The Heavy Metal Power-Trio
Grimskull is a heavy metal band from Norway. The band was established by Marita Sundet (bass) in 2009, together with metal brothers Geir Solheim (drums) and Trygve Johan Solheim (vocals and guitar). A lot of hopes, dreams and visions were finally being fulfilled.
Marita had always loved hard music and dreamed of standing on a stage. "Ever since I was a little girl I had been a huge fan of heavy metal, and always wanted to be in a band. I don't know how I came up with the name, but I used it for fun in one of these guitar hero-games and we later decided it was a good name for a real band. For me to be a part of this band, with Geir and Trygve who have been respected heavy metal musicians for 20 years, is a great honour."
Putting the band together
"At first I was thinking about starting an all girl band, but I found out that not a lot of girls like the kind of music that I do. Trygve and I had always wanted to do some sort of musical project together, so we finally decided that this would be it." Marita and the Solheim brothers were already huge fans of classic metal, so it came very natural for them to work together.
Previously the Solheim brothers had been in different bands together, and both Marita and Geir had written lyrics for a few of Trygve's many metal projects.
Changes
Trygve hadn't played lead guitar in a band before, but had played bass and written songs on guitar for 15 years. Trygve explains: "I don't consider myself to be a guitar player, I'm not really that interested in the instrument. The most important thing for me about it is to get the song right, the way I want it, without anything getting lost in translation. That's how I started to sing and play bass too, I always wanted to be part of shaping the songs and the sound."
"The sound we're going for is very back to basic, like metal was around 1980, when it was still rough, dark and mysterious. We've done the prog-metal-thing for quite a few years now, and we're obviously going to keep elements of that in Grimskull. But the most important thing in this band is to put focus on the energy, attitude and grittiness of an old school heavy metal band. Yet we're trying to go places few bands have been before, with very melodic choruses combined with death metal riffs, or whatever. We try to push the limits in both directions."
The Power trio
After years of going through different bands, line-ups, projects and musical styles, the Solheim brothers decided to keep this a trio. "Geir and I were starting to reach that age were you realize that your dreams will only remain dreams, at least if you don't do something about it. That's why we started this band. We knew from experience that the less people involved, the more possibilities you have. Not musically, but at least when it comes to getting things done. We knew we had to be three people who are close friends and hang out anyway, to make this work. We have a million ideas we want to get done, and a million songs we want to write, and to do this we have to do it ourselves. Nobody else involved."
Metal vision
Ever since Trygve and Geir got interested in metal music, they had a vision about creating a classic vintage-styled heavy metal band, combining inspirations from all their favorite music, everything from the sweetness of 80's pop songs, the darkness of doom metal and gritty thrash metal. Marita: "Trygve and Geir have been making these cool songs ever since they were kids in the late 80's, unfortunately they had been archived and ignored for many, many years because of artistically differences beetween them and members of bands they had been part of. Grimskull is the type of music they've always wanted to make. I think it's fun for them being able to dust off these old songs and finally play them in a band."
Marita had always loved hard music and dreamed of standing on a stage. "Ever since I was a little girl I had been a huge fan of heavy metal, and always wanted to be in a band. I don't know how I came up with the name, but I used it for fun in one of these guitar hero-games and we later decided it was a good name for a real band. For me to be a part of this band, with Geir and Trygve who have been respected heavy metal musicians for 20 years, is a great honour."
Putting the band together
"At first I was thinking about starting an all girl band, but I found out that not a lot of girls like the kind of music that I do. Trygve and I had always wanted to do some sort of musical project together, so we finally decided that this would be it." Marita and the Solheim brothers were already huge fans of classic metal, so it came very natural for them to work together.
Previously the Solheim brothers had been in different bands together, and both Marita and Geir had written lyrics for a few of Trygve's many metal projects.
Changes
Trygve hadn't played lead guitar in a band before, but had played bass and written songs on guitar for 15 years. Trygve explains: "I don't consider myself to be a guitar player, I'm not really that interested in the instrument. The most important thing for me about it is to get the song right, the way I want it, without anything getting lost in translation. That's how I started to sing and play bass too, I always wanted to be part of shaping the songs and the sound."
"The sound we're going for is very back to basic, like metal was around 1980, when it was still rough, dark and mysterious. We've done the prog-metal-thing for quite a few years now, and we're obviously going to keep elements of that in Grimskull. But the most important thing in this band is to put focus on the energy, attitude and grittiness of an old school heavy metal band. Yet we're trying to go places few bands have been before, with very melodic choruses combined with death metal riffs, or whatever. We try to push the limits in both directions."
The Power trio
After years of going through different bands, line-ups, projects and musical styles, the Solheim brothers decided to keep this a trio. "Geir and I were starting to reach that age were you realize that your dreams will only remain dreams, at least if you don't do something about it. That's why we started this band. We knew from experience that the less people involved, the more possibilities you have. Not musically, but at least when it comes to getting things done. We knew we had to be three people who are close friends and hang out anyway, to make this work. We have a million ideas we want to get done, and a million songs we want to write, and to do this we have to do it ourselves. Nobody else involved."
Metal vision
Ever since Trygve and Geir got interested in metal music, they had a vision about creating a classic vintage-styled heavy metal band, combining inspirations from all their favorite music, everything from the sweetness of 80's pop songs, the darkness of doom metal and gritty thrash metal. Marita: "Trygve and Geir have been making these cool songs ever since they were kids in the late 80's, unfortunately they had been archived and ignored for many, many years because of artistically differences beetween them and members of bands they had been part of. Grimskull is the type of music they've always wanted to make. I think it's fun for them being able to dust off these old songs and finally play them in a band."
