Ereb Altor – interview met Crister ‘Mats’ Olsson (vocals, guitars)
Mats: “The album is about going back to the roots for some reason. This is the theme of the album, although we are having some songs about totally different things, but the theme of the album is actually the roots where we come from”
Mats en Ragnar zijn de motor van zowel de Zweedse Viking band Ereb Altor als van de doom/death metal formatie Isole. Ereb Altor brengt in februari 2025 al het tiende album uit dat geïnspireerd is door Bathory, maar de heren hebben we heel eigen insteek. Dat maakt de releases echte parels die we graag ondersteunen. Het nieuwe album ‘Hälsingemörker’ gaat bijvoorbeeld over de mysterieuze streek in Zweden waar ze geboren en getogen zijn. Begin december hadden we dan ook al een uitvoerig gesprek met zanger/gitarist Crister ‘Mats’ Olsson die zoals steeds een bijzonder vriendelijke gesprekspartner is.
Vera Matthijssens Ι 7 februari 2025
Congratulations with the new album, because I listened to it this afternoon as a whole and I enjoyed it a lot again. I think it is two years ago since we talked as well for ‘Vargtimman’…
It should be three years ago. It has taken three years after the last album. That was released January 2022. It took a little bit longer this time. Usually we have two years between the albums, but this time it was three years.
Was it a difficult album to make or do you look back on it as an easy one?
Making the album was not very difficult, but it took a long time to put everything on tape this time.
I saw there were first recordings and end of May they were done and then you entered Studio Apocalypse, that was for the mix then?
Yes. Since we are doing everything by ourselves, it takes a lot of time. We have done it on the previous albums as well, but this time it took a bit longer, but we had the Summer festivals and we toured last December, so we had a break during the recording sessions, a long break. That was why it took so long.
But it is nice that you already released three singles in the Summer… I think that was really pleasing for the fans and for those who are interested…
Yeah these three singles were recorded at the same recording sessions. So the album was already finished before the Summer. It takes a lot of time to make the actual pressings of the vinyl’s and the great wooden box. It all takes time. It is much easier to release three digital singles. That is not much work. That is why we released three songs in advance, but they are not going to be on the regular album, only on the deluxe edition.
The new album tells stories about the region Hälsingland. Is that where you are living now? What is characteristic for that place?
It is not the place where I live. It is the place where my roots come from. My ancestors and some of my family live there and I have a strong connection with them. I lived there in my youth and also Tord, the drummer, has been living in Hälsingland for a part of his life. It is a kind of wasteland, there are actually no cities, just small villages. It is a special place to me. Every year I am visiting my relatives of course and I always go to the forests to wander. A couple of years ago I went to an old cabin where stories are told that the mother burned her unborn child. I don’t know if it is true or not, but in earlier times people went there to baptize their child and they went there to give it a name. Maybe it will find peace. The story goes that the child turned into a ghost and there are many, many stories like that from Hälsingland. It gives a lot of inspiration, it is kind of cool. Also the girl that made the cover, Christine Linde, she has been living there. We could not get more Hälsingland than her and she captured the spirit of the lady of the forest perfectly. Anyways, it is about going back to the roots for some reason. This is the theme of the album, although we are having some songs about totally different things, but the theme of the album is actually the roots where we come from.
It must give a healing feeling to do that I think…
Yes, it is. I always thought that one day I would move back there, but I don’t think so anymore, because I am getting older (chuckles). I rather will end up somewhere else. But still it has a very special place in my heart.
You should keep that in mind. As I hear, it is a bit mystical and enigmatic… you have that in those forlorn regions, it goes beyond humanity…
Yes it does. There is a force in the nature somehow.
‘The Lake Of Blood’ should be inspired by Skedemosse, an important place of rituals. Are there still remnants of that?
Yeah, I visited the place. It is not a lake anymore, it is more a swamp. It is not an open lake anymore, but it was back then around 1000 years ago. They found lots of sacrificed remnants of people from 1000 or 1500 years ago, sacrificed animals and a lot of burnt things in that lake. It is located on one of the Swedish islands called Öland, that big island outside in the Baltic Sea. I was there visiting the place, now it is many years ago, it was when I was writing for ‘Fire & Ice’, because it is an old song and they built a small museum there where you could see some of the findings and things. There were no other people than me and my family (chuckles) there. It did not look like a very popular place, but I don’t know. It was a small museum.
That makes it even more special, when you are the only visitors. If you are with so many tourists, the charms are gone…
Yes I know what you mean. Now we could walk around and feel the ancient things of history somehow.
And the people who are organizing this will be different…
There were no people at all. There was no staff, only a small box where you could put some money. No one was working there either, so we were just us.
Wow exclusive! In ‘Skogsrået’, the other song which was released as a single, we hear nyckelharpa. That is also very nice!
Yes it is an old instrument. A friend of mine, a friend of ours, Mikael Lindström, has one. I don’t know the English name, usually, even on English albums, they write nyckelharpa, it is a key harp or something like that. A little bit like the fiddle, but not the same. It is a cool instrument and nice sound.
It shows a more gentle side of the band indeed. What is it about?
It is about Skogsrået’, that is actually the maid or the lady of the forest. She takes care of and nourishes the forest. If you don’t treat the forest well, she will get angry and plays tricks on you and lure people into death or worse. It is also kind of a playful creature as well. So it can actually lure some people astray in the forest, that is why people get lost, because she is playing tricks on humans.
Wow you should be afraid when walking in the forest…
(laughs) No, I am not afraid of walking in the forest. I think the lady of the forest has a pretty good eye for me. I am always kind to the forest. I have deep respect for the forest as well.
We should have, much more than the big multinationals that are ruining them… is it also a problem in Sweden, big companies ruining the nature?
I don’t think as much as it is on the continent, but yeah a little bit. If you look at the Rain Forest in South America, I think it is super much worse I would say.
We had the single ‘Midvinter’ as the first single before the album you released, the funny thing is that it was released on midsummer…
Yeah it was intentional actually. We thought it would be kind of cool to have it on midsummer, totally the opposite and maybe it could mean something during winter, just kind of cool. It was the first single indeed. It was supposed to be on the album at first, but eventually we skipped it for another one.
As you said, in the meantime you played at some festivals. I think you really had a good time this summer, isn’t it?
Yeah it was a nice summer, probably the best summer for us. We played a lot of great festivals. The downside is that it should be next summer instead when we have a new album out. We did all the festivals and then we are releasing an album, because we are not going to have these chances this coming year, because you never play at HellFest two times in a row. It will never happen. That is the downside of it, but we had a really good time this summer. It was awesome.
And you have played at Graspop in Belgium!
Yeah, that was actually the first time. The other festivals we have played before, all of them I think, but Graspop was actually the first time we ever played. It was a very nice festival, it was probably the highlight this year for me.
I am glad it was a positive experience for you, because it is huge, isn’t it?
Yeah, we saw a lot of people and we had a really long set. It was crazy, really, really nice… I did not expect it, because it is Belgium and often… We played in Belgium a couple of times before, but mostly club shows, it was totally different.
I always wish that I was born in Germany, more metal!
Germany is the capitol of heavy metal in Europe.
You can go back, because you are booked for Party San festival…
Yes, it is actually the third German festival that we announced so far and it is going to be more. I can’t reveal, I can only say the ones we are already officially booked. German is the place to be! I played at Party San about 11 years ago I think. It is a long time, but I remember it is a really nice festival. Everything about that was very good, I like that. I am so pleased to be back again.
The first video for the new album, was for ‘Valkyrian Fate’. What can you tell about that?
It is a pretty straight forward song. A battle hymn I would say and we wanted to display a more straight forward and easier listening side of Ereb Altor as first thing. We will show the ones with the more difficult parts when the album is out. So I think a lot of people should be able to appreciate it, not just the ones that already know us. Not every song has this catchiness when it comes to phantom them, some of the songs are more difficult. It takes more time to get into it I think.
But they are epic!
That’s the point!
And richness of different vocals all over…
Yeah we work a lot on that and trying to find the right atmosphere for each composition as well. The dynamic and atmosphere is more important to me than play a complex bridge. I think it is more important to find the right theme.
A song I like very much is ‘The Waves, The Sky And The Pyre’…
It is a funeral song. It has a lot of dynamic and a lot of atmosphere of course. It has a lot of choirs in it, trying to build a soundscape that suits with a Viking burial. They burned all their relatives into ashes, you know, and all their stuff. They burn them in different styles, it depends on what year and geographically as well. On this particular story, their names are burnt, that is the pyre.
What we saw in the Viking series was that they put the dead one on a boat and they burn everything on the water…
Yeah I think that it is not that common, what they did. In movies they do that and sometimes when it is a very important person. They usually burn them on a stake, big fires and burn them on the land, but it is very nice to do it on a ship like you saw in the movies of course. All these burning arrows going doing on the ship on fire… but they do it mostly on the land at stakes, otherwise it will become a long boat that’s going to burn (chuckles).
You also have an Ereb Altor beer now?
No, it existed for one weekend. It is actually a Finnish festival that made them. You could only drink them at that festival. So I bought some, but you cannot find them anywhere else.
An original idea!
Yeah it is totally cool, but we thought a lot of times about making an Ereb Altor beer, but we will see in the future if we can find some brewery and cooperate with them. It might be hard in Sweden, we need a company for cooperation.
That John Smith from the festival seems to be a special guy, because I already stuck at him when he introduced Cemetery Skyline in an original way. He made them headline while nobody knew them at that moment…
Yeah there are a lot of famous people in that band, they already played in other bands, but no one actually knew Cemetery Skyline then. Now they are launched but I don’t think they are a very big band. It was nice to be back in Finland
Was it the first time you worked with Christine Linde for the artwork?
No, she did the last album ‘Vargtimman’ as well. We have known her for years, but we started working together like four or five years ago. I enjoy working with her and she is a really good friend of mine and she lives in Hälsingland. She was totally the right person to do this cover, because she could catch the actual spirit that I wanted to have on the front cover, no one else could do this one.
What can you already say about the plans for the near future?
Firstly we are going to try to find as many festivals as we possibly can. Our booking agency is working on that as we speak. A bit later maybe, in 2025, we’ll start to figure out to do a tour as well. If you go to Germany, you might see us at a festival, but if we are going on tour as well, I think we should at least have one or two stops in Belgium or the Netherlands.
To occlude maybe some news about Isole…
I don’t have that much news about Isole. We are scheduled to do some festivals next year, but I don’t think they are announced yet. As usual we are not seeing each other very often, so things take a lot of time and someone needs to put everything together if there is going to be a new album or something like that. At this time we are just trying to get some gigs and no big plans for the future at the moment.
Well… that will come when the time is right…
Yes yes, it is doom… things take time. It is supposed to be slow (laughs)
