As Bloodstock widens its reach, the M2TM competition now extends not just to the UK but Norway and Poland as well. The winners of the Norwegian final is a young duo called Golden Core. I was able to get our questions across to Johannes Thor Sandal who provided me with the following responses,
Paul: Let’s start with a brief history of the band
Johannes: Golden Core was formed in the winter 2014 and we had our first gig the following summer. That’s five years ago. Since then we’ve done over one hundred shows, mostly in Norway and Iceland. We are so excited to do a show in the UK.
Paul: Who is the current line up?
Johannes: Golden Core has always been a duo consisting of Johannes Thor Sandal on drums and vocals and Simen on guitar.
Paul: Describe the band’s sound and influences
Johannes: We are playing a mix between different genres, although doom and stoner metal are our main influences. But we are inspired by so many different things in music and elsewhere. Our lyrics are in Old Norse. It’s dark and heavy.
Paul: Prior to Bloodstock, what are some of the highlights for the band so far?
Johannes: We did a great show at the by:Larm festival in Oslo in March and we had a great time at Andenes in Northern-Norway, and at the Norðanpaunk festival in Iceland last summer was awesome.
Paul: Let’s move on to Bloodstock and your road to the festival. Please tell us about your journey?
Johannes: We will be doing some festival shows in Norway and Iceland this summer. We are playing at the Eistnaflug metal festival in Iceland in July and Øyafestivalen in Norway the day before Bloodstock, and the week after we will be doing a show at Midgardsblot metal festival in Norway. It’s going to be a good summer for Golden Core.
Paul: We know from our friends in bands that getting to the M2TM final is a great feeling. Tell us about the build up to your final and how you handled it
Johannes: We’ve been doing quite a lot of concerts lately and just finished recording our new album. There have been lot of preparations the last months. When we finally come to Bloodstock you get to see Golden Core at its best.
Paul: What about when you were announced as winners? What were the emotions like?
Johannes: It was an adrenalin shock, so unreal. I mean there were so many good bands competing and in the end Simon Hall himself was there on the stage shouting out our name as the winner.
Paul: So, moving on to the festival itself, what can we expect from you?
Johannes: Loud and dark. Pure darkness from the forests of Norway.
Paul: Which bands are you looking forward to seeing there?
Johannes: Dimmu Borgir and Soulfly.
Paul: And finally, tell us a guilty pleasure about each member of the band
Johannes: Don’t know if this qualify as a guilty pleasure, but we do listen to different genres, like ambient, punk, jazz and classical music.
My thanks to Johannes for his time. Make sure you catch Golden Core at Bloodstock in the New Blood Stage. It should be quite a show.
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