Let us pick up the thread where we left off last time, in 2021 when former album ‘North Star’ came out. Those were the times of the pandemic, but besides that, how do you look back at the last five, six years?
It have been some strange years really. We did conclude and finish the ‘North Star’ album during the pandemic years and we were also – at that time – a little bit uncertain if we were going through with it, because with the state the world was in at that time, it was like ‘okay there is absolutely no way of promoting this or anything’. One of the things that actually helped us getting through everything, was doing that album. Then at least we had something to do that kept us occupied and also we did some release shows, here in our home town Haugesund, which we did record and we made a live album out of that. So that also kind of occupied us a bit, because I did the mixing and everything of that stuff. Coming out of the pandemic was also a bit weird maybe, because suddenly it felt strange and new and free and everything, just to be able to travel again. We had never been a band that toured much, but we do some festivals every year and for us it felt really, really good to finally be able to get back out there and do our stuff. It was some really strange and really boring years. Hopefully we’ll never see that again.

When did you actually focus on the writing process of the new album ‘Lifeblood’?
Some ideas came immediately after the last one, but we do work absolutely best under pressure, so even though we had some ideas floating around, it was not until the end of last year that I just called Gerhard. After we signed with By Norse, we also gave them a date, which was a deadline for us to deliver the master and we knew this. We knew this for months and months, probably almost a year… but when you don’t feel that you have that deadline hanging over your head, you are kind of relaxed. I just realized, I think it was three or three and a half months or something, now we really, really need to do something. I have to work on it every day if we are supposed to get finished in time. So we just went into that bubble, so to speak, and we kind of lived this album for three and a half/four months. That’s when we finished everything. We wrote a lot of stuff from scratch, we wrote all the lyrics, everything, you know… during those months, even though we had of course lots of ideas and stuff laying around. Some of them really, really old. Gerhard found a song that was almost 25 years, the ballad, one of the singles, ‘Dei Så Ser’, that’s a really old one. Some of the stuff is brand new and some of the stuff is really old.

One of the things I admire in Einherjer is that you remain true Viking metal, no matter what trends are passing by…
We don’t really care that much about what is going on right now, what is popular and what is the trend these days. I think we have not really changed the formula since day 1 and I think it is just us growing up, maturing, getting older, maybe looking at the world from a different place, but the way we write music and what we want to achieve, the feeling and everything, that remains more or less the same. So it still sounds like us. If you are one of those bands that is following trends, if something is hot right now and you jump on that bandwagon, when your stuff is finally ready to be released, the trend might be over (chuckles). It is kind of pointless. We are just sticking into what we believe in and I don’t think we will ever change that formula.

Why the title ‘Lifeblood’ this time?
The heritage is also lifeblood. The title points to something greater than blood and a purely biological sense. It is just as much about what flows through the landscape, what floats through history, through memory, through the people that came before us. So it is about the forces that bound us together. Many of the songs are about the idea of ‘no one stands alone’. We are shaped by the place we are from and by those who came before us and by the experiences that are passed down through generations. I think the title reflects it all, like a bag for all the topics that we go through on the album. Also at the same time, the title has a more personal meaning. I mean, Gerhard and I started as teenagers really and now we are more than three decades later. The band still remains the centre part of our lives, so in many ways, ‘lifeblood’ also describes our relationship with the band and with each other, because Einherjer isn’t only what we do, it has been a lifelong driving force for us, a creative necessity or something. It is our lives more or less.

Don’t you regret it that people often do not see the value of legacy and culture these days, and the politics want it to be global, boring, everywhere-the-same experience with globalisation…
Yeah that is one thing and people have changed as well, you know. I mean, just look at the attention spam of everyone, especially the youth these days. It is nothing at all. They don’t even take the time to listen to a song, much less an album. Everything has changed. Maybe that is why it felt kind of good and natural for us this time, to dive into those topics. It is about belonging and instinct, heritage, roots… all that stuff, the basics.

The track ‘Bloodborn’ is the monumental opener and it has a striking catchiness…
Yes, I agree on that. Especially the chorus is catchy. The song itself is kind of up tempo, for us at least. When I wrote the riff, it was like ‘maybe it can get something, but it needs a hook, it needs some sort of catchiness and I think that vocal part, the chorus, kind of made that work. When we got that together, it just felt good. This was a keeper. I am really happy with that one.

The general impression is also that there are more moments and songs where you slacken down the pace a bit and it gets more reflective…
(chuckles) Maybe it is the age, I don’t know. But yeah, I think dynamics is very important and for us it has never been about speed. Normally we are based around mid tempo and sometimes we like to take the tempo down a little bit. An album needs dynamics.