FANTACY METTALERS

BATTLELORE

BattleLore is a band from Finland that plays a fantacy metal. Last year theiy made their debut with “Where Shadows lie” and this year they have a brand new album, called “ Sword’s Song” . Greek fans will have the chance to learn more about them in the following interview from one of the leaders of the group, mr Jyri Vahvanen(Guitars) witch answers our questions

1)HOW CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC TO THE FANS?

I can describe it as a fantacy metal, I know that this is a strange term but we like to call the way that we are playing fantacy metal. We use a lot of Tolkien writtings in our lyrics, and other fantacy literature. Musically I can say that we have a mixture of Epic, power and Gothic Metal, with a variety of vocals, We have male, female and even dark vocals.

2) TELL ME FEW THINGS ABOUT THE BAND, A SHORT BIOGRAPHY...

Me (Jyri Vahvanen) and M. Kokkola founded Battlelore in 1999. The same year our 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 we had a complete set of new songs and we recorded "Dark fantasy", that was the 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 us 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 we recorded our first full lenght 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 and J. Rautio came to play lead guitar in Battlelore. Now Battlelore is back heavier, more steel-flavored than ever! The new album “Sword’s Song” takes Battlelore to a totally new level in our music. “Sword’s Song” was also recorded at Music-Bros Studios with Miitri Aaltonen. I can say that give us a chance and let Battlelore show you flashes from the smoky tavern at Umbar, through the green fields of Rohan and finally to the deepest dungeons of Moria.

2.1)YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUM WAS CALLED "Where Shadows lie", WE CAN SEE CLEARLY the J.T.T. Tolkien INFLUENCE ON THE COVER WITH THE IMPOSING FIGURE OF MORGOTH. AFTER The Lord Of The Rings MOVIES MADNESS, DON'T YOU THINK THAT WITH A COVER LIKE THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MORE SALES THAN JUST A FANTACY COVER?

You must know that few people understood that in the cover was Morgoth. Some said that it’s from the Bible, you know David and Goliath, so I can't say that that covered improved our sales doe to “Lord Of The Rings” movie madness as you call it

3) YOU HAVE A NEW ALBUM CALLED "Swords Song", TELL ME SOME THINGS ABOUT IT, IS IT A CONCEPT ALBUM?

It’s not a concept album, it has individual concept songs. Of Course they are fantacy based, but our music is also different from the previous album. This time we had more modern songs, we spend a lot of time in the studio to write it. You can also see clearly the folk influence. Generally we are proud about our work.

4) WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG FROM THIS ALBUM?

My favorite song is the first song of the album called “Sons Of Riddermark”, It’s a very powerfull song to start a concert.

4.1) ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE PRODUCTION OF THE ALBUM? TO BE HONEST WITH YOU, I THINK THAT IT SHOULD BE BETTER.

It depends from what point of view, you can see it. This time we liked to have less atmosphere and more modern sound. Many people might expect from us to play like Rhapsody, but I am safisfied from the production, I think that it was very good for this album. We surely like to improve ourselfs, and add more instruments to our songs, we will look after another production, that’s for sure In the next time, the production would be different because we want more mystical feeling and fantacy atmosphere.

5)WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO WRITE MUSIC?

J.R.R Tolkien and other fantacy writers. I read a lot of fantacy and I play fantacy games, that gives me a lot of ideas to put them into a song. So far, I have written all Battlelore songs

6) WHAT'S YOUR OPINION ABOUT J.R.R Tolkien?

I can say that he was an unbelievavle writer. He created a whole world with different races, languages. He did an amazing job. I can’t understand why people now started to care about Tolkien, his works should be admirred 20 years ago. They are a lot of people that read the books after the movie

7) WHEN DID YOU READ THE Lord Of The rings TRILOGY FOR THE FIRST TIME?

It was 12 years ago and it was magical. I ‘ve read 6 times each of the books since then It’s a fantastic feeling, the atmosphere, the world of Middle Earth, I can’t describe it with words.

7.1) ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE LOTR MOVIES?

Generally I can say that I am safisfied and I think that if Tolkien had the chance to see his work on the big screen he would be satisfied too. There are changes in the scripts, they are missing characters and some circumstances and facts have changed, but we must not forget that reading a book is different than watching a movie. You must manage to give the fantacy world, the atmosphere and the feelings to the viewer. It’s different when you read something, you have the time to read and understand. A movie it’s a movie and a book it’s a book. I liked it a lot.

8)WHICH ARE YOUR MAIN INFLUENCIES IN YOUR MUSIC ?

I can speak only for myself because each member of BattleLore has different influencies. I listen bands like Rhapsody, Hypocricy, Rammstein wich I think is a great band and they have a fantastic new album, old black metal.

9) ONE OF THE BANDS THAT FIRST HAD CONCEPTS FROM TOLKIEN AND FANTACY WORLD ARE BLIND GUARDIAN, DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THEM?

I thinkt that Blind Guardian are a great band and one of my favorite bands.

10) IN THEIR MUSIC THEY PERFORM A LITTLE THEATRICAL, WOULD BATTLELORE LIKE MAKE SOMETHING FAMILIAR?

We are wearing epical costumes in our shows, that it’s very good for the fans because they see something different in the shows. I don’t like to perform in Jeans or leather stuff.

9)WITH WHO MUCICIANS WOULD YOU LIKE TO COOPERATE?

Let me think…..Definitely with the Keyboard player from Nightwish. He plays very fast and he is a great composer. I would like to make something with him and BattleLore in the future

10) HOW DO YOU SEE METAL NOWADAYS?

I can speak for the Metal in Finland. We have a lot of great bands such as Stratovarius, Sentenced, Him, Children Of Bodom, its great. Metal grows in Finland!

11)WHAT GOALS DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE WITH BATTLELORE?

We would like to make a big tour and visit as many countries we can. Someday I hope we would be the Headliners in a concert. Nowadays we play us a support band. Maybe that will happen in our next studio album wich will probably record it in the next spring . But it’s to early to speak for third studio album, before we release our second

12) DO YOU PLAY FANTACY GAMES SUCH AS Dungeons & Dragons, Magic The Gathering etc?

I play a lot of fantacy games such as Magic The Gathering, Runemagic, Vampire and cyber- fantacy games. I also like to play Real Roleplaying games with real equipment, get dressed medieval and play RPG in the woods.

13) I LIKE THAT AS AN IDEA, BUT IT'S A LITTLE BIT EXPENSIVE.

Yes that’s true, but it’s a great feeling

13)DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE GREEK FANS?

We would like to visit Greece and play there, I have letters from Greek fans, that tell us to come and play to your country. I know that there are a lot of Metal and Tolkien fans and it wound be our pleasure to perform a show in Greece.

Jyri, I would like to thank you for your time, I hope your new album to be successful and one day to come and play in Greece.

-Thank you very much, we will probalby come to Greece in the futute, bye

Costas “C.O.B” Meidanis

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