Twin Legacies: An Interview with Eddie Risdal

Vocals/Guitar

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“I suppose what happened on July 22nd came as a surprise to most Norwegians, but not to me. Still it was a surprise that it came from an extreme nationalist and not from some terrorist organization from the Middle East, as I see Norway as an easy target for terrorist actions, just because no one expects such things to happen here…”

Life in Norway can’t be as peaceful as it used to be right now. Having been given a rather grim reminder of the realities of growing unrest, and what can stir within what is usually considered a warm and respectable country, Norway’s people might start asking questions such as ‘Why?’ and what happens next. Whilst Eddie Risdal, guitarist and band leader for both Ancestral Legacy and Legacy of Emptiness, has his own perspective on why things have happened and why nationalism is growing in his country, he also has his own opinions on how the metal community should react.

“I really hope that metal bands don’t incorporate politics in their agenda, for the most part it makes the music less interesting as I see it. There have been very few bands that have had success with a certain degree of criticism against the authorities.” he comments; “Skyclad is the first that comes to mind, but in general I’d say it’s a bad combination. On the other hand, even metal musicians are thinking people, so it would be strange if none of them cared. I suppose we’ll see some statements from some of them in the time to come. And I’ve no problem with that, I’d say it would be more of a worry if no one cared.”

This all being said, Norway hasn’t been a stranger to acts of terrorism, of a sort at least, in the past. Turn back the clock almost twenty years, the birth of what would be the second wave of black metal, and the events that have since become infamous. This is the period a young Eddie would find himself in, discovering metal for the first time as the black metal genre ignited around him; “For me it wasn’t about the murders or church burnings, it was just a natural thing for me when I first got heavily attracted to metal in the early nineties to explore all genres, one by one. To me the most brutal genres were mostly noise to my untrained ears, so I started with the more basic stuff like Helloween, Maiden, W.A.S.P. and bands like that.”

“It wasn’t until 94/95 that my ears were ready for the harder genres,” he continues; “… and I very quickly got into Ulver‘s first album, and also Dissection‘s Storm Of The Light’s Bane. I’ve always preferred the bands who are able to create an atmosphere or have good melody lines, if it’s all about disharmony or plain chaos then it’s more likely to be skipped. So the first years I simply tried bands in different genres, some I liked, some I didn’t.”

“ I really hope that metal bands don’t incorporate politics in their agenda ”
- Eddie Risdal

As for why Norway was the country to erupt like this back when he was growing up, Eddie isn’t sure, but has his own ideas; “I really have no clue why it was right here that the ‘second wave of black metal’ started, but one can guess. The first bands that were labelled black metal were quite far from what those earliest Norwegian bands played. Venom were more of a punked heavy metal band, Mercyful Fate were more straight heavy metal, though with an occult and satanic approach, while bands like Bathory and Hellhammer/Celtic Frost took it a bit further”

“But when bands like Mayhem, Immortal and Burzum started, influenced by those bands, I think it maybe was an ‘answer’ to what was going on in Sweden at that time, where the first bands who were to form their own brand, ‘Swedish death metal’ or ‘Gothenburg metal’.” he theorizes; “There has always been a kind of friendly fight between the countries, who was first, who is the best, biggest and so on, like between many other countries, so I guess that is a thing that might have triggered it. That some bands here saw what was going on on the other side of the border and thought, ‘what the heck, we’ll do something more brutal and better than that’.”

He smiles; “Maybe it’s because of the long and dark Winters, something in the drinking water or booze, I don’t know…”

It was around this time, ’95 to be precise, that Permafrost was formed, later to become Ancestral Legacy. The band would be fronted by Eddie, with friends Kjell-Ivar Aarli on bass, and Øyvind Rosseland on keyboards. With Øyvind becoming the creative driving force of the band, Ancestral Legacy’s music would be a very symphonic version of black metal – comparable to early Dimmu Borgir, but very distinctly different and extremely varied. The tastes in music that the members had developed, ranging from hard rock through to the more atmospheric and melodic side of black metal, would all find their place in Ancestral Legacy’s very different sound. The band would release two demo CDs – a self-titled debut, and a second demo Emptiness, before the band mutually broke apart; “There was no dramatic departure of the two other guys, so we parted ways as friends, it was just something that was unavoidable at the time.”

This left Eddie as the only member wanting to continue with the band. With Øyvind no longer a part of Ancestral Legacy, and as a result the band’s main song-writer gone, the band’s sound would inevitably change; “Since I am nothing near his qualities on the keys it simply had to be something different when I got back as the main composer.”

“A few months, maybe a year prior to the split I started writing songs that didn’t quite fit the AL sound, so I planned to gather up a few of them and put them out as a solo project, or together with someone else.” he explains; “Then the split happened and when I finally decided to continue the band I went with the two songs I then had, and during the Autumn of 2002 I was very creative making more music in the same vein, while recruiting new band members. So the sudden change in style was not at all intentional, it was just the only way to continue when the band lost it’s main composer.”

The change would be very drastic, but in many ways still very much keeping with Norway’s role in metal music. After all, black metal wasn’t the only sub-genre of metal to break out in the nineties, Norway would also have an important role in the establishment of the gothic metal genre, a genre Ancestral Legacy would shift towards; “Norway had an important role when the so called ‘beauty and beast’ kind of metal was established, and I’d say that it’s quite well known still, even if we maybe aren’t in a leading position today.”

“ If we had played necro-black we wouldn’t have needed any better production ”
- Eddie Risdal

“It all started here with 3rd And The Mortal with the ‘beauty’ part,” continues Eddie; “While bands like Theatre of Tragedy, Tristania and Trail of Tears also added the ‘beast’ in it a few years later. I’ve always liked all these bands to a certain degree, but it was not at all those who influenced me when the new style of Ancestral Legacy took shape in the early 2000s. It was rather bands like Katatonia, Rapture, Novembre, The Gathering and Opeth, none except The Gathering have female vocals, but all have or have had a mix of clean and growl/scream vocals.”

Like many bands, Ancestral Legacy were given a certain branding that didn’t quite fit them; “We’ve always for the most part in reviews, etc. been categorized as a ‘femme metal band’, and that’s okay, even if I don’t agree much. I’d say we have just as much in common with Katatonia as with Within Temptation.”

Regardless, the band made a name for themselves and whilst the band are certainly not one of the most successful to come out of Norway, their gloomy take on the genre made them well liked by those who would discover them. Still, the ghost of the band that Ancestral Legacy once were lingered on. With only two poorly produced demos created by the original line-up, it was clear there was unfinished business.

“This has maybe been in my mind since the songs were created, to one time have them presented in a proper way.” admits Eddie, reflecting on his past; “Back then all we had was an 8-tracker and no clue at all as to how to get a good result. So the best I can say about our old demos is that the songs were great, and at least they were stored to maybe, once in the future, have the dust wiped off and be re-recorded.”

He grins; “If we had played necro-black we wouldn’t have needed any better production, but these songs surely did beg for a more hi-fi sound.”

So once more, the original line-up of Ancestral Legacy gathered together, to re-record the songs from their first two demos, as well as new material in the old style. Since the current Ancestral Legacy were still together, the original band would do this recording under a new name, Legacy of Emptiness, referencing their second demo. As for the re-recordings themselves, whilst the production values would be increased, the arrangements would be mostly left untouched; “When looking back we’ve actually kept most of the original ideas and arrangements. We didn’t want to stuff the songs with a lot of new elements just because we had the chance.”

“ If we think it doesn’t at least match the debut, then there’s no point in releasing another album ”
- Eddie Risdal

“When you are limited to only 8 tracks you have to cut the crap and just go for the stuff that actually does the songs a favour, and that might not be a disadvantage at all. So most of the oldies have been kept in their original form since we feel that they have stood the test of time extremely well. We’ve listened to them a considerable number of times the past 8-10 years without getting bored, it was just the bad production… There are of course certain elements here and there, some that popped up at a later stage, some that we had in mind already during the recordings of the demos, but that we couldn’t realize then, because of the limited tracks or other reasons.”

With the album now out, the question now for Eddie is where next, for both line-ups of the band. Would Ancestral Legacy continue? Would Legacy of Emptiness tour? Will we be seeing more music from the original line-up of the band? The guitarist seems to know exactly what his plans are, and the limitations; “We will definitely write and record more music with LoE in the future, we have a lot of ideas already, so far it’s just loose ends and no whole songs, but we’ll get there eventually when the ‘idea tank’ is full enough. It also has to be made very clear that we won’t release another album unless we’re 110% satisfied with it. If we think it doesn’t at least match (or preferably outdo) the debut, then there’s no point in releasing another album.”

However, the optimism he has for a second record, can not be applied for a Legacy of Emptiness tour; “As of now I have no hope of LoE debuting on stage. It’s mainly because of ‘health matters’, and if the only way of getting LoE on stage would mean just me from the line-up plus session musicians, then it feels completely wrong.”

“Still, miracles happen every day, so who knows how the situation will be in one, two or five years…” he shrugs; “Personally I would have loved to tour with LoE, but on the right premises. And as I said, that is more or less impossible at the moment.”

But it is the day-job that comes first, and with the album now out, it is back to Eddie’s main act; “Ancestral Legacy is very much alive, and the present line-up seems to be a very homogenic one. Right now we are more than halfway into the writing for a new album, and will start the recording this Autumn. Hopefully we’ll have our second album out in Spring 2012, at least some time next year. We also need to increase the number of live gigs, we’ll do a couple of concerts in Germany and Holland in October, and also try to get some here in Norway during the Winter. In between, I should find some time to join the LoE gang to complete new songs too.”

“Busy days, but it’s exciting and challenging!”

Written by James Donovan
More: Interviews, Legacy of Emptiness