When it comes to female fronted metal Sweden’s Amarathe are a need to know band. Their sound is a mix of power metal, ballad style and even incorporates dance beats. To celebrate the release of their impressive fifth studio album Helix we caught up with the bands gorgeous vocalist Elize Ryd to learn more about the album and find out if they are ever coming to Australia.
SCENEzine
How’s 2018 been going for you?
Elize Ryd
We had a very big festival summer in Europe. For the first four months we wrote songs and recorded the new album. It’s been a lot of things happening, time flying and soon the album will be released.
SCENEzine
What was it like playing Wacken festival this year?
Elize Ryd
It was amazing, we just love Wacken. It’s one of the best festivals, it was very good. We played at eleven in the morning being the first band on stage was a little bit crazy. It was fun waking up with extremely energetic music.
SCENEzine
Huge congrats on your new album Helix we are loving it. You must be super proud of how it turned out?
Elize Ryd
Thank you so much it’s so nice to get a positive response it makes us very happy. Everybody in the band is very satisfied with it. Especially Morten because he thinks it’s the best drumming he has ever played and I kind of agree.
SCENEzine
I love how the album kicks off with the spoken word. “We all die, the goal isn’t to live forever. The Goal is to create something that will”. Can you tell us about how you decided to start the album with that?
Elize Ryd
I think it’s just a very strong way to start out and it’s actually what we feel. Everybody gets older it’s just natural but we just want to create something that’s real. I often listen to older rock and metal and it takes you back in time to when it was made but at the same time it lives forever.
SCENEzine
Is there much of a meaning behind the song “365”?
Elize Ryd
We wanted to express with that song is that everybody should catch the moment rather than counting the days. We know there is only 365 days in a year but at the same time you can still make that change and you can make one year feel like five years. Or in our case you case you can make ten years feel like two. So it’s from the perspective of don’t be fooled by time.
SCENEzine
What was it like doing the video for “365”?
Elize Ryd
The video was fun. We didn’t really want to do a story for it we just wanted to perform the song as a band. It was a good way to start the album cycle and because we have Nils now it’s a good way to show his performance.
SCENEzine
Our favourite song from the album is “Dream”. Could you tell us a bit about that one?
Elize Ryd
I’m very glad to hear you like it. It’s one song I thought turned out really nicely as well. It’s like a ballad but also has the modern growl. I thought the vocal melody should follow the same feeling. The song is very pure, honest and true. I think it’s important for people to dream if you can dream you can make it happen. I want to give people the courage with the lyrics to never give up on their dreams.
SCENEzine
When you went in to the studio were there many songs that didn’t make it onto the album?
Elize Ryd
Yeah there were two or three that didn’t make it which I still like. It was awful trying to choose the twelve songs. But hopefully the others will have a future maybe we can save them for the next album. There was a lot of nice ideas. I think we kept the songs that we felt were most solid for the album. We will save the crazy stuff for the next one.
SCENEzine
The album is getting released on vinyl. Are you a big fan of vinyl?
Elize Ryd
I am actually I love vinyls. I grew up with my mother having a vinyl player, my brother and sister had one but I never got my own. Which is awful because I was too young. When I got old enough to buy my first vinyl the cd had arrived and vinyl had disappeared for many years. It’s such an amazing sound on vinyl and my favourite when it comes to physical.
SCENEzine
What’s the metal scene like in Sweden at the moment?
Elize Ryd
It’s very good I would say from my perspective. We have so many extremely successful bands coming from here nowadays. Ghost have come very far and so have Sabaton and Amon Amarth. Also Arch Enemy if you consider them a Swedish band. For me I feel like there is so many Swedish bands gaining good success overseas. In a country like Sweden metal in general is still underground even though metal fans are really passionate everybody else doesn’t really care which is sad. But we can survive that.
SCENEzine
When I see live footage your voice sounds amazing. Is there any secret to looking after your voice?
Elize Ryd
Thank you, that’s such a nice thing to say. I don’t do anything specific. For me it’s been natural to sing since I was a child. So I don’t want to make it into something complicated. One thing I do is avoid alcohol also I don’t smoke. I warm up my body because I think the body itself is more important than the actual throat because it’s the body that carries the weight. So I try to work out and take care of myself.
SCENEzine
You have so many sexy and awesome stage outfits. How do you decide what outfits you will wear on stage?
Elize Ryd
Oh thank you. Well I’ve always liked clothing. On my free time I don’t dress very fashionable but when I go on stage I really like to go extreme. If I get an idea in my head I will just google it to find it then order it. I never get anything custom made I just always find stuff online and put pieces together. Most of the time it needs to be comfortable and not too warm. That’s the reason we I can’t have leather pants it would be nice but be too warm.
SCENEzine
Lastly is Australia a country you guys have talked about visiting one day?
Elize Ryd
Yeah I have always said after every album release I think we are going to come to Australia. It hasn’t happened yet which is crazy but maybe I shouldn’t say that because if I don’t say it then it might happen. But I feel it’s more close than ever so hopefully on this album Helix we are going to do Australia. We have had so many nice messages from fans in Australia.
(interview by Christian Ross)