Til Valhallar was originally intended as a follow-up to their first demo Í Norðri. Six tracks were recorded but instead of being their second demo it became their first MCD. Four of the six songs were released on this day in 1996 by Czech label View Beyond Records.
We never switched, I don't think. There's always the first wave of black metal, second wave of black metal. Our band was Bathory, or a band called Flames of Hell it was in 1987. There was no black metal back home in 1995. We did the demo and then we did Til Valhallar in 1996, it came out in Czech Republic. It was always about changing. I remember clearly, we were listening to Burzum and Bathory and then I was listening to the Smashing Pumpkins. One is meant to be super serious and the American is meant to be not serious. But the Smashing Pumpkins are not a funny band, it's super serious. It's very melancholic. Read the lyrics, it's changed my life when I discovered that. But then ten years ago I discovered Neil Young and it changed my life and Nick Cave. And that's just me. Listen to all kinds of music. And maybe there's three years between albums, things can happen you can tour you can get influenced by that like I said before. We never said right now we are going to change to a different direction. It never happened. It never will happen. We just don't want to do the same thing twice.
- Aðalbjörn Tryggvason / Solstafir interview, OneMetal, 2015