Continuing The Quest

An Interview With Jyri Vahvanen of Battlelore
by Taliesin Athor Govannon

(L to R: ~ Jyri Vahvanen, Maria, Tomi Mykkanen, Jussi Rautio, Kaisa Jouhki, Timo Honkanen, Henri Vahvanen)

For metal bands in this day and age, finding the right "hook" is a challenge. Not "hook" as in melody to create a hit single, but "hook" in a "this is what makes us different from all of those other heavy metal bands" sense. This is important, because breaking out from the underground means getting your music listened to, and catching peoples' attention so that they'll even give your music a chance is a challenge and a half. So the right look, the right concept, the right attitude...indespensable.

But where to go? The Satanic thing? Done to death. The "metal warrior" vibe? That was killed by Manowar alone. The "party animal"? That died with the 80's.

Several years ago, I discovered a band that had a truly unique concept: to enter the realm of fantasy, but without the pedantic nihilism of the goths...to recall the era of swordplay, but without endless tributes to "warrior codes" that never really existed...to capture the spirit of adventure, but to go beyond the questionable history of Arthurian legend. To forgo demons for orcs and angels for elves...to enter the realm of...Tolkien metal.

At first, my reaction was "are they kidding?" And then, as I thought about it, the sheer genius of the idea sunk in. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (with it's Hobbit prequel) is one of the most successful book series in the history of publishing. Almost everything about fantasy imagery we find in movies, books, or artwork owe something to their origins in middle-earth. Most "occult" and "Viking" imagery (with some notable exceptions) in metal owe more to fantasy literature than they do their proclaimed subjects. In many ways, Battlelore is going back to modern metal imagery's roots, and finding a wellspring of ideas.

It doesn't hurt that the music is first-rate. One of the reasons I've always hated Gwar was because they had a great image, but shitty songs. Battlelore, however, uses it's image as a way of drawing you in to hear some first-rate heavy metal, not as a cover for their lackings. Their "Third Age of the Sun" was the best album of 2005, in my opinion, and their latest - The Last Alliance - is even better. Recently their guitarist, lyricist, and sole-surviving founding member Jyri Vahvanen too some time to answer some questions about their sound, their image, and their future plans.

Taliesin: The band's latest, "The Last Alliance", is a monster. Are you nearing the "ideal sound" for Battlelore (if there can indeed ever be such a thing), or has the band yet to be satisfied by the finished product?
Jyri Vahvanen: I believe that the sound varies with the each recoding session. There are so much small things which affects to everything. "The Last Alliance" has the best sound view we have managed to create so far and the whole band is very pleased for it. Big thanks go to our producer Janne Saksa and mixing engineer Dan Swano.

Taliesin: Tomi Mykkanen's vocals have grown more diverse with each album...the new one sees more of a mixture of clean and extreme vocals from him, giving the band an even greater dynamic in their sound. Was this intentional (to separate Battlelore from the flood of "clean female/extreme male vocal combos" currently populating the European scene), or was it just what the material demanded?
Jyri: Actually we had a plan to use Tomi's clean vocals also on our previous album "Evernight", but the studio's clock said "No" and we had to bury the whole idea for that album. But for "The Last Alliance" we planned to drive in Tomi's clean stuff and it worked out pretty well and we are very happy for it. It gives us much more space to play with the arrangements and to create different kind of moods and levels to our songs.

Taliesin: Is songwriting becoming more of a collaborative process, or is one or two members responsible for the songwriting?
Jyri: So far the basic structures for the songs have mostly come from me or our lead guitarist Jussi, but after that everyone writes their own stuff on that "skeleton", so our songs are definitely the result of a whole band and as a group we try to find the best arrangements and ideas for the each of our songs.

Taliesin: One thing I love about Kaisa Jouhki's vocals is, in an era of "who can out-opera who" female singers, her vocals have a more organic, vulnerable quality about them, yet they have their own inner strength (I believe that I said in my review of the new album that "she serves as both Arwen and Galadriel"). Do you find that her vocal style influences the way the songs are written, and how Battlelore stands out from the pack in Europe?
Jyri: We try to keep our female vocals out from that "opera-metal" style, because none of us are any huge fans of that particular style. The organic signing is the style we are going to keep also in our up coming releases and it fits better to our songs also. Kaisa's honest way of signing and highly energetic live presence is surely the key why we are so much better than the others!

Taliesin: I've noticed that the band's appearance has gotten more toned-down since "Third Age Of The Sun"...more use of shadows and war paint, fewer Lordi-like latex applications. I like this...it makes for a darker image, while being less cartoon-ish. Has the emergeance of such over-the-top acts as Lordi made Battlelore go for a different vibe, lest the music be passed over for image?
Jyri: You actually nailed this one pretty good! Lordi guys are doing their stuff so well that there is no reason to challenge them on their own ground. That's one of the reasons why we left the latex masks off. There wasn't really a chance for us to use those heavy make-ups on stage and it sometimes misled our fans when they saw us live so we wanted to get rid of those. The war paint and fake blood is nowadays our style and that's the way we like it! Blood and honour!

Taliesin: You switched to Janne Saksa for production chores on the new album. Why the switch, and would you work with him again?
Jyri: We wanted to do things in a different way than before and use some fresh ideas and ears for our music. We heard a lot of good feedback about Janne and decided to try out his studio. It appeared that the guy is a musical genius and still very relaxed and easy going. We totally enjoyed our time in his studio and I am quite sure that we are going to visit there again.

Taliesin: What was it like to work with Dan Swano?
Jyri: Ah, there's a man who really knows how to do the mixing for a metal album! That man is pure gold. To work with him was very easy and he realised our points and meanings so easily. We will definitely work with him also in the future.

Taliesin: Any chance we'll be seeing Battlelore in the USA anytime soon?
Jyri: There have been some discussions about a tour in 2009 but nothing's confirmed yet. We'll just have to wait and see as the "suit man's" do their agreements and sign the right papers etc. you know the thrill. As much as we'd like to do it, there are always the booking agencies, record labels, local promoters, and venue keepers etc. who want to have their piece of the pie. We just want to play, but it is not always that simple because of this twisted and extremely greedy business.

Taliesin: Your newest album seems to tell it's story two ways...in lyrics, and in arrangement. In fact, I find that merely reading the lyrics does little to get the overall story across, and that the music plays just as large if not a larger part in the storytelling. Is that Battlelore's quest, to find the perfect balance of lyrical and aural storytelling?
Jyri: Thanks for your opinion, I really appreciate it! Actually I haven't thought too much to find any balance between the music and the lyrics, but there have been a lot of ideas for a true concept album. Not just an album full of songs from Tolkien's Middle-earth like so far, but a concept album with a continuous story. That's something I see as a true challenge in lyric- and music wise.

Taliesin: Anything else to add?
Jyri: Thanks for the nice interview and keep on eyeing our website for some US-tour dates! Stay Heavy, Stay Metal!

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