The New Year is upon us and daily life is slowly creeping back into our tired, beaten bodies that have now rested a bit since the exceptional Pagan Rebellion Tour with Arkona and Metsatöll in November and December. So it’s time to look back on last year’s activities and to say thanks to all of you who made it the excellent year that it was!
After a show or two in Denmark, the launch of our new company (Of Wood And Iron Productions) and Svartsot reaching the ten-year mark, the year started properly with the release of our long awaited and somewhat delayed 4th album, Vældet, in late February, through Of Wood And Iron Productions and our close allies from the Hungarian label, Nail Records. The release weekend saw us playing an absolutely packed venue at Gimle in Roskilde before we hit Paris with our first ever French show at the equally packed Cernunnos Pagan Festival. A handful of Danish shows followed in the months after and Svartsot also appeared at Leipzig’s Wave Gotik Treffen (with help on bass from Bjarne Kristiansen from fellow Danish folk metallers, Huldre), Hörnerfest in North Germany and our first ever (but hopefully not last) visit to Estonia for the Viru Folk Festival.
During this period we also managed to shoot and release our first ever music video, for the track Midsommer from Vældet. The shoot took place at Jels Vikingeby in Southern Jutland in the weekend just after the actual Midsummer Eve and features family, friends and (not least) our original whistler, Stewart Lewis. A huge thanks goes out to Janus Lynggaard and all of the crew at Jels Vikingeby and Jels Vikingespil for your patience and help. And of course also to Christian Søes for shooting the video and preparing it for release before his holiday! The video, which has been very well received by our fans, can be seen on YouTube or Vimeo.
The autumn saw the start of exciting collaborations with Fusion Bags and Hapas Guitars, as well as more Danish shows, including the first ever gathering of all five Danish folk metal bands (or previously folk metal bands) at Gimle in Roskilde and the world famous Aalborg Metal Festival. And to finish the year, we hit the European roads once again for our first European tour in far too long, alongside Arkona from Russia and Metsatöll from Estonia, visiting France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands and meeting many new and old friends along the way. This must have been the best way end to a perfect year that has seen us cover more than 21 000 km on the roads and in the air, as well as reaching new goals and landmarks along the way.
We’re quite confident in saying, that 2015 has been the best year so far in Svartsot’s ten year history. But we couldn’t have done it without some help, and therefore we’d like to put a shout out to the following people: our wives, children, girlfriends and families (for putting up with us), Kristof Hartmann (Nail Records/Hammer Booking – for making this still possible for us), Henning Nymand, Steffan Kristensen (the hardest-working guy we know!), Jøl, Lasse Lammert, Bjarne Kristiansen and Huldre, Arkona and Metsatöll (for being great touring partners), Keijo, Janno, Ringo, Anton Dobrovolsky, Ádám Devecz and all at HammerWorld, Gyula Havancsák, Mark Ytzen, Harry, Patrick from Disintergrated, Wendy Caldwell at Fusion Bags, Robert Sola and Andreas Höfler from Hapas Guitars, Christian Søes, Janus and Jels Vikingeby, all of the bands we have had the chance to share the stage with and the venues and staff in 2015 and, of course, you, the fans!
So what’s next? The online store was shut whilst we were on tour and during the holidays. This will be reopened soon; and with a couple of new items. Material for the next album is in the process of being written. And we should hopefully have some shows ready to be announced before too long. A quiet start to the year, but we’re sure it’s going to be a killer year anyway!
