Review Fix chats with Skurk’s guitarist Hordur, who discusses how the band got together, as well as their creative process, their new album, Blóðbragð and their goals for the future.
Review Fix: How did you guys get together?
Hordur: We formed the band Skurk a “few†years back – in the last century, and then after a few years we went in different directions. In 2011 a promoter asked us if we would like to reunite for one gig with our mates in Skálmöld, and one thing led to another.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Hordur: We have two albums out: Final Gift, released in 2014, and this year’s Blóðbragð. On Final Gift we worked with our old songs from 1993 and re-recorded them with some minor changes. We only did one new song on that album, the track Darkness.

Blóðbragð was a bit complicated. We had some difficulties since we can’t meet every week for band rehearsals. So Höddi started jamming riffs and ideas and putting together skeletons. The band met for two weekends and did an amazing job in building the songs and sharing ideas. When the recording sessions started we had these big ideas; adding orchestra and choir to the songs, and we started working with the local music school in Akureyri and with DanÃel Þorsteinsson who wrote all the classical parts. He was also the conductor when we recorded the orchestra. He was so inspired by the metal and we also got inspired by the professionalism from the kids and the musicians.
Review Fix: What do you think makes this band special?
Hordur: Our sound is a bit old school and our style takes you back in the most classical way of thrash metal.
Review Fix: How would you describe your style?


Hordur: Aggressive but melodic metal. We refer to the old thrash metal but I think we are smack in the middle between Iron Maiden and Slayer.


Review Fix: What are your goals for this album?
Hordur: The only goal we set for this album was to make the best heavy metal album possible.
Review Fix: What’s the standout song? Is there a story behind it?
Hordur: The whole album is a sad story, about a man driven with guilt after murdering his girlfriend, he takes a walk into the Icelandic mountains in the dark cold blizzard and meets his deserved doom. We have two epic songs on the album but I can’t say one song is better than the other. Each song is a chapter in the story and therefore the character is different in its own way.


Review Fix: What’s next?
Hordur: We don’t know. We have had very positive feedback on Blóðbragð and we hope it will “come to life”. We will of course be playing and promoting Blóðbragð. It would be awesome to have one or two grand gigs with choir and orchestra. Then we rearrange, recreate and start again.
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