Still from Sweden - well... more or less - Krilloan are coming with their second album, “Return of the Heralds”, exceeding the expectations that were already high after the mini “Stories of Times Forgotten” and the debut “Emperor Rising”, one of the most interesting releases in the Power Metal, let's see if their guitarist and founder Klas Holmgren agrees...

Klas Holmgren: Hi man! Thank you for the interest and thank you very much for those nice words. Well, the short answer is – we are very pleased! "Return of The Heralds" turned out to be a great album and we really enjoyed working on it. Everyone says that album number two is the hardest, but we did not feel any pressure writing it. We did what we did on "Emperor Rising", wrote songs that we like ourselves and it turned out great.Klas Holmgren: What do you mean? We are one of the most famous bands in the world, haha! Well, the band came about in 2020 when I felt the need to do something new. My local band had been laid to rest and I started writing a couple of songs in my studio here in Sweden, the embryo for Krilloan was born at that point. I involved Steve Brockmann (guitar) that I have know for 20+ years and he did the solos for the first songs. At that point, Krilloan was meant as a soloproject but it quickly evolved into something else and we started to think about doing an EP. Said and done, Marco Toba (bass), Alex VanTrue (vocals) and David Lanas (drums) joined in and together we put out the "Stories Of Times Forgotten" EP in 2021 through Stormspell Records in the US. When we took the decision to record the first album we got involved with Scarlet Records in Italy and at that point we needed a solid ground for the mixing/mastering side of things and that’s how Christoph Brandes (drums) got involved.
So, I guess the Swedish connection is from those early days but I would rather call it “European power metal with an international twist”, haha! I´m from Sweden, Steve and Christoph is from Germany, Alex is from Portugal and Marco from Argentina, and we have kept this mark of the band for our two albums which is really great since we work very well together.Klas Holmgren: I would say that you have a point. I remember me and Christoph talked about this in the early stages of "Emperor Rising". We wanted to “bring the power in power metal” back. In order to do that we went back in time and thought about what we ourselves liked with power metal back in the day. We then used that as a foundation for our own sound. We wanted to do shorter songs than what a lot of other bands in the genre usually does these days, without long instrumental parts that takes away the energy from the song. We also put the guitars at the front instead of keyboards and we did not want to do it 100% perfect to get it to sound more organic. So, its hard to judge one’s own work but that was our plan, and it seems that people like it.

Klas Holmgren: I would say we all are. I write the basic structures for the songs here in Sweden, then I work with the extended Krilloan member Linus Palmquist to write the lyric. After that Alex joins in for the vocalmelodys to have something to base the guitar melodies on. Marco and Steve then put on their parts and finally Christoph records the drums. From the beginning it’s a very loose structure and everyone contributes to the final song and it’s a process we have had for some years now. It works very well for us and since we live in different places that’s the best way for us to get things done. I shall also mention that for "Return Of The Heralds", our friend Carlos Alvarez from the great bands Shadowdance and Behölder contributed as a songwriter,, he is also a part of the extended Krilloan family and he wrote `Blood & Fire` and `Avenging Song` for the album, two awesome songs! Krilloan has always been about collaboration and its fantastic to work together and the process is very interesting since each song grows and grows from person to person until it’s turned into an epic masterpiece, haha!Klas Holmgren: Argh, a hard question since we are practically married to all the songs. But if I had to choose, I would say "Kings Of The Iron Hill"since that one really has a special meaning to everything we are about. The title track is another favourite since it, to me, is everything that power metal should be, fast, melodic guitars and “scream your lungs out” vocals. Also, it was fun to have an all acoustic song on the album on in the form of "The Kingkillers Tale", I´m a bit of a sucker for those medieval type of songs my self and it was great to have Magnus Holmström onboard playing key-fiddler to give the song that folky vibe. "Avenging Son" is another favourite already mentioned and all together, these four songs show the full spectrum of Krilloan.Klas Holmgren: The name doesn't mean anything in itself. However, it’s the name of an expansion to an old Swedish fantasy RPG. I found it one day in my basement after years of storage since my youth. When I found it brought back a lot of memories and I thought that it would be a good name for a power metal band since it really stands out and no one has a name similar to that. The subtitle to the expansion is “The city of adventures” so I though that would be a great name to create songs about adventures and heroes under.Klas Holmgren: Indeed. Fantasy and RPG was a big thing for me growing up, as well for some of the other guys. We tend to lean on these old stories since we want them to live on and a lot of fans has reached out telling us they have read a lot of the books after listening to our songs. That is a really great thing! There is so much inspiration to be found in fantasy literature and RPG´s and I usually say that I think music shall be fun and be able to take you to a different place which we try to do on our songs. Klas Holmgren: You are right about that. Well, Blind Guardian is our main inspiration but also of course early Helloween. Then we have the early Hammerfall and Running Wild records of course. Then for me personally, the german band Evertale is a great inspiration, they recorded two fantastic albums and I found out about them around the same as we started out. Those albums really got the inspiration flowing!Klas Holmgren: Ah, thank you very much! Nah, we stick to our formula that we have used from the beginning. It serves us very well I think. I would say that it comes down to natural progress. The only difference on this album is that Linus has been more involved in the lyrics than before and that we got Carlos onboard as a songwriter. Klas Holmgren: It all comes down to the mastermind Mr Brandes! For this album we decided to enhance the vocals a bit more than on "Emperor Rising" and the material has more air in it which allows the songs to breathe more and to allow the different instruments to come through more than before. Klas Holmgren: Well, we use the same talented artist that we have done since the early days – Alvaro Valverde. The guy is a genius when it comes to artworks. In this case he showed me this artwork way back when we just started on the recordings for the album, and I immediately thought that this is the one! Usually it’s the other way around, album first – then artwork. A lot of our songs are based on heroic individuals, and it fitted perfect with this artwork of the warrior standing on a hill. So, the cover art could be a single cover for each of the songs in some way. In my eyes it screams metal and fits the album very well! Also, we have always been suckers for nice artworks and see it as a very important part of any album. It should be the full package with good music and good art.

Klas Holmgren: We are! They are a great label and we are very grateful that they gave us this chance. It seems like the Swedish and German labels are a bit slow …Scarlet were the first that came up with a good offer so I guess that the Italians were the first ones on the ball. They usually are in football aswell ?? Klas Holmgren: The only right answer is of course all of the above.Klas Holmgren: We are a studioband, and will probably always be since we live in different places. Next up is the release of the Japanese edition of the album on November 29 and then we will start writing on the next album. Well, we have already started a bit…Klas Holmgren: Well, its very difficult. You have to be a big name to get noticed and get your music widely spread these days. There is 1000´s of bands like us in the world that struggles to get their music out to people who would like it. For our part, we have a very dedicated fanbase, where many has been with us from the first single, and our mindset is to create music for ourselves and for those people rather than aiming for the stars. That way we stay true to ourselves and to those who supports us.Klas Holmgren: Italy, you gave us this chance and we are eternally grateful for that! We really hope you like the new album! I’m going to Italy soon and hope to meet some of you there, stay metal!