[Barren Earth – Written In the Stars] “The camaraderie is pretty good, though I wouldn’t say that ‘relaxed’ would be the archetypal Finnish state of being. We are quite a colorful bunch of people, since there are guys from various musical backgrounds and of various political dispositions. Every once in a while, minor arguments do appear, either musical or political. But that’s just good! It’s a sign that we’re getting to know each other even better.” - Kasper Mårtenson

[Borknagar – The Pulse Is Still Genuine] “One of the challenges of being a band like ours that suits the progressive elements and has been around longer than 10 years is you actually progress, but at the same time, there are so many bands that leave their identity. For me, it’s important from time-to-time to see where we are, to see if the anchor is still there. On this album, absolutely, I wanted to go back to the old songs and try to find some of elements from the past, like, what made The Olden Domain a good album? We don’t compromise it, and it’s no fun if you recycle old riffs and ideas.” - Øystein G. Brun

[She Said Destroy – Bleeding the Fifth] “The lyrics are about escapism. When shit gets tough, and it does often enough, you can always rely on your fantasy, movies, books etc to save the day. In Bleeding Fiction, our hero gets so fed up with the real world he decides to become one with fiction. It’s kinda like something Rush could have come up with. Rush meets-The Last Action Hero with Arnold Schwarzenegger.” - Anders

[Pharaoh - Shining Power Beacon Part II] “There are so many more entertainment options that are competing for your dollar. It’s a complicated thing - it’s easier and easier to record an album cheaper on your own, so despite the fact that album sales are at an all-time low, record production is at an all-time high. This suggests from an economic point of view that the people who are willing to create the content are willing to do it for less than nothing, because you put in all of this money on your own for no gain. For myself, I don’t have any expectations to make any money from Pharaoh - fortunately we do make a little money it’s enough to put in the band account for shirts, fly people around for promotional pictures, it’s there.” – Matt Johnsen

[Pharaoh - Shining Power Beacon Part I] “I can play a lot of things that don’t sound like Pharaoh at all and make it work. I have a lot of stuff in reserve in the riff grab bag that I haven’t found a way to make it work for the band yet. As for The Police influence, that’s been there from the beginning. There are some distinctive chord changes that Andy Sumners uses that I’ve incorporated into every song I’ve written for the band. It may be a clean part that has a lot of chorus on it or delay, and that’s all Andy influenced. He’s my number one guitarist for my whole entire life.” – Matt Johnsen

[Arctic Plaeatu – That Which Will Never Die] “You can't play in Arctic Plateau only for your personal convenience or your personal curriculum vitae. Arctic Plateau is a different reality - musicians that play with me have also their personal benefits, sure, but you can be honest and I'll be honest with you. As I said, I'm not a fucking rock star and I don't wanna be a rock star. I do not want be recognized at all costs when I leave my home in the morning or simile bullshit!” - Gianluca Divirgilio

[Pallbearer – Grief Offerings] “There were quite a few, primarily finding the time to get everything finished on the recording. We all lived several hours away from Chuck’s [Schaaf, drums] studio at the time and it was difficult to coordinate the recording sessions to get everything just right. Plus, we could have been better prepared to approach the album from a professional production standpoint. In the early sessions we probably spent a little too much time getting wasted, which in itself was a time waster, as we had to go back and re-track a few things that didn’t quite turn out the way we planned while under the influence.” - Joseph Rowland

[Avatar – Hell Is Where the Heart Is] “It’s something that’s original to me, simply because at the end of the day, I want to be able to tour and do albums and pay people, while getting some decent pay for it [laughs]. But only on the terms I feel I’m entitled for and we create something that’s relevant. In that sense, it would be bullshit on our side if we went ‘Oh, that band is successful, let’s jump on that bandwagon, let’s follow that trend.’ Or, ‘I liked that band growing up, let’s sound like them.’ None of those two paths make much sense to me.” - Johannes Eckerström

[In Solitude - Channeling the Ghost of Change] “Well, in all genuine artistry there’s an ever ongoing evolution at work. There are a lot of factors playing their parts in this. Especially if you initiate this process on such an early age as we did. I mean, In Solitude has been a present creative ‘waterhole’ for us since we were kids, more or less. We've been growing up together within the confines of In Solitude. And I think the process of ‘becoming’ really shines through in In Solitude. Vulnerable, naked and ready for what destroys us...” - Hornper

[Enthroned – Devilishly Spontaneous] “For us, most of the time the money isn’t the problem because we usually don’t have to pay for anything. We just have to pay in advance for our visas. The problem is the US government [laughs]. It’s actually gotten worse than Russia. What I mean by that is Russia makes you fill out like five or six pages of questions for an interview so you can cross over their borders. After you fill out all those pages, they give you a paper saying you can cross over their borders and there are no real problems. In the United States, sometimes they say, ‘Okay! Here is your visa and you can come over our border!’ - Nornagest

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