Hi Henrik! Greetings from the Walls of Fire team, and please accept our best wishes for a marvellous New Year! May all your dreams come true in 2004! And what do you wish for yourself and Morifade in 2004?
-We hope that the album will be received with appreciation, and we really wish to do a tour somewhere in the world. The possibility for that may be stronger now that the album will be released not only in Europe but also in Japan, USA and Canada. However, we can only hope...

Yes, your third full-length album shall be out quite soon. Congratulations! How would you compare "Domi<>Nation" to your previous works?
-“Domi<>Nation” is more heavy and dark, especially compared to “Possession of Power” (1999), but also to “Imaginarium” (2002). It’s better played due to the fact that we were more prepared for the recording sessions than before.
It’s a concept album based on two novels - “1984” by George Orwell and “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. This is the first time we wrote a concept album, but we’ve been talking about doing that for a long time. Stefan (Petersson, vocals) came up with the idea to base the concept on this theme that briefly is about how the future might look like concerning surveillance, mind controlling and so on.

What do you want to express with the album's title?
-Well, the word "domination" is what the album's theme is all about. We decided to split the word in two - “domi” is supposed to symbolise some kind of god or superior force in our society, and “nation” is of course a land. So there you go - “ruler of the world”, so to speak. We decided to put the "<>" symbol between the words just to mark the separation.

Regarding the music on the record, it's been mostly labelled as power metal. Personally speaking, I think it's something more... What about you?
-I think we are stuck with the power metal label because of “Possession of Power”, but if people took the time to really listen to our two latest albums, especially to “Domi<>Nation”, it doesn’t sound like Hammerfall or Freedom Call that are straight power metal, does it? Yeah, I think we’ve got something more than that, there are still a lot of melodies, but our music has grown darker and more progressive.

As for the lyrics, would you mind telling us a few words about each track...
-I’d rather not, sorry. Each song is about this theme that I was talking about, and then it’s up to each and every listener to make his or her own opinion about it.

Ok, so be it. By the way, "Domi<>Nation" emerges in an ordinary and a digipack version limited to 5000 copies. This second edition mentioned includes five bonus tracks and a video. Whose decision was it to create that different type of release, and what were the reasons for it?
-We told this idea to our record label, Karmageddon Media, and they agreed to it. The first four bonus tracks are taken from our MCD “Cast a Spell” (2000), and the fifth cut is a cover song (Helloween's "Judas"). At first we and our label were talking about re-releasing “Cast a Spell” since it has only been released in France, but then we thought it would be cooler to do a digi-version with the MCD included.

Regarding the bonus tunes themselves, the first four, as I was saying, are from “Cast a Spell” and here’s the track-listing: “Cast a Spell” is taken from our debut album “Possession of Power”; “As Time Decides” was supposed to be a teaser for “Imaginarium”, but it was of no use since our previous label didn’t care to release it world-wide... Anyway, next up is “Tomorrow Knows” (2000 Edition), a re-recording previously released on our first MCD “Across the Starlit Sky“ from 1998. The fourth song is also a cover, “Dance with the Devil”, originally recorded by the all-star melodic rock project Phenomena.
As for the video for “Lost Within a Shade” - we recorded it in 2002 at PDOL, a big popular festivity in Pitea, Sweden.

Let's stay back in time for a while. Would you please present Morifade's history from the start until present days to those who are still not familiar with the band?
-Sure. 1992 is the year when it all started. At that time we had the band name Gothic, but we changed it later on simply because we didn’t want to be mixed up with playing goth metal. After a couple of years we signed a contract with LNP Records and released the MCD “Across the Starlit Sky” in 1998. During that same year we started writing material for “Possession of Power” that was released in 1999. In 1997-1998 we also decided to search for a new vocalist, so Christian Sting-Borg was out and in came Stefan Petersson. In 2000 we started looking for a new record label as well, we found Hammerheart Records (called Karmageddon Media at present), released “Imaginarium” in 2002, and here we are in 2004 awaiting the release of our third studio album “Domi<>Nation”.

I'd also ask you to think of the most distinctive and characteristic features of each of the six band members:

Stefan Petersson (vocals) - Mr. Keep in Order. The face of Morifade.

Jesper Johansson (guitars) - Tries more than he can handle, he-he. A great riff creator.

Robin Arnell (guitars) - Amazing solo guitarist and songwriter.

Kim Arnell (drums) - One of my oldest friends and music buddies.

Fredrik Eriksson (keyboards) - Band daddy, ha-ha! Extremely sick humour.

Henrik Weimedal (bass) - Well, what can I say... except that these guys are really five of my best pals, and we do a lot together even during our spare time.

What's the craziest thing you have done together?
-It must have been when we played at the Rock Machina 2000 Festival in Moncofa, Spain, backstage at the party after the gig. Lots of beers and booze, one or two melons and great people - it was really a crazy but extremely funny evening. Also at the PDOL in 2000 - it got a little crazy with guys dressed up as fire fighters, also involved was an elevator, The Latin Kings and a picture frame...

Your plans for Morifade for the months to come?
-We are planning a tour in Germany this spring, but nothing has been confirmed yet. More than that, we will continue writing material for the next album; so far we have a couple of songs in progress.

Your message...
-Remember February 9th, 2004 - that’s when “Domi<>Nation” can be reached. Thanks and bye!