Sworn to the Saga: Månegarm’s Erik Grawsiö Talks Edsvuren and Legacy

Band Photo by Andreas Mattsson Perspective by Mattsson

Sworn to the Saga: Månegarm’s Erik Grawsiö Talks Edsvuren and Legacy

For nearly three decades, Sweden’s Månegarm have stood as fierce torchbearers of Viking metal—blending blackened ferocity with folk tradition and mythic storytelling. With the release of their twelfth studio album, Edsvuren (“Sworn”), the band marks a thunderous new chapter in their legacy. From the haunting opener I skogsfruns famn to the ritualistic title track and beyond, Edsvuren is a visceral journey through Nordic lore, raw emotion, and blistering musicianship.

In this exclusive conversation for Highwire Daze, we sit down with vocalist and bassist Erik Grawsiö to explore the creative fire behind Edsvuren, reflections on Månegarm’s 30-year odyssey through underground acclaim and festival triumphs, and what keeps their saga burning.

Raise your horn and join us as we dive into the heart of Edsvuren and the legacy of one of Sweden’s most revered metal storytellers.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the Edsvuren album title?
It’s not a real concept album as the last two albums, but Edsvuren is like best maybe translated into “sworn to an oath.” And we have a couple of themes in there. A few songs are about the Pagan resistance against the mission of the Christianity.  Like Lögrinns värn for example is about that resistance. uh There is a bit of local folklore. A song like I Skogsfruns Famn is from a story, super local, just like 20 kilometers from where we live.

Let’s talk about a few of the songs. You mentioned the opening track I Skogsfruns Famn. Tell me a little about that and the story behind it.
First of all, it’s Jacob, our drummer, who has written all the lyrics and made a really good job. I Skogsfruns Famn is about a female supernatural being. And this particular story is from, as I said, outside of a village called Rones, there’s an area and a mountain called Skutberget. And there was a story that a female supernatural being was living there. And this female being, lured men into the forest and finally slayed them. Yeah, quite interesting.

Since Jakob has written all the lyrics, let’s move on and discuss some of the band members.  Ellinor Videfors has been uh with a participant of the band since 2015, 10 years. Give me a little background on Ellinor and how she became involved with the band.
Ellinor is a good friend of mine from school, who I’ve known since many years. She is a great singer, and she mostly sings like jazz.  I met Ellinor before 2015 when we were about to record the Self-Titled album. We have had female vocals for many albums, but I met her, and I asked her if she wanted to participate.  She was like, yeah, but I can’t sing metal. And I was like, it’s more acoustic folk songs. And she tried out and I think it turned out super, super good. She has sung on every album ever since. Always do a great job. She’s fantastic.

And of course, your daughter Liv is also on the albums. Tell me about Liv and how did that come about?
I’m so proud of that. The last album, Ynglingaättens öde, I wrote a song called En snara av guld. It’s a really simple song music wise, but the lyrics are really cool. And the lyrics are about a daughter from Finland. Her father, a Finnish chieftain, got killed and she is abducted to Sweden by this Swedish king.  She is forced to get married to this Swedish king. And of course she hates him. And later on, after a drunken night she kills him and hangs him from a tree. And so, the storyline is about this girl. And that’s when I came up with the idea, I need to have a female vocal on this one, but I right away thought that it shouldn’t be Ellinor’s voice because she has a much more mature voice. And then I came up with the idea to ask my daughter. Liv doesn’t sing in a band or choir or anything, but she likes to sing. And yes, she has a really cool tone in her voice. So, I asked her, and I had my little studio at home and that’s good because then she didn’t get super nervous. So, I gave her the lyrics, and she put the headphones on and tried it out and it turned out super cool. I really like what she did on that song. And that’s why I asked her. once again for this album. I had some parts in two different songs that I thought would be cool with Liv’s vocals on. And I think it turned out cool as well.

Do you think Liv might want to start her own band in the future?
I hope so, but I’m not so sure…

Now, you have a new album about to come out. Is there any chance of Månegarm touring over here in the States or doing a few shows in support of this album?
I really hope so, man. We have played, like, two shows in the States during all these years, so you can’t say we have toured in America. So, it would be great to do a couple of shows, hopefully a proper tour.  Hopefully we get some offers or our booker can make it happen. Anyway, we hope for that. So hopefully we’ll come to the States and do some cool shows.

Månegarm has a few anniversaries coming up and let’s talk about a few of those. um We’ll go back 10 years, and you briefly mentioned Self-Titled album from 2015. When you look back on the Self-Titled album and the fact that it’s been 10 years, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
Well, first of all, as you say, 10 years and you get quite shocked when you think of that. 10 years has passed very, very quickly, it seems. But I think it’s a cool album. I remember the idea I had when I composed songs for that one. And that was to make a varied diverse album with mostly metal songs, but also a couple of acoustic ones because the acoustic songs are something that Månegarm has always done.  I think it’s a cool album. We play a couple of songs from that album on our live shows.

Let’s go back 20 years now. We’re in 2005. Vredens Tid, tell me about that one. And what do you think of that album 20 years later?
I’m really satisfied with that album. On our third album, I guess you can say that we found some ingredients like more use of the violin and we made the Månegarm sound into a more folky sound. We slowed down the pace a bit and so on. And then came the fourth album, Vredens Tid, and we developed that style that we sort of recently found. We developed that into more better songs and then we arranged the songs in a better way. And Vredens Tid is for me a really nice album. I think we did something cool there. I have talked to and read a lot of reviews saying that this album is one of the best Månegarm albums. It has a lot of interesting stuff in there. I can maybe say that as well. I’m happy with that. It’s an interesting album.

Let’s go back 25 years. Your second album, Havets Vargar, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. When you look back on that second Månegarm release, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
Actually, I listened to it today because as we’re celebrating 30 years.  We have an idea to play one song from each album. And it was a really long time since we played songs from that album. It’s a cool album, a fast one, much more black metal than today. We were young and strong back then. We could play faster than we can now. But it was also an album that it was a lot of problems. During the recording our singer, I don’t know why, but he couldn’t stay in the band. So, I took over the vocals and it was some problems with the studio. The first studio we started to record in. some problems with the studio owner and the record label. He didn’t get paid and blah, blah, blah. So, we needed to change the studio. It was a lot of problems. It took a while to get this album released. And as I said, vocalist changes and everything. maybe that was a good thing because then I took over the vocals and I have stayed on that position ever since. But if I listen to it now, it’s a raw, quite primitive album. More black metal, as I said, and the production isn’t that good, the sound isn’t that good, but it has something. I mean, it was, as you say, 25 years ago, so it’s a cool one.

Band Photo by Andreas Mattsson Perspective by Mattsson

During that time you were on a label called Displeased Records. When you look back on your time spent with Displeased Records, uh what do you think of it now?
I remember that time we recorded demos and finally we got a contract proposal from a couple of labels. And Displeased Records, they offered the best record deal.  We were young and hungry and wanted to make an album, and we signed that contract. But the thing was, it was for five albums, and I mean, five albums is quite many albums. And I think it took us almost 10 years to record these albums. So, for 10 years we were stuck at Displeased Records and it was probably not the best record deal. But anyway, we recorded five albums for Displeased. It was a good time. Lesson learned, don’t sign a contract for that many albums.

Månegarm is now celebrating its 30-year anniversary! 30 years, what does that mean to you? That’s just amazing that anyone does anything for 30 years.
Yeah, you’re totally right. And that’s amazing. What it means. I think it means a lot. But when I think about 30 years, it doesn’t really feel like 30 years. I mean, sometimes I feel like I’m 25 when up on stage doing cool shows. So, 30 years, it’s strange number when you think about it. But I’m really, really proud that we are still doing this. I mean, to play in a band, to play music with my best friends, really is the best thing in life. uh Not to forget my family, of course, but to be able to do that with your best friends, it’s fantastic and I can’t even picture my life without playing music or actually playing in Månegarm. So 30 years has passed but I think we have a lot more to do. We have no plans of quitting so we will continue playing because it’s so fucking fun.

Do you have any messages for Månegarm fans here in the States who are reading this right now?
Give our new album Edsvuren a spin if you have the time and hopefully you like it – and hopefully, we see each other on the roads in the states in the near future.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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