Eternal Helcaraxe (Ireland)
Melodies within a black/viking metal framework, with slight symphonic/folk
overtones (not too much, though), Eternal Helcaraxe is a solid proposition,
with good arrangements and songs. It is a matter of listening to the songs and
hearing where it goes, to places of mood and melody joined, for the listening
ear to assemble it in coherence.
Praetorian (guitars, vocals) answers questions
about their strong album “Against All Odds.”
At the end of the interview you will find all the
contact information about the band.
--
“Against All
Odds” took little time to convince me that it is a good album. How have people
in Ireland learned about it?
Thanks. Mostly through
word of mouth I'd say, through the internet, too, probably. There was a lot of
hype about the album before it's release here in Ireland, because the release
"To Whatever End" before it seemed to do pretty well.
What is the
story of “One Stands Still Here”? It’s the black metal feeling of the guitar
speed/feel and the drumming style, but the melody echoes in the listener’s mind
after the song ends. It will
probably stay in your live setlist for a while?
“One Stands Still
Here” just came together. We've only played one show since the release of
"Against All Odds" and it was our second song. Didn't realize it was
so popular till we played it to be honest! But it's a funny release, as
everyone seems to have a different favourite song, my personal favourite
changes depending on my mood.
“As the Snow
Gathers” has lyrics that communicate the idea of cold freezing death. You used
clean vocals on this one, but you have the sense not to make it a formula for
every song. How many vocalists are there on that song?
There are three
vocalists on every song on the album. We find that the three vocals can add
another dimension to the songs. Thule our bass player does the clean vocal on
that song. I think less is more when it comes to this type of music, but if it
suits the song, that's all that matters. We always just try to write the best
song we can.
“Shadow of the
Wolf” catches the listener’s attention and it is about 4 minutes long, probably
the most all-out black metal song. Did you feel that you are becoming too epic
and need some balance? Is it closer to your earlier songs? Was your demo
“Palest Kingdom” (2008) less multidimensional than “Against All Odds”? Maybe
not? I have not heard it yet!
No, didn't really
think of the album as a whole when we were writing it, as I said we just wrote
one song at a time and try to give each one what we thought it needed. I'm not
too sure if our writing style has changed to be honest. We have been playing
three of the songs from "Palest Kingdom" in rehearsal because
we're re-recording them for a re-release of "To Whatever End" with
bonus tracks through Abyss Records. We're re-recording "Burning
Light", "Palest Kingdom" and "The Undying Lands".
It'll be out next year at some stage. If anything "Palest
Kingdom" was probably more epic to be honest, the songs were longer
and there was a lot more keyboards on it, too. It was a bedroom recording
though so the production really lets it down.
The song
“Against All Odds” could be the love song on the album! The
war/blood/sword/wolf imagery on the other songs can come across as macho/nationalistic
(and homophobic), but on this one, the lyrics worked out very well for the epic
feel.
Yes, it's been described
as a love song before which is nice, that's what I was aiming for when I wrote
it, homophobic is a new one though! Anyway, I think lyrics have to be honest to
have impact and that's just how I was feeling when I wrote them. When I'm
writing lyrics I don't think of stupid shit like if they are Black metal or
Viking metal enough, mainly because most Black metal lyrics in bands are pretty
crap, bar a couple of band like Primordial, 40 Watt Sun/Warning or whatever.
Metal Archives
says that both Tyrith and Praetorian play drums on the album and Praetorian
does drums, guitars, keyboards and vocals?
No, Tyrith done all
the drums. I don't know were they got that from, they should probably do some
research into these things! I do guitars, keyboards and a third of the vocals.
Do all of you
live in the same city? Only Praetorian remains from the old days? Was it hard
to find like-minded people?
We all live in the same
town, yeah. No, myself and Maulgrim (guitars, vocals) have been in the band
from the start. Haha, maybe you should do your research, too! Yeah, both of us
couldn't find members to work and stick with us until after the "Palest
Kingdom" release. But the line-up we have had for the last two releases
have been great. We've also started writing the new album, too and it’s really
strong.
What type of
childhood did Praetorian have that he learned guitar, drums, keyboards and vocals?
“Drums” does not mean “drum machine programming” in this case, does it? By the
way, what is “Éadóchas”?
I just loved music
when I was younger. Still do. Yeah, I programmed the drums for the first
release, badly. “Éadóchas” is an ambient side project I do. First
release "Beneath The Lonely Mountain" is out on Sword Production. (http://www.sword.pt.vu/) Any one
interested, check it out. http://www.reverbnation.com/eadochas http://www.myspace.com/eadochas
THE
END.
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