One of the most interesting people in all of metal is Heri Joenson. In addition to being a great songwriter and gifted musician, Heri is an intellectual giant when it comes to philosophy, history, politics, religion, anthropology and music. Coming from the tiny island nation of the Faeroe Islands (total population 80,000) Heri has led TYR to become one of the most popular bands in the folk metal sub-genre. Throughout the interview Heri was candid and gave detailed answers on a variety of fascinating topics.

MAA: What is the concept behind the new album Lay of Thrym?

HJ: There is a political concept and a mythological concept. I first picked the political concept. I wanted to write about the political conflict in North of Africa and the Middle East and I picked the mythological concept after to fit that political concept. The Lay of Thrym is about Thor going to recreate his stolen hammer and just parallel to downtrodden people going to reclaim the power from dictators. So Thrym is equal to the dictators and Thor is the equivalent of the rebels.

Heri leads TYR in a concert at the Worcester Palladium in 2010.

MAA: Why do you think these modern times translate to classic themes?

HJ: I think the same things happen over and over again, only in different context. So I’ve written, I wrote earlier albums also like this: you have a myth, before you write what you write about, but you have a completely different thing in mind. When you write about or when you think about it. It reminds you of the present day situations, even without any effort. You don’t have to try and project a theme, it’s just apparent, at least to me. I think stuff just repeats itself. There’s only so many different combinations and that’s why.

Heri of TYR throws his fist in the face of what he sees as political and religious hypocrisy.

MAA: Musically this album is more straight forward compared to the past. What influenced this

change?

HJ: Well we sort of wanted to do the same thing with the last album, although I think we, we uh, hit it a bit better this time. I think the big change was between the Land album and the Northern Star album we really went away from the direct, extreme of direct folk music approach and away from some of the progressive side of music. For this one we didn’t try anything radically different, only fine tuned a little bit, and well to be honest it’s an attempt to hit a broader audience without selling out or becoming totally commercialized in a way. I think, well, we did that judging on the feedback I have so far, I think we did that. Yeah!

MAA: There is still a lot of trademark unmistakable Tyr guitar work on the album. How do you and Terji (Skibenaes) come up with the parts and divide the responsibilities when writing?

HJ: I usually play the more basic guitar, of course because I have to sing at the same time. So the easier my guitar playing is the better and I let him do the fancy noodling (laughs). I write most of the music myself, Terji comes up with some stuff himself, and Gunner (Thomsen) as well. I found the most interesting parts are by me so I also tend to decide who plays what. Then, of course I combine my guitar playing and singing, so that it’s doable. Some of is very difficult to record and so I would say that is the leading factor.

MAA: You have a very powerful and distinctive voice. Who are you heroes as a singer?

HJ: RONNIE JAMES DIO is the first and the biggest, after that there are quite a few like ROB HALFORD, BLACKIE LAWLESS, BRUCE DICKINSON and to some extent ERIC ADAMS from MANOWAR. Plenty of great, great metal singers out there. Guys who have changed music single handedly.

MAA: You mentioned DIO and I know there are two covers on some editions of the album. They both have to do with DIO, right?

HJ: Yeah, they do. We had decided to cover the songs (“I” by BLACK SABBATH and “Stargazer” by RAINBOW)  long before DIO fell ill even. But with our two other songs that we wanted to cover that were not by DIO as well. We decided to put those two songs precisely on the album when DIO passed away in his honor.

MAA: Why do you think pagan and folk metal themes resonate so loudly today with audiences around the world?

HJ: Well this has been going on for some time in the Europe, probably not in the U.S. By the sound of it. When it started in the middle and late 1990′s, I think it was a reaction that connected to the downfall of Communism in a way, that the great new conflict in the world would be between Christianity and Islam instead of freedom and communism. I think a lot of people have the reaction that this is getting too silly, and we want to go back to what you know, the European roots in a way. A lot of people have , sort of stepped out of the mainstream and moderate religions in Europe and went for something a bit more originally European. I’m not saying that is the right thing to do in that situation. I, of course personally I am Atheist. But I think that might be what happened. It’s just a theory. I don’t really have any statistics to back it up, but that’s my thinking at least.

MAA: Did you see the recent Hollywood movie about the Marvel Comics character THOR and what did you think of it?

HJ: I saw it. I saw it in 3D a few weeks ago. I liked it. It seemed a little bit too much setting up for a sequel than a whole movie at some places toward the end I think. Yeah generally, I liked it. Of course it’s not a very good representation of the saga, but then again it’s a very nice representation of the Marvel comics. I was a big fan of Marvel in my younger days.

MAA: When are you guys getting over to The United States next?

HJ: We have no set plans at the moment. I hope after our South America trip in the end of July, but if not then probably early next year.

(Thanks to Heri, EarsplitPR and Return to the Pit)

by Keith (Keefy) Chachkes