Skyforger's (from Latvia) new album has just been released through Mascot Records. We found this album interesting enough to contact Skyforger's vocalist & guitarist PETER for an interview.




1.When and where was Skyforger spawned ? By whom ??

Skyforger was formed in 1995 and consisted of three ex-Grindmaster Dead members: me- Peter on vocals and guitar, Edgar"Zirgs" on bass and drummer Imant. One year later guitarist Rihard joined us and since then we are fourpiece.

2. Please tell us more about the chosen band-name. What does it stand for ?

Our bandname is taken from ancient Latvian mythology, it's the English translation of word people used when talking about Thundergod Perkons. During the thunderstorm they used to tell - there forger forges up in the sky. I guess this bandname fits our music quite well. Besides, the symbol in our logo is an ancient mythological sign as well, it's the sign of above mentioned God Perkons which is sometimes wrongly identified as symbol of Nazi/Fascists.

3. I only have your album and I do not have a clue about what you have released before. Please give us run through of your earlier releases.

Our first recording was done in 1997, it's the demo tape titled "Semigalls' Warchant". Afterwards we signed a deal with Mascot Records and released the "Kauja pie Saules"cd in 1998, both these recordings were dedicated to the fights of ancient Latvian tribes against the christian invaders during the 13th century. And now we have this new album titled "Latvian Riflemen" released about a month ago.

4. Please give us a presentation of "Latvian Riflemen" album. The recording, lyrics, the concept…..the full story !!!!

We recorded the album overhere in Riga, the city where we are living, in the same studio where we recorded our previous recordings as well. The recording took about three months of time and we recorded the album as a trio, because our second guitarist Rihard left the band right before the recording started (now he is back in the band and we are four again). The whole album is conceptual and tells about the time between 1915 and 1917 - the formation of battalions of Latvian Riflemen and their fights during the World War I. Each of the songs tell about some specific battle and there are more details written about each battle in the album booklet, so I won't re-tell it here. The booklet also contains some historical photos of the battlefields and the Latvian Riflemen.

5. Why release a concept album about the Latvian army in the World War I ?? Even I with my university degree in history did know that the heroic Latvian army was involved in this war……

Well, it's nice to hear that you have such a good knowledge about Latvian army and it's history, but unfortunately there are not so much people having such a good knowledge, even in Latvia a lot of people don't know much about that time. And therefore we decided to dedicate the whole album to this theme.

6. What has been the reaction to your album in Latvia ?

Reactions have been great to both albums overhere in Latvia. Even people generally not interested in metal music have approved our recordings, and we have become one of the leading Latvian metal bands at the moment. There are always lot of people headbanging in first rows at our gigs.

7. All your lyrics are in Latvian. Does this create any difficulties for you ?

I'm interested in writing a kind of poetry instead of just writing texts without rhymes or so. Just because I'm not so strong in English to do it, I prefer to write in my native language. Besides, we also have complete translations of lyrics in English at the album booklet, so everybody interested can read it and understand what we are singing about.

8. If we compare your music to that of the albums from for example the bands on No Color Music/Records and other "back to basic" Black Metal record labels; what do we call your brand of metal ? Where does this contrast leave the term "Black Metal" as a genre ?

We don't worry very much about how our music is labelled, but it's not black metal for sure. We just try to mix a lot of styles together and play whatever we like to play. Sure, it would be great to invent something completely original, but nowadays it's quite hard to achieve, I guess.

9. Which bands has influenced Skyforger most ?

We listen to a lot of bands and not only metal bands. I prefer DIO, JUDAS PRIEST, MANOWAR as well as BATHORY, MORBID ANGEL, EMPEROR, CATHEDRAL, etc. and they all have influenced us in one way or another. Besides we also listen to a lot of folk music and got inspiration from it.

10. For a person like myself who live on the fringes of Europe (Scotland); Latvia is a pretty unknown and grim country (do not mention football……). How is life in Latvia these days ??

Life in Latvia nowadays doesn't differ very much from life in other European countries since we are away from the Soviet Empire. Although we still feel some relic from those Soviet times, for example, the economical situation is still not the best over here, but everything improves all the time. Also there are a lot of foreign people arrived in Soviet times living here which cannot cohabit with us well, but at the same time they don't like to return to their homeland. That's another problem, but overall it's not so bad to live here, we like it.

11. One of my collegues from Finland told me that the Latvian society is more focused towards Finland than the rest of Europe. Is this the same for the metal scene too ?? Is there any major connections between then latvian metal scene and the metal scene in Finland ?

You have been misinformed, I think. Our northern neighbours Estonians are focused towards Finland, not Latvians. Estonians and Fins are both of Finno-Ugrish origins, so they have common a lot, but Latvians (as well as our southern neighbours Lithuanians) are one of the Baltic Nations and we are closer to Europe than Finland, I guess. Also, there's no major connection between Metal scenes of Latvia and Finland.

12. What is your future plans ?

We have all the stuff written for our third album which we expect to start recording late next year. It will be dedicated to ancient Latvian mythology this time. Also, we plan to go on tour next year to promote the album, but it should be concretized later, nothing is sure yet.

13. Where can Suidakra be reached ? Any mail order list ?

Skyforger can be contacted by e-mail at -here or you can write us to

Skyforger
P.O.Box 1077
Riga LV-1050
Latvia

(IRC or USD is necessary for sure reply).

Also, visit our homepage at - here for more information.

14. Is there anything you want to add to this interview ?

Everything is told already, I guess, and nothing to add. Thanx for this interview and good luck with your magazine.