Mikael Söderström

Mikael Söderström — Nocturnal Rites' rhythm guitarist between 1992 and 1997 — was in the band during its most radical transformation. When he joined, Nocturnal Rites was still a death metal group, with founding guitarist Fredrik Mannberg on vocals. When he left, the band had already recorded In a Time of Blood and Fire (1995) and Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1997) — two melodic power metal records with a dedicated singer and fantasy subject matter. That is a complete change of genre, not an adjustment. Few bands make that crossing without dissolving, and Söderström was one of the musicians who crossed it playing: the two-guitar format — one rhythm, one lead — that the band adopted in this phase came with the turn, and is the architecture Nocturnal Rites would keep in the decades that followed.