Truls Haugen: Well, the band got a steady line-up in 2002 after years without a bass player and a keyboard player, when Glen (bass) and Espen (keyboards) joined the band. Actually, Michael (vocals, not guitarist, as the promo say…hehe), Mats (guitar) and myself (the drummer) has played together for almost ten years under different band names. My brother and I started about two years before that, I believe it was in 93, when we were just covering our favourite Metallica and Megadeth songs and hoping to be signed one day. After recording three/four demos, the last one got us signed, and got us in touch with Danish based management, Intromental in 2004. I guess the rest is history….

Truls Haugen/Glen Mollen: All of us have different taste. Everything from Death Metal, melodic rock, pop to classical music. We all love the progressive metal sound, but our sound comes from a mixture of different inspirations. These variations in music taste, is probably what has given us our own unique sound and style.

Glen Mollen: If one should try to narrow it down to just a few words, I would say that the music consists of melodic progressive metal, mixed with elements of somewhat technical playing parts and hard hitting riffs.

Truls Haugen: All I can say is that it’s a progressive metal album, with good accessible melodies, hard hitting in your face riffs, a little bit of prog rock and big epic songs… I am very pleased with the result and the public seems also very pleased.

Glen Mollen: Well, the whole recording process started in July 2004, when the drum tracks where laid down, during a five day studio booking at Top Room Studios, about one hour outside Oslo. As the songs for the album where not yet fully written and/or composed, so both Truls and Mats where in for a somewhat stressful and time demanding five day period, when it came to recording and deciding where the drum tracks would lead. The result, for my part, was an awesome seven-track drum recording that set the standard for the rest of the recording period. When all the drums had been laid down, the guitar and keyboard recordings started in Lionheart Studio & Productions, and the bass recordings where laid down in my personal studio at home, Noise Gate Studios. As the time went along, the songs took more and more shape, with adding and removing parts to the already growing arrangements. When the instruments had been recorded finished, the time had come to put down all the voices. Here is where (as on big parts of the album actually), the lyrics and vocal melodies had to be made as we went along, considering that the songs had only been written and recorded instrument wise, days before the vocal session started. So Michael really had to bee 100% focused, and make sure every take counted. And not to make any less pressure on all the band members, we knew on beforehand of the whole recording, that mixing of the album was already booked in Denmark at Jailhouse Studios with Tommy Hansen, with a deadline closing in. So to sum up the last day of recording, the last voice parts where laid down 2-3 hours before we where taking the boat over to Denmark...hehe.... Looking back on the recording session now, we sit with a lot of useful knowledge of what to do...and especially what NOT to do in this setting. Hopefully the next studio album will be a less stressful experience, if we are going to survive some years in this industry... But, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right?
Truls Haugen: Righto!

Glen Mollen: As you mentioned, Tommy Hansen has a reputation for being an awesome man of vision when it comes to producing, mixing etc etc... And when our management as well is personal friends with him from before, we were grateful and excited to have Tommy put his magic touch on the album we had been working our asses off on. As for the outcome after the mix, I can say no more than incredible! The man is a genius!

Glen Mollen: When it comes to the compositions instrument wise, we all take part in the process, although the main stuff comes from Mats, sitting at home trying out ideas, or through regular jamming at band rehearsals. Some ideas also have been drawn in from old ideas when Mats, Truls and Michael where a trio, and been built out from there. When a platform is created, the individual instrument/voices gets thought out separately or by presenting ideas to each other on things that would sound cool.

Truls Haugen: Most of the lyrics are written by Mats, Michael and myself. I can only speak for my part here since I can’t get into Mike’s or my brother’s head…hehe My lyrics is mostly based on things I have experienced myself. Take the song" Why am I here?" for example is about a dream I had when I was a kid. I dreamt that I woke up several times without waking up. Scared the crap out of me! The lyrics for "The 1^st chapter" is based on the cover that Mattias Norên made. Not a real life experience that one…. I guess the rest of the lyrics are just good stories,

Glen Mollen: My favourite track is the opening track Sin, because I am a fan of stuff /music that is hard hitting, with lots of power, and of course good melodies. This song is from start to finish with a high intensity, and that sits well with me.
Truls Haugen: I gotta agree on that one… We like the heavy stuff!

Glen Mollen: For my part there are so many, but I can name a few: Vulgar Display of Power (Pantera), Countdown To Extinction (Megadeth), Scenes From A Memory (Dream Theater), Awake (Dream Theater), The Divine Wings Of Tragedy (Symphony X), And Justice For All (Metallica)...and the list goes on and on....hehe

Glen Mollen: I think its cool that there are so many bands coming out of Norway these day, making notice in the international marked. Good friends of ours( Pagans Mind) for example, has done really well these last years, producing cool progressive metal album after album. International wise, the metal scene has always been good I think, even in the period where lame ass genres like R&B and stuff was introduced. I think people who dig metal/rock have a more loyal state of mind, and don’t drift so much back and forth as the regular Top 40,whats popular today, people do. Metal has come to stay!

Glen Mollen: As far as we know now, the only 100% gigs that are set up are Release party 14 May, concert with Danish band Manticora in August, and Progpower festival in Atlanta, USA in September. Other than that, the record sale probably has a lot to do with how the near future, touring wise, will look. We’ll just have to cross our fingers and hope for a good response.

Glen Mollen: Well, strange ...I don’t know.. I can tell you that when we arrived in Denmark at Tommy Hansen’s studio, and he uploaded the files we had brought from the recordings, Tommy immediately said...well....I cant do much with this... It turned out that various parts of the drum tracks where missing for some reason. So we nervously contacted the studio we had recorded the drum track in, only to discover that he had had a computer crash days before, and all the tracks where lost. As a last solution , we called our keyboardist, who was still back in Oslo, and luckily he had all the drum tracks saved on his computer. He sent his hard drive+ everything on DVD’s down with FedEx shipping, and we had the last four days out of total seven days there to do the mix. Of course Tommy had mixed some guitars/bass/keyboards etc in the meantime, but the full mix started after three/three and a half days of waiting. The last song got finished two ,three hours before the boat was leaving the docks in Denmark for the return to Norway. One can say that stress is something we encountered a couple of times in the making of this album.

Glen Mollen: Well, I hope you all will enjoy listening to our debut album, The 1st Chapter, and hopefully we will be lucky enough to come to France to play for you all one day! Hopefully very soon! We are very grateful that you take interest in our music Candice, and all the best to you and your listeners. Stay metal! Metal Choc kicks ass!