Blazing their path from Lima, Peru to stages around the world, Blizzard Hunter has spent over a decade forging a sound rooted in classic heavy and speed metal, fueled by epic storytelling and raw passion. Originally founded in 2006 and reborn in 2014 with a sharpened focus on original material, the band has become a force in the underground metal scene, blending high-energy performances with a true love for the genre’s golden age. We spoke to vocalist and producer Sebastian Palma to dive deep into Blizzard Hunter’s journey, their musical spirit, and what fans can expect from their new chapter.

Interview

TheNwothm: Thanks for joining us! For those new to Blizzard Hunter — can you introduce yourselves and tell us what each member brings to the band?

S.P: Hey guys! Sebastian here! Thanks to you for inviting us. About the intro, let’s just say we are Blizzard Hunter and we play heavy metal 🤘🏼🤘🏼 that’s what we do best. 

TheNwothm: You originally formed in 2006 as Blizzard. Can you walk us through those early days and how the transition to Blizzard Hunter came about in 2014?

S.P: Well, to be fair, it is kind of a simple story. Luc (guitar) had a cool project covering almighty Ozzy (the name coming from his first solo album) back in 2006 with some friends. That only lasted a few shows during that year. Our real story actually begins in 2008 when he met Lalo and Tony (bass and guitar). They started a new cover band, this time performing different types of metal classics, and picked the name of Blizzard to make it on. But the real deal for me really arrived when Luc started making original tunes and that was in 2009. The band even released a cool demo in 2011. I happened to join them in 2012 at only 17 years old and since then we have only done original shows. After a couple of moves here and there we decided this band should be rebranded and reborn as something completely different. That’s how the Hunter was added to our name and well… Haha this got kind of long to explain but I think it is important for everyone to know why the sudden change and also that we are the band we have been since 2014! 

TheNwothm: What were the musical or cultural influences in Lima, Peru, that shaped your sound in the early years?

S.P: Sad to say we haven’t been influenced by any Peruvian metal band, at least not as an inspiration for our music and identity. Most of our influences come from the rest of the world, specially from British and German metal.

TheNwothm: The name Blizzard Hunter conjures up some pretty epic imagery. What’s the story or symbolism behind the name?

S.P: Well, in our heavy metal fever dreams it’s the epitome of greatness where a powerful warrior emerges from an ice kingdom hunting its way into all kinds of adventures… But in reality we just added “Hunter” to our name because it sounded cool coming from the idea of “Vampire Hunters” of “Vampire Killers” from Castlevania’s video game concepts!! Yeah! We are nerds! Haha and we love gaming! In our first album there’s actually a cool story happening between two of our songs (Heart of fire and Nemesis) which are like the call and response from the Belmonts vs Dracula haha.

TheNwothm: You explore themes like battles, war, magic, and darkness — how do those themes tie into the band’s name and identity?

S.P: They just deliver that energy! What else can you expect from a Blizzard Hunter’s journey if it isn’t battles, war, magic and darkness?? Haha still, these are all big metaphors we use to deal with day to day things like questioning life, trying to transcend beyond time, searching for greatness, etc! For us as ambitious musical metalheads, being on a constant chase for greatness is kind of what we believe is a mission any dreamer should have.  Also, we are not strictly set into only using this kind of images, but it usually relates to that idea! 

TheNwothm: What does heavy/speed metal mean to each of you on a personal level?

S.P: I believe it is a cool breach between the powerful classic touch that Heavy Metal has and having a licence to explore some other cool approaches our beautiful musical genre has to offer such as Speed (as a word itself) and not losing our essence. 

TheNwothm: Let’s go back to “Demo 2011.” What was the recording process like back then, and how do you view that release now looking back?

S.P: I know it was just a fun deal. I mean, the guys were just recording cool music they had just created after being covering lot’s of classic metal acts. It was a necessity the project had in order to take this new step! Recording was different back in those days, but still easier to do… It was recorded in a home studio with our friend Giovanni from a thrash metal band called Epilepsia.

TheNwothm: “The Conqueror of Destiny” EP in 2014 marked a turning point for the band. What was the writing and production process like for that record?

S.P: The idea of that EP was to finally be reborn as “Blizzard Hunter”, so we re-recorded and released the same songs from the demo, but with a better approach including this time my vocals and real drums! This time we worked with Paul Pinto, another friend from Quarter Note Studio.  

TheNwothm: ‘Heavy Metal to the Vein’ started as a single and then became your first full-length album. How did that progression happen?

S.P: It was a long run that started in early 2013 and ended in the album you can listen to! We actually used premixes from there to be released as the 2014 EP! So let’s say that they were both part of the same process.

TheNwothm: What are your favourite tracks from that record?

S.P: For me definitely “Heart of Fire” (Vampire Hunter’s song) as it has an interesting approach between classic heavy metal and some resources I find in Peruvian folk music such as huayno. Luc wrote that song and I know he didn’t pick any idea coming from there, but I do hear a cool subconscious influence in there!! It is just tasteful and the lyrics talk about Castlevania so it is a cool song from every single point of view, haha!

TheNwothm: Can you tell us a little bit about each of yourselves? 

S.P: Well, as I’m doing this by myself I’ll give you my honest opinion about them… Hahaha. Well, Luc is an outstanding guitar player. He is all into music, I mean, he makes a life by being a guitar teacher. He also collects vinyls (has around 600 copies of different bands and records), also collects guitars (has like 25 haha most of them Ibanez), and also is a big video game fan. Lalo is a personal trainer! His Maui (Disney’s character) looks are no joke! When I got my body ripped in 2021 was thanks to his job! A hell of a trainer and also a big fan of classic action movies!

Tony is also a professional musician and devoted to his football team here in Peru! Besides Blizzard Hunter, he has a band called 1901 that tributes his team in rock style! Jano is also a professional musician. He is a hell of a drummer, a left handed one! Sometimes giving trouble to the stage people during shows because we have to turn the whole drum and make it left-handed haha but he is a hell of a drummer as I said! And also is an amazing music teacher here in Peru’s School of Rock franchise working with kids and teens! And well, yours truly is also a professional musician! (Hahaha almost everyone here in the band is!) But I am more of a producer and also a teacher. I am actually in charge of recording and producing our music now! And I couldn’t be happier by doing that! 

TheNwothm: What do you like to do when you’re not making music?

S.P: I am actually a big anime and cartoon fan. I happen to have a side band called “MudaMuda” (the name is a reference to Jojo’s Bizarre adventure) which tributes anime songs! Hahaha we even disguise as anime characters during our gigs and sing in japanese! Even though I do not manage that language, somehow I get to sing the songs hahaha!

TheNwothm: What made the Padova Metal Fest performance worthy of a full live album release? Was it planned ahead of time or more spontaneous?

S.P: That was kind of a major thing for us. We only saw ourselves playing outside of the continent in our wildest dreams, so this was cool af! Luc is a big fan of Evol (Italian 90’s Black Metal band) and he happens to have some contact with Thomas (drummer) who happened to be the drummer of the band back in the day. He also happens to be one of the heads of Padova Metal fest, so after sharing with him our album, he offered us to headline and close day 2 of the festival. We just took it as a big chance! Being from Peru and having this opportunity is a bit unlikely, especially when you are just starting. This was only a year after our first album. We couldn’t arrange a tour so we put all our efforts into recording that show. In the end it was a good thing. A live album out of your country on a cool fest in Europe – that’s really cool! 

TheNwothm: How do you translate the raw energy of your live performances into the studio — and vice versa, how do you bring that studio precision to the stage?

S.P: For a lot of time we have received the comment that we sound better live and that’s great, haha! Well maybe it is because there are quite a few years between our first and second album and the band actually improved in many aspects. Now the challenge is to give the powerful experience in both channels. Sometimes you’ll have licenses for live shows like not reproducing all the backing vocals we put in the new album and new songs, I mean, it is going to be almost impossible without backing tracks because there are many many background vocals in the new productions after Heavy Metal to the Vein, still, we find that metal bands sound better without backing tracks, especially in underground stages. Maybe if we happen to have a big gig for +20k people on a big big stage that could be more appropriate, but for now it is not necessary. What I am doing is teaching the guys to sing and harmonise, because they can! But in the meantime, I’m handling all those arrangements by myself with a big and powerful lead voice! 

TheNwothm: What was the biggest lesson you learned as a band during the creation of “A Lesson in Time?“

S.P: Hahaha that life has many ways… The message in that album is that we all learn from our feelings and no matter what we do, time will always keep on turning and treating us in the same way, so we just have to deal with it!

TheNwothm: “The Path of Triumph” feels like a major milestone for Blizzard Hunter. What was the core concept or message behind the record?

S.P: The truth! That’s the path of triumph! To always be in search of the truth!

TheNwothm: Do you have a favourite song you like to play live from that release?

S.P: The band loves Screaming (My bloody Anger) and Lost in my madness. Those are MUST songs during our shows, always! I personally love to sing The Last Time. It is an awesome power ballad and it has a cool 80’s atmosphere I just love to play. 

TheNwothm: Tell us about your new EP “Legacy of Survival” — what can fans expect in terms of sound, themes, or surprises?

S.P: This one is a new thing! About the sound you can only expect classic + professional performance. We are keeping it really analog in many many aspects. Like, we do record EVERYTHING for it. No sequences, no digital reamping, just good old fashioned core recording the way it is supposed to be done, but we are still using in the box digital process for the mix. Some standards are practical in that step of the process.

About themes, it is a small taste of our upcoming album. So here he have two concepts which are “New Age”, a power mid tempo song that romanticises a pass of the torch between generations. I was inspired by my son who happened to be born a few months before composing the song, so the title fits that. Is a poem of legacy dedicated (in my case) for him! Then there is “Stayin’ Alive” which talks about what comes after celebrating a new life, haha! Is to keep it alive! The song talks about the challenges of life and how to always search for more no matter what happens!

And of course we use powerful warrior images for the narrative of the song! And as a cool closure for that EP we paid a giant tribute to the almighty Thor from Canada by performing their classic “Anger” in our own style! We took the license of somehow combining both the classic version of the song and their early 2000’s reversion of the song in their album “Triumphant” where they labeled it as “Anger III”. Suddenly right after the release, Thor’s classic guitarist Karl Cochran passed away so now we find it appropriate to say it instantly became a tribute to his powerful legacy in the axe. 

TheNwothm: Are there any plans for a new full-length album in the near future?

S.P: Indeed! Just be patient ‘cause that takes time, like a lot of it, but we surely will deliver it this year. I promise!

TheNwothm: Considering you have been around a while, do you have any standout moments or unforgettable shows from past tours?

S.P: Damn, like, where do I start? We have a lot, but a personal one is from 2019 in Chile opening for Grave Digger in Puerto Montt. Right after our performance we went down to see the other bands as the whole thing was a cool festival. What happened was that a couple was having a tense argument in a side of the arena. Ramon (guitar player of the band at the time) and I were hanging out looking for some drinks when we crossed paths with this couple that almost ignored us, so we kept our way until one of them approached us and told us they just loved our performance, then the girl came too and started hyping with him too, they cheered as, asked us for a picture and then left hugging like the fight they were having never happened, I mean haha… I don’t know why they were arguing, but somehow the power of the music we brought them made them forget all about that nonsense and a smile returned to their faces. That for me is priceless. Moving people like that is just amazing. 

TheNwothm: What’s the weirdest or most unexpected thing that’s happened to you on the road?

S.P: Definitely being left in the middle of nowhere when we were going to a city inside Peru! Somehow the engine failed and we got stuck for HOURS! The malfunction happened during daylight and we got back into the road already during the night! We almost missed the show! And well, stories like this one, we have a lot… For the Padova metal fest our instruments didn’t arrive in time… The airline lost them and delivered them a day after our show! Also I remember playing in an improvised stage built with wood fruit boxes like 12 feet from the floor! Somehow we made it through…

TheNwothm: What are your touring plans for the rest of the year?

S.P: Europe! We are heading to Europe this July! We’ll be in Spain, France, Luxembourg, Germany and Poland! Until now we have 13 dates all around those countries, so it is going to be awesome!

TheNwothm: How can our readers buy your music and merchandise?

S.P: You candirectly contact us by email (blizzardbandperu@gmail.com) asking for it! We’ll happily attend you! 

TheNwothm: Where can fans follow you online?

S.P: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube!

TheNwothm: What message do you want to leave with your fans, especially those just discovering Blizzard Hunter now?

S.P: Well if you like classic heavy metal, inspiring lyrics, epic songs, powerful vocals, big shredding guitars, and a rolling drum and bass that never stops, just give us a chance! I’m sure you’ll have a great time with us!

Bandcamp: https://blizzardhunter.bandcamp.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlizzardHunter/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blizzardhunter/