Funeral Rain Press Corps

First off, thanks for taking the time to answer a few of my questions! It’s always a bit of a rush knowing that someone who makes awesome fucking metal that I love to bang my head to is going to respond to my fair unimaginative questions.

Heri Joensen:  My pleasure :-)

Like too many others, I had no idea what the Faroe Islands were before I listened to TYR. Is that a possible ulterior motive, to help raise awareness to ignorant Americans about your beautiful country?

No. We never set out to be ambassadors for our islands. But we often find that in effect we are, so it’s a side effect really.

Is there a reason as to why there has been a bit of a decline in the folksy influence (at least instrumentally) as of late? I mean, yes it’s still there, but it’s not nearly as immense as it was in previous albums.

We have deliberately steered a bit away from the explicitly folky material, although you may still find it here and there. We think we have something more to offer and we want to disassociate ourselves somewhat with the genres Folk, Pagan and Viking. We think that may do our career some good.

While touring, do you receive warmer receptions in certain countries or do the people everywhere you go already know that you rule?

It happens that we play for a heavy crowd that hasn’t heard of us before, and that doesn’t obviously want to hear us. But that’s mostly when we are supporting bigger bands. I would say it’s much more common that the people who come to our shows already know our music, and are glad to hear the songs live.

Not A Question: “Kiss my Scandinavian ass” is one of the best anythings I’ve heard in a song for a great, long while. So, thank you for that!

I’m glad you like it :-D

Is there a song that you guys play live that never seems to fail at getting the crowd’s blood flowing? Hold The Heathen Hammer High comes to mind…

Yes, that and By The Sword In My Hand and Tróndur í Gøtu are songs that always makes people go apeshit! It’s a pleasure to witness from the stage and that makes playing live worth it in it self.

Call me crazy, but you lot seem like a hard partying bunch. Do you have a wild stories from the road that you can share here with incriminating yourselves in several high courts?

I can only speak for myself here. I’m not the hardest partying guy in metal today, but I do remember once I got pretty drunk and threw up in the sink on the tourbus. The next morning I went jogging and I threw up WHILE jogging, and after that I had to take apart the drain under the sink to clear out the puke remainds that were clogging the drain. Yes, sometimes stuff like that happens :-D Maybe I could add that the other guys aren’t tea-totallers either ;-)

Is there a chance that in the future that TYR will play anything that isn’t related to Norse mythology or The Faroe Islands? Or is TYR concrete in that concept?

That’s easy. We already have songs that are not related to mythology or the Faroes, so that already happened. Songs like Shadow Of The Swastika or Rainbow Warrior from the Eric The Red album.

Obligatory Stupid/Silly/Retarded Question: How often have you heard somebody say “You guys are TYRiffic!” and how tired of it are you?

I’ve heard and read that a few times, yes, but I never tire from hearing it again.

Is there anything you’d like to add for the Funeral Rain audience?

Genre: Folk Metal, Pagan Metal

Label: Napalm Records

By the right hand of Tyr! It’s… Tyr! They’re back after a two year respite and are ready to help sneaky teenagers trick people into thinking that they know everything about Norse mythology by repeating what they’ve “learned” (an unfortunate, yet necessary side effect of such a mind bogglingly awesome band) on their new album The Lay Of Thrym.

As always, every song is an epic story of either a bloody battle between Gods and monsters, how much The Faroe Islands kick ass or something equally as interesting. And we all know that Tyr brings their A-Game to every aspect of their music, but where these guys shine the brightest (to me at least) is in their lyrics.

“You who think the hue of your hide means you get to blame
The black for your own faults and so bring humanity shame
Make sure you count me out of the ranks of your inbred morons
With your sewer gas and kiss my Scandinavian ass”

-Shadow Of The Swastika

Are you really going to argue with me after reading that?

On a less complimentary note, it seems that the further away from How Far To Asgaard we get, there’s less and less of a folky influence in Tyr’s music. I mean, it’s still here in The Lay Of Thrym (in Konning Hans and Ellindur Bondi a Jadri most noticeably), but only by inches compared to earlier releases. Now, it’s all wailing guitar solos, and driving beats… wait, am I really complaining about that? It’s more of a lateral move or maybe a trade off of sorts. More “traditional metal” for less “traditional folk”. I guess you can chalk that up as a plus if you want, but I think it takes away from what makes Tyr sound like Tyr.

Overall: The Lay Of Thrym is an epic, hard driving album that just begs to be added to your already choked viking/folk metal collection. I mean, come on! How can you pass up an album that contains the phrase, “Kiss my Scandinavian ass!”?

9/10

Tyr On Facebook

Genre: Viking Metal
Label: Black Bards Entertainment

Heathen Foray is an Austrian Viking metal band that was formed in 2005, taking their name from a Falkenbach song. They center their music around history, mythology, and nature, all with songs clocking in at radio-length to long radio-length.
Their sound is deep and dark, and epic as hell, and it’s garnered them a support spot on the Paganfest 2008 tour featuring Ensiferum, Moonsorrow, Korpiklaani, Tyr and Eluveitie. In other words, these guys aren’t just screwing around, they are serious about their craft, and it shows in the music too. The chemistry these guys have is heard clearly on songs like “Chants”, which is also my favorite on the album, as well as “Dragon’s Eyes”, “Winterking”, and “Northstar”.
In all, it’s a solid album full of great riffs, excellent musicianship, and some Metalgasmic solos. If you’re into Viking or folk metal, I’d say you should get this.
7.5 out of 10.

Heathen Foray on MySpace.

Genres: Doom, Viking Metal
Label: Napalm Records

“…My soul cannot rest…”
The End is so damn good. Doomy as hell, but not the plodding variety. The faster, more Black Sabbath-tinged variety that’s heavy as hell. Think The 11th Hour or November’s Doom.
I just realized as I typed that that The 11th Hour and Ereb Altor are label mates. Damn those people at Napalm sure know how to pick ‘em.
Anyway, like I was saying, this is a damn good album. It’s got the doom going on, as well as the Viking metal sound, something like a heavier Tyr or a less death metal Amon Amarth.
If you’re a fan of any of the bands I’ve just mentioned, you might want to check out Ereb Altor. The band, for your own info, consists of Ragnar and Mats, the two gents behind Isole’s doomy anthems, and traces its origins to pre-Isole under the name Forlorn, in the 90′s.
8 out of 10.

Ereb Altor on MySpace.