EMQs With Celtic Hills
EMQs With Celtic Hills
Hi everyone. Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with Austrian Speedpower/ Melodic Death Metal band, Celtic Hills. Huge thanks to Jonathan Vanderbilt for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
CELTIC HILLS! The genre is Speedpower Metal with Melodic Death influences.
How did you come up with your band name?
It’s an English translation of the geographical area where we live.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
We are in a border area between Austria and Slovenia in a region called Friuli.
What is your latest release?
June 2025 with the single ‘METALDAYS’ dedicated to the Festival held in Tolmin, Slovenia.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Gamma Ray, Rage, and more recently Children of Bodom.
What first got you into music?
I grew up with music because my mother was a singer.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Ren Marobu from Finland, Powercross from Greece.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Wacken because it’s THE FESTIVAL.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
A jar of fig jam.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
A general message, you mean? I keep in touch with my fans, but a universal message to them would be: use your head, but live with your heart.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Cliff Burton. After he passed away, Metallica became something different from what I liked.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Being an artist makes you experience the world in a different and perhaps better way. I hate having to meet the expectations of the music business
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Valuing the quality of artists and not the number of LIKES.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
“Ride the Lightning” by Metallica.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs or Downloads?
I have a good collection of vinyl and CDs, but the most convenient thing to use is digital music. I prefer YouTube to Spotify.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
The one we haven’t played yet! Ha ha ha.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Race car drivers.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Five? I don’t have enough money to invite five people to dinner!
What’s next for the band?
We changed the lineup, which caused delays in releasing the new album, as the songs had to be rearranged and re-recorded. The new lineup also includes a second guitarist, Edi Zorz from Slovenia.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
In addition to the usual Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify, we use an American link:
https://www.n1m.com/celtichills/
There’s a long-standing food-based debate here in the UK. And we’d like your help. So… A Jaffa cake – is it a cake or a biscuit? Discuss!
Many people associate the Jaffa brand with oranges and grapefruit: almost correct! In ancient times, there was a region that exported these citrus fruits, and that region was called Jaffa (now in Israel), which exported fruit throughout the Mediterranean. It was the Anglo-Saxon world that wanted to take sponge cake and turn it into a biscuit with orange jelly. Austrian strudel also originated in this area, perhaps closer to Turkey… For me, it remains a biscuit, and not even a very good one!
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
We would like to thank the editorial staff for their insightful questions and our readers for taking the time to read this article.
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview, unless you have the strict permission of said party. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
