Axenstar is a power metal band from Sweden, who released their first album in 2002 and have just released their sixth album, Where Dreams Are Forgotten – check out our review here. We caught up with singer/bassist Magnus Winterwild for a chat – see what happened below!
You’ve just released your new album Where Dreams Are Forgotten – can you describe your writing and recording process that you went through for this release?
We have spent the time writing since our last release Aftermath in 2011 and I think that we really have managed to write 11 strong songs and it really feels like a band effort this time. All the guys in the band have contributed to the songwriting and put their touch on every song so I believe that we have done everything in our powers to make every song as good as it can be. As usual we turned to Pelle Saehter and Studio Underground for the recording of the album and Pelle has done a great job with the engineering and mixing and the recording process went really smooth.
Were there any songs that were more of a challenge to get right?
No not really, maybe we tried different tempos a few times on some songs before we got it right but we know pretty well what we can do and what we can’t so we stay within our limitations so to speak.
Which one are you most proud of?
It’s hard to say I think that every song on the album has something special, but maybe I would say the first song on the album Fear which we also chose to do a video for. That song is pretty old-school Axenstar with a modern touch so that would be my choice if I had to pick one.
Inside The Maze is perhaps my favourite – what can you tell me about that one?
I think that song was written pretty late in the songwriting process and the story is about a guy who is deceived by a ‘female being’ to kiss her and after that he’s trapped in her world and he is struggling to find a way out.
Any interesting stories from the studio?
The most “interesting” story was that I got a cold so I couldn’t start the vocalrecordings when I was supposed to so we had to postpone it a couple of days, it’s kind of strange that when you know that you really need to stay healthy somehow you often turn out sick haha.
Moving onto live shows, how would you describe an Axenstar show to someone who hasn’t seen you live yet?
We try to put 100% into every live-performance since that is what we would like to get from a band that we had paid to see.
What would you say the best show you’ve played has been?
It’s hard to say which one is the best but the Sweden Rock Festival is by far the biggest show we have ever played.
And the strangest or weirdest?
Maybe the show in London we did in 2010, the first thing we saw when we got backstage was a big dead rat… so we chose another dressing room.
If you could play anywhere, where would it be?
I would love to play at Wacken Open Air in Germany because I think that’s the biggest and most prestigious metal festival right now.
And finally if Axenstar could put their name to a product, what would it be?
I honestly have no idea! It would be fun to have Axenstar condoms though…
