''Starfall'' is the third album released by the

power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...

band

Dragonland Dragonland is a power metal band from Sweden. The group is known for their self-produced ''The Dragonland Chronicles'' fantasy saga covering their first, second, and fifth albums, and for the original symphonic/electronic parts by Elias Holmlid ...

, and the first not to deal with ''"The Dragonland Chronicles"''. The music for ''Starfall'' was mainly written between June 2003 and May 2004 after arriving home from their 2003

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

tour. The song, "To the End of the World", from this album, was performed during that tour, before it was even recorded. A demo version of "As Madness Took Me" can be found on YouTube.

Track listing

Japanese bonus tracks Korean bonus track

Thematic meanings

In a 200
interview
wit
Metal Rules
guitarist Olof Mörck talked to Anders Sandvall, and in the interview Mörck goes into detail about ''"The Book of Shadows"'' trilogy and the story behind the songs: *''"The Book Of Shadows is a story told in three chapters, being an adventurous epic with a movie script like feel to enhance what’s going on in the music. It starts out in Oxford, Great Britain in the late 19th century with the finding of an ancient tome, known as The Book Of Shadows. The stories and secrets it contains eventually leads to sojourns to Egypt, and the terrible findings unleashed there, once again springs to life in the last part, which is set in modern day USA. The story I wrote for it is archaically momentous, containing more writing than both previous albums lyrics combined."'' The song ''"Calling My Name"'' contains sound clips by

Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...

from the 7 March 1986

San Quentin Prison San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the ...

interview with

Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP. Rose also co-an ...

for ''CBS News Nightwatch''. ''"The Shores of Our Land"'' tells the story of a group of

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

returning home after a successful battle. It includes a feast scene in the middle, which was recorded by a very intoxicated

Personnel

* Jonas Heidgert -

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Olof Mörck -

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

* Nicklas Magnusson -

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

* Christer Pedersen - bass * Elias Holmlid -

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s * Jesse Lindskog -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Guest musicians

* Johanna Andersson - female vocals on ''"The Shores of Our Land"'' *

Tom S. Englund Tom S. Englund (born 14 December 1973) is a Swedish musician best known for being the vocalist and guitarist of Evergrey, of which he is also a founding member, as well as the vocalist of Redemption. Discography with Evergrey * ''The Dark Disco ...

Evergrey Evergrey is a Swedish progressive metal band from Gothenburg. History Evergrey was formed in 1995 in Gothenburg, Sweden as a progressive power metal band, in contrast to the melodic death metal that Gothenburg is known for. Since then, the band ...

- guitar solo and backing vocals on ''"Calling My Name"'' and ''"The Shores of Our Land"'' * Henrik Danhage of

- guitar solo on ''"The Shores of Our Land"''

Production

* Mixed and Engineered by: Arnold Lindberg * Mastered by: Dragan Tanaskovic at Bohus Mastering,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Credits

* Cover Art by
ToxicAngel
* Band Photos by
Olle Carlsson

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Starfall (Album) 2004 albums Dragonland albums