MERIDIAN - DENMARK
|
Breaking The Surface – 2016 – Mighty Margin Of Error – 2019 - Mighty The 4th Dimension – 2022 – From The Vaults Meridian - 2025 - From The Vaults |  |
Members Vocals Whores & Thieves>>Lars Märker>>Whores & Thieves - Starrats, Twinspirits, Ripe, Maladaptive, Inmoria, Crystal Eyes, Artillery, Serpent Saints, Crystal Tears, Dignity, FireForce, Terracore, Gutter Creek, Denied, Solo>>SØREN NICO ADAMSEN>>Denied, SoloGuitar Steffan Pedersen>>Phoebus Cartel – Blindstone, Kuko De Kobra, Legend, Kuko De Kobra, Chalice Of Sin, David Reece, Crossroad Overdrive, Anchorite, Legend Revisited>>MARTIN ANDERSEN>>Blindstone, Kuko De Kobra, Legend, Kuko De Kobra, Chalice Of Sin, David Reece, Crossroad Overdrive, Anchorite, Legend Revisited - KTL, Motivi X Litigare, Chaoswave, Burning Ground, David Reece, Scientic, Empire Drowns, Street Fighter, Withering Surface>>MARCO ANGIONI>>David Reece, Empire Drowns, Street Fighter, Withering SurfaceBass Sonic Machine>>PETER BRUUN>>Sonic MachineDrum Carl Turns Fifty>>KLAUS SKJOLDBORG AGERBO |
History & Biography The heavy metal band was founded by drummer Klaus Agerbo and bassist Peter Bruun in Esbjerg, Denmark in 2005. They were joined by guitarist Søren Steffensen. The cleverly titled demo All The World's A Cage was issued in 2007. Guitarist and singer Lars Märker dropped the strings. Inside The Machine was the 2009 demo. The band had its live debut at this point. Guitarists Søren Steffensen, Mads Bahl and Torben Steffensen Atzen exited. The last man was Søren’s brother. The song The Bravest Face was written in 2008 with lyrics by Klaus about his nephew's fight against leukemia. The pattern followed with the departure of guitarist JS. Steffan Pedersen would depart. The Metallurgy demo became the Metallurgy album thanks to Mighty Music. The Fate Of Atlantis was a 2018 EP.Denmark-based hard rock band Meridian had a 2022 album called The 4th Dimension through From The Vaults. It was produced, mixed and mastered by the band’s guitarist Marco Angioni who had done production work with bands Like Tygers Of Pan Tang, Steel Inferno and Iron Fire. Angioni also joined Empire Drowns, but on bass. Meridian played shows in Scandinavia including an album release one with Steel Inferno. Metal Cross and Meridian collaborated on a song called Merry Bloody Christmas, which was available through From The Vaults in late 2023. Singer Lars Märker left in 2025. Uprising was a digital single in 2025. It was described as, "an upbeat, hard-rocking anthem of rebellion. The track serves as a call to arms against dictatorship and oppression." It was from an upcoming full-length album, marking the studio debut of new frontman Søren Adamsen (ex-Artillery). The self-titled album was issued in September 2025. Reviews MERIDIAN - Same - FROM THE VAULTS Interviews  The Open Microphone Series of conversations is designed to revolve around non-musical topics where we speak with our interviewees about wider topics than just music. Something that has been on my mind is the mainstreamization of heavy metal. The music that was invented as an edgy, non-mainstream, dangerous and outspoken genre and art form, has become tame and domesticated. Regardless of whether one is right-wing, middle-of-the-road or left-wing, the mantle of metal's brave edginess has been taken away. It is common to find mainstream pop, rock and hip-hop musicians like Macklemore, Kneecap, Bruce Springsteen, Kid Rock, Dua Lipa or Taylor Swift to be more socially conscious, outspoken and courageous than metal musicians nowadays. This is shocking, yet it is reality. It became an opportune time to discuss the issue when Meridian's 2025 single, Uprising, fell into my lap. The song is socially aware, topical and, according to the publicity, "...the track serves as a call to arms against dictatorship and oppression, reminding us that the fight for freedom is far from over in today’s chaotic world." Guitarist and producer Marco Angioni and Ali "The Metallian" met for a conversation that, nonetheless, could not stay away from music because the song Uprising is so darned good too. - 09.06.2025 METALLIAN: Marco, nice to meet you. Thank-you for your time. MARCO: You're welcome, you're welcome. 
METALLIAN: You know, I'm going to admit to you that I don't know the band. All I know is, I heard the song Uprising, that is from the next album I believe…MARCO: Exactly. METALLIAN: The song is fantastic. The vintage metal feeling, yet with a modern sound, The soloing and the power… MARCO: Thank-you very much for the compliment. METALLIAN: I hope the album has more songs like this, but for now the thought occurred to me that one needs to pay attention to Meridian. At the same time, thinking about the metal scene, what I want to talk about is politics and what's happening to heavy metal. Yet, as much as I don't want to talk about music today, I can't escape it entirely. Where did the song come from and is it typical for the band? MARCO: Well, so now we have to talk about the band. So the interview gets derailed immediately, but it's the first album with a new singer. We had a previous singer who was much more, erm, clean and like Journey if you allow me that term. We were more like AOR, classic metal and British. With the new singer, we dropped basically all the keyboards, all the smaller, um, cherries in the music and went for a straight and raw sound. The drums are not triggered. There are no samples whatsoever. There is no autotune, nothing, just us playing our asses off. One could call it underproduced. It's not full of the modern day gimmicks and corner cuttings. METALLIAN: Now the question is, why did you change? MARCO: Well, it all happens… We lost a singer. We got a new one with a more raw voice. We thought, 'well, why not? Why not? Let's cut all the bullshit and go straight to what metal is.' Heavy guitars. There are not 3,000 rhythm guitars. There is just me and Martin left and right. There you go! METALLIAN: Why did the singer change? MARCO: Ah, well, erm, we are still friends with him, with Lars we are still friends, but he really didn't have much time for the band anymore. So we thought that… we had a meeting and we both agreed that it was time to split. We contacted a couple of singers and Søren Adamsen was interested. We met him and he had the right attitude we were looking for. We didn't want a clone of our previous singer. We wanted something different. He had that something different we liked and we asked him to join. He said, 'yes.' We are happy. METALLIAN: I have to ask this because of history then. Is your new singer committed and full-time because he himself is in multiple bands and has been in many bands? MARCO: Yeah, exactly, well he promised us that he will commit to the band. He wrote really powerful lyrics. He sang his ass off. He's willing to play live and help us develop the band. So, I think, we have been lucky. METALLIAN: Okay. Who played the solos on this song? MARCO: We are both playing solos, me and Martin, if you ask me… I don't remember. Oh, my God, I think it's me playing the first and Martin playing the second. He plays the ending solo and I'm playing that Arab-inspired melody at the beginning. 
METALLIAN: Who came up with the idea of the 'hoo haa'?MARCO: That's Søren Adamsen. METALLIAN: When is this album coming out? MARCO: It's coming out in mid-September. Pretty soon there will be two other singles, one before the album comes out and another one after the album comes out. METALLIAN: The song Uprising starts with a 'heads will roll' and a 'blood will spill'. How serious is the topic for the band? Is it like something that means something serious to you? MARCO: Well, the lyrics are written by Søren. I think it depicts, pretty much, also our view. I mean, if you go back to the third last album there is a song called City Of Holy Wars, which is about Jerusalem and with this one we didn't go that far from that area. It's inspired by what's happened in Syria in the last year or so where that douchebag got kicked back to Russia. METALLIAN: So there's been some politics in the mix with the band. MARCO: Yes, yes. We are not afraid of saying what we mean. METALLIAN: That's the perfect segue for me. When I started listening to metal, metal was dangerous. Metal was the edgy genre of music. For me, now, metal has become a big industry, a big seller and it's become mainstream and it's docile. When I look for edgy, and it does not matter for this conversation, if you're left-wing, right-wing or middle-of-the-road, metal has become very shockingly silent to me. If you're looking for edgy, you're looking at Macklemore, who is a rapper. You are looking at Kneecap. Taylor Swift takes positions. Bruce Springsteen takes positions. Then there's Kid Rock. Dua Lipa takes sides. This world is burning and nobody in metal is taking positions. I'm shocked that this style of music, that was underground, has let the edginess go to Macklemore and Irish rappers, and somebody called Dua Lipa. MARCO: Yeah. Well. I think European metal in a way is being silent, politically and socially. I also think that metal coming from the U.S.A. is strangely kind of more political than European metal. If you look at Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth, he's a metal dude and he was caught launching… that's Washington D.C. on January 6th. I mean, you can't be more political than that. He got convicted and he got free and now he's trying to put it together again. METALLIAN: So why has the vast majority of metal been so silent and not taking positions? Is everyone ignorant or does nobody have a position, is everyone scared or do they not care about what's going on? MARCO: I think mostly it's political correctness. That's why metal lost its edge. There's no one willing to stick the knife where it hurts socially. METALLIAN: Why is somebody like Dua Lipa, Kneecap or Bruce Springsteen, who sells a million albums, willing to do it or take the chance or risk, but nobody in metal, where somebody is selling 10,000 albums, is willing or brave? MARCO: Well, rap was born in social discomfort. METALLIAN: NWA. MARCO: Yeah, and Bruce Springsteen is old enough to have witnessed all the bad things the USA has been going through in the '60s and '70s. I think when he speaks about politics he speaks with a learned mind. He speaks from a first person point-of-view. From the witness stand, basically, because he saw what happened. He sees what's happening now and what he says is on point and speaks with a learned mind regarding American politics. Dua Lipa, I don't know her that much, but even if an artist is making a music that I personally abhor, they do have some neurons and they are connecting the dots. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion. METALLIAN: What is the role of the artist in society? MARCO: That's a question that goes back to Mesopotamia. The artist, I mean speaking of myself, after 4,000 years of history of arts and artists that have been recording so far and have recorded so far, it's the way I like it… and if that music inspires, and is liked by other people then the better for me. The role of the artist in society, it's entertaining, you know? Getting people a way out of the usual boring, tedious life and experiencing something different. And again, I think the next part of my answer is, probably also part of your previous question… it's lost. The artists nowadays, especially metal, is to have a sense of getting people to think. If you go to a concert, is it just for entertaining people for two hours, two and a half hours? Then people leave, and they go back to their business, and it's like nothing happened. What's missing now is the thinking part. After the concert, or the performance, the show ends. The audience goes home tired, exhausted and falls asleep. Then the next day wakes up and asks, 'that thing he said yesterday… why did he say it?' Then checks on the internet. That is missing, I think. You have a band like Sabaton. They're talking about war, but they are talking about war like a teacher in primary school. He's talking about war. There was this battle. There were two kings fighting each other. They fought and he lost. He won. Boom! But why? Those small questions are left unanswered. METALLIAN: Good point. I always thought that Sabaton… Well, after a while I started to think Sabaton is glorifying war because it feels like going to war is so much fun, but there is misery and context behind it. MARCO: Absolutely, absolutely. And going back to our song. All the uprising against Bashar Al-Assad… it's not like people woke up in the morning and said, 'Yeah, let's go and kill some dude.' No, it's something that people felt they had to do because they were so oppressed and there was not the freedom they were looking for. They were constantly stepped over. They didn't feel safe at home and whatever comes next let's try and make it better. METALLIAN: You just mentioned Assad. I want to make sure I know what you're talking about. Were you talking about City Of Holy War or the new song? MARCO: No, the new song. METALLIAN: Is Uprising about Bashar Al-Assad? MARCO: Well, it's not about him because no one wants to say his name anymore. It's about the Syrian people. 
METALLIAN: Hopefully. He's assigned to the dustbin of history and we won't hear from him again. He'll never come back.MARCO: Yeah. Crossing fingers for that. METALLIAN: He's on his Moscow vacation. MARCO: Yeah. METALLIAN: Retirement. Imagine being stuck in Russia with Putin. MARCO: Yeah, yeah, that sucks. METALLIAN: Marco, tell me, are you an honourary Dane? MARCO: I am Italian. I have been living in Denmark for the last 17 years. METALLIAN: You're an honourary Dane! I was right. MARCO: So, yeah, yeah! Should ask for honourary citizenship for now. METALLIAN: What do you see or think is going on with Trump especially because in Denmark there's the Greenland story. I was reading about people going to the supermarket and making non-American choices. MARCO: Well, let's say that Trump is not exactly popular in this area. And I'm not talking only about Denmark, but all of Scandinavia and most parts of Germany and the rest of Europe too. I mean, you can see that with just how Tesla fell in sales and in profits. Trump's an orange clown with unlimited power. And he can't, probably, clinically understand, good or bad! It's all about himself. It's all about getting some kind of recognition, for whatever he thinks he's doing. The Greenland thing. If you look at it without all the military power that Trump has behind him, it could be like a bad Friday night joke. There is a strong movement to boycott U.S.A. products. I mean almost everybody is choosing European products. From colas to cars to everything in-between. There was a funny interview on the BBC World Service a couple of months ago with a German guy. He had a pub in Muenchen, I think, and he switched. The interviewer was asking him, 'what are you doing to not buy U.S.A. products anymore?' and he said that he switched from the U.S.A. Bourbon to Canadian whiskey and the vodka is coming from Poland instead. Then the British interviewer asked him about the beer. 'Are you still buying American beer?' and the guy didn't laugh, didn't answer. Like 'no!' METALLIAN: What was he doing ordering American beer in the first place? MARCO: Yeah, yeah. METALLIAN: Back to the music for a moment. What else can you tell me about the upcoming album? MARCO: Well, the song that you heard is probably the most political. That's as far as we go, but expect a good dose of old-school-inspired metal with a little touch of prog also. Progressive in a different sense than before. If it was progressive before arrangement-wise, it's now progressive more structure-wise. METALLIAN: Are you afraid that you're going to lose fans because you're changing? There's a new singer, the style is changing, heavier structure, there is a political single… MARCO: As I told you before, we changed singers and we thought, 'okay, we changed singers and why not change all the way?' We changed how we produced and played the album. METALLIAN: On a personal note, what are you working on? MARCO: I was in France this last week playing with my other band Withering Surface. We played a really really cool festival called Lions Metal Festival, which is in Lyon in southern France. They have really cool people there. METALLIAN: Are you producing any bands these days? MARCO: I just finished mixing a Danish brand band from Copenhagen. They're called Exelerate. They are a nice mix of thrash and classic metal. I am rebuilding my studio and staying a little bit more with my family. I am staying at home and doing family stuff in June. July will be pretty heavy regarding work. The studio is receiving an upgrade and downgrade at the same time. I'm saving a lot in lease money. I'm moving the studio back home and having half of the house dedicated to the studio. There will still be a place for recording a full band. Since most of my kids are gone. To give you a hint of how much space there will be, we have eight kids and there are only four left in the house. METALLIAN: 50%. MARCO: Exactly. METALLIAN: Is it still called Death Island? MARCO: I will keep my new name, which is just Angioni studio. METALLIAN: Thanks for your answers and news. Before we end the interview, why is Metallian the very best website in the universe? MARCO: Absolutely. I mean if you go to the NASA website and you look at the pictures taken by the Mars rover you will see that buried under the sand there is a piece of paper which says Metallian. Even aliens read and visit the Metallian website. My interview partner Marco Angioni, his fellow guitarist Martin Andersen, bassist Peter Bruun, drummer Klaus Agerbo and new singer Søren Adamsen have a website at www.meridianband.dk. The Uprising single is available now. A full-length will follow in September 2025. If you enjoyed this, read Threshold
|
MERIDIAN 