It's always nice when a whole lot of bands get together for a tour, and the Wrongdoers Tour was one such monster, with a total of six bands sharing the stage, with the headliner being NORMA JEAN.
 

I always feel rather sorry for the first band; so often the audience approaches them with about as much enthusiasm as one would a bubonic leper with halitosis, and this night proved to be no exception. The first band was BRANSON HOLLIS, a French Post-Hardcore / Alternative band. With the exception of the drummer, all band members took turns at doing the vocals, with some pulling this off rather more successfully than others. BRANSON HOLLIS are still a very green band, and this was something that was immediately apparent from their live performance. Nevertheless, you could see that they were trying their best, even though the only people within a 10 meter radius of the stage were a few guys from the next band, NIGHT VERSES who clearly took pity on the band.
 

Picking up where BRANSON HOLLIS left off was NIGHT VERSES from New York. This band is a bit of a mix between Post-Hardcore and Alternative, with a very unique sound. Their music ranged from soothingly melodies intertwines with xylophone harmonies, to enthusiastic and energetic anthems which literally had the drummer jumping up and down on the drum throne. One of the most outstanding features of this band was the absolute passion with which they played. They were having the time of their lives up on the stage, and this joie de vivre carried across to the audience. In my opinion, these guys were definitely one of the better bands of the evening, a sentiment the crowd clearly agreed with, if their cries for more was anything to go by.
 

Following on from NIGHT VERSES was I AM HERESY, a band I was very much looking forward to seeing live. With the stage shrouded in a red fog, a diabolical mask of a goat's head with glowing red eyes at the centre of the stage, and satanic intros to each song, this was definitely a band that revelled in the darker undertones of their music. This darkened Hardcore band from New Jersey certainly put on a diabolical performance, being joined by a guest vocalist during their last song, "I Am Heresy". With their eerie stage props, demented stage presence, and the occult atmosphere enhanced by the incense billowing off the stage, this band certainly put on a performance that will be remembered for some time to come.
 

Setlist:
1. Rahabh
2. The Dawn of Errant Light
3. March of Black Earth
4. 7 Wolves
5. Our Father
6. Hinnom II (This is the Second Death)
7. Hive Mind
8. I am Heresy
 

Next up was WOLVES LIKE US, a Norwegian Post Hardcore band. This band has come exceptionally far in their very short history, and within a year of having been formed already had signed to a fairly big record label, had played large festivals, and had already released their first full-length album. This band put on a really good show, and was definitely one of the highlights of the evening, playing songs like "Three Poisons" from their new album "Black Soul Choir".
 

The penultimate band of the evening was LIFERUINER, a Canadian Straight-Edge-Hardcore band. What I found really great about this band was that the vocalist actually leapt off the stage after a few songs, and spent the rest of the gig pacing around in front of the audience, which was something much enjoyed by their fans. This band has gone through a difficult time recently, with a death in the family on one of the band members. There had initially been talk of dropping out of the tour, but the band did eventually decide to continue with the tour as planned, much to the delight of their fans.
 

Finally it was time for the headliners of the night, the legendary NORMA JEAN, a Mathcore / Post Hardcore band from Atlanta. They hit the stage in a burst of motion, dynamism, and energy. This was another drummer who could not bear the thought of staying still on his throne, and he spent much of the set jumping up and down, playing whilst standing up. The rest of the band was just as restless, never standing still for a second, and each member spent the entire set in a frenetic flurry of activity.
 

Setlist:
1. If You Got It at Five, You Got It at Fifty
2. The Potter Has No Hands
3. Birth of the Anti Mother
4. Wrongdoers
5. Sword in Mouth, Fire Eyes
6. Hive Minds
7. Bayonetwork: Vultures in Vivid Color
8. I Used to Hate Cell Phones But Now I Hate Car Accidents
9. The End of All Things Will Be Televised
10. A Small Spark vs. A Great Forest
11. Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste

Overall, it was a fantastically diverse night, with many great performances all round. The only downside is that the sound; although generally good, every now and then there were small glitches during which the sound dropped out completely. But other than that, a great tour!

 

WOLVES LIKE US is a Norwegian Rock/Alternative band who have just released their second full length album "Black Soul Choir". Currently on tour with NORM JEAN and a whole host of other bands, I caught up with Espen Helvig, guitarist of WOLVES LIKE US, and we had a chat about their tours this year, their new album, as well as the band's history.

You have been touring quite a lot this year.

Yeah, we did a tour in February for fifteen dates, then we got back to home and we did six dates in Norway. That was in March. And now in April we are doing this tour, which is fifteen dates. And we all have regular full-time jobs!

You must have great bosses!

I have a boss who lets me take vacation time. I work at a hospital. I'm a nurse, so I work shifts, on weekends and stuff, so I can change things around a bit, and take some time off.

Have there been any highlights on these tours? Or any places you've never been to before?

It was really fun on the last tour we did with LONG DISTANCE CALLING, we went to Barcelona. We've never been there before. That was really cool. One of the highlights on this tour is coming up. It's in Slovenia; we've never been there either. It's called Ljubljana. And we're going to Budapest in Hungary, we've also never gone there. Highlights in terms of shows on this tour, Bremen in Germany was really fun, and Siegen, also in Germany was also good.

How has the reaction been to your new album, "Black Soul Choir"?

It's been really good. We almost didn't get any bad reviews on it. We were actually quite overwhelmed by it. We were like "What, holy shit!" We think that the album is good, but we didn't know that everybody would like it. We had no clue. We had no clue at all. It was like "Who's gonna like this album? I dunno."

Now that the album is out, in retrospect, is there anything you would change about it?

I'm happy with the way it came out. I like the album. It's an album from top to bottom if you know what I mean, you have to listen to the whole album. There are some songs there that will stand out I guess, but the album… I would recommend people to listen to the whole album. If they have the time! Times are changing, when you're with Spotify and things like that you can pick which songs you like and the whole album concept is maybe not what it used to be.

WOLVES LIKE US seem to be pretty big on the whole vinyl.

Every release of ours is on vinyl. When we got the record deal with Prosthetic, we had one thing, that was we said "We want the album released on vinyl". That was our only condition.

What was the inspiration behind "Black Soul Choir"?
Lyric-wise I know that Lars write personal lyrics, dark lyrics. I know on this album it's even darker than the last album. Music-wise we are inspired by a lot of things. Me myself, I'm a huge Death Metal fan. I just pre-ordered DEATH's "Leprosy", their reissue, today. We like Pop music, we like Rock music; it's quite diverse. I think the main inspiration for this band is the bands we grew up with like QUICK SAND, HOT WATER MUSIC, THE AFGAHN WHIGS, a lot of those bands… HELMET: that's a good band. You know, those early 90's bands. There are a couple of bands from Norway that I like, that I recommend people should listen to:  KVELERTAK obviously, then you have a band called DIE A LEGEND, which is a Hardcore band, and also cool is a band called INCENCE, a Norwegian Metal band. They're really good, and have a new record coming out.

The last song on "Black Soul Choir", "Thanatos Wins Again" is such a dark title, what with Thanatos being the Greek daemon personification of death. Was there anything you were trying to say with that?

We thought the whole way that that song is going to be the ender because of the long stretch at the end. That's the main reason; it's a long song and it's kind of a little bit different from the rest of the album I guess. Lars should have been here to answer that question!

How do you manage to balance WOLVES LIKE US with the other side projects you're involved in?

There's not that many side projects anymore actually, because we're touring with this band. I have another band actually, with a couple of friends of mine. Old friends, just hanging out, doing stuff in his basement actually, rehearsing, having fun. It pretty much takes up all your time; with family, work, and you're in a band that's touring, there's not that much time for other bands I guess, just small side projects.

Speaking about former projects, what part did INFIDELS FOREVER play in WOLVES LIKE US's history?

You've heard about INFIDELS FOREVER? That was Lars and Toy's old band. The vocalist and a couple of other guys too. They asked me to join that band. They had the idea that I could play guitar in that band, even though up to that point I played bass. We were friends, and they said "Hey, come on, join". So I joined that band. And we did two records with that band, which is really good I'd say. But it didn't reach outside Norway I guess. We did a US tour, like a really small shitty US tour back in 2006, but that's it. But Jonas the drummer used to play in AMULET. They did a lot of tours here in Europe. They were more of a Punk band. And they also played in JR EWING. But that was a really long time ago. That was almost 15 years ago since he played there.

WOLVES LIKE US was just started a few years ago, and have come really far really fast.

Yeah, we started this band because AMULET broke up, and INFIDELS FOREVER also broke up. Jonas booked shows at this club in Oslo, and he just came up to Lars one day and said "Hi, I really like your band, your old band. Why don't you three guys start playing with me, and just have fun? Let's do some shows, maybe have a seven inch out". That was the idea. Before we knew it, we had a record deal, we played the biggest festival in Norway, got radio airplay. That was kinda weird too.  And everything kinda snowballed, and we were doing our best just to hang on. Lars has a kid. Everyone's married and has a family, kids and stuff, but we're trying to do what we have time for.

Well, those would be all my questions. Thanks for your time!

Thank you!