Pride And Fall: Powerful Futurepop

Pride And Fall's sound is both engaging and dramatic. The Norwegian group, formed in 2000, is currently composed of Sigve Monsen, Per Waagen, Svein Johnsen. They have only 4 albuns released to date, but they all have songs with strong beats and thought-provoking lyrics, akin to VNV Nation.

About his lyrics style, Pride And Fall's vocalist Sigve Monsen said, that "I don’t even recognize myself in the 'live and let live thing'... I would rather say live as you live, and take the consequences for your actions." Sigve also said that "in general, I bring to the surface more contents about looking back at one's own life, seeing all the mistakes and shit you’ve done or gone through. And then in the end cope with them all." [1]



Official site: www.prideandfall.com/ | MySpace

Leaves' Eyes New Album: Njord

Leaves' Eyes' new release Njord is quite good, a great collection of Symphonic Metal songs. The vocalist, Liv Kristine has good vocals in it, and the songs are both melodic and powerful.

In a recent interview, vocalist Liv Kristine said that "Njord has a power to it that even is more intense than any previous production I've been part of. Technically, we constantly have new ideas and aims. We have our own studio and therefore we have the opportunity to specialize in technical tasks concerning album and DVD productions. Njord has even a more bombastic but delicate sound than Vinland Saga, because techniques allow it." [1]

On another one, she expressed her pleasure with their achievements in Njord: "I am absolutely happy and satisfied with the album. We've never worked this hard before with a production, but we've reached our goal. I would even say, we even went further than we thought was possible, technically seen.

"It has always been important to me that our sound and art is authentic, i.e. that you can hear from the very first tunes that this is Leaves' Eyes! We also want that our audience really get the feeling of being on a wonderful journey. I feel that our music needs a special well-written and interesting concept which is just as important as the sound, and "Njord" gives you all this." [2]

Below I've selected two videos of my favorite songs of the album: Through Our Veins (live in 2008) and Njord.

Leaves' Eyes Official Site