We’re coming to the end of yet another eventful year for BLODARV, and once again, in what we hope will become a tradition, I will take a look back at the achievements, and, it has to be said, mishaps that we went through, and a look forward to the year to come.
January kicked off 2011 in what looked like a great way. YNLEBORGAZ was fit and at full power after an enforced rest following knee surgery and once again BLODARV was ready to hit the stage. Dedicated Booking had already booked us two shows, the first of which took place in Copenhagen at Beta and was a more than successful return to live performing for the band – (photo left by Ravna).
With our second show set to take place at PH-Cafeen in May, disaster unfortunately struck again, and the show had to be cancelled when my jaw, which was already recovering from earlier surgery, was badly broken following an accident. With some bone needing to be removed from my jaw, recovery from this was obviously not going to happen overnight. In fact, it took half a year, during which time not only was I unable to sing, but I was also not able to eat anything more exciting than soup.
The time was not entirely wasted however, and despite not being able to rehearse I was still able to start mixing the drum tracks for the next BLODARV full-length album. I had actually already composed most of the album back in 2010, and all the drums tracks had already been recorded by YNLEBORGAZ in December of that year when he visited my home and studio (HammerArt & Studio’s) on the island of Bornholm. A few months later we began recording the guitars, and the next step will be to record the bass, for which HUUL will come to the island over several weekends to lay down the bass lines. And then, of course, it will be time to do the vocals. All the lyrics have already been written, so an evil guess would be that the next full-length will probably be ready during the first half of 2012.
In between working on the new album, answering interviews, doing layouts for cover art, I was also working at getting my jaw healed again – rehearsing in small amounts alone in the studio, starting with one song in the first week, and gradually adding one extra song week by week, until I was once more fit to do a full live set-list without my jaw falling apart. The preparation paid off, and at the end of Sept 2011 I was ready to hit the stage again.
We have also, for the last 3 months, been rehearsing with a substitute drummer by the name of FJORGYNN, who will play live session drums for us on those occasions when BLODARV’s live schedule clashes with that of YNLEBORGAZ’s other band ANGANTYR. Fortunately for us FJORGYNN has turned out to be a superb live drummer for BLODARV, being able to sync with the band both in terms of his personality and his excellent drumming skills. He will make his first appearance with the band at the Rock in Copenhagen on the 26th November when BLODARV will support ENDSTILLE, which will also be my first time on stage since my injury.
The 16th of September this year saw the release of the split CD “Shadows Of Tragedy” on Self Mutilation Services. The Limited Edition CD (500 copies only) features
BLODARV, GRIMLAIR, NOCTURNAL DEPRESSION, BLACK HATE & ACEDI. The two tracks contributed by BLODARV are both previously unreleased songs written at the same time as the band’s “Civitas Diaboli” album, which was itself released on Self Mutilation Services in 2009. The first track, “Sharpstone Mountain”, is effectively a prelude to the tale recounted in the “Blood Red Rocks” track from “Civitas Diaboli”, whilst the second track, “I Hulernes Rige” is a melancholy acoustic song, which gives our female vocalist SATINAE MA a chance to take the lead on vocals.
As if enough hadn’t happened in September, including the offer to release a retrospective compilation, which I will come back to later, I also started to collaborate on the upcoming NÅE Project. This came about after years of sharing musical ideas and visions with ELENYX (COMBATH). Actually 
it’s turned into something of a Nordic alliance with Norway’s ELENYX, who founded NÅE, and myself being joined on the album by Sweden’s IT (ABRUPTUM, VONDUR, OPTHALAMIA). The album will be called “Heksevind” and ELENYX herself will work on composition, lyrics, and vocals and play various instruments on the album, whilst I will provide vocals and additional lyrics and IT will participate both musically and with written material. The exact details of the collaboration will be known as the work progresses. “Heksevind” will be recorded both at my own HammerArt and Studios on the Danish island of Bornholm and at ELENYX’s own recording facilities in Oslo.
Aside from the positive, we also had some negatives in 2011. One of them being the release of my side-project SANSÂGER, which should by now have been out as a 7” EP. As is often the case with these things, there have been some problems in 
communication between the band and the label, and right now we don’t know exactly when it will be released, but I somehow doubt that will happen this year at this late stage, so you will probably only see this appear in 2012. When it is eventually released, it will be limited to 300 copies, and come with a limited edition shirt and patch. The EP, to be titled “Laesaabobbainjnj”, explores the thousand year old culture of the Danish island of Bornholm which came to an end at the death of Earl Blod Egil, and was subsequently replaced by Christianity. Artwork for the release and the vocal recordings were done at HammerArt & Studios.
That about wraps it up for 2011, so what lies ahead for BLODARV in 2012 aside from getting the SANSÂGER 7” EP out?
Well, first of all there is the retrospective compilation CD I touched on earlier. Around September time, when everything seemed to be happening, I was contacted by a label who wanted to release a BLODARV compilation CD. I gathered one hours worth of the best tracks from a ten-year period and made a complete cover layout with a 12 page booklet full of photos, drawings, and lyrics. Unfortunately when it was all ready to be shipped for pressing the “label” admitted it was only interested in releasing it on CDr, and not as a pro CD, which of course was totally out of the question. We have, since then, spoken to some of the labels we already knew, and knew we could trust, and right now we are working on the last details with a label for this release, and if everything goes to plan the compilation CD, which will carry the title ” A Demon’s Diary” will be released in the first half of 2012
2012 will also mean a lot of hard work for all of us rehearsing the new tracks and making sure they are 110 percent tight and ready to be added to the live setlist. At the same time that “A Demon’s Diary” is released, we are planning a smaller tour in Denmark together with another band. It’s all in the planning stage right now so I can’t say too much about it, but if all goes well we will be visiting various venues in Denmark in the spring. We hope to get a lot of gigs now that we are finally fit enough to hit the road after all the shit both myself and YNLEBORGAZ had to go through after our operations. We have some new stage-effect machines, and have been working hard to produce a more intense show. Obviously we are all very eager to get out and reclaim the stages, but only the venues, the fans and the bookers have a say in this matter.
Most important of course for 2012 is the next BLODARV album which will actually will be the first full-length since “Soulcollector…The thousand Years Tale” LP released by Northern Silence back in 2004. Between then and now, we have only released the mini albums, “Linaria Amlech” and “Civitas Diaboli”, but now the time is right and we are ready for the next full-length, and I promise it will have been worth the wait! As I mentioned earlier, much of it is already finished, and the final touches will be made during 2012. When exactly it will be released is harder to say, but I think I should be way off target if it wasn’t released at the end of 2012 on Self Mutilation Services. During the first month of 2012 we will do the photo-shoots and I will work on the layout for the cover and all that kind of thing. There is always quite a process involved in making an album the way we do, not only because our members have to travel by ship to visit each other, but also due to the fact that we want to do everything ourselves – from recording each track, to mixing, to doing the artwork and the photo-sessions, absolutely everything – and as at least some of you know, such things take time, especially if you take pride in what you create.
Okay, I am sure there are things that I forgot to mention as it’s been a hectic year, but that pretty much sums it up I think, and I would just like to give the biggest of all hails to all our connections, friends, fans, and followers, or whatever it’s all called these days. We’ve got the best ones! \m/ -Hugin 24 October 2011
BLODARV ON THE NET
MySpace : http://www.myspace.com/blodarv
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/blodarvofficial
YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/huginofblodarv
Twitter : http://www.twitter.com/blodarv
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/blodarv
Reverbnation : http://www.reverbnation.com/blodarv
Web Shop: http://www.blodarvshop.bigcartel.com/
HammerArt Studios: http://www.myspace.com/hammerartstudios (see end of post for services offered)
ALL REQUESTS FOR BOOKINGS, INTERVIEWS, PROMOS ETC SHOULD BE SENT EITHER DIRECTLY TO THE BAND OR TO BLODARV’S MANAGEMENT
Management: Patricia Thomas Band Management https://patriciathomasmanagement.com/
Contact: patriciathomas@btinternet.com
Booking: stafahugin@hotmail.com (through the band) or patriciathomas@btinternet.com (through our manager)
Booking inside Denmark can also be done through Dedicated Booking. ria@dedicatedbooking.dk
PATRICIA THOMAS BAND MANAGEMENT 