"Beyond The Reach Of Enchantment" is your second album. How did the writing process compare to your debut, "With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel"?
Our songwriting has matured a bit, we've grown more comfortable with our music and that also enabled us to expand a bit and dive into more variety. We were doing a lot of things for the first time with “Windfyre Steel”, we had no idea how it would do, success to us would have been managing to print out a few vinyl copies and sell them here in Iceland hahah. This time we know a bit better what works and what doesn't, and we were able to do that in a more structured way.
What was the main goal when you started working on "Beyond The Reach Of Enchantment"?
Building on what we did for the first album, just do everything more epic, more dramatic and more fun! Our first album was so well received and we've had so much fun hearing from our fans, we were really excited to release some more material and continue on that journey, fully embracing our own sound.
How did the songwriting process differ compared to "With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel"?
This time we were able to go at it with more of a plan in mind, for example we commissioned the artwork before we'd really written any of the songs, which helped give us a visual guide to keep everything unified while we were writing. The rest of it came pretty naturally I would say, pulling in different inspirations from all around and deciding what themes and topics we would address.
The album sounds more developed, was that a conscious direction or something that came naturally?
I'd say it's just something that came about naturally. The main goal is always to create something that we think is fun and interesting. We definitely wanted to build towards a more mature sound and experiment a bit more with our own sound, but a lot of these things come naturally as well while we're writing the songs.
What was it like having Tommy Johansson featured on "The Arcane Tower"?
Following the release of our first album Tommy reached out to us because he's a huge fan of the genre and he really liked our album. Since then we've stayed a bit in touch, so when the time came to think about whether we wanted some guest artists on the record he was the first name on the list. An absolutely amazing singer and a song like “The Arcane Tower”, with a lot of power and emotion in it, was just perfect for him. He really delivered something special.
Several band members, including you, Ingi, and Bjarni Egill, co-produced the album. How important is it for Power Paladin to keep creative control over the production?
It's really important to us. We have a lot of fun layering multiple voices and sounds in our songs and having members of the band involved in production lets us chase exactly the sound we're hearing in our heads. We're also fortunate to have a lot of talented people around us, so working with them has been no problem at all. Take the music video for “Sword Vigor” for example, we wanted to do that with Andri because he understands our kind of humour and what we wanted to go for, and I think it worked out pretty well.
Haukur Hannes mixed the album and Frank De Jong mastered it. How did their involvement shape the massive sound of the new songs?
Haukur and Frank are so talented at what they do and working with them on the first album was a blast, so there was no question in our minds that we wanted to work with them again on this album. We don't make it easy for them at least hahah.
The new album is described as a more mature and refined sound. What specific musical elements did you focus on expanding this time around?
Power metal offers such a wide variety of styles to work with and we want to incorporate every aspect we love about heavy metal into our music. Our first album was a bit of homage to the power metal genre itself. This time we wanted to expand that sound and make it our own, leaning a bit more into classic and thrash metal influences. The keyboards had to take a step back on a few songs, like “Sword Vigor” and “Keeper Of The Crimson Dungeon”, to let the guitars breathe. Ultimately it comes down to what fits each song best.
You draw a lot of inspiration from fantasy worlds. Are there specific books, games, or myths that directly inspired the lyrics on tracks like "Glade Lords Of Athel Loren" or "Keeper Of The Crimson Dungeon"?
I'm definitely influenced by whatever I've got going on at any point when writing the music. Around this album I was reading a bit of Spider-Man comics, Baldur's Gate 3 definitely had an influence, and I was reading a lot of Joe Abercrombie as well. “Glade Lords” of Athel Loren is taken directly from a game of Warhammer that me and our bassplayer Krilli played with each other.
The final track, "Valediction", clocks in at over nine minutes. What was the vision behind creating such an epic closing song?
“Valediction” probably best represents the spirit of the album for us. It has a bit of everything we're doing on this record, thrashy influences, epic choruses, layered vocals and dramatic passages. We wanted a closer that could pull all of those threads together and send the album off with the kind of scale and drama that a nine-minute epic gives you.
It’s also very refreshing but humour completely to the side once in a while and try to create an authentic track that´s more grounded.
Coming from Iceland, how does the local metal scene respond to your fantasy-driven power metal style?
We definitely stand out in a scene that's a lot more focused on death and black metal, but I see that as nothing but strength. Iceland has a great music scene and a bit of variety helps everyone in it. We've always been very well received by the more extreme metal scene here in Iceland, it's a small country and we're good friends with a lot of the bands, everybody appreciates everyone else. A lot of those friendships also bleed into the music, like Óskar who does the harsh vocals on our album.
For which part of the album are you most proud of as a band?
Honestly, how it all hangs together as one piece. We put a lot of heart into this record and so far it's been very well received, so we're really proud of the outcome. We also had a lot of trouble choosing singles for this album and I think that's been reflected in the reception, everybody's favourite songs are different, which is really nice to see.
How do you see Power Paladin evolving after this release and what are your expectations?
We've never put ourselves under any kind of pressure, we're just writing music that speaks to us and it's great to hear that it works for other people as well. Honestly, as a band we've already reached every goal we ever set out for ourselves from the start, so I don't think there's anything that could let us down with this release. Everything from here on out is only a plus. Hopefully people like it as much as we do, and if our music makes people's lives just that bit better then that's success to me.
With the album released, what are your touring plans to bring these new metal anthems to the fans?
We always want to get out there and play. We just finished our release concert in Iceland which was a blast, then we're heading to Warriors Of Steel in Norway in May and Sátan here in Iceland in the summer. On top of that we've been getting a few offers for 2027 following the release of the album, including Epic Fest in Denmark. Hopefully we'll be able to see a lot of you out there. With great power comes great metal!
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