solid personality
Six nondescript, tattooed lads from Norway’s fourth largest city start a band that a) play a mutant hybrid of black metal and rock’n’roll, b) sing entirely in Norwegian and c) have a weird obsession with owls. Just what part of that equation screams ‘SUCCESS STORY!’ to you?
“We were just kids!” grins Kvelertak guitarist Maciek Ofstad as we chat in a cafe in Oslo, 10 years after the Stavanger quintet unleashed a debut that would turn the metal scene inside out. “I was 22 years old, and I had no idea what to expect from this band. We released that album not knowing that it was gonna change the world of metal forever, you know?”
There’s a mischievous glint in Maciek’s eye as he says this – you suspect his tongue may be planted just a little inside his cheek – but he has a point. While other bands had amplified black metal’s rockier side over the years (“Satyricon tried to do it their way back in the day,” Maciek points. wasn’t just a great album: it sparked interest in a different kind of heavy music that was emerging from Norway. Suddenly, everyone wanted a bit of catchy rock’n’roll with their icy tremolos.
