WODENSTHRONE DEFEND THE CULTURAL CONTRADICTIONS OF ENGLISH FOLK METAL

With their eagerly awaited debut album 'LOSS', a soaring blast of blackened folk metal, having just entered the world, Northern England's WODENSTHRONE are the Anglicised answer to the likes of Drudkh, Negura Bunget and Moonsorrow, proudly combining national myth with extreme metal. However, in a nation as proudly mongrel as the United Kingdom, how can one way of life be plucked out as any more worthy or true than any other? Drummer HRÉOWSIAN answered a set of questions that he was well within his rights to delete.

Talk me through the theme/imagery of Wodensthrone: obviously Sunderland was a major area of Viking settlement but isn't there an element of cherry picking when it comes to choosing elements of history to associate with? Why not Ancient Britons, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Normans or Jamaicans?

“Firstly I would like to make it clear that Wodensthrone are not a history lesson. We do not simply revisit the past, but instead try to interpret the world around us through the eyes of a 'pagan'. We try and view the world through the eyes of our ancestors. Obviously, just as with journalism, there is no true objectivity as we cannot hope to record everything, and so our choices impart a certain viewpoint upon the subject matter simply by method of their inclusion. This is why we try and concern ourselves with true spirituality and the nature of the human condition rather than simply rehashing the past.”

In the lyrics there's a lot of talk of an 'alien faith' subverting the traditions of the land, assuming the land is England and the faith is Christianity (the old punching bag of black metal!), didn't the introduction of Christianity to England predate the Norse invasion?

“That's quite a lot of assumption. Granted the 'alien faith' is a reference to the Abrahamic religions (including Christianity) and the land in question is England, although it has gone by many names in the past. However, the particular elements of ancient belief that we identify with have more in common with the Angles, Saxons and Jutes than with the later Norse settlers. Woden, for example, was a member of the Anglo-saxon pantheon prior to their conversion to Christianity. In particular, the aspects we identify most readily with are the sense of self discovery and the strength of personality and will that these beliefs cultivated. Unlike the Abrahamic faiths, and other similar 'white-light' religions, the 'pagan' gods did not demand your surrender, but your respect.”

Following on from that, how do you respond to the idea that Wodensthrone using an 'alien ideology' to oppose another 'alien ideology' is absurd?

“That depends on how you define an 'Alien ideology'. Man creates his own gods which, in turn, act as a reflection of the people who created them. In this way the nature of a people's gods can tell us a lot about them. Regardless of the particular pantheon, many of the Indo-European 'pagan' faiths reflected the same intrinsic principles; strength of the individual, responsibility for one's actions and a personal sense of morality. There is no 'good' or 'evil' to which you can delegate responsibility or blame, so a man is held accountable for his own actions. By this logic, the 'pagan' faiths which we identify with are far more indigenous to the people of this land than any Eastern or Abrahamic faith which demands their unconditional surrender of both their natural self-belief and their individual sense of morality to a supposed 'higher power'. Regardless of what name we choose to give them, our gods live within us; the culmination of centuries of human spirituality and self-discovery.”

Expand on the lyric “Children of the crescent moon, your desert god is silent here/His poisoned thoughts the teeth of Skoll that would extinguish the light of Sigel” please.

“This is a reference to the increasing spread of the Abrahamic faiths in the modern world. As we have discussed, a people's ties with their land extend far deeper than mere geographical or political boundaries as the nature of their spirituality is a reflection of their history, even down to a Darwinian sense. If we accept that a people's gods are a reflection of themselves, and that the relationship between the people and the land which they inhabit goes some way to shaping their character, it follows that a people's sense of spirituality will be inseperably tied to their homeland.

“To this extent, the lyric reflects the imposition of a faith, including the social and moral facets that it encompasses, upon an alien land to which it is anathema. In a very real sense it is a comment on the Global spread of Christianity, Judaism and Islam which is threatening these indigenous spiritual connections, resulting in a sense of spiritual bankruptcy, especially in the 'Western' world. I do not want to see a world where these 'poisoned thoughts' are allowed to 'extinguish' the enlightenment of the old ways.

Your 2008 split with Folkvang on Ukraine's Ancient Nation (some cracking white power literature and Hitler Youth patches on their webstore) saw you rub up against some openly racist elements. What's your relationship with those two parties? How does their agenda mesh/clash with your own? Did you suffer any backlash for that?

“Wodensthrone do not have an agenda. Ancient Nation have worked with some excellent musicians, such as Kroda and Nokturnal Mortem, and the release was not intended to align us with any particular ideology but simply to allow us to release our art upon the world. What we are trying to achieve goes beyond the mundane realms of nationality, race or political allegiance. We consider ourselves as artists exploring themes of inner spirituality, the connection between man and his gods and the emotional themes contained therein. Unfortunately, as witnessed with our removal from the recent 'Cancelfest' line-up, sometimes people seem unable to distinguish this pursuit of spirituality from misguided propaganda. It is simply something that we have had to rise above as a band.”

Check out Wodensthrone on myspace and order 'Loss' here through Bindrune Recordings.