Among the bands in an overcrowded power metal scene, Nocturnal Rites are not just the latest addition to the never-ending list or another copycat of the style's predecessors. With "Shadowland", the 5th album under their collective belt, Nocturnal elevates their craft to the new heights and stands tall among its peers as one of the genre's best. By improving every aspect of the writing process and adding heavier and more aggressive production "Shadowland" marks the most complete album in the band's career; without a doubt it'll be their biggest album to date. Nils Eriksson (bass) gives us the inside view on band's history, details behind "Shadowland" and future plans...

Chris


My first introduction to Nocturnal Rites came with "Afterlife", and I'm no expert on Nocturnal Rites trivia. I'm saying this because I've heard that Nocturnal Rites started out as Death Metal act. What made you stop playing that type of music?

Wow, that was long time ago... We started out back in 1990 and back then the flavor of that time was death metal obviously, every kid was playing death metal back then... We kind of jumped on it and started doing it but the stuff we grew up listening to were heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and all those bands, so it actually didn't take us very long to sort of get around to how we sound right now. It happened gradually over the course of the years... it took us about 2 years to realize this is what we want to do.

Can you tell me a little bit about the members involved in Nocturnal Rites nowadays? Who's still left from the original band?

Fredrik Mannberg started the band in 1990 and I joined in 1991 so we're the core members I guess...

How did you hook up with Jonny Lindkvist?

7 or 8 years ago our drummer had a band and Jonny was singing in that band so, when Anders Zackrisson left we knew that we had a world class singer just around the corner. We just called him up, he came down and it worked out really well.

On "Shadowland" I feel that you guys took another step away from power metal and went towards a more classic, heavier American sounding heavy metal, was it intentional?

No, I don't think so. If you'd listen to our back catalog I think you're gonna realize that we've never done 2 albums that sound exactly alike. We always try to evolve and change with every album. We've never sat down and wrote songs intentionally and try to make them sound in a certain way. We just write whatever feels right at the moment and it usually turns out really well. I guess "Afterlife" sounded a little bit different than the other albums due to the fact that we had a new vocalist Jonny. Jonny's voice is a lot rougher than Anders' and I guess that triggered some kind of, I don't know, a thing for us as songwriters which is write around his voice a bit and stuff got a little bit tougher.

It seems like he sparked a lot more energy in you...

Definitely, it's like a new start to get a new guy singing. It's just inspirational to hear his great voice on the tracks that he did... everything was just so much easier when Jonny joined.

Since he joined each album is getting heavier and heavier. Do you think one day you might go full circle to the starting point and record a death metal album?

[Laughs] I don't think so. I mean, I think that new album has actually a lot more melody and a lot more sing along kind of stuff than the "Afterlife" did have. This new record is a lot more melodic than the "Afterlife" so it's probably more like step back then step towards death metal [laughs]. I mean, we never gonna start playing death metal again.

Yeah, I didn't think so anyway...

[We laugh]

You already pointed out a few things, but in your own words, what are the biggest differences between "Shadowland" and "Afterlife"?

I think we've managed to get some more melody into our songs and we've worked a lot more on vocal lines, vocal arrangements and also incorporated a lot more guitar work to the album, just get it more complete sounding album I guess.

Did you guys change anything in the way you work, rehearse or record since "Afterlife"? How does the typical birth of a song come about in Nocturnal Rites?

It's pretty much all this same scenario. It's either Fredrik or Nils Norberg, our guitarists, they come up with an idea or riff and than the 3 of us meet up in the studio, we have our own studio, and make an outline for a song. Once that's done we make a simple recording of it, we take tape home and I start working on vocal lines and lyrics. That's really how it works and it's been working like that for quite some time actually.

Although it worked out extremely well, I found your choice of Daniel Bergstrand's Dug-Out Studio very surprising. What made you choose his studio since up till now he always opted for much heavier bands (SYL, Meshuggah, Darkane)?

I think that's why we chose him actually. I think we've always been looking for a really heavy sound and someone that can make us sound like, we are much angrier than we actually are. I mean, we do realize that we play melodic power metal but still we want to sound and have a production to have your speakers burn [laughs]. We are a more aggressive band than a lot of the other power metal bands right now and I think our sound justifies that too.

Definitely, it's one of the things that impress me about your band, you are not just another sweet power metal band or a copy of Helloween.

I think that the fact that we are all very different is that we listen to different styles of music and often very heavy music. I still listen to death metal and even some country, Fredrik listens to a lot of thrash metal, death metal. Nils Norberg listens to a lot of fusion, jazz and all kinds of different stuff so, we're all very different and I think that shapes our sound.

From the front cover you look like a fully fantasy-inspired band but most of your lyrics seem to deal with different subjects, more down to earth ones. Is there any relation between the cover and lyrics?

We have some fantasy kind of oriented lyrics, not traditional fantasy in a sense of dragons and that kind of stuff but everything that we describe from real world is a fantasy in some way. My lyrics are not really describing the real world in that sense, real evens and real people they are my fantasies, a bit of science fiction and in that sense I guess we are very much fantasy oriented band lyrically.

What did you mean with the title "Shadowland"?

"Shadowland" is sort of continuation of "Afterlife". Shadowland is a place where you go right before you pass out. You can go either way and that's why we have that kind of dual landscape thing, one dark and one light side, you can go either way sort of a crossroads or something.

Looking back at your work are you completely satisfied with "Shadowland"?

I think so, but you know what? I don't listen that much to my own albums once it's done it's done. I can't change anything about it so I just leave it. I'm not that kind of guy that sits and listens to my own albums and go all critical on them. Once it's recorded, it's done, you move on. But to answer your question I think it's probably the best album we've ever done in terms of writing a complete album. In terms of all moods are expended on it and songs are ranging from aggressive, fast ones to slow and almost epic ones. I feel very, very confident that this album definitely is going to be our biggest album so far. It did very well in Europe and I hope it will in States too.

Since you don't waste your time on your previous albums what are you doing right now, already thinking of the new one, writing new songs, rehearsing, preparing for a tour?

In coming weeks we are doing some festivals in Europe, after that I guess we're coming back home for a while and we'll start planing our tour schedule for a fall. I guess that's really what's occupying our minds right now. We always have a few songs cooking so we've been working on some stuff that we have left from the last album plus a new stuff too. We never rest...

I guess it's the nature of heavy metal business, you either record an album or go on tour to stay on top of things...

Yeah, we do what we love so we're not complaining.

Thank you for the interview. Any final comments?

Give the album a try, hopefully you'll like it and someday I hope to see you all on tour in States.

Interview with Xavi Cao (keyboards) by Jeremy.

What are some of the biggest musical influences, for both you personally and Embersland?

I should say my favorite bands like Symphony X, Royal Hunt, Nightwish, Children of Bodom, Porcupine Tree, Europe and many others influenced me when I started writing music, and this different kind of styles has been mixed and was born Embersland!

Tell me about your musical background, what drew you to want to play music?

When at school I saw some friends learning how to play guitar and that was the beginning for me, I remember telling to my dad about learning how to play guitar cause he was playing when he was young, I started playing for fun rock versions for a while and first song I wrote was sunrise part 1, and after this I thought, hey you should make a band with friends and start writing more songs, and then was the beginning of Embersland with Jimmy playing guitar, Will the bass and me on drums while we were searching for drummer and keyboard players!

Originally, you were a band with only male vocals. What inspired the decision to add female vocals into your sound?

The need to go further, to explore new kind of songs, and to have more variety and quality in our songs was the reason, the important for Embersland music is not staying always making the same kind of songs as the most part of bands, we want that each new album got some different styles and variety in the songs, and with May we did something different than in first album.

What is your favorite thing about having a three vocalist attack, what advantages does it bring musically?

No doubt the combination of 3 vocalists and 4 kind of voices cause Will is making lows and growls, give us a wide range of variety that is really important for us, trying always to have our own personality as a band and not copying any band, it‘s really difficult to have an own sound in 2015, but I think we are getting it step by step!

I notice a wide range in keyboard sounds Embersland does, what is your favorite type of mood to set with keyboard melodies?

I like to use lots of different sounds in keyboards cause that gives again more variety and it s more fun for playing too, and maybe my favorite sound is church organ! In our third album I’ll have more time to investigate more kind of sounds cause there will be new styles in the music of Embersland like thrash metal and folk metal too!

What goes into being a great keyboard player, and what advice would you give to an aspiring keyboardist?

I’m not! Hahaha I just started playing 2 years ago when Luana left the band after releasing our first album, it's really complicated in Spain to find good keyboards players that wants to play metal and I decided start learning and the same time that May joined us and I didn’t have to sing all the time.

My favorite would be Tuomas Holopainen and Janne Wirman cause they show a variety of sounds that I like.

What are your favorite lyrical themes that you include in your music, messages that you particularly like to get across?

I’m not interested in lyrics really, when I write lyrics it’s like to make therapy, I put all my shits outside and then forget it haha, if I can help someone with my lyrics that’s great but for me the most important is music and melodies, if I want to read good lyrics better to get a book of poetry!

I found 'Sunrise (Part II)' to be an inspiring song, bringing a 'carry on through tough times, good things lie ahead' feel. Is there an Embersland song you find particularly inspiring?

What can I say? I like all the songs a lot, are my babies!! Haha but if I have to choose 'Sunrise (Part I and Part II)' it's the best definition of Embersland music, 18 minutes of metal, changes, different tempos, soft moments, rage, melodies, lots of different voices and styles and 'Memories' has some special feeling for me and 'Where Are You' it s a ballad that I love it!

You have mentioned having a large following in Latin America, what about your music do you think particularly attracts fans from there?

Well I think they are more open to show you feedback and write to band, maybe in Europe people is listening our albums too but we don’t receive the same feedback from them!

In live performance, what is a key in being able to do both vocals and keyboards during the same live show?

To practice a lot! It’s complicated for me cause in live I turn crazy, and sometimes I need to move, to jump to the audience and don’t play some parts haha but this is part of the show, sometimes energy on stage is more important than playing all the time, this is my point of view!

What lies ahead in the future for Embersland, what do you hope this band will go in the future?

I’m almost finishing the songs of third album! My mind never stop writing music, this time won’t have a long song and that allows us to record more songs, 10 or 11 songs, and at the same time we want to try to go out of Spain to play, cause here the scene is totally dead for metal… it would be a dream to go soon to America or Europe!