(ENG) HERO OF TODAY: FREDRIK JOAKIMSSON (CULLOODEN)

HERE WE ARE! FINALLY AFTER A DECADE OF ACTIVITY CULLOODEN HAVE RELEASED THEIR DEBUT ALBUM SILENT SCREAM! HERE I'M TALKING WITH FREDRIK JOAKIMSSON VOICE AND AXEMAN FROM THE BAND TO KNOW MUCH BETTER THEM AND THEIR ALBUM!

Hi Fredrik and thanks to be here on The Bible of Metal! After almost 10 years of activity you've finally released your debut Silent Scream, how do you feel it?
Hi there! Pleasure answering these questions! 
Well, yeah.. It sure took some time, but we're very happy with it. Couldn't wish for a stronger debut album than this so it feels great.

Guess you have worked harder on it, isn't it?
Not that hard. We started recording in 2007 but then the whole process went a bit slow. After 6 mixed songs the band took a 3 year hiatus, and then in 2012 we got back together again to finish the album. So, a long but slow process.

Is there a song that made you work harder than the others?
Yes, I think "Heaven Feels So Hollow" were somewhat the hardest one. When I first wrote it, the sound was pretty much fast thrash metal. Then a bit later we wanted our guitarist Jonas Ekestubbe to take a look at it to see if he could get it more like our progressive rock/metal sound, and then after some more work and polishing here and there it became this hard hitting melodic opener that you hear now.

Could you tell me more about The Progress?
The Progress is definitely the most progressive and technical song on the album. I wrote it back in 2005, and it's actually a combination of riffs from older songs that I used. The first part with vocals that is. Then the other instrumental part came very natural to me afterwards, so that whole piece of music I wrote in it's entirely while thinking a lot of Dream Theater of course. :-) Lot's of odd time signatures.

Why have you choosen Cullooden has your moniker?
It was a friend of mine back in the day who came up with the idea. She was into historic wars and stuff and I asked her if she knew any cool names I could use. But the original name is spelled with only one "O" (Culloden - an old battlefield in Scotland 1746), so I decided to add an extra "O" instead because I thought it would sound more cool to pronounce it that way. But our lyrics has nothing to do with the history of Scotland or England.

Thanks again for the interview, would you like to leave a message to the readers?
Thank you, pleasure! 
Don't forget to pick our album SILENT SCREAM up. And remember, always support progressive rock and metal, and thank you for checking this interview out! :-)