Spread the metal:
Interviewed by: Anders Sandvall
Thanks to Emil Westerdahl at Inner Wound Recordings for setting up the interview. Thanks to Inner Wound Recordings for the promo pictures of the band.
It’s now time for a new album from the Swedish band Axenstar. The bands previous album END OF ALL HOPE was released back in 2019 so it has taken the band a long time to unveil a new piece, but finally they are back again. This melodic power metal act has been around since 2001. Their new album CHAPTER VIII is their 8th and was released late last year. I had a talk with singer/bass player Magnus Winterwild about the new drummer, how the previous album END OF ALL HOPE went, the work with the new album CHAPTER VIII, where it was recorded and then some. If you want to read more see past interviews in Metal Rules. Read on to see what Magnus Winterwild had to say this time around. If you are into melodic power metal then Axenstar is something for you.
Hi Magnus how are you doing today? Last time we spoke was back in 2019 at the release of the END OF ALL HOPE album, are you ready for another round with metal-rules.com?
I’m just fine man, hope you are too! Absolutely!
First of all what were you up to during the pandemic? I mean, it was about 2.5 that was almost totally erased by the damn virus!
Well during that period the band was on half-speed I would say, since we wouldn’t see each other as often as prior to the pandemic.
Looking back on END OF ALL HOPE were you happy with the outcome? Was it greeted as you had expected by fans and critics?
Absolutely, the album was very well received I think, a bit of a shame that we didn’t get the chance to tour to support the release. But that’s history now.
The band signed a deal with Ram It Down Records which released END OF ALL HOPE; what’s the status with that label today, are they still active? Their website is down and they haven’t updated their Facebook page since 2020.
Well the label went out of business like in 2021 or something like that so I don’t have any more info on that.
In 2022 drummer Hampus Fasth left the band, why did he leave and was his departure expected?
Hampus wanted to pursue other things in life and didn’t feel he had the time he wanted to put in the band, so it was his decision to leave.
Pelle Åkerlind is the bands new drummer, how did he end up in the band?
We got in contact with Pelle through mutual friends, of course we knew of his work with bands like Morgana Lefay and Bloodbound so it was great to be able to recruit him to Axenstar.
Tell the readers about the release party you threw for END OF ALL HOPE in Västerås, how was it? And was the show the band did in Stockholm the same year all the touring that was done on that album?
It was awesome! A lot of friends and family came to see us so it was a really great and special show. Yeah that was it haha!
The new album CHAPTER VIII
When did you start to work on material to CHAPTER VIII?
I’m not really sure, I guess we had a couple of ideas already when we finished END OF ALL HOPE and we just continued to write more songs since we didn’t have much else to do due to the pandemic.
Is it you that has written all of the material or have you had help from anyone?
It’s mainly me and Jens that write our material nowadays.
It has taken the band quite a while to release a new album, was there anything besides the pandemic that made it take so long?
Well since we all get older, and wiser I might add, we tend to have more and more things to do outside the band, family, regular work etc. so the songwriting process takes longer and longer. But hey 5 years is not the longest time we have had between releases.
END OF ALL HOPE did really well, have you and the guys felt any pressure on delivering something extra ordinary this time around?
No not any pressure at all actually, we are just extremely fortunate to have been able to release 8 albums so far. So we just write music that we like and cross our fingers that our fans like it too.
Heavenly Symphony [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
Just like the previous album CHAPTER VIII contains 10 tracks, is 10 the magic number for Axenstar?
I don’t know, 10 seem like an even and nice number so I guess we feel happy with 10 songs, it usually mean that the total playing time of the album is long enough.
What are the longest songs “Holy Land” (6.01), “Eye For An Eye” (5.15) and “Through The Fire And Brimstone” (5.11) about?
Holy Land is about the crusaders, conquering and pillaging foreign lands. How they oppressed people and made them obey a new lord.
Eye For An Eye deals with the difficulties within a relationship, the longing after a loved one has left you.
Through The Fire And Brimstone is the story about native americans battling invaders that has superior weapons, how they stood up beside each other although facing almost certain death.
Compared with END OF ALL HOPE I feel that CHAPTER VIII feels a bit more melodic power metal in its music, do you agree with that?
Yeah well maybe, we always try to connect to the roots of the band and we have a very melodic history, maybe this time it’s more prominent that our previous release.
The song “Enchanted Lands” is strictly instrumental, how come you wanted to feature a piece with no vocals and is it the first time the band features a song like that on an album?
It’s not our first instrumental track, I think we have had 2 previously, but yeah I thought it would be nice to write a instrumental song and I came up with this cool melody that I just played around with and it ended up quite nice I think.
The Flame of Victory (OFFICIAL AUDIO)
How come you titled the album CHAPTER VIII, what’s the story behind the title?
Lack of ideas more or less, we had no idea what to call the album so we took the easy way out haha.
Rafael Tavares made the cover art work to the album, was he given free hands to create whatever he felt like and what do you think of his work?
We gave Rafael a bunch of ideas to start with and then worked together from his sketches to complete the final artwork, I think it turned out great! A lot of oldshool vibes.
Was the album recorded in Axenstar Studio or did you changed location this time?
Everything except the drums were recorded in our studio/rehearsal place. I think it gives us time to try out many different approaches to the songs so it’s gives us a lot of freedom in the songwriting and recording process.
Was the album produced by Pelle Saether or did you work with any other producer? The band have worked with him for over 20 years now is that correct?
Actually, we didn’t use Pelle this time, as you mention we have worked with him from our first release back in 2002 but this time we felt that we needed some change, not that we have ever been unhappy with Pelles work just that we wanted to try something new. So we ended up with Ronnie Björnstrand, we sent him the songs and gave him pretty much free hands to send us a test mix and it sounded great right away so the whole mixing and mastering procedure was really easy!
CHAPTER VIII was released at the end of December 2023 and received 4,5/5 from metal-rules.com, have you read reviews in other fanzines/magazines and do you care about what critics have to say about your work?
Yes of course we read the reviews hoping to get high scores, sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t but you can’t really put too
much energy on the bad reviews, just laugh at them and move on to the positive ones instead.
Are there any plans on touring or doing live shows now that the album is out?
Yeah we always want to play live for our fans so we’ll see what we can do, no extraordinary plans though right now.
Would you like to hit the roads to meet your fans?
Absolutely, can’t imaging anything better that playing for our fans!
The last time we spoke you said that Japan had showed a huge interest for Axenstar, have you heard anything on how CHAPTER VIII is doing over there?
I don’t know, I hope it’s receive well but we haven’t had that much feedback yet on the sales.
If we’re leaving the music and album chat for a brief while and focusing on a global issue, there is a war going on in the Ukraine and there are terrible things happening between Palestine and Israel, what are your thoughts regarding that?
Yeah it’s horrible, all kinds of war is so unnecessary in my opinion.
But money, power and religion has always been and will always be something that people will start wars over. It’s so sad and specially when you see how all the innocent children suffer.
What would you like to say to the ones who haven’t heard the music of Axenstar yet?
If you haven’t heard Axenstar yet you have missed out on 8 awesome albums, you get speed, power, great melodies and everything you can wish for!
Could you give the readers three reasons why they should buy CHAPTER VIII?
This latest release has a perfect mix of the old and the new Axenstar sound, the production is top notch and you get 10 classic metal anthems!
Well that was all for me and metal-rules.com for now. Thanks for taking the time making this interview, I think CHAPTER VIII is a brilliant piece and it would be awesome to see the band live on stage soon! Do you have any words of wisdom to share with fans and readers?
Thanks so much for your support and make sure you support your local metal scene! That’s where the magic of music happens!
www.axenstar.com
Facebook / Instagram
Label: www.innerwound.com
Facebook / Youtube
Band Camp Page
