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The Danish band As We Fight was founded back in 2001 and has been through some line-up changes. They have a new album in the stores now which is called Meet Your Maker. Time to speak to the band and I have to thank bassist Søren Hvidt for calling me and answering my questions. First I wanted to know about the band name... "The band name was a kind of coincidence... There is just one guy left from the original line-up and in the beginning the band was more into Hardcore. The name does have no real meaning, it just fit to the sound back then. We thought about changing the name, but never came up with something... And now it's too late. It must have been cool in the 80's to name a band, you could just name it Death or Judas Priest... It was much easier." Søren tells me. Time to talk about the new album - and how it was received. "We are really satisfied, we expected more scepticism." But on the other hand there aren't many bands from Denmark, but the ones who make it are usually presenting themselves on a high quality level... "Yeah, the music scene is quite small, so often people play in several bands. I think it helps that we have a good musical background from out school days..." Somehow As We Fight differ from other bands, they have some death metal elements, thrashy riffs and even some influences of traditional metal. "I think it's the Danish metal heritage, the old bands influences us for sure. Yeah, you can say we have some traditional metal sounds in our songs. You can definitely hear this. We play what we want to play - and there is no main songwriter in the band. And with two vocalist you have more opportunities, you can e.g. do voice-over each other..." I told Søren that in my opinion their music is made to he played live... So, what about shows? "We are planning this right now. Next week we have a release party here in Denmark at some festivals. But also in Germany and Czech Republic - and a tour in September. We are a live band, the albums are a kind of soundtrack to refresh memories." Let's talk about the new album! In my opinion it's a grower... "That's really cool!" Søren replied. "We enjoy playing and hanging out together. We like to play with friends, that's driving us. We aren't one of those bands who want to change the world!" Good to know that some are just out to have fun. And Søren continues: "It's tough for a Danish band to break into the market, but it changes a bit lately. Internet is a big help, too. You can spread your music and if the quality is there, then it will help to make your music known. Listening to the songs on the internet is cool, but the download thing is critical. The fans have a lot to choose from..." And it's the same with tours... There are many possibilities, sometimes you just wonder about band packages and so I wanted to know which bands they would like to tour with - just hypothetically. "Megadeth! I'm a fan of Megadeth, but more realistic is a tour with Machine Head... I'm a big fan of the last Megadeth album, it's really cool!" Søren confesses. And who knows, perhaps they get a chance to play with them one day... "Europe has priority for us, even if the album is also released in Australia and Japan. North America is on progress..." Sounds like the Danish are down to Earth and know what's important to them. And so Søren's last statement isn't a surprise: "We are a live band and we play every stage we can!"
We were running out of time, but it won't be the last time we talk, we decided to continue when they hit the road this fall!
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