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Eternal Kingdomin Euroopan julkaisupäivämäärä 0n 16.6.2008 Mukavan synkkää ja ahdistavaa kamaa on jälleen lucvassa, kuuntelen albumin nimiraita itte jos et usko: http://www.myspace.com/cultoflunaeternalkingdom
 
Kevyttä iltalukemista alta levyn tekemiseen ja konseptiin liittyen:
 
Johannes explains in depth the wonderful and interesting concept of Eternal Kingdom:
 
Theres a strange story behind the album and how we came up with the title.
 
For the last couple of years weve been rehearsing in an old mental institution about 45mins outside of town. In 1920 it was a metal institution, now its just office buildings, dentists and libraries, and a music centre where bands can practise.
When we first moved in to the rooms there was a lot of strange stuff that looked like mediaeval torture equipment still there from the mental hospital era. Amongst other things there was a chair that hysterical patients used to sit in, and be swung round until they fainted. It was a strange experience to sit in that and be swung around like a leaf in the autumn wind.
 
This practise space was about 40mins out of town, so before recording the new album we decided to change to something closer. When we cleaned out our rehearsal rooms we found all these boxes that seemed like they had been forgotten for a long time. Things that had been there since the mental institution days. Everything from medical journals to paintings by patients. In one of the boxes we found a little book that somebody named Holger Nilsson had written. Holger Nilsson weve since found out now was a guy that was sentenced for his wifes murder and incarcerated into the mental institution for the rest of his life.
 
This journal we found was entitled Tales from the Eternal Kingdom an account of how he saw things. It was a really interesting world he was living in were not claiming to be psychiatrists or anything like that and able to make a good diagnosis of his mental state, but its clear to us that he was not living in our world. So basically the whole album Eternal Kingdom takes us through his world and his perspective and mind. He was sentenced for his wifes death but the journal starts off by him blaming her death on this vagabond that he met on the road home to his village Ytre Akulla. According to the court he drowned her in the creek just outside of Ytre Akulla. According to Holger Nilssons journal this is the story: it started with a very tragic event - His wife was in labour having a baby, so they drove in the cart from home to the next town Bygeda. On the way to Bygeda one of the wheels on the cart broke and he had to run to Bygeda to get a doctor. On the way he met this gypsy vagabond character that he asked to look after his wife whilst he ran to the town, which wasnt that far only maybe half an hour. He ran as fast as he could. But when he got back the baby was stillborn and the gypsy had disappeared. His wife was in a state of psychosis it seems and she wouldnt say a word.

During that night he was upset about losing the child and he woke up to find his wife wasnt in the house. Then he saw her outside walking down towards the creek and he heard a melody. In Old Swedish folk tales we have a creature called Necken that is believed to be Satan he plays on his fiddle and lures women to their doom. Like the sirens in Greek Mythology tricking sailors to their death, the Necken tricked women by playing a tune on his fiddle and luring women into the creek and drowning them. And thats how Hoger believes she was killed; even through he was sentenced for killing her. Anyhow, he ran into the water and tried to save but she slipped away, and he kept trying to help but he was too late. Eventually he scrambled out of the creek, exhausted and collapsed at his house.
 
He woke up he found that the woods had grown all around his house. He tried to go through the forest but it had grown all around the outside and wherever he went he came back to the same place, he couldnt get out of the forest at all. After night fell, he reluctantly went back to his house. (This part of the story is what the track Ghost trail is based on. I read the story and I wrote the music based on it.) During nightfall he sees a light in the forest. And he starts walking towards it, sneaking through the bushes to see what it was. And he sees its a big fire. And all around the fire he saw different animals and animal-hybrids Kumans, (half-man, half-bear) and all sorts of animals dancing round the flames faster and faster.
 
They speed up until in the middle of the ring he sees this vagabond gypsy that he met earlier in the middle of the circle of animals. (It later turns out that these are all the evil animals And that the Vagabond is Ugin, the Owl King.) They are dancing faster and faster and you can hear it in that track. In the centre he sees this gypsy that he blames the death of his child on, in the middle of the fire, and he sees him and has eye contact and the gypsy transforms into an Owl-man hybrid. And the Owl starts to scream. The other animals stop dancing and they all chase Holger back to his house.
 
The next morning theres a knock at the door, and its a good animal. Holger is very nervous but the good animal takes him to meet the leader of the good animals - The Capercaillie. They have some secret information. The Capercaillie tells Holger about the forest and the schism between the good and evil animals, and the owl king Ugin that governs this whole land.
 
So the good animals had some information from a spy that will give them an advantage against the evil creatures. Most of the good animals are herbivores, and small mice and birds and elks and reindeer. They are not creatures built for fighting, but they receive information that they have a good chance to attack the Owl king, so they all go and fight, but unfortunately the information is dud, and they get surrounded and captured. Holger is then sent to this dungeon in a mountain.
 
And thats where we leave our friend Holger Nilsson on this album. The way I see it is that this mountain this dungeon hes sent to, is his view of his incarceration. This story was in the journal that we found with poems and pictures and words, and its what we based the album on. When you get something like this its not a question of IF youre going to do something about it. It was an epiphany, when we found it; it had to be the concept. I borrowed the book for a week or so or maybe 2 weeks, and it pretty much was wow what a crazy coincidence, we have to do this. To make music out of a story not lyrics, but music to match an idea and concept - It was very challenging.