Nostradameus

Relatively unknown outside of their native Sweden, power metal band Nostradameus is determined to gain more popularity in the metal community with their sixth release, "Illusion's Parade."

I had a chance to speak with vocalist Freddy Persson by e-mail about the band's friendship, playing live and why internet downloading could lead to the band's demise.

Metal Mayhem: "Illusion's Parade" is such a fantastic CD. It's by far your most solid and mature release. What was your mindset while writing and recording this album?
Freddy Persson: Well, we've had a lot of new input from our new guitarist Lennart (Specht), as he wrote big parts of the new album. Finally it feels like we've reached where we wanted to; with an own sound and an atmosphere throughout the entire album that we feel we didn't have in the past. Regarding the lyrics, many of them were written by me during a very hard period of my life, resulting basically in some very suitable topics considering this atmosphere.

MM: What do you hope to achieve with the release of "Illusion's Parade"?
FP: Hopefully, first of all, the feeling of happines coming from having made an album that's worthy of listening to from the first song to the last, even a year or two after it's been released. Then also, good enough sales to let us continue to record albums in the future. The market is extremely tough these days with all the downloaders, so let's just keep our fingers crossed.

MM: You're labeled as a power metal band, but you've always had a progressive, even thrashy edge to your sound. Who are your influences and what music do you listen to?
FP: Oh, that's very different depending on which member you ask. We listen to everything from black/death metal to swedish folk-music, pure pop/rock, both national and international, so it's hard to say with a name or two.

MM: You don't have the typical Gothenburg sound. How did you come up with the Nostradameus formula?
FP: I don't know really. We just kept on playing and after the first two albums we didn't care so much about sounding like all the other bands mixing in Finnvox (Studios). From "Hellbound" and forward, we've used the same studio in Malmö and since this studio isn't used by so many other metal-bands, I guess that made us sounding a little bit different.

MM: Being in existance for over ten years, do you feel that you have not received the recognition the band deserve, especially in the States?
FP: It's hard for me to say really. I know it's hard to break in the States. But I feel sometimes we've had better credits than what we deserved. It's just me and my friends playing and then it feels sometimes a bit weird when we get better scores on an album than what some of our former idols are getting for theirs. On the other hand it feels sometimes that in certain countries it's something of a fashion- thing to give us some really bad credits when reviewing our albums. For example, I can't remember a single review from Italy, Austria or France that said anything good about our albums. In France it feels like the reviewers are still pissed off because we had the opening- slot on the HammerFall tour 2003, instead of Nocturnal Rites or Dream Evil, and as a result of that they are giving us 3/10 or 4/10. It's not that it's so important nowadays for me as a person as it was on the first albums, but I still think it's a bit unfair. The last album is really not that bad.