Interview Interrogation: Eleanor Tenebre from Crusade Of Bards (Spain)

    Symphonic Metal is one of those music genres that is highly saturated with copious amounts of bands, and so to avoid the trap of being classed as another factory-produced band or just another carbon copy of Nightwish, it's crucial and wise to take a unique approach to stand out from the crowd. One such band who has stamped their mark and distinguished themselves well is Spain's Crusade Of Bards. By leaning on mythical tales and stories, as well as having a penchant for including pirate music sounds, this sextet have positioned themselves as a name you are sure to hear about more in the years to come.

    Vocalist ​Eleanor Tenebre spoke to us ahead of their 3rd album release "Tales of Distant Worlds" (out 24th July via NoCut Entertainment) and discussed the new album, the band's backstory and their approach to music crafting.

     "We have the greatest launch party ever,
​playing at Helheim Open Air (Germany) on the 24th of July!"

Crusade Of Bards have been active since 2015, for those who have not heard of the band before, could you give us a brief backstory of the band and how you all came to know one another?

​     "It started with our idea to mix pirate sounds with symphonic metal, at that time it was just Paolo and I (Eleanor), we just wanted to record some songs and make it like a studio project rather than a live band to play gigs. While doing so, we got the opportunity to play some gigs in Spain as an opening act for the legendary Lagerstein, so how could we say no? We decided to find some more musicians to make it come to life and here we are, many years later, still composing, recording and playing."  


Your sound positions itself away from the formulaic self that Symphonic Metal has witnessed in recent years, by including classical and folk elements. How did you come up with this approach, did you take inspiration from outside of metal?

     "We just include whatever we feel would sound great, it is not something we really think about that much, when we are composing the basic elements of a song, we listen to it and we know what it calls for. Our inspiration comes from all types of music: metal, folk, classical music, traditional music, experimental music, etc."


You release your 3rd album "Tales of Distant Worlds" (via NoCut Entertainment) on the 24th July, will there be an album launch party?

     "We have the greatest launch party ever, playing at Helheim Open Air (Germany) on the 24th of July! We are really happy about it, we cannot imagine a better way to celebrate than to play our music, it is the best!!"

The song titles on your new album stem from various topics such as 'Sorginak' (referring to Mari's assistants in Basque mythology) and 'Laniakea' (referring to the cosmos and also is a word from the Hawaiian language meaning 'immense heaven', could you tell us how you come to decide on these topics and how you wrote the lyrics?

     "It is a very emotional process, we mainly get feelings as a source of inspiration to start writing a song and try to portray that emotion through the structure, music, chords, title, lyrics, tone, etc. So it is all kind of related, when one of us comes up with something, we explain each other what we want to express and what the song revolves around and then we build it together, it is a beautiful process."


You have 2 main vocalists in Eduardo + Eleanor, with Paolo providing back up vocals - how do you decide between yourselves who sings on what songs and what lyric parts? How as vocalists did you hone your singing techniques?  

     "I see it as something quite organic, the different parts normally call for it, so it is not difficult at all. Sometimes parts are specifically written for Eduardo or me, but  at other times just by listening to it, we know. 

     As for the enhancement of our techniques, for me (Eleanor) it is about always trying to sing pieces that I find challenging until I get them perfectly and then also singing in choirs, this is the most important thing for me. As for Eduardo, he worked as an actor for a long time and sings in another band, he is quite experienced. He also records his own songs and covers, so it is all about keeping himself active vocally speaking."


Going forward, do you have plans for the year ahead beyond your album release, EU / UK tours maybe? Do you have any thanks, hello's, greetings you wish to send out?

     "Let's say, there are a lot of amazing things coming, they will be revealed in time ;). We want to thank everyone taking the time to listening to us and reading this interview. Also, we want to thank you as well for giving us this space to talk about our music. And of course, I personally want to thank my bandmates for always being great, I love them to bits!"

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