With ‘Hälsingemörker’, Ereb Altor has truly outdone itself. The album simply sounds bigger, more grandiose, and better arranged than anything the Swedish epic viking metal quintet has ever done before. And their standards were already fairly lofty. Singer, guitarist, and main songwriter Crister ‘Mats’ Olsson has a few ideas on why ‘Hälsingemörker’ might feel different than its predecessors.

“I think we have continued on our staked-out path trying to unite the harsh with the epic”, he says. “And I guess we are simply getting better and better at it. Even if we have been doing this for many years, you still evolve, and get more experienced with every release. The average pace is a notch higher on our new album, and perhaps it is more on the epic side.

We have never been afraid of trying to implement new elements, and we have tried a couple of new things on this one. ‘Ättestupan’, for instance, is a song in a 5/4 beat, which is very unusual for metal. We also experimented a little more with dissonance, noise and slides on this album compared to our older albums.

Since releasing ‘By Honour’ (Ereb Altor’s debut album from 2008), I think we have been able to create our own unique sound. It has been quite a journey trying to unite the harsh, ferocious sound with a melancholic, grandiose, epic style.

We used the same instruments on this album as we did on ‘Vargtimman’ (2022). We did invest some money in microphones and things like that since then, but the biggest difference is that we are learning from every album, and we are always trying to erase all the flaws from the last album.”

A Deep Respect

Like guitarist Daniel ‘Ragnar’ Bryntse and bassist Jimmy ‘Björn’ Mattsson, Olsson is part of the epic doom metal band Isole as well. Even drummer Jonas ‘Tord’ Lindström used to be part of Isole’s line-up in the past. Despite the fact that both Ereb Altor and Isole play a fairly slow style of metal, the songwriting of the bands rarely bleed into each other.

“It is pretty clear to me which idea belongs to which band in most cases”, Olsson states. “I tend to work with my focus on only one band at the time. It has happened that something I wrote for Isole, for instance, ends up in an Ereb Altor song, but it’s pretty rare, and it has really only happened on a few occasions.

The songwriting process is the same in both bands with one single difference: in Ereb Altor, I write all the music and lyrics, while in Isole, all of us are trying to contribute. I always compose the songs for Ereb Altor on my own, and I always do a pre-production by myself before I introduce a song to my bandmates. Then we process the ideas together, and Tord has a very big part in what we call the ‘production sessions’, as apart from being the drummer and sound engineer, he is kind of the producer for Ereb Altor.”

That also means some things are left open to interpretation when the band goes into the studio. “We always make some minor changes here and there last-minute, er even in the last second”, Olsson smiles. “I have a deep respect for my bandmates, and we are all open-minded, and willing to try out new ideas. Since we record everything in our own studio, we have every chance to make any changes we want right until the end.”

Boosting the Composition

A notable feature in both Ereb Altor and Isole is that Olsson and Bryntse share lead vocals, and in different singing styles especially in Ereb Altor. “When I’m working on the songs, I have my idea in my head on how the vocals should be for every part”, Olsson explains. “But as I said earlier, we work through the material together, and sometimes, we try a different vocal approach to see if it can boost the composition. Ragnar and I have been singing together in harmonies for decades now, and I think we know each other pretty well by now. Among other things, we know how we sing together.

Many of the clean parts I sing are incredibly demanding, and you need to have the gut behind the voice, otherwise your throat will get exhausted very quickly. I always try to warm up before singing. In the studio too, but especially live. The most demanding thing for me in that situation is that I sing both clean and harsh vocals.”

Replicating Ereb Altor’s sound on stage can be quite the challenge to begin with. “It’s always a challenge”, Olsson nods. “But I think we will be able to do the songs with the three vocalists in front, and some backing tracks – especially for the keyboard parts, since we don’t have a keyboard player with us on stage. Time will have to tell when we will start promoting ‘Hälsingemörker’ on stage, but I’m not worried at all, to be honest.

The experience we have gained all these years when it comes to our live shows has really helped us with our stage presence, the interaction with the audience, and building the right atmosphere. When it comes to our live shows, I think we are on a different level nowadays compared to our early days.”

Reflecting Scandinavia

Not unlike other Scandinavian bands with a similarly epic style, most of Ereb Altor’s lyrics are rooted in Swedish legends in mythology. “We try to have everything connected to our inheritance: our old myths, stories, and our history”, Olsson explains. “I think our music is reflecting Scandinavia as well. You can hear from the melodies that we are a Scandinavian band, and I think you can hear that we have our old folk music in our DNA.”

While Ereb Altor primarily sang in English on their early albums, the share of Swedish lyrics has increased fairly rapidly in recent years. “I just know when the music starts to take form whether the lyrics will be in Swedish or in English”, Olsson says. “The composition speaks to me in some weird way. In the beginning, I thought it was a bit scary writing lyrics in Swedish, but I grew to like it more and more over the years.”

Christine Linde’s beautiful artworks for ‘Hälsingemörker’ and ‘Vargtimman’ reflect that Scandinavian character of Ereb Altor’s music. “The title ‘Hälsingemörker’ is something that was decided long before the album was even written or recorded”, Olsson explains. “I also knew instantly that Christine was the one that should make the artwork for the album. She lives in Hälsingland, and she is somehow the essence of this magical place.

Her art has always had a very strong connection to Hälsingland, and I didn’t really have to explain what we were looking for. I have known Christine for years, and I’m a fan of her art. She did a wonderful job on ‘Vargtimman’ as well, but I think ‘Hälsingemörker’ is one of her best artworks ever.”

The Perfect Track List

Throughout 2024, Ereb Altor released no fewer than four singles, the first three of which did not make it onto the regular edition ‘Hälsingemörker’, instead being included only on the limited edition. “The recording sessions of ‘Hälsingemörker’ ended up with ten songs”, Olsson says. “We think that sixty minutes is too long for an album, and therefore, we chose seven of the songs to be on the actual album.

The three songs that were left out, we released as digital singles instead. I have to say that these songs were not left out because they weren’t good enough. They were simply left out because of how e chose to make the perfect track list for the album. Somehow, the vibes of these three songs didn’t fit quite as well as the others.”