Battlelore
Jussi Rautio
Hello! How are you guys and girls in Battlelore doing?
Very well, thanks for asking. Yesterday our record was released in Finland and we just finished our first music video from the new record. Finland has been very hot for few last weeks, as whole Europa has been I believe. But I don't complain. This is good balance against winter.
Could you please begin this interview by telling the readers a little about your band. Who you are and how you ended up in Battlelore!
Here is our official history:
J. Vahvanen and M. Kokkola founded Battlelore in 1999. The same year first promo CD "Warrior's Tale" was out to be reviewed by label companies. "Warrior's Tale" failed but the band didn't give up - instead Battlelore strengthened their unique style and pushed harder on forward. In the year 2000 Battlelore had a complete set of new songs and they recorded "Dark Fantasy", their second promotional CD at Music-Bros Studios, Imatra, and made it with time and care. The result was much better than what could be said about "Warrior's Tale". “Dark Fantasy” brought up very nice feedback and Napalm Records asked Battlelore to make one more promotional show out. An untitled three-track promo CD was made in a very little time and it won the hearts of the people at Napalm Records. The recording deal became reality.
In autumn 2001 Battlelore recorded their first full length album “...Where the Shadows Lie” again at Music-Bros Studios. “...Where the Shadows Lie” resulted in good reviews and got fans to stand behind it 100%.
Unfortunately T. Havo had to leave the band because of personal reasons. After a while Battlelore found the talented J. Rautio to play the lead guitar.
The second album “Sword's Song” was released in spring 2003 and it took Battlelore to a totally new level in their music. “Sword's Song” was also recorded at Music-Bros Studios with Miitri Aaltonen. Battlelore's first DVD "The Journey" - featuring the energetic live show at Tavastia club - saw the daylight in the beginning of 2004 and it lead the band to even greater success than before.
In August 2004 Battlelore's majestic male vocalist Patrik Mennander had to make an extremely hard choice between the band and his work as a tattoo artist. Sadly, he had to make the hard decision and leave the scepter and the crown as Battlelore's singer to wait some other Uruk-Hai warrior who could fill this enormous task with honour. His last performance with Battlelore was the magnificent headlining show at RingCon, the official Lord of the Rings Festival in Germany, Bonn
After the successful Atlantis Lovelorn tour with two session members, the low-growling vocalist Tomi Mykkänen and on stage raging bass player Timo Honkanen, Battlelore had to start making decisions about the new singer for the recordings of their third album. In the beginning of 2005 Miika Kokkola, one of the founding members announced his hard decision to leave the band because of personal reasons. Thus, Battlelore had to start looking for a new bassist also. They didn't have to look far – the best men had already been tested for the job. Battlelore asked the two outstanding warriors to join them as full-time members. Tomi Mykkänen, the new Uruk-Hai warrior with raging vocals, and Timo Honkanen, the great stage performer with bass, are the perfect addition when Battlelore continues their journey through Middle-earth.
You're just about to release your third album called "Third Age Of The Sun". How would you describe this album compared to your two previous releases?
Somehow the new album sounds more "true" to me. "Sword's Song" was a step for synthesized in its direction and "Third Age Of The Sun" is focused on how our band can make things work, with the seven of us and all of our instruments combined. So, I believe "Third Age Of The Sun" will get a good response from audience. Now we concentrate on more simple expressions and a more focused atmosphere. If you polish your music too much with computers it takes edge away from it. We wanted to do a more analog album so people can hear the human touch behind our production.
What can you tell us about the new album cover?
The cover art on the new album was made by Ville Pellikka. He is a Tolkien freak himself and he made lots of different versions of the cover. In the early version there was battle between Eowyn and Lich King. It was a good painting but maybe not suitable for an album cover. So he made this one where there are three elven smiths. We have had conversations about the symbolism of the cover artwork over some red wine, but I will not share them now. Let's just say that we are very pleased with the cover.
Battlelore is described as power metal with folk influences but you also use death metal growls quite often. How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn't heard you before?
It is metal music with orchestral elements. There are two vocalists, a male and female. The male (Tomi) does the growling stuff and a little bit of singing and the female (Kaisa) does the singing and a little bit of growling. Our sound is a mixture of things we like quite much. It varies a lot and we do what ever we feel like, as long as it goes well with the song.
What do you think makes Battlelore stand out as unique from other bands?
I hope it is the music. Without some good songs, there is not a possibility to get anywhere. Our look also differs from other bands. We use costumes when we are playing live and we would like to take our live performances to more theatrical direction. There are also two beautiful girls in the band and I have noticed that they get a lot of attention from male listeners. We have also very good spirit inside our group and I hope that somehow people will sense that.
As we all know you take a lot of your lyrical inspiration from Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings. Are there any other authors or certain books that have inspired you?
I am only composing music for Battlelore, and in that sense everything works as inspiration. I have noticed that I am much more creative, when there are big changes in my life, and I do also get creative after experiencing something new. There are a few other great fantasy writers from whom I get inspiration. Michael Moorcock has some good and dark fantasy books. Of his work I like the Elric stories the most. Ursula LeGuin does also write good fantasy. Her books are wise and they work in many levels.
Who writes the music and lyrics in Battlelore?
On our new album I did half of the songs and Jyri Vahvanen did the other half. There is an intro and outro that are mainly Maria's work. Everybody has a saying on all the songs and if somebody has a good idea, we try to use it. We try to keep our creative work as open as possible and we try to avoid criticism too early in the stages of the songs. Normally our songs finally shape up in the studio. Jyri writes all the lyrics.
Since there are 7 members in Battlelore it must be difficult sometimes to make decisions that satisfies everyone in the band. Does the band have a "leader" that is usually the one making decisions?
Jyri is the leader because he founded the band and he is the one in touch with the record label. If there is a decision to make we use democracy.
What bands/artists would you say have influenced you?
For my work in Battlelore it's hard to say who have influenced me. All the artists I listen to, are not anything like Battlelore. I think I try to avoid taking straight influences from bands, but of course the music I listen to influences me. Right now I listen to System Of A down, Mokoma, Nick Cave and Led Zeppelin.
What do you think of the Scandinavian metal scene at the moment?
It's quite big now and has a lot of different elements inside it. I don't know much about how it is in other countries, but in Finland the past few years have been very good for the metal scene. There are some big names which have made it big outside Finland like HIM and Nightwish, and lot of smaller bands are playing tours outside Finland as well. Inside Finland there has been an invasion of heavy metal bands singing in Finnish. That is something everybody thought would be impossible a few years ago. I don't know about the future of heavy metal. It is now so big that I don't know how much bigger it can get. I hope there will be created some totally new metal genres. By the way Simen Hestnæs from Dimmu Borgir said that the next big thing is islamic black metal, who knows he might be right.
And now for a question we always almost ask. Would you be so kind to share with the readers your top 3 favorite metal albums of all-time?
Metallica - Master Of Puppets, I don't know if there would be any metal music with out Metallica.
Tool - Ænima, perhaps this is not a "true" metal album but it is the best album from the band. Here they still had a lot of vocals, and not just guitar tripping like nowadays.
Sepultura - Chaos AD, an album with virtuosity and energy.
You released a DVD last year called "The Journey" after only two studio albums. Are you satisfied with the outcome or are there things you think could've been made better?
I am happy that we got the DVD out, so people can see how our live shows are. I think that the live gig from Tavastia is the best part of the DVD. There are ther things on the DVD are interesting, but things could have been more professionally made. Maybe some rawness on the DVD to make it more interesting.
Is there any tour planned after the release of the new album?
Maybe Napalm Records has made some plans in their chamber, but we don't know anything about new touring plans yet.
Back
