Ereb Altor – Eldens Boning Review

5 June 2021 – Dublin

”ELDENS BONING IS A GREAT EP THAT GIVES YOU A TASTE OF NORDIC PAGANISM”
Left to right: Tord (drums), Mats (lead vocals & guitars), Ragnar (guitars & vocals), Mikael (bass & vocals)

Ereb Altor is a band I have just recently discovered thanks to Hammerheart Records / Petrichor. Actually, it is also the first Nordic, Pagan / Viking metal band with some Swedish black metal influences that I have ever heard. For this reason, the review will be a little bit different, because I will be sharing my views about this band and new EP as a newcomer.

To give the most in depth review we have discussed the origins of Ereb Altor and the making of Elden Boning with Mats and Tord. In this review I will give a quick brief introduction about Ereb Altor who are not familiar with the band. Afterwards I will talk about the album and the artwork itself.

Who is Ereb Altor?

Ereb Altor was a side project to doom metal band Isole that started late nineties and evolved throughout the years as a fulltime band. The reason for starting this project is that the band had some “Bathory stuff” that didn’t fit with Isole. After releasing two albums Ereb Altor started to evolve around one simple concept: bring myths & legends from Skandivia alive. In order to do this they use Swedish traditional folk and viking elements in their music.

Eldens Boning – Song structure

The EP originates from the upcoming album. However, the band realised that 12 songs were too long for the album. Also, a few songs stood off. These songs were a little more black and epic or too acoustic in contrast to the rest of the songs. As a result, this EP “Eldens Boning” was born.

Despite the fact that all songs have a different musical background, I think that they blend in very nicely with each other. The first song called “The Twilight Ship” gives me the impression that you are on a viking ship sailing into Skandivia. The cause of this feeling is the “viking chant” that is used at the beginning. Later on when the music evolves and you hear more instruments there is underneath the song a hymn that gives a pagan feeling.

The next song “Fenrisulven”, you hear the traditional Swedisch folklore music elements. As a consequence you’ll feel again in Scandinavia. This is all strengthened by the fact that the song is not sung in English.

The other two songs have a more epic and aggressive tone. You can hear the Swedish and viking roots much more than in the other songs.

In short, the song structure is a brilliant one. First you get a taste of the Nordic roots due to the acoustic tone. This tone helps you to slowly settle into the atmosphere, but it makes the music fresh at the same time. At least in my experience if I hear Sweden and Viking the one thing that crosses my mind is that music will have a lot of unclean vocals. Opting for an acoustic tone and slowly building up the unclean vocals makes the album so memorable.

”ELDENS BONING DISPLAYS THE WHOLE SPECTRUM OF WHAT EREB ALTOR HAS TO OFFER – MATS”

Eldens Boning – Lyrics

Not only is the song structure brilliant, but the lyrics as well. Each of the songs has a story to tell. For example, Fenrisulven is a classical story from the Norse mythology. To represent the EP Ereb Altor chose to highlight one song in particular “Eldens Boning”. This song is the third track. According to Mats & Tord it is about an old king who ruled Sweden in the 17th centry. One day this king hosted a farewell feast and invited other kings. This feast was a means to an end; lock all the kings up and burn them.

I enjoyed the stories that Mats & Tord shared with us. Unfortunately, a lot of the lyrics are written in Sweden. I think changing this would be a bad thing as you will lose the Nordic feeling. However, it would be quite nice if you could understand what the lyrics are all about. A small storybook with some artwork representing the story would be an addition. In this way you will immerse and enjoy the Nordic stories that Ereb Altor has to offer!

”ELDENS BONING IS RICH OF NORDIC FOLKORE”

Artwork

The artwork evolved around the self-titular track ”Elden Boning” which I described and discussed above. To represent this song Ereb Altor chose burning buildings and kings burning out as illustrations. In my opinion a great choice as it represents the violent history of Skandivia. It looks very different from all pagan metal bands as it does not use typical elements we would expect such as trees, vikings, wolves and so on. As a result you are drawn into this album wondering what the story is all about…

The only thing that according to me is a missed opportunity in the artwork is the fact that the title is falling into oblivion as it is quite small. Also, the title isn’t blending nicely with the dark background, I would have chosen a white colour or colours related to fire. As a result, a part of the story gets a bit lost as the title isn’t as memorable as the rest of the artwork is.

”THE ARTWORK IS A GREAT REPRESENTATION OF THE RICH NORDIC STORYTELLING WE HAVEN’T HEARD YET…”

Conclusion

Eldens Boning is a great representation of what Nordic paganism is all about and what Ereb Altor has to offer. With great storytelling and a brilliant song structure the band brings myths & legends from Skandivia alive. All this is strengthened by the artwork which represents one story of the EP.

The only thing that is missing in this great EP is a storybook to guide us in the land of Nordic Pagan Tales!

MAIr