Hjelvik: Welcome To Hel
Imagine spending over a decade of your life on this planet pursuing the perils and traversing the trials and tribulations of being the frontman of one of your countries biggest exports in years, only to hang up your boots and disappear off the face of the earth for two years without a trace, leaving behind nothing but a letter to the fans. It sounds like something a screenwriter would dream up for an original movie, right? For Erlend Hjelvik, it’s far more reality than fiction as he hung up his mic for the final time with Norwegian black ‘n’ rollers KVELERTAK, citing a series of personal and professional differences and retreating back into a cave of concealment.
Whilst his former colleagues concocted a career-defining comeback with a new vocalist, Erlend found himself foraging away at home separating fact from fiction in his real life and rediscovering his roots. After two years tucked away in the Norwegian countryside, he’s revealed his return to music via way of HJELVIK, melding the exuberant spirit of old-school black metal with the thematic trappings of Norse mythology and Norwegian history – think MERCYFUL FATE and AMON AMARTH forming a supergroup and you’re somewhere along the lines of HJELVIK.
However, it wasn’t all set in stone and it wasn’t all set to see the light of day. Before HJELVIK was even a lightbulb lighting up in his mind, Erlend had to rediscover his roots and reflect on the past twelve years of his life, which had left him at a loss for words with his relationship with music, having lost the faith in his forte as he explains. “I was pretty tired of touring – I’d been doing it for twelve years and it really wasn’t the best situation, especially towards the end, and I was just really relieved to leave KVELERTAK.”
As human as all of us, Erlend took time off to recharge his batteries and reconfigure his wiring for what he wanted to achieve on this mortal coil – mostly, he channelled his relief into rediscovering what really mattered to him the most: music. “I just had a couple months off to decompress, and not do much of anything, which was a nice change for me. I just did normal house things like painting the house and those sort of things that need to be done, and I was just listening to music whilst doing this and started to get really inspired again” he reveals, continuing “I think the time off was necessary to kind of get my legs back on the ground, so to speak, to really enjoy music again, especially metal, as a fan. I listened to a lot of BATHORY, especially the Viking-era records; and lots of records that I enjoyed when I was in my early twenties and super into black metal, I’ve been revisiting a lot of classics like old DARKTHRONE records, MAYHEM, GORGOROTH, DISSECTION, NEPHILIHM, and even older bands like VENOM and MERCYFUL FATE.”
It’s in these bands, each as iconic and as influential as the last, that you’ll find the touchpoints for the blueprint of HJELVIK’s debut mission statement, Welcome To Hel. Opener Father War fires straight out of the gate, as if AMON AMARTH and DISSECTION are on acid, whilst The Power Ballad of Freyr channels the blackened riff-n-roll of Erlend’s time in KVELERTAK through the medium of old-school VENOM and MERCYFUL FATE. Whatever you’re hearing in your eardrums, it wasn’t the intention of Erlend whatsoever he claims. “I wasn’t trying to sound like this band, or that band, it’s kind of like the old saying ‘you are what you eat,’ it’s just a result of all the music I enjoy, and listen to, and find myself inspired by on both a conscious and subconscious level which just seeps into what I’m writing.”
Like with great power comes great responsibility, with heavier riffs comes heavier lyrics. Operating outside of the boundaries of being a branch of a band, Erlend was able to dive deeper into the details that delighted him, indulging in the nuances of Norse Mythology and Norwegian history he hadn’t had the chance to fully comprehend since his younger years.
“I’ve been reading a lot more books the last few years, opposed to when I was touring all the time because I could never really feel calm enough to read books when I was out on tour, but I think the interest developed with getting into metal music, as I didn’t really learn about it in school as a kid, we mostly focused on Christianity when I was a kid in Norwegian schools, so for me it came from getting into black metal,” he explains. “I wrote about Norse mythology on the first KVELERTAK record, but that was in a more superficial way, so it’s been cool to really dive into the books and do it in a more factual and better researched way, so it feels more authentic this time around.”
For Erlend, authenticity is a key component to the concoction he’s created as HJELVIK, as it’s a trait that’s been burned into him throughout his life. Authenticity, it seems, is pivotal in the pioneering sounds of the music that inspires him, and is ever present here. “The more authentic it is the better. I like it when bands know what they’re talking about, and you know you can actually learn something from reading the lyrics. That’s probably what appeals to me about writing about Norse mythology and history in the first place is that it’s something that’s real and not something I just pull out of my ass. I think it’s a lot cooler when it has a base in reality, and I think it’s a cool history, there’s so much inspiration there for me for metal lyrics, it means a lot to honour it.”
It’s that concept, that idea of everything coming to the fore in a dream, that is as applicable to Petagno’s artwork as it is to HJELVIK’s debut. It is an album built on the bounty of dreams, of the ability to operate outside of the lines of what’s come before and bring about something that not only pays homage to the past but adds to the purveyance of the scene. When an album like Welcome To Hel sounds as sublime as it does, and HJELVIK is as complete a project as it is, it’s somewhat surprising to think that Erlend’s even had any time off, let alone two years in the twilight zone.
Welcome to Hel is out now via Nuclear Blast.
For more information on HJELVIK like their official page on Facebook.