INTERVIEW ... NASTRANDIR

HAILZ RAGNAR... HERE'S THE QUESTIONS.... 1.First of all, introduce the readers with NASTRANDIR's history and band's members biography.

Nastrandir was founded in 2006. The founding members (Grimnir, Fjoellnir, Vidir and Ragnar) also played in some other musical formations. We decided to play some epic and bombastic way of Viking Metal and recorded a demotape and finally our first full-length album “Zwischen Horizonten”. Fortunatlly it wasn’t a big problem to get a record deal. So we signed with Twilight, a great label from the coast, in April 2007.

In this time we became much stronger, because of the new Nastrandir-members Nordavind, Grummbutz the Basstroll and Gorm the Old. With these new warriors we became able to fuck the world with our curious live-gigs!

2.What does NASTRANDIR mean and why you chose this name of the band?

Nastrandir means a part in the depth of the nordic hades. It’s originally called “Nastrand”. It’s the place, whre liers and people, who do perjury get their fucking torture.

We take this name, because of the timliness. Imagine how overfilled this place must be with our corrupt, contaminated society. 3.Your debut release "Zwischen Horizonten" , could you translate this title and tell us a bit about this album in your own words?

It means “Between horizons”. It’s a journey through the nordic landscapes. So even the music is very diversified. A lots of different genres are mixed to our own Nastrandir-cocktail.

Mostly the basis of a Nastrandir-song is mid-tempo with heroic choirs an strong clear vocals. But you can find Black Metal-elements and some folk-stuff , too. 4.What sort of topics do your lyrics deal with?

The lyrics deal with some small Viking-stories. Every text gets it’s own image in music.

We don’t care about historical correctness too much. Of course we are anxious to sing about an beliveable kind of men. But the atmosphere is our priority. 5.What is your opinion on how some people feel that "true" black metal should be straightforward with no keyboards, violins, or additional like instruments?

I think thats’s totally right. True Black Metal is the essence of pure hate and evil. So the music have to reflect this essence in form of pure metal.

But Nastrandir isn’t a Black Metal band. Nastrandir has nothing to do with this kind of music.

So it’s allowed to use such instruments in the name of atmosphere. 6.What sort of thoughts and emotions do you wish to convey to the listener through your music?

That’s different from song to song. Our emotional spectrum goes from some happy drinking songs to angry chants and back to epic hymnes. The listener can dive into a world of battle.

7.Underground metal, especially BM (with subgenres) today seems to be reaching its height of commercialization. Bands which once were considered against this, have joined the sinking boat of trends and popularity contests. Many have forgotten their roots , or have no roots at all. What are your thoughts on this matter?

I think advancements are a natural process in creating music. Everyone should find his personal path and so I never blame anybody, because of his development. The conception of the musicians is the law! If you don’t like their music, stop listen to it. Nobody is forced to buy Dimmu Borgir CDs... 8.What other bands exist in your region? Anything else you can tell us about the atmosphere there?

Especially in Lübeck there are some very cool bands. The brotherhood becomes stronger every day and the creative potential is enormous high! So be prepared for some real strong Liubician Metal!

Some cool bands to check out:

BlackShore: http://www.myspace.com/blackshoremetal

Cold Embrace: http://www.myspace.com/coldembracedoom

Violence Unleashed: http://www.myspace.com/violenceunleashedofficial

Cursed Anguish: http://www.myspace.com/cursedanguish

Daemonized: http://www.myspace.com/daemonized

Abnormal: http://www.myspace.com/thetrueabnormal

9.Tell us your thoughts on religion. What are your feelings toward Christianity? Paganism? Satanism etc...?

I am not at war with Christianity. Of course they did disgusting crimes in the past, but it’s stupid to blame this crimes like they were done in present times.

Today the chruch has some real useful facilities. But this changes nothing at the fact, that Christianity isn’t the religion of our country. It’s sad to give up our own culture for that oriental beliefes.

10.What inspires you outside of music? What kind of things do you when you're not working with music?

We drink a lots of beer and have sex with our girlsfriends. Furthermore we have deep connections to the north and to our beloved coast. So may be it’s sound ridiculous, but of course nature is a big inspiration for all of us. 11.Is there a person or persons of the past who you derive inspiration from? (And explain to us why?) ?

Of course there are a lots of persons, who became Nastrandir inspiration, haha. Especially some of this ultra-true “everthing-has-to-be-historicly-correct”-bitches are fucked up with every Nastrandir concert. We love to provoke this kind of apes with music and with stageacting! 12.NASTRANDIR seem to be a very good example of "Pagan / Viking" BM band... so what is your thoughts on the definition of term "Pagan / Viking" BM and what ingredients are necessary to be considered "Pagan / Viking" BM?

I think one of the great possibilities of this genre is it’s unbelivable liberty. It’s Pagan stuff, if you just play Black Metal with heathen lyrics. It’s Pagan stuff, if you play Folk Metal. It’s Pagan stuff, if you play hard. It’s Pagan stuff, if you play soft. So you can’t say a concrete formula to decribe Pagan Metal.

In our interpretaion of that genre, we decided to emphasize the clean vocals/coirs and the melodies to create a heroic atmosphere. 13.Are you satisfied with the label "Twilight Rec." and their work? Would you like to be signed by some other bigger label in future?

We are completly satisfied by the work of Twilight. So we are not planning to change the label in future. 14. Are you have some plans for the near future? Would you like to come to play live here in Serbia?

Yes, we hope to do some gigs across Europe next year. Maybe a little tour with some other bands from Lübeck. Of course we would love to play in Serbia as fuck. But we need some reputable offers to plan such journeys! But maybe some club interested in us?

15.Thanks for your time and thoughts... Any final words to the end of the interview??

Wo bleibt mein Fischbrötchen? Thanks for the interview! Visit http://www.myspace.com/nastrandirmetal and www.nastrandir-metal.de and feel the heathen spirit! SEE YOU... STAY PAGAN...