Biography

Norway’s metal scene is small, localised, independent and, above all, of very high quality. Despite that, the worldwide metal community often views Norway as a third-world country. But perhaps that is no bad thing, because the inflatory export of bands from their neighbours Sweden and Finland cannot always be seen in a positive light. Average becomes the standard. But clocks tick differently in Norway, as the last albums of PAGAN’S MIND and CIRCUS MAXIMUS prove, both of which were way above the general norm and which caused a furore on the prog metal scene.

It is from the neighbourhood of these two groups that we now welcome ILLUSION SUITE and their debut album “Final Hour”. Arising in 2003 from a studio project of the two musicians Roger Bjorge (drums) and Øyvind “Lionheart” Larsen (guitar), Bill Makatowicz (vocals) joined the band later the same year and Dag Erik Johnsen (bass) became a part of Illusion Suite in 2005. The line-up was recently completed by Ketil Ronold (keyboards). The band had however already recorded a demo in 2004. Their self-financed EP, “The Adventures Of Arcan” was released in 2005 and received huge praise as listeners realised that the lads from Oslo were on the right musical path. It soon became clear that the four band members had an enormous musical background. The term “musical limits” is not in their vocabulary – something which is more than obvious on the new album, the beginnings of which were recorded in 2007. The work was produced by guitarist Øyvind V Larsen in his own Lionheart Studio, which has already hosted JORN LANDE, CIRCUS MAXIMUS and Nils K.Rue of PAGAN’S MIND. In 2008 the band had the album mixed and mastered by Markus Teske (VANDEN PLAS, SYMPHONY X, DOMINICI…) in the Bazement Studio, Germany.