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Don’t forget to check out the reports about Rockharz 2024: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.
If you ask me, SABATON should be careful where they tread, because BROTHERS OF METAL are coming for their top spot in Power Metal. The band, that, oddly enough, also hails from Falun in Sweden was one of the best bands on the first Rockharz days and I’m delighted to have been able to speak to singer Mats Nilsson on that occasion. Read now what inspires this group, what they are looking forward to in their upcoming headliner tour and how disgusting their costumes are going to be!
Huge thanks to lightinmirror.de for the amazing pictures! You can really feel the energy!
Shieldmaiden’s Voice: What makes BROTHERS OF METAL unique?
Mats Nilsson: The thing that makes us unique, I think, is our combination of music, some people would say it’s influenced by NIGHTWISH, and our vocals. You have Ylva’s clean vocals with her high range, then there’s Joakim raspy SABATON-ish voice and then there’s me. I mostly do backing vocals and entertain the audience in between songs. The contrast in vocals and the symphonic parts makes us very unique.
SV: What is something people often misinterpret about you guys as a band?
Mats: One thing people get wrong a lot, and I really mean A LOT, is that anyone in this band is related. There are rumors online that Ylva and Joakim are either brother and sister or a couple. That is just wrong. They are both named Eriksson which is like being named „Johnson“ or „Smith“ in the US. It’s just such a common last name in Sweden. They are not related. We’re called BROTHERS OF METAL because of the MANOWAR song and not because of anything else.
SV: I think it’s so funny that people actually go on online, like on Reddit, see the names and are immediately like: „They are either related, dating or both!“ [We laugh]
But back to Music: What would you say is your biggest musical inspiration?
Mats: We have so many musical inspirations… It wouldn’t be fair to name just one. I think metal-wise it’s for sure SABATON, MANOWAR, BLIND GUARDIAN and NIGHTWISH, but we take so much inspiration from other types of music. Big examples here are OTIS REDDING, different Jazz bands and stuff like that.
SV: This year, you’re also going to release a new album. What can you tell us about that already?
Mats: The album will be released on November 1st and it’s going to be called Fimbulvinter. It starts off where Emblas Saga left off. It’s a development of what we’ve done before. Like 95% of the songs is still very much BROTHERS OF METAL. We basically keep on writing songs about Norse mythology.
SV: This album is also going to take you on tour for a couple of weeks. How disgusting are your costumes going to be after that?
Mats: They are already disgusting. A scale of one to five doesn’t do it justice. On our first tour, they became a five out of five, on the second tour it was a six out of five and during the last tour it became a seven out of five. All jokes aside, a lot of us are going to have new costumes for the tour. It’s being worked on right now.
SV: Besides the new costumes, what are you most excited for for this upcoming tour?
Mats: To us, it’s very exciting to go on our first headliner tour and to reap all the benefits of being a headliner. We get to play 90min every night and make the show just the way we want it to be. That’s the biggest benefit of it all.
SV: You’ve been around for a bit, but would you ever have dreamed of being able to say „We’re going on a headline tour!“?
Mats: It was always our aim, I think. In the very beginning, we were nobodies that just released music, but we noticed that people seemed to like it a lot. Naturally, we always nursed the dream of having our own headline tour and being the highest on the festivals shirts. The dream of being the top name on the shirt is still there, even though we now have the headline tour.
SV: Looking beyond the album and beyond your tour, what is something that you want to achieve with your band? Apart from being the top name on the festival shirts, that is!
Mats: At the moment we just want to play all the biggest festivals, play the main stages at festivals like Wacken, Download and Hellfest, that is really our aim.
SV: What would you say is the best way to support you in that?
Mats: The best way to support us would be to obviously buy our merch and come to our shows. For fans, this is the easiest way to support any band. Come to our shows and buy our shit! [We laugh] That makes us become bigger and then we’re able to do better shows with more fire, more stage and better lights and everything that comes with it!
SV: Yes! More merch, more fire!
Mats: Exactly! It’s not even a joke, because if we were able to afford it, we would use fire in all of our shows! It doesn’t make sense economically though.
SV: What is something you always wanted to tell your fans but never had the chance to?
Mats: I don’t think that there is anything I never had the chance to tell our fans. We told them everything from the start. We love you guys!!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 