The Bloodstock Interviews – Winterfylleth

Written by Linzi A
Wednesday, 23 August 2017 15:04

Über Rock boss Monk may not be a fan of Mancunian black metallers Winterfylleth, but for many others they ripped the main stage at Bloodstock a new one on the Saturday morning, as they tore it up in front of thousands of metal heads moshing in unison.

With a new album being released later on in the year, I sat down with the vocalist/guitarist Chris Naughton for an insight into what the band have been up to and what they have in store for us over the coming months. I started by asking him what he thought of the crowd’s reaction to their set:

[We] had a great time. I’m really humbled by the experience. It was cool for us out there. We have played here a few times now, and each time we just get a better and better response from the crowds. We just love playing this festival, and when we are not playing we come as fans. It’s one of the key UK festivals for us developmentally, and for our fans as well.

You got a terrific reception from the crowd: I was out there watching and your fans just went mental for it. Does that fill you guys with adrenaline seeing your fans getting revved up by your music?

Bloodstock is just the place for us, watching everyone either in the pit going crazy or just watching… the amount of people that turned out was incredible. It was a great experience for all involved. I was happy with it: we played our A game.

You have been together for ten years as a band: what’s you secret to the band’s longevity?

I don’t know actually… belligerence? (laughs).

I think it’s that constant need to want to play and perform that keeps you going. We always want to put something new out; we always have new ideas; we always have something to say and have challenging opinions, and we just want to put that across. We just enjoy making music, and expressing our views and opinions through our music; it gives us a lot of enjoyment, and it helps to scratch that creative itch.

You have started on your sixth studio album, which you stated is you’re “most ambitious and polarising yet”…

I said that because we decided that we wanted to do an acoustic album! We have done five albums which have been atmospheric, blast beat driven black metal. This time, we have explored a few of the ideas, we explored short parts of the other albums: we always do interlude tracks on the other albums, and some one-off acoustic numbers with atmosphere around them; we felt that it would be interesting, on our sixth album to try something a little bit different. We got some string players in, [and did] a lot of vocal arrangements, acoustic guitars, violins, and things like that.

We are doing an album which feels like a great Winterfylleth album with very similar emotions and similar feelings, I suppose – but it sort of removes the metal element from it.

It’s going to challenge our performance when it comes to bringing that to a live environment. I think it will be a point of interest to our fans. I don’t think it’s completely out of the ordinary: I think it’s a cool thing to do… I hope the proof is in the pudding for people you know. It’s the longest we have ever spent in the studio, the most time I’ve ever spent writing an album: having to write string parts when you’re a guitar player, it’s no mean feat. I really interested to see what the fans think.

It sounds really interesting: we can’t wait to get our hands on a copy!

We can’t wait for you to hear it!

If you could describe Bloodstock in three words what would they be?

Important For Metal!

Oooh nice, that’s well thought out!

Thank you! I think that because they are the only festival that really care about the grass roots stuff. They help out behind the scenes, helping out the newer and maybe younger bands by putting on the Metal 2 The Masses events, giving them a platform where they can showcase their music to people.

Bloodstock really helps to keep the underground bands coming through. It really creates a sense of community around metal. It’s a really dedicated audience, families come here with their small children, and everyone is involved of all ages.

What’s next for the band? have you got more festivals lined up?

We have got Midgard festival in Norway. Someone told me it’s a festival which is on Viking burial grounds: how true that is i don’t know but I’m interested in finding out!

Sounds interesting!

Yeah, I think so too! I will have to report back on that one!

[Apart from that], it’s our ten year anniversary, so in September/October we are doing an extensive tour of Europe… we can’t wait to see all you fans there. It’s going to be amazing, and just thank you for supporting our music over all these years!

https://www.facebook.com/Winterfylleth/

Winterfylleth tour poster