Highway to Hellvar: The Way It Was and Is

Biography

Hellvar started in 2004 when the founding members Heiða Eiríksdóttir and Elvar Geir Sævarsson (Heiða + Elvar = Hellvar) moved to Berlin to study philosophy. Heiða had been a singer in the band Unun (the band of ex-Sugarcube Thor Eldon & Dr. Gunni) which released 2 albums: "Super Shiny Dreams" (1995, released in Iceland one year earlier as “æ") and "Ótta" (Almost morning, 1999), as well as an EP-album called “Bones” (1997). 

Heiða made 2 solo-albums "Svarið" (The answer, 2000) and a Charles Bukowski-tribute entitled "Sun Fruit Grape Shine" (2003). Another album "tiufingurupptilguds" (2003) was made as Heiða & Heiðingjarnir (band members were Birgir Baldursson, Sverrir Ásmundsson & Elvar Geir Sævarsson). Material written for their rock band was rearranged for a drum machine.

Hellvar became a trio with Flosi Þorgeirsson as bass player, who plays in the famous Icelandic band HAM. First project was an art-installation called 'Hellvar – ekki Helvar', that took place in Keflavík’s SSV-gallery from December 2005 to January 2006, when Elvar, Heiða Flosi and a video-artist called Sunna Guðmundsdóttir transformed a gallery into a working recording studio/rehearsal space and lived there for 3 weeks, recording an experimental album to be released in 10 copies only.

Early 2007 Hellvar became a quartet: Flosi left the band, but child prodigy Alexandra joined on guitar and bass virtuoso Sverrir was added to the line-up. Together the two boys and two girls stirred up a cocktail from electro-indie to new-wave with a twist of lime. Debut album "Bat out of Hellvar" was released in the end of 2007 and was the first release on the new Icelandic record label Kimi Records. The band toured in the USA, Germany and China, and then started working on their next album, adding Ólafur Ingólfsson to the mix on live drums. The 2nd album "Stop that noise" was released on Kimi label in September 2011, and later that same year an acoustic version, "Noise that stopped" was recorded, picking the bands favourite songs from Bat out of Hellvar and Stop that noise. Around 200 limited edition home-made cds were made. Now Sverrir left the band because he moved with his family to Denmark and Haukur of the band Morðingjarnir (The Murderers) replaced him. Ólafur the drummer had to leave shortly after that and Birkir Fjalar Viðarson, of I Adapt and Bisund, drummed for a while inspiring Hellvar to become more of a noticeable full-on Rock-band.

Vocalist Aðalheiður Arna Björgvinsdóttir came to do some backings for while. She also has a solo project called Death of a Scoobafish. Baldur Sívertsen stood in for Alexandra when she was living in Belgium for a couple of months, and a bandmember of his, Andri Geir Árnason replaced Birkir, but Andri and Baldur had been together in Hljómsveitin Ég and Monterey, and Andri had been drumming for the legendary Geirfuglarnir.

In 2014 a lot of writing got done for the next album and by fall 2014 Alexandra moves to Sweden, and Haukur decides to concentrate on Morðingjarnir. Hellvar becomes a four-piece for a while, with Andri drumming, Heiða and Elvar playing guitars and doing vocals and Bogi Reynisson joining on bass. His most recent band has been Sushi Submarine but he was also in two legendary bands, Sororicide and Stjörnukisi. Genious-musician Hallvarður Ásgeirsson steps in to play guitars in the fall of 2014. Early 2015 the Icelandic and Swedish branches of Hellvar unite their kingdoms in United Kingdom, as a tour is booked in February. 
An album is due later that year...
To be continued