Forward

My good friend and bandmate Gordon Burchell and I began this story when we created Eternal Winter in 2002. It was originally an idea just intended to be a very short tale that we could write a few song lyrics about. Instead, it turned out to be an epic saga that all of Eternal Winter’s music would be based around. I always recall long nights of Gordon and I staying up late in my basement after band practice, smoking Marlboros, working on the story, drawing maps, discussing ideas, and relating them to song lyrics. These ideas would develop into all kinds of themes for our stage-show (which was quite dramatic back then). These would include Stage props, narration parts, keyboard interludes inspired by a certain mood or vibe of a specific scene from the story, etc.

Although we do still try to get together about once a week to work on the story, nowadays everyone’s lives are much busier and it is more like a chapter of the story will be written after the two of us discuss it over the phone or during a band-rehearsal. Then, I will write song lyrics based on a specific part of the story.

Many of our songs are very narrative and stick strictly to direct events taking place in the concept story. Some are quite descriptive and have lyrics that are mostly lines taken right out of the text. However, a few become broader. Sometimes a song could be not so much about a specific part, but more like a description of the overall epic vibe of what is going on. Often times a song could even just be about a certain character’s thoughts or intentions.

Having this variety is great because even if you are not into the concept story, you can enjoy the music as just quality epic metal without having to pay attention to the conceptual aspect. On the other hand, if you do follow the story then everything is related in some way, even if some songs are more specific than others.

The Saga is far from being complete, but we have everything planned out and will be adding new chapters and updates to the website regularly. We hope that everyone else loves The Eternal Winter Saga as much as we do.

Unleash the Power of Your Imagination! HAIL to the Immortal Spirit and Valorous Might of Heavy Metal!

-Matthew Knight 2009

©Knight/Burchell 2009