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I did say previously that I usually don’t do Power Metal anymore, but for every rule there is an exception and I couldn’t imagine a better band to apply that to than GLORYHAMMER! Ever since seeing them live for the first time in 2016, I have been obsessed! Maybe that is because I like catchy songs or maybe because I like well done stupid stuff. Whatever the case, I’m very elated to have had Ben, Michael and Sozos join me for an interview that really covers it all: What are their favorite stories so far? How do you best defeat a goblin? And most importantly: Where the fuck is Aberdeen???
Huge thanks to lightinmirror.de for not being afraid of the goblins and for capturing these epic shots!
Shieldmaiden’s Voice: Would you rather fight against 100 goblins or 10 Hootsmen that don’t have any beer?
Michael: 100 goblins!
Ben: I think, we’re pretty experienced with the goblins and the Hootsman is usually on our side.
Sozos: The Hootsman is an unknown to me, I have never fought against him… And then there’s 10 of them and they are sober…?
Michael: But does that mean that he is weakened?
Ben: He is angry, but does he derive his strength from the beer? It’s not a risk we’re prepared to take!
Sozos: Goblins for sure because that happened before anyway.
SV: What is your favorite GLORYHAMMER story in a song so far?
Ben: I liked the one in Apocalypse 1992 when the dwarves died and I was very happy about the whole thing: They get announced, they have this whole thing and then they die.
Michael: I like Fly Away, it felt a bit more melancholic somehow…
Sozos: Totally! Angus McFife V. knows that his destiny is to die…
Michael: We didn’t decide this, but the fans decided that Angus McFife V. is the sad boy…
SV: The Emo version!
Michael: It wasn’t intended that way, but he is a more somber one.
SV: What are key elements that make a good GLORHAMMER song?
Sozos: [to the others] Don’t give away to much of our secrets!
Ben: Play the note B flat as the same time as C sharp repeatedly…
Michael: It’s just high energy, simple songs with strong structure and quite dense composition behind it. The songs are simple, but the details are expansive.
Sozos: It’s also good when there is a driving force behind the song that pushes the character to do something, so when it has like a call for adventure or a call to action because otherwise the world would be in peril. That always pushes the song forward. More practically speaking, a catchy chorus is essential! You can’t have a song without it.
SV: What is something a listener can always expect from seeing GLORYHAMMER live?
All of them: Goblins!
Sozos: Hammers…
Michael: Smelly costumes…
SV: Luckily we can’t smell those!
Sozos: If fans get too close, they will get smelly costumes!
Ben: The drinking of the beer is also always popular. We have a real ceremony for that. Most bands will just drink the beer and they normally don’t announce it like we do.
SV: That is true! The thematic universe behind GLORYHAMMER has vastly expanded since you first started. How hard is it to keep up with the lore behind it all?
Ben: It’s a mixture of being really difficult and also not caring about it at all and writing stuff that just doesn’t make sense and the coming up with even more ridiculous explanations to join it all together.
Sozos: Thankfully, there is no pressure for it to make sense. There is no one that tells us to have it make sense.
Michael: After we finished the latest single, I messaged Ben and was like „Oh, I finally figured out what the lyrics mean!“ which was like three weeks later.
Ben: I think, right from the beginning, we were trying to make it not make sense, like with „frozen pool of liquid ice“ and obviously you can’t have that. Actually, Chris came up with a complicated theoretical physics explanation for it. There is so much like the liquid ice thing, like the time travel or the fact that Ralathor always appears somewhere. In the booklet for the third album it specifically says „What are you doing here? Nevermind, we’ll explain later“ and I quite like that! Not making sense on purpose is fun!
SV: That is intriguing because there was this discussion on Reddit which was too good not to ask about! The general question is where Aberdeen actually is. Some say Aberdeen is like a situate in space, but in Return to the Kingdom of Fife you talk about it and this song is not set in space. In On a Quest for Aberdeen Angus McFife talks about being lost in the Valley of the Unicorns which is on Earth. Does that mean that the Hootsman didn’t destroy Earth and maybe not even the whole Kingdom of Fife?
Ben: I think we are going to have to get back to you on that one…
Michael: For me, in my head, the Earth was blown to pieces and now there are bits of it floating around in space…
Ben: Technically, it imploded… The force of the implosion was so great that it exploded! That would be the most GLORYHAMMER explanation. Everything else is yet to be determined. Those would be the official answers we can give you.
Michael: It’s also possible it’s never to be determined.
SV: I would love to have that determined at some point!
Michael: I’m not going to lose any sleep over this, to be honest with you.
SV: As long as you don’t release any kind of map any time soon, you’re probably fine!
Sozos: It would need to be interactive anyway. That is always tricky.
SV: You could go the way SLEEP TOKEN went, but more unhinged! Basically just dropping hints that lead to the same things you’ve been releasing all along. Just having people collect clues, having them put those onto a website and stuff like that!
Michael: I just had a better idea! We’re just going to start dropping hints that lead absolutely nowhere! So that it’s like a complete wild goose chase.
Sozos: That would be the GLORYHAMMER way!
SV: From the insane lore back to the music! We briefly talked about the latest single, but is there more on the horizon that you can talk about?
Sozos: Other than the fact there will be new music, I don’t think we can announce anything just yet.
Ben: We are working on the next record, but we can’t say too much.
SV: If everything runs smoothly, what would be a time frame in which you could make an announcement or even release something?
Ben: Hopefully next year!
SV: You guys are very busy and you were and you are on tour so much.
Ben: We will take some time after the South America Tour to finish this new stuff we are working on.
SV: Touring is also so very stressful. What makes it worthwhile for you?
Ben: Just doing it!
Michael: The food! And also, when we do tours, we get money and we can go home and buy even more food!
Ben: I also like to be able to pay my rent. These are pretty much the perks of the job! But you know, we spend so much time working on music that it’s nice to just be able to play it. Most people think we’re on tour most of the time, which is not the case. Most of the time we’re at home working on stuff in isolation from each other and anyone else. Getting to come out and seeing people enjoy and appreciate the work, is just awesome. You can kinda lose the grip on stuff like that when you’re away from it for such a long time. You can put a song on Spotify and no one would care. Going on stage and seeing thousands of people having a good time, makes it real!
SV: What is the single best thing about being part of GLORYHAMMER then?
Sozos: For me, it’s people dressing up. I never thought that I’d be part of a band where the fans put so much effort into showing up like a unicorn. Recently, there was this guy that dressed up exactly like me!
Ben: It’s kinda scary! I don’t think he was even a GLORYHAMMER fan, but his girlfriend was and she thought he looked like Sozos! He had a hammer and everything!
SV: That is a bit messed up though…
Sozos: There is some history that I don’t want to know… But it’s ok, it’s all in good fun and people are always so respectful! Especially the ones that go through the effort of showing up in those costumes.
Michael: For me, it’s all about meeting people and talking to them about how the songs impacted them. I met some people earlier at the tour and they said they met as GLORYHAMMER fans at one of our shows and now they are married. They even had a GLORYHAMMER themed wedding!
SV: So when they happen to have a child, you’re basically responsible for the new generation of fans! That is actually crazy! Looking into the future, apart from any new music you guys have planned, what is something you wish for for the band?
Michael: A giant, inflatable robot!
Sozos: More props! More crazy stuff on stage! It could be robots, it could be other stuff that we come up with in the future.
Ben: A levitating cone has been on the list for a long time.
SV: I want to see more glitter!
Sozos: I try to steer away from glitter because I can never seem to get rid of it…
SV: That’s the point though! You gotta make the show last!
Ben: What I appreciate about GLORYHAMMER at the moment is the complete lack of make-up. Present company excepted, I just love that we don’t have to put all that stuff on our faces. Chris actually wanted me to be a goblin and paint my face green every show when we were right at the beginning of the band. It just sticks on your skin so much and you’d have to wash it all off. Glitter is just the next level to that.
SV: Not to be shady or anything, but when you’re playing the drums, and especially at festival shows, people can’t really see you…
Ben: Exactly! Why would I got through the effort of painting my face green then? I constructed my drum kit in a way that there is only a few little angles from which you can actually see me. It’s very helpful, because one time somebody actually threw a flip flop at me. I don’t necessarily think they were trying to hit me, but they did hit me, so it’s good to have extra layers of protection!
SV: Unfortunately, we’re already at the end and I have one last question. What is your advice on how to handle a goblin attack?
Sozos: It’s always useful to have a hammer on you, preferably a massive one!
Ben: They are very easily distracted and they are very feeble. I think if you push one over, they’d just die. They rely on numbers so getting them in a small group is better!
Sozos: If you have something shiny, like a saxophone, you can just distract them with that.
And there you have it. I really hope we find out at some point what Aberdeen’s deal is! But besides, I think we collected some useful knowledge should we ever come across a horde of goblins! I still owe one last day report and two more interviews, so look forward to the release of those!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 