The project called Northern Flame, originates from Finland. This melodic metal project saw its first rays of light back in 2002. For a long time the band and consisted of three members: Niclas Buss, Simon Granlund and Emil Stenros. After releasing two demos they went in to hiatus as Emil had to leave the band due to studies in Southern Finland.
In 2009 Northern Flame became a full band consisting of six members. Between 2015 and 2018 the band performed live in Finland and in Sweden at metal oriented festivals, like Rainbow Rock Festival, Stockholm.
At the present moment the band consists of five members and have just released a full-length album.
Line up:
SIMON GRANLUND – lead vocals
NICLAS BUSS – guitars & growl vocals, some of the lyrics
TRYGVE STRÖMVALL – keyboards & backing vocals, some of the lyrics
HENRIK BÖCKELMAN – bass & backing vocals
JARI KETOLA – drums
Lyrical content/themes: Christianity, Everyday life, Nordic landscapes, Nature.
The lyrics to four of the songs are written by Eddie De Witte (vocalist of Sheltered Sun), poetic and beautiful lyrics that creates a great collaboration between him and Northern Flame. The rest of the lyrics on this latest album are written by Niclas Buss, Trygve Strömvall and Anders Olin.
Musical influences: Stratovarius, Narnia, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica.
Discography:
Demos:
- “Northern Flame” (2003)
- “White Winternight” (2005)
Both released in limited numbers.
Albums:
Glimpse of Hope (2014)
In June 2009 the band started recording a full-length debut album, starting with the drums. In late February 2010 the process was completed with the recording of the vocals. The songs were then mixed and mastered by Sami “Hannu” Koivisto at Biotech Audio Solutions in March the same year.
After that, the album artwork design was completed in May 2010. The album was finally released in 2014 by the US label Nokternal Hemizphear. To this day all physical copies are sold out, but found on digital platforms.
Twisted Reality (2020)
After working for quite a while on various material the result was two digital singles within November 2020, Sanctification of the World and Fuel My Heart, then leading up to the release of the full length album ”Twisted Reality” 18th of December 2020.
Tracklist:
- 1. Twisted Reality
- 2. Sanctification of the World
- 3. To the Throne
- 4. Shimmering Solstice
- 5. Glowing Flower
- 6. Broken Soul
- 7. Stone of Grace
- 8. Fuel My Heart
- 9. Heaven & Hell
- 9. Starfall on a Cold Winters Night
- 10. Beautiful
- 11. Paradise
The format is so far digital, but there will be a physical cd-release as well in early 2021. The production for this new album set the bar higher than before with mixing done by Anders Höglund (Midas Productions Ltd., Finland) and mastering by Neil Pickles (Reveal Sound, UK).
Niclas Buss writes most of the music together with Alexander Nybond. Niclas works as a music teacher of classical music and has a passion for baroque music which can be clearly heard in the music, like in the instrumental intro to the album. We also get to hear inspiration from other timeless music like hymns.
Highlights from the latest album:
“Shimmering Solstice”, with female vocals are sung by Emma Backman (In Divinia). A beautiful duet between her and Simon.
“Glowing Flower”, a superb symphonic piece where you get all aspects of symphonic metal. Buss showing his skills as a guitarist and also we get to hear the Yngwie Malmsteen influences in full.
“Broken Soul”, great lyrics describing a sinner in lament. Also here are great guitar riffs.
“Stone Of Grace”, a power/speed metal song. For anyone who ever admired the fastest songs of Sonata Arctica. Here you got all that goes on in those songs together with meaningful and beautiful lyrics.
“Heaven & Hell” written by Trygve Strömvall and Niclas Buss. Together with some operatic vocals from Simon and great backing vocals. There are a lot of Nightwish vibes.
“Starfall On A Cold Winters Night”, instrumental where every musician in the band gets to shine each with their own instrument.
“Paradise”, starts out and ends like a hymn proceeds in to a keyboard fest, then turns into a Nightwish track even not having any female vocals we get to hear the Nightwish influence in full when Simon Grandlund shows his wide vocal range. A great closing track.
If you are in to symphonic, melodic metal and speed/power metal this album serves you all that.
The albums are to be found on digital platforms: Spotify, iTunes, YouTube music, Deezer, Pandora, Tidal, Amazon music and many more. Don’t forget about platforms like Bandcamp where you can also buy a digital copy, which also gives a huge part of the profit to the band.