Inspired by old Norwegian history and folk culture Torbjørn Sandvik started making music mixing folk-music, metal and punk in 2001. He named his solo project Glittertind.

The name Glittertind, or "Glittering tine" in English, gives associations of vast and majestetic landscapes. The name is taken from a wellknown mountain situated in the heart of Norway – Jotunheimen. Many famous Norwegian artists and writers have got uncountable strong impressions from these enormous mountains and these same giants have a strong influence on the lyrical and musical concepts of Glittertind.

When reflecting at these early days Torbjørn says that his motives for starting this project were stemming from his intense feelings of alienation and loneliness as a youngster at that time. Making this kind of music made it possible to transcend from this situation of despair to a world where there existed a sense of belonging, wholeness and continuity with roots and history.

After releasing two demos underground Glittertind got signed to the Dutch indie-label Karmageddon Media. The debut-album “Evige Asatro” or in English, "Eternal Faith in Norse religion", was released August 2004. Several magazines cheered this album and Nick Ruskell (Kerrang!) summerized it with the following words:

“..One listen to one-man Norwegian project Glittertind will instantly make you want to eat meat off the bone, casually get into a drunken fight and possibly grow a huge beard as well, thanks to their raucous Pogues-turned-up-to-11 sound. Madder than a donkey on a trampoline and twice as ludicrous, this is also an incredible amount of fun!..”

The second release got out April 2005 as an MCD celebrating Norway's 100 years of independence. It was dedicated to Norwegian freedomfighters throughout the ages and it made a left-winged political statement for common spirit against the neo-liberal world order. The title "Til Dovre Faller", "Until Dovre falls", was taken from the moment of the constitutional signing in 1814 where the patriots gathered there stated, that they would struggle for independence until the mountains of Dovre fell. Avi Pitchon (Terrorizer) wrote the following about this release:

"..Glittertind understands that folk is first and foremost life affirming as opposed to hateful, morbid, anti-social, suicidal and racist. It is also simple and realistic - just like punk. How refreshing it is to witness a patriot who is strong and healthy-spirited enough to oppose the EU entity, yet wish for a 'united and peaceful Europe'. How ideologically consistent the inclusion of songs against Nazi occupation side by side with songs resisting older foreign conquests of Norway.."

Four years would pass until Thomas Steindl got in touch and asked Torbjørn to join the ranks of Napalm Records (Monster Magnet, Tyr, Alestorm etc.) for a long-term agreement. Torbjørn decided that if he were going to do this record he wanted to do it together with his good friend Geirmund Simonsen. Geirmund liked his conceptual ideas for the album and together they made the third Glittertind album Landkjenning, in English "Land Sighting". The very profound lyrical concept on Landkjenning revolves around Norway's Christianization and transports the listener 1000 years back into the past, to a time where one had to decide between the new religion and the traditional old ways.

The album reached #20 on domestic charts in Norway, got playlisted on the biggest national radio channel (NRK P1) and received several great reviews from both main-stream media and metal press.

In 2010 Glittertind expanded to a full-line-up band including Stefan Theofilakis (flutes/vocals), Geir Holm (drums), Bjørn Nordstoga (bass) and Olav Aasbø (guitar/vocals). Their first show at Karmøygeddon Metal Festival got reviewed the following way by Heavymetal.no:

"..a nasty tight band just demonstrated how to do folk-punk-metal. I think most of us got our heads blown off and was totally paralyzed after the show!"

The future looks bright for Glittertind as we are entering 2011. The band is active playing gigs and currently writing new songs for an album we'll hopefully see released by the end of the year.