk metal. We listen to much music, we can list up some bands each that we like a lot: Kampfar, Enslaved, Månegarm, Windir, Bathory, Einherjer, Falkenbach, Keep Of Kalessin, Slayer, Obituary, Sepultura, Arcturus, Black Label Society and more.
ES: There’s already some footage of you playing a live show on your website; do you enjoy playing live? It must be hot under all that corpse paint and chainmail! Do you think your appearance is important when you are creating a live spectacle for the crowd?
Thurs: Yeah, we love playing live! Give us lots of gigs, hehe! No, it is not so bad under the chainmail and makeup, hehe! Well, at this one gig, our vocalist, Draugr Skaldvard, actually lost his balance during a lot and intense headrolling, and the chainmail wasn’t exactly helping with obtaining the balance back, hehe! But it went ok after all! We think that the appearance should set its little mark, yes. It helps a little on the mood, you know? Getting the crowd to identify us, and do something out of the live show, not just stand up and down and looking boring and so on, I can’t stand that, hehe. And then it helps with the chainmail and a little corpse paint, I think it is part of this game!
ES: If you could be the opening act for any other band, alive or dead, who would you choose?
Thurs: Windir, Kampfar or Bathory
ES: My Norwegian is pretty bad; what are the main subjects of your lyrics? Do you find lyrics to be an important part of the music? Who is responsible for writing them, and where do they get their inspiration?
Thurs: Our lyrics, written by Draugr Skaldvard, are mainly inspired by Norse mythology and Vikings, and the Viking age, and of course, the beautiful Norwegian landscapes and nature! Subjects in the lyrics include battles, Norse gods, trolls and other Norse mythical creatures, and some of the lyrics is about the war against Christianity, how they brutally came and took our lands with force. “If you don’t become a Christian, we will have your head!” It was like that, many Vikings were forced into it, but some refused, and fought back! These are some of the things we try apprehend in our lyrics.
ES: How about song-writing overall; do you all make a contribution or do one or two people write a lot of the music?
Thurs: Basically, our music is written by Likskuggi & Kaalfinn, but us others come with improvements and suggestions after those two have presented the “roughriffs”.
ES: Are you busy writing new material now? Do you think your next releases will be different to ‘Mot Nord’, and how so?
Thurs: Well, we are working on some new stuff for our upcoming album, it will be much better sound quality and the three “Mot Nord” songs will be on this album, re-recorded together with 4-5 new songs. It’ll be a hell of an album!!
ES: What are your biggest ambitions for the band over the next few years?
Thurs: We want to release our music all over the world, and we want to go on tours and play on festivals and stuff like that.
All Hail ThurS!!
Pagan regards:
Draugr Skaldvard – screams & growls
Likskuggi – 7 strings lead guitars
Hammerkamp – 6 strings rhythm guitars
Dargoth Raatne – 5 strings bass
Kaalfinn – 8 piece battery
For more on the band check out www.myspace.com/thursband
Interviewed by Ellen Simpson
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