GRIMFIST (OLE/ HORGH/ FREDIABLO)

FIRST OF ALL: CONGRATULATIONS FOR A VERY STRONG ALBUM, IT`S A GREAT BLEND OF DEATH/ HEAVY/ THRASH AND BLACK! WHAT IS THE HISTORY BEHIND GRIMFIST? I ONLY KNOW VERY FEW FACTS, WHEN DID YOU GUYS MEET AND DECIDE TO START A BAND? AND WHAT EXACTLY IS A „GRIMFIST“? DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF „GHOULS OF GRANDEUR“? OLE: Thanks for the kind words… Yes we are extremely proud of our debut album!! GRIMFIST was formed in October 2001, I contacted Frediablo and Horgh about creating an insane, over the top- Heavy Metalband. I played them some riffs and ideas, and we immediately started to commence on the material. All the songs are arranged by me and Horgh, while Frediablo handles the lyrics, and vocal-arrangements. There is no excact meaning behind the bandname GRIMFIST, that´s what I like about it… It´s whatever you want it to be. Some girls think about fistfucking when we mention GRIMFIST. To us the name reflects the music; Imagine a gigantic clench that destroys everything that comes its way… That´s what we´re trying to achieve with our music as well. Yes, in a way you could say we´re the Ghouls Of Grandeur… AND EVEN MORE IMPORTANT: IS THIS A REAL BAND OR „JUST“ A PROJECT FOR ONE RELEASE? I HOPE NOT… OLE: GRIMFIST is a band we´re fully dedicated to, it´s our top priority. YOU SIGNED WITH CANDLELIGHT. HOW DID THIS COLLABORATION START? ARE YOU CONTENT WITH THEIR PROMO WORK? OLE: It all started with us recording a 3 song demo that we sent out to different labels, shopping for a deal. We got lots of interests, and after months of negotiations we ended up signing to Candlelight. They came up with the best offer, and they got a nice reputaion in the business, that´s extremely important! So far so good…. they´ve got a good distribution and promote the album well. WE ALL KNOW HORGH WAS A MEMBER OF IMMORTAL. COULD YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN OUR READERS WHY IMMORTAL HAD NO FUTURE? DID YOU FEEL BURNED OUT AFTER SO MANY YEARS? DO YOU KNOW THE FUTURE PLANS OF YOUR FORMER BAND MATES? HORGH: First of all I want to say I am very proud of what we achieved with Immortal. Immortal was around for 13 years and released seven albums and that’s not bad. I guess you can say we were burned out. We had been talking about it for a while and it became more and more clear for us that we should call it a day and we all felt like it was the right decision to take. About the future plans for my former band mates I can tell you that Abbath is working on new material and that he wants to put a band together and Saroth is busy with his education. IS THERE SOMEHOW A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR DRUMMING TECHNIQUES PLAYING WITH IMMORTAL COMPARED TO GRIMFIST? HORGH: The music in Immortal and Grimfist is different, so I guess the drumming is a bit different to. But it’s the same fucking way to handle the battery. AND NOW TO FREDIABLO: YOU HAVE BEEN IN SO MANY PROJECTS/ BANDS (NECROPHAGIA, WURDULAK, GORELORD). ARE YOU SUCH A WORKAHOLIC? WHAT IS THE SPECIAL THING ABOUT GRIMFIST FOR YOU? FREDIABLO: In a way I’m a workaholic yes. I just love to create music, and I have a lot of ideas and opinions in my head and for me to get them all out through just one band, would have been total fucking impossible. I love Horror films, therefore I have Gorelord and Necrophagia who deal with horror related topics and have a very gory lyrical expression. I also play in really primitive Black Metal bands, cause I love the rawness and grim atmosphere the really old school black metal music is able to get across. All in all, every band or project I do is in it’s own way my way of showing my different emotions and musical sides, and they are all special to me. That’s why I do them all, but speaking for Grimfist, I just love the energy and the ‚fuck you‘ attitude the music expresses. There is no beating around the fucking bush. We just go straight for the throat and don’t let go until the music stops. I love the mixture of speed and groove. Grimfist is just a pure fucking bone crushing war-machine. IN ONE TRACK THERE ARE CLEAN VOCALS IN THE KLAUS MEINE (SCORPIONS) STYLE. WAS THAT YOU, TOO, OR A GUEST SINGER? SOUNDS FASCINATING… OLE: HAHAHA..actually they do have a striking resemblance..! Not just the vocals, also the looks!!! HAHAHA FREDIABLO: Fuck off !!! ha ha ha !!! I hate the fucking Scorpions !!.. ha ha… but yes, that was me doing the castrated high pitched godamn vocals, but the day I look like Klaus Meine, I will fucking hang myself.. ha ha ha ha !!!! What a fucking thing to say !! TWO OF YOU ARE ALSO MEMBERS OF DERIDE WHO CREATE A SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT SOUND. HAS THIS INFLUENCED GRIMFIST IN A WAY, ESPECIALLY IN THE „GROOVY“ PARTS? ANY NEWS CONCERNING THE FUTURE OF DERIDE? OLE: I don´t think so… I try not to blend the bands too much. Of course you´ll hear some riffs here and there that could´ve been used in Deride and vice versa. But the GRIMFIST sound is totally different, much more aggressive and brutal, with influences of early Heavy Metal . As for the groove part, I don´t know… It just turns out that way… The future for Deride right now is uncertain… We haven´t decided what to do yet. We did a gig here in Bergen a couple of days ago, at the „Hole In The Sky“-festival, which was awesome! …I don´t know… We´ll see. COULD YOU DESCRIBE HOW THE SONGWRITING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN YOU? ARE THE SONGS MORE IMPROVISED OR IS EVERYTHING PLANNED WITH DETAIL BEFORE YOU ENTER THE STUDIO? HORGH: It’s Ole and me that take care of the instrumental part of the music, and Frediablo writes the lyrics and does all the vocals/melodies. We were very well prepared and all songs was completed on demo before we entered the studio AND TALKING OF THE STUDIO: PETER TOOK CARE OF THE PRODUCTION. WAS IT ANY PROBLEM TO GET HIM AS PRODUCER? I THOUGHT HE WANTED TO CONCENTRATE ON HIS OWN MUSIC. HAD HE ANY INFLUENCE ON THE COMPOSITIONS? HORGH: I’ve known Peter for many years and I had Abyss studio in mind for Ghouls Of Grandeur a long time. When I told Peter about Grimfist, he wanted me to send him a demo and I did. He kicked on our music and gave us an offer we couldn’t resist. He did a great job helping us finding the sound we wanted and engineering the album, but he didn’t have any influence on our music. WHICH BANDS INFLUENCED YOU MOST? I THINK THERE ARE MANY 80IES CLASSICAL RIFFS ON YOUR RECORD BUT PLAYED WITH MODERN POWER. HOW WOULD YOU CALL YOUR STYLE YOURSELF? OLE: I´m not at all interested in styles and genres… We do what we wanna do you know… Yes, there´s some 80´s riffing in there, that´s for sure. But we like to blend different styles and elements, instead of staying true to one specific genre. The overall sound is extremely heavy ,aggressive, and intense… That´s what GRIMFIST is all about! FREDIABLO: I would have to say…. SCORPIONS !!!.. ha ha ha !! DO YOU GUYS LIKE HORROR MOVIES? THE TITLES OF THE TRACKS SEEM TO BE A LITTLE BIT IN THIS DIRECTION. AND IF YES: WHICH ONES DO YOU LIKE? FREDIABLO: I love horror movies!! I can’t get enough of them, and collect as much films as possible. What I do will always have an element of horror or movies in general involved. That is where my heart truly is, and if my passion for music were half as big as it is for film, I would probably have 20 bands or projects going on right now. Speaking of what particular movies I like, I would have to say old horror movies like Frankenstein, Dracula, Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the films of Lucio Fulci, The Exorcist… etc..old stuff. The new shit stinks !! But I also love movies like Indiana Jones, The Lord Of The Rings, Back To The Future and adventure films. I have films in my collection ranging from drama to extreme horror and porno, so one could say I just love movies in general. SPEAKING OF THE COVER: IT REMINDS ME OF GOLLUM/ LORD OF THE RINGS. JUST COINCIDENCE? FREDIABLO: Yes, it does look a little bit like him, but that was just a coincidence. The guy who created that picture, hadn’t even seen Lord Of The Rings at the time, so he couldn’t have been inspired by it. I think it’s a great looking piece of work, and it just looks sick and evil, and that goes hand in hand with Grimfist. No matter what you do today, it will always look or sound like something else to some people, but who gives a shit ?! WILL YOU BE ON TOUR FOR THE RECORD IN EUROPE THIS YEAR? FREDIABLO: Hopefully yes. We will tour like a motherfuck to promote this album, but it’s all about money and getting the right offer. We’ll see what happens, but each member is 100% dedicated to this band, and we will do whatever we can, within our respectful limits, to make this work and be long-lived. AND AT LAST: I`M JUST CURIOUS: HOW WAS THE SUMMER IN NORWAY? DID YOU ALSO HAVE TROPICAL TEMPERATURES? FREDIABLO: The summer was fan’fucking’tastic. Tropical temperatures, cold beers and Scorpions on the stereo.. ha ha ha !!! It was great. Summers in Norway are always very beautiful. With this nature it’s beautiful all fucking year long. Hail the fucking North !! THANX FOR THE ANSWERS AND GOOD LUCK WITH „GHOULS OF GRANDEUR“! OLE: Thanks!! GRIMFIST WILL DESTROY!! FREDIABLO: Cheers goddamnit!! Hail Klaus Meine!!