Battlelore:Evernight – Melancholy, anger and hope!

Let’s walk beside Maria on Middle Earth's sacred soil, chatting about Akallabeth – the fall of Numenor, the long cold winters of Finland and Battlelore’s latest album: Evernight.

Metalfan: Hi there and welcome to Metalfan webpages!
Maria: Hey, and thanks for the interview!

Metalfan: Although Battlelore is active for many years, your popularity isn’t very high in Romania; therefore, please be so kind and point out the most important aspects of your biography.
Maria: Jyri Vahvanen and Miika Kokkola founded Battlelore in 1999. The first promo CD “Warrior’s Tale” with T.Havo (growls, guitars), Gorthaur (drums) and P. Mennander (clean male vocals) was released that same year. “Warrior’s Tale” was liked everywhere, but we caught the attention of Napalm Records only after the release of the second demo “Dark Fantasy” in 2000. “Dark Fantasy” also introduced the at the time new Battlelore members; Kaisa Jouhki as the new female vocalist, Henri Vahvanen as the drummer and Maria (me) as the keyboard player. At the request of the label, we recorded an untitled three-track promo CD and soon thereafter the deal was finalized.
In autumn 2001 Battlelore recorded the debut “…Where the Shadows Lie” at Music-Bros Studios with producer Miitri Aaltonen. Shortly thereafter due to personal reasons, T. Havo left Battlelore. He was replaced by Jussi Rautio on lead guitar. The second album “Sword’s Song” was released in spring 2003. “Sword’s Song” was also recorded at Music-Bros Studios under the guidance of Miitri Aaltonen. Our first DVD “The Journey” saw the light of day in early 2004.
In August 2004 Battlelore endured another line-up change as Patrik Mennander left the band to follow another career path. After the successful European tour with two session musicians (vocalist Tomi Mykkänen and bass player Timo Honkanen, who filled in for a temporarily absent Miika Kokkola), we began searching for Patrik’s replacement. Later, Miika Kokkola announced that he too would be leaving Battlelore. Luckily, Timo and Tomi’s showing on tour convinced us that we could not find better men for the job.
Our third album “Third Age of the Sun” was recorded at Sound Suite Studios in spring 2005 resulting in an innovative and fresh finished product. With producer Terje Refsnes we found a new sound. We decided to leave out all the overdone computer programming that would result in an inorganic sound. The fourth Battlelore album, “Evernight”, was recorded in the autumn of 2006 and it was published in February 2007. Those are the most important parts of the Battlelore biography.

Metalfan: Your name suggests a warlike attitude even if your music isn’t very aggressive. Why did you choose it to name your band?
Maria: Well, as Battlelore’s music and lyrics are based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s tales of Middle-earth, and the tales themselves include loads of battles, tales and lores; it’s a fantasy world with a whole history, languages and races, adventures, loss, happiness and all there is in life, and thus the name is actually very descriptive. We have our aggressive and furious songs and the slow, acoustic ones, so it is a good name in my opinion. Jyri is the one who came up with the name, and the basic idea was to combine the words “battle” and “folklore”.

Metalfan: You have released in February a new album, called Evernight. Compared to your previous albums I found it more epic and bombastic, but with a cutting metal edge in some of the songs. Can Evernight be considered your most complex and diverse album?
Maria: The new album is called “Evernight” and that title gives a nice impression of the way the new album sounds. Compared to the previous album this one is darker and musically more developed. The atmosphere is kind of melancholic and dark. I think it’s because of many reasons; for example the lyrics of most songs on this album are based on Akallabeth – the fall of Numenor, which is a sad and furious tale. Other songs are also based on the darker tales, so that has influenced the sound. All that same sadness and anger can be heard on the whole album, with a hint of hope and beauty as well. We see “Evernight” as the strongest and darkest of the Battlelore albums. Compared to the earlier works it shows a more courageous and mature Battlelore. One might say that it’s more progressive in song writing than the previous albums, and yes, it can be considered our most complex and diverse album.

Metalfan: Which is the story behind Evernight? Is there a concept that links all the songs?
Maria: Actually the initial idea was to make the whole album about Akallabeth, the Fall of Numenor that is, but we didn’t extent the theme on the whole album. It’s still the most influential story for Evernight though. It’s a story where an island of men turns into madness as people start to envy gods for their eternal life. They start to worship darkness and their hearts become black, and later they declare a war against gods. Gods are furious about the turn of events and a storm rises destroying the island and all men with it. The main themes in Akallabeth as well as on other songs on Evernight are greed, deception, longing, destruction and oblivion. Death is also always present. That’s probably why the album turned out as dark and aggressive... Hehe. On the normal jewel case version there are 3 songs connected to the story, on the limited digipack there are 5 songs connected.

Metalfan: Let’s assume you have to describe in only three words your new album. Which would be these three words?
Maria: Melancholy, fury and hope. Not connected directly to the musical aspects, but those words just describe Evernight too well, hehe.

Metalfan: How were the reactions concerning Evernight so far?
Maria: The feedback has been amazing – we’ve got really good reviews and people have liked this album a lot. Also the media especially in North-America and Europe has been very kind in their reviews and interviews. So far so good, I’d say. We’ll see how people really like the album as we hit the tour next week, hehe.

Metalfan: I know that JRR Tolkien had a major influence on your music and lyrics. Is his work still the major source of inspiration for Battlelore?
Maria: When Jyri created Battlelore, his main goal was to make music based on and inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien’s work. All of us have read the books of Mr. Tolkien and are truly inspired by the way he combines real folklore, legends and fiction in a whole fantasy world with its history, languages etc. There’s an endless amount of themes around which the songs can be made and unlike most think, our songs are more inspired by e.g. Silmarillion and other not so known books and tales than the Lord of the Rings trilogy. So our whole existence is based on Tolkien – I guess that’ll give you a hint on how important it all is, hehe.
Apart from Tolkien’s books and fantasy, we are definitely inspired by the Finnish nature. Our cold and dark winters as well as the light-filled, green summers bring us the kind of inspiration that can’t be reached otherwise. Our landscapes with lakes and wild nature are so beautiful and different from others that it’s hard to imagine getting this kind of inspirations elsewhere. Also the Finnish folklore “Kalevala” has inspired us – which is not a strange thing considering that Mr. Tolkien also took some inspiration from this exact folklore as well. He also based some of the Middle-earth languages on the Finnish language.
I think that we also get inspired by all kinds of things happening around us, the books we read, movies we see and the people we meet, so everything that happens can have some meaning in our lives. All seven of us listen to very different kind of music, so Battlelore doesn’t really show any specific influences or use certain musicians as role models or anything – we all bring our things and ideas and put those together, so it’s like a soup filled with seven different kind of spices and ingredients. Luckily they’ve all fit together so far, hehehe.

Metalfan: Don’t you think that the musical market is oversaturated by Tolkien, especially after the overwhelming success of Lord of the rings movie trilogy? Maybe this fact influenced your decision not to use for Evernight names or places from Tolkien novels?
Maria: I don’t think there’ve been that many people making music about Tolkien, or at least not so many well-known artists, so it hasn’t been THAT bad in the music industry. However, I do think that it all went a bit too far with all the merchandise for the films etc., and people got a bit tired of the whole Lord of the Rings -stuff. Battlelore was created in 1999 and the first record came out in 2002, so the films sort of surprised us – and many fans don’t know that. I think that in some ways it might be easier for us if we could have done our music without the films. It is however fascinating how many people have embraced the tales of Tolkien now that due to the films he’s more known around the world. I think most of our fans are delighted that someone actually puts his mind to creating a fantasy world through music and they usually are Tolkien fans at the same time as they are our fans. Of course some people just enjoy the music. The problem is of course, that our own images of Tolkien’s world aren’t the same as in the films, and we don’t sing about Orlando Bloom’s adventures but the adventures of elves from the books. Some fans don’t understand that.
And about the lyrics for Evernight; The lyrics have been our individual interpretations of Tolkien’s Middle-earth themes and tales. On previous albums we’ve had detailed lyrics and thus, made the basis known to our fans. Now that people know what Battlelore is, we had a chance to change the lyrics a bit. So, this time around we decided to leave out all the specific names, details and places from Middle-earth. That leads to the fact that the album is more universal and everyone can ponder, which tales the songs are based on and whether they want to give them some other meanings as well. This makes the album more interesting for the Tolkien fans as they need to really find out which tales the songs tell about, and also makes it easier for not Tolkien fans to relate to the songs.

Metalfan: Which are in your opinion the main differences between Battlelore and other bands that use Tolkien as a source of inspiration?
Maria: Well, I don’t think that there are that many bands that have decided to make music solely based on Tolkien’s literature like we have. A lot of bands have used names or certain stories from Tolkien, but most have other inspirations and subjects as well. I think that every band has chosen their road in creating music and we respect that, there’s no hatred among anyone. I guess some bands try to use Tolkien’s concepts to make money, and that I do not respect or approve of. If we were to think of Tolkien-based music that way, I guess we would be more devoted to the matter itself. Other than that, I think that we really just want to pay our respects to Mr. Tolkien and want to continue his legacy by making music and creating atmospheres inspired by his epic literature. And well, although there are loads of metal bands using Tolkien’s names etc., most are focused on certain kinds of tales. We are a metal band which isn’t afraid to show all the aspects of life in our music – hatred and fury as well as hope, joy and well – getting drunk and having fun, like in one of our songs.

Metalfan: Have you ever thought to use Sindarin language for some of your songs?
Maria: We have thought about it, but since no one of us can speak, read of write in Sindarin, we’ve decided to stick with English. I guess we might consider it if we knew Sindarin or other languages, but for now it’s just English. We have however used some Finnish here and there in the songs, hehe.

Metalfan: Is image important for you? I saw pictures with you dressed like warriors and the girls wearing elves like clothing. Does the make up and this sort of dressing help during your live appearances?
Maria: Image is extremely important to us; it was one of the things Jyri decided from the very beginning of Battlelore, that we would have a visual image as well as the musical one. The clothes we wear on gigs and promotional shots are a vital part of Battlelore, just as the Tolkien themes themselves.. It would feel strange to play music about elves and trolls with just jeans and t-shirts, and it wouldn’t be Battlelore. Our stage look has developed over the years and even the changing into gig clothes gives a special feeling for going on stage. Every time it puts us all in the mood for playing the best show ever! And I think it gives the audience a lot too. They can truly get in the atmosphere and imagine themselves in Middle-earth with us. I hope we’ll get to develop our visual image  even more in the future.

Metalfan: Finnish metal scene is very vivid. I often ask the members of the Finnish bands the following questions: why do you have such a strong metal scene and why do you Finnish people like so much this kind of music?
Maria: Hehe, that’s a good question. I guess it’s our dark and cold winters. People think differently when it’s constantly dark and metal just gives you the very much needed energy on a dark day. And well, although Finns can be very happy especially after a beer or two, they are also rather melancholic at times. There’s a huge difference in people depending on whether it’s winter or summer. I don’t know if it’s because of the country, history, genes or anything like that, but Finnish people just are metalheads… Even my parents enjoy metal every once in a while! I’d say it’s in our blood, hehe. And I have to add something: after Lordi won the Eurovision last year, even more Finns are into heavy rock/metal and even the newest Idols winner in Finland is a heavy metal singer, so maybe that tells a lot about the Finns…

Metalfan: The contrast between angelic female voices and death metal growl is very common among the gothic bands. Why did you find this formula suitable for your music also?
Maria: That’s also one of the ideas Jyri had from the very beginning – he wanted a female singer, a clean male vocalist and a growler in the band. At that time there weren’t that many bands using this concept, so it was kind of a new thing back then. The main idea is that with versatile vocals it’s easier to create the right kind of atmosphere in our music. Especially since our songs tell such different tales; there’s good and evil, hope and despair, joy and loss, and with the vocal style we have, it’s very easy to make it more real and concrete. Of course we’ve also mixed it up a little; Kaisa also growls on some songs…

Metalfan: Do you consider yourself a gothic metal band?
Maria: I don’t really think we fit into any of the genres there are out there. And I definitely don’t think we’re gothic metal – just because we have a female vocalist and keyboards doesn’t mean that automatically our music is gothic metal, hehe. We combine so many different styles and genres that it’s really hard to put us in a box of any kind. Our label suggests that we are “fantasy metal”, which in a way describes us well – fantasy can be pretty much anything, right? So we combine pretty much anything and turn it into our kind of metal… Heheh.

Metalfan: Who is writing the music in your band and who is responsible with the lyrics?
Maria: Jyri does all the lyrics, although on Evernight Jussi and Tomi helped on a song or two, but Jyri is behind all of that. And the song writing process we do all together. Usually this is how it goes: Jyri, Jussi or someone else in the band makes the skeleton of the song, usually with the guitar. Then the rest of us get the songs on demo or at rehearsals and we compose our own parts on all the songs. That’s mainly it. On “Evernight” there are songs by Jyri, one song by Tomi, songs by Jussi, and an instrumental bonus track by me. So I guess with time, we’ve all become more comfortable to take more part in making songs and that’s because of the good atmosphere within the band. Everyone has a say in composing the songs and everyone has a chance to make their own songs to be used for Battlelore. And to be honest, I think it’s a great thing and brings loads of variation and almost limitless possibilities for us.

Metalfan: You recently came back from St Petersburg. Did you find the Russian vodka better than Finlandia, ha ha?
Maria: Well, I have to say that the Russians are not known for their vodka for nothing! Their vodka is excellent, and – sorry for whoever does Finlandia – I definitely think their vodka was better. It was just great stuff. Hehehe.

Metalfan: I know you will do an European tour this spring. Have you prepared something special for this tour?
Maria: This is our first headlining tour, so our stage time is about one hour – which is more than we’ve ever played in Europe except for a few exceptions. We played a 70 minute set in Russia, and for the tour we’ve rehearsed some songs on top of that, so we have a very wide selection of songs to choose from. Of course we’re focusing on Evernight and then there are a few songs from each album, but yeah, I think it will be great. We are really looking forward to going on tour and will absolutely play our greatest gigs there! That’s a promise!

Metalfan: Do you intend to play a concert in Romania someday?
Maria: I certainly hope so! We haven’t played in Romania so it would be great to visit your country. Nothing is confirmed for Romania yet, but if the organizers out there read this, we are more than happy to come and play there!

Metalfan: Thank you very much for this interview and in the end I propose you a quick quiz:
Maria: Thanks for the great interview! Hope to see you all on our shows and visit www.battlelore.net for more information and images…

Quick Quiz

Elf or Orc?
Orc

Sword or Axe?
AXE!!!

Summoning or Blind Guardian?
Summoning, without a doubt

Rohan or Isengard?
I’d have to go with Rohan… Landscape’s great, hehe.

Frost cold days or warm sunny weather?
Both have their good qualities, but after our long winter I have to say that I’m looking forward to the warm sunny days of summer…

Climbing a mountain or lying on a beach?
Climbing a mountain! I hate lying on the beach. Boring.