- Well, Battlelore was formed in 1999 by Jyri Vahvanen (guitar) And Miika Kokkola (bass) in Lappeenranta, Finland. After 2 demos Austrian Napalm Records signed the band. The first album "… Where the shadows lie" was released late 2001. With this album the band were able to wake up a small following mainly in continent Europe.

- After the release of the album Tommi Havo (guitar&vocals) left the band and Jussi Rautio was taken into the band to play the lead guitar. So, the band consisted now of Jyri, Miika, Jussi, Maria (synths), Henrique Vahvanen (drums), Patrik Mennander (vocals) and Kaisa Jouhki (vocals).

- The second album "Sword’s Song" was released in spring 2003 and it was a huge step forward. After the album the touring life started. "The Magic of the Angels" tour with Sirenia, Trail Of Tears, Saltatio Mortis and Edenbridge was a success that grew the following even more. A live DVD called "The Journey" was released in spring 2004.

- Just before the 30 gig tour with Leaves’ Eyes, Atrocity and Elis/Dark Well, Patrik said he cannot go on the tour. So the band was in sticky situation. Then for some odd reason they contacted me, a guitar player who hasn’t done lead vocals before, to do the tour with them. Also Miika said he’s not able to do the tour so Timo Honkanen was asked to step in. The tour was a real success and gained the band more footprint in the whole metal/rock scene.

- Then it was time to record next album. Just before that Miika decided to leave the band for good. So the band was in difficult situation; they are supposed to make a new album but they don’t have male vocalist or bassist. Then they asked for me and Honkman to join the band and that was it. Then we were on our way to Marseille France to record "Third Age of the Sun".

- "TAotS" was produced by Terje Refsnes and the album featured all new Battlelore. The sound of the album was really organic and the song writing had matured a lot during the tours. The video made for "Storm of the Blades" was shown around the world in different shows. Unfortunately not any real tours were made after the release of "TAotS" just some gigs here and there. Despite of that the following seems to be growing all the time.

- Early 2006 we started to talk about the new album and some ideas were thrown in the air…during the spring and summer songs were made and then at the end of September we found ourselves in Music Bros Studios again with Isä-Miitros Aaltonen. And then we enter the time being.

- Yeah, "Evernight" is the best album Battlelore have done so far. The songs are more epic and darker than before. On the normal album you’ll get 9 songs and if you get the digipack version you’ll get 2 bonus tracks.

- The song writing on the new album is bit different compared to earlier records and it shows as more variety in songs. Compared to "TAotS", "Evernight" is a lot more varied and characteristic in style.

- The normal Battlelore way of making songs is such that usually Jyri or Jussi makes a skeleton of a song with guitar. Then they use Henkka to come up with drums on the riffs. After that’s done then the basic demo is recorded and forwarded to other so they can start thinking/making their own parts. Usually Jyri writes all the lyrics and they are given to us vocalists to come up with vocal arrangements. After a little while we’ll record a bit more comprehensive demo to see if the things are working or not. After some changing around we usually have a song quite ready for studio (where some drastic changes might still happen).

- On this album there’s actually more people involved in the basic skeleton making process than before. There’s Jussi’s, Jyri’s and my songs in there. Maria did the bonus track "The Tale of the Downfall". The lyrics are usually initiated by Jyri but we vocalists change them around as much as needed. On "Evernight" there’s some lyrics by me and Jussi.

- Well, our songs have always been based on Tolkien’s writings and stories about Middle-Earth. So basically all the stories and main inspiration comes from there. Of course on the 2 last albums we’ve been trying to write the lyrics to be not so to-the-point and on "Evernight" we haven’t used any names or places from Middle-Earth even though they are based on the happenings in the books. So the lyrics are more universal so to say.

- On "Evernight" there seems to be a common "concept" throughout the album… We realised that most of the songs are about seas. Actually our first idea was to make a tale lasting through the whole album but it didn’t happen. On the regular album there are 4 songs that tell a story and on the digipack version there will be fifth song called "The Tale of the Downfall" that will tell the whole story in one instrumental piece. On that piece you can figure out which 4 songs are parts of the story if you listen very carefully. That’s a puzzle for you freaks!!!

- For me personally the biggest difference is that now I felt like I’m really in a band instead of just helping friends out like on "TAotS". If we think musically then what really strikes me first is the fact that "Evernight" is really a dark album compared to our previous albums. I also think that our song writing has also grown to new heights in the album. Also it’s musically more progressive and epic than before.

- This is a hard question. I still need to get some distance to the album to really think about this. I must say that there are many excellent things in there… like ending of "Beneath the Waves" is phenomenal. "We Are the Legions" is very heavy track which is also quite different from the songs we’ve done in the past. "Into the New World" is excellent in it’s epic feeling… Damn this is hard! Ok, for now the fave track must be "We Are the Legions". There.

- Well, the first LP I bought was Iron Maiden’s "The Number of the Beast" and that’s where I left on my musical journey. The best Maiden album is "7^th Son…" and it still ranks very high on my all time favourite top. I have also been a huge fan of 60s/70s rock and progressive rock so I must say that Led Zeppelin’s "Houses of the Holy" is a masterpiece. Alice In Chains’ "Dirt" changed my world. Monster Magnet’s "Spine of God" and "Superjudge" are both excellent pieces of psychedelic heavy rock. Haha! That’s quite ancient, isn’t it?

- From the heavier side of music I would say that yours Gojira has released an excellent album with "From Mars…". And Green Carnation’s albums rock. At the moment I’m listening to Enslaved’s "Ruun" which is great one too. There are so many excellent albums released…

- No, I don’t. Kaisa and Maria have had some musical education in their lives. Others are pretty much self-educated. Henkka is nowadays teaching some kids to play drums in this music school but as far as I know he’s not received any schooling himself.

- Well, compared to early nineties it’s nowadays so overblown that’s it’s extremely hard to keep up with the happenings and new bands. I think that there are some really cool bands coming up but of course as there are so many bands most of them are not that interesting.

- I would have plenty of funny and even funnier stories but I think that those are too inside jokes for other people to understand.

- I have one story from your country though… We played at La Locomotive in Paris. The gig was excellent but the happenings afterwards weren’t that cool. It all started pretty innocently, we had 2 busses and the other one was a bit on the wrong lane. Then there came these normally dressed people shouting that the bus needs to be moved. Well, we told them that the loading will take 5 minutes and then we are on our way… Well, they stormed into the other bus and started shouting and dragging people out… Well, if you know Atrocity’s vocalist Max you know that he’s really a big guy… Well, he offered the guys his helping hand to get out of the bus. At this point the guys started showing some badges claiming they’re police and we were like what the fuck is happening. Well, it took like 5 minutes and then there were 12 police cars and lots of polices around… shouting and dragging people to cars… Well, lots of things happened and when the thing cleared we realised that the other bus driver, tour manager, Max and merchandise guy were in jail. And the bus was still on the same place! :D Then after couple of hours and some phone calls to embassy the guys were released and we were able to go on our way. Talk about Parisian courtesy! Hahah! Of course this had nothing to do with the great gig and excellent audience we had there. Great show!

- Another little anecdote from the Paris gig… Do you know the black bodyguards that are on the doors on La Locomotive? Well, anyways, one of them saw my sword and asked if he can try it. Well, what can you say? Ok, then he was swinging it, the sword look like a knife on him! He looked so badass I almost shat myself. Hahaha!

- There are indeed some talks about possible tour(s) and other gigs. Hopefully they’ll happen! Other plan is to start making new songs (we already have 2 new ones done after the studio!) and maybe even record a new album this year. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully lots of gigs at least.

- Have fun, always embrace life and check our new album "Evernight"!