Jun 30, 2026 5:00 PM

Over 20 Years of Trollzorn – A Label Interview with Co-Founder Kai

Trollzorn is best known and established for its bands in the Viking, Folk, Pagan, Death, and Black Metal genres, such as Cruachan, Stormlord, Black Messiah, Obscurity, and Tuatha de Danann. In the label’s 20-year history, there have been hardly any interviews with the label owners. It’s time to make up for that. Label boss Kai bravely faces our probing questions.

We’ve already covered the joint campaign by the Trollzorn label and us – Bound by Metal – to save the CD in a previous article. As part of this campaign, we also had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Kai, who’s been on board since Trollzorn’s early days and, together with his buddy Stefan, has been steering the label through the many ups and downs of the music industry for about 20 years. Two decades of sailing close to the wind, so to speak. There’s certainly a lot to tell. So we decided to ask Kai some questions.

The Trollzorn crew together with their in-house band Istapp, somewhere in the world. (Image: Trollzorn)

Kai, Trollzorn has been around for over 20 years. What originally inspired you to start the label in the first place?

Stefan and I have known each other since school and were already into Metal with our friends back when we were teenagers. We often drove to concerts in Osnabrück, Bremen, or Hanover. When the hype around medieval markets took off and the first rock bands started playing there, we were also out and about a lot in that scene. When medieval rock evolved into Folk and Viking metal, we bought EPs and demo CDs from individual bands that were self-releasing their demos back then and distributed them among friends. That went over well, so we decided to expand our offerings through our own online store. Back then, there was no way for a young band to market CDs on their own. Facebook had just been launched; there was no Instagram, no Spotify. We started with our own small online shop, buying merchandise in bulk from the bands and reselling it. As far as we know, we were the first German mail-order shop to offer Eluveitie’s mini-CD “Vên.” That’s how we got to know the bands personally – we’d meet at concerts and strike up conversations. Shortly thereafter, the idea was born: “Hey, it would be great to produce our own CDs.” And just like that, everything fell into place. Olaf from Einheit Produktionen was a huge help and connected us with various contacts. Then everything happened very quickly, and we had great success right from our first releases. Reprints of the first editions followed very quickly, and then we just couldn’t get enough of this kind of work!

The Trollzorn booth at the Dark Troll Festival. Where exactly are the angry trolls hiding now? (Image: Trollzorn)

How would you say the work of your label has changed over these 20 years? What are the biggest challenges these days?

We’ve always run the label on the side, in our free time. We both have full-time jobs in other fields. In the early years, before Spotify, we had to pack many times more packages. The delivery truck actually came to pick up packages almost every day. That’s become much less frequent in recent years. These days, it’s mostly just about merch.

The legendary Trollzorn foyer. We think: Pretty spacious for what’s actually just a humble foyer! It’s part of the Trollzorn House. More specifically, a farmhouse that also houses the label’s headquarters. The foyer serves as a party room with a bar, darts, and foosball. The label hosts bands and other guests there, including the Pope and the German Chancellor. (Image: Trollzorn)

Where do you think the journey will take you over the next 5 years? How will your label and the music market continue to change?

Since we don’t have to make a living off of this, we’re taking a relaxed approach to it. However, it’s frustrating to oversee a release that ends up generating only a fraction of the physical sales from a few years ago. The work involved with such a release hasn’t decreased. Advertising, promotion, etc., have become more expensive. So have studio and recording costs. We still get weekly band submissions from almost all over the world – no joke! Some of them are really strong bands, but we still can’t work with them. I always have to explain that to the bands, which is painful. Among other things, it’s simply no longer worth it for our distribution to take on a release from a new, young band, since even the big retailers like Media Markt and Saturn have drastically reduced their CD offerings.

Trollzorn band Obscurity enters the German charts directly with their latest 2026 album, "Ascheregen." Our congratulations! (Image: Trollzorn)

Do you have any advice for up-and-coming bands? How can they gain visibility in an increasingly opaque music market where new bands spring up every day and vie for attention?

Honestly? THAT’s a constant topic of discussion for us. There are so many opinions, but we don’t have a concrete solution either. The music market will continue to change drastically in the coming years. Basically, a young band has no choice but to take every small club gig, even if they end up losing money on it. Even without a paycheck, this often gets you more exposure than an ad in a print magazine which costs several hundred euros and, in today’s digital age, probably goes unnoticed by anyone anyway.

Please list your top 5 albums to take to a desert island.

We’d gladly trade them for plenty of beer and sing ourselves instead!