KALANDRA
Their Nordic folk created a therapeutic space for metalheads to retreat to
WORDS: EMILY SWINGLE
PRESS/LINNEA SYVERSEN
“I
never know what genre we fit into,” Katrine Stenbekk muses, earrings chiming as she tilts her head in thought. “It’s quite interesting that metalheads resonate with our sound.”
As she sits before us, delicately piecing together her thoughts, Kalandra’s frontwoman seems at odds with the metal world. Her doe-eyed, gentle demeanour is that of a nymph plucked straight out of the forest. It perfectly pairs with the band’s ethereal formula of prog-infused riffs, fluttering birdsong and mystical Nordic alt folk. Second record A Frame Of Mind is like a series of lessons learned from therapy sessions, with single Untie The Knot questioning what life would look like if she let go of limiting beliefs and accepted herself fully.