Swedish melodic metal band, Harmony, hits a sweet spot with their third full-length album, Theatre Of Redemption. Formed in 2000, it’s been a rather slow but steady climb for the band, which includes co-founders Markus Sigfridsson (guitars) and Tobias Enbert (drums), joined by Raphael Dafras (bass) and John Svensson (keyboards). The band’s debut was met with good reviews, but was followed by a few years of silence. During that time, Markus and Tobias played together in the progressive metal band Darkwater. Harmony reconvened in 2008 and recorded their well-received sophomore effort, Chapter II: Aftermath. This album introduced guest vocalist Daniel Heiman (Lost Horizon), who also appears on Theatre of Redemption. The 10 strong and emotional tracks that grace the album shows the band’s maturity as songwriters and will certainly gain them more notoriety within the melodic metal genre. In the following interview with BraveWords scribe Kelley Simms, Markus Sigfridsson explains the progression of the band, the new album and what lies ahead for Harmony. 

BraveWords: Your third full-length album, Theatre of Redemption, comes six years after Chapter II: Aftermath. How do you compare the two? Besides getting vocalist Daniel Heiman, has anything changed within the band’s sound or style in between that time period?

Markus Sigfridsson: Besides the changes in the line up, I think we have evolved both as instrumentalists and in our writing skills. It feels like a natural follow up to Chapter II: Aftermath. We have maintained our diversity; it´s a very varied album like the previous ones.

BraveWords: Speaking of Daniel, he’s pretty well-known from his stint with Lost Horizon. Knowing this, how did you approach these songs?

Markus Sigfridsson: Actually, not much since we wrote all the music before he was on board, so to speak. So the songs are not written specifically for him, but It’s not a problem with his vocal range.

BraveWords: Are you content with having Daniel as a session vocalist or will he be playing live gigs with the band? 

Markus Sigfridsson: We have to be content with it, and we are. Although it would really be nice to play live with him!

BraveWords: Even though he put his unique stamp on Lost Horizon, with Harmony, you have managed to separate that style and incorporate his vocals into your own sound. Was this a conscious effort?

Markus Sigfridsson: Thank you. No, as I mentioned before, it was not. I guess we just write music that we like and with his skills we were not worried that it would not work out. I can’t remember that we had to change any vocal lines or things like that, it just worked. Maybe we were just lucky!

BraveWords: There’s some great keyboard layering which counter plays nicely with your chugging riffs. How did you approach this?

Markus Sigfridsson: We like keyboards a lot, but we try not to overdo it. We think a lot about having the right keyboard sound and have it not to interfere with the same frequencies as the guitar. I think that’s important to get a big spacey sound.

BraveWords: The album was produced by yourself and drummer Tobias Enbert. How do you like wearing the producer’s hat; what type of sound were you aiming for and did you ultimately achieve it?

Markus Sigfridsson: I prefer it. To be in some kind of control all the way from the songwriting to the final product. I even do the cover artwork and the layout. But I have to say that the guys at studio Fredman really made their thing to help us get the great sound I think we achieved with this album. Thinking about it now, I think we aimed for a little more warmer vintage sound than how i turned out, but we are really happy with it.

BraveWords: You just mentioned that you also created the album cover art. Tell me about the concept, style and your approach to it.

Markus Sigfridsson: The cover applies mainly to the title track, and it shows two characters walking in a kind of eerie landscape. The song is about that you need something to hold onto in your life, in this theatre of redemption, if you will. Whether it is faith in God or your family or just some kind of truth or something that you feel comfort in. But the two characters can also be applied to more songs on the album, although it’s not a concept album.

BraveWords: How would you describe the current Swedish rock/metal scene? 

Markus Sigfridsson: I think it´s pretty good, maybe not as good as in Finland and Germany, but it seems to be a consistent flow of new bands from Sweden all the time and there are metal clubs in most cities.

BraveWords: There are several noticeable musical styles on the album; classical, neoclassical, classic rock, old/new school progressive metal and of course European power metal. Who are your influences and how do they play into Harmony’s overall sound?

Markus Sigfridsson: I agree. Me personally, to name a few, in my younger years Yngwie, Helloween and Candlemass. And then Helloween, and later on Kamelot and Symphony X, and nowadays a lot of older music from the ’70s like Rainbow, Scorpions and Deep Purple. Hopefully these bands influence the music in a good way. Sometimes it may be obvious but sometimes these influences can help create something completely new and different.

BraveWords: I love the Middle Eastern flavor on “Son Of The Morning.” How did this track come about?

Markus Sigfridsson: This is a good example of what I just mentioned. I think, when I started to write this song, that it was supposed to be a song in the style of Therion, but it turned out to be more in the style of early Rainbow. It´s interesting and fun when these things happen. “SOTM” is probably the song that I´m most happy with on the album, so I´m glad you like it.

BraveWords: What do you hope to achieve or accomplish next?

Markus Sigfridsson: We will start the recording process of a new Darkwater album, and I´m also working on a project myself that I´m in the middle of the recording process of. Then we will start with a new Harmony album.