Nineteen months.
That is exactly how long it took from Nikki joining Blood Command to finally being in the same room as her bandmates, Yngve, guitarist Benjamin Berge, bassist Snorre Kilvaer and longtime drummer Sigurd Haakaas. In November 2021, the Australian government relaxed travel restrictions enough for her to board a plane to Norway.
“It could have been the world’s most expensive and time consuming catfishing scam,” Nikki laughs now, remembering how nervous she was on the flight. But any worries she had that joining Blood Command seemed too good to be true evaporated the moment she stepped out onstage with her bandmates for the first time.
“I just felt like me again,” she recalls of their first show together in Gothenburg, Sweden, supporting fellow Norwegian maniacs Kvelertak. “I felt like I was doing a Pagan show but times 10 and everyone was so happy. I screwed up the intro to one of the songs royally, but we all laughed about it, y’know? They’re all such sweethearts and we have so many in-jokes now.”
For the band, too, having a singer willing to go the extra mile, both onstage and off, is a breath of fresh air. “After that show they said, ‘We finally feel that we have a frontperson and we can step back while you do your thing.’ I don’t have beef with any of the previous singers, but I know I’m a good performer and it feels like they’ve found the missing piece of the puzzle.”
With Nikki now settled in Bergen and writing for new music already underway, with Yngve and Nikki sharing songwriting duties, it seems that Blood Command are finally ready to bring their pop-metal gospel to the masses.
“I feel honoured that the band trusted me, but I’m also proud that I was able to turn my life around, which was in absolute shambles, and create something really positive,” she says, beaming among her new surroundings. “If I didn’t go through so much crap I wouldn’t have been brave enough to do this. That’s what this whole album means to me.”
Praise Armageddonism is due out on July 1 via Hassle Records