DESTYNATION - Cold-fired Power From The North! Page 2
by Martin Popoff

And no recording bands before Eternia?

"No, not really, but before the Eternia days Magnus, Daniel and Patrik used to play in a punk rock band and I was in a King Diamond cover band called Nypon & Blylod - the name had nothing to do with King Diamond. We participated on a King Diamond tribute album called Church Of The Devil for Dwell Records, but we did also record some of our own material too and managed to create a five song demo. And later signed with LNP Records who unfortunately went out of business shortly after. I think this is the only recording project worth mentioning, as it's the only project which after all gained a small amount of feedback from around the world, mostly coming from King Diamond fans. But still, besides these bands we've played in many different bands in different genres before joining forces in 1996."

I asked Ronny to articulate the Destynation sound in contrast to that of Eternia. "We try to focus more on the melodies thanks to Andy's incredible great and melodic clean voice. We also want to make it as heavy as we possibly can and in some aspects we managed this, but I can tell you that some of the songs for the next album are really heavy... and I mean heavy (laughs). This is the way we always wanted it to sound. Almost like Europe but with a heavier punch and more attitude. We wanted to add more keyboards but since we're still searching for a keyboard player we didn't want to over-do it in order to maintain a similar sound when performing live."

Ronny seems to agree with my comparison of his band to the cult classic Nocturnal Rites. "Sure, I would definitely say that our sound is a mix between Dream Evil and Nocturnal Rites, with a touch of Europe." (Note: if that last rankles a bit, realize that this band has more in common with the crushing and under-rated self-titled debut from the Countdown band, and not the later commercial fare). "I think that we succeeded to create our own sound instead of being one of those 'copycats' because we have never been trying to copy anything. We write whatever we feel like and we only write stuff that we find exciting, melodic and cool. Some people might not think the same; some may hate our music and call us copycats but that's just a matter of taste. Who knows... maybe I think their music is the worst ever?! Who is right, who is wrong? I think we're all right. I think that Andy's voice reminds people of Anders Zackrisson, Joey Tempest or Olaf Hayer and therefore draws the parallel to these bands. Although if you listen harder you can sense some King Diamond influences, Crimson Glory, Queensryche... even bands like Death have inspired many of us both as musicians and songwriters."

DESTYNATION - Cold-fired Power From The North! Page 3