Singer and multi-instrumentalist (because he was partly also responsible for bass, drums, guitars and keyboards) Mats of Ereb Altor was so kind to shed some light on their debut album ‘By Honour’. Well, it’s not really a debut because we heard it all before on the masterpiece ‘Hammerheart’ by Bathory. That influence is one that they absolutely do not deny and even worship…
It’s not a big secret that we follow this great bands path. We grew up listening to Bathory and I think there is something special in Quorthons music. I can remember the first time I heard “Hammerheart”. We were listening to it together and I remember we said ‘WOW, this is as good as it gets’. I like his voice and the flow in the music that almost makes you feel like you are on an old Viking ship when it’s cruising through the big waves at the oceans. We never met Quorthon in real life but we worshiped him and I still think he’s one of the greatest all time.
Any other influences that we should know about and why those bands/albums? For example, what album had a huge impact on you to decide to play in a band? I think we influence each other in some way but maybe there is some old Manowar in our music, and both of us are Iron Maiden freaks. It was ‘Hammerheart’ or perhaps the first Candlemass album that had a really huge impact that drove us into the world of music.
Ereb Altor exists since the nineties, but you guys had a break of nearly a decade. Can you tell us more why that was and how you got back together in 2003? What made you come back together? What have you been up to since Ereb Altor awoke once again? I would say that Ereb Altor was formed in 2003 but the songs we recorded on our first demo “Awakening” in 2003 were actually written in the early nineties. So there is some old material that we thought were too good to fall into oblivion so we decided we should do something with it. So the actual birth of the band is in 2003 but the ideas are older. We have known each other since childhood and we are still close friends but obviously we are a bit lazy. But both of us have been active in the music scene since the beginning of the nineties in several different constellations.
What does Ereb Altor actually mean? Where does the name come from and what does the band mean to you both personally? We are two role-playing nerds, and the name is taken from an old role playing game from Sweden called “Drakar och Demoner”. Translation: Dragons and Demons. The world where this game take place is called Ereb Altor and the game itself is something like Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”. We do like fantasy. I can only speak for myself and the band means a great deal to me, I’ve always enjoyed working with Ragnar and it’s a way for us to be nostalgic and fulfill some needs and ideas.
You can also say that folklore is a big part of your music. How big exactly? Is it important to the sound of Ereb Altor? Do you use folklore instruments? We have some Swedish folk music in our blood and I think you can hear it on our album. We both played in a folk music band in the nineties and I really like those tunes. It is important to me to have some of our native music in Ereb Altor to keep the right spirit alive and I think it’s good if you can hear from which part of the world you come from. We only use folklore instruments via keyboards so far. But maybe in the future because we know some people we could ask if they like to participate on an Ereb Altor album.
How were the reactions up until now to the new album? Did the recording go fluently? Encountered any problems? Are you pleased yourself with the album? Or, is there even better music brewing somewhere in your brain? Most of the responses have been overwhelming and better than expected. We didn’t really know what to expect, we aren’t that updated how this kind of music is progressing. We simply wrote music thinking back a decade or two. The recording sessions were unusual I guess because we rarely met during the recording of this album. We worked separately and then we met up to wrap the whole thing together. Except when the vocals were recorded, both of us were present in the studio during the vocals. I’m rather pleased with the outcome of the album but things can always get better and in my opinion the new material of the album outshines the older songs. “By Honour” was also meant to be a double album and we recorded 13 songs if I remember correctly but in the end we released a regular album after some discussion with our label. So there is more material written and we chose the slow hymns on our debut and I think next album the pace will be a bit faster and we have also written more new material so we have lots of songs to choose from when the time comes to record next album.
Can you tell us what the lyrics are about? How important are they to Ereb Altor? I can say a few words about some songs but first I can mention a few things of the lyrics of Ereb Altor in general. We focus a bit on fantasy and Viking themes but also on myths from our homeland as well as some more serious issues like life, death and thoughts about the whole existence. The music is more important than the lyrics at least to me. ‘Dark Nymph’ for example is inspired by an old Swedish myth about a fair lady living in the forest, beautiful when you see her face to face but her back is made of bark. This fair lady sings and show herself to men and try to seduce them to follow her. She puts a spell on them so they will follow her into the forest but she is impossible to get close to and she tricks them to get lost in the woods and leave them to starve to death. I don’t know if this myth can be found in other countries as well. The title track ‘By Honour’ is simply a battle hymn with a Viking theme and ‘Wizard’ is a fantasy tale inspired by an adventure in the old Swedish role-playing game “Drakar och Demoner”. ‘Winter Wonderland’ is a story about getting lost in this cold environment we have here up north during the winters and it ends up with him embracing death. They say that in the last moments of freezing to death you will feel warm and it is common to remove the clothes for example.
Who writes the music? What comes first: the lyrics or the music? How does an Ereb Altor song get written? First a riff or first some words? Both of us write the music and the lyrics, and we always write the music before we write the lyrics. Some of the old songs we have written together and the new songs are written by one of us separately.
I Hate Records is your label. Pleased with the contract? The promotion? The support? How did the deal come about? Did you send stuff out or were you contacted? Yes, we are pleased with I Hate Records and we were in touch with some other labels as well. All of them contacted us not the other way around. We have to thank our demo “Awakening” for our record contract and the interest from several labels. We sold maybe one hundred demos around the world and we put the music online for everyone to listen to. And here we are with our debut album. The demand to purchase our demo is huge but unfortunately we only pressed one hundred copies and we will not press it again. We will look forward from now on.
You are a two-person band, so I guess a studio band. Do you have the ambition to play live ever, or did you already do so? Yes you could say we are a studio band but we are scheduled to perform at “Up the Hammers” festival in Greece next year! We will hire some musicians so we could do the songs justice. And we will do more shows if we get the opportunity and if the timing or the place feels right but I don’t think you will see many shows of Ereb Altor, but you’ll never know. I think the biggest chance to see Ereb Altor live is if any festivals are interested in booking us.
What can we expect from Ereb Altor in the next few years? You can expect us to continue doing this kind of music, we will follow the footsteps of mighty Bathory as long as we please ourselves. The most important thing for us is to fulfill our own needs. Get the ideas out of our heads so we could go on with our lives.
Thanks for the interview! You’re welcome, it was my pleasure.
Maak home
Bookmark