Metal-Guide.com Interview
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Answers: Henrik Weimedal

First of all, congratulations for the album, which I personally consider as one of the pleasant surprises of 2002. Tell us the history of the band.
-Thank you very much! Ok, we were formed in 1992 but things started to happen in 1998 after the release of the MCD "Across the Starlit Sky" and after that release we started to look for a new vocalist and in late 1998 we found Stefan and the year after we recorded our first full-length album "Possession of Power", in the year 2000 we had found an extra guitar player (Adrian Kaneback) and a keyboard player (Fredrik "Frippe" Eriksson) and with that line-up we recorded the second MCD "Cast A Spell" in Los Angered Recording in Gothenburg, Sweden with Andy La Rocque (King Diamond) as producer, that went very well so we decided to record the next full-length album there as well, the album was released on April 8 by Hammerheart Records
and here we are now.

The good thing about your group is that you have many influences, and you have also manage to incorporate those influences into your music in a very efficient way, so the result sounds fresh and personal in a style that seems to be "over used". Is there any secret that we should know, or hard work is enough by itself?
-Yeah, when we write our music we don't analyse the songs or trying to sound like something else, the music just turns out this way but of course we give a 100% when we write the music. We don't want to sound like Hammerfall for instance but we don't want to sound like Rhapsody either and that's why it's a good thing to mix a lot of different styles to the music, it becomes more interesting I think.

Besides the high level of technical skills of the rest of the band, I would specially mention your keyboard player, Fredrik Eriksson, who manages to raise the quality of the album in a higher level. It was a big, and pleasant, surprise, since we hadn't heard from him the last five years, after the "A Mended Rhyme" of Tad Morose. How easily, a new band such as you, managed to convince one of the best keyboard players worldwide to join forces with the band?
-I think Fredrik will be pleased when he sees this! Well, Fredrik studied in our hometown Linkoping, 200 kilometres south of Stockholm and we actually met him at the pub one night and asked if he wanted to play the keyboard and he rehearsed with us and what can you say…Of course we hired him and that's when he decided to move permanently to Linkoping and also quit Tad Morose.

On the other hand, he contributes to the composing area only in one song, which is great. Why he didn't participate in the making of more of the songs?
-Probably because much of the material was done quite quickly but Fredrik has very fine ideas and he will contribute more on the next album I think.

Which is so far the acceptance of the album from the fans and the media? Did you expected such a reaction?
-The album has been accepted very good, the second album is always the hardest to get acceptance for, especially if the debut album was a success, it's pretty hard to live up to that album but I think we have, the reviews have mostly been really positive from media and fans.

Which are your plans in order to support the album? Have you planned any tours or concerts yet?
-Our label is searching for a suitable tour at the moment so we just have to wait and see what happens. We have done a bunch of gigs this year but only in Sweden. We were supposed to do a Spain/Portugal tour in May but it was cancelled unfortunately.

You are the first Power Metal band in a label that has a reputation of the extremity of their bands. How easy is for you to belong to a label such as Hammerheart, and which is the story behind the contract?
-We are satisfied so far with Hammerheart and the work that they are doing for us, they treat us as any band.
When we cut the strings with our former label Loud N' Proud Records we immediately started to search for a new one and we sent promotion packages all over the world and Hammerheart contacted us with a positive contract and they were the label that gave us the best deal among all.

Is it a advantage or a disadvantage to belong to such a extreme Metal label?
-It's an advantage in the way that we are easy to spot among all the black and death metal bands at Hammer-heart and if I'm not wrong it's a little different to work with a power metal band than with a black metal band for instance, I think Hammerheart is enjoying this.The only disadvantage that I can think of is that they may not have all the needed contacts within the power metal world but that is nothing that we have noticed anything about.

How do you explain the fact that the last years, Scandinavia has turned into one of the metropolis of Heavy Metal? Is it true that in your country, musicians are more than the listeners?
-I honestly don't know, maybe it's because people in Sweden is really musically interested.I also don't know if there are a bigger number of musicians than listeners but there are a really big number of bands in Sweden, that's for sure.

Although the album is still fresh, which are the plans of the band for the future? Which are your short-term,
and long-term, ambitions of the band?
-The most immediate thing for us to do now is to get as many gigs as possible this year and soon we will start to write new material for the coming album, at the moment we have about 2 songs almost ready and many, many ideas. Our greatest ambition is to be among the elite of metal and we will work really hard to get there.

Many people say a lot of things about the good and bad things of Internet. About the ease that bands can promote themselves, and the ease that fans can steal music. I would like your comment on that.
-The Internet is great for bands to promote themselves with a website for instance.It's impossible to stop the black market of selling other artists music on the web and also the free stuff, but in the long-term everyone will loose on that, the artists loose royalties because they may not sell as many albums because people get it free on The Internet, the same goes for the record labels. People that buy their music in a legal way can be prepared to buy a CD for a very high price and the increasing of the prices goes for all music of course, this sucks!Finally, I don't understand people who downloads the music from The Internet and then burn it to a cdr with a copied or printed cover, isn't it more fun to own the actual album with the real booklet etc.? I think so.

Ok guys, I really wish you all the success for the album and the band, and I leave the last words to you.
-Thank you, I hope that we meet on tour somewhere in the world in a near future! Thanx and bye for now!

Interview by Vic Tzougrakis

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