Power Paladin from Reykjavík, Iceland makes great, refreshing power metal. The band was formed in 2017 and released their debut album “With The Magic of Windfyre Steel” in early 2022. The Icelanders are not stingy with catchy tunes – no real power metal fan should miss this album. I was allowed to interview them for Maizter Underground.
Let’s work through the Basic questions first. How did the band name Power Paladin come about and is there a story you can tell around the formation of the band?
Power Paladin:
Well, we simply started out as a bunch of friends who love the genre and really wanted to create some Power Metal together. Most of us had at some point tried to start a power metal band in our musical career with varying degrees of success, Krilli (our bassist) and Kalli (our drummer) probably having the most success with the band Gloryride. When Gloryride broke up, Atli was quick to pounce on the carcass and pick it clean. With Power Paladin it seemed to finally click and “With the Magic of Windfyre Steel” is the first album to come out of our collective power metal endeavors.
The biggest problem we had to fulfill this dream was that we needed a singer and a keyboard player. So in the spirit of hopefulness, Bjarni (a drummer) started learning keyboards for the band and Atli (a guitar player) started the long, arduous journey of becoming a power metal singer.
Regarding the name, we originally decided on the name Paladin because to our surprise, there wasn’t a single power metal band that had that name. It was about a year later that we found another band – formed about the same time as us – that had started to gain traction under that name. After going back and forth with some ideas (yes, including Paladin of Fire) we decided on Power Paladin.
You officially formed in 2017 – but you only released your debut last year. Is there a reason for the long-time span in between?
Power Paladin:
It can probably be written up as general laziness and playing concerts instead of recording. Since we did the recording ourselves there never was any financial pressure to finish the album. So we ended up taking our sweet time doing it. We did a couple of demo recordings in 2018 and started the recording session for the album around 2019 but kept putting it off because we were focused on playing shows. After Covid hit we couldn’t really play shows anymore so all focus went into recording instead.
Your debut album is – as it’s common with many power metal albums – about mystical things. How did the songs and the story behind them come about?
Power Paladin:
With most of our lyrics, I try to aim for a certain feeling instead of telling a complete story with each song. So each song might be setting for a certain scenario, but leaving out full details for the listener to interpret in their own way.
There are exceptions to this though, with songs like Kraven that have a more fleshed out story behind them, but I’m not sure if people really get what we’re going for or not haha!
If you listen closely, you will recognize some very familiar melodies in your songs (especially in “Righteous Fury”). How much nerd is in “Power Paladin”?
Power Paladin:
None. There is no nerd in Power Paladin. None whatsoever. It’s all a coincidence of preposterously colossal portions. Anyone claiming we are nerds or have any relations with nerds will be skewed by the spear of a thousand tormented souls crafted in the flaming halls of Eloth, forged by master smith Gemal, son of Farheim.
How did you feel about the time after the release of your album and how satisfied are you with how people received it?
Power Paladin:
The response has been nothing short of amazing really, we are so grateful and honored that people have enjoyed it so much and hope that we can start playing more shows abroad soon and playing live for everyone.
In a review of your album on “metal.de” (https://www.metal.de/reviews/power-paladin-with-the-magic-of-windfyre-steel-433338/ )one reads that you allegedly stole quite brazenly from Iron Maiden. It’s about the song “Kraven the Hunter” and its opening riff. According to the editor the riff originates from Iron Maiden’s song “Sign Of The Cross”. How do you feel about taking inspiration from more famous bands? Was that intended at all or more of a coincidence?
Power Paladin:
A lot of our references are definitely intentional, we wanted this album to be a homage to Power Metal as a genre. But ironically the Kraven one was completely unintentional. We wrote the song, rehearsed it, played live quite a bit, and recorded it, and it wasn’t until the album was in mastering that our mastering engineer pointed it out to us – and at that point it was too late to change. There are only so many notes on the guitar, I guess. Consider it an unintentional homage. You can never get enough Maiden.
You guys come from Iceland – there are, at least as far as I know, not many representatives of the power metal scene there. Where does your love for the genre come from?
Power Paladin:
Power metal has always been close to heart to us, you never really know what it is that drives you to a specific genre, for some reason it just feels right. But some of our enthusiasm for it is definitely born out of rebelliousness. When you’re playing a metal night with five other bands all trying to be as evil as they can, you start to enjoy trying to be as happy as you can instead.
Tell us a bit about your next steps. What can we expect? Do you plan to record new songs soon and will we be able to see you live in Europe?
Power Paladin:
To begin with we will sharpen the spear for any unforeseen situations where we might be called nerds. But while the blacksmith works his magic, we’re working on some new material and looking into how to build one of them longships to sail to the mainland.
Here you can say a few words to your fans and those who want to become fans.
Power Paladin:
We are not nerds. We don’t know anything about board games like 40K, role playing games like DnD or fantasy movies. We like fast cars, bare knuckle fighting and hot chicks that you meet at… places. Remember that or you get the spear.
Also, if you too like aforementioned things and activities, be sure to check out our album “With the Magic of Windfyre Steel”.
Thanks for your time, guys! In my personal top 10 albums of 2022 you are on the first place, I just love your kind of power metal and you deserve the pole position. I hope to hear more from you very soon!
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