The last time I spoke to frontman Per Valla of the Norwegian band Vredehammer was when they were ing Keep of Kalessin back in November of last year, so of course I jumped at the chance of talking to him again. This time I got to ask about their new album entitled Violator (out on March 18th) and about their plans for this year.
The last time I spoke to you was on the tour with Vreid and Keep of Kalessin. How was that for you?
It was a nice tour. The best part was getting to know the other bands, since we turned out to get along really well. Some of the promoters however hadn’t done their homework, leading to some shows with not a lot of people in the audience. But all in all a great tour!
You will be releasing your new album Violator in March. What are the themes that run through this album?
The lyrical content of Violator is based a lot on inspiration from books, mainly Stephen King. The song “Violator” is based of the SPAWN-series and some of the lyrics are plain old revenge/forest/sword-songs!
How does this album differ from your previous albums?
This album is more focused on groove and power. Riffs that you can really headbang to, you know. After having toured with Six Feet Under and Satyricon, it became apparent to me that we needed more headbanger-songs because it’s fun to play and the audience loves it!
What inspired you to create a new album?
I guess I just partly answered this one by mentioning the bands we toured with. Other than that, I wanted to make a relatively “simple” or “easy to listen to-“-album. Our first full-length album had more intricate compositions than “Violator” and I felt like making something that was rooted more in the good old heavy metal way of composing songs.
I have listened to the track “Cyclone” and it sounds a lot darker. Is this something that runs through the album?
Yes I would say so. Darker, more groovy and more powerful.
How did you find the writing and recording process of the album? Did you encounter any problems?
Always when writing new songs you will have songs that are really easy to write, as if they write themselves, and on the other hand you have the songs that take a lot of time. This time it was especially “Cyclone” that was the challenge. I spent maaanny hours getting that one finished.
Last time we spoke you talked about a European tour. Is this still the plan or do you have anything else in the pipeline?
Actually right now we only have some “maybe”-tours, nothing more than that. There are a lot of bands out there, and everyone wants to tour. Looks like some band stole the tour we were supposed to do hehe.
What are you most looking forward to this year?
Good question. Hmm.. I look forward to see how the world reacts to our new album and to see the development and progress of our band.
