Bjarm Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Hello, we are “Bjarm” from Severodvinsk, the north of Russia. The band was founded in 2009 by Egor Vorobiev, Oleg Ivanov and Alexey Miroshin. Andrew White and Anastasia Angie joined us later.

2.Recently you have released your first full length album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the new recording and also how does it differ from the demo you had released in 2010?
It’s hard to say, most likely the new album is a mix of several genres. The sound is now more diverse, the emphasis is on keyboards. Guitars are purposely taken away into the background, they mainly add volume. The demo was a bit simplier and more even.

3.This is the first release that has been released by the band since 2010, can you tell us a little bit more about what was going on during that time period?
We had several concerts for supporting our demo album. Also we were making the new material. After that we were recording Imminence and shooting video clip. Moreover we had photo shoot that time. The recording needed more time than we expected mostly due to the lack of experience. But as we believe, we succeeded in making Imminence.

4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
As for the lyrics, the new album continues the tradition of demo-forerunner and evolves the theme of the fatalism’s grave philosophy. It’s told here about the price of life and will, immortality and omniscience. The basis consists of ancient Scandinavian myths which were rethought religiously.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Bjarm'?
When we were thinking about the band's name, there were a lot of versions. Were looking for a short and memorable name. It turned out to be not so easy. After long-time discussions we have chosen “Bjarm”. "Bjarmia" was the name of our region at the Viking Age. "Bjarm" is a native of this territory.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Probably the first one was the best. We were preparing for it very thoroughly. That was the first live show for most of us. We were worried a lot but everything was great. In fact we try to make every live show better than the previous one.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?
Yes, we planned European tour this summer, but unfortunately we could not go there due to technical reasons. We are going to have several live shows in Russia this autumn. But we are not sure about them yet. Follow the band's news.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of symphonic black metal and death metal?
Reaction of the foreign listeners is very positive. But in Russia this genre is not very popular, that’s why we found more good opinions abroad. Of course there are some shortcomings in our album, we will take it into consideration in our following releases.

9.Are any of the band members involved with any other musical projects these days?
Andrey Vait sings and plays guitar in one more project. The rest of band members have no other musical projects.

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Good question! We want to create high quality music and convey it to the huge number of people. We suppose every musician wants to do the same thing.
Hope we can do it soon.

11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
At the first time Dimmu Borgir, Graveworm, Amon Amarth, Septic Flesh, etc. had a strong influence on us. But there are no preferences now. All band members listen to different musical genres.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Egor is occupied with video editing and graphics. Anastasia's hobbies are roller skating and foreign languages. Alexey likes cycling and travelling.

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thanks to everyone who supports Bjarm, hope to see you at our concerts soon!

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Bjarm/Imminence/Fono Ltd/2014 CD Review

  Bjarm  are  a  band  from  Russia  that  plays  a  mixture  of  symphonic  black  metal  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review of  their  2014  album  "Imminence"  which  was  released  by  Fono  Ltd.

  Wind  and  bell  sounds  start  off  the  album  before  keyboards  are  added  in  and  they  bring  an  epic  and  symphonic  sound  to  the  recording  and  after  the  3  minute  long  intro  the  music  starts  to  go  into  a  heavier  direction  while  also  keeping  around  the  symphonic  elements  and  a  few  seconds  alter  spoken  words  are  added in briefly.

  Once  the  heavier  vocals  kick  in  they  bring  a  very  grim  blackened  death  metal  feeling  to  the  music  and  after  awhile  melodic  female  vocals  can  be  heard  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording  and  one  of  the  later  tracks  also  has  a  few  seconds  of  male  vocals  and  they  bring  in  elements  of  gothic  metal  to  the  bands  musical  sound  and  the  songs  stick  to  mostly  a  slow  or  mid  paced  direction  along  with  a  good  amount  of  melodic  guitar  riffing

    As  the  album  progresses  more  black  metal style  vocals  are  added  into  the  music  along  with  some  powerful  sounding  bass  guitars  and  as  time  goes  on  by  they  bring  in  an  instrumental  track  along  with  the  following  song  using  clean  and  acoustic  guitars  and  they  return  back  to  a  more  symphonic  black/death  metal  direction  on  the  last  3  songs  as  well  as  speeding  up  a  bit  for  a  few  seconds  and  adding  in  s  mall  amount  of  blast  beats  and  the  last  song  brings  back  some  of  the  clean  playing  while  still  sticking  mostly  to  a  heavier  direction.

  Bjarm  stick  to  mostly  a  symphonic  black  metal  direction  on  this  album  while  having  a  more  blackened  death  metal  approach  to  vocals  along  with  a  small  amount  of  gothic  elements  to  create  the  sound  that  you  hear  on  this  album,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  dark  and  metaphysical  themes.

  In  my  opinion  Bjarm  are  a  very  great  sounding  mixture  of  symphonic  black  metal  and  death metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Approaching  Of  the  Close"  "The  Nine  Worlds"  "Oracle"  and  "Tree  On  The  Bones".  8  out  of  10.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EezjLT1uuFw