Biography

ALVENRAD hails from the Veluwe and is conceived as a folk metal band. Their latest album Veluws IJzer (iron from the Veluwe) should be seen as their signature album. Strongly rooted in the Veluwe, the band draws musical inspiration from 90s nature inspired metal like originators Vintersorg, Borknagar and old Ulver. With majestic vocals, Germanic alliterative verse, blackened guitars and pastoral keys ALVENRAD conjures the Veluwe landscape in splendour and isolation.
They have toured with Heidevolk through the provinces of the Netherlands and played various shows in Germany. Check out the gig list for future shows. Take note, the band plays live for real: no click-track, backing track or that kind of nonsense; but improvised solo’s, extended song performances and so on. True skaldic rock ‘n roll!

In retrospect the formative years were the time Mark Bertszoon and Jasper Strik created Faelwa and Stormsterk. Faelwa was intended to be the Dutch succession of bands like Empyrium and Tenhi. With Stormsterk the duo played nostalgic songs rooted in North-European folk music.

With the EP Farewell Sun (’09) from Faelwa and the full-length Wild en Bijster Land (’10) from Stormsterk the two enthused Thor Joakimsson, known as talent scout for Prophecy Productions. He re-established his own record label Trollmusic at the time. While the guys informed Joakimsson about their plan to do a metal project, the label owner offered them a record deal immediately – without hearing a single note. ALVENRAD signed a two-album deal with Trollmusic in ’13.

Entitled Habitat the debut album saw the light as noble digipak in both Europe and the United States on the 4th and 15th of April ’14 respectively. The band’s wayward approach to folk metal left no reviewer indifferent, comparing from Jethro Tull to Vintersorg.

Drummer Ingmar Regeling and bass player Arjan Hoekstra joined the duo to enter the stage in ’16. Also Koen de Graaf played a role by doing some vocals. Thus the world premiere was in Balve (Germany) on the 28th of July in ’16, the eve of the Prophecy Fest. Then Hoekstra quit and Bertzoon’s younger brother Thijs Kwint took his place. Bertszoon and Strik took over all vocals from then on. With the new line-up ALVENRAD supported Empyrium and Les Discrets in Oberhausen on the 28th of April in ’17.

The band released their second album entitled Heer as a luxury box set on the 8th of December ’17. The album showed a different approach to folk metal once more and leaned heavily on 70s rock. Thus keyboardist Strik focussed on Hammond this time. Arrow Classic Rock loved it, Aardschok hated it! Markus Stock (Empyrium, Noekk, The Vision Bleak), who did the mixing and mastering at Klangschmiede Studio E, anticipated with “glueing the low-ends”. Thus the overall sound turned out richly organic and dark.

Being a concept album, the lyrics together formed a free and personal adaption of the old Icelandic poem Skírnismál. Trollmusic owner Joakimsson connected the band to David Thiérrée, who’s artwork gave a brilliant perspective on the story. Lyricist Bertszoon used old Germanic verse form for a large part of the lyrics. Since this hadn’t been done in rock music before, it made the album even more unique.

With Hanna van Gorcum on nyckelharpa they did their first show on Dutch ground on the 10th of December ’17 and their festival debut at Dong Open Air on the 14th of July ’18. Then ALVENRAD joined Heidevolk on their tour through the provinces of the Netherlands in ’19. Meanwhile they parted ways with Regeling on drums and welcomed Nathanael Taekema (Thomas Zwijsen, ex-Cirrha Niva) in his place.

The founding fathers went into Luidheim Studio to write and record their signature album Veluws IJzer in ’20. To record drums they booked E-Sound Studio’s with Thomas Cochrane at the helm (Hologram Earth, Ancient Rites) at the end of that year.

After Veluws IJzer had been released, Maurits van der Held joined the band as lead guitarist in ‘22. They returned to stages while in between the shows they released their last feat, an EP entitled Van Alven en Wolven (Of Elves and Wolves) which came out on tape in ‘23.

Nowadays the band is writing a new full-length entitled De zon die ik zag and another EP called Wereldwending. Stay tuned!