Devil's Gate Music
Related Articles
Glasgow’s rising heavy metal powerhouse crew ELD VARG are poised to unleash their formidable new album, Destroyer, on Friday, 14th November. Ahead of the full release, the band will drop the album’s title track as a single — complete with an official video — on Friday, 7th November. Andy and Ollie from the band join us for a catch-up, below:
What are the origins of Eld Varg? How long have you been playing together?
Andy – Eld Varg started as a 1 man band, which explains the first album title being “One Man Army. Ollie started writing the music for OMA over 10 years ago, with no plans of it being a full band project, but once he had released the first version of the album, he realised it would be crazy not to bring the music to the stage! Around 3 years ago, Ollie started working with Micah and another drummer, bringing the songs to life, but once Andy came on board to play drums in May of 2023, everything took off! The reinforced edition of One Man Army was released, and we played our first live show in July 2023.
What should people expect when they check the band out? How would you describe Eld Varg?
Andy – I have a habit of describing us as “Accessible metal”. And by this, I think I mean we write metal for the masses. A lot of people are put off by heavy screaming vocals, but we stick to powerful sung vocals, including 2 and 3 part vocal harmonies, while performing melodic and catchy heavy metal music that appeals to all sorts of Metalheads! Expect powerful chonky heavy metal telling tales of battles and overcoming adversity.
How did you feel performing your first gig as a band, and how was it?!
Andy – We were really excited to play our first gig. We had the honour of supporting legends Titan (RIP Kev Riddles) in Edinburgh, and we couldn’t have asked for a better first gig. Attendance wasn’t huge, but everyone had a blast, and we had stacks of really positive feedback! We were told last minute we had a longer set than we were first told, which resulted in me sitting and listening through another song I hadn’t yet learnt, drumming away on my knees, and we absolutely nailed it, having never played the song as a band before!
What are you working on at the moment that people can check out?
Andy – At the moment, we are running up to the release of our second album “Destroyer”. We have so far released 2 singles, “Black Starlight” and “Darkest Waves”, both of which have accompanying music videos. We still have a 3rd single, the title track, “Destroyer”, will be released on 7th November, again being released with a Music video. The full album releases on the 14th November, and we can’t wait for our fans to hear what we’ve been working on!
Regarding a similar audience, which band at the moment do you feel that Eld Varg would be best suited to open for?
Andy – There’s no question there, we would best be suited opening for the mighty Grand Magus. They may well be the top influence for us, playing a similar style of heavy metal and also being a power trio.
Excluding yourself, which new band would you like to see break out and succeed?
Ollie – We’re good friends with the band Crusaders from Glasgow. They play no-nonsense thrash metal, with a new album out any minute —definitely worth a look. I think I’d also like Ningen Isu to become more of an international success. They started playing overseas just as lockdown hit, and it really halted their progress. It would be great to see them back in the UK.
What frustrates you about the music business?
Andy – As much as I love streaming, and I use music streaming services every day, I think it has really hurt the smaller side of the live music scene. Prior to streaming, you would just go to a gig, not knowing any of the bands playing; that’s how you found bands, but now you can check any band out online beforehand. So say there are 4 bands playing a show, someone checks them all out, decides they only like 1 or 2 of the bands, and might decide not to bother going. The current cost of living crisis and increasing venue hire costs and gig ticket prices don’t help matters.
What are your first musical memories? And what lightbulb moment made you say, “I want to do that”?
Ollie – I’d always grown up with music around the house; there was always a record or a CD playing somewhere, so it’s just been a constant from the start. I think the real moment that I had to start playing with was when I discovered KISS. It was more than I could have ever imagined music to be at 13! It took me a few years to pick up a guitar, but that was the moment that I knew I wanted to do it.
What was the last gig that you attended as a fan?
Ollie – With the amount of work that we’ve been putting into this new album, I haven’t attended as many shows this year as I would have liked, but the last one was earlier in the year, seeing Grand Magus open for Opeth. It’s no secret I’m a fan of Grand Magus, so it was great to see them again and have a catch-up with their bassist, Fox.
The album that you have in your album collection/Spotify playlist that would surprise most people?
Ollie – When I’m working on writing and recording an album, there’s usually enough metal in my life with just the Eld Varg stuff, so I usually stray to different styles of music during that period. During the lead-up to Destroyer, I have delved deep into 70s Funk and Soul, specifically Tower of Power. Their albums “Tower of Power”, “Urban Renewal”, and “Back to Oakland” have been in heavy rotation recently.
Everybody is a fan of something. Who or what are you a fan of?
Ollie – Outside of all of the musical influences we’ve spoken about so far, Pizza. I would have Pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of my life and be quite content.
What new music have you been enjoying so far this year?
Ollie –Year of the Goat have just released a new album, “Trivia Goddess”, which is pretty cool. Again, I’ve been so deep in Eld Varg music this year that I’ve not been able to keep up properly, so I’ve been just catching up with some late 2024 releases, such as Sunraven by Grand Magus and Draconian Darkness by Wolfpack. Sabaton are just about to release a new album, so that will be getting played on release day!
What does the closing stages of 2025 hold for Eld Varg?
Andy – The rest of 2025 will see us release our 3rd single, the title track “Destroyer” from the forthcoming album “Destroyer”, which will also be released before the end of the year. The Single is released on 7th November, with the album releasing a week later on 14th November. Following this, we have an album release show in Glasgow on the 21st November at Audio, and we will be headlining Mosh Monthly in Dundee on 5th December. We will also have more shows for 2026 to announce soon as part of our Destroyer release tour.
How active are you on social media, and where can people connect with you?
Andy – We are very active on social media, doing our best to interact with anyone who interacts with us. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram or at our own website, www.eldvarg.com, for all of our updates and what we have going on. And definitely feel free to come up and say hi at one of our shows, we love getting to meet new people!
