Hi Erik, I would like to thank you for your new album.

Well, thank you for doing this interview!

What are your first impressions about your new album? What do you think that it may contribute to your career that the previous didn’t?

I think we succeeded in doing what we set out to do, and that is one damn heavy album. On this album we wanted to make it clear that we were never some cheesy fantasy so-called power metal band, but the real, heavy deal. So there's a lot of determination in this album and it's all a bit more "to-the-point" than previously.

Is there an audience that you would like to attract; is there a market that you aim with this new album? In general what are your aims with this album?

We don't aim at any specific audience. I believe that everybody who likes good rock and metal music should find something of interest in our stuff. But of course that's not really up to me to say much about. I'm too close to the whole thing to give any objective insight into the impressions people might get from the music. But generally we don't want to limit ourselves too much. I think this whole genre-definition thing has taken on absurd proportions. When I grew up, it was all just "metal", and that's about all that I can guarantee about our music. We won't limit ourselves because the "power metal" crowd may not like this, or the "prog" crowd may not like that. We will do whatever it takes to get our points across in the most effective way.

I feel that there is a lot of effort put in "The Shadow Cabinet", am I right? Can you give us a few details for the composition and the production processes?

You have no idea how much work - it's silly, actually, 'cause a lot of the stuff might have worked well in a simpler way, but that's the price you pay for being a perfectionist. But to cast a little light on the process...it starts with the lyrics. I put a lot of work into the lyrics as they are the backbone of the whole thing. They determine the mood of the songs and are the frame on which the songstructures are built. After lyrics come the melodies and chords. And only then do I start doing rhythm programming, guitarriffs, orchestral parts and so on. So it's a very long, and maybe strange way to do it, but the music is very "song-oriented" - we're not really a "riff-band". Then when I've done a demo of the album, I send it to the other guys for them to learn the songs and bring their input. This time we again recorded in different studios - for practical and financial reasons - and then assembled it all at Tommy Hansen's Jailhouse Studios.

Your music is multi-faceted and therefore difficult to be described. You have power, speed, progressive, folk and a God knows what else. Which one of these facets is stronger in "The Shadow Cabinet"?

Depends on your genre-definitions of course. If by "power" you mean "Euro-power-metal", then I don't think we have much of that to offer. If you mean actual "power", then that might be the key thing on this album - it's mean, heavy and dark, at least more so than our previous albums. So to me it's heavy metal of a somewhat experimental nature.

I will not ask to categorize yourselves, but I really would like to know which kind of music do you prefer from all these.

Again, it depends on how you use these terms. Yes, we try to be very powerful, we play fast sometimes (we like that a lot actually...), and we have that folkish vibe. I don't really see ourselves as being all that progressive - at least that has never been the main goal. I just think it might seem that way when you compare us to a lot of other bands, who unfortunaly seem to set very tight limits to themselves and seem to be afraid to try anything unexpected. I mean, there are a lot of tools in the box and we're not afraid to use them - but I don't know if that should be considered progressive. We don't really aim to change the world of music, we just want to move and excite people.

What are the main differences between "The Shadow Cabinet" and your previous albums?

The material is fresher. The first three albums were written during one period, the new one is written later. That means the songwriting and arranging has been a bit more spontaneous, and the songstructures are a bit simpler. I think that factor was already present on our last album, where the two first ones were at bit contrived sometimes. On this one I really think the songs flow naturally. But most of all, it's just simply our heaviest album to date, I mean, it's still very melodic, but it's really fast and furious at times.

I also see that your addiction with trilogies is still here. Can you give us a few details about the story unfolding in "The Shadow Cabinet"’s "Apathy Divine" three-piece track?

Eh?? I thought there were only two parts of Apathy Divine - "Faith" and "Snow"!!? *hehe* It’s just that I put the song "Envy" in between those two. Anyway, I don't feel any special addiction to trilogies - it's rather coincidental, I never decide to make a trilogy, it just happens. But about the theme - "Apathy Divine" is something about losing faith and trying to find something to hold on to. About how easy it would be to just give up. I guess it may be the theme for the whole album, you know, the dark forces that rule our lives, the shadow side of being human - and how we can manage to hold on and maybe even turn these things to our advantage.

First you had a three-album saga, now you have a three-part track. Is there something special behind number three?

Yes, as you know from Monty Python, King Arthur couldn't say "three", but always said "five"...HAHAHA!! "Three shall be the number thou shalt count, being the third number be reached...not two nor four...five is RIGHT OUT!!!" BWAHAHAH!!! ...Sorry! No, as the lyrics say somewhere: "there is no masterplan". It just happened.

While all your previous covers were sort of fantasy-based, this time you have a very dark one. Can you tell us also a few things about it?

Yeah, the cover didn't turn out completely like we wanted - we have these issues with the recordlabels every time - but I think it's kinda cool. The idea was to have a cover that didn't say "fantasy power metal", because that's not what we're about - it never was. And since we had made an effort to distance the music from that waning genre, we had to do the same with the cover, of course. It suits the darkness of the lyrics, and you don't really know what you get. I like that. Anyway, the basic material for the cover was made by the artist Annika von Holdt, and our dear manager Claus Jensen did the layout stuff. And it has a raven on it - yes!

I notice that during the last few years there is an "upgrade" of Danish metal scene. I think that Danish metal scene is one of the contenders for the informal title of "quality meets quantity" in metal. Do you have an explanation for this?

Not really - and I'm probably not the right person to ask, as I don't listen to a lot of new metal, and not many of the Danish bands have grabbed my attention. But generally I think you're right - I remember some years ago, there were only a few death metal bands - and us. Now at least the scene is quite diverse, which is good - the rest is a matter of taste, of course. I listen to a lot more Finnish bands, they must have something in the water up there! Actually - and this will sound corny - I think that when you get up north, and it's cold, and there's a long way to everything, there's a great incitement to stay in your room and practice. No wonder then, that Sweden and Finland - and to some extent Norway - have so many great musicians. And they have restrictions on alcohol...haha...in Denmark it's like: should we stay here and practice, or should we go downtown and get pissed?! I don't know, but you're right - the Danish scene is better than it was.

Are there any plans for the new winter touring season or are you going to play only in selected events and venues?

As always, I can't really see how we should be able to finance a tour, but I definitely hope and believe that we will play more shows in the future, at least we work on that. There are some things planned, but I have no details at the moment.

With all these DVDs around us, are you ever tempted to produce a DVD for Wuthering Heights? Can you imagine how it would be, what it could contain etc?

Well, we were meant to release a DVD of our performance at the ProgPower festival. But then the label decided against it, and the concert will only be made available as a bonus CD with the US version of the new album. And that's a damn shame - 'cause even though it was ever only intended as a sort of souvenir for those who were there - 'cause it's really not very good...hehehe - it would definitely have made more sense as a DVD, as a CD it has very little purpose. I don't know about the future - we haven't really got a lot of stuff in the archives that we could release - at least not on film. But maybe there will be, if we get some cool gigs. As with our music, anything is possible.

Dear Erik, thank you very much for talking to our webzine. We wish you all the best with "The Shadow Cabinet".

Thank you! Hope you continue to enjoy the album.