With:	Aydan
Conducted by:	Undercraft
Published:	14.03.2004
Band profile:	Elvenking
Album info:	Heathenreel

01. To Oak Woods Bestowed
02. Pagan Purity
03. The Dweller Of Rhymes
04. The Regality Dance
05. White Willow
06. Skywards
07. Oakenshield
08. Hobs An' Feathers
09. Conjuring Of The 14th
10. A Dreadful Strain
11. Seasonspeech
12. Penny Dreadful [Skyclad cover] [Japanese bonus]

To Oak Woods Bestowed :
The right introduction to the atmospheres of the album. We used this intro also in our demo ("To oak woods bestowed", 2000), but here is different and totally re arranged.

Pagan Purity :
A sort of manifest song for Elvenking, both for the music side and the lyrics. A song about the power of nature and the Power of Mother Earth. I think it could well give the idea of Elvenking's approach to music. Metal, folk, acoustic cuts, choirs, and a good balance between metal and romanticism, I'd say.

The Dweller Of Rhymes:
We go a little heavier here. The balance between the hard riffing, the sweetness of the bridge and the epic chorus gives to the song a particular flavour. It contains a good "battle" of solos. A good one to play live!

The Regality Dance :
A particular cut. It starts as a folk ballad, and it grows all over the song until the heavy ending. It contains a particular chorus with clean and death vocals and stop-and-go. The lyrics are full of humor, and are very particular, really distant from the typical metal arguments.

White Willow :
The most epic and anthemic song of the album. It contains a sing - along chorus and lots of glorious anthemic parts. It was the opener of "To oak woods bestowed", here presented in a slightly different version. It has fantasy-based lyrics.

Skywards :
A folk song, with acoustic guitars, violas, female vocals,?and a lot of emotions! But the end brings some surprises?The lyrics are really personal and full of pathos.

Oakenshield :
This is the first song we wrote with strong folk atmospheres. It was originally written in 1998 and included in our demo. It is really complex and the music follow the story narrated. A lot of different pieces and moods here, violins riffs, growls, female vocals, prog parts,?a little bit of everything!

Hobs An' Feathers :
A very direct and easy song. Totally folk, with a sort of "Irish pub" atmosphere The lyrics are about a simple folkloristic story. It was written by Damnagoras in something like 15 minutes!

Conjuring Of The 14th :
A song a bit out of the crowd. It's covered with sick atmospheres, in the mood of the horror lyrics. It is basically a ghost story, with gothic touches, told through the fog and mud of a little village lost in the moors?

A Dreadful Strain :
The first song written for "Heathenreel". We wanted to do something different from "To oak?". It is a particular song, with a folkish verse but a very obscure chorus and bridge. The keyboards do a lot of work here. The lyrics are about a lot of folk traditions, as the Green Man?

Seasonspeech :
I'm very proud of this song. The last song written for the album is also the best The idea of having the four season interpreted by four different voice is the base of the song. The soprano voice of Pauline Tacey for the summer, the sweetness of Laura DeLuca of Tystnaden for the Spring, Jarpen's growls for the cold winter and Damnagoras being the Fall. The personifications of the seasons talking one to each other. A lot of different moods, a dreaming central part and the harmony choirs finale with 3 different lines weaving together, which still gives me the shivers each time I listen to it.