BIO
Echoes of Battle
Tracklist
1.
City of Azure Fire |
10:09 | |
2.
Echoes of Battle |
09:22 | |
3.
Wild Autumn Wind |
13:47 | |
4.
To Walk the Ashes of Dead Empires |
13:12 | |
5.
A Voice Born of Stone and Dust |
09:50 | |
6.
Book of the Fallen |
14:55 | |
Bonus |
||
7.
Marching Homewards (Summoning Cover) |
09:16 | |
8.
The Passing of the Grey Company (Summoning Cover) |
Interview with Caladan Brood
As far as debut records go, you won’t come across a more ambitious, polished and beautiful piece than Caladan Brood’s ‘Echoes of Battle’. The American two-piece have taken their love for fantasy-inspired black metal and built a truly immersive 71-minute masterpiece, thematically based on the ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ – a fictional fantasy series written by Canadian author Steven Erikson. I interview mysterious members Mortal Sword and Shield Anvil for SoundShock Webzine, to find out more on the band’s love of fantasy, Summoning and the recording of their untouchable debut album.
The whole of ‘Echoes Of Battle’ really engulfs the listener from start to finish, taking them to a fantastical land completely removed from reality. Was it your initial intention to invoke this escapism for the listener? What kind of atmosphere do you want to craft with your music?
Caladan Brood: Yes, absolutely. Our music is fantasy-themed, and as such, escapism is integral to the atmosphere. If you found the music immersive, then we achieved what we set out to do.
When did Shield Anvil and Mortal Sword realise their ambitions with Caladan Brood? How did the band come to fruition?
CB: Caladan Brood was really just born out of our mutual love for bands like Summoning and Elffor, and for Malazan Book of the Fallen and fantasy literature/gaming in general.
What was it about the ‘Malazan Book Of The Fallen’ that inspired you both to write about it?
CB: It is a truly immersive, gritty fantasy world, with a deep, rich history, diverse cultures, and an enormous, colourful cast of characters. The story itself is truly epic, spanning a vast, war-torn world comprised of multiple continents, complex societies, gripping battles, and plot arcs that, as readers, we found ourselves very invested in. It provides us with a lot to explore thematically, and we feel that ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’, with its dark atmosphere and massive scope, provides a perfect backdrop for this style of music. We are passionate about these books and we hope that fans of the series enjoy our musical tribute to it.
You took the Caladan Brood name from the warlord of the same name. Why this particular character?
CB: Caladan Brood is a character who wields a vast amount of power, but whose background remains largely veiled throughout the series. We liked this dichotomy of might and mystery, and once we toyed with the idea of naming our project after him, it just sort of stuck.
Obviously, the album is directly inspired by the Malazan Empire and the extensive war-torn tales that Steven Erikson writes about. As far as the fantasy fiction genre goes, are you interested in any other series of fantasy?
CB: Absolutely. Both of us are insatiable readers of fantasy and science-fiction; Tolkien, Moorcock, Jordan, Cook, Donaldson, Howard, and everything in between. We are also avid gamers, and our experiences with the soudtracks from games such as the Elder Scrolls series, Diablo I & II, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Heroes of Might and Magic, and similar titles have influenced our music to no small degree.
Musically, there’s so much going on in ‘Echoes Of Battle’. There are layers of melodic black metal riffage, sad but expansive orchestral sections, gentle folk twists, beautiful piano and gorgeous vocal harmonies. How did you put all of this together in the studio?
CB: Well, the ‘studio’ was really just a home computer, haha. The vocal recordings and final mastering were done at a friend’s home studio, and we feel that he did wonderful job taking our mixes and giving them an extra dimension of richness and quality. He worked very closely with us during this final mastering process and we are very happy with the result. As far as the music itself goes, we just wanted to pay close attention to the arrangements. With songs as long as the ones on the album, it can be tricky to keep everything cohesive and interesting; in some ways we succeeded, in other ways we probably failed. Either way, we learned a lot throughout the recording of ‘Echoes of Battle’, and we had a lot of fun putting it together.
In your music, there can be some brief and very general comparisons to Summoning. Judging by ‘Echoes Of Battle’, Caladan Brood definitely cannot be mistaken for anything other than Caladan Brood – you have created an entirely new realm of fantasy-based music. How much inspiration did you take from Summoning?
CB: It is self-evident that the primary influence heard in our music is Summoning. They are a band that we respect deeply and we really just wanted to try our hand at creating something that that is rooted in their style but which has its own little flourishes here and there. We didn’t set out to create anything innovative, new, or different; we just wanted to create more music in the Summoning vein. There are, of course, other influences as well, which are evident in the parts of the album that aren’t quite so blatantly Summoning-esque. That being said, we are fully aware that we will never escape the Summoning comparisons – and it isn’t something we are striving to escape anyway. There will, of course, be people who cry foul of the fact that we took so much influence from such a unique band; but, on the other hand, there are a lot of people who are happy to have more bands creating music in this style. We do feel that what we ended up with is an album that does a bit of its own thing with the foundation laid down by Summoning, which was our intention in the first place. We have never and will never make any claims to ‘originality’ or ‘innovation’, because that’s simply not our goal. We’re just channeling our favourite influences and having a great time doing it.
With regards to Tolkien-inspired metal, there have been many, many great bands. But there’s not been many projects that are so thematically focused on the ‘Malazan Book Of The Fallen’. In the same way that Tolkien’s works have incited hugely ambitious projects like Summoning and Elffor, do you think that you could well be creating renewed interest in Erikson’s works and are perhaps pioneering a new form of fantasy metal?
CB: Well, we certainly aren’t pioneering anything, haha. Fantasy-themed black metal is nothing new, and we aren’t really doing anything innovative with it – but, as mentioned above, that wasn’t our goal in the first place. But it would be wonderful if, through exploring our music, people take it upon themselves to look into Malazan Book of the Fallen. We have actually received a number of emails from people telling us they have been reading ‘Malazan…’ thanks to discovering it through listening to our album, and that’s a very rewarding reaction to hear. Since ‘Malazan…’ hasn’t been around for as long as the works of Tolkien, Moorcock, Howard, Lovecraft, or many of the other writers whose bodies of work are oft looked to by metal bands for inspiration, its impact on the genre has been much smaller; however, that doesn’t diminish the quality of the works and the superb world-building presented by Erikson and Esslemont, nor how well-suited the books are to providing a thematic backdrop for metal music in general.
What other sounds, artists and bands have inspired you both?
CB: Besides Summoning, we are influenced by the likes of Elffor, Nazgûl, Graveland, Vordven, early Nokturnal Mortum, and others. There are also touches of bands such as Viking-era Bathory and Moonsorrow at times. We also pulled a lot from medieval/fantasy ambient such as Mantle of Dust, Lord Wind, and the like, and, as mentioned above, game soundtracks have left an indelible mark on our music, particularly the likes of Elder Scrolls, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo I & II, Heroes of Might and Magic, and others.
How would you feel about doing the soundtrack to a film?
CB: It would be a fun experience, but not something that would really be suited to Caladan Brood, haha.
Would you ever be interested in bringing in a drummer?
CB: No, not particularly. The sequenced drums lend a certain atmosphere to the music that we actually enjoy. It would feel out of place to us to use acoustic drums.
Would it be a fair assumption to say that Caladan Brood will never be a live touring band?
CB: Yes, that is fair and correct assumption.
We’ve heard that you’re already working on new material. How is it shaping up?
CB: It’s shaping up well. We have quite a bit of material that was recorded during the ‘Echoes of Battle’ sessions but didn’t make it onto the album, so we are reworking some of those songs to either use as an EP or to build upon for a follow-up full-length.
What plans do you have for the rest of the year?
CB: Essentially what was mentioned above; reworking some of the songs that never got properly finished and working toward putting together another release.
‘Echoes of Battle’ is out now on Northern Silence.
Interview by Calum Robson.
Caladan Brood have come out of nowhere (or more accurately from Salt Lake City) with an astonishing debut album with the epic Echoes of Battle. Mixing the atmospheric mastery of Summoning with the epic sweep of Moonsorrow, this album is destined to make waves. I was fortunate to get a few words from the enigmatic Shield Anvil and Mortal Sword about the creation of this amazing album.
Sargon: Salt Lake City isn't exactly a hotbed of metal bands, tell us how Caladan Brood came together.
CB: There are actually some fantastic bands here, they're just few and far between. Caladan Brood came together through our mutual love of fantasy literature and metal. We are both die-hard fans of bands such as Summoning, Elffor, and Nazgûl, so we decided to try our own hand at creating music in that style while dedicating the lyrics to our favourite books.
Sargon: So there are just two of you in the band?
CB: That is correct.
Sargon: For those not in the know, can you explain the band's name?
CB: Caladan Brood is a character from the Malazan Book of the Fallen book series by Steven Erikson. Science-fiction enthusiasts may also recognize Caladan as the name of the planet on which Frank Herbert's Dune was set, which is unrelated to our music but cool nonetheless.
Sargon: What bands have really inspired the sound of Echoes of Battle?
CB: Summoning, Elffor, Nazgûl, early Nokturnal Mortum, and related bands are the primary influence, as well as stuff such as Bathory and Moonsorrow. As far as non-metal influences go, we pulled from medieval/fantasy ambient such as Mantle of Dust, Lord Wind, Wongraven, and the like. We are also undeniably influenced by our favourite game soundtracks, including Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Diablo I & II, the Elder Scrolls games, and Heroes of Might & Magic, to name a few.
Sargon: The album sounds very polished, especially for an unsigned band. How did you get that great sound?
CB: The entire album was engineered, recorded, and mixed on a home computer, and then taken to a friend's home studio for vocal recordings and final mixing, mastering, and engineering.
Sargon: How did you record those choral parts?
CB: It's just standard, straightforward vocal layering (so the clean vocal parts were recorded numerous times and 'layered' over one another to achieve the effect). For the most part, it's a single person's voice layered somewhere on the order of 8-12 times depending on the part, but in the case of bits like the very end of Book of the Fallen, we actually layered numerous different people's voices to achieve a larger 'group chant' feeling.
Sargon: How long did it take to write and record the album?
CB: That's kind of a difficult question to answer, actually. We had a couple of songs that were written back in 2008, but we ended up not using any of them except for what eventually became the song 'Echoes of Battle'. Over the following year or two, we eventually pieced together riffs and ideas until we had the track list for what was to become the album. Once we had the foundations laid for the six songs, we would work on them sporadically, sometimes letting them sit for months at a time before returning to them (largely due to life, school, and work obligations). So we started the band in 2008, but it isn't really accurate to say that we spent 4 solid years working on the album, haha.
Sargon: What are your future plans for Caladan Brood?
CB: We do have somewhere on the order of 30-40 minutes of material that was written during production but never got fleshed out into finished songs, so we are considering reworking them and releasing them as an EP or using them as the starting point for the next full-length.
Sargon: Where can people get the album now it's been released?
CB: Directly from us or from the Northern Silence webstore: http://shop.northern-silence.de/index.php?lang=en
Caladan Brood
After years of waiting for a new Summoning album, out of nowhere came an American twin in February surprise us. On their debut album, 'Echoes Of Battle', the duo Caladan Brood follows in the footsteps of the Austrian masters and comes with same fantasy-based, epic, melodic black metal. Although the influences of Summoning are very obvious, Caladan Brood also shows the same qualities, which make it unfair to write them off as a clone, and we gladly put them a bit extra in the spotlights with an interview. Also mainly because almost nothing is known about these mysterious men – who as a matter of fact refuse to appear recognisable in the media - an interview with the gentlemen Mortal Sword and Shield Anvil seemed almost necessary.
By: Nima | Archive under black metal
Hails and congratulations with your debut album 'Echoes Of Battle'! But before we get more into that, Caladan Brood is a newcomer in the world of metal, so would you please introduce the band to our readers and tell a bit about your history?
There isn't much history to tell, really. We are two individuals who love fantasy literature and metal music, so we combined our efforts to create an amalgam of the two like many bands before us have done.
Caladan Brood consists of only two members, and there is a certain mystery around you guys. No photo's, no history, no biography or musical backgrounds and it seems like you just appeared out of nowhere… is there a reason for this?
You know, it's been interesting choosing to remain anonymous on the Internet age. We are constantly getting emails from people wanting to know our real names and wanting photos of us. That's fine, but we decided to keep the focus on the music and aesthetic instead of on the band members. It just doesn't seem that the music would be improved in any way by our faces being plastered on the Internet and CD inserts. That isn't to say we'll never have a band photo, but if we do, we will do our best to incorporate them into our overall thematic scheme.
Let's talk about the musical path of Caladan Brood, which is quite obviously influenced by especially Summoning. As I mentioned in my review I'm very happy about the fact that we finally have a band that is able to summon the atmosphere that the Austrian masters always did. And although I also mentioned that we would do the band too short by calling you off as a “clone”, the resemblance and comparison with Summoning inevitable. Please tell a bit about Summoning's influence on you guys and in what way they inspired you to set upon this epic, pagan, atmospheric black metal path…
Well, firstly, neither Summoning nor Caladan Brood are 'pagan'. We don't have any religious lyrics; our music is entirely fantasy themed. That being said, Summoning is definitely the primary influence for us. We are both long-time Summoning fans and wanted to explore the style that they created in our own way.
Thanks to the majestic clean vocals and choirs, and also guitar solos the music at some point also refers to traditional heavy metal, which helps the band to distinguish itself and stand out more. But also (European) folk music plays a big part in Caladan Brood's tunes. To be honest, if one didn't know, it would be hard to imagine that Caladan Brood hails from the US! What more can you say about your musical influences and what you had in mind for the band's direction when you started making music?
As far as our metal influences go, we draw from the obvious epic/medieval themed black metal such as Summoning, Elffor, Nazgûl, Graveland, Vordven, early Nokturnal Mortum, and others, as well as stuff such as Bathory or Moonsorrow. Outside of metal, we drew influence from medieval/fantasy ambient such as Mantle of Dust, Lord Wind, Wongraven, Gothmog, etc., and game soundtracks such as the music from the 'Elder Scrolls' series, 'Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness', 'Diablo' I & II, 'Heroes of Might and Magic', and similar titles.
Your lyrics/concept of the album is based on Steven Erikson's 'Malazan Book Of The Fallen'. I honestly admit that I'm not familiar with these works, but from what I've been told the tales are quite grand, majestic and complex. And I must say that's also a good way to describe the music on 'Echoes Of Battle'. Please tell a bit more about the influence of Erikson's work on your music and why you chose to base your music on his works…
The 'Malazan Book of the Fallen' series is our favourite collected work of fantasy literature, and the books were one of the primary inspiring factors in choosing to create our own music. It is a truly gripping and imaginative world that provides us with a vast, fully-realized fantasy setting to draw from lyrically. The atmosphere and themes of Malazan lend themselves very well to metal music, and since we're passionate about the books and about the genre of music, it seemed natural for them to go hand-in-hand.
In that regard, is 'Echoes Of Battle' a conceptual album or a collage of stories based on some stories taken from the 'Malazan Book Of The Fallen'?
It is more of a “collage”, as you put it. Some of the lyrics make direct references to characters and events from the books whereas some of the lyrics take more of a sub-textual or thematic approach – so it isn't a concept album, but all of the lyrics are indeed drawn entirely from the works of Erikson and Esslemont.
This may sound as a strange question, but how difficult was it to transform your visual ideas into music?
Either of us will be musically inspired by something from the books and the general atmosphere of that event, place, or character will give us an idea of where to go musically… or vice-versa; we'll come up with a riff or melody and have a pretty clear idea of what Malazan-based theme it would be best coupled with. Once we have the music and theme coupled together, everything generally comes together smoothly.
Except for the fantasy tales, where do you get your inspiration for the music? I mean, for example I can't imagine someone being able to come up with such atmosphere while he's writing songs in his apartment in a big city and being in touch with nature always plays a big part in this type of music. Your home town is surrounded by majestic mountains and breath-taking nature, and the state of Utah in general has a very rich and peculiar nature. Did you also get inspiration from that?
Yes, Utah has some incredibly beautiful landscapes, and what makes it unique is that we have many different biomes in relatively close proximity to each other. A lot of movies get filmed here because of that; there are sweeping mountain vistas and deep pine forests surrounding Salt Lake City, but a relatively short car-ride brings you to sprawling red-rock deserts and sandstone valleys. These landscapes are inspiring of course, but our true core influence is fantasy literature and games.
Do you think it would be possible to take the band on stage someday with help from session musicians? I personally would love to hear the songs performed live!
It is very unlikely that Caladan Brood will ever perform live.
Are you going to base your music on the 'Malazan Book Of The Fallen' in the future as well, or do you think you may find other sources of inspiration? I for one hope you will keep on going on the same path, because this is something different than the thousands of tales about Vikings, etc…
We will always draw our aesthetic themes from the Malazan works of Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont. We are not a folk/Viking metal band; we will always be a Malazan-themed epic black metal band.
I guess the final question for now is what can we expect from Caladan Brood next?
Only time can tell.
Alright then, I guess we can wrap it up for this time. Unless of course there is anything left that you'd like to mention…
Thank you for the interview.
Plunged out of nowhere like a bolt from the blue, the American duo of Caladan Brood is the author of a debut album of excellent quality, dedicated to a epic black metal in Summoning style. "Echoes of Blood", released for the German Northern Silence Productions, is a little gem of evil fantasy, perfect entertainment waiting for the new work of the Austrian combo. We at Metal.it took the first available flight to Salt Lake City and at the Utah Jazz Delta Center we met with the Caladan Brood for a chat ...
Hi Caladan, first of all congratulations for your first album, we really appreciated it. First of all we know that it is based on a fantasy series called "The Malazan Book of the Fallen", in Italy badly translated "The fall of Malazan".
I candidly admit my ignorance about it: can you explain its arguments and why did you choose it as a source for your music?
We based our music on Malazan for a number of reasons: first we used it as our thematic foundation because they are our favorite books and they provided us with a lot of inspiration for creating the style of music we chose of working. The atmosphere and the epic of the series is truly compelling and provides an excellent background for metal music. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to be a Malazan-themed band.
It's no secret that your music is very close to that of Summoning, as you candidly admits your label.
What do you think about it and in general about this style of metal?
Yes, of course we love Summoning and their sound was the main inspiration for our music. The description that our label has written about the Caladan Brood has been far too generous, as obviously we do not claim to be better than the Austrian masters or anything like that, but our music is sincere and we tried to add our influences to the whole with the hope of arriving at something that is clearly taken from the picture drawn by Summoning, but which brings a personal approach to sound.
The cover you have chosen is really very attractive.
The style of Albert Bierstadt gives a very 'mythical' feeling to the landscapes he interpreted, and as a fantasy band we felt that this combination was appropriate.
The CD is published by Northern Silence Productions, a German label: how did you get in touch with them? This kind of "classic" metal is very strong in Europe, surely in the USA you have another kind of metal, more modern and popstyle like metalcore, etc. .. How do you try to play such a "European" style from Salt Lake City, a city what do we usually hear to name only for Mormons and Utah Jazz? Is there any scene in your city?
As for black metal and related genres we have always gravitated towards European bands, and as such our music reflects such influences. And anyway yes, Utah has a very small but active scene with some phenomenal groups in many different genres.
Where did you record the album and how long did it take you? Given that you are only two-way that you have followed to compose and record?
We recorded the album on the home computer, and then recorded the vocal parts in a friend's home studio. We usually need a long period of time to fully complete the songs as we have to juggle writing and recording while we are dealing with work, school and all other daily obligations. As for the composition of the music we simply meet, each of us with our own ideas on some piece, and simply start the recordings. Once a song begins to assume its own identity, we arrange it and structure it in what will eventually be the final product.
In our opinion, the best track is "Wild Autumn Wind", so "cinematic", great use of clean choirs and really hi-class melodies: wonderful.
Thanks, I'm happy to know that you appreciated.
Well guys, we're in the salutations: add what you want and congratulations again, this album is a little jewel of epic black metal. Summoning must be alert ...
Thank you for the kind words. But we are also very happy with the new Summoning album! And there is no doubt that it will be spectacular.
Intervista a cura di Gianluca 'Graz' Grazioli translated form italian