Did you think Power Metal was dead in the U.S.? Perhaps if you had taken a closer look, maybe you would have realized that it was just laying in wait, ready to spring forth and assail your audio senses with a majestic attack! "Enter Deception" - enter CELLADOR, the first U.S. Power Metal signing from Metal Blade in a great many years. Taking more influence from the classics like HELLOWEEN, CELLADOR are a remarkably young band (the oldest members are in their early 20's) with a passion for soaring vocals and fast, powerful riffs. Fans of DRAGONFORCE take note, CELLADOR are here and they mean business.

Tell us a little bit about the new album.

Chris - "Essentially, the album's called 'Enter Deception' it's our debut album on Metal Blade Records... the album's been out for about three or four weeks now and, as far as we have been told, has been doing pretty good. It's got a lot of push and promotion. Basically, it's just straightforward bombastic melodic Speed/Power Metal from the good ol' USA, rather than Europe, where it usually comes from. A lot of really aggressive, energetic tracks on there - we try to mix a lot of both Thrash melody and just really catchy song writing and song structure. I think we pulled off what we were trying to do pretty well and... I guess that's it. It's been out for about three weeks now and it should be in stores all across the USA."

Okay, tell us a little bit about the cover art.

Chris - "The artwork was done by an artist named Jean Pasco Fournier, he's actually a fairly well known cover artist in Europe - he's done a lot of Metal bands. He's done, I would say, probably eighty to eighty-five covers. Basically what it was, was we had contacted him saying 'hey, we've got this debut album coming out, we love your artwork and we wanted to know if you could do a cover for us', and basically, I told him the album title, 'Enter Deception', and gave him a rough concept about it, you know, what the title means, and basically, he worked with us on it and he had his own ideas on what the album title means to him and he came up with some ideas and we just kind of talked back and forth through email and basically just kind of worked on it together and he put together just an amazing design that we were just absolutely floored by. I mean, even for all the covers that he's done before, which I was absolutely amazed by, I just that this one that he did was just absolutely just... completely even more than we could have ever possibly expected."

Bill - "Definitely one of the best he's ever done."

Chris - "Yeah. I would definitely say... it's just we're totally happy with it and I think it looks good. We've always been a fan of more of the painting style album covers anyway, as opposed to computer generated or photograph covers. We wanted something that kind of looked epic, you know, to kind of fit the style of music were are and just 'cause we like that type of thing anyway and he just did a really great job - totally, one hundred percent satisfied with it."

What was it like working with Erik Rutan on your debut?

Chris - "The way with came up with Erik Rutan was, basically, after we got signed to Metal Blade we were trying to think of a studio that we would want to record at and... we had this goal at the very beginning that we wanted to have a kind of different style production as opposed to what's normally kind of production styles and techniques that are a little bit more common in Europe. We wanted something that would maybe be a little bit different, that was a little bit more natural sounding, I guess, and a little bit intense, but just really clean sounding. And so, basically Metal Blade was like 'okay, we have a lot of suggestions for you then, in terms of that.' They sent us a bunch of CD's by all kinds of different bands that recorded at different studios and one of the ones that we really liked was by this band on Metal Blade called INTO THE MOAT. They did their debut album with Erik Rutan at Mana Studios and out of all the stuff that they sent us, out of all the stuff we were looking at, we were like 'this is exactly what we are looking for, something that's really clean sounding and really intense at the same time', and so basically, we were like 'this is the best sounding one, we think' and we got the hookup with Erik Rutan and got set up with him. It was actually funny, because when we contacted him, he was originally like, 'I'm completely booked up, I'm booked for the whole year', but after he listened to our demo tracks, he said 'I want to make this work, I really want to work with you guys' and, you know, nice a guy as he is, managed to fit us in late December and early January to do the record. And so, basically, December 2005, we went down there, St. Petersburg, Florida to record our debut and it was mixed and mastered then in March and was just released just this recent month in June. Working with him was just absolutely amazing. He was totally a really good guy to do for your first record, 'cause the thing about him is he's very, I guess, demanding in terms of your performance and he really pushed us to our limit and got the best performances out of all of us, which is really great for us, it being our first record, you know, because it just took us to a whole new level of professionalism, you know, in putting our records for record labels. That was one thing we were really thankful for working with Erik. I couldn't have been happier with the way it turned out."

Bill - "As demanding as he was, he was also very friendly. So we never felt nervous or anything; he was awesome. I don't have enough good things to talk about Erik. He's awesome."

How's the relationship with Metal Blade so far?

Chris - "It's been great, I think. I mean, from the very beginning, they've been incredibly supportive of our band. We were actually contacted by Brian Slagel for the signing and from day one they've been incredibly supportive of our band. They keep us in line, they do whatever they can to really help us out. It's really good for a band, especially of our style that hasn't been, especially here from the USA... with our type of music, usually... we know we're really lucky to have the kind of opportunities we've been getting from them, playing this style of music. They've given us a lot of promotion and they've really pushed us in a lot of different avenues, even places where normally Power, melodic bands of this style, like never are promoted at, like mainstream magazines, they let us make a music video. I couldn't say anything bad about it. They've been really, really supportive of us."

Now tell us a little bit about your lyrics - straying aside from the Dungeons and Dragons theme of most Power Metal.

Bill - "Well, the thing is, we wanted to kind of stay away from that. Not really stay away, but it's just that Power Metal became, how can I say... it became like a stereotype, you know what I mean? They call it Power Metal, they talk about dragons, all that kind of stuff - we wanted to go a different route. I mean, Chris is the writer of all the lyrics, but we were working together on the ideas. We talked, we tried to go more to a subject where... something like, 'be yourself', you know? We're not trying to preach anything... we just try to stay away from that because it became a stereotype and some people just don't like that... so I think that brings a little more audience, as well, you know?"

Chris - "Basically what he said. For this first record, we wanted to kind of stay away from the traditional themes that a lot of the bands of this type of music write about. It actually wasn't even so much, you know, a forced decision as much as it was just kind of natural when we had the first couple demo songs with lyrics that kind of didn't really come out as being as epic, but just more touching on personal... I don't want to say issues, but just personal things, individual type ideas and subjects. Essentially, I guess just to sum it up, the lyrics talk about being yourself and just being true to your own ambitions. I don't know... I guess that's just the way I can sum it up."

What's it like being such a young band, being signed to a good label and touring - basically living the dream?

Chris - "It's definitely amazing. I mean, when we first started playing this type of music in this band, we never figured we'd ever gotten a deal from a label as big as Metal Blade. I mean, especially a label being from the USA; we always figured that if we were to ever get signed, that it would be from a smaller, European based label that caters more to this style of music. So we... just kind of took it step by step. Originally, we had kind of low... I guess if you want to call that low kind of goals, thinking if we even just got signed to some small label out of Europe, we would just absolutely blow our minds and then when we got contacted by Metal Blade, we were just absolutely floored. Just that alone took our whole goal setting perspectives on the band to a whole new level, because we always figured if we got signed to some small European label, we probably wouldn't get a whole lot of touring opportunities and now we do, because we're on a bigger label that is able to make things like that happen. I gotta say that it's definitely just surpassed all expectations, really, for us. It's really great."

Bill - "That's definitely living the dream, as you put on your question. It went beyond our expectations, as Chris said. We are still astonished."

Where do you see yourselves in a year from now?

Chris - "Hopefully we can get our band name out. I know it's just our first record that just came out and we're going to a lot of places we've never been before to play. Essentially, our goal for the next year is just to get more people to know the name CELLADOR, even in the Metal community, you know, the Traditional Metal community and the established fan base for this type of music, but also even outside of those boundaries; we want to get the name out of our band and just so people can hear us and know about us. If they don't like us, that's fine, but at least our goal is just to get our name out just so... whether that involves touring, whether that involves promotion, review, interviews, media... we just really, for the next year, are going to work on pushing the name of our band, because now that we have an album, we have material, we have all these things that we can work with. That's pretty much, I guess, the key is just promotion, getting our name out."

Okay, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Chris - "You got anything?"

Bill - "I want to thank you guys for the opportunity and if you're into Power Metal or even if you're not, try to check us out. Our new album, 'Enter Deception', just came out June 27 via Metal Blade records. You guys should check it out. Thanks a lot."

Chris - "Yeah, like he said, definitely a record that's not only for the Power Metal community and the world base of fans, but I think it's got a little bit of something for different types of people and different types of musical tastes. We tried to do that with this record; we wanted to add a couple, little bit extra elements. I think that a lot of you guys would enjoy it, so check it out!" [FIN]