Pete: Blood Tsunami formed back in 2004. When my previous band, Hellride broke up in 2003 I quickly started to plan the birth of my own metal band. I teamed up with this guy called Jay on drums. Jay is a great guy, but he is not a very good metal-drummer, but anyway…I then teamed up with Dor on the second guitar and a guy called Riff took care of the bass. This first line up of Blood Tsunami recorded a demo during the summer of 2004. The demo wasn’t that good, but it gave us a lot of attention in Norway. Riff decided to quit the band and was replaced by Bosse. After a while Jay also had to go, and that’s when we included Faust has a permanent member of the band. And that’s where the real story begins! This line up of Blood Tsunami recorded a new demo in 2005 and this time around we had become a tight and well-oiled thrash machine. This demo secured us the deal with Nocturnal Art and Candlelight a year later.
 

What are your biggest musical influences?

Pete: American and German thrash metal from the 80’s included with a dose of old school death metal, NWOBHM and a little dash of punk on top of that…

How would you describe your music in your own words ?

Pete: Thrash metal with a twist! Ha, ha…Well, I really don’t know. We are influenced a lot by bands like Slayer, Kreator and Testament, too name a few, but we don’t try to sound like or copy any of those bands. We have our own touch to it… but what we do surely is rooted in thrash metal.
But there’s a lot of variety within this genre. I mean, there’s a huge difference between a band like Kreator and for example Anthrax or Forbidden, both when it comes to the riffs, but also with the vocals. Anthrax, Death Angel and Forbidden, has more or less clean vocals, but my voice is more up to the style of bands like Kreator, Destruction and Sodom. Anyway, all those bands play thrash metal. The thing that we maybe add to the style is a more rockin’ edge than many other thrash metal bands do…

Can you tell us more about your debut album called « Thrash Metal » ?

Pete: It’s a mean bastard of fast, sharp and neckbreaking metal. It’s an epic metal masterpiece! It’s the album of the fucking year! Ha, ha.

Can you speak to us about the recording session ?

Pete: It was a long session. At least compared to what we are used to. We had booked the studio for three weeks, but nearly two months had passed before we could call it a day. We probably didn’t record and mix for more than a maximum of three weeks in total but we had to sit around and wait for our engineer all the damn time. He was busy with a bunch of other stuff during those months. That was very frustrating. Now and then we nearly forgot that we were in the middle of a recording session. It could go many days between each time we actually got the chance to record anything. That totally kills the "studio feeling" within the band... Well, well… It was irritating, but we are all very satisfied with the final product so now we don’t complain.

How did you proceed for the composition ?

Pete: I constantly have a bunch of riffs buzzing around in my head… I write all our songs, at least I have done it for this album. I like to have a song more or less finished, both when it comes to the riffs and the arrangements before I play them to the other guys. Then we start the process of picking the song apart again and everybody has the opportunity to say what they think of each riff. If someone think that something sucks we ditch it and try to come up with something that works for everybody. Even thou’ I have written the songs for this album we are a democratic band. I guess the other guys will contribute with more stuff for the next albums. Faust has started writing lyrics and he has also made a few riffs for the next album.

What are the lyrics talking about ? Where do you find inspiration ?

Pete: The lyrics are just a bunch of tales of death, war, misery and pain. He, he. To me, the lyrics are just a tool I use to add aggression and fury to the music. I really don’t know where the lyrics come from. Words and rhymes just pop up in my head… I don’t think too much about the lyrics, but I will try to work more on the lyrics in the future.

Who created the artwork ?

Pete: The artwork is by Alex Horley. He is a great Italian artist. He has this Frank Frazetta style that I really like. We have been compared a lot to Manowar for this cover, and of course I can see the similarities. I really like many of the Manowar covers, but our music has nothing in common with Manowar. What we wanted to do was to bring back the vibe form the eighties and the era of painted album covers. I have always liked the style of the early Kreator albums "Endless Pain" and "Pleasure To Kill". We wanted something like that and I think we managed to do just that…

What’s your favourite track on « Thrash Metal » and why ?

Pete: Hm, it varies from day to day, but I am all in all very satisfied with the whole album, but I guess I will have to pick "Evil Unleashed" and "Godbeater". "Evil Unleashed" is a short, sharp and vicious bastard and "Godbeater" is the exact opposite. "Godbeater" is our tribute to the early days of Metallica and I wanted to create something like our own "Orion" or "Call of Ktulu".

What are your favourite bands and all times albums ?

Pete: Damn, that ain’t easy…ok, I will try. Here’s my list….

Slayer – Show No Mercy

Slayer – Hell Awaits

Slayer – Reign In Blood

Slayer – South Of Heaven

Slayer – Seasons in the Abyss

Kreator – Endless Pain

Kreator – Pleasure To Kill

Kreator – Extreme Aggression

Metallica – Kill’em All

Metallica – Ride The Lightning

Metallica – Master of Puppets

Destruction – Eternal Devastation

Destruction – Infernal Overkill

Death Angel – The Ultra Violence

Testament – The Legacy

Exodus – Bonded By Blood

Judas Priest – Screaming For Vengeance

Judas Priest – Defenders Of The Faith

Judas Priest – Painkiller

Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden – Killers

Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast

Iron Maiden – Piece of Mind

Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time

Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Sodom – Persecution Mania

Sodom – Agent Orange

Entombed – Left Hand Path

Entombed – Clandestine

Entombed – Wolverine Blues

At The Gates – Slaughter Of The Soul

Morbid Angel – Altars Of Madness

Morbid Angel – Domination

Anthrax – Among the Living

Anthrax – Fistful of Metal

Sepultura – Beneath the Remains

Sepultura – Arise

Onslaught – The Force

Motörhead – Overkill

Motörhead – Bomber

Motörhead – Ace of Spades

Dismember – Like An Ever Flowing Stream

Dismember – Death Metal

Poison Idea – Feel the Darkness

Accept – Restless and Wild

The Crown – Deathrace King

Zeke – Flat Tracker

Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath – Paranoid

Black Sabbath – Masters of Reality

Black Sabbath – Volume 4

Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Black Sabbath – Sabotage

The Haunted – The Haunted

The Dwarves – Are young and good looking

Dark Angel – Darkness Descends

W.A.S.P – W.A.S.P

Death – Scream Bloody Gore

Death – Leprosy

Celtic Frost – Morbid Tales

Celtic Frost – To Mega Therion

Suicidal Tendencies – Lights, camera… Revolution!

AC/DC – Let There Be Rock

AC/DC – Powerage

AC/DC – Highway To Hell

Dio – The Last In Line

Nuclear Assault – Handle With Care

Emperor – In The Nightside Eclipse

Immortal – Sons Of Northern Darkness

Darkthrone – A Blaze In The Northern Sky

Kiss – Kiss

Deep Purple – Burn

Kyuss – Sky Valley

Bathory – Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

Venom – Welcome To Hell

Possessed – Seven Churches

What’s your opinion about the international metal scene?

Pete: Well, what can I say? I like a bunch of the stuff out there, but I am mostly into bands that has some kind of old school feeling… I like 3 Inches of Blood, Harkonin, Lamb of God, Rammer, Municipal Waste, Lair of the Minotaur and plenty of other acts. I enjoy the wave of reunions too… with bands like Sabbat, Onslaught and Assassin coming back together. It’s great. I’m also very happy that the veterans like Slayer, Kreator and so on still deliver greats albums. I don’t pay attention to styles or bands that I don’t like and at the moment there are plenty if bands that I REALLY do like, so, yes, I guess I am very content with the international metal scene.

Are there any plans for some gigs or an upcoming tour?

Pete: We will now first off play the Inferno Festival here in Oslo and then we will head over to the UK for a short tour together with our friends in Zyklon. Then we’ll hang around Norway and do one off shows here during the summer before we’ll tour the rest of Europe during the fall….That’s the plan.

Do you have funny or strange stories about the band you can share with us?

Pete: Hmm, no nothing special I’m afraid… We’re boring. Ha, ha… Well, there’s of course a fistfight now and then and a huge amount of drinking sprees that can better be described as "near death experiences", but they are not very funny stories to tell…

What are your projects for the future?

Pete: I have no other projects…. To me it is just Blood Tsunami that matters now. The plan is to thrash ‘till we fucking die! Tour, record, tour, record and then tour some more…

And as a conclusion, can you say some words for my radio show called Metal Choc ?

Pete: Hail Metal Choc listeners! Bang your head to pieces. Thrash on! Cheers!