With:	Aydan [Guitars]
Conducted by:	Undercraft
Published:	14.02.2006
Band profile:	Elvenking
Album info:	The Winter Wake

01. Trow's Kind
02. Swallowtail
03. The Winter Wake [feat. Marcel Schirmer]
04. The Wanderer
05. March Of Fools
06. On The Morning Dew
07. Devil's Carriage
08. Rats Are Following
09. Rouse Your Dream
10. Neverending Nights
11. Disillusion's Reel
12. Penny Dreadful [Skyclad cover] [European bonus]
13. Petalstorm [Japanese bonus]
+ Studio Making Of Video Clip

01. Trow's Kind

No intro this time. We wanted something aggressive and direct to fill in and to show a new face for Elvenking. Trows Kind is a furious track to open the album, that mix fast drums, heavy guitars and a string quartet since the beginning. The central part is really magic and you can hear different voices and different approaches to the song. The "Trows" are a kind of evil fairies and the song sees the death a fairy as the lost of the connection between reality and the world of fantasy. Definitely one of my favourite Elvenking tracks.


02. Swallowtail

Another heavy cut with more folk touches. Also here you can hear a catchy verse, a thrashy bridge and a very melodic chorus. The acoustic parts are really sweet before going into a 80s feeling solo. The lyrics tell of a fantasy story but you can easily read between the lines searching for deeper readings.


03. The Winter Wake

This a song which some of the fans surely won't like but that everybody in the band love! A song which we would like to film a video of or doing a single out of it and will surely will become a fix place in our live sets. In it you can hear the guest contribution of Schmier of Destruction: we needed a different vocal style in the song and wanted a thrash metal vocals to sing the verses and Schmier is simply the best. The lyrics are about dark feelings compared to the dark cold season.


03. The Wanderer

A song about loosing yourself in the world a fantasy not being able to find the path to return to the real world. Maybe an autobiographic song? ;-) Musically "The wanderer" has the characteristic of Elvenking sound, a little bit more on the heavy side. Good work of the violin here.


05. March Of Fools

Often I look around and I ask to myself if everybody's mad or maybe it's me that is wrong. And I'm talking about the little thing of everyday life. This is the theme behind March of fools. Musically the song started with a string quartet part with also some oriental influences on it, before turning into a cut with lots of violin going, female and death metal vocals and a catchy chorus.


06. On The Morning Dew

A ballad with only acoustic guitars, strings and vocals. The ideal that for only one night a dream can become true. A speech between a male entity and a female one, once again delivered by the marvellous voice of Laura De Luca of Tystnaden.


07. Devil's Carriage

Another pretty heavy cut. Fast and direct, it slows down in the middle section with string quartet and acoustic guitars. The lyrics are about (see the title) the devil.


08. Rats Are Following

Kind of a strange song. It's a slow song for our standard, very heavy in certain points, but with a lot of choirs and melodies.


09. Rouse Your Dream

Another quite atypical song here. A lot of 80s and hard rock feelings, and some Def Leppard guitar licks on it. In the way of the song also the lyrics are pretty simple and are about reaching your dreams even if everything seems lost.


10. Neverending Nights

Long song of the album. It's a very epic and aggressive song, but the chorus after the tempo change is happy and melodic. The string quartet does a strong work here, and the central part is totally folkish. The choirs are really present everywhere, and the guitar work is complex. Anther one of my favourites.


11. Disillusion's Reel

This song was originally written by Damnagoras for the "Wyrd" sessions. Since he left the band the song was not included in the album. Once back I immediately asked him to use the song for "The winter wake". It's just a short acoustic song, but intense as hell, in my opinion. I love it!