Rock Monsters Romania

Our last stop of the year is in Galați, a special city with an amazing festival, Danube Rock Festival, which inspires many locals.

This is also the case for Huldra, a young death metal band that was recognized for their latest release, “She.”

However, people do not know much about them, so we talked to them and tried to find out more about the project, the last release, and their future plans.

How did the idea for the band originate? What’s the meaning behind the band’s name?

It all started when Robert (vocals), Cristian (rhythm guitar), and Sebastian (drums) met up at the Danube Rock Festival in Galati in 2018 when they were 14-15 years old. They were impressed by the energy of the bands they saw, and when they got home, they started talking about creating their band to play at the Danube Festival the following year, which they succeeded in doing with the help of the other bandmates who joined along the way. The band was initially founded with the intention/idea of being a purely black metal band (which changed shortly after). For the name, we opted for the theme of Norwegian mythology, choosing an interesting creature, Huldra/Hulder. This mythological creature is a succubus that leeches off emotions/feelings such as lust and empathy. We chose this name because we think everyone has something that leeches off their human weaknesses, so we’d like to exteriorize this feeling through our music.

How did the band meet?

Robert and Cristian met on a Facebook group and started talking very early on. Robert was also great friends with Sebastian then, so when all three met at the Danube Rock Festival in Galati, Cristian shortly made connections with his good friends, Valentino (bass guitar) and Albert (lead guitar).

At the end of October, you posted your first single after a pause of about three years. What happened in the meantime?

Due to personal conflicts between our members, the band’s activity was upheld. Sadly, after we made up and solved our personal issues, an even bigger one rose: half of our bandmates moved to another city to pursue their academic careers. Later on, after some serious discussion about the band’s current status, we decided to continue doing what we love by making certain personal sacrifices to meet up and record the new single.

What is the story behind “She”?

The song was originally recorded around 2020, right after our latest single at the time, “Torn Asunder”. The instrumental has remained unchanged since we only recently met to record and release the vocals. The song was initially written with the idea of speaking about the mythological creature Huldra and telling a story from the perspective of its prey. The lines repeated throughout the song, “She sees through me”, were the first lyrics we wrote for it back in 2019 that stemmed from the main idea and story of the song.

What are your short-term plans? Are you planning to release an EP or an Album containing all the released songs?

At the time of writing this, our upcoming album entitled “Ominous” is a work in progress, as we are recording the rest of the songs right now. So, unfortunately, we have no plans on releasing any new singles or EPs in the short term, as we are centring all of our focus on releasing our debut album, which will contain both “Torn Asunder” and “She”. Although we won’t release any new music for the time being, we are planning at least a few shows before the release of our album.

As 2023 is nearly over, could you please tell us what the best and the most challenging moments you’ve encountered were?

Our best moments this year were, for sure, the release of our single, “She”, and our “comeback show” at the KalosFest in August. Our biggest challenge throughout the year was meeting again to record music and practice as a band.

What plans do you have for next year?

Our primary focus is releasing our debut album the following year and playing as many shows as possible nationwide.

What are your long-term goals? 5-10 years?

Like every musician, we wish to impact our listeners as much as possible. For the most part, we want to keep our unique style and sound throughout our writing process in the following years while maintaining a stable fanbase and expanding our influence abroad.

Before finishing this interview, what is the one thing that people must know before listening to your songs?

People should be open-minded when they listen to our songs since we tend to fuse different genres instead of confining ourselves into a single subgenre of metal to keep our unique sound and originality.

What message do you have for the people who supported this project? But for the ones who are discovering the band through this interview?

Our hearts go out to everyone who has supported us throughout our project, but we would also like to apologise to our day-one fans for not releasing anything for three years. And for those currently reading this, we hope we sparked your interest and made you curious enough to listen to our music. Continue supporting the local scene; we wouldn’t be so passionate without you guys. Much love from Huldra.

Interview by Radu Mihai