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Emily Kolltveit was a young teen drama student when she discovered Iron Maiden - and it almost came via a true baptism of fire. "When I was a teenager, I moved to London and was studying to go into the performing arts," she tells us. "There was a famous magician at the time called Simon Drake - his magic was sawing people in half, chopping people’s heads off, pretty gory stuff.
"He was doing a TV special with Iron Maiden, which would actually be Bruce Dickinson’s last show with them before he left the band, and he needed a magician’s assistant. He was a friend of my parents, so he asked me if I could be one of the assistants. In the end I couldn’t do it because I was a minor, but that’s really how I got to know their music."
His magic was sawing people in half, chopping people’s heads off, pretty gory stuff
Despite not getting to be part of one of Maiden's most storied shows, Emily became a lifelong fan, embracing heavy metal and eventually going on to front a band of her own, London-based symphonic metallers Pythia. She began doing interviews for the band, including one with none other than Bruce Dickinson for the singer's show on BBC Radio 6, which he hosted from 2002-2010. Emily appeared on Bruce's show during its final year, just as Maiden were preparing to release their fifteenth studio album, The Final Frontier.
"We had an absolutely terrific afternoon together," Emily remembers. "He’s interested in lots of different things, one of which is religious stuff. We talked about his visits to religious sites around the world and some of the extraordinary things he’d seen. Maiden were about to releaseThe Final Frontier , which no one had heard, and he actually played it for me as we sat in the studio, which was extraordinary."
Emily's own music journey would continue via her role as a vocalist in ye olde-style choral ensemble Mediæval Bæbes - until her life took a surprising turn that led her to becoming a vicar.
"When I was in the Mediæval Bæbes, we sang in a lot of cathedrals, a lot of holy spaces, and I think how I became someone of faith is hearing God’s voice through music," she explains. "The spiritual nature of music can really help you connect with the idea of a loving God."
For some, the idea of organised religion and heavy metal coexisting peacefully is alien, but not to Emily - she has remained a metalhead and her love of Iron Maiden perseveres.
“There’s this idea that metal is the Devil’s music and all that kind of nonsense," she states. "If you look at the metal scene, it leans heavily into the imagery of Christianity, and the Old Testament in particular – there’s a real correlation between that scene and exploring faith. There are a lot of metal fans in the church.
“Do I get offended by something like The Number Of The Beast? Not at all," she continues, referring to Iron Maiden's famous 1982 single and album art, which both riff on devilish themes. "I don’t think playing with that imagery is offensive – it’s a perfectly natural thing to do. There’s as much light as there is dark in Maiden’s music, and that’s what the world is like. If you get easily offended by those things, it’s because your faith is not very rooted."
While her church duties keep her busy in the main, Emily is still very much involved in the metal scene, though she is yet to let those beams cross too closely.
“I sing backing vocals for Dragonforce on their albums, which is great fun," she smiles. "I don’t think I’ve ever used Maiden’s lyrics in any of my services, though I would if it was appropriate. I have an amazing church at St Judes, which is a fantastic music venue. A dream would be to have Iron Maiden come and play a set here. That would be fabulous.”
Read more about Iron Maiden's biggest fans in the current issue of Metal Hammer, out now
