Ever since – slightly – changing their name and steadily playing more live shows, Serbia’s Claymorean has grown into one of Europe’s most appreciated epic heavy metal bands. Their new album ‘Eternal Curse’ shows Claymorean sounding more diverse and powerful than ever. According to founding guitarist Vladimir Garčević, also known as Vlad Invictus, this might be a result of it being the most collaborative album the band released so far.

“This album was recorded the old school way”, Garčević emphasizes. “I used to record all the guitars, but this time, it was different. ‘Eternal Curse’ is the first album where all the guitar duties were split between me and other Vladimir (Novaković), Vlajko. He played his rhythm guitar parts, I played mine. He played his solos, I played mine. He was right, I was left. That’s how we do it now.

I don’t think we ever had each member contributing to the songwriting. Of course, each band member contributed with their ideas and unique playing styles, but they really delivered in the songwriting process. I think this is the first time we don’t have any songs that I have written by myself entirely. Maybe musically, but not lyrically. We even had some guest lyricists, and one guest player: Srđan Bilić from Power Surge did a great solo on the song ‘Wind Before the Storm’.”

Very Different Circumstances

Maybe the change was necessary for ‘Eternal Curse’ to be as good as it is, because Garčević has been vocal about not being entirely happy with its 2021 predecessor ‘Eulogy for the Gods’. “I wasn’t too happy with that album”, he nods. “The circumstances in which these two albums were made were very different. ‘Eulogy’ was made when we had just found the right drummer; Marko (Novaković) had just joined the band at the time. There were two songs on the album that were practically written in the nick of time. Two minutes to midnight.

It was corona time. We recorded everything at home, and our producer said: when you’re finished with the tracks, just send them to me, so I can begin with the mixing. We had a deadline. ‘Spirit of Merciless Time’ didn’t have any lyrics, it didn’t have any vocal melodies, nothing. The song ‘Mystical Realm’ as well. Dejana (Betsa Garčević, singer) and I were working so hard to come up with anything we could.

So I think that’s the biggest difference. That’s why I wasn’t so cheerful when ‘Eulogy’ was done. I was a bit scared that we had done something that I wouldn’t personally like, because I approach every album as something that I would like to listen to as a fan. I don’t want to make music I don’t enjoy listening to. But this time, I was happy about everything.

We just wanted to write some memorable, good songs that we would enjoy. A few hours ago, we were watching some poor statistics on a streaming platform and I told Dejana: we love this album, right? So it doesn’t matter if no one else hears it. Truly. I mean… I would love it if everyone else likes loves it like I do. But what matters most is that we all stand behind this album top to bottom.”

Dedicated to the Small Details

“I think ‘Sounds from a Dying World‘ was a breaking point in our songwriting. ‘Unbroken’ was still forming the sound. At the time, we had a male vocalist beside Dejana. I think the band is better off with just Dejana on vocals. ‘Unbroken‘ was a bridge between the old Claymore and Claymorean. A natural bridge.

When ‘Sounds from a Dying World’ was made, I think that’s when Dejana, my brother Goran (Garčević, bassist), our former guitar player Uroš (Kovačević) and I said: we’re going to make something different this time. Something we personally enjoy. ‘Sounds’ is where it started for us. I’m just not a huge fan of the sound on the sound on the album.

Playing live more often matured us as a band, also when it comes to songwriting. We were listening to other bands, watching them on stage every night, sharing experiences at the breakfast table or in the lobby. We listened to a lot of tiny details, and I thought: those small details make so much of a difference. So we dedicated this whole album to writing those small details. And I hope you can hear that.”

Fantasy, Battles or Swords

‘Eternal Curse’ is Claymorean’s least fantasy-driven album lyrically, referencing historical battles (‘Bannockburn’, ‘300’) as well as personal hardships (‘Wind Before the Storm’). “A friend of mine from the United States helped us out”, Garčević explains. “Matt DeVries, not the one from Chimaira. He and I had a two-man black metal project (Sorrow’s Grave) back in the day. We also have a project called Spiral Castle, which is old school traditional heavy metal and involves members of Twisted Tower Dire, While Heaven Wept, and Blazon Stone. We are eagerly awaiting to release that upon the world.

Matt suggested that he would help me in the lyrical department, because he is a native English speaker. I gave him two songs: ‘Eternal Curse’ and ‘Bannockburn’. ‘Bannockburn’ was his idea. He just said: this is going to be about the Battle of Bannockburn. When he delivered those lyrics, they were written in a way that copied what the rhythm guitar was going. We weren’t going to do that. Dejana, me and him sat down on Zoom and started from scratch.

Then I found an eighteenth-century poem by Robert Burns about Bannockburn, and suggested that we used some parts of that poem. But I had to make it work with the music. It was a fantastic experience doing that. Matt did do the complete lyrics for ‘Eternal Curse’, with Dejana’s and my guidance. He contributed a lot. I would be lost without him, because I am not a good lyricist.

‘Wind Before the Storm’ is the only one that isn’t about fantasy, battles, or swords. It’s a very personal song written about some of the low points in my life, but written in a way so that it can apply to everyone. Every one of us has a time like that in their lives.”

A Significant Register

Dejana Garčević’ powerful voice has been an important part of the Claymorean sound ever since she joined in 2012, when the band was still known as Claymore. “When we wrote the album, she said many of the songs were either too low for her register, or it was incredibly high”, her husband smiles.

“There was one song where we tried to make it easier for her. ‘Battle Born’, the third song on the album, was originally written in G. Then we moved it to A. Then we moved it to B. And finally, it ended up in C#. That was when she said: I can sing it in this key without sounding strange, or like it’s not natural to her.

Luckily, she has a significant voice register, so she can cover most of the material. This time, however, we wanted her to not constantly try to scream or hit those high notes. Instead we wanted her to sing more in her own natural voice. When it’s the culmination of a song, she’ll go for her Eric Adams scream, of course, haha!

She had a lot of input on this new album, both musically and lyrically. I think about thirty percent of the material has been written by her.”

Planned for Ages

All Claymorean albums so far featured cover songs. ‘Eternal Curse’ is the first one to only have one as a bonus track on the CD edition. “We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t do any cover songs anymore”, Garčević admits. “Because people often asked us: what’s the next cover you’re going to do? It’s more important to me that people listen to the songs we write than the cover songs.

I like cover songs, because we always cover something that we personally listen to, songs that we loved since we were kids. This time, however, I thought: let’s do it without cover songs. But during the second day of drum recordings, I said to Marko: how about you do the drums for ‘The Oath’ by Kiss, just in case?

When the label manager of Stormspell Records approached us, I said: let’s make it a unique track for the CD version. He said: what have you got for me? I said: I’ve got this cover version of Kiss’ ‘The Oath’. He’s older than me, and he said: come on, there are so many better songs that Kiss has, and there are so many better bands than Kiss. But this is by far my favorite Kiss song, from one of my favorite albums by Kiss. I had planned this for ages, you’re not going to take it away from me, haha!

I know a lot of metalheads, especially younger ones, are not huge fans of Kiss. So I think no one’s going to miss it on the streaming platforms or the vinyl. It wouldn’t fit on the vinyl either, because vinyl ideally is 44 minutes; 22 minutes on each side. Without the Kiss cover, the album is around 43 and a half minutes.”

The cover didn’t come from nowhere; Vlad and Dejana covered the song on their YouTube channel during lockdown. “This time, she sang it even better”, Garčević assures. “The Covid version was practically why we thought we should do it with the band. There were so many comments that asked for it as well.”

Everything Aligned

Claymorean hardly ever played live during their early years. That has changed recently. “There were multiple reasons for that”, Garčević says. “Firstly, and most importantly, the lack of a drummer in the band. In Serbia, a metal drummer has eight or ten bands approximately. These days, it’s popular for drummers to play in cover bands, tribute bands. They make a lot of money doing it. And that’s okay; people need money to pay their bills. Heavy metal became sort of a hobby, doing stuff they love.

When we met Marko, I immediately knew he was the guy for us when we started thinking about live doing live shows. He started playing drums when he was only two or three years old. When he was four years old, he was on some Serbian reality talent show. We watched that, and suddenly we realized he lives approximately ten miles from us.

Our first shows practically began when Marko joined the band. It was just the ending of the Covid situation in Serbia, at the end of July 2021, when we were called by our friends from Oathbringer to ask us if we wanted to play a show together in their hometown. That show was filmed also, and we released it as a digital-only live album, ‘Alive in Vultureburg‘.

After that, things started moving for us. People knew us as a band that had been around for a while, and only played one show with Ross the Boss in 2017. For the next few years, we were all over Serbia. And then it happened: first Up the Hammers, then Keep It True, then Metaleros, Headbangers Open Air, Exit Festival… Everything aligned. People wanted to see us on big stages.”

Battle Vests and T-Shirts

“The second thing is that Serbia isn’t economically on the highest level, so there were problems with getting decent equipment, instruments and stuff that you can play on and have a good sound. Also, there was a lack of professional sound engineers and places to play in Serbia. We had a lot of nice venues and clubs back in the nineties, but after 2010 or so, most of those places were shut down. And metal audiences, the few we have here, began going to these small clubs with a capacity of 50 to 100.

Usually, a band like Claymorean together with Oathbringer in Serbia, we would sell like 35 tickets. This style of music isn’t very popular here. But when it comes to foreign bands, the situation is different. We had Enforcer in Belgrade a couple of days ago, and they played to around 300 people. We had Tygers of Pan Tang: it was packed. We had Fifth Angel: it was packed. Suddenly, there are kids in battle vests and T-shirts, and I’m thinking: where were you when we were on stage? Haha!

When we play outside of Serbia, it’s a bit better. Playing in Germany, the audience can range from a couple hundred to twenty. But the club was so small that you couldn’t pack more than twenty in, and everyone was involved. I like good feedback from the audience. One German guy watched us at Keep It True Rising, and then two shows after in Cologne, and he said: I watched you play in front of a thousand people, and here in front of twenty, and you played with the same vigor and passion.

It doesn’t matter how many people there are in the audience, we are giving our best. The relationship between the band and the audience, when you talk to your audiences afterwards or before the show, making friends: that’s what it’s all about. I think people always appreciate honesty. When they see honest bands pouring their hearts and souls out, they will recognize that.”

No Huge Concern

“I always say to my younger colleagues: don’t run away from expanding your views musically. I’m never going to make an album that will sound like something I don’t personally listen to, but I don’t listen to heavy metal exclusively. I love plenty of things: classical music, film score music, progressive rock, jazz, even the synth-pop of the eighties. If you hear Duran Duran in our music, that comes from Dejana’s or my point of view, because we love that stuff too, and we’re not ashamed to do something like that.”

It also helps that Claymorean has multiple generations of musicians in the band. “And two pairs of siblings”, Garčević emphasizes. “Marko and Vlajko are brothers, and Goran (Garčević, bassist) and me. And Dejana’s my wife. And Marko and Vlajko are distant cousins to Goran and me. Huge family. When you have a family band, you have family feuds, of course, but you solve it like a family. There’s no huge concern that the band might break up.”

Next on the agenda is Claymorean’s German tour with Crystallion, which kicks off on the 4^th of April. “We were surprised when Crystallion asked us to do this co-headlining tour”, Garčević admits. “They are these power metal legends from the heyday of power metal, so I asked them: why us? They said: you seem like an interesting bunch of people, haha!”