It’s that time of year where we set out to interview as many of the Sophie, New Blood, and Jager bands as we can in the lead-up to one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, Bloodstock. Answering our questions here are Viction who headline the New Blood Stage on the Saturday Night.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re from Norway. All of us come from different places in the country, but we all live in the eastern region, in or around Oslo.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
The initial idea for the band came in early 2019 and there were only two of us for a year-ish before we became a four-piece in early 2020 and have stayed that way ever since.
Where does the name of the band come from?
Daniel Guthormsen (vocals/guitar): The band name was just like a spur of the moment thing for me. It just dropped in my head one evening and I thought to myself ‘Hey! Viction… That’s kinda cool!’ It doesn’t really mean anything other than it’s a cool name for a band.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Daniel: Well, we normally say that our music lies somewhere between thrash metal and melodic death metal and that’s really the best overall description I can think of. But I also think we’re more than just that. We’ve got our groovy elements, some seriously aggressive moments, ballady-esque things and a few hints of prog here and there. So we’ve got a lot of different elements to us and when it gets put together, it just ends up being Viction. Like, I’ve yet to hear another band that sounds like us. Maybe that’s just me being a bit narrow minded, cause it’s hard for me to hear our music objectively, but I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t feel we had something special.
Teodor Thyvold (bass): Our music is a brew of all that’s good in the world! One dash thrash, one scoop melodic death metal, a hint of prog and groove metal and a dash of traditional metal just for the taste, mix it all together and voilà! You have Viction!
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What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Teodor: “You can expect a high energy, intense, tight show from us! We’re coming from Norway having only played small clubs and now we’re entering the big stage. Yet we’ll treat the energy as a high intensity club show with blood, sweat and headbanging!”
Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
No sadly, none of us have. But we’re looking forward to it now!
Which M2TM region did you win, or did you come through other channels?
We won the Norwegian M2TM contest which took place at Rock In in Oslo.
Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realized you were heading to Bloodstock?
Daniel: I was over the moon!
Teodor: I still haven’t come down from hearing our name announced!
What sort of setlist can we expect?
Bloodstock can expect a hard-hitting set right from the get-go! We feel what we have planned for Bloodstock is a very good and well-rounded set. It will have its dynamic moments here and there, but we’ll play heavy!
We’ll play songs from our debut album, plus a newer song that is not a part of the album, but that newer one is so fun to play so we can’t resist putting it on the setlist!
Which other bands do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?
Daniel: For me, I would love to see Jinjer again. Not the biggest fan, but that’s probably just because I haven’t checked out too much of their music yet. I saw them at the Tons Of Rock festival in Oslo back in June and they were amazing live. It was insane!
Teodor: Mercyful Fate! Been a fan for years and been dying to see them! I’ve had to miss them three times this summer, so I better get to see them now!
What are you working on at the moment?
Right now we are wrapping up recording our debut album, which will be released later this year. The only thing remaining is vocals for a few of the songs and that’s it. We’ve been working on this for over 18 months now so it’s gonna be good to finally release this thing. It’s gonna be something all of us can be very proud of.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Daniel: Does having your guitar strap fall off mid-song count? Because there’s more than one band member who has experience with that. But on a more serious note, we haven’t really seen or done all that much crazy stuff. Not a lot that I can think of, at least. Like, our very first show was in early March 2020. We were so happy with that show and wanted to do more during that spring, but we all know how that went. So some of the shows we’ve done have been with restrictions and whatnot. There’s an intensity missing when you’re playing a show with restrictions. You can have good shows, but it will never match the vibe of a standing crowd headbanging and moshing.
Teodor: Wildest thing I’ve done personally is headbang my forehead into the PA at our local club back in Oslo, the PA there is pretty large and stands on the floor but for us on the stage it’s about up to our lower chest, so I hit the PA headfirst in the middle of our set almost knocking me out… Didn’t stop me from headbanging further though!
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
Daniel: Usually water before, during and after our set.
Teodor: Ein Jägermeister bitte!
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Header image by Harald Medbøe.
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