Interview With Third Storm
By John Paul Romero
Far from the stronghold of metal, Sweden, hails extreme metallers THIRD STORM. On the ninth of November this year, they released their debut full-length offering “The Grand Manifestation” which caught audience and press attention by creating a sound that combines the elements of thrash, black, death and doom metal. In this interview, we talked to their front man Heval Bozarslan about their early career, a bit of their history, and of course, their album “The Grand Manifestation”.
MHF: First and foremost, who are THIRD STORM? How were you formed as a band?
Heval: THIRD STORM was formed in 1986 in Uppsala, Sweden, the band split up in 1988 and reactivated again in 2014 by two original members, me (Heval) and Jimmy. Jimmy’s son David joined as the second guitarist and Daniel Ekeroth joined as our bassist. Johan Ericson who also recorded our EP, helped us out with the drums, he was like a session member you could say, and after some search for a suitable drummer we found Alvaro Svanerö who is playing on the album. Jimmy left in 2016 and I asked Hasse Hansson to join quickly after, I knew he would be perfect for the band, and the album proves that he is.
MHF: What is the story behind your name?
Heval: The story behind the name is the world war three which will be explained in details on the last album of the trilogy, and yeah we took the name from that Hellhammer song “The Third Of The Storms”. We thought it sounded really cool when we were kids (and still do)
MHF: How is it being a death metal band in Sweden? I mean there are a very huge amount of metal bands in Sweden, and many of which are globally recognized. How do you think this affects the other bands, especially the ones who are just starting just like you? Does it toughen the competition or does it open more opportunities?
Heval: There are huge amounts of bands everywhere in this world, and that depends on what the intentions of bands are, if their goals are to become rockstars and compete with others, then yeah, it’s tough of course, Maybe it is an advantage if you are from Sweden, I don’t know. I’d like to think people check us because we have something interesting to offer and not because we are from Sweden. We don’t think in terms of “competition”, that is childish and stupid. We do this for ourselves and not to please others or compete or whatever, we mind our own business, and if people like us then great, that means they have the same underground mentality as us. The rest can tune in to some radio station and listen to Sabaton or something “globally recognized” like that.
MHF: What were your usual activities when you were starting out?
Heval: We all have our other bands, I’m also the singer of Sarcasm and I have a new project called Deathswarm (watch out for the debut album in February), Alvaro is also the drummer of Sarcasm and Deathswarm and has his other band Imperial Domain, he’s very busy that guy, David is also guitarist and songwriter in Anguish, Daniel plays bass in Iron Lamb and Hasse has a crust punk project I think. So we have plenty of activities as you can see.
MHF: What were your goals coming in?
Heval: If you mean what our goals are, then it’s to release some albums and do some gigs and drink some cheap beer.
MHF: Which specific bands inspired you to do this kind of music? And which bands have direct influences to your sound
Heval: I guess our inspiration is extreme metal in general. We try not to limit ourselves, as long as it’s good music and you can tell when hearing the album. I guess it has that 80s feel to it but without sounding retro or anything. Back in the day when we were 14-15 we we only wanted to sound like Bathory and Sodom and stuff like that, that era is still a big influence but it’s much more today, it’s multi-metal-dimensional but still extreme all the way.
MHF: Can you tell us a little bit about your career before your debut full-length album “The Grand Manifestation”?
Heval: Well, Third Storm didn’t have much of a career before, we did the EP in 2015 and that’s it. And of course those couple of chaotic years in the 80’s.
MHF: Now talking about the debut album, “The Grand Manifestation” – would you tell us everything we need to know about this album?
Heval: We recorded it at HSH Studios in Uppsala and it was mixed by Johan Ericson who also did our EP three years ago. Well, it has 8 songs and is a concept album and part one of trilogy. It’s less doom than the EP which we experimented a lot on, we were fed up with all those bands who did nothing exciting to the genre, we ended up with two 13 mins songs with lots of crazy things going on in them. Some people really liked it and some didn’t get it, they wanted something “safe”, and we said fuck off, go listen to Dark Funeral or something! We couldn’t experiment that amount on this new album because of its concept, but still, the variety is there to make the album more dynamic and interesting also for the story. It’s a great record so go buy it!
MHF: Can you share us the songwriting routine that you had? Because I have read some reviews of your album, and if I understand correctly, it features a combination of black metal, doom metal, thrash metal and death metal – which interests me the most, because those genres are some of the fastest, most brutal and evil genres.
Heval: David and Hasse composed almost all the songs, Jimmy (our former guitarist) wrote some stuff also. They all have their own style I guess and that’s a good thing, the songs have their own identity and become memorable that way. There’s plenty of variety to keep people’s attention. But it’s not that we lose our ground or anything. You can still hear it’s the same band, most of the albums back in the great days of the 80s were like that – they had variety and bands evolved, unlike most of the extreme metal bands of today.
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MHF: How would you consider the feedbacks of the fans and of the press by far?
Heval: The feedback has been great! Lots of reviews and they’re all good so far, we’re very happy about that, that means there’s still hope for mankind and that people still have good taste. But more people abroad are into this music than in Sweden, we’ve noticed. Too much commercial bullshit going on here sadly.
MHF: Do you have any future shows lined up that you want to share?
Heval: Nothing planned at the moment, we’ll just have to wait and see.
MHF: Time for promotion! Where can we order and/or stream “The Grand Manifestation”?
Heval: The album is available everywhere, you can stream it on Spotify, Bandcamp, Youtube and whatnot, and you can order the LP/CD from Dark Descent’s (our label) webstore or some webstore near you, you can also order it directly from us. So hurry up and get your copy, it’s a nice package with lots to read and listen to.
MHF: If you want to say some more messages, this is the time.
Heval: Hope you guys like the album, we’re writing some new material for the next album at the moment. We have no idea when we’ll have it ready but within the coming future for sure. Cheers!
THIRD STORM are:
Heval Bozarslan – Vocals
David Eriksson – Guitars
Hasse Hansson – Guitars
Daniel Ekeroth – Bass
Alvaro Svanerö – Drums
THIRD STORM website:
Dark Descent Records:
http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/
MHF Magazine/John Paul Romero
