1.For Those who have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Ymir's Blood is a metal trio from Helsinki, Finland. Our music hails the high and mighty gods of metal and is an antithesis to all the plastic, polished and autotuned crap they nowadays call metal, built block by block on computer screens. The sole purpose of bringing that soulless scheisse into existence is to rid larping German teenagers of their pocket money so the record industry bosses can go sailing or playing golf.
2.So far you have released an ep and a full length, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on both recordings?
The musical goal of Ymir's Blood is to sound as epic and crushing as possible without losing that live feeling at the core of every true metal band. Both recordings have influences from traditional doom metal, first and second waves of black metal and heavy/thrash metal. Some pagan-themed bands and Nordic and Finnish folk music have also influenced our sound. The result is an obscure mix between different kinds of 80s and 90s metal and something of our own.
The first EP was a re-release of our MC demo, originally recorded at our friend's rehearsal place in early 2012. These first three songs of the “Voluspa” MCD form a larger theme both musically and lyrically. They are doomy and atmospheric, but also have faster and harsher parts.
Our first full length “Blood of the Ice Giant” was recorded spring 2013 and is somewhat faster than “Voluspa”. The doom and pagan metal sounds are accompanied by slightly faster tempos and growing thrash and heavy influences, somewhat shorter songs, heavier sounds and more variation.
3.The band refers to its musical style as 'beerbarian metal', can you tell us a little bit more about this tag?
We like drinking beer, playing metal and making up tags for our music. We also don't want to be labeled as ”viking metal” or ”pagan metal” together with all the cheesy synth bands and other plastic shit in the genre.
The phrase actually originally came from one of our unreleased songs called ”Beerbarian”. We think labeling our music ”beerbarian metal” is better than calling it doom/black/pagan/thrash/death/heavy/etc/wtf metal. When we come up with a better one we'll call it that.
4.With the band name and lyrics you cover Nordic Paganism, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this topic?
Manowar, Quorthon and the Norwegian scene knew it: Vikings are as metal as you get, besides perhaps metal itself and Satan.
Only two songs (The Chosen Slain & To Immortal Master Obscure) on the full length CD mention anything straight from the Norse mythology, so we're slowly moving away from any geographically fixed lyrical themes.
There is no political agenda behind our lyrics (besides getting more beer). The lyrics brutally exploit the erreneous, romantic and naïve picture the public has: they don't try to build a historically accurate depiction of the themes covered. We are also not trying to revive a tradition long dead from a scrap of documents written down by petty Christians.
5.The band is from Finland a country that also has a different pagan heritage of its own, are you also interested in the Paganism of your home country?
Is it that different? For example Helsinki, where we all are from, was a frequent stop for trading and recruiting for vikings on their route East. Both the ancient Nordic and Baltic traditions have greatly influenced what we now call Finnish paganism.
That having been said, the song “Ritual for the Invocation of Thunder” on our debut album tells about paying homage to the Fennic thunder god. Our next full length will feature at least two songs inspired by the runes of the Finnish national epic Kalevala. We also have two songs inspired by Saami tradition. So the answer in short is yes.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
All gigs we have played on the date 28.2.!
The first one was our second ever live performance in Lepakkomies Helsinki 2013, the second at Varjobaari Tampere last year. Both were awesome gigs. We have one coming up also this year on 28.2. at HRH Helsinki with local bands Tombstoned and Centipede.
The songs are written to be played live by a trio and we think they only come to life that way. The energy can't be trapped by a physical or digital recording, even though the live feeling is something we have tried to capture. Our stage performance is lively and energetic with three guys drinking beer and playing metal the best they can!
7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
We have one show coming up 17.4. at Varjobaari Tampere with Lord Fist and Legionnaire, perhaps something in may in Helsinki as well. We're too lazy to try and sell ourselves, please invite us to play abroad for the first time!
8.Currently the band is signed to Archaic Sound, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
Archaic Sound is quite a new and growing label from Ukraine and our music fits their roster well. They have released some new and interesting bands and also worked with bigger names from different genres close to our style. We're also fans of the East European metal scene, so we have been happy with working with Archaic Sound so far. The collaboration has been good so far and hopefully everything goes well in the future as well!
9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of metal?
There's not that much feedback yet as we're a small band and only just released our debut, but most of the reviews and comments on the EP have been positive so far. In Finland people have been buying us beer instead of throwing it on us, so at least the Finnish public has been acceptive.
10>Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We have already written and rehearsed five songs for our next full length, which will hopefully be recorded this spring. We have brought in some new elements like more tempo changes, more black and death metal influences and more complex song structures. Two songs will have different featuring vocalists, so something different can be expected with the vocals as well. The songs are still going to sound like Ymir's Blood, though!
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
The most obvious viking/pagan bands are for example Bathory, Enslaved, Einherjer and Skyforger. From doom metal, bands like Saint Vitus, Candlemass, Reverend Bizarre and Minotauri have been our influences. We also like to draw influences from bands like Celtic Frost, Venom, Amebix, Deströyer 666, early Amorphis, Bolt Thrower, Ulver, Darkthrone, Manowar, Heavy Load, Brocas Helm, Grand Magus, the list goes on.. and of course we support the Helsinki underground metal scene!
We listen to metal in all its forms from Black Sabbath and Kuyss to Blazebirth Hall bands. Recently we've been listening to stuff like Hawkwind, Grand Belial's Key, Black Oak Arkansas, Raimo, Ildjarn, Canned Heat, Orange Goblin, Sabbat (Jap), Entombed, Autopsy, Mortuary Drape, Hank III, Behemoth, Bölzer, Barathrum, again the list goes on.
12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Konsta goes fishing and plays football, Teppo trains to get a black belt in Hapkido and Jesse drinks more beer.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Support your local metal scene and stay heavy!
Ymir's Blood is a metal trio from Helsinki, Finland. Our music hails the high and mighty gods of metal and is an antithesis to all the plastic, polished and autotuned crap they nowadays call metal, built block by block on computer screens. The sole purpose of bringing that soulless scheisse into existence is to rid larping German teenagers of their pocket money so the record industry bosses can go sailing or playing golf.
2.So far you have released an ep and a full length, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on both recordings?
The musical goal of Ymir's Blood is to sound as epic and crushing as possible without losing that live feeling at the core of every true metal band. Both recordings have influences from traditional doom metal, first and second waves of black metal and heavy/thrash metal. Some pagan-themed bands and Nordic and Finnish folk music have also influenced our sound. The result is an obscure mix between different kinds of 80s and 90s metal and something of our own.
The first EP was a re-release of our MC demo, originally recorded at our friend's rehearsal place in early 2012. These first three songs of the “Voluspa” MCD form a larger theme both musically and lyrically. They are doomy and atmospheric, but also have faster and harsher parts.
Our first full length “Blood of the Ice Giant” was recorded spring 2013 and is somewhat faster than “Voluspa”. The doom and pagan metal sounds are accompanied by slightly faster tempos and growing thrash and heavy influences, somewhat shorter songs, heavier sounds and more variation.
3.The band refers to its musical style as 'beerbarian metal', can you tell us a little bit more about this tag?
We like drinking beer, playing metal and making up tags for our music. We also don't want to be labeled as ”viking metal” or ”pagan metal” together with all the cheesy synth bands and other plastic shit in the genre.
The phrase actually originally came from one of our unreleased songs called ”Beerbarian”. We think labeling our music ”beerbarian metal” is better than calling it doom/black/pagan/thrash/death/heavy/etc/wtf metal. When we come up with a better one we'll call it that.
4.With the band name and lyrics you cover Nordic Paganism, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this topic?
Manowar, Quorthon and the Norwegian scene knew it: Vikings are as metal as you get, besides perhaps metal itself and Satan.
Only two songs (The Chosen Slain & To Immortal Master Obscure) on the full length CD mention anything straight from the Norse mythology, so we're slowly moving away from any geographically fixed lyrical themes.
There is no political agenda behind our lyrics (besides getting more beer). The lyrics brutally exploit the erreneous, romantic and naïve picture the public has: they don't try to build a historically accurate depiction of the themes covered. We are also not trying to revive a tradition long dead from a scrap of documents written down by petty Christians.
5.The band is from Finland a country that also has a different pagan heritage of its own, are you also interested in the Paganism of your home country?
Is it that different? For example Helsinki, where we all are from, was a frequent stop for trading and recruiting for vikings on their route East. Both the ancient Nordic and Baltic traditions have greatly influenced what we now call Finnish paganism.
That having been said, the song “Ritual for the Invocation of Thunder” on our debut album tells about paying homage to the Fennic thunder god. Our next full length will feature at least two songs inspired by the runes of the Finnish national epic Kalevala. We also have two songs inspired by Saami tradition. So the answer in short is yes.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
All gigs we have played on the date 28.2.!
The first one was our second ever live performance in Lepakkomies Helsinki 2013, the second at Varjobaari Tampere last year. Both were awesome gigs. We have one coming up also this year on 28.2. at HRH Helsinki with local bands Tombstoned and Centipede.
The songs are written to be played live by a trio and we think they only come to life that way. The energy can't be trapped by a physical or digital recording, even though the live feeling is something we have tried to capture. Our stage performance is lively and energetic with three guys drinking beer and playing metal the best they can!
7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
We have one show coming up 17.4. at Varjobaari Tampere with Lord Fist and Legionnaire, perhaps something in may in Helsinki as well. We're too lazy to try and sell ourselves, please invite us to play abroad for the first time!
8.Currently the band is signed to Archaic Sound, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
Archaic Sound is quite a new and growing label from Ukraine and our music fits their roster well. They have released some new and interesting bands and also worked with bigger names from different genres close to our style. We're also fans of the East European metal scene, so we have been happy with working with Archaic Sound so far. The collaboration has been good so far and hopefully everything goes well in the future as well!
9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of metal?
There's not that much feedback yet as we're a small band and only just released our debut, but most of the reviews and comments on the EP have been positive so far. In Finland people have been buying us beer instead of throwing it on us, so at least the Finnish public has been acceptive.
10>Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We have already written and rehearsed five songs for our next full length, which will hopefully be recorded this spring. We have brought in some new elements like more tempo changes, more black and death metal influences and more complex song structures. Two songs will have different featuring vocalists, so something different can be expected with the vocals as well. The songs are still going to sound like Ymir's Blood, though!
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
The most obvious viking/pagan bands are for example Bathory, Enslaved, Einherjer and Skyforger. From doom metal, bands like Saint Vitus, Candlemass, Reverend Bizarre and Minotauri have been our influences. We also like to draw influences from bands like Celtic Frost, Venom, Amebix, Deströyer 666, early Amorphis, Bolt Thrower, Ulver, Darkthrone, Manowar, Heavy Load, Brocas Helm, Grand Magus, the list goes on.. and of course we support the Helsinki underground metal scene!
We listen to metal in all its forms from Black Sabbath and Kuyss to Blazebirth Hall bands. Recently we've been listening to stuff like Hawkwind, Grand Belial's Key, Black Oak Arkansas, Raimo, Ildjarn, Canned Heat, Orange Goblin, Sabbat (Jap), Entombed, Autopsy, Mortuary Drape, Hank III, Behemoth, Bölzer, Barathrum, again the list goes on.
12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Konsta goes fishing and plays football, Teppo trains to get a black belt in Hapkido and Jesse drinks more beer.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Support your local metal scene and stay heavy!
