Punks of the Empire interview
Punks of the Empire from Iceland is a band with many faces. Last year, they released their debut full-length album called Gehenna, which contains 9 songs, each of them in a different style.
For your information, I’m Hörður (Höddi). I will be answering your awesome questions. I am a co-founder and guitarist in Punks of the Empire
Alan – Hello islanders, what's new that you're doing?
Höddi - Hey! First of all. THANK YOU for giving us the time and kind words. We are currently finishing up writing an EP. We also wanted to give our closest fans in Iceland a treat, so we printed a very limited Vinyl version of Gehenna for a few selected stores in Iceland, and we just released it locally.
Alan – Could you introduce the band to us? Same line-up from the beginning?
Höddi - The band is at its core, Me and Magni. But we have always planned to be an actual performing band, not just a studio project. So when we finished Gehenna, we recruited the band.
I’m Höddi guitar player, Magni is the singer, our bass player is Stefán Gunnarson, Sveinn Ríkarður is my fellow axeman, and our drummer is Hinrik. We have all been in music all our lives, but in very different ways and very different musical styles.
Alan – Does anyone from the band play, or have they played in any other bands?
Höddi - Actually, all of us ;) I’ve been in Changer and Skurk for most of my career. Stefán is a very busy session bassist, Hinrik played drums for various projects and to name one Ask the Slave a few years back, and I dug him out from the family life and back into metal ;) Sveinn was active in the death metal scene here in the north Iceland, but hadn’t been playing live for a few years. Magni is a full-time musician playing in numerous projects. His main band is a popular rock band Á móti sól, and he has had a quite remarkable career. I’m very honored to have the chance to work with all of them.
Alan – You were formed in 2020, you're releasing a full-length album in 2024, and in between, you've released singles and EPs. Are all the singles and EPs included in Gehenna, or just some of them?
Höddi - None of them. It is a different kind of animal ;)
Alan – I have to admit that I didn't know you until now, until Carlo Muselli pointed you out to me.
Höddi - Understandable ;) We as musicians might have some reputation here in Iceland, and I think we’ve done pretty well here in Iceland in our main projects, but we have very limited international exposure. Before we joined Sliptrick Records, we bought our own pr package here and there, but we didn’t have any big goals on touring the world or making it big with Punks of the Empire, we just wanted to make music and share it, and it is very rewarding that our music is heard all over the world ;)
Alan – Are you playing concerts, or are you preparing for a concert? How is it playing in Iceland?
Höddi - We haven’t played yet. The band was originally a studio project, but we plan on playing some gigs soon. The Icelandic scene is pretty awesome, we have some local festivals here in Akureyri and also bigger festivals featuring bands such as Carcass, Vader, and our local big names, so we cannot complain.
Alan – As I wrote, I haven’t met you yet, so I don’t know. Another question – have you already reached outside Iceland? If so, where? And what did the listeners there say about your music?
Höddi - Our music is pretty accessible via streaming platforms, and we have a PR agent via Sliptrick Records. We’ve made some videos and had some international representation, but never played or traveled as a band internationally. We had a pretty fun reaction from critics, either they cannot stand the mixed genre style, or they love it. But overall, if we are not being slaughtered for not sticking to one blastbeat tempo, we are receiving a handsome 8/10 in reviews, with very positive remarks from the reviewers.
Alan – As I said at the beginning, you are a metal band that has a slightly (much) different genre approach to each song. Can you break it down for us? Describe each song both musically and lyrically.
Höddi - Wow that is a tall order. The album Gehenna is a concept album where lyrics and music go together. The feeling of loneliness and sorrow turned into anger and hate. We start the story on a tragedy and loss.
Drowned - Is some kind of a farewell poem, and the realization that in the end, you walk alone, but with haunting memories. It was written as an intro, but turned out to be a whole song. Not a metal song, but heavy tone and dark lyrics.
Beneath the Scarlet Sky - That song was written with HM2 all to 10, and the first demos were pretty aggressive. A classic swede metal riff. If there is a main guitar riff influence on this album, I’d say it was Bloodbath, In Flames, and At the Gates, even though it is hard to hear. But of course, there are so many others that have influenced me.
The lyrics are about deception and lies, romance and betrayal. Our main character is reliving his relationships, and we can say that his idea of love is pretty sad.
Rage - The song was set up as a typical circle pit riff with a sing-along chorus. We did a video for that song, and it turned out pretty sick. The theme of the album can easily reflect the current state of affairs in the world.
There May Be Dragons - We start marching toward the genocide, we ignore the past, and turn a blind eye to warning signs. The dramatic storyline is repeated in the lead, and the choir sings to us a warning we choose to ignore. History reminds us that nations do not hesitate to use means of mass destruction to achieve their goals.
The Path - For our hero, there is a path back to peace, to serenity, but the anger burns him. He is constantly humming and singing that song… The song that united him with love. The first demo of that song was meant as a joke. I was making fun of the guitar ballads back when everybody saw gold in cheap acoustic guitar songs with ridiculous lyrics and 3 chords. The idea was to have it as a background song somewhere in between, but when I started humming the chorus with those lines, “don’t come running to me, with your anger burning your heart” I knew this needed to become something more. So I started producing it with my friend Hörður Bragason. He is an organist in the band Apparat Organ Quartet ( https://www.facebook.com/ApparatOrganQuartet ), and we had this idea of using an old, broken organ for the song. The organ was pretty banged up, and we had to pull a few tricks from our sleeve in keeping it operational during the recording process, but in the end, we had this awesome organic sound. Then Audrey Freyja Clarke came into the studio and sang those beautiful lines, and with Magni, they made this song into one of my favorites on the album. This is the opening song on our newly released Vinyl. I’d say this is the song I reached as far away from metal as influence, both writing and mixing.
In the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom - After the soft Vinyl B side start…. we have to remind everyone this is, in the end, a metal album. The original influence for this song was the Bloodbath set at Wacken 2005. That set is so powerful. The lyric is the most brutal one about infant sacrifice and a bloodthirsty god called Moloch. But then we had this idea of mixing thrash/death metal with grungy vocals. It came out pretty cool. To add to the contrast, my fellow bandmate and singer in Changer, Hlynur, screamed a few verses and released all the hounds from hell.
The March of the Tyrants - This is probably the oddest song in the mix. A march to the end, no survivors and no prisoners.
Reckoning - In our hour of execution, we face our decisions and our emotions, a calm descent to death and liberation from life. I can sometimes relate to the idea of being freed from myself in the end. The lyric is about trust and acceptance.
Chorus - In the end, we start over at the very beginning. And this little tune is the first demo I did for the record for the first song, Drowned. I recorded it on my phone and this is the unrehearsed flow from my head into my fingers onto the guitar string. The ambient noise is from our TV, my daughter was watching Donna the Explorer ;)
Each song followed the emotion in the storyline, and my emotions while writing each song. I wrote this album from my heart, and my soul has many corners to look into.
Alan – How does the metal community accept/receive your diversity? I think it is good, because every song is different. So a very diverse album.
Höddi - Like I said before, almost all good some have issues with our diversity but most of them can see the bigger picture. Of course, we all have different tastes in music. Music is music, and my approach isn’t based on their taste. My quick search on streaming service is mainly Deathmetal but our roots are in the diversity from Duran Duran to Cryptopsy, so I’m just letting it all flow. For Magni, it is very similar, but he is not listening to death metal, as far as I know. We don’t have to make music for no one but ourselves, and this is the music we want to make. We are just very happy that we have fans who share our passion.
Alan – Where has your work been? Iceland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and where else?
Höddi — We just released a limited 200-piece Vinyl of Gehenna and are planning on selling it to anyone who wants to buy it. However, our releases have been on streaming services. The listeners come from all over the world. Sliptrick Records released our CD last year, and you can buy it from their sale store.
Alan – What kind of feedback do you have from abroad?
Höddi - Overall awesome and positive. Soon after release, we got very positive feedback on the streaming service, also very positive reviews started coming in from various online and physical releases. Then Carlo contacted us, and we signed a contract with Sliptrick Record.
Alan – Who inspired your work? I can also hear historical music from ancient times here.
Höddi - Gehenna is inspired by human conflict and wars. The current state of the world is very sad. The fascist rise, wars all over the world. Stupidity and totalitarianism.
Alan – What interesting band have you heard recently? Both from the world and from Iceland?
Höddi - Here in Akureyri we have a massive underground scene. They are very active in playing in every corner they can find. I recommend checking out Sót and Miomantis from Akureyri. I have also been working with an artist Biggi Maus, who is a pretty cool guy. We also have the oldest bands still playing from Akureyri Helgi og Hljóðfæraleikararnir and Lost. Check them out, those bands started when I was a kid. The reykjavík scene is pretty sweet, and the black metal and metal scene there is huge. Sólstafir, Múr and Misþyrming to name few. Iceland's contribution to Wackem Metal battle this year is Gaddavír, hardcore at its finest ;)
I haven’t been digging especially into the world's scene for new bands, but I’m liking the new stuff from the established bands. But I keep my eye and ears on the top lists for 2025. Harakiri for the Sky - Scorched Earth sounds awesome, diverse, and epic.
Alan – Will you sign another contract with Sliptrick? For the next album? What is your relationship?
Höddi - Well, we have reached the halfway point on our two-year contract with Sliptrick. The contract is basically international release and PR on our LP Gehenna, so we will have to see after 2025 if we are going to take it to the next level. If we are going to make another album, of course, we will look to our closest for collaboration. Our relationship is very cooperative, we pick each other's brains for ideas and ways to move forward.
Alan – What would you like to achieve as Punks of the Empire?
Höddi - More music, more fun! Gigs, of course.
Alan – Rage, you guys. A well-made clip + elements of thrash metal, I think it is absolutely great.
Höddi - Thank you very, very much!! This was the first fully recorded song we did. I remember sending it to Magni, and he called me back and had the very same feeling. The song is about all the violence going through your mind, but you don’t act on it. Daydreaming about the argument you had two weeks ago.
Alan – What are you preparing by the end of 2025? Another clip? More singles?
Höddi - Hopefully, we can release some new music. We have something brewing in the pots ;)
Alan – Thanks for the interview, good luck. I look forward to your new work.
Höddi - Thank you, this was awesome.
