Astral Doors

In early 2002, Swedish guitarist Joachim Nordlund, drummer Johan Lindstedt and singer Nils Patrik Johansson teamed up and decided to write some metal songs in the spirit of the old heroes Rainbow, Dio, Sabbath and Deep Purple. They decided to call themselves ASTRAL DOORS, and the line up was completed with organ player Jocke Roberg and bassplayer Martin Haglund.



They completed the recordings of their debut-album (mixed by Peter Tägtgren at Abyss Studio) and began working with Danish based metal-agency Intromental Management. Deals were locked down for “Of The Son And The Father”. The band caught immense media attention, with fantastic reviews everywhere, and various festivals were not late to book ASTRAL DOORS.(now with Martin as the second guitarist and with Mika Itaranta as a new bassplayer) The band performed at Wacken Open Air, Sweden Rock Festival and Decibel 2000 during the summer of 2004, gaining an impressive number of new fans.



Not resting on the laurels of their success, ASTRAL DOORS finalized their 2nd opus “Evil Is Forever” very quickly and the album was released by the same labels as the debut album. The release, which once again received amazing media and fan support, was followed by an extensive European tour as support act to German metal-gods Grave Digger, as well as several festival gigs in Sweden, and not to forget a successful gig in Germany with the hard rock princess herself, Doro Pesch.



Wanting to please their European fans with some extra and exclusive material, while waiting for their next full length, the band gathered a variety of material of unreleased songs and Japanese bonus track, and in October 2005 released the “Raiders Of The Ark” EP.



In late 2005 the band once again went back to the Abyss Studio and Peter Tägtgren to record their 3rd full length album, “Astralism”. The album was released in 2006 and stunned everybody with its roaring riffs and technicality. However, the band wasn't happy at all with the sound and made a re-mix and re-master of the album to bring justice to the songs. It was released a couple of months after the original version. Astral Doors was offered the prestigious spot as official support band for the power metal kings Blind Guardian on a full scale European tour in the fall of 2006. Astral Doors accepted the offer, impressed everybody and left deep musical tracks in their wake…



After the very successful, 2 month long tour with Blind Guardian, Astral Doors immediately started writing new material for the fourth album. Astral Doors will always stand with both feet in the classic hardrock, but this time around they decided to bring more elements, moods and variations to the classic Astral Sound. "New Revelation" became a big success for the band and the band went out on two headline tours to promote the album.



At this stage the band felt that they had to find new ways to reach an even higher level in their music mission. They broke out of Intromental Management and signed with German agency Flying Dolphin and later also with the new label Metalville.



The January 2010-release, "Requiem of Time" shows the world Astral Doors at its very best: The album is nothing but a big hit parade and is best described as a mixture between the classic hard rock you find on the debut, "Of the Son and the Father" and the more basic power/heavy metal style you can hear on the previous "New Revelation". Ulf Lagerström made his debut on this album as the new bassplayer in the band.



Right after the release, Martin Haglund decided to leave the band. No new guitarist was hired; Joachim Nordlund will from now on take care of the guitar works in Astral Doors himself.



The summer of 2010, Astral Doors did a bunch of big festivals and November 19 is set as the release date of their epic best of album: "Testament of Rock".
Discography