Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee, VALKYRIE’S FIRE are a rising Symphonic Power Metal band that has wasted no time making an impact. Their debut release, the EP Ascension, turned heads from the very beginning, earning recognition and nominations at various music awards. Now, they are preparing for the next major milestone in their career with the release of their debut full-length album, Out Of Darkness, on September 18 through Eclipse Records. With the album’s release just around the corner, this was the perfect opportunity to get to know the band better through our conversation with their vocalist, Adam Sanders.
Metalwar: Hello! Welcome to Metalwar webzine. It is an honor! First of all, please introduce yourself to our readers.
Adam Sanders: Hi, I’m Adam Sanders, the guy singer from Valkyrie’s Fire.
Metalwar: How did you guys meet and decide to create a band?
Adam Sanders: Dave reached out to me in early September 2021 pitching his idea for the band – I believe I was the first person he asked to join. It didn’t take long for us to find out that we had common interests in the music we listen to, and that we had a similar vision for what we were looking for in a band, so it was a pretty natural fit. It took another two years for Dave to seek out the other band members, culminating in our initial line-up in the summer of 2023.
Metalwar: In your video clip “Nectar of the Gods”, the band is having fun in a bar, singing and drinking. How important is it for a band’s members to communicate and have fun together? I mean, we see very often metal bands to change their members all the time and this can affect their evolution.
Adam Sanders: Well of course it’s important to have fun together! I mean sure, being in a band is essentially a business, but we all still enjoy being around each other, which really helps our ability to communicate. After all, it’s hard to be vulnerable about our creative ideas, concerns, etc. if there isn’t trust or camaraderie amongst us.
Metalwar: I had the chance to listen to your first release which was the EP “Ascencion”. Your music is defined as symphonic power metal with Heavy and Epic metal elements I may add. What are your favorite bands or artists that influenced your music?
Adam Sanders: I think that answer is different for all six of us. Of course, we’re all influenced by Nightwish and Iron Maiden and the like, but we all also have individual influences we bring to the table – I myself was a classical musician for years before becoming a singer, and I’m also heavily influenced by power metal bands like Avantasia, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, DragonForce, etc. I think the variety of influences we all bring is what helps us create the unique sound we’ve been able to develop.
Metalwar: You are about to release your first full length album, “Out of Darkness”, in September. In general, what are the lyrical themes you explore with your music?
Adam Sanders: We cover all sorts of topics! We cover things like sorrow and loss (Evermore, Dark Moon, I Will Rise Again, Shattered), nature (Skylark), blood and gore (Burning Sky, Valkyrie’s Fire), the cosmos (Cascade), fantasy (Nocturne), and so much more. We do our best to not restrict ourselves to one theme for everything.
Metalwar: What is the creative process behind the creation of “Out of Darkness”?
Adam Sanders: The process was different for each song. I wrote “Cascade,” “Skylark,” and “Bone and Thorn” all on my own (Joey later added some things in the orchestration for B&T), and for other songs like “Burning Sky,” “Evermore,” and others, it was a mix of Joey writing music, Bettie, Joey, and myself writing vocal melodies, and varying degrees of all six of us writing lyrics. Most of what we do is very collaborative.
Metalwar: You recently released your new single, “Burning Sky” featuring Mikael Sehlin of AMARANTHE. How did this collaboration happen?
Adam Sanders: Dave initially reached out to Mikael to ask about having him master the album, since we were looking for someone to do that after Joey mixed it, but over the course of that discussion, Dave floated the idea to him to be a guest on one of our songs. Things just went from there, and he ended up on “Burning Sky.”
Metalwar: The track is heavier, with an even fuller and more epic orchestral arrangement. Is it something that will characterize the whole album or you just showed us another face of the band and took full advantage of having Mikael involved in it?
Adam Sanders: The orchestral arrangements are a fixture throughout the whole album, for sure. “Burning Sky” is also definitely a little on the heavy side in comparison to the rest of the album. It wasn’t planned that way, but it ended up being a great fit to insert Mikael (we already had the song written/recorded before talking to him about it).
Metalwar: You come from Nashville in the States but your music balances between the U.S. Power Metal scene and the European Symphonic Metal so I guess you target both “markets”. How difficult is for a new band to step on two boats and reach right away a worldwide audience?
Adam Sanders: I may think about this a little differently than the rest of the band, but I hardly think about “markets” in the traditional sense. Our primary focus is to make the music we want to create, and as long as we do our due diligence in writing, recording, performing, promoting, etc., our audience will find us, whether it’s in the US, Europe, South America, Japan, or wherever else.
Metalwar: The last few years, the changes in music industry are huge. Streaming platforms, the use of AI etc. Is it an environment that helps a new band to grow or the difficulties are even greater?
Adam Sanders: Your guess is as good as mine, lol. Thankfully, musicians and fans alike are typically perceptive enough to determine whether or not something is AI, and know to steer clear of it. Streaming is a double-edged sword, since it allows easier access for new folks to listen to our music (which I think is a wonderful thing), but it’s not something we can earn much revenue from, let alone sustain ourselves on. So it’s hard to say whether or not it helps us grow – the best we can do for now is to keep doing what we’re doing and trust our ability to keep making great music and develop our bond with our fans.
Metalwar: What are your plans for the future apart from releasing your new album?
Adam Sanders: We have a few performances lined up this summer and fall here in the US, and we’re currently applying to perform at festivals throughout the US and Europe in the coming year.
Metalwar: I think we covered everything! I would like to thank you once again for your time and wish you all the best with the new album and your career in general. You may close this interview with a message to Greek metalheads.
Adam Sanders: Greetings to all our fans in Greece, and thanks for taking the time to check out our stuff. We look forward to performing in your country as soon as we get the chance!
Interview – Text: Kostas Boudoukos
