Stockholm’s Frantic Amber has brought forth a new historical, musical document and account in the loudest, heaviest way possible. Highlighted by some of histories bravest and most brutal women from former Queens of Norway to female Samurai’s and undefeated grapplers. On new record Bellatrix, female warrior in Latin, vocalist Elizabeth Andrews lets out the brutal war cry’s and screams of the women penned in song, bringing their narrative back to brutal life. This time, chords and riffs are the weapons of choice, though no less brutal in sound. Proud, violent and bloodthirsty warrioress’s of yesteryear wage war through song, with an extreme musical attempt to re-enact the graphic bloodshed and violence of combat.
Led by the acrobatics of Andrews, Frantic Amber has captured the roar of war on record, telling the stories of those chosen.Whether they were proud, strong women, murderers themselves or killed for victory, Andrews has done the research to bring their stories to modern day metal. Guitarists Mio Jäger and Milla Olsson, bassist Madeleine Gullberg Husberg and drummer Mac Dalmanner have brought out the violence and voices of war through thunderously vibrating strings and pounding drums.
The album is extremely heavy with music and history, “Yeah exactly, we wanted to do an overall concept for this album,” Andrews says. “We settled on doing historical themes of female warriors of the times. A lot of research went into it. I read up on a lot of warrioresses throughout history and chose the top eight for each song for the album.”
They went to painstaking lengths, sometimes with limited resources and translated information to tell the story with lyrical detail, bringing each narrative to life so the listener could walk in their footsteps.
Opening track “Scorched Earth” details the battle scars and eventual battle field death of Boudica, against the Romans. She was a queen of the British Celtic Iceni tribe, living from 30-60 A.D. “That’s the furthest back in history we go,” Andrews affirms. “She stood up to the Romans doing Guerilla warfare. The name scorched earth comes from one of the techniques used, where they burned everything, making it useless for the enemy or anyone. They fought dirty, but what could you do, it was the Roman Empire.”
Despite being outnumbered, the Romans were highly trained in open air combat defeating Boudica’s army. “It’s a pretty brutal period.”
Information for second song “Lagertha” was scarce, “The only written history is really old, by historian Saxo Grammaticus in Latin.” She found the translation. “Lagertha was Norwegian and married [to Ragnar Lodbrok].” She was a shield maiden and queen of Norway at some point. “According to the sources I read, she murdered her husband and took over supremacy, pretty brutal stuff.”
All the women chosen have a shocking story doing great and graphic things for their time. “They’re living lives that especially back in the day was not the norm, especially for women.”
For all the deep, dark growls and pig squeals there’s also moments of clean vocals, “There’s a passage of clean vocals in [Lagertha], the part where she’s sneaking the head of a spear before she kills her husband. There’s some clean atmospheric vocals which felt right at the time. There’s also a passage in the “Black Knight,” the last song.”
“Joshitai” honors the female Samurai warrior known as Onna-Bugeisha, specifically Nakono Takeko, “She was a female Samurai back in the 1800’s. It was the end of the Samurai who were at war with the Imperials. Their option’s were sit around and wait till they were caught, raped and sold, or fight.” She rallied the other women forming a female army. “Her mother and sister were in the army and took the last stance before it was over.” Jäger wrote most of the flute parts, drums and extra samples.
The lyric video of Andrews screaming in the camera was fun to do and a different approach.
“Khutulun” was a Mongolian princess with renowned wrestling skills. “She wouldn’t marry anyone inferior to her skills. As time went by she defeated everyone she fought. In the end, there were some nasty rumors about her and her father, spread by enemies, so, she married.” Her husband didn’t defeat her but was done to appease the situation. “She was also commander of the army under her father. She was in her own right, a military woman.”
One of the greatest challenges was making music that matched the graphic lives and history these women lived. “We already knew we wanted to do a Viking one. We’re from Scandinavia and we knew we wanted to do a pirate one. We wanted to have women from different parts of the world.”
They also wanted each song matching the geographical atmosphere of the women’s homelands adding individual culture. “How can we make this sound more Russian sniperish or more Celtic? It was a challenge to meet in the middle and make the atmosphere, mood and everything we were talking about [accurate], while keeping our signature riffing, solos and overall sound.” They’ve definitely kept the brutality alive.
Lyrically, they could be considered the Iron Maiden of what they do, “Ha, I wouldn’t say that but lyrically this album is more of what we do, based in history.”
The title track of previous record “Burning Insight,” is a tribute to a collection of horror movies. Andrews admits she’s very timid about the genre, “I’m a total wuss. I get nightmares from that shit man. I occasionally watch one here and there but never alone. The last one I saw was the new Susperia. It was a masterpiece. I was so affected by it; it took an emotional toll and was really good. I pick and choose sometimes but don’t watch a lot of horror. It’s weird, I like the aesthetics of horror, from the pictures, music and artistic things but the storytelling just gets under my skin. My imagination runs wild with it.”
She was familiar with the movies they reenacted, “I haven’t seen all of them but saw the ones I was doing. Resident Evil, I saw most of them. The video also includes The Ring, Carrie and Silent Hill among others. “I haven’t seen them but know about them obviously. I know the imagery and what makes them iconic, we’ll see if I get around to daring to watch any of them.” She enjoyed the acting part, “My part was more action. I get my high kicks and split kicks in. That was really fun. I have a video of me practicing my zombie walk.”
Andrews has a history in ballet, “I went to the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm, that’s how I ended up in Sweden. I’m from Denmark. It was during that time that I found the band.” She uses her physical training to enhance the live experience, “I use my abilities, discipline, the way I approach vocalizing and what I do on stage. I know my body very well. It helps me balance on stage and practice to improve. I’m really happy for my background.”
She uses a mixture of different vocal flavors from low rumbling, to death metal to open sound. “Basically I’m making myself into the biggest reverb chamber I can factoring the lowest pitch I can manage. I like to use the whole range, as deep and high as it can go.”
Pig squeal overtones are something she’s been playing with for this record, something new. “It’s a lot of fun to experiment.”
The video for “Gráinne Mhaol” has a gritty, black and white, noir feel similar to Sin City. That’s the pirate of the album. The title on Bellatrix for the song is “Crimson Seas,” we reworked it a little bit since the video. It doesn’t really have any pirate or storyline connected to the lyrics but it has a Sin City feel with the visuals that’s why it’s in black and white. The only thing pirate-like is what I’m wearing, the big sable and gun. We like to creative with everything we do.”
They hope to come overseas soon, “We were supposed to be in the states for five weeks this summer but it fell through which was a damn shame. We hope to get across the Atlantic at some point. That would be epic. A lot of people request it on our pages, just trying to make it happen.”
If you’re familiar with them you know what to expect live, if you don’t they’ve had many people say their show’s are a holy shit moment. “It’s my favorite part of the whole thing. I’ve only heard good things as people come up, and say something after the show. We’re pretty brutal.”
She says Bellatrix is a step towards a more brutal sound then Burning Insight.
They’ve shared festival stages with Tarja, an assuredly polar opposite musical experience for the crowd. “That was two years ago in the Czech Republic,” she recalls. “We were probably the most brutal band there. We’ve played with a lot of big bands at festivals. We toured with Six Feet Under and did Wacken Open Air. That was really cool to be a part of.”
She got into metal at 15 with her gateway band being Korn with Slipknot, System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine busting down the door next. She gleefully discovered death metal, grindcore, and other subgenres, getting harder and more brutal from where she started. “I love all of it. It’s really nice there’s so many bands and so much diversity within the genre.”
The album cover is a representation of the theme, “Inside the booklet, each song has its own sketch in the same style where we portray the warrioress’s we’re writing and talking about.”
The next record will be something totally different. “It’ll also be a concept album or theme but will be another era. We’ll wait and see.”
The band name are two words reflecting a balance of sound and attitude. “The name was there when I joined and was randomly generated. Frantic represents the brutality, intensity, anger and Amber being, the softer feminine side. There are very brutal passages and very slow passages here and there in the songs.”
If Andrews could live the life of one of the women it would be, “Good question, because they all die, most of them brutally. I would say because I’m from the north, being a Viking is pretty damn cool. I would go with Lagertha, that way I can go to Valhalla.”
She thanks everyone for their support, “All you living abroad I hope to see you someday on tour. Stay tuned and see what happens next.”
