Like a thundering storm that sweeps over the landscape accompanied by earth-shuddering thunder, mighty gales and pelting rain and snow, Sweden’s masters of mythical metal mayhem, Brothers of Metal, had returned like the force of nature they are with their sophomore album, Emblas Saga.
The epic tome of an album was released on AFM Records in January and has already generated a true buzz in the metal world for its cinematic nature, epic sense of scale and scintillating storytelling.
The band is comprised of three distinctive vocalists, with Joakim Lindback Eriksson and Ylva Eriksson sharing the male/female trading leads, and Mats Nilsson doing most of the backgrounds and growling parts. There are also three guitarists in Brothers of Metal, Dawid Grahn, Pahr Nilsson and Mikael Fehrm. Bass duties are handled by Emil Warmedal, while the tribal Norse rhythms are created by drummer Johan Johansson.
The story of the formation of Brothers of Metal is not only unique, it’s fascinating and almost comical in how serendipity played such a key role. Essentially, a group of pals living in a small Swedish town, spent their spare time goofing around making music for their own enjoyment. Fast forward a few short years and the world has a band that has an epic image, a badass logo and artistic aesthetic and compelling, melodically memorable, horde-like metal for the masses, with two albums under their belts.
“None of us were really big on going out to pubs and stuff like that. So, what happened is we usually go to some pre-party at some friend’s place and usually there was a whole studio there with instruments and recording gear and we ended up staying there the whole night recording music. One night we might do a rap song, and the next time it was something that Supertramp would have done, like whatever, trying out all these different genres and styles, just trying to copy them and have some fun to see if we could do it,” said Mats Nilsson.
“One night we said let’s do a song like something [British epic metal masters] Manowar would be proud of. So, we did the song Son of Odin [which appeared on their debut album]. And this is back in 2012. Four of the members of this group played in a band but they had lost their drummer, so they didn’t have a drummer. And one of the other singers, Joakim, was in this group and was asked by a club owner in town if he wanted to play a 30 minute slot, and the show was in two weeks. He told the guy about our little group and played him Son of Odin, and the pub owner said, ‘yeah, bring that in, it will be cool.’ The problem was, we had only the one song at the time, so over the next two weeks we wrote four or five more songs, enough for playing 30 minutes. That’s basically how the band started because Joakim wanted to play this set in this local pub. From there, the roster filled out to the eight musicians, with the venerable and voluminous three-voice and three-guitar attack, and the development of the look, style and tone not only of the band’s music, but also their onstage gear, but also the entirety of their ethos.
”We never intended to do this band. We’re all a group of friends, and that’s the main reason why there are eight people in the band and not five. Eventually we realized that we had enough songs to make an album, so let’s record it, so we have something to look back on when we grow old. We never thought it would turn out how it did. The whole first album, Prophecy of Ragnarök, was done by 2015, and then we sat on it for a while talking to different labels trying to get a record deal. We didn’t get the deal then so in April 2017 we decided to release it ourselves on most digital platforms, without really any PR, just to get it out. At that time, we started writing new songs. Then AFM Records picked up Prophecy of Ragnarök and the band in August 2018.”
Therefore, although it seems like the band has been on a torrid creative pace, in fact there had been a substantial gap between the writing for the first and second albums, even though Emblas Saga is coming out less than 18 months after Prophecy of Ragnarök.
“Some of the songs for the second album were done ahead of time. When we went into the studio this time, not all the lyrics were done, so we had to figure out the lyrics while we were recording the drums. I would say in all it took about nine months or so until the album was done,” said Nilsson.
Besides the almost happenstance nature of how the band came together, and the propitious timing and serendipitous series of events that lead to their formal creation as a musical entity, Brothers of Metal are also basking in a revival of international interest in the old Norse culture. This, combined with the excellence of the execution of their music, has seen the octet’s popularity continue to skyrocket.
“Several things are at play, I think. First of all, we do strive to make great choruses and great melodies and I think we managed to do some pretty catchy tunes on that first record. I think that’s important. And because we do it all out, or all in if you like, with all the leather and make up and weapons and stuff, it’s attracting attention. At least in the western world, I think Norse mythology has become very mainstream. You look at all these Thor movies, the BBC Vikings series, and also a lot of bands doing it too – doing what we do but in different ways,” he said.
“I think it’s appealing to a lot of people and I think a lot of people also like that we’re basically dancing on the edge between being really cringy and super cool, which is the hardest thing we do. Sometimes you will fail and just look cringy and sometimes it’s perfect – people don’t really know if you’re serious or not. I think we had felt from the get-go that this is not a jeans and t-shirt band. We can’t do that, we wanted to do something more.”
As with Prophecy of Ragnarök, the songs on Emblas Saga are steeped and derived from Norse mythology and history – with often the two intersecting. Emblas Saga is a little bit of a deeper dive into the shared culture of the Scandinavian lands, more so than those who only know of what they have seen in the Marvel movies. Essentially, the title refers to aspects of the Norse creation myth.
“Embla is the first female in the Norse creation. Odin and his two brothers [Vili and Ve, sons of Bor] kills this giant that is floating around in space [Ymir] and they create our world from the remnants: the skeleton becomes the earth and blood is the rivers and seas, and his hair is the plants and the skull is the sky around us. They walk in this new creation, this new work, and basically decided they need to fill it with life. So, they find two logs on the shore, one is ash and one is elm. From the ash they create Ask, the first man, and from the elm they create Embla the first woman. So, the album is basically her story, the beginning of the world,” Nilsson explained.
“I would not call this a concept album though. The first four tracks, Brood of the Trickster, Powersnake, Hel and Chain Breaker are for sure about the beginning of the universe. Powersnake, Hel and Chain Breaker are about the children of Loki who are called chaos monsters. So that’s the Midgard Serpent, Hela the goddess of death and the Chain Breaker is Fenrir the wolf that will kill Odin and bring about Ragnarök. So those are really the main part Emblas Saga because they are on the same theme, but then we have some different themes.
“Njord is about the god of sea faring and wellness. In the olden days, a lot of sailors and travellers would pray to him before going on their journeys and so on. The song One is basically about sticking together. Life is rough for everyone, and you might not be able to handle stuff on your own, but together with your friends and your family, if you can find strength in them, you can find strength enough to manage. Brothers Unite is kind of an anthem for the band and its fans. It’s the same theme of sticking together, believing in one another and having faith in the person you are standing shoulder to shoulder with.”
With three vocalists, one might think it’s hard to determine who sings what part in a certain song, but Nilsson said it comes pretty naturally.
“We try to keep Joakim and Ylva together so they can do the sort of talk and answer parts. It creates this great symmetry and contrast with them that we keep in most songs. It’s not possible in all songs but we do it in as many songs as we can. As my voice is a bit deeper than Joakim’s and very raspy, I do a lot of the backing vocals and spoken parts. I have very few lead parts,” he said, returning to the point that because Brothers of Metal was a group of friends first, and those relationships are paramount, everything that happens within the band is handled in an egalitarian, democratic manner.
“A lot of bands are formed by just one person with an idea and that person sometimes ends up as sort of a dictator. In this band, everyone has the same value in their votes. We vote about any big decision, like which should be the first single, or what songs we should do videos for and so on. When the voting is done and final, no one has any hard feelings, so it’s easy.”
Using the medium of the band and its music is not only a great way to entertain those fascinated by Scandinavian history and the Norse mythology, but it is also a way for Brothers of Metal to reclaim this aspect of their shared culture from those who have utilized it for more malevolent purposes, such as many of the xenophobic, populist right wing organizations that are unfortunately coming more and more to the fore, even in as enlightened and liberal countries as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.
“In the 1990s the very right wing has taken the Norse mythology for their own, basically wearing the runes along with swastikas and stuff like that, We feel that we really want to take that back because it’s not just theirs; this culture is everyone’s and we want to make it so and celebrate it in a positive way,” Nilsson said.
After returning from their first full-fledged European tour, Nilsson said he and his bandmates are still waiting to hear about gigs over the busy and lengthy festival season. Because of the cost of bringing over an eight-piece metal band with all their gear and accoutrements, overseas engagements aren’t likely to happen unless Brothers of Metal can get partnered up with a bigger act and play a lengthy stint in North America or elsewhere.
In the interim, Nilsson said the band is already beginning to write new material for a third album.
For more information, including tour dates, visit https://www.facebook.com/brothersofmetalofficial.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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