Nils Eriksson

Nils Eriksson — Swedish bassist — founded Nocturnal Rites with Fredrik Mannberg in 1990 in Umeå, and has remained in the band throughout its discography. Alongside Mannberg, he is the link joining the group's death metal beginning to the modern melodic metal phase that followed. Few bands keep the same pair of founders for more than thirty years, and fewer still across so complete a change of genre. His function in the repertoire changed along with the band. In the power metal of the 1990s, the bass followed the guitar in unison, serving as reinforcement. From Shadowland (2002) onwards, with heavier riffs and mid tempos, the bass line gained room of its own and came to define the weight of the tracks — a change audible when comparing The Sacred Talisman (1999) with New World Messiah (2004). He was also present for the band's return in 2017 with Phoenix, after nine years of silence.