Ondt Blod: Sápmi Hardcore Fights Assimilation & Oppression in the Far North

Ondt Blod (Bad Blood) was founded in 2012 by five lads from the town of Kirkenes, located in the far northeast corner of Norway, right at the border to Russia. The region is part of Sápmi, the traditional homeland of the indigenous Sámi people.

Gabriel Kuhn, author of the book Liberating Sápmi: Indigenous Resistance in Europe’s Far North, met with the band’s frontman, Aslak Heika Hætta Bjørn, in Oslo in March 2024.

In 2022, we interviewed the band Vivisektio from Äkäslompolo in Finland for DIY Conspiracy and wondered whether Äkäslompolo was the world’s “northernmost place where hardcore punk music exists”. How does that feel for someone who comes from a place another 250 kilometers further north?

Are we that far further north?

Yes, I looked it up.

Okay, we’ll take the honors then.

Having grown up in a small town in the Alps before there was any internet, I’ve always been curious about how people in remote places find hardcore. How was it in your case?

Well, during my youth, the internet already existed, and I’m sure that made a big difference. There wasn’t a hardcore scene in Kirkenes as such, but there were a few of us who were really into it.

Enough to form a band, it seems.

Enough to form a band. We had all played in different punk bands before, but at the age of 13 or 14 you’re not always that great. When we decided to form Ondt Blod, we wanted to take things more seriously.

Somewhere, I read that Ondt Blod was from Tromsø, not Kirkenes. A misunderstanding?

No, that’s probably because we formed the band when we were all studying in Tromsø, which is the main town in the north of Norway.

800 kilometers from Kirkenes.

There are different standards for distances in Sápmi. When we wanted to see punk shows, we had to go travel to Tromsø, too.

Musically, Ondt Blod is fairly eclectic. There are old-school hardcore riffs, very melodic parts, plenty of variation overall.

It probably reflects the different influences we had, everything from the pop punk bands on the Warped Tour to Refused and the Umeå hardcore scene. And not to forget metal! I think that’s fairly common for people who discover music mainly through the internet, you have access to many sources.

Who is writing the songs?

The lyrics are mostly written by me, and then the others create the music together. On both of our albums we have also done a lot of work in the studio with our producer Yngve Andersen, who has been involved in everything from song structure to writing melodies.

Was it always clear that you would sing in Norwegian?

Yes, that felt most natural. It makes it easier to connect to the local population, which has always been important to us.

Your first album was called Finnmark, which is the province where you are from. The video to the title song feels like a heartfelt dedication to your hometown Kirkenes.

It is. Kirkenes was going through hard times when we wrote the album, with the iron ore mine closing down. For decades, it had provided the main income for most families. The video is dedicated to those who decided to stay and build a different future.

What happened to the mayor who is interviewed in the video? Is he still in office?

No, he had to step down due to health issues. He is an interesting man and has done a lot for the community. It’s sad for everyone that he no longer can be as active.

Finnmark has a big Sámi population and you have Sámi heritage yourself. For the readers who don’t know, can you provide some background about the Sámi?

The Sámi are the indigenous people of Europe’s far north. The population is divided between four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The majority of the Sámi live in Norway.

There’s been a history of colonization, but also of resistance, and it is ongoing.

Sápmi, as we call our homeland, has been exploited in various ways. The governments of the Nordic countries took control of the land, they build hydropower plants and mines—operations that interfere with the reindeer herding, an important part of Sámi culture. The spiritual traditions were also suppressed, there was forced relocation, there were boarding schools where children weren’t allowed to use the Sámi language. But the Sámi have proven resilient.

Last year, there were big protests in Oslo against wind parks built on the Fosen peninsula. The wind parks pose a big problem for reindeer herding, too. The Supreme Court of Norway has ruled that the wind parks on Fosen violate the rights of the Sámi as indigenous people, but the Norwegian government hasn’t done anything about it and the wind parks are still operating. The protests raised awareness and empowered many young Sámi. Norwegian society has to be careful not to produce a generation of Sámi who feel they aren’t being heard. The protest movement will be growing in the coming years.

How important is Sámi identity for your band?

Sámi culture is a defining element of life in Finnmark, we are all connected to it. My mother’s family comes from Kautokeino, which is a center of Sámi culture.

Are there other Sámi hardcore bands?

We might be the only hardcore band, but there’s a punk rock band from Alta, Not My Time to Die, which recently released an EP on which all of the lyrics are in Sámi. That’s a big thing. There’s a comeback of the Sámi language in many areas of life, and it’s good to hear it in punk rock, too.

In videos from a live performance at Rhodos Garage in Oslo you can be seen wearing an “Antifascist Action Sápmi” t-shirt in the Sámi language. Does the far right have a strong presence in Finnmark?

There’s no neo-Nazi scene like there would be in Oslo or other bigger cities. But there is a lot of everyday racism directed against Sámi. With the t-shirt, I mainly wanted to take a stand.

On your second album, Natur, the song “Giron” includes a joik by Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen. The joik is a traditional form of Sámi singing. Today, Ella Marie is famous all over Norway as a singer for the band ISÁK, as an actress, and as an activist. How did you get to perform with her?

I knew Ella Marie from the environmental movement, and we are also remotely related. When we did the recording together she wasn’t as famous as she is now. It was nice that she took the time to record with us! She is actually singing backing vocals on most songs on Natur.

Your first album, Finnmark, was nominated for Spellemanprisen, Norway’s most prestigious music award. Were you surprised?

Very! But when Natur wasn’t nominated, I was very angry…

That’s how expectations change, I suppose. Let me test a thought here: it seems that because Norwegian Black Metal has pretty much become a part of Norway’s official cultural heritage, it has become easier for other “odd” musical genres to find mainstream acceptance.

I think that’s true. There’s even a special category for Metal at Spellemanprisen.

You spoke about the strong attachment you have to Finnmark, but now you’ve been living in Oslo for almost ten years. A few years ago, you said in an interview that one could see this as hypocrisy or infiltration. What is it?

Probably still both. Life in Oslo is very different from life in Kirkenes, there are many more opportunities. But the attachment to the north remains, and the plan is to return there.

You were working for the Norwegian Sámi Association for some years, and now you are working for Rødt, the political party furthest to the left in Norway’s parliament. Does this keep you from releasing a new album? It’s been a few years now…

There are different reasons for the delay. One of them is that our band members are divided between Oslo and Kirkenes. But we are performing live on occasion, and we are working on new material. There is going to be another album, it’s just a matter of time.

Many thanks for the conversation!

Ondt Blod have released several records, including Bunnen EP (Loyal Blood Records, 2014), Finnmark (Loyal Blood Records, 2016), and Natur (Fysisk Format, 2018). Gabriel Kuhn’s book Liberating Sápmi is available from PM Press or check out your local distributor of anarchist literature.