Tromsø sits above the Arctic Circle — far enough north that summer doesn’t get dark and winter doesn’t get light. It’s not a place most music industry people end up on purpose. Blaze James ended up there last year on an invite from Bukta Festival promoter Isak, with two obligations: speak on a panel, watch some local bands. He walked up to see Heave Blood & Die with roughly zero context.
“Like right into the first song I was out of my mind,” James says. He manages At The Drive-In and Murder City Devils — bands that built entire careers on the kind of live charge that’s impossible to fake — so when he invokes the Devils, it carries some weight.
“It was haunting and dark, but a party vibe. Something I hadn’t experienced since the Murder City Devils in their heyday. And this was on a festival stage in broad daylight.”
What he was watching was a band that had already cleared considerable ground at home. Heave Blood & Die have been nominated for the Spellemann — Norway’s Grammy equivalent — named one of the most exciting new acts by Norwegian national radio, played Øya, Roskilde, Reeperbahn, and SXSW, and toured with Kvelertak. Outside Norway: essentially invisible.
James watched vocalist/guitarist Karl Løftingsmo Pedersen — “booming, but hypnotic” — while keyboardist Marie Sofie hammered her keys “like a mad puppeteer,” the rest of the band moving in unison through fog jets. Stoner groove, goth atmosphere, post-punk structure.
Queens of the Stone Age energy run through a Murder City Devils filter. “I was simply giddy with excitement,” James recalls. “Like ‘how isn’t this band massive?’ I was laughing out loud.” He places that feeling in maybe five or ten moments across a long career. “I had to do whatever I could to help bring their music to the world.”
He listened to their back catalog on the 15-hour flight home.
Then came the actual industry part. James tried to find the band a label and hit a wall at every turn. So he started one. Arduous Records launched with Heave Blood & Die as one of its inaugural signings, alongside LA band Failure, with an imprint deal through Virgin Music Group already in place. “I couldn’t find them a label to save my life, so I started one,” he says. “I know when people I play them for listen, they totally flip out. It’s just that, at this stage, it’s always really tough to get people to listen.”
The record he’s betting on is “Burnout Codes,” the band’s most recent album, now getting a re-release through Arduous. Karl describes it as “a band that is gearing up the pace of their hypnotic synth-driven rock into a nightmarish urge of energy often associated with punk rock or electronic club music.”
HARDBEAT called it a record that drags “us ears first to the end of civilization.” The RingMaster Review put it differently: post-punk at its core, but pulling equally from shoegaze, post-rock, indie and noise-adjacent territory.
The eight tracks are dedicated to the memory of Eivind Imingen, who died between the recording and its original release.
On the wider dynamic of local vs. international recognition, James acknowledges a cycle he’s seen play out before — hometown ownership that curdles slightly once a band starts gaining traction elsewhere, then eventually boomerangs back into pride.
Wyświetl ten post na Instagramie
“Will Heave Blood achieve success? They certainly have what it takes.” He stops short of declaring anything, which is probably right. The label speaks louder than any prediction.
Wyświetl ten post na Instagramie
Heave Blood & Die tour Europe and the UK this May.
10 May — Cologne, DE @ Garagen
11 May — Paris, FR @ Supersonic Club
13 May — London, UK @ The Black Heart
14 May — Southampton, UK @ Heartbreakers
15 May — Brighton, UK @ The Great Escape
16 May — Nijmegen, NL @ Sonic Whip
18 May — Heerlen, NL @ Nieuwe Nor
20 May — Warsaw, PL @ Voodoo
21 May — Leipzig, DE @ Noel’s Ballroom
23 May — BE @ Straatfeesten
24 May — Copenhagen, DK @ BETA2300
26 May — Stockholm, SE @ Debaser NovaIf you or someone you know is having a difficult time, free support
🔔 IDIOTEQ is ad-free, independent, and runs on one person’s time. If you want it to stay that way: DONATE via PayPal 𝗈𝗋 SUPPORT via Patreon.
Stay connected via Newsletter · Instagram · Facebook · X (Twitter) · Threads · Bluesky · Messenger · WhatsApp.
