Battlelore
| Battlelore | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 Live (2008) |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Folk Metal , Melodic Death Metal , Viking Metal , Power Metal , Symphonic Metal |
| founding | 1999 |
| Website | http://www.battlelore.net/ |
| Founding members | |
Guitar , bass |
Jyri Vahvanen |
| Miika Kokkola (until 2005) | |
| Current occupation | |
| Kaisa Jouhki | |
singing |
Tomi Mykkänen (since 2005) |
guitar |
Jussi Rautio |
guitar |
Jyri Vahvanen |
bass |
Timo Honkanen (since 2005) |
| Maria Honkanen | |
| Henri Vahvanen | |
| former members | |
singing |
Patrik Mennander (1999-2004) |
Vocals, guitar |
Tommi Havo |
Drums |
"Gorthaur" |
Battlelore is a Finnish metal band from Lappeenranta . Her lyrics deal almost exclusively with events and people from the Tolkien universe , the fantasy world of the author JRR Tolkien . According to Jyri Vahvanen, the band name is based on the main theme of Tolkien's work, battle in connection with folklore . The group itself calls their music Epic Fantasy Metal . The band has been inactive since October 2011.
history
The music group was founded in 1999 by Jyri Vahvanen, who had already co-founded the band Horna as Moredhel , and Miika Kokkolan. The promo CD Warrior's Tale , released in the same year, was not well received by the record companies and was also described as "bad" by Jyri Vahvanen himself. With Dark Fantasy, Battlelore 2000 dared a new attempt. For this, the student Kaisa Jouhki was asked to sing high clear vocals as a counterpart to the deep, rough male vocals. From then on, however, she immediately joined Battlelore as a permanent member. For the record company Napalm Records three more songs were recorded and the group then signed.
In the fall of 2001 the first album … Where the Shadows Lie was released by the Music Bros. Studios in which the promos were made, recorded. Guitarist Tommi Havo then left the band for personal reasons and was replaced after a while by Jussi Rautio.
The second album Sword's Song was released in spring 2003. With this material in his luggage, Battlelore toured Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland for the first time as part of The Magic of Angels Festival Tour 2003 .
At the beginning of 2004 the DVD The Journey followed . It included a half-hour concert that was recorded in the Finnish Tavastia Club, music videos and conversations with the band members. Singer Patrik Mennander then left the band to devote more time to his work as the front man of the group Ruoska . His last appearance with the band took place at the Ring * Con in Bonn.
With the support of guest singer Tomi Mykkänen and guest bassist Timo Honkanen, Battlelore completed their European tour Atlantis Lovelorn . For personal reasons, another member of the band, Miika Kokkolan, left the band in 2005. In the search for a new singer and a new bass player, the two guest musicians were quickly contacted and both have been part of the band's permanent line-up ever since. In the same year published Battlelore their third studio album Third Age of the Sun .
In February 2007, the fourth album Evernight was released . The guitarist and lyricist Jyri Vahvanen described this record as a “ cryptic album” because it made no direct reference to Tolkien's world and the lyrics could therefore be universally interpreted.
On September 26, 2008, the fifth studio album entitled The Last Alliance was released. In contrast to the previous album, this disc again refers more directly to Tolkien's works. According to Vahvanen, the title The Last Alliance refers on the one hand to the last alliance of humans and elves that went to war together against the Dark Lord Sauron in the Second Age (mentioned in The Lord of the Rings ), on the other hand to the fact that Battlelore with this fifth album they fulfilled their record deal with Napalm Records and an era ended. Vahvanen left it open whether they would switch to another record label . Sauron is shown on the cover of the album with the ring of power on his finger, created by the German illustrator Ingo Römling . The Last Alliance was also released as a limited edition that includes a DVD showing the group performing live at the 2007 Metal Female Voices Festival. In 2011 their new album Doombound was released , again under Napalm Records. A version in digipack contains a DVD for the band's tenth anniversary, with music videos and live performances from 2008 and 2009.
On October 21, 2011, at the end of their performance at the Metal Female Voices Fest , Battlelore announced that the band would be indefinitely. At the same time, however, it was emphasized that this was not a dissolution of the tape, but that one just wanted to concentrate on other things in life and wanted to be back “with more creative energy in the future”. This was also announced on the band's website two days later. On August 8, 2012, however, an acoustic concert took place in Helsinki.
In 2016 the band got back together for the first time to perform at the Metal Female Voices Fest. This was followed by other isolated appearances in 2017, 2018 and 2019. On July 8, 2020, it was announced on the band's Facebook account that they were working on new music.
Discography
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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| Albums | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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- 1999: Warrior's Tale (Promo)
- 2000: Dark Fantasy (Promo)
- 2002: Where the Shadows Lie
- 2003: Sword's Song
- 2004: The Journey (DVD + Live-CD)
- 2005: Third Age of the Sun
- 2007: Evernight
- 2008: The Last Alliance (also limited with DVD)
- 2011: Doombound (also in digipack with DVD)
Web links
- Official website
- Interview with Jyri Vahvanen and Patrik Mennander
- Battlelore on MusicBrainz (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ morrigans-pit.org: Interview with Jyri Vahvanen ( Memento from August 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), legion-horna.com: Official biography of Horna ( Memento from January 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Orkus , October 2008 (No. 10), page 39
- ↑ BATTLELORE GOING ON AN INDEFINITE BREAK ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , battlelore.net, accessed January 4, 2011
- ^ Battlelore acoustic gig. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .
- ^ Battlelore. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ finnishcharts.com: Battlelore in the Finnish charts
