Pagan's Mind is a progressive metal band from Skien, Norway. They have released five studio albums, and the current line-up only features original members.
Biography
Founded in 2000 from the bandSilverspoon by Nils K. Rue, Thorstein Aaby, and Stian Kristoffersen. Pagan's Mind released their first album, Infinity Divine, that same year. The following album, Celestial Entrance, was released in 2002 and was a relatively big success even outside of Norway. A re-recorded version of Infinity Divine was released in 2004. Their third album, , was released in 2005 and debuted at number 15 on the Norwegian albums chart. Their most recent album, Heavenly Ecstasy, was released in 2011. In February 2008, power metal band Power Quest announced that Pagan's Mind guitarist Jørn Viggo Lofstad will be providing guest instrumentation for the upcoming album Master of Illusion. In 2008, Pagan's Mind toured with Sonata Arctica on their Unia tour. In 2009, Pagan's Mind played ProgPower USA. On 2 March 2011, Pagan's Mind announced Heavenly Ecstasy as the title of their forthcoming album. The band also released a new song called "Intermission" as a premiere for the online radio show "The Metal Madman". The album was released on SPV/Steamhammer on 20 May in Germany, 23 May in other parts of Europe and in June in USA/Canada. On 11 August 2014 Pagan's Mind launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund their next live release called Full Circle - Live At Center Stage, which ran till 20 September and was successfully funded by 163% through their Indiegogo campaign. On 31 July the release date of Full Circle - Live At Center Stage was announced to be on 16 October 2015 in a Blu-ray+2CD, DVD+2CD and 2LP+CD format through SPV Steamhammer GmbH. Between 2014 and 2017, the band was inactive due to health issues from the members of the bands. They resumed their activities in late 2017, and started working on a new album. On January 22, they announced that due to a family situation, K. Rue would not be featured on the three shows planned in March, and would be replaced by Ole Aleksander Wagenius from the band Withem; the band stated that K. Rue's situation would not interfere with his involvement in the upcoming album.
Side-projects by band members
On 28 November 2016 it was announced that Nils K. Rue would play a character named The Prophet in the next Ayreon album The Source. On 22 February 2018 Northward, a hard rock project by Jørn Viggo Lofstad and singer Floor Jansen, was unveiled. The two created the project in 2007, writing an entire album worth of music in 2008 but being unable to record previously due to their busy schedules; they ultimately reunited in 2017 to finally record their self-titled debut album, which was released in 2018.
Influences
Their music is influenced by Stargate, especially the theatrical film. In an interview, frontman Nils K. Rue said: "I wouldn't say I like the TV seriesStargate, because I never saw an entire episode of that. But I really like the film Stargate. Of course, I took some inspiration from that..."
