Umeå, Sweden's
Persuader persuasively stated their case for admission into the power metal major leagues in the year 2000 with the release of their debut album, The Hunter, which showed the influence of their hallowed countrymen
Hammerfall, as well as Teutonic purveyors of the style like
Blind Guardian and
Gamma Ray. The band had been assembled a couple of years earlier by vocalist Jens Karlsson, guitarist Pekka Kiviaho, bassist
Fredrik Hedström, and drummer
Efraim Juntunen (another guitarist named Magnus Lindblom also contributed a few solos to that first album), and stumbled momentarily following Kiviaho's departure, but rebounded via 2004's
Evolution Purgatory LP, introducing new axeman
Emil Norberg. A third album entitled
When Eden Burns was released two years later and saw
Persuader expanded to a quintet with the addition of second guitarist Daniel Sundbom, but the band has yet to record again since, largely due to Karlsson and
Norberg's simultaneous involvement with German power metal outfit
Savage Circus, thus leaving
Persuader in the "to be continued…perhaps" file. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia