ELVENKING (Eng.)
– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with ELVENKING?
Hey man! actually we are taking a small break from touring so it feels nice being able to rest for a while eheh! : )
– Though you were formed over a decade ago I guess there still may be some people who don’t know about you yet so, first off, could you please sahre some history of the band?
Well we were formed in 1997 and we released 7 albums with AFM-Records since 2001. We toured with bands such as Jon Oliva’s Pain, Primal Fear, Rhapsody of Fire, W.A.S.P. We started as a power metal band as you can ear in our first demo “To oak woods bestowed” but immediately introduced folk elements since the first album. I was out of the band for the second album but was back for the third, probably our biggest success called “The Winter Wake”. Nowadays we have renewed the line-up with a great bass player and an awesome drummer and we have entered a new ERA! I think these are the main things to know about us!
– And what’s the origin behind the band’s name?
At the time we were really into fantasy and of course into the Lord of the Rings. ELVENKING was the king of the elves in “The Hobbit” and we really liked the sound of that. So that’s why we choose it back in the late 90’s.
– You have just released your new album, entitled «Era». What are your expectations on it? And how is its feedback being?
The expectations were to make a great album as usual. We felt the need to get in contact with our roots after some albums where we explored the different shades of our sound. The expectation is to sound 100% Elvenking and I think we reached this goal. So far we had incredible reactions from fans and press…I’m honest – they were never so enthusiastic and this led us to sign with one of the most important booking agencies in Europe – ALL ACCESS entertainment – so I think that we made a nice thing with ERA! Now let’s see what will happen!
– «Era» is a quite inspiring album name and I think it’s open to different interpretations, as for instance a start of a new era. Is every album a new chapter for ELVENKING?
Usually it is but I think we have 2 albums that most represent new eras in our career for different reasons and those are THE WINTER WAKE and ERA. The new ERA has begun months ago, when the new ELVENKING was born. New lineup, new strength, new will to kick ass in the recording studios and on stage (as it happened back in 2005). The album ERA is the result of all this hard work and this renewed enthusiasm and I think that we couldn’t come up with a better album. And this is only the (new) beginning!
– And what is the main idea or concept behind this brand new «Era»?
ERA is a little “back to the roots” album. As I already said we really felt the need to sound like this once again and to do it as good as ever! To take all the good from our music and put it into one album! And I think that it was quite a successful thing. As far as themes and lyrics are concenred we got back to our “PAGAN” concept and personally I wanted to focus on the figure of the outcast, the pagan, the loser…and watch this thing through different points of view.
– On this record it specially stands out its huge diversity, to fast Folk metal songs to emotional tracks, dark mid tempos or acoustic Folk parts. Is having versatility on your music something you aim for?
We always aimed for that. It’s in our nature. Since day one we always declared that we’d never do an album twice or do songs that have the same sound or feeling. I know it’s a dangerous thing especially for the metal market, but it would be difficult for us to accept this kinf of compromise. We live our music with total freedom and this is what we’ll do also in the future.
– The CD was produced by Nino Laurenne, whom also took production duties for «The Winter Wake» and «The Scythe». What made you go back for him for this new opus?
We needed to go back to a heavy and bombastic production after “Red Silent Tides”. That album had a great production (and Dennis Wars was an awesome producer) but maybe our fans weren’t ready for such a light production. Maybe too near to the hard rock sound…our fans didn’t understand that album too much.
– «Era» contains several guest artist as Jon Oliva, Alessandro Conti or Teemu Mäntysaari. How did everything arise and what have all of them provided to the album with their cooperation?
We’ve been talking about calling Jon Oliva since years, since we made the tour together in 2006. So finally we made it and we’re really happy about his great performance! Teemu’s solo was nothing planned. We met him in the studio and Nino suggested us to have one of his solos in the album…he was damn right..the solo is amazing! About Maurizio…we toured with Folkstone this year in Italy and when it came to ask somebody to play the folkloristic instruments as we planned, it was natural to call him…he is an incredible musician! Then we don’t have to forget Antonio Agate (and Andrea Corona) who made the great epic arrangements with the keyboards!
– And what are some other artists you would like to cooperate with?
We will see in the future. I don’t have any in particular…I mean I am a fan of music and of course I’d like to collaborate with my heroes..but as musician I tend to consider this kind of thing with great caution and only if needed.
– You have also done a video for «The Loser», which looks really great and professional. How did the shooting go? And do you plan doing any other clips for this record?
The shootings were great..had a lot of fun! We would like to shoot another video of course…but we will see, we don’t have to make any errors this time as we did in the past. We will shoot another video only if it’s gonna be great and to do so we need a good budget…we’ll see!
– All this about «Era» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Epic, unique, “redemptious” J
– Throughout these last years you’ve changed your line-up almost completely, do you think this has had some effect on your sound? And what are the main differences behind the first ELVENKING of the first albums and the current band? What have the new members brought?
With the addition of Symohn (drums) and Jakob (bass) we definitely had new strength and a renewed enthusiasm inside the band. New people always bring freshness inside a group of people and actually those two guys brought also a total new technical level playing their instruments. So it was still Elvenking…but with new weapons!! It was interesting and satisfying writing the new songs and playing them in the rehearsal room.
– The band released a quite surprising album as it was «The Scythe», pretty different to your previous releases getting closer to Death Metal fields. Do you think you will ever release an album with stronger influences and nuance from diffrent generes and leaving aside the Folk and Power Metal ones for instance?
I don’t think so. I mean we already made that. I’m sure our future works will still have some influences from that album and from the others, but I think that from now on we weill focus on making albums in the vein of ERA where we won’t change our sound instead we will be 100% EK. Of course we will make fresh songs and we won’t copy ERA..that’s for sure, but as far as the style is concerned this is what we think.
– Anyway there’s no doubt you are an ever-evolving band. Is your musical evolution synonim to both artistical and personal growth?
Of course it is..all these things go together.
– You are hailing from Italy, a country with a great Melodic and symphonic Metal with bands as RHAPSODY, SKYLARK, LABYRINTH, SECRET SPHERE, LACUNA COIL or yourself among many others. While some countries seem to have its own scene, as Sweden has Death Metal and Germany Thrash Metal, why do you think is the main reason behind this strong Melodic/Symphonic Metal scene in Italy?
I don’t agree with you completely. For example if you say Germany I would say power metal as first thing that comes to my mind and Sweden has some of the greatest pop or hard rock bands. Also Italy has great names in the extreme scene and Lacuna Coil are absolutely far from the power symphonic sound. Italy started to have good possibilities for the metal scene in the mid 90’s and those days the main trend in metal was power metal. The bands you name come all from that period in time that’s why they are all power metal bands. Of course then when a good band has success many others follow so probably after Rhapsody or Labyrhinth had success, many other Italian bands tried to sound like that.
– In just a few days you will be playing three Spanish dates with BAPHOMET, from Madrid. What are your expectations on these shows?
We already played. It was good.
– And beside this, what are some of your near-future plans?
Actually we are planning the gigs for 2013 including shows in Italy, Russia and some big summer festivals. We’ll announce some great things very soon!
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Thank you so much! come to our website (www.elvenking.net) or facebook page (www.facebook.com/elvenking.official) if you want to be updated about our activities. see you on stage guys!!
Damna (vocals)
