Page 78 - Metal Hammer Issue 334 - UK (May 2020)

KVELERTAK

ix nondescript, tattooed lads Kvelertak (left to right): Håvard Takle Ohr,
from Norway’s fourth largest Maciek Ofstad, Ivar Nikolaisen (front), Marvin
Nygaard, Vidar Landa, Bjarte Lund Rolland
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 out), few
managed to do so with such a raucous,
infectious sense of fun. Kvelertak 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.
“Suddenly, that [kind of music] was
normal…” agrees Maciek, before
busting out another grin, “…but we
actually perfected it.” What followed
was a whirlwind experience for the
youngsters. Kvelertak went gold in their
home country, shifting more than
15,000 copies. They even bagged
a Spellemann, AKA a Norwegian
Grammy. And, in the space of just a few
years, they went from playing toilet
venues in their homeland to supporting
the likes of Gojira and Mastodon
around the world, receiving patronage
from James Hetfield, and playing to
22,000 people at Oslo’s Telenor Arena
as special guests to Foo Fighters.
Two more albums followed – 2013’s
solid Meir and 2016’s surprising
Nattesferd, which upped Kvelertak’s
softer sensibilities with sprinklings of
plodding, Status Quo-esque dad rock Owl obsession: life’s a
hoot in Kvelertak (below)
(“that was the Blue Öyster Cult era,”
jokes Maciek today). Still, things were
moving in the right direction, with two
stints supporting Metallica across
Europe in 2017 and 2018 set to
be a crowning achievement for a band
that had long defied all reasonable
expectations. Except, a spanner was
about to be thrown into the works.
“We knew that Erlend [Hjelvik] was
gonna leave during that tour,” Maciek
says of their now ex-frontman, who
would depart Kvelertak soon after the

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