Interview: Ifreann

On February the 21st the UK thrash metallers of Ifreann released their new EP, titled Desecration. DutchMetalManiac’s Tim van Velthuysen recently interviewed them.

Hey, how are you?

Hello, I am very well and very glad to be speaking with you, thank you.

Can you tell us something about the history of Ifreann?

In its earliest form, Ifreann have been jamming since early 2015, but we weren’t a full line up until 2016 and we didn’t play live until 2017. Since then we have recorded 3 EPs, filmed two music videos & toured across the UK, including headline shows in Scotland, England & Ireland (as of March 2020).

For people not knowing Ifreann (yet), how would you describe your music yourself?

We like to class ourselves as old-school thrash combined with new-era attitudes, a dash of NWOBHM & a touch of extreme metal. This combined together creates what we feel is a unique and fresh yet familiar and welcoming sound, that hopefully everyone in the metal community can enjoy.

When someone doesn’t know Ifreann yet and you can choose one of your songs to present yourself, which song would that be?

Mirror Of Sanity from our first EP because I feel it encapsulates every style we take influence from in one track. It’s super thrashy, but has a lot of groove, melody and even blast beats. Either that or Of Blade & Blackened Wing, the opening track from our recent EP Desecration because it has all those same influences but sounds more like what we do now and is more fresh in people’s heads.

What makes Ifreann unique?

Like I mentioned earlier, the combination of styles we have to create our sound, but we also have a strong hard working DIY etiquette that I feel pushes us further than a lot of bands at our level.

Any future plans you can already tell us something about?

We just announced a June UK co-headline tour with Frenatron, a thrash band from Germany/Poland. It’s not announced yet, but this will result in the same tour in those two countries in September.

Any other upcoming gigs for Ifreann? Maybe coming to The Netherlands?

We’d love to come to The Netherlands. We have plans to play shows in Western Europe in November. If any promoters or bands in The Netherlands would like to hit us up for something, please don’t hesitate.

How do you think your life would be without music?

Boring and probably non existent since I don’t see much point in living without music.

What advice would you give to young and starting bands?

Don’t form a band with your mate just because they’re your mate if they don’t have the skill, attitude or commitment to be in a band, they will only waste your time. Also don’t be afraid to ask to be paid for gigs, just make sure you ask BEFORE agreeing to play, and make sure you have it in writing (or text).

Thanks for your answers! Is there anything you want to say to DutchMetalManiac’s readers?

Thank you very much for reading this. If you like thrash metal, please give us a listen, and if you like what you hear enough, head over to our BigCartel and buy something.

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