Hailing from the city of Bergen, Norway, Slomosa channel the sprawl of their surroundings through a sweeping signature hybrid of revved-up stoner rock riffage, grungy hooks, and a concentrated punk wallop. As if holding up a sonic mirror image to the landscape, an avalanche of distortion tumbles into valleys of massive melody, teeming with tectonic force. Dubbed Tundra Rock, Slomosa love the term so much they named their most recent album after the title.
“‘Tundra Rock’ is ‘Desert Rock’ in our terms,” frontman Benjamin Berdous observes. “A desert doesn’t have to be warm. If you think about it, the biggest desert in the world is Antarctica. In this respect, the tundra is our desert. We thought it would be cool to coin a genre, and it’s stuck to us. You could certainly say the grandiosity of nature is evident in the songs.”
Nearly ten years ago, Ben planted the seeds for Slomosa as a “casual excuse to drink beer, smoke, and play rock music with friends.” Without pressure or expectations, songs naturally took shape under the influence of everyone from Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, and Sleep to Nirvana, Alice In Chains, and Soundgarden.
The band’s 2020 eponymous debut, SLOMOSA, has piled up over 10 million streams fueled by Kevin, In My Mind’s Desert, There Is Nothing New Under The Sun, and Horses. With Tundra Rock further cementing Slomosa amongst rocks elite, HEAVY felt it was time to have a chat with these legends in the makings ourselves. We start by asking if Tundra Rocks was received as well as the band had hoped.
"Yeah, and even more," Benjamin smiled. "It's the hard second album, the difficult second album. So I mean, it was excitement around it. And you never know. You never know what the reception will be like, And we released it on some new labels as well. So, yeah, it was all not nerve wracking, but of course, excited. But after a day or two, it became pretty clear that the reception was good. And yeah, I'm very pleased with how it went."
Whispers have been circulating of late about Slomosa finally making their way to Australia, so, attempting to put rumours to rest, we ask Benjamin straight out if they are true.
"It might be…" he grinned. "We definitely want to come to Australia and New Zealand. We get a lot of messages from people down there. So that's definitely something that we have to do. And yeah, it does look like there might be some news on the horizon, but I can't say much more than that."
In the full interview, Benjamin reflected more on the success of Slomosa's second album, Tundra Rock, released in September 2024, noting the challenges of following up a successful debut and the evolution of the band's sound over the years. He introduced the term "Tundra Rock" to describe their unique musical style, influenced by desert rock bands, and discussed the balance between touring and songwriting.
He highlighted how the band aims to innovate while maintaining their identity, with plans for future projects, including a sludge album. We discussed the blending of genres in Slomosa's music and how they get the balance right in the creative process, the early days of the band, touring Australia and more.
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