1. Hello, hello. Let’s take a small pause near „Urkraft“ album, which I’m listening through making questions for this interview. For me, this one is the best you ever made, but this isn’t important for now. I registered my first contact with Thyrfing by „Urkraft“ so my questions is simply subjective. Is this album a good way to learn more about Thyrfing’s music? Does it reflects your musical taste very well?

At least it reflects our musical taste at the current time when the album was made – just like any other Thyrfing album does. When looking back on our discography, I can roughly divide it into two chapters: the albums up to and "Urkraft" inclusive and the ones after. So in a way I see that album as the last album of the "old era". So for the music we did up until the year 2000, I think it's a good album to start with.

2. Let’s go back to the most actual theme – „Hels Vite“. Is it good to be back after three years?

Yes, definitely. It's been quite a long process writing and completing the album, so it's both a relief and great feeling that it's finally ready!

3. Novelty is connected with one radical change – in the place of vocalist – and as we know, this step is hard at any time. Jens was a part of many good albums, if we speak about Naglfar or Profundi, but there can be some queries. Especially in the vein of aggressiveness in his voice – Thyrfing always had specific balance, maybe as well as epic feeling… magnificence…

Jens’ vocals with Thyrfing is not a copy of what he’s been doing on his previous releases, and if you look upon it in a wider perspective than from the extreme metal scene, Thomas’ and Jens’ vocals are quite in the same style ... both very aggressive. Of course replacing the vocalist is a big change, as for any band, but to me the change is not that drastic as many people might think

4. So needn’t we expect that „Hels Vite“ will be more straight or something like deflection from „classic“ Thyrfing’s production?

- If so, not due to the vocals I'd say. When it comes to the production this is the album we put most time and effort into, and with only a month of perspective I must say it sounds very fat and powerful. Also a bit more organic and edgy than the last album "Farsotstider" which was a very clean and slick production.

5. Well, let’s go back to the line-up. Thyrfing never had problems with dramatic changes in group. All went good – from my look, a look of pure listener. Is every shot like this /with Jens/ hard for people inside or can help in some cases?

To give you a rather "boring" answer, I think that line-up changes are usually both for good and bad for most bands. It's of course negative to loose long-time members, which have put their mark on the band and it's music. But some fresh blood could also give you some sparks ... a feeling to be back on track again which is really great. So it's a two-edged sword really ...


6. If we will continue about upcoming album, there’re still some questions waiting for answer. I would say that you are group, which try to have idea (one or two) behind every album. And this makes your music compact. So how about „Hels Vite“? Try to name and define something for readers.

One thing that might occur to the listener is that the songs are longer, and with more epic arrangements. This is not really something we planned in advance but just happened naturally. On the latest album we've had an epic final track around 7 minutes, but now almost all songs are around that lenght. So that could be seen as something significant for the album – even though it was not really a "master plan" we had when we started composing the songs.

7. Artwork… I’m sure about connection between artwork and music, but give me better zoom and tell something about it’s author. And I’m interested if‘s all the booklet painted in black and white? Also animated like front side?

The artwork was made by Mikael Schelén, a friend of ours who mainly work as a tattoo artist, but has also previously made some album covers and other designs. The thought behind the cover is to picture ice cold as a punishment instead of hell. How the booklet looks like will remain a surprise until the album is released and out for sale, but it will indeed be a good match with the cover artwork.

8. Can we expect some guests on upcoming album? If not, why? Are / Aren‘t you interested in this kind of cooperations? I read nothing about, but it sounds interestendly for me; can we expect some

Toni Kocmut (who also made clean vocals on the last four albums) have made some choir arrangments. That's it, really. A reason you might not have heard about it is probably that his prescence on the albums nowadays is more or less "normal procedure", so we haven't made such a big thing about it ... ;-)

9. Are you felt some kind of debts in the face of Regain records? Are they developed pressure or something? But I think, they supported you as much as they can, am I right? /smile/

I must say that we currently have very comfortable situation at Regain where we have both artistic freedom and no pressure, while they support us with good budget and promotion. So that's an aspect that we're really happy with at the moment.


10. When I did some interviews through the time with groups from North, like you, many of them confirm me, that climate has strong influences in their music. Long winter, not much light… this changing something in human mind…

That's probably correct. The climate indeed affects your mood, and your mood usually reflects in your music. So ... a logic chain reaction ...?

11. Well, I would like to close this interview, largely about new album, with question regarding your upcoming gigs and possible stop in Czech republic… (Don’t dissapoint me, hehe!)

Currently there are some gigs booked (Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland), but we are also negotiating about some others and are always open for suggestions. Sadly enough, Czech Republic is a country that we never get gig proposals from for some reason ...?

12. Of course, thanks for your time you spent with questions and Czech republic really looking forward to your new album. Last words are usually yours. Keep on.

Thanks for the interest and support. I hope that people would check out the new album when it's out. Also keep checking www.thyrfing.com for the latest news, updates and events.