Now a trio for the first time in their career, Swedish outfit Ereb Altor mark a lineage that spans well over a decade despite having issued their first album, By Honour, in 2008. Their mission on that record was an almost singular homage to their countrymen forebears in Bathory, taking that outfit’s seminal Viking approach and recontextualizing it into powerful melodic Euro-doom. For the core duo of founding multi-instrumentalists Crister “Mats” Olsson and Daniel “Ragnar” Bryntse, it was a departure even from their main project, Isole, which had released its debut just three years prior.

From 2008 on, both acts would continue to exist almost independent of each other, and Ereb Altor continued to develop a personality distinct from that of Isole on their second album, 2010′s The End, which pushed further into the epic Viking style and kept the plod and melodic presence of its predecessor. Some of the novelty had gone out of their loyalist approach, but Ereb Altor‘s sophomore installment still showed they weren’t a fluke or a one-off tribute band to anyone who might have thought otherwise. That Ragnar and Mats would be joined by a full-time drummer, Tord, for their third album was much less of a surprise — makes for easier touring, songwriting, etc. — than that album itself wound up being.

The record, which was released just at the end of June, is called Gastrike, and while it holds fast the epic nature of Ereb Altor‘s songwriting, it also shifts away from the doomed sensibilities of the first two albums toward a harsher black metal feel. Songs like “Dance of Darkness” or the blistering closer “Seven” (also the seventh track, as it would almost have to be) rip into a side of Bathory‘s sound perhaps more commonly heard in the overall sphere of the metal underground, but which is a marked turn for Ereb Altor as a unit. That they managed to do it so well speaks to both their level of devotion and the universal nature of quality metal songcraft.

Hoping to get some insight into what might have prompted the change in direction, I hit up Ereb Altor for the following Six Dumb Questions:

1. Ereb Altor seems to be really branching out with Gastrike in terms of the band’s sound. Was there something purposefully you want to change from By Honour and The End? Were there any shifts in the songwriting process from the past albums?

Yes, it was our purpose to have a different approach on the new album. It’s been in my head right after the release of The End. I had an idea of building a concept with stories from the area where we live. Dark myths, legends and ghost stories and therefore the music had to sound darker to fit the concept. We haven’t changed the way we write songs and I think you can hear that if you listen carefully, it’s all Ereb Altor wrapped up in a black coat.

2. How involved was Tord in the songwriting and what does having a full-time drummer mean to Ereb Altor? Does having Tord in the band open up the possibility of doing more shows? How does it change the dynamic between the two of you?

Tord was only involved with some thoughts and input about the actual drumming since all songs were already written when he was recruited. We needed a good drummer and he was the right man for the work. He’s a good musician and he will probably be able to help out in more ways in the future and the fact that it’s easier for us to do more shows nowadays. The dynamic between Ragnar and me are the same as usual.

3. What does it mean to you to be moving away from the Bathory Viking metal style, or do you see Gastrike as a different interpretation of a similar idea?

I think we needed to move away a little bit to avoid repeating ourselves. I still think there’s some flavours of this particular style in our sound though. Perhaps it has some influences from the earlier works of Bathory as well.

4. Tell me about balancing time and musical ideas between Isole and Ereb Altor. When Ereb Altor started out, it seemed like a side-project paying homage to Bathory, but as the band has put more music out, it’s become a distinct entity of its own. How do the two bands relate for you? Is there ever material you write that you’re not sure which band it would work best for?

To me Ereb Altor never was a side-project. I always write songs specific for each band and most of the times I’m not writing for both band at same period of time. I just put focus on one band at the time. Both bands are very close to my heart and none of the band means less to me than the other one.

5. Is there any way to tell yet what the future holds for Ereb Altor? Are you thinking of Gastrike more as an experiment on the part of the band, or do you think Ereb Altor will continue to work more on the side of black metal than doom? Or is genre not a concern for the band at all?

Genre is not a great concern, I will follow my instinct and do what’s come from inside. As I mentioned Gastrike is a little bit like a concept album and I will probably not abandon the epic touch completely. Actually I had almost a whole album sounding like the first albums but without lyrics and to me the lyrical concept of Gastrike didn’t fit that music. My vision is to unite these two styles but only future can tell how Ereb Altor will sound for sure.

6. What’s next for the band? Will you tour for Gastrike before going back to work on Isole? The last couple years seems to have been a back and forth with a release each year. Is that the pattern you want to keep going for the two bands?

We’re working on getting a European tour for Ereb Altor right now as well as some festival appearances. I can’t reveal anything at the moment. And I already have lots of ideas for the future sound of Ereb Altor.

When it comes to Isole I think we’ll start writing material quite soon but there is no new release planned at the moment.

Actually a new Ereb Altor album feels closer somehow.

Ereb Altor on Thee Facebooks

Napalm Records

It was strange walking down the steps into Burlington, Vermont‘s Pure Pop Records this past Saturday, because I’d been there before. Six years ago, when The Patient Mrs. and I were first married, we took off headed north on the Thruway, just as a kind of mini-getaway post-wedding. Our actual honeymoon was still a few months off, and we ended up in Burlington by happenstance, just because it was there, and we must have hit Pure Pop on that trip — don’t ask me what I bought — so being back there was a dreamy deja vu. No, it didn’t affect the shopping experience.

I’d already been in and out of Burlington Records and Downtown Records (?) with no finds. I almost bought a jewel case copy of Scissorfight‘s Mantrapping for Sport and Profit from the latter, because I only own the digipak and because we’re situated right next to New Hampshire and I consider everything north of Massachusetts to be Scissorfight country, but changed my mind last minute. A choice I lived to regret. I didn’t have high hopes for Pure Pop, because it’s one of those super-indie stores that so loves being indie, but I did alright in the end.

They have an experimental/post-metal/doom/stuff-snobs-like section that runs a gamut from Acid Mothers Temple to Sleep to John Zorn, and Slayer was filed under rock, not metal, but most of what I found was in the comedy section anyway. I grabbed Mitch Hedberg‘s Do You Believe in Gosh?, Patton Oswalt‘s Feelin’ Kinda Patton and 222, which is the same show, just unedited, and from the regular old metal section on in the far corner of the store, Ereb Altor‘s second album, The End, which I haven’t listened to yet, but can only imagine from what I remember of 2008′s By Honour sounds like Bathory-style Viking metal played at half speed. Translation: awesome.

I don’t suppose it was the best haul ever — I was at least momentarily more psyched by the shaved ice flavor “Tiger Blood” that was available at the nearby outdoor market — but screw it, comedy records are good for long drives, and I’ve been doing plenty of that lately. And honestly, I’d have grabbed some stuff out of that avant/pretentious section if I didn’t already own everything I wanted from it, so no slight on Pure Pop, which had a reasonably well-organized layout and broad range of available goods.

The dude behind the counter, who seemed to have some kind of animal tooth inserted in his septum (an instant reminder of the unintentionally hilarious Walking with Cavemen; Alec Baldwin‘s finest moment of voice-over) was polite and friendly enough, not condescending to my less than stellar finds, and all in all I felt positive about the experience. Cap the day off with a trip to the Ben and Jerry’s factory off the I-89 in Waterbury and mark it a win.