Interview: Crister “Mats” Olsson (ISOLE, EREB ALTOR)

So, Crister thank you very much for your time to do this interview. How are you doing? Where am I catching you at the moment?

I just got home to my old cabin in the forest. Been working today, so that's why I couldn't do this earlier. But otherwise, everything is fine.

In just three months, Ereb Altor and Isole will visit Bulgaria again. Last time was 10 years ago, and again both bands were here for one event!

Yeah, I don't know why it's been so long. Yeah, it's long overdue, actually, but we have all only been in Bulgaria once. I think it was 2016, if I remember correctly. We did the weekend thing in Greece and Bulgaria with Mourning Beloveth from Ireland.

I think it was something like a small festival - Doom Over Sofia.

Yeah, something like that. So it fit Isole pretty well. With Ereb Altor, we have some doom songs, but we were probably the heavy metal band, ha-ha.

Is it quite common for you guys to be touring along with Isole? You obviously share some band members, but is it quite common for you guys to be both bands on a single event?

Not very often nowadays. In the early years, we did a lot of things together, especially when we were the same members in both bands, because then we could do things with only four traveling persons, and financially it was pretty good, actually. But we don't share the drummer today, because we have different drummers. But three of us are still playing in both bands. It's sometimes convenient, but sometimes it's hard to keep the focus, especially if you play with both bands on the same night. It could hurt the focus a little bit, because you have to start again and get the adrenaline going two times in a row, and it's sometimes pretty hard, but I think we can do it.

Yes, that was actually one of my questions. How do you mentally switch between Ereb Altor and Isole? For live performance, I guess it's much easier. But what about when you are composing music? I was always wondering how musicians balance their ideas between two projects or bands, especially when the other band is almost with the same people. How do you manage to keep their identities so clearly distinct over the years?

I do most of the music in both bands. I'm almost a sole songwriter in both Ereb Altor and Isole. But for me, I dive into one project and work a couple of months each time only on one project. I never make music for both bands at the same time. I have to get into a certain mood. And when I start composing an album, it will be a pretty short time while I'm composing it. I can have ideas and stuff like that during a longer period of time, but when I dive into it, I only work for Ereb Altor or Isole. I never do it simultaneously, because then you have to balance, “Oh, maybe this idea could fit in the other band,” because some of the darker passages in Ereb Altor could easily be something in an Isole song, and the faster parts in Isole could be in Ereb Altor. But when I work with Isole, for instance, I use every idea I got for that band only.

Are there ideas that start out as a song for Isole, but at some point you realize they actually belong to Ereb Altor — and vice versa?

No, I have never done that. I can't recall doing that. I've taken old, really, really old ideas from one band to the other, but otherwise... Maybe we did a demo recording with Forlorn back in the day, Forlorn more or less became Isole. But I could take something from a demo tape and play it in a different way and use it for Ereb Altor. That sort of thing has happened, but otherwise, I don't think so.

Yeah, that's actually how Ereb Altor started, as a continuation of Forlorn, and you were mainly influenced by Bathory. And if I'm not mistaken, the original plan was to release just two albums in that Viking metal style, and then just put the band to rest after the second album. That’s why it was called “The End”.

Yes, correct.

But here you are - 10 albums later, you are sounding both bigger and tighter at the same time. Does that come more from the songwriting and production, or the fact that you guys actually discovered who you are as a band?

Yeah, I think it's more or less that we discovered our thing as a band. Somehow, the first two albums are very heavily influenced by Bathory. The first two albums are mainly built by old Forlorn songs that we thought were too much “Bathory” to release for Forlorn. But I just thought that the songs were pretty good and they deserved to be released. So I had material for two albums, and I said, “Ah, this is a cool project we could do”. We make two albums, me and Daniel, and just release them, so we can get the songs out of our systems or something. And there was no plan to do anything further than that. But then we started to get some festival gigs, and people started to enjoy these two albums, and we thought perhaps we could try to do something about it. And here we are, as you said, 10 albums later. It's my main band today.

So, normally, Ereb Altor are often associated with Bathory, but you have had your own identity for a long time now. Was there a moment when you consciously decided, “From this point on, I don’t want us to be seen only through that prism”?

I think it started already with the third album, but in a couple of albums you can perhaps still hear a lot of Bathory. But also, we did a tribute album, and we did some tribute shows when it was 20 years since Quorthon died. Other than that, we have actually tried to put some distance between us, because I think we have our own identity, and we don't make songs the same way as Bathory once did. I can't make songs like that. I can't really put my finger on it, but the songs with Bathory have a huge atmosphere, but they're not very complex, you know? So it's a different kind of songwriting, and I don't know, I just want to make my own music today, and the first albums were just a fun thing to do. And yeah, I think we have developed our own sound. It's not super similar to Bathory anymore.

I see, yes, of course. Let me take you to the last album. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it correctly, "Hälsingemörker".

That's pretty good!

Really? Oh, thank you! So, if you had to choose one song from it that best represents what Ereb Altor are in 2026, which one would it be — and why?

I think I would say the closer of the album, “The Last Step”. There are a lot of ingredients throughout the whole song. We touch some darker passages with a little bit more black metal, and then really epic stuff, all in one composition. A strong point in our music is that we blend the harsh with the melancholic and the epic. We have a little flavor of everything, from black metal to Viking metal.

Let me take you to Isole now and the latest album, “Anesidora”. You said that it is one of the most personal and intense albums for you. Why is that, and what makes it feel so different to you on the inside?

Well, lyric-wise, when it comes to Isole, I am a bit more personal compared to Ereb Altor. It's easier. Everything is easier with Ereb Altor, it's more image, and you have the mythology and stuff like that. But with Isole, every album is a little bit more personal lyrically. I often write out my own experiences and my own life and stuff like that, my own thoughts, and not build stories that are more fiction. So it's a more real album. And I think that also the touch of the music on the latest album is, I don't know... It's a little bit less metal, I think, than the other albums, and it has some maybe progressive and pop influences, and we fooled around with the beats and stuff like that, played in 5/4 beats. Pretty strange things to do in metal, but for me, it has a certain vibe musically as well. That's more personal, at least to me, I think.

You can clearly say that it carries more sense of heaviness, not only musically, but emotionally as well.

It's more emotional music on the latest album, if compared to the previous album. “Dystopia” is heavier.

Is it harder to write truly sorrowful doom music without it becoming a cliché?

I've never really thought about it. No, I don't think so. If it comes from within, it's real, and then it's not a cliché, at least not to me.

I see, so it's about the whole feeling and the whole idea. When everything else falls away — genres, scene, audience, expectations — what remains at the core of a song for you?

The overall feeling and the melancholy are the most important things to me, and it has to be... You have to feel something while listening to it. Also for me, I would never write songs that I think, “Oh, people would like this song.” I write songs that I want to hear myself, I think.

It's about sending the message?

Yeah, and showing people what kind of things, what kind of music I like. Maybe it would be interesting if I tried to write hits or something, but it's never been something for me. I guess maybe I will try it sometime, but I write something that means something to me. And I don't care that much if people in general think it's crap. If I think it's good music, well then I can stand for it, and I can be proud of it.

Is there any music you listen to in private that Ereb Altor/Isole fans would never expect?

A lot of music, I guess, ha-ha. Every genre that exists, almost. I don't like hip hop that much, but if it has a certain vibe and some melancholic feeling, I like it. I can listen to country music. I can listen to pop music, folk music. It doesn't matter. If it sends something down my spine in some way, I don't care what genre it is. So I'm not strictly into metal at all. I listen to Radiohead, for instance.

And I think this is something in common, mainly with Swedish people. They listen to a lot of music, to be honest. And do you think that it has to be a thing for musicians to listen to other genres as well as the thing that they are doing, just to get inspiration from somewhere else also?

Yeah, of course, I can get inspired by something that is very far from metal, but the inspiration can come to me from that, and I transform that source of inspiration into metal, because we're a metal band. So with some touches, easily. It has some more pop things and more clean guitars and stuff like that, but I transform it into heavy music from that inspiration, because everything inspires, and it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be music either. I can get inspired by reading a story or something, watching a movie. Soundtracks of movies can get me inspired as well, because then you have both the audio and the video, and I’m like, “Oh, this is something. Maybe I could do something that has the same feeling,” or something like that.

Actually, I heard the song Ättestupan from your new album. It has a 5/4 beat, which is not usual for metal, as you said, which is really interesting.

Yeah, it is. The whole band thought I was crazy when I presented it. “You can't do it in 5/4 beats. It's impossible.” Now it gets a certain limping pace somehow, but I think it's pretty cool. There are a lot of 5/4 beats in Swedish folk music, for instance. Maybe that’s why I can embrace stuff like that? I don't know, because I like Swedish folk music very much, both the melodies and the pace and the beats and stuff like that. But yeah, a couple of both the bands and some friends of mine, music friends, said, “You're crazy. You can't do a metal song in 5/4 beats,” but yeah, I wanted to prove them wrong.

Yeah, you did actually pretty good. Do you think that this kind of experimentation and putting yourself out of your comfort zone is the actual formula for a band to stay fresh and interesting for the audience? Because nowadays the audience, it's really with low attention to anything.

Yeah, I think in everyday life you have to step out of your comfort zone now and then, because everything will be quite boring in the end if you always play it safe. You have to try and experiment a little bit. With Isole, we have done it for years. With Ereb Altor, we have stayed a little bit more in the comfort zone. Maybe we have used black metal and very harsh things to make it a little bit more interesting, but we have never tried like 5/4 beats and some stuff like that. But we have done it earlier as well. We're a little bit more experimental with Isole when it comes to stepping out of our comfort zone.

Have there been moments when you doubted whether it still made sense to make this kind of music in the modern world? What kept you going?

Yeah, that's the question. I still think it's both fun and intriguing, and I couldn't imagine a life without making music. And as long as I feel that way, I will continue, I guess. The day I start feeling that everything is a must, or it's boring, or something like that, that's the day when I probably will just quit and do something else, at least for a while. You have to have the spark on, otherwise there's no point just making it for the sake of someone else. You have to do it for yourself, to feel good about it, and for the little ignition in your life.

What can make you lose the spark?

Well, if something happens out of ordinary life... I don't... I don't really know. Someday I will get too old... or someday I will just feel that I can't make better music than the previous album. Then I feel frustrated, and frustration will lead to something else, and something else will lead to boredom, I guess. So as long as I think I can do good music for myself, I will continue, but the day I can't, I will quit.

Good answer. There are a lot of good musicians out there, and they are really thinking if there is a point to doing music anymore when it is not appreciated and even AI is doing it. And even during the COVID days, a lot of bands and musicians actually quit.

No, I agree. Oh, it was tough because you couldn't play live shows at all for like two years, or something like that, over two years. And live shows are the reward for making an album. But we decided to just focus on making music, and still rehearsed. You were allowed to see your friends and stuff like that in Sweden. So we still rehearsed and we worked in the studio. We have our own studio. So it was a time of trying to make as good music as possible. And actually, I think we released one album during the pandemic as well.

Yeah, the album was pretty good, so I think you did a good job.

But it was a bit strange not to do live shows and tour with the album.

It was strange for everybody, but I realized how much musicians tried a lot of other different things, and it actually worked well for them. They were producing, mentoring, podcasting, which was good. And everybody realized that you need to have something on the side.

Yeah, I think it was harder for every other guy or girl around in the scene, like light technicians, sound technicians, promoters, and the club owners. They were fucking screwed during this time. We could at least just make music. But with no live shows, you can't do lights or sound for a live show either. So a lot of people in the business quit, not the musicians, but the guys around it. And it took some time to get everything rolling again, because a lot of technicians and promoters never came back. They found something else in their lives, and a lot of people disappeared.

Let's hope this doesn't happen again! Unfortunately, we are also close to the end of this interview. So can I ask you, in the end, just to leave a message to all our readers that will actually be coming to this metal weekend in June in Sofia?

Yeah, we are so looking forward to being back in Bulgaria. Only good memories from the last time, and we'll try to raise as much hell as we can. We're coming with KAMPFAR from Norway as well, a band that I personally enjoy listening to. So I think it will be a splendid night. First you have some doom, and then you will have some epic Viking metal, and in the end it will be a little bit more harsh with KAMPFAR. It will be a glorious evening, I hope. And I think it's outdoors. I hope the weather gods will be on our side, and no rain, hopefully.

Of course, it's a pretty good venue. It's in the woods. It's like a forest park area with the pine trees, and it's a really interesting venue. So I'm pretty much sure you'll enjoy it.

I'm looking forward to it. I always like those kinds of venues, when you blend nature into the venue somehow.

It is in the middle of a park near the center of the city, which is an interesting thing to see.

Yeah, it sounds really cool. I've never been there, but you got my expectations high now, he-he. Wow, it will be awesome to be back.

Looking forward to meeting you then. And thank you very much for your time to do this interview.

Okay, yeah, take care, man.

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More for EREB ALTOR:
Website: https://www.erebaltor.com/
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More for ISOLE:
Website: https://forevermore.se
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Tickets for The Metal Weekend | 13-14 June In Sofia

Autror: Nikola Petras 
Photos: Isole/Ereb Altor Facebook page
March-April 2026