Hi Pete, please introduce the band and their members to our readers.
Pete: Hi there, We're Blood Tsunami from Oslo, Norway! And we are… Well, there's me, Pete on lead vocals and lead guitar, Dor on lead guitar, Bosse on bass and backing growls and of course Faust on drums.
In which bands did the members play before you formed Blood Tsunami?
Pete: As everybody knows, Faust used to play drums with Emperor back in the early nineties, but today he is also a member of Aborym, Scum and Dieselbeast beside Blood Tsunami. I used to play guitar and sing in a band called Hellride, among a bunch of other projects, like Bomberos, Datsun and The Abusers. Bosse also was a member of Hellride for a few years and tody he is also playing bass in a band called Brut Boogaloo. Dor has been in bands like Suffering Seas, The Conjacks and he has his own little twisted project going on now that he has decided to call The Ass!
Why do you call yourself Blood Tsunami? Most people connect the death of many thousand people with "Tsunami"?
Pete: I came up with name before the disaster struck down in south east Asia! When we started calling ourselves Blood Tsunami the word "tsunami" wasn't well known at all... At least here in Norway many people didn’t know what it meant… Ha, ha… People went like: ”What did you say? Blood Salami?” ha, ha. Our bandname is brutal and massive and fits our music perfectly. It's an unusual name, but I really like it.
What can you tell us about earlier releases from Blood Tsunami?
Pete: The "Thrash Metal" album is our debut album, but we released two demos before we got here. The first demo was released back in 2004 just a few months after I formed the band. Back then there was a different drummer and a different guy on bass. The first demo isn't any good... the drums are awful and my voice isn't any good either. When Faust and Bosse joined the band we recorded a much better demo. That was in 2005. Most of the songs from that demo were re-recorded for the Thrash Metal album...
You seem to be dedicated fans of the classic thrash metal. What are your favourite bands from this time in the 80's until today?
Pete: Oh, my absolute favorites are Slayer, Kreator, Destrcution, Metallica (The Cliff Burton Years), Sodom, Testament, Exodus, Dark Angel and early Anthrax… Of newer bands I really like Municipal Waste, Rammer and 3 Inches Of Blood. Dan Lilker’s new band Crucifist is also really bad ass!
What can you tell us about the feedback you get from the fans and the press concerning your new album?
Pete: The feedback has been very good. Magazines like Metal Hammer, Kerrang and Terrorizer has given us very good reviews and that is of course very flattering. But what really matters is what the general metalheads out there think about it... Some people has questioned if we really play thrash metal or not, and to them I must say… If it isn’t thrash, well what the hell is it then? I agree that the title of our album is very bold and arrogant… But we have never said that we are the kings of thrash metal or anything. The album is more or less our tribute to the genre and the 80’s thrash metal movement… But we are not trying to copy or sound like any of those classic bands. We play it our own way… We play thrash metal, norwegian thrash metal, …not german or american, but we are of course inspired by those scenes among several other bands and generes. I think we have our own touch to it…
Which one of you is responsible for the songwriting?
Pete: I am… I wrote everything for this album, but I’m pretty sure that the other guys will contribute more in the future.
Are there some outstanding lyrics you want to comment exclusively?
Pete: Ha, ha… No, not really. The lyrics are just a tool I use to add aggression and fury to the music. My voice is just an instrument. The lyrics deal just with death, hell, pain and mayhem…. It’s just a bloody mess.
How is the situation for thrash metal or any other extreme metal bands in Norway? Are there enough clubs to play and what about the scene in general?
Pete: The scene is very good…It is small, but good. In Oslo there are planty of places to play and a bunch of great metal bands… Like Whip, Necromatheon, Vesen, Nocturnal Breed, Audiopain, Forgery, Obliteration, She Said Destroy, Red Harvest, Lobotomized, Unspoken, Aura Noir and a bunch of others.
Are there some plans to go on tour in germany?
Pete: Yup, of course. We gotta play there. The plan is to go down to Germany during the fall this year. We are working on it… Let’s see what happens.
What are your favourite albums at the moment?
Pete: At the moment? Well,the albums I have been listening most to recently is ”Horrorhammer” by Abcess, ”Killing Peace” by Onslaught and ”A Greater Darkness” by Red Harvest. Great stuff! But my all time favourite albums are the classics from the 80’s like ”Reign In Blood” ”Master Of Puppets”, ”Extreme Aggression”, ”Pleasure To Kill”, ”Bonded By Blood”, ”The Ultra Violence”, ”Darkness Descends”, ”The Legacy”, ”Persecution Mania”, ”Among The Living”, ”Handle With Care” and ”Eternal Devastation”… Just to name a few.
Any last words....
Pete: Cheers! Thrash on!
Greetings to:
Jan (Sure Shot Worx)
|