Nestled in the foothills of the Alps mountain range, we encounter a female-led Pagan Army delivering powerful German-language battle cries. Austria’s Nordblut first started out as a Blackened Pagan Metal band, before diversifying with hard rock and black rock’n’roll influences to craft a sound that they describe as “driving, banging and melodic.”
The band, from Melk in Lower Austria, sitting in the gateway to the Alps, Nordblut first formed back in 2012 for a couple of years. They reformed in 2019 and, after several member changes, settled on a lineup dedicated to music. And on the Nordblut sound, they told us: “Influences from black metal, hard rock and other metal sub genres, but you surely get the pagan vibes.”
To give us a taste for this, the band sent us Bis zum letzten Mann (Until the Last Man) from their second album Heathen Path, which was released in May. It opens up with big chugging guitars and driving drums that continue under a cool little lick, which gives way to intense but captivating vocals. A brief pause is followed by the relentless vocals continuing and flowing into a slightly more melodic chorus. Another lively verse drops into thick slabs of guitar, before the drums pick up pace under a laid-back lick and a meandering guitar solo. It dives back into another powerful verse, before big chugging guitars support intense vocals that lead us into a heavy conclusion.
On the track, the band told us: “It combines a strong rhythmic drive with some fancy melodies – but besides that we like the song because of its backstory. Main parts were written on our way to a show in Switzerland and all started because of a funny misunderstanding. And the lyrics depicts a battle scene, but in reality it is about a night of heavy drinking and the enemies were all just bottles of beer – so basically the ‘warrior’ just imagined the battle.”
The album is packed with more dark metal goodness, including the entertaining opener Bersekerwut, the powerful Sword of Asgard, which opens up with the line “Hear Valhalla’s call, Gathering as one,” the lead single In die Neue Welt, which you can check out in the video below. Personal favourites are Skogamor and the penultimate track Blutadler, before concluding with a dramatic battle cry in Heathen Rebellion.
On the album, the band said: “It is kind af a concept album as it tells one continuous story while each song also stands on its own. Maybe nice to know is, that there are also two English songs on it.”
The Nordblut sound is shaped by band members’ backgrounds in black metal, classic metal and power metal, giving them a wide spectrum of influences to work with. And on what inspires them to write music, they explained: “We like to tell stories about pagan/viking/battle themes, but we are not strictly bound to that alone.”
Nordblut are currently writing new music and promise us they’ll enrich 2026 with at least one new track while they work on a new album. And they added: “Check the music out and if you get the chance, come see us live – we also look fany!”
You can follow Nordblut on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.
Listen to Nordblut and more new bands on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Core and GigRadar Metal
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