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Freternia are:
Pasi Humppi - Lead vocals
Tomas Wäppling – Guitars
Martin Tilander – Drums
Peter Wiberg – Bass
Tommie Johansson – Keyboards
We contact the Swedih Metal act
Freternia.They just released their second album called "A Nightmare Story" which
in m opinion has the same energy of their previous album "Warchants & Fairytales" but even more technical.This new album is based
in a original story of the band, so expect no less than a great record. Hereīs what
Tomas, lead guitar of the band, talked with us.
1.-When does the
story of Freternia as a band begins?
The story of Freternia begins
in the summer of 1998. It was a reformation of a earlier band that me and Patrik Lund
started back in 1995. The original lineup: Patrik Lund-Guitars, Bo Pettersson-Guitars,
Tomas Wäppling-Vocals, Peter Wiberg-Bass & Stefan Svantesson-Drums.
2.-Which are your main influences?
I can only speak for myself about this question. I grew up with Heavy Metal. But when I
started to play the guitar I listened to bands like Slayer, Annihilator, Kreator etc.
later on I also began to play some Death Metal. Today I only listen to Heavy Metal even
though I like many things in this kind of music. I guess I have found some inspiration in
all genres during the years, and that reflects in our music as well.
3.-In your opinion which are the differences
between the new album "A Nightmare Story" and your debut album
"Warchants & Fairytales"?
It is always hard for the songwriter to tell what has changed in the way that he writes
music but I would say that the songs on "A Nightmare Story" are much better than
the ones on "W&F". We have improved as musicians and also as songwriters.
The material is much more varied this time, both between songs but also for each specific
tune. Listen to songs like "The Unexpected" which has got a touch of the 80īs
and and compare it to songs like "Battle Of Minds", a quite hard almost thrashy
track.We have spent a lot more time to arrange the songs on "ANS" and that can
be heard very clearly.But the maindifferences would in my opinion be the riffs, the new
tunes are more riffbased than the old ones and also a bit heavier.
4.-"A
nightmare Story" is a concept album ŋwhat's the story about?
This story tells about a man who keeps dreaming the same dream night after night. He hear
voices and strange creatures that seem to tell him something that at this point he cannot
really understand. Slowly a pattern can be seen in all this and finally he finds out that
when a human being is asleep he can travel through a dreamportal and enter the
"dreamworld". So he decides to make the journey and in this world all these
strange creatures and voices take shape and becomes a reality on life and death. |
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5.-How did you decide to sign with
Arise Records?
We have worked earlier with Arise records through our old recordcompany LNP so we knew
about them and they knew about us. When LNP went out of business we had this idea of
making a concept album so we got in touch with them and sent them some promomaterial, then
we had to compare their offer to what other offers we had. As we knew that they were a
serious hardworking label Arise seemed to be the best choice for us at the moment.
6.-Wich has been you're biggest concert so
far and what can you tell us about it?
I think that nothing beats our gig in France so far, this summer we had a performance at
Sweden Rock Festival but it was far from the feeling we got in Paris even though the
weather was nice and the beer was cold. We are used to play here in Sweden, and letīs say
that maybe 50 people come to each show. In France 6-700 people showed up and they were
really fantastic, we had a great evening.
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Freternia |
7.-Many so called "swedish war metal"
bands have appeared lately. This bands use to perform a power/heavy metal with a lot
more strength than the usual power metal ones.I think you are one of those
along with bands such as Steel Attack and Lost horizon.Don you think so?
I’ve never heard the expression "War Metal" before…but if you ask me I
would say that we have a more raw attitude in our music than some other powermetalbands.
This time we were afraid the material would be too heavy, but the final result had a fine
balance and maybe we could have been even harder. Letīs see how things will sound on our
third album. We have some interesting ideas to work with already.
8.-ŋDo you think we can talk about a
"swedish power metal" as we call certain bands like "german power
metal" ones?
Actually I donīt think so, there are a lot of German metalbands who has
got this kind of sound as well. Running Wild & Blind Guardian to mention a few. Today
it is almost impossible to find your own style but our intention is to find a sound that
can be recognized as the "Freterniasound". I am not sure that we have found it
yet and even if we have I would like to try some new ways in the future.
9.- Are you planning a tour to promote your
new album?
We would love to make a promotiontour but nothing is planned for this so
far. Right now we are rehearsing for a life on the road so letīs se if it happens.
10.-"A nightmare's Story" cover was
made by J.P.Fournier(known for his work with Edguy), are you satisfied with his work?
Yes, we are very satisfied with his work, the cover is based upon the
concept and the characters on the painting is something that we have discussed with Mr.
Fournier. We sent him all the lyrics and the conceptual story and told him what characters
we wanted on the cover. I feel that he has really captured the emotion of the lyrics in
his painting.
11.-How did you get to work with him?
and is he the one who designed the new band logo?
When it was time to discuss the coverpainting with Arise we were offered to
use JP. Fournier. From the beginning we wanted Andreas Marschall, but after working with
Jean Pascal I think that we might use him on the next album as well.
Yes, he also designed the new logo for us. I think it looks great.
12.-Thanks a lot for the interview. Any last
words for our readers?
Thanks for a great interview! If you havenīt heard of Freternia yet
you should definitely listen to "A Nightmare Story", especially if you are into
powerful Heavy Metal.
"In the darkest of dreams, trust noone but yourself"
Tomas
www.freternia.com
freternia@freternia.com
Interviewed by Bossk
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