MER: Hello Magnus and thank you for finding the time for an interview for Metal Express Radio. First I want to say congrats on your new album and good luck supporting it – it’s a more than fine release. How is it going with you and Cryonic Temple?
Magnus Thurin: Everything is going great! Now we are planning a tour and the video for “Standing Tall” shall soon be ready.
MER: As one of the new members in Cryonic Temple, how does it feel being in such a band? How is your relationship with the other members?
Magnus: It feels good; I have known the guys for a couple of years. I have been in another band with Esa, and Leif and I were in the band Lunatic Parade together before the founder of that band decided to put it on ice. So it feels just great. The relationships with the other members are also great. We, of course, have our differences as everyone else from time to time, but that also is a part of the progression of the band.
MER: You have replaced the band’s early vocalist, Glen Metal, have you had any feeling that you are filling his big shoes?
Magnus: Not really to be honest, and we are rather different in our vocal style, he’s a great guy and singer, and there’s always people that have problems when things change, but I think we’ve done the best Cryonic Temple album this far. Moreover, I have always been confident about my vocal abilities but sure that I said he is a great person and singer but I feel that I have no problem with the old tunes so everything works smoothly.
MER: Cryonic Temple released its 4th album this year and while I was reviewing it, I couldn’t help but notice that the band had gone through a certain change, both musically and lyrically, why have you undergone such a phase? Why now?
Magnus: Well I think it’s a part of the natural progress of the band, and as new members join the band it opens up for changes in many ways. There are new influences from different musical directions as well as we’re a new group of people that have different opinions about what is good and what is not and so on. As for the lyrics, that is mostly my doing, although Esa has a couple of tracks where we kept his lyrics. I respect their earlier work but I find myself having trouble writing lyrics about fantasy and knights and so on…. and as I write the main part of the lyrics that’s why it has taken that direction.
MER: While listening to the lyrics I found out that the themes are a bit different from previous albums. Now I know that bands tend to change their themes for various reasons. Let’s take Nostradamus, also from Sweden, when they issued their last release, they said that all the members went through difficult times. What has happened, if something did, in Cryonic Temple?
Magnus: Ha-ha… As I said earlier it is more or less just the natural progress of the band and as I write the main part of the lyrics and I often write about the human mind and our dilemmas and dark thoughts and positive sides. It’s here we ended up. Of course, I’ve seen a lot and been through things that reflect my writing. However, there are songs that have more “regular” lyrics, as “Standing Tall” for example, but then again you can look at that one from different angles too. Nevertheless, I can say that none of us have been through some particularly hard times right now for this album.
MER: The album’s title is Immortal and that is a strong title, is there any special meaning for it? Or it just sounded cool for you folks?
Magnus: No it’s not just a cool title, from one view it’s about the band, I think many people thought that they had seen the last of the band, but then we put together the best Cryonic Temple album and fought for what we believe in. Then there is the more philosophical angle, of life, death, immortality, and the dilemmas that such a possibility could put us through, probably it would tear us apart as the king on the cover…..
MER: I noticed that you signed with a new label, Metal Heaven, why did you leave your previous label? Are there any new upgrades signing with this particular label, aside from financial aspects?
Magnus: As a matter of fact, our old label Limb Music thought that the new songs were too aggressive and heavy so they wanted us to write new songs in the style of the first two albums, that was not what we wanted so we said thank you and goodbye. We then sent the pre-production demo to Metal Heaven and they offered us a deal right away, and we had completely free hands for the album, they’ve been truly great to us!
MER: Who produced this album, is it someone you have worked with for a long time? As far as I know Glen Metal was involved with the production of the previous releases, has his departure affected, in any way, the production on this release?
Magnus: Actually, we’ve used the same studio and producer as on the earlier albums, Pelle Saether @ underground studios in Vasteras Sweden. We co-produced the album with Pelle and it all worked out great, Pelle is a great man to work with. We worked a lot on the guitar’s sound and I think we had a more finished vision of how we wanted the album to sound this time, but that is my own thoughts.
MER: This question is a mere curiosity; do you have any relations with your fellow Metallers, Crystal Eyes? Had you toured together once? Both you and they released two great albums in the same day and I was wondering if there is a connection between the bands.
Magnus: We’ve got no connection at all with Crystal Eyes… more than that we’re on the same label, but hopefully we can do something together in the future.
MER: Now let’s turn to you Magnus, can you give us some bio on you that the Metal world will know you by? What are your influences and Metal bands that you like? What about your vocal style?
Magnus: I’ve been in different local bands, my early band Mindscape ,where I also played the guitar, had a deal with one of the major Metal labels in Europe but nothing at all came out of that deal. The one band that deserves more recognition I think is Lunatic Parade where I was the vocalist and Leif, at the end, joined as a guitarist. We were a real heavy and progressive band, that for the moment, is on hold by the founder, Hans Nilsson (he actually builds our guitar preamps).
As far as my musical influences are concerned, I have a real broad taste in Heavy Metal music, but I can mention a few of my favorites like: Queensryche, Pantera, The Sweet (from Sweet F.A), Black Sabbath, Black Label Society, Helloween, Steel Attack, Led Zeppelin, Symphony X, In Flames, Soilwork, and many more…..some of my favorite vocalists are Geoff Tate (Queensryche), Tony Martin (Black Sabbath), Jorn Lande, Russel Allen, Ozzy, Michael Kiske, Dio, Robert Plant, and many others, but these are only a fragment of my main favorites.
MER: Once you had a band named, Mindscape, which was active for some short time in the 1990s. The band, as far as is known, released only a demo. What happened there? Why was this project a short lived one?
Magnus: Well as I mentioned earlier we got a deal with a big company and when nothing happened, there I lost some of the inspiration and everything ran out in the sand. But you never know what the future will bring 😉
MER: Where do you think Heavy / Power Metal is going? Is Power Metal becoming more technical and less melodic, aside from you, Cryonics, in your opinion?
Magnus: In my opinion I think more and more of the “power” bands choose directions either towards, as in our case, a heavier and maybe a bit more progressive style, and in other cases towards more traditional Heavy Metal.
MER: Are you guys preparing for a tour to support this new album? Are you going for a world tour maybe?
Magnus: If we would get the opportunity for a world tour we would, but as far as the plans are now we’re going on tour in March-April with Burning Point, that will hopefully take us through Finland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway. In addition, we are looking into the possibilities to go to maybe France, Holland and Belgium. However, as we don’t have a booking agency we’re doing all the work ourselves and that takes a lot of time. So if you know of any good booking agent mail us and we will make contact
MER: Magnus, what do you have to say to your fans and to other Metalheads around the globe?
Magnus: STAY METAL!!!! And thank you for being out there!
MER: Magnus, I would like to thank you for this interview with me on behalf of Metal Express Radio. It was a pleasure to review and listen to your album. I hope it will go well for you. Have you got any last words to the Metal world?
Magnus: Thank you! And a really HEAVY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL FROM CRYONIC TEMPLE!
MER: Thanks and cheers mate.
Magnus: Thanks for your time all the best Magnus/Cryonic Temple
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