Eleven years is a long time in music. Especially with that long of a gap between albums.
While many bands would worry their fan base might desert them in favour of an artist with slightly better output, Swedish power metal outfit Dragonland need not worry.
Since their debut The Battle Of Ivory Plains in 2001 through to their last album Under The Grey Banner in 2011, Dragonland have delivered enough quality material to ensure their fans aren't going anywhere.
In fact, if anything, the prolonged absence has made fans hungrier for new material, with their wishes now set to be met with the release of The Power Of The Nightstar on October 14.
HEAVY had the pleasure of speaking with vocalist Jonas Heidgert - who seldom does interviews himself - to talk about what has been happening in the Dragonland camp.
"It's almost exactly eleven years," he sighed. "If I remember correctly we released Grey Banner on either the 11th or 17th of November 2011, so it's almost eleven years"
We ask what Dragonland has been up to, with Heidgert's answer frankly honest.
"A lot of laziness," he laughed. "We had a little trip to Australia a few years back which was brilliant but we've been very slow. Actually, the Australian and Japanese tour we did back in 2018 gave us the little push we needed to start writing the rest of the album. We started a long time ago with a few songs then people started getting kids and Swiss jobs and played in other bands, all this kind of other stuff. Life happened."
In the full interview, Jonas talks about the musical direction of The Power Of The Nightstar, the concept behind it, the addition of more electronic elements on this album, the singles and how they relate to the overall sound of the album, fitting conceptual songs into a set list and more.