HELLO, AND WELCOME.THIS IS MY TRIBUTE PAGE FOR THE BLACK METAL BAND WINDIR.
I AM NOT THE BAND
BIOGRAPHY
Windir formed in 1994 and hail from the Sogndal region of Norway, well known for its local dialect "Saognamaol" with its destinctive rolled R's. They began life as the vision of one man, Terje Bakken who has become better know to his fans as Valfar.The word Windir itself translates to English as "Warrior" or "primal warrior".The music its self is a somber mixture of harsh Black Metal and traditional Norwegian Folk music.
Valfar began recording material as Windir in early 1995 and between then and late 1996 released 2 demos, "Sognariket" & "Det gamle riket" these demos brought the music of Windir too many new people and Valfar recived a number of recording contract offers from both Norwegian and foreign record labels.
In late 1996 Valfar signed a two album deal with Norwegian label Head Not Found, The first of these albums being the stunning full length debut "Sóknardalr"recorded in January 1997 and released in April 1997 the record recived much critical acclaim.Valfar wrote the music and lyrics, performed all the vocals apart from the "clean" parts and recorded all the instruments apart from the drums(which were played by future band member Steingrim) himself and took just 4 days to record the whole album it in its entirety.The album set the template for Windirs wonderful mixture of Harsh Black Metal & Valfars much loved traditional Norwegian folk elements.The abum gained many positve reviews and sold over 2000 copys in the first year of its release(which is good for a Black Metal band, perticually back in 1997)
Shortly after the release of Sóknardalr Valfar begun work on its follow up which went on to become the legendry album"Arntor".The record was recorded between August and October 1998 at the World famous Grieghallen studio's in Burgen whish is situated in South-East Norway, As the music was becoming ever more complex Valfar made the decision to use session musicians to aid him record, but even still the screamed vocals, rhythm guitars, bass, synthesisers and accordion were all still played by the talented Valfar.
The record itself added to the already rich sound that Valfar had harnessed with the first three recordings, Increasing the folk elements of the music yet being harsh and grim when required, infact some of the songs are actual folk tunes rewritten by Valfar giving the record an incredibly authentic feel.The album tells the legend of the Sogndal hero Arntor.
In October 2001 Windir released a third full length album "1184" Around this time Valfar had decided to recruit the session musicans from Arntor as full time band members, they all came from the band Ulcus who are also from Sogndal, They shared a similar musical vision to Valfar who had also grown up with them helping the band to merge together very quickly.
1184 also marked the first occasion that somebody else wrote music for the band, Valfar felt that while the band had made some progression with the first two albums there was something was missing, the answer to this problem came in the form of Havall who composed his parts of the album totally seperatly to Valfar but they produced ther seperate parts together ensuring a good balance to there different sounds and stopping it from sounding like two seperate works of music.
The lyrics on 1184 are written in a mixture of English and Saognamaol, Valfar decided upon this as a way to expand the bands audience and to give the music new depths.
In 2003 the band went on to release what sadly would be there last album the spellbinding Likferd.
After the tragic passing of Valfar the other members decided to end the band as a mark of respect to Valfar, never ones to sit around doing nothing Hváll (Bass) Steingrim (Drums) Sture (Vocals and Guitar) with Ese (Guitar-He co-engineer Windirs Likferd album) Begun a new group Vreid they already have 2 full length studio albums under there collective bullet belts and have a third album in the pipeline.
for more info.....Vreid
WINDIR LIVE AT THE INFERNOFESTIVAL 29.03.2002
Arntor played byDodskald
Windir : Sognariket Sine Krigarar (live)
This video is from Windirs last ever performance, As a tribute to Valfar the band performed one last time.Valfars brother Vegard Bakken provides the vocals in Valfars place.
