The Bad Penny (beta)

The general consensus among historians is that the Vikings, led by King Cnut the Great and subsequently his sons, ruled England from 1016 to 1042 during a relatively peaceful reign after the Dane brutally mutilated Anglo-Saxon hostages. Hey, no one’s perfect. 

Månegarm–the Swedish band named after a mythological Norse wolf–have “ruled” in the Viking black/folk‐metal sense of the term for an even three decades as of this year. And they just dropped a hefty bag of silver, their 11th studio record, to represent the spoils that the technically proficient band has gathered over the course of its formidable existence.

“Thirty fucking years. That’s strange, man,” says vocalist/bassist Erik Grawsiö, pondering the seemingly unexpected achievement aloud. “When I think back to those days, I get a great big smile on my face. It was a great time in my life. I was 16, 17. Once the first lineup was complete, to make a long story short, we got together, played our first song, and it was fucking great.”

To make the story a little longer, Grawsiö expands: “We had so much fun, drinking a lot of booze and thinking of becoming rock stars. … Me and Mårten (Matsson, Månegarm’s early) second guitarist, when we got together with the rest of the guys, we all shared the same vision and drive. 

“Thirty years later, a lot of things have changed for the better,” he continues reflecting. “As a group, we are much more together when we play. We have the same vision, we are the best of friends and have grown together like a family. I can’t even picture my life without the music and especially without the band. If I would lose my arm and not be able to play in Månegarm in anymore … I don’t know, man, that would be a disaster.”

Månegarm is currently rounded out by guitarist Markus Andé–who, like Grawsiö, joined the band in 1996–and drummer Jakob Hallegren, who was inducted into the crew in 2008. But, like most European metal bands, Månegarm has undergone no shortage of lineup changes over the years; the number of its former members has stood at eight since founding guitarist Jonas “Rune” Almquist departed in 2016.

With that in mind, what makes new album Edsvuren a particularly special gift for the band and its trusty fans alike is that it’s arguably Månegarm’s most cohesive album to date. Due August 29, it’s an uncompromising affair in which the band doesn’t seem to falter or second-guess itself at any point. It resembles something of an album of greatest hits that the band hadn’t previously released.

“It turned out better than I hoped for,” Grawsiö says of Edsvuren, the name of which translates roughly in English to a person who swears an oath to supporting a king. “Thirty years into our career, I wanted to make an album that shows a lot of the Månegarm music spectra, every corner of it. Yes, we play metal, but all along we have had acoustic songs as well, which we also perform live from time to time. So there are a couple of metal songs, fast and slow, and hard and softer, and also acoustic songs that are also diverse.”

Grawsiö points out that Månegarm took its time with the follow-up to 2022’s Ynglingaättens Öde, Epitmizing the amount of effort the band put into the new record is “En nidings dåd,” a slow and mesmerizing track that Grawsiö says he worked on for many months.

“If you listen to this song, it only consists of actually two riffs played in different twists, but it is only two riffs that goes (during the entire) song,” Grawsiö points out. “But that was not the idea from the beginning, and I had a struggle to get it finished, because sometimes it’s hard to come up with the melodies that are suitable.

With the new record off their collective chest and fans digesting it, Grawsiö is ready to further challenge Månegarm and its fans by further developing some of Edsvuren, particularly its acoustic offerings, at the band’s concerts supporting the LP.

“I wanted this album to have it all, everything Månegarm is capable of creating,” Grawsiö concludes. “And I think we pulled it off.”

This entry was posted on 07/28/2025 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Interviews with tags Månegarm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.