Veonity: A New Wave of Majestic Power Metal

Veonity: A New Wave of Majestic Power Metal

Veonity is ready to launch a New Wave of Majestic Power metal onto the world!  Sorrows is the name of their latest endeavor – now available via Scarlet Records – and it’s destined to enrapture fans of bands such as Hammerfall and Sabaton.  In addition to the excellent musicianship and inspiring songs found within, Sorrows features a very special guest appearance from Jonas Heidgert of Dragonland on standout track Where Our Memories Used To Grow.  Highwire Daze recently interviewed lead guitarist Samuel Lundström to find out more about the mighty Veonity and their towering power metal compositions.  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Veonity, and how long the band has been together
Hello, this is Samuel, lead guitarist in Veonity. When we first started the band back in 2013, me and Anders shared the lead guitar playing equally but since he started to sing most of the lead guitar work now falls on me.

Where is the band based out of and what is the local music scene like there?
We are based in a small town in Sweden called Vänersborg which is located not far from Gothenburg which has had a strong metal scene since the 90’s. The city has spawned band like In Flames, Hammerfall, At the Gates, Dragonland and Lost Horizon. All those bands have of course inspired me while growing up and I think I somehow always felt connected to the metal scene because of that.

How did your association with Scarlet Records come about?
We decided for our fourth album that it was time, not only with a change of music. Amongst the different labels we were in contact with we all felt that Scarlet was the right choice for us and so far I really enjoy working with the guys. They are serious and have a strong passion for metal.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the Sorrows album title?
Our previous albums were classical conceptual albums with a storyline running through all of the songs. But since the hero died on the last album we had no choice but to find something new ha ha. Sorrows has more an overall theme since the songs touch upon subjects of pain and grieves and internal struggles one faces in this life.

Select any two songs from Sorrows and what inspired the lyrics?
Graced Or Damned deals with the concept of “if”. People constantly have to make choices in their lives, as have I. Sometimes when you look back upon your life you wonder what would have happened if you would have made another choice. Peoples stories that you here throughout life usually have that little “if” in them and I have always found that interesting.

The song Where Our Memories Used To Grow, on which Jonas Heidgert from Dragonland makes a beautiful singing appearance, deals with the concept of a broken relationship and how the person longs for it to return to what it once was. I think a lot of people unfortunately can recognize themselves in this song and that feeling of wanting something that you can no longer have.

Who did the cover art for Sorrows and how much input did you have on it?
Since our second album Into The Void, we have been working with a Swedish artist called Thomas Holmstrand (Holmstrand Designs). He is a pure genius as well as a super nice guy who also loves metal. Every time I meet up with him to tell our ideas for the artwork he understands instantly what we want but then he takes those Ideas and makes them into something far better than we could have imagined.

How did Jonas Heidgert of Dragonland become involved with the making of Sorrow?
On every album we’ve made we had guest singers like Piet Sielck (Iron Savior), Tommy Johansson (Majestica, Sabaton) and Patrik Selleby (Bloodbound) and we wanted to continue with it since it somehow connects the power metal scene in a nice way. As I said earlier, Dragonland was one of those bands that inspired us a lot while growing up and we met Jonas a few years ago and have been in contact with him since so when it was time for recording the choice immediately fell on him

What has it been like to release new music right in the middle of a pandemic and so much social unrest in the world?
Some things in this life is beyond our control and I personally can’t really do much about the Covid-19. But I can release a power metal album that makes people have something nice to listen too if they need to stay at home for quarantined reasons for example 🙂 . But of course it’s unfortunate timing since we had some tours in September and October coming up that we now had to cancel. It’s always something special with performing new songs and we were eager to show our audience songs from Sorrows live but now will be put on hold for a while.

What could one expect from a live Veonity show?
Energy. I think that is the trademark of our shows. Power metal is energy and I think that it is our responsibility to make the energy in the music justice ha ha.

What was it like touring with Sabaton and Freedom Call and what were some of the highlights?
Touring is always fun and I have so many nice memories from shows on tour so there is difficult to choose some highlights. But we did a show in Pratteln (Z7) with Freedom Call and I would say that was really epic night. And now I also remember when we were in Moscow with Powerwolf. It was one of the best shows we ever did I would say. The crowd was on fire and the Venue was packed with thousands of people which created this magical atmosphere.

If Veonity could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Well the choices are getting smaller and smaller since we already opened for a lot of my favorite bands ha ha. But I think personally I would choose Gamma Ray since that bands has really inspired me and was actually the band that got me into power metal somewhere in the mid 90’s.

Has Veonity ever toured in the States or plan to do in future days?
We still haven’t tour in the US and even though we don’t have any specific plans at the moment.  We would really like to go there.

When you look back at that very first Veonity album Gladiator’s Tale, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
Me and Anders, who writes the music and lyrics in Veonity, actually started to write power metal long before actually forming Veonity. I think I wrote my first Power metal song when I was 15 actually. Gladiator’s Tale therefore consists of a lot of the younger songs which makes them a little bit different from what we are writing today. Personally I do like the songs of Gladiator’s Tale because they really have the pure power metal feel, somehow like untouched gems that was put in a safe back in the 90’s but now are on display for the world.

What’s up next for Veonity?
Since we cannot play live at the moment we will do some other things. Some photo shoot, music videos and of course we have to use this time to start writing a new album, even though Sorrows just came out.

Any final words of wisdom?
Keep the flame of metal forever burning and beware of the New Wave of Majestic Power Metal!

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! Stay safe and congrats on the amazing new album!
Thanks Ken, I wish you and the Highwire Daze the best in the future as well and keep up the good work!

Veonity is:
Kristoffer Lidre – Bass
Joel Kollberg – Drums
Samuel Lundström – Guitars (lead)
Anders Sköld – Vocals

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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