Skyforger is Pagan metal band from Latvia.
Their lyrics talk about Latvian History and Pagan Mythology and are nothing about politic.



In 2003 Skyforger in cooperation with Latvian Culture Capital foundation sponsored by the government, released pure folk music album "Sword Song".
After "Thunderforge" released, the band got nominated in 2004 to various rock music categories in own Latvian Grammy's awards and played live at broadcasting ceremony nationwide.

in 2008 the guitarist Rihards Skudrîtis leaves the band forever to give it to Martins.
They are curently working on their new album. they changed studio, it won't be "Phoenix" but "Lauska" studio where Kaspars is the owner.

Current line-up :
Pçteris ''Peter'' - Vocals, Guitar (Grindmaster Dead) (1995-)
Kaspars - Various Folk Instruments
Edgars "Zirgs" - Bass (Grindmaster Dead) (1995-)
Edgars "Mazais" - Drums (Heresiarh, Morituri) (1998-)
Martins - Guitars (2008-)



Discography :
Semigalls' Warchant Demo, 1997
Kauja Pie Saules (The Battle of Saule) Full-length, 1998
Latvieðu Strçlnieki (Latvian Riflemen) Full-length, 2000
Perkonkalve (Thunderforge) Full-length, 2003
Zobena Dziesma (Swordsong) Full-length, 2003
Semigalls' Warchant Best of/Compilation, 2005
Kurbads, full-lengh, 2010


http://www.skyforger.lv/
http://www.myspace.com/skyforgerofficial

Concerts page on Sword Chant

Useful post : I love them ! :'D

I've mostly heard stuff I didn't quite enjoy too much from them.. What is their best album according to you so I can try them out again?

I only have their "Zobena Dziesma"-CD and I just love it. Beautiful pagan folk!

This band is excellent, especially with their album "Zobena Dziesma" (Sword Song) indeed. for me their folk music is the best of all their work!

Well, its a long time ago i first heard Perkonkalve (Thunderforge), and i dint like it, maybe i will chekc their metal albums out again. I do like Zobena Dziesma" (Sword Song).

Their new album will be called "Kurbads"!

Quote:

"Kurbads" is the name of legendary hero from Latvian fairytales of an old. He was born magically from the white mare, grew up very fast and was unimaginably strong! In his tale he travels the world, fights various evil creatures, especially his sworn enemy Snake Witch, ventures into realm of the dead to save daughter of the king, finds the hard way out of there and finally fights in last epic battle against Snake Witch and her champion. Tales about Kurbads are half fairytales and half legends. They were collected and recorded at the end of 19th century by some folk enthusiasts and are type of "told from mouth to mouth, from generation to generations". Mainly these stories are short or middle length and have many variations. There are several heroes, who were born from various beings and things. For example: son of wood, son of iron, son of blacksmith, son of ox, son of pea, son of wolf and most known - son of bear. From the tale about son of bear there was later written our national epos "The Bear Slayer" (in Latvian called "Lāčplēsis"). The main story for all of them however in common is very same with some variations. The thing for me there is that some parts, in my view, are coming from very old past, from times of the totemism, when some powerful beast (bear or white mare) appears as the first father/mother of some tribe or even nation! Unfortunately, as it happens with such things, these stories are changed all the way through the centuries, some things are forgotten and other things are imagined anew by the tellers themselves. But the very core of those tales still is the same and mainly it is a legend about Dragonslayer, which has almost every Indo-European nation - the man who fights against some mythic evil force and becomes a legend. I believe that the tale about "KURBADS" is interesting enough as it discovers many things from the past of Latvian people - not historical facts of course, but things from daily life and way of thinking of people who lived in ancient times. Baltic cultural heritage is mostly unknown for the rest of the Europe (even as it is a part of it!) and world, so we want to uncover it a bit as best as we can and show that there, in Baltic (Latvian and Lithuanian) literature is as great legends and tales as those about Cuchulainn, Nibelungs, Kalevala, King Arthur and the knights of the round table and such! More news about album will be posted, as they happens.

_________________
Some philosophy lessons are needed for anyone :

Artist is the one that creates art to be seen/heard for free and people gives whatever money if they want to or not.
Craftsman is the one that creates art to be sold.

i have all but the upcoming album (has it been released?) love this band! really can't go wrong as far as i'm concerned.

in the end, Not! but it will.^^
Heres the release dates :
23th of April : Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy
26th of April : rest of Europe
11th of May : USA, CAN

they signed to metal blade rec. heres a little preview of the album :

News about Kurbads :

Spoiler:

Tracklist:
1. Curse Of The Witch
2. Son Of The Mare
3. The Nine-Headed
4. Bewitched Forest
5. In The Yard Of The Father's Son
6. The Devilslayer
7. The Stone Sentinel
8. In The Underworld
9. Black Rider
10. The Last Battle
11. Kurbads (Bonus Track)

You can listen to "Son Of The Mare" on their myspace!

Skyforger wrote:

SKYFORGER recorded KURBADS at Latvian studio Lauska in 2009 together with the bands own bagpipe player Kaspars Barbals handling engineering duties. The band members also produced the album themselves. The artwork was created by SKYFORGER´s guitarist Martins and is connected to the whole story of Kurbads More information regarding the concept of Kurbads will be revealed shortly.

_________________
Some philosophy lessons are needed for anyone :

Artist is the one that creates art to be seen/heard for free and people gives whatever money if they want to or not.
Craftsman is the one that creates art to be sold.

Hahaha! That's such an awesome cover! x)

Can't seem to find their albums. But want to check them out.