Meet the band that emerged from the ashes of Ravenlord
By Luiz Athayde
The Norwegian act Eldkling has barely started its activities and is already showing a lot of service. At the creative core is the duo formed by drummer Magne Langsholt and multi-instrumentalist and composer Morten Nicolaysen.
Their latest single is called “Lost Souls”. More than exposing their power metal sound, the track reveals itself, as the brief work of the duo, to be a kind of coreligion to Keldian’s compatriots. In other words, current and with a certain look in the future.
Since this is not a project that came from “out of nowhere” Musical Fortress talked to Magne, who gave some very interesting details about Eldkling’s history and their inspirations as well.
“We formed a band called Ravenlord around the year 2000, but that band split up a couple of years later.” he says. “We talked about for many years about re-recording some of the old songs, and record some new ones.”
About the name and its meaning, he comments, “We had to change our name though, because some other band had used that name and released albums. So then we decided to go with Eldkling. Eldkling is a crossover name in old Norwegian and Swedish. Eld means fire, and king means sword. So it literally translates as Firesword. But it actually was a misspelling of the Norwegian word elskling, which I call my wife/girlfriend. Elskling means darling.”
With the recent conflicts starring Russia and Ukraine – not to mention those not televised or publicized by digital media – it ends up being symptomatic of any composition involving this theme, regardless of the era portrayed. And Eldkling has at least two of these. The duo explains:
“Both the lyrics of Lost Souls and Restless Souls are inspired by war and battles. But not in a good way though.
We’re not like the black metal bands who think war is good, we’re totally against it. I am not sure if there is a connection, but all European people have the last year gotten close to feel what war in the neighbourhood feels like. “
When asked if these will be part of something bigger, like an EP or even a full album, Magne signals positively, despite currently going through a difficult time in his personal life. “I was supposed to record some drums during the last weeks, but my mom is dying of cancer right now, so have not been able to record for a few weeks. But will be soon. “
While debut album doesn’t see the light of day, it’s worth checking out what’s available. Watch the lyric video for “Lost Souls” below: