Blood & Iron imponerte meg med sin oldschool metal for en tid tilbake, og nysgjerrig som jeg er ble det naturligvis til at jeg fyrte av noen spørsmål, denne gangen ganske langt av sted altså. I min anmeldelse skrev jeg blant annet at dette «…faktisk låter det litt som noen av de klassiske banda leverte på slutten av 80-tallet, eller slik det ofte er med band som starter opp, denne gnisten mange har i oppstartsfasen.»

Les hele anmeldelsen HER

Jeg tror det er gitarist Ashish som sitter på den andre siden av det virtuelle bordet.

Blood & Iron, welcome to Norway! Life’s good?

«Thank you Yngve! Life is good. Thank you for having us on!»

One of the reasons I picked your band for an interview, I admit was based on your location. Is it awkward to be seen as a curiosity?  But at the same time; the album rocked! It was strong and contained som ass kicking Us-Metal. A rather strange choice for an Indian band, ain’t it? How come you chose to play this style of metal?

«Well, I do believe that, with the kind of talent thats there, India is under-represented on the global metal scene. I also think people are curious to hear what kind of music Indian bands have to offer – so yeah, as long as it helps get the music and message out there – it’s all good.
As for the style of metal… I liked a lot of NWOBHM bands as well as American acts like Queensryche and Savatage, the others guys in the band like everything from Megadeth to Opeth to Dark Age. The synthesis turned out to be our current style. This is the style we all love – and I think it appeals to metal fans across the board.»

Blood @Iron@Facebook

And in your local scene, or in the Indian scene in general, what bands/what styles are popular? Are you guys trendy when sporting the Us-Metal, or is the band considered to be a strange fruit?

«The traditional heavy metal style we have going is exceedingly rare in the Indian Metal scene – there are only a handful of bands which play this sort of music. Most bands are into more extreme subgenres and you have a few prog bands around.»

How did you come in contact with Pure Steel? Was it the label making an approach towards the band?

«Giles Lavery (our vocalist) has been helping us spread our music. He approached several labels, and we shipped it out to quite a few others. Pure Steel Records responded – and I think its a great fit. Their portfolio is great.. a lot of great heavy metal bands are signed up with them.»

I know, the state of the metal scene is rather rough these days, lots of bands have to pay for everything towards a master disc, then a label release it without any large expences due to digital promoting. Pure Steel do in fact release physical promos, so far. How did you solve this process? Do you have strong funding? Your own recordinge quipment?

«We haven’t solved that problem lol :-). No, we fund everything ourselves. It’s impossible to make a living playing this kind of music here – so its our day job paycheques that do the funding. The recording equipment we own is functional and serves to lay down song ideas and demos, but we hit the studio for albums.»

And sometimes bands with this kind of releases, being launched in a foreign market, already has the album out in the local scene. Is this the case for you guys?

«We did a limited demo release prior to the album being launched, but that was it. Response to that was very good.»

And this is your third release, and the first outside India?

«Yes. Voices of Eternity is our first album to get launched outside India. And the two albums we released prior to that were Blood & Iron and Dynamite World.»

Are you superstars at home? Or an underground act?

«We’re so underground that the Ambient jazz-death metal bands feel bad for us. No, I kid – we had a pretty strong following in Chennai, India. Each city has its own unique identity as far as metal bands are concerned, and I think we were pretty impressionable for ours.»

What is the biggest event you have done? The one thing you’re most proud of, the one event you will remember when you’re old, telling your grand children about your band? 🙂

«We’ve played some amazing shows over the years… The Kingfisher Rocks and the June Rock Out concerts were exceptional. Very large crowds and everything clicked! Opening for Hammerfall was quite a treat as well. There really are too many to count (and quite a few I wouldn’t tell my grandkids 😉 ).»

I mean, India with all the people, its insane we don’t get more news and inputs from the metal scene. What are the reasons do you think? Is it a closed market? Hard to get out? To get reckognized?

«Yeah. Its got immense potential and there already are a lot of great bands active in India. I believe it’s just a matter of time – there will be an onslaught of high quality metal from India, if the conditions are right.

It is very difficult to achieve any sort of breakthrough success because commercial music is completely dominated by bollywood and film music for the most part. Record labels don’t really sign up Indian metal bands either. But the thing is – there is demand and it’s only going to get bigger. Much bigger.»

What bands are the inspiration for making music?

«It’s a very big list. Iron Maiden, Savatage, Megadeth, Dokken, Dio, Queensryche, Stratovarius, Saxon, Metallica (pre-92), Dark Age, Opeth, Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Pink Floyd and of course, Manowar.»

Yeah, of course! 😉 Old Manowar is AWESOME!

What did you grew up with? What kind of muscial upbringing did you have? How old are you?

«I picked up the guitar after watching Iron Maiden’s Rock In Rio DVD. Thought my self to play the guitar on a steady diet of pure heavy metal, some of the musicians I’ve played with as part of Blood & Iron, I would now count as some of the finest musicians in India.»

I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions, thanks a lot! Any final words? Anything to share with the Norwegian readers?

«Thank you again for having us on.  Be sure to check out our music! Heavy metal is the truth! m/.»