Review Fix Exclusive: Skurk’s Hordur Talks Blóðbragð, Future And More

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 Daníel 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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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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