LABYRINTH - Decisively Self-Titled Page 2
By Martin Popoff

This album most definitely moves away from standard power metal. Do you think it is a tougher, more serious sound?

"Yes, it's correct, and thank you! First of all, I'm not much of a fan of power metal music. When the band did an album like Return To Heaven Denied, the band came from a really different type of music. As I say, I'm a big fan of thrash metal but I'm also fan of Queensryche and Fates Warning, but I don't like bands like Stratovarius. But I think we have a really different singer from the singers who do power metal and classic metal. So Labyrinth is just that, really fast, sometimes a little bit prog. But I never want to play a power metal album; some songs are similar, although it's not voluntary. I think this album is more mature. All the people in the band are different now. It's something like a rebirth for the band, different cover, different artwork, different lyrics and of course different music. But I think it's a bit more mature, and I'm really happy about that. I don't want to be pegged as playing power metal, heavy metal, or speed metal, and it's the same for the other guys in the band."

Turns out that sentiment was part and parcel of Olaf exiting the Labyrinth. "It's maybe a clichˇ," explains Andrea, "but it was only for musical reasons. Olaf likes very much the power metal style. He doesn't have much of an open mind, thinking about the music. And during the writing sessions, he would say, 'OK Andrea, I know it's your music, your head, but I don't really like that,' and Olaf is one of my best friends and I have to say to him, OK, you have your own band, you have Vision Divine, you can play what you want with your band, but Labyrinth is totally different, it had six people. So I don't know, we can try to write something but something like six months went by without writing anything. So speaking with Olaf personally, we had made a decision. It was really difficult, because Olaf is an important person in the band, but I would prefer to have nothing than have a bad Olaf. So it's only musical reasons, nothing personal."

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