CELLADOR Guitarists Comment On State Of Power Metal In The U.S.

Jeff Maki and Greg Maki of Live-Metal.net recently interviewed guitarists Bill Hudson and Chris Petersen of Nebraskan power metal act CELLADOR. The band is currently on a U.S. tour in support of TRIVIUM. A few excerpts from the interview follow:

Live-Metal.net: Seeing that power metal is virtually nonexistent in the U.S., do you see this as an advantage for CELLADOR and would you want to see more power metal bands popping up?

Bill: Definitely. I always had that in mind. Since I was, like, 15, I was thought that once there was a good power metal with good support coming from the States, it would break. That's what happened. I mean, it's really coincidence — people sometimes think it's not — but us and DRAGONFORCE, we showed up at the same time in the States. And it was really a coincidence, because we got signed before they got signed to Roadrunner. I don't know what happened. And now, there are bands popping up everywhere, which is cool. I mean, especially where we live in Omaha, you can go to the local web sites and you're gonna see ads looking for power metal bands. I think it's great. I think it's really great, DRAGONFORCE selling out tours. I think it's really great. But I do think it was definitely an advantage for us. If it was, like, a place with a lot of bands, I don't know how much — it's definitely a good thing for us.

Live-Metal.net: What are some of your favorite power metal acts?

Bill: My personal favorites are the oldest ones. One of my all-time favorite bands is STRATOVARIUS. After them, I'd say HELLOWEEN, GAMMA RAY, BLIND GUARDIAN. There's a band from the Netherlands that I really like and nobody ever talks about that's called ELEGY. It's kind of progressive, but it's pretty power metal-ish, too. There are some bands that I never heard of before I moved here. For example, LOST HORIZON, and I think it's a great band. The singer's incredible and I never heard of him before. There are some newer cool bands, like DRAGONLAND and LOST HORIZON. But my favorites are the old ones, even some stuff from RAGE and stuff like that. I like the old ANGRA. They're from Brazil, too.

Live-Metal.net: What is the meaning of the album title, "Enter Deception"? Is there something behind it?

Bill: Yeah. Actually, we were talking about that, because the cover, the name of the album and the lyrics, they all go together with an idea that we have. I don't know how to put that, because it's something a lot of bands used in the past, but we use it in a kind of a different way. We deal with daily issues and everything that everybody has to deal with in our own way. But at the same time, we're not preachers. I think relates to self-deception, when you have to change what you are and what you believe to fit a certain group of people. Something like that. We kinda had a hard time coming up with a name for the album because of that. But I think "Enter Deception" is pretty much what it represents.

Live-Metal.net: You pretty much stay clear of the "dungeons-and-dragons"-type lyrics. What are some of the lyrical topics?

Bill: For this album, Chris wrote all the lyrics. We don't go to the dragons and battles, but to tell you the truth, it wasn't intentional. We never said let's not talk about it. It just came out this way. 'Cause like I said before, it's the way we deal with our issues. Chris writes the lyrics and we'll be all sitting there giving ideas. All the lyrics, they basically say that, always in a different way, for example, "Forever Unbound", we're saying, "Don't rely on gods." But then again, we're not preaching, not telling you not to rely on gods. We don't rely on gods. That would be an example.

Read the entire interview at Live-Metal.net.