interview by: Jez Andrews

Nocturnal Rites have made their mark on the European power metal scene, and no mistake. And that may have proved difficult, given that two of their members stand less than 2cm tall according to the website (Then again, that could be my boneheaded refusal to accept the misprint). I had a word with bassist Nils Eriksson on the subject of new album, New World Messiah, and other such matters of metal. This was a unique experience, in that I only found out exactly WHO was answering my questions halfway through...

Maelstrom: Just been listening to the new album, have to say it's fantastic.

Nils: Thank you.

Maelstrom: It's heavier than Shadowlands. What were the differences in the recording process?

Nils Eriksson: I don't really know what we did differently, but if it came out heavier then that's cool.

Maelstrom: Would you say that the recording process has changed a lot since the first album?

Nils Eriksson: There's new equipment coming out every year. I mean, the first album was just done on an old tape recording thing in our old studios. But that was almost ten years ago now and a lot of stuff has happened. There are a lot more outfits now than ten years ago.

Maelstrom: Is there a particular concept behind New World Messiah?

Nils Eriksson: Not really. Whenever I write lyrics, I just listen to the song and whatever comes to mind is what the song ends up being about. I think it's just ten different stories and ten different songs.

Maelstrom: "One Nation" is definitely what I'd call the anthem of the album, but have you got any particular favourites, the way they came out?

Nils Eriksson: I've got a couple of favourites, yeah. I'm not the kind of guy who listens to his own records a lot, but coming out of the studio in the mix, my favourites were "Awakening" and "Against the World."

Maelstrom: Well, like I said, they have a punchier sound than last time. Would you say, moving on slightly, that there is a unique sound that could only come from Sweden?

Nils Eriksson: I think some Swedes have that. Some bands don't really have a personality, but we do have bands that stick out and manage to do their own thing, even if it's been done before. They still sound unique and sound like themselves. Hammerfall, for example, sound like Hammerfall, In Flames sound like In Flames. Some of them have got to a point where the instant you hear them, you know it's them. I think that's the place where pretty much every band wants to be.

Maelstrom: Speaking of which, what are your thoughts on Persuader?

Nils Eriksson: Oh, they're friends of ours, they're really cool.

Maelstrom: Because I was listening to their new album, and I got a kind of Devin Townsend vibe from it, especially the vocals. Slightly harsher than you would normally find with bands of that type...

Nils Eriksson: Yeah, it's kinda crazy. Jens (Karlsson, Persuader vocals) was doing backing vocals on our album too. We have a show together this week as well.

Maelstrom: Nocturnal Rites are very big on the power metal scene. Now there are power metal bands playing all over mainland Europe, Japan, and the USA, but I notice that it's very rare to see those bands playing in England. Strange, after spawning the likes of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden...

Nils Eriksson: I think it's strange too. I mean, I don't know about the market in England. I know a lot of bands from Sweden do well in the UK, like Arch Enemy and bands like that, but as far as power metal I don't really know what's going on. We did a show last year in London with Saxon and it was probably the strangest show I've ever done. It was the last night of the tour and a lot of strange things happened, but I'd love to do more shows in England.

Maelstrom: Well, we do have a festival here called Bloodstock in Derby, where we've had bands such as Blind Guardian, Nightwish and Freedom Call playing, and I think power metal is actually starting to grow over here.

Nils Eriksson: That's good.

Maelstrom: It's taken a while...

Nils Eriksson: Definitely, I mean you guys in the UK seem to be more into hardcore and that kind of scene.

Maelstrom: Well, there are a lot of embarrassing metal tastes in this country, even though it started here... it's not good. What are your earliest memories of heavy metal?

Nils Eriksson: I guess standing outside my older brother's room and listening to heavy metal records, and sneaking out a tape of them. Then starting to play guitar and all that. I remember really early on listening to Accept's Breaker record and some of the first Metallica records and all that. I have pretty clear memories of that time.

Maelstrom: Are there any musicians or composers outside heavy metal who have influenced your playing at all?

Nils Eriksson: Maybe not so much my playing, but maybe as a musician and a songwriter in general, a lot of melodic stuff. It probably sounds corny and cheesy, but I'm into a lot of AOR stuff like Bon Jovi, Foreigner, Journey and all those bands. Everything from that to death metal and thrash. I listen to anything that's good, so I don't have any boundaries when it comes to music.

Maelstrom: I noticed that Nocturnal Rites have played a lot of metal festivals. Tell me, when backstage at these festivals, do bands of certain genres tend to stick together - all the power metal bands in one corner, all the black metal bands in another, etc. Is there that kind of segregation?

Nils Eriksson: [Laughs] Not really! Hanging out backstage is more like, y'know, you've got the press area. you hang out there, do whatever... I guess you get to know bands that play in the same genre as you do, stuff like, "Heard your new album, sounds good, blah, blah, blah," and I guess to a certain extent it might be that way, but there's not really a segregation problem.

Maelstrom: What would you say has been your best live experience?

Nils Eriksson: Oh, so many. Playing Japan last year was really awesome, going onstage for the first time in Osaka, crowd just going nuts. I've never seen a wilder crowd, just screaming that much. Also playing Wacken two years ago was also brilliant. We went off, two shows into the tour and I don't think we'd slept in like three days. Stupid traveling schedule, so we had to go to the hotel, sleep for about two hours, then start going again, start driving, trying to sit down and sleep. Got there with an hour before we had to play and thinking that this was going to be madness, y'know, total crap. But then there was about ten or fifteen thousand people screaming, and with moments like that, you realise just how cool it is to be in a band.

Maelstrom: It says on the website that your favourite tour story was being trapped in a bubble at Dynamo festival. What was all that about?

Nils Eriksson: Ah, that's the other Nils [At this point, your reporter was utterly MORTIFIED]. We've got two Nils's. Well, actually we have four Nils's out of five [members] -- that's their second names. We've got two real Nils's and two fake Nils's [At this point, your reporter was utterly BAFFLED].

Maelstrom: I must have been given the wrong name by the record label then.

Nils Eriksson: Ah yes, they mix up the Nils's. Who knows? But [Dynamo] was a strange experience, I guess, that whole trip. It was one of the first bigger festivals we played. I don't know what he's talking about with the bubble, but he probably has some good reasons [laughs].

Maelstrom: It just sounded so bizarre. I can't remember seeing anything like that at Dynamo when I've been before...

Nils Eriksson: [Laughs] Yeah, who knows?

Maelstrom: Do the members of Nocturnal Rites still have their day jobs?

Nils Eriksson: Yeah. Not all of them actually. I'm in school right now, and some of them still have their jobs, sure.

Maelstrom: Do you ever regret the path you've chosen?

Nils Eriksson: Not really. I think we've got quite a healthy thing going with this band. The main thing for us, out kind of philosophy, is to always have fun and focus on that, never get too serious about ourselves. Music is basically about having fun and carrying out your passion, having a good time, and as long as you keep it on that level, you can't really go wrong. As long as you do that, you're not going to fall off the tracks and think, "Hey, this thing might be cool to try out, let's do something else, let's hop on this wagon," write nu-metal songs or whatever. Just so long as you do what you love, I don't think you can go wrong.

Maelstrom: Do any of the band members have current side projects?

Nils Eriksson: Fredrik and I both have a passion for 80's thrash metal like Kreator and Destruction and all that. We had a project that was in '97 or something, so that was a long time ago, called Guillotine. We made one record that was just pure fun. We just wrote songs for it and did it. That was just a fun thing.

Maelstrom: Do you have any aspirations for a dream festival bill or big hometown show?

Nils Eriksson: I don't know. We play a lot at home and we're actually doing it tomorrow night at a festival, so we can rule out the home town thing. It would be nice to sell out a stadium by ourselves, but that's going a bit far maybe!

Maelstrom: I don't think I could name many power metal bands that are what you would refer to as mainstream. Even though it's ear-friendly, it's not really popular in the mainstream sense.

Nils Eriksson: I think it's getting there, maybe in a couple of years. There are a few bands that do really well, especially in Germany. In Japan, power metal is kinda mainstream. I don't know whether that's good or bad, but it's getting bigger all over the world.

Maelstrom: Well, I see from your website that you have a tour booked and all, so best of luck with that, good luck with the album, and thanks for talking.

Nils Eriksson: Thank you.

The new Nocturnal Rites album, New World Messiah, is out now on Century Media.