Daniel Bryntse

Isole

With slow steps above a cobwebbed ruined castle in an ancient city, the Swedish ISOLE rise, lonely to the melancholy's throne. Daniel Bryntse talked to us about the new album Silent Ruins, the EREB ALTOR horde and much more.

By Yiannis Doukas

• April 14, 2009

Interview with: Daniel Bryntse from ISOLE

Cheers from Metal Temple. How are you brothers? Congratulations for the new album and for your appearances at Up The Hammers Festival, both as ISOLE and EREB ALTOR. What are your impressions from the festival? What is the feed back from the album's release?

Hi there and thanks! We are all just fine, preparing for our tour the coming weeks. We had a good time both at 'Up The Hammers' and the subsequent show in Ioannina. Always nice to have some people in the crowd that actually know the lyrics well enough to sing along. The feedback on Silent Ruins has been mainly good so far. It's always a bit scary when releasing a new album, but most people that liked our previous albums seems satisfied with this one to.

Silent Ruins seems to be a musical continuum of the Bliss Of Solitude. Were the songs for both albums written in the same period? Are you satisfied with Bliss? Did you play any gigs for promoting the album?

Some of the songs where written about the same time as Bliss Of Solitude, but the main part of the songs are new. I'm very pleased with Bliss, but of course there are always some things that you could have done different. I think we only made a handful of shows after releasing the album. There were some plans for a short tour, but that got canceled because of reasons beyond control. Hopefully we will be able to make up for that in the future.

Is there a basic idea or concept behind Silent Ruins? Has somethingf to do with the after Armageddon world? Will this story be continued in the forth- coming album?

It is a story about a person that wakes up in a dead and desolate world as the only survivor, with no memories of what has happened. The album deals with his grief and search to find out what caused all this. The story will continue in the future, but probably not on the next album.

What is you love most and on the other hate most in this world? Do we come here for a specific purpose? Or is it something complete random that ends in its all entity after our death?

Oh... these are difficult questions. What do I love the most? That there are still a lot of honest, friendly and open minded people believing in humanity. I guess what I hate the most is the opposite of that. To the other part of the question my honest and firm answer is that I have no belief whatsoever that there is some kind of an afterlife. We only have this one short lifetime. Purpose? To live a good life and reproduce.

The band started as FORLORN around 1991 with some demo releases till 2001. First of all under what conditions did you form the band? What were the esoteric galvanizations for playing music and creating a group? Are there any copies of the demo compilation Autumn Promos? Is there a plan for releasing it in a more official format? What are the most powerful memories that you obtain from these times?

Me and Crister started the band because of our love to the dark, sad, monumental and emotional music bands like CANDLEMASS and BATHORY gave to us. We just wanted to do the same. The Autumn Promos is totally sold out and will not be pressed again. Some demo songs will be featured as a bonus on the vinyl version of Silent Ruins. There is also a possibility that other demos will be featured on future releases. My most powerful memory from the early days is holding that first ever demo in your hand, listening to the music we had created and recorded our self for the first time. That was a magic moment. A pity that it is a really, really bad recording I don't want any others to hear nowadays...

The name's change happened in 2004, wasn't it? What were the reasons? Do you wanted making something like a new start? Before the Forevermore did you made any other release under the ISOLE name?

It was mainly because there are other bands named FORLORN that already had released albums. Also it was kind of a fresh start where we decided to focus our music to be more epic doom and less folk-ish Viking metal (which instead got a continuation with EREB ALTOR). We made no official releases before Forevermore, only a pre-recording of 3 or 4 songs that later was recorded for the debut album.

Daniel, you were a member of COMPLICITY and had a demo cassette in 1992. What happened with them? Except these three songs have you recorded anything else?

We changed a few members and changed the name to WITHERED BEAUTY. Then we recorded 2 official demo tapes and a few unofficial ones before finally releasing a self-titled album through Nuclear Blast in 1998. Since then we had a few songs on different compilations and recently the album was remastered and re-released through label Metal Mind Productions. The band is still alive, but with only two members (me and drummer Jonas). We are planning to record an album in the not too distant future, depending on how much spare time we have beside ISOLE and other duties... Then we just have to find someone willing to release it.

You were also in MORANNON. Is this band still alive? Did you release anything else after The Raging Chaos demo of 2003? Are there any plans for a fullâ€length? Is there big amplitude between the Doom of ISOLE and the Black of MORANNON? Is this a reflection of your personal musical tastes or something like a capriciously sonic veiled mood? Do you see any similarities between these two genres? Also is it true that you were a SORCERY member, and if yes do you remember when? Where are they now?

MORANNON is probably not dead, but in a very deep coma. The last release up until now is The Coming Of Our Armageddon demo, also in 2003. There are no plans to make any recordings at the moment, but, as always, we talk about it now and then. I can see similarities between black and doom metal. Mainly in the general dark and sad mood both present. Definitely a reflection of my personal musical taste, or at least part of it. I listen to a lot more different kinds of music.

I was a part of SORCERY, but only for a short time just the last few weeks or months before the band finally split. I can't exactly recall when, but I guess it must have been around year 2000. I don't think they are that active in the music business nowadays, but some of them played in a band called OUTREMER which released a mini-CD only a few years back. Our bassist Henrik plays guitar on that one as well. Oh, and SORCERY's old guitarist Fredrik plays in a Grindcore band called GADGET.

I am impressed by the powerful consonance between your music and the lyrics. Usually what does come first and who is responsible for them? Can we say that this melancholy is something like a catharsis?

The music almost exclusively comes first. In the past, mainly me and Crister wrote both the music and lyrics, but at the present we all are involved with the music making and Henrik writes most lyrics.

Hmm... at times maybe you could say that making this music and lyrics is a way of cleansing the mind and emotions, but mostly it is just because I love sad music. Makes me feel good to listen to sad songs. Strange, I know...

The lyrical theme of The Watcher looks to be close to romanticism, like having parallel route to this exceedingly sensibility of poets like Baudelaire or Poe. Deep and insupportable distress that leads to isolation, an aura that sometimes your music carries. Now the question is, are you into a specific mood before writing such stuff or it comes naturally? Second, is there anything from poetry that impresses you? What is poetry for you? And where lays the line between the real, emotional poetry and the 'common' one? Or this is completing subjective?

It comes naturally to me. Only a few songs, for example The watcher, was written during times of sadness or depression. Poetry isn't really something I have studied or simply cared about that much. To me, the music and the emotions you get from that is the important part. Lyrics are just words to sing, but of course interesting or touching lyrics gives an extra dimension to the songs. Lucky for us we have Henrik as our own little poet. Interesting interpretation of The watcher - lyrics though. I just wrote a story about something like a god watching down on his failing creation.

Now, let's move on to some EREB ALTOR questions. I think the feed back from By Honour probably surprised even you. When exactly did this band start as an idea? When did the first songs come? I also read in your myspace page that you are planning a new full-length album. Would you like to tell us anything about it?

Yeah, it surprised me a lot. Expected to get a lot more bashing about being BATHORY-clones or something. The idea came to us a while after we had changed the other bands name to ISOLE and decided to focus more on epic doom metal. What should we ever do with all the ideas that got left over? Well... start another project, of course! We took much of the old leftover folk/Viking FORLORN - material and made them even more so to differentiate the bands. The oldest songs are from the early days of FORLORN's existence. Winter Wonderland, for example, was a song on the first FORLORN demo, back in 1991. There are also some new songs, like By honour and Wizard, specifically written for EREB ALTOR.

We have more than enough songs to record a second album already, but it is hard to find the spare time needed. As I don't really know exactly what it will sound like yet, there isn't much I can tell you, but generally it will probably have the same type of songs as By honour.

The influences from BATHORY are more than evident. What is this that excites you most with them? What was the first thing you heard from BATHORY? Do you like the three first black era albums? Have you ever met Quorthon? If there was a possibility of asking him a question, in Valhalla, what would it be?

The first thing I heard with BATHORY was actually The Return, which I immediately enjoyed. I had NEVER heard anything so dark before, but it wasn't until Under The Sign... I really got into them. I like almost all their albums. Requiem and Octagon are OK albums, but not near the rest in quality. What excites me the most must be quite evident thinking about EREB ALTOR, for example? Twilight Of The Gods and Blood, Fire, Death are two of my favorite albums ever. I've never had the honour of meeting Quorthon, sadly. But what would I ask him? I don't know. I would probably just thank him for his music and inspiration.

The EREB ALTOR name, is it from an RPG game? Are you into these things? You know there is an opinion that is like an escaping the reality although I find it like a very fertile ground for the fantasy's development. Do you still play?

Yeah, it is from a Swedish Pen&Paper RPG called Drakar Och Demoner, which (obviously) translates to Dragons and Demons. We played it a lot in the past, but now it must have been at least 10 years ago or so. But I do play a lot of computer RPG's.

What is the meaning of the words underground metal for you? Can we talk about such a clause in these technological, computerized days? What are your opinions about the scene of your country?

Underground metal.... to me it means exactly what it says. Hard working bands that very few take notice of, but those who do become rock-solid die-hard fans. I don't have the same insight into the Swedish metal scene as I used to. I simply don't have the time to keep track of it all. There are always some good, new bands to be found, though. I just let my friends tell me about them rather than the other way around. Works fine!

What is that element that distinguishes the art from the entertainment in music? Does it have to do with something deeper or it is about the subjective factor of each listener?

Art... what is art? I have to agree with the person who said that The truth lies in the eyes of the beholder. But I hope that people recognize music that is made from the heart as true art. Sadly, not many people care enough to even bother trying. The just get fed with the typical radio blur, and accept it as art.

Thanx a lot guys! Hope see you again here, Doom on!!!

No, thank you for your interest! I hope we can come back in a not too distant future. We sure enjoyed our last visit to Greece.

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