We’re counting down to the 2024 edition of 70000 tons of Metal! This is by far one of our personal favorite metal cruises where every artist is a headliner. Metalheads from around the globe share an insane experience of four days with very little to no sleep of nonstop metal shows. From big pool deck experiences to the intimate Star Lounge, there’s something for all metalheads regardless of subgenre, and we love it all. 2023 marked a significant return for the cruise after all cruises generally faced a halt due to the pandemic. The event’s future was uncertain, but it returned, giving sixty unique artists a go. This year we saw a number of acts having their first experience on the boat to artists having some notable silver-to-gold member status returns. We managed to capture all sixty bands, and as we countdown to the 2024 edition, we will share artist spotlights from the 2023 expedition leading up to the 2024 voyage. Artist Number 57: Vreid.

Norwegian black ‘n’ rollers Vreid set sail on the metal seas for the second time in 2023, having previously done so in 2017. Their first performance, under the full moon on the Pool Deck, took place on Day 2, January 31, 2023, at 2:15 am. Their second set found them inside Studio B Ice Rink on Day 4, February 2, 2023, at 7:00 pm. We were fortunate to catch both sets, which also featured a few Windir tracks.

Since their last album, 2021’s Wild North West, Vreid has been working on new music, although no details about a follow-up album have been revealed just yet. However, 2024 marks the anniversary of Vreid’s debut album, Kraft, so fans can hope for some news soon.

Roughly one year ago, we spoke with drummer Jørn Holen about the band’s latest effort and their remarkable performance at 2022’s Hellfest, where they were invited back for 2023 due to their exceptional show. Jørn also reflected on the tenth anniversary of 2013’s Welcome Farewell, highlighting how the band has become more comfortable embracing and honoring Windir’s music, among other topics.

Read the interview below, which was saved for Vreid’s 70000tons 2023 Artist Spotlight.

What was the experience and decision-making involved in making a feature film movie out of 2021’s Wild North West?

Straight to the hard questions. A difficult one. No. We were stunned by what happened when the Covid pandemic started, and we needed some new ideas. We were thinking about breaking the ice, exploring new ideas, and more movie-based music videos and stuff before the pandemic. And when it all happened, we just said, okay, now we have all the time in the world. So now we start planning.

The idea came up when we worked with a local producer called Jove Nesbo, who has done a lot of our recent videos. So we started having small meetings, drawing up the album’s structure. The decision to create the album as an eight-chapter movie came before the songs were actually recorded. So when we entered the studio afterward to record the songs, we pretty much knew that these would be chapters one, two, three in the video. It’s an opposite way to work. It was weird, but a new thing to do as well. We needed some new inspirations, and that’s how it all started.

It seemed very ambitious. I figured the pandemic had something to do with it because it did give people time to explore more creative options. With such strong visual approaches, are there any artists or films that have influenced the creative visual process?

It’s hard to say, but we’ve always been fans of visual effects and strong music videos. The first thing that comes to mind is the old American TV series from the nineties called Twin Peaks, which has obviously influenced a lot of us in the band. Because we watched that series, we were taken into this, I don’t know, this area in the northwest of the US, which was creepy and cold. And it reminded us of Norway as well.

I guess if you want to just pick out one influence or influential series or movie, then that’s Twin Peaks in my opinion. We all got to visit where they recorded Twin Peaks on the US tour in 2019, which was cool. Although that was way before this project started.

But I don’t know, old movies, old spaghetti Western movies of course. Movies as a genre or TV series or whatever, we grew up with this American influence in Norway. We always got the American series showing on television and stuff. So I guess that’s where we all got it from. We grew up with that. So if we can incorporate this into music videos and making movies out of songs, it just feels, I don’t know, meant to be. Yeah.

Vreid Set 1:

If you could, which album would you make another film out of?

That’s a hard one. I’m not sure. It’s so hard. Maybe some of the old … I feel like some of the old Alice Cooper albums would be cool. Maybe the Killer album by Alice Cooper or something from the early seventies. It’s one of my favorite albums, always influenced me, the music of Alice Cooper. And he has all these horror effects as well on stage. So it could be quite an interesting project to do, one of his old albums, between ’70 and ’75 or something.

2023 marks the 10th anniversary for 2013’s Welcome Farewell. Can you discuss any memories or processes from creating that record?

It’s my second album in between because we had a lot of stuff going on with the V album. In the previous one, we changed the lineup for the album before, which was also a Grammy nominee album. And we did a lot of touring. And that one, we did a lot of projects in India and stuff. And a US tour as well.

And then came this album, which came quickly after the V album. But it was; we entered the studio and did everything on our own on that album. We went to our own studio, Studio 1184, and recorded everything there, which is what I remember the most. You don’t pack up the stuff, go to a studio and do the stuff within a couple of hours, and then go back home. You just visit your rehearsal studio and then just stay there until the album’s finished pretty much. Which is what I remember most about that one.

The songs itself is a mixture of everything we have done. In retrospect, it’s quite difficult to find the red line in that album in my opinion. And that’s, I don’t know, when we start picking songs to play live as well, the songs from the Welcome Farewell album is not on the top of the list. Which is, I don’t know, some of the cool riffs, the old 70s classics we were influenced by. You can find that in the songs on that album as well.

In my opinion, it’s a strong album. A lot of strong songs, no weak ones. But no one sticks out personally. So an album in between the huge success we had actually for the album before. And then the album, which was supposed to come afterward, we changed a little bit directionally. 

The studio process is what I remember most. We did everything, everything was hands on. The record company was not even aware that we recorded it pretty much. We just went in and recorded it, and now we have this album ready. Wow. So it was a do-it-yourself project from A to Z.

And then it turned out to be the underdog.

Yeah. Underdog is the right word. I agree on that one. It’s not the most talked about album. And as I said, when you pick up all the set lists from the last ten years, not too many of the songs on the album have been played live. Just did a song here and there. So maybe it’s time to pick them up now, ten years back, and really perform them the way they’re supposed to be. Some of them is almost forgotten I think.

Wild North West was ambitious and creative because of the added film. Now, moving forward, how would you keep your music fresh and exciting for yourselves and your listeners?

It’s difficult to predict the next step or the next album. We always start working on new stuff without any intention of sounding like Vreid or even trying to go, yeah, we did this album two years ago, now we’re going to go this direction. So we don’t point out the directions or anything. The songs are just written. And then some of the songs are never recorded because they don’t fit in with the way we want them to be. And it ends up, we have never been afraid to incorporate anything we find. On the last album we had, or the album before, had a lot of clean guitars and clean vocals, which also featured keyboards and the synthesizers with an added techno part or whatever, the seventies techno part. We don’t go in the studio and say, now we’re going to do this album, it’s going to sound like this.

We have two, three or four songs that we’re working on. It’s not pre-produced, but we’re working on it this spring. And I am still determining how it will end up. It could be ultra-necro black, or it could be very melodic, or a mix in between, which is the way we sound. We have never been afraid; if it just sounds cool, we’ll put it on if we feel like it.

It’s not going to be an eight-song with a movie, I guess, which has now been done. So the next one has to be something else special about it. Maybe just releasing singles for an album and then releasing the whole album in a year and a half later on. This could be an option. People don’t buy albums anyway, so how it’s released is not so important anymore.

That’s our sad reality. I have to say that Vreid’s performance at 2022’s HellFest, paying tribute to Windir’s 1184, was arguably one of the top five performances from the entire seven-day festival. There was so much emotion behind the tribute. I’m curious what this performance was like for you guys.

I really enjoyed it. We did a couple of shows with the 1184 stuff. And it was perfect to just go and do it now. To be honest, from 2004/5 all up until, I don’t know, 2020 or something, I’ve been afraid to incorporate more of the Windir songs into our live sets as well. We needed that distance from the previous band to Vreid and always felt that bringing on too many Windir songs to make a tribute would put us in a bad light. Now they’re trying to take off the old albums, do whatever they want, and then destroy them. So I left them in the drawer for several years.

But then the offer came up to do the Hellfest show. And we thought, well, just now we’re going to do it, and now we’re going to just do it, for real. And bring Terje’s brother, of course, their old keyboard player, and then just make a show out of it.

And it was a special night. We had some issues on stage with the sound and stuff with bad hearings. We had monitors in-ears, it didn’t work and stuff. So the first five minutes were quite chaotic. So in my opinion, the first five minutes were the most chaotic experience of 2022, I guess, a bad experience. But the audience loved it. And we got settled in. And it was a cool show.

Hellfest is always a great honor to be playing. And last year’s lineup was just insane. I don’t know if you can get this lineup anywhere on the festival ever again. These seven days were magic. So 2022’s Hellfest was special for sure.

But it’s a good feeling to see people haven’t forgotten about the music. And to pick it up and bring it on stage again so many years later on, is cool. The only issue is that we got 20 years older, so it’s a physical aspect for me. Back then, I was in better shape, of course, 20 years ago than I am today. So I had to really practice to make it happen. You can feel that you’ve been 20 years older since the recordings with them definitely. But apart from that, it was a cool experience.

I noticed that a few highlights from the Hellfest set was brought to 70000 Tons of Metal, mixing Vreid with a few Windir songs. The combination was a nice mix and also a special thing for the fans on the boat. 

I think it was a natural thing to do. As I said, we’re now not so afraid of bringing some of the old songs back into our set list. We have played Windir songs now and then of course. But we also brought the old keyboard player from Windir to 70000 Tons.

And it’s cool to do something off when you do the big festivals or do the festivals; it’s not like … 70000 Tons is a special thing, a surrealistic thing to be over there in the Caribbean playing music. So then it’s extra special just to bring in a couple of songs and do something else we would’ve done in a club show in Oslo. So that’s why we did it. And it worked out. 

Vreid Set 2:

Do you have any particular memory or moment, a favorite experience from a tour or festival?

I think a festival, of course, is magic stuff. The tours are really good, and it is cool to do club shows. And both the US and Japan and the European tours have been good for us. And of course all the festivals as well.

For me, the first time we played Wacken in 2006, which was the festival to play in 2006, was special. It was not a special show though. But it was a tent, and it was about 5,000 people who were not able to come into the tent because there were so many people who wanted to see the show. And so it was packed. And finally being at Wacken and playing was a target for us many years earlier. So it makes it special. All the Wacken and the Hellfest performances have been really, really good.

So it’s hard to pick out just one festival or one show or one tour. There’s been so many of them. It’s more than 600 now. But the first thing is that your favorite festival back then was special. It was not the best show. But it’s more of the memorable stuff happening. We came there with a tour bus, had a party, and Children of Bodom and Opeth were drinking backstage. And the whole setting of the weekend was cool. So if I want to pick out one, I guess, that’s the one for me.

70000 tons of Metal will return on January 29th, setting sail from Miami, FL to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, and back on February 2nd with another batch promising sixty bands to perform twice throughout the waves of adventure. The full lineup was fully revealed earlier this week. However, this is 70000tons of Metal and 70000tons of changes could happen up until the very last minute. Due to members of Nile contracting COVID-19 just days before embarking on the cruise, the band were forced to drop out at the last minute, bringing the lineup from 62 to 61 bands. However, spot number 62 was soon filled up with Monstrosity taking Nile’s place with 62 out of 60 bands for the 2024 voyage. It’s safe to say this is the final lineup! In case you missed it, check out Metal Insider’s 70000tons essential packing guide.

2024 70000tons of Metal artists:

Aborted
Acod
Angra
April Art
Arion
Avulsed
Krzysztof Drabikowski’s Batushka
Before the Dawn
Blind Guardian
Blood Red Throne
Carnation
Crypta
Dalriada
Décembre Noir
Disillusion
Dynazty
Edenbridge
Einherjer
Endseeker
Epica
Equilibrium
Fleshcrawl
Fleshgod Apocalypse
Graceless
Grave Digger
Heidevolk
I Am The Night Horde
Infected Rain
Inhuman Condition
Iotunn
Kataklysm
Katatonia
Leaves’ Eyes
LEFT-ÖVR
Legion of the Damned
Lord of the Lost
Monstrosity
My Dying Bride
Mystic Prophecy
Nanowar of Steel
Nervosa
Noturnail
Omnium Gatherum
Pentagram (Chile)
Rising Steel
Saor
Scar Symmetry
Serenity
Shores of Null
Skyforger
Sodom
Temperance
The Halo Effect
Threshold
Tygers of Pan Tang
Unleashed
Victory
Vision Divine
Waltari
Warkings
Wind Rose
Wolfheart