Let's speak with...Eternal Voyager (2016)

Eternal Voyager are a truemetal/powermetal band from Minneapolis. Their first album "The Battle Of Eternity" is a great record, a fine discovery for all the fans of bands like Omen, Iced Earth and Hammerfall. If you prefer your music oldschool in both songwriting and production aspects you should give this band a try.

The band Eternal Voyager, (c) by Eternal Voyager, used with kind permission

The band is currently busy recording the second album "Darkened Times" as well as preparing one or two new videos and playing shows. Happily Brian Blake, guitarist and vocalist of Eternal Voyager took the time to answer my questions anyway so have a look on his thoughts about social media, inspiration, digital vs. traditional media, motivation and what strange things may happen when you play a gig...

Heavy Metal Underdogs: How did the band come together?
Brian Blake: Well I am the founder of the band so i started, writing songs well over 15 years ago and, there's been alot of line up changes, over the years. But the resent one came about, In the last couple of years and so far is the best. It was always hard, to find the right guys, but now it's happened. I met them through a couple at a local event, and the others through a musician finding site.

Which sources do you use as inspiration for writing new songs?
alot things really, the musical influences I had growing up and till now, life. It's always been about the true spirit of metal for me, staying true to your beliefs and doing what what u really want to.

Do you feel that writing and performing music helps you to push on further with your own personal lifes?
absolutely, it's the biggest inspiration for me, it's my life therapy. If I didn't do it, or don't do music, I turn ont o a person no one wants to be around. It's that important for me.

Social media surely plays a big role in the communcation between a band and their fans. Do you feel that fans contact you more or less personally at gigs these days?
yeah I think it helps alot, some people may disagree, but it's great for then and business part of it, u can talk with people from all over the world, very easy and yes fans can connect with us directly as well.

Do you still prefer releasing music on traditional media like LPs, CDs and the like or do you feel the same satisfaction when putting out music digitally?
we sell both so people can get it in all forms, but i personally love hard copies of albums, i have a huge and ever-growing collection myself, and I could never just own a digital copy. That's not what metal collecting is about, for me. I like to be able to have a tangible copy that I can look at pics and lyrics in. It's not the same with a digital copy. it's also better quality with a real copy.

The cover of "The Battle Of Eternity" album, (c) by Eternal Voyager, used with kind permission

Have you ever experimented with other styles over the years and thought about changing?
no not really, so different styles come out naturally, of course like trash, black, or folk, but we have been and always will be power heavy true metal. I guess that the style if you will. I think it's best to just write how u feel, and this is what come natural for me. I'd never change the core of what we do, it's not who I am, and the fans wouldn't appreciate it.

Did you come along points where you thought about leaving it all behind? If you reached that point: how did you keep the motivation up to move on? 
well of course it's been very tough to keep doing this, and yes there's been some time when u want to give up, because things don't work out and u get frustrated. But I could never walk away, it's who I am, and it's what I need to be creative. I've had moments like alot of people have in this business, where, ask your self why is this so hard, but if it was easy , I don't think a person would appreciate it as much when u have successful things happen. Metal is life!

What was the funniest story that came along your way when you performed live? Or did things happen that you would have never thought of to occur (not only at gigs but maybe anywhere else as well)?
well that is a tough question, because we had a few crazy things happen. Years ago we when we were a young and very different band, we were playing a gig at a club and there was only a small crowd just sitting at tables watching and not really knowing what to think of what we were doing, and all of a sudden this random guy, just come flying in all by himself and starts moshing and slam dancing all around and then just went right out the back door, and left. We all looked eachother and didn't know what to think. But yes many stories, to many to tell. Thanks for your time and stay metal!!!

The band has some shows this summer / early fall. Check this Facebook post for the exact dates and flyer and make sure you won't miss them out. A good show always can give you a heads up and charge you with the power everyone needs to move on with their lives.

Follow Eternal Voyager through their website or Facebook.

Eternal Voyager reveals upcoming album details & tourdates

The power metal band Eternal Voyager came as a fine surprise to me. Their old school attempt on metal music and the way they produce their tracks feels great to me in this often overloaded soundscapes of today.

The band logo of Eternal Voyager, (c) by Eternal Voyager, used with kind permission

The band is currently in the studio to record their second album and let's us sneak inside with the following statement from Vocalist / Guitarist Brian Blake:

"We are well on our way into the recording process of our upcoming new second album titled "Darkened Times", which will be mastered by guitarist / producer Stu "The Hammer" Marshall (Death Dealer / Blasted to Static / Zephaniah / Vanlade / Corners of Sanctuary) at his Frontier studio in Sydney, Australia.

We are hoping to release this monster ripping album during this upcoming summer or at the latest in fall 2016. It just depends on when we can record additional drum tracks, even though we have our own studio now, we are not set for drum recordings as of yet.

We also have plans to shoot one or two music videos during the coming months for the songs "Winds of Fire" and possibly the title track "Darkend Times", so we are currently very busy."

In addition the band is going to do a couple of shows starting already in a few days, here are the exact dates:

Eternal Voyager upcoming shows

4/15/16 - The Hexagon - Minneapolis,Minnesota

4/16/16 - EveryBody's Bar & Grill - Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

5/29/16 - The Hexagon - Minneapolis,Minnesota (supporting Iron Kingdom)

The band from left to right: Mike Durenberger, Jeff Igelsrud, Brian Blake, Micah Devereaux, Kurt Johnson, (c) by Eternal Voyager, used with kind permission

Make sure to follow the next steps of the band by taking a look on their website from time to time or connect with them via Facebook.

If you haven't heard them before here's a track taken from the first album "The Battle Of Eternity" to give you a idea of the band's sound.

We at Metal Underdogs also had the chance to talk to Brian Blake a while ago about the first album and how the band came together. You can find the full interview right here.

Interview with Eternal Voyager (2015)

Introduction

Eternal Voyager came to me as a sort of good surprise. Being someone who grew up with the old classic bands from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal I always loved the old style that these bands represent with their classic songs. Just think of Judas Priest with their Screaming for Vengeance album or Iron Maiden's Piece of mind.

Of course times have changed ever since. It's good to see things evolve - these days productions sound very different, much brighter, heavier and often brutal. But it's always running through my head that I still love the old way of doing records.

Eternal Voyager seems to be the answer to what I am longing for. They keep their traditionell Power Metal in the old fashioned way of songwriting and production. For example there are songs on their album "The Battle of Eternity" that repeat the theme that is presented at the beginning of the track at the very end of it again. I instantly had to think of the old Omen albums again.

Eternal Voyager 2015, (c) by Eternal Voyager used with kind permission

I gave the album some spins and was so curious to find out more about them that I asked the band for a interview. I am glad guitarist and vocalist Brian Blake took the time to answer my questions in a very extended way. Get to know more about how the album came together, the myterious man on the front cover of the album and what they are going to do next.

The Interview

Heavy Metal Underdogs: 
The production on the CD sounds very oldschool. I love this, today's albums are often overproduced in my eyes/ears. I grew up with the old sound so I prefer it. Was the old-school production form something you had clearly on your mind as you went into the studio or how did it all come together?

Brian Blake:
It was a natural thing that happened it wasn’t really planned but it came out that way because of the producer’s style. I too enjoy the old school sound and production to albums. But this time around it was not planned out this way. Of course there are a lot things I would like to change but it captured the songs well enough.

The band underwent a lot of line-up changes and is already around since 1998. How did you manage to keep up the motivation?

It went through a lot of lineup changes for various reasons mostly because many people just didn’t make the cut or ended up with life and musical differences, which is a natural thing that happens. It has never been easy because I have been the original member having to carry the weight of the band through all of it and it was very hard; there were many times that I wanted to give up but I kept going. This new lineup has given me a newfound hope and positive outlook on the future of this band. The album itself finally getting recorded was very motivating and gave me more confidence because prior to that we never had the right people all of those years and I was never successful in getting a good professional recording done.

Did the fans maybe also took part in this by constantly requesting new shows or recordings?

Yes there were a few that followed us somewhat distantly through the years but we made a lot more new fans when the album came out because it was a solid recording . For about 4 years before the making of the album we had a big gap of silence due to lineup complications and member issues.

As for the lyrics of "The Battle of Eternity" - does it have a concept behind it? Is there also a relation to the cover artwork?