''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 a symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in co ...

band

Dragonland Dragonland is a Swedish power metal band renowned for their self-produced ''The Dragonland Chronicles'' fantasy saga, which spans their first, second, and fifth albums. The band is also recognized for the original symphonic/ electronic elements ...

, 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 is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

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, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal, cult leader, and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some cult members committed a Manson ...

from the 7 March 1986

San Quentin Prison San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQ), formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, 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 ...

interview with

Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show ''Charlie Rose (talk show), Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg L.P., Bloombe ...

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

Vikings Vikings were 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 settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

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 art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* 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 guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

* Christer Pedersen -

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

* Elias Holmlid - keyboards,

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

s * Jesse Lindskog -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Guest musicians

* Johanna Andersson - female vocals on ''"The Shores of Our Land"'' * Tom S. Englund of

Evergrey Evergrey is a Swedish progressive metal band from Gothenburg. History Evergrey was formed in 1993 in Gothenburg by guitarist/vocalist Tom S. Englund as a progressive power metal band, in contrast to the melodic death metal that Gothenburg i ...

- 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, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Credits

* Cover Art by
ToxicAngel
* Band Photos by
Olle Carlsson

References

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