Ulf Andersson

Ulf Andersson — Nocturnal Rites' drummer between 1992 and 1998 — was in the band throughout its transition from death metal to melodic power metal. He recorded the first two albums, In a Time of Blood and Fire (1995) and Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1997), records that introduced the group to the European power metal circuit and defined its identity in the 1990s: high vocals, fantasy subject matter, fast tempos over continuous double bass. That was the format of the genre at the time, and the drums worked as an engine: constant speed, with no room for dynamic variation. It is the opposite of what the band would do from 2002 onwards, when tempos dropped and the weight came instead from the placing of the strokes. Andersson belongs to the first logic, and left in 1998, before the turn.