Ereb Altor
I Don’t Own A Crystal Ball

01.10.2010

When you listen to Sweden’s Ereb Altor for the first time, it seems as if it’s a Bathory album that was once shelved and has just seen the light of day. It turns out that the project is run by two members of doom band Isole. Even though similarities with Quorthon’s works are more than obvious, Ereb Altor do not sound like a clone or copy, but rather like a tribute to the art of the great musician. The band’s mastermind Crister Ohlsson, also known as Mats, spoke to our portal about getting the idea to start the project, chances of recording a new Ereb Altor album and of the upcoming end of the world…

“The End” album came out this year while your previous CD was released only two years ago. How did you have time to work on it as you were busy with Isole last year?

To be honest I didn’t have time to do this album. But I did it anyway (thanks to my family for their patience with me). My inspiration thrived after the release of our debut. The new album just came to me so I didn’t have to put much effort in writing the songs. The struggle was to find the time to record it. I spent many late nights alone in the studio, I had to record one hour here and one hour there and sometimes it could go weeks between the studio sessions due to my hectic life at that point.

You said in an interview that you didn’t know what kind of responses to expect about your previous CD “By Honour”. And what about the new album? Are you satisfied with the responses?

Yes, I am satisfied. But to be completely honest I didn’t care much how the feedback would be this time. I just knew I had to do this album. I did it to satisfy my own needs.

Amon Amarth were about to use title “The End” for what became later “Versus The World” album. Did you know about this story?

No, I didn’t know that. I’ve never even listened to Amon Amarth.

The song “Myrding” is about ghost of unnamed baby killed by his mother. I know this story was taken from Swedish mythology, but is there any real story behind these lyrics?

It has nothing to do with any real story or experience from my own life. But these things have always been happening all over the world sadly enough. I read an old myth about a baby ghost, killed by the mother and the grandfather because she was not married and in the old times it was a big sin to get pregnant if you were not married. They kept the body hidden under the kitchen floor but the baby’s ghost could not find peace. When I read this myth/story I felt a chill down my spine and I just knew I wanted to write a song about it.

By the way, cases like this happen very often in our days. In your opinion, what’s wrong with the mankind, if mothers kill their babies?

In the old days of Sweden this was common if the mother was unmarried, the sin issue you know. Or if the child had some kind of handicap. Nowadays it’s more of a mental sickness of the mother I guess. Either way it’s sad and I can’t really understand it. I’m the father of two daughters and they are everything to me.

“The End” includes the re-recording of the song “A New But Past Day” from your demo “The Awakening”. Neither Internet sources nor the CD booklet include the lyrics to this song. Can you tell us what about this song is?

It’s about history itself. That you can learn much from history if you are able to analyze it correctly.

Did you mean anything specific? And what mankind's mistakes you can call as fatal? Maybe it's a growing gap between the man and nature?

No, it’s not about anything specific, just about history itself with a medieval touch. The mankind has to learn from history because we’ve made a lot of mistakes in the past. I often say that the only creature in this world that commits the same mistakes over and over again is man. Animals are learning instantly from their mistakes.

The only song from your demo that you still haven’t re-recorded is the song “Winter”. Would we expect that you’ll do it on your next album?

Actually “Winter” is re-recorded and re-named to “Vargavinter” and you can find it on our new album. It’s slightly edited both musically and lyrically though.

There are also no lyrics for the song “Our Failure” in CD booklet. Please, tell us about this song.

The lyrics are really old on this one and they deal with the really common theme of “doomsday”. The composition was mostly written in 2009 and maybe this song differs a little bit from the other songs on the album. It has more doom elements, I think.

You worked again together with only Ragnar. Why didn’t you ask your band-mates from Isole to play drums or bass?

We want to keep this as a duo. It’s easier and more convenient to do this project with only two minds. And we share the same feelings about the “Bathory sound”.

“The End” epic is about Ragnarok. Is it a kind of reaction to widespread rumors about the Apocalypse coming in 2012? Do you believe in these rumors?

No, I don’t think there will be Apocalypse in 2012 and it’s not the reason I chose to write a trilogy of Ragnarök. The main reason is that the album was meant to be entitled “The End” because at first this was meant to be the last album of Ereb Altor. Therefore I needed some kind of title track that dealt with an end and since we have dealt a little bit with Viking mythology before I thought Ragnarök was the perfect piece to the puzzle.

Please, make it clear - will you release any other new album under the moniker Ereb Altor?

It’s impossible to say since I don’t own a crystal ball. But I hope there will be several future albums under the Ereb Altor moniker. Actually I wrote three or four songs right after the release of “The End” that were meant to be Ereb Altor songs. They have a bit more black metal sound but with an old Ereb Altor touch though and I’m reading a lot about old ghost stories and myths from our neighborhood at the moment. So there is some lyrical work in progress as well. We’ll see what happens, right now 95% of my musical thoughts dwell in Isole.

Bands like Rebellion, Manowar and Wizard also use Viking and Scandinavian mythology themes in their works. In your opinion, why are these themes so popular on the metal scene?

I believe that mythology and legends and other stuff that is somewhat hard to comprehend fascinates people in general, therefore it’s not that strange that metal bands use these themes. Mythologies often have a lot of dark stories and that suits metal as well.

Once you said that you’d like to use folk instruments with Ereb Altor. Why didn’t this happen this time?

Yes, I would love to use real folk instruments but unfortunately I lack of contacts with people good enough that are willing to help me out. It’s just as simple as that, and as I said earlier I didn’t have much time and worked alone for the most of the time. Midi keyboards is not that bad but I would have preferred to use real instruments.

Your new album was released via Napalm Records. Did this collaboration give anything new to the band?

It boosts the promotion and distribution of the album of course. But when it comes to the music and the sound it didn’t do any difference because I presented the album to Napalm Records when it was a finished product. And as always Napalm doesn´t interfere with my artistic freedom.

Napalm Records also signed Russian female-fronted pagan band Arkona. Do you know anything about this band? And what do you think about Russian culture in general?

I haven’t heard them, I’m afraid. I haven’t had the time to explore new music for some time now. I’ve been too busy and for the last couple of months I have buried myself deep down in Studio Apocalypse to write material for Isole. I’m not that familiar with Russian culture so please inform me about it. I’m pleased that Russia is not so hard to visit anymore and I had a really nice time the only time I have been in Russia. We went there to play with Isole earlier this year and it was really great, a great audience and the people were very nice.

What are your best impressions from this visit? Did you have time to see the sights of Moscow?

Unfortunately we didn’t have any time at all for sightseeing in Moscow, I hope we’ll have the chance next time. We just got to know the Russian metalheads and they were wonderful. Friendly and cheerful. The people that worked in the club were professional and the sound on the festival was brilliant. We discussed the metal scene with the arranger afterwards and I think it’s a huge market in Russia and there seems to be a lot of real enthusiasts there.

I can’t avoid the question about Bathory as Ereb Altor sounds quite similar to this band. Do you try to keep Bathory’s legacy alive with your music?

Yes, that’s the reason we started this band. We wanted to honor Quorthon in some way and keep the spirit and flame alive somehow. Now we have done two albums heavily inspired by the Viking era of Bathory but I think it’s enough now and I will probably do something different with Ereb Altor from now on. Only future can tell.

What about live shows? I know that you played some, but who played drums on these concerts?

Jonas Lindström from Isole has played the drums on all Ereb Altor shows so far. We have used different bassists and I’m not sure how future shows will be, probably we will use different musicians on different shows. And from now on we will use backtracks live to do the songs more justice, it’s hard to do these big choirs with only two voices you know.

Let’s speak a little about the band’s history, if you don’t mind. The name Ereb Altor was taken from Swedish role-playing game “Drakars och Demoner”. Can you explain the rules of this game?

It’s a dice rolling role-playing game with a couple of books that makes the rules, it’s hard to explain the rules but the game itself has no boundaries, you can do whatever you wish within the game. It is a fantasy game with a world very much like the one that JRR Tolkien once created where dragons and wizards rule the world and all kinds of creatures live in this world. Ereb Altor is the name of the world itself.

After the recording of “The Awakening” demo in 2003 the band disappeared for the next five years. Why did you decide to stop doing music with Ereb Altor?

We got a record deal with Isole and we started to focus more and more on Isole. It’s as simple as that, Ereb Altor was put on ice until we felt that it was time to unleash some songs.

You and Ragnar perform with Isole under your real names while in Ereb Altor you use nick names. What is the reason behind this decision?

Mats and Ragnar are our real names, as well as Crister and Daniel. At first we wanted to keep it a secret, but after a while we understood that it was impossible, the Internet reveals all secrets.

You’re from the Swedish city of Gavle. I read that the citizens of Gavle have tradition to burn a colossal goat statue each Christmas. Do you like this tradition? And do you keep any other national traditions?

Actually it’s a crime to burn the goat and you can go to jail doing it. But yes it’s a tradition and usually it will burn down. I have never been involved in burning the goat. But some years when no one dares to burn it down it’s kind of disappointing.

What’s new from Isole? Are you working on some new stuff? And what are your plans for the nearest future?

We are doing a pre-production of our new album right now. So there will be a new Isole album in a not so distant future but it’s hard say when at this point. We also have some shows booked later this year and we are trying to put together as many shows as possible next year, hopefully there will be an extended tour.

What you can say to your Russian fans?

I want to go to Russia and do some shows as soon as possible. Let’s spread the Viking sound together.

Ereb Altor on the Internet: http://hem.bredband.net/criols/

Konstantin “Hirax” Chilikin
August 2010
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