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The text from the inner sleeve
NEPTUNE – The early years 82-85
In the later part of the 70s and the beginning of the 80’s there was a band called Warriens. The band was a young constellation of three heavy rockers southwest of Stockholm, Sweden. The two brothers Ray and Row Alexandersson, and Tommy Mikk. Tommy smashed the drums, Row Alex thundered on the bass and Ray Alex played guitar and handled the vocals. To give Ray total freedom to do what he does best, they decided to recruit another guitarist – Johnny Östergren.
The music was some kind of rock inspired by the ’60s and ’70s. One day in the rehearsal studio, they had just discussed the continuation of Warriens. An idea that took shape was switching to a slightly harder sound and style of music.
When the band started writing new heavier and harder songs, the Old Norse mythology and the Nordic warriors, the Vikings, were already great role models for the band and their lyrics, but the name of the band wasn’t decided yet. Not long after, Row Alex found what he thought was some kind of jewelry, but which later turned out to be a trident that our Swedish coastal hunters have on their berets. This caused the band to spin loose in their thoughts. They got a vision, that an Old Norse warrior had taken the jewelry from one of the voyages from the Mediterranean in the belief that it was the Vikings’ powerful symbol Algiz and in a mead drunk he dropped it in Lake Mälaren outside the large trading town Birka, which was not far from where Row Alex found this piece of jewelry a few weeks earlier.
The name Njord came up as a band name suggestion, which belonged to the God of the Sea in the Norse Mythology. However, the corresponding god in Roman religion with a different name suited better as a band name – and Neptune was born.
Late in 1981 or early 1982, Neptune went into the local studio to get the first songs on tape. Robert Wellerfors, known for working with Axewitch, Roxette, KSMB, and others, was chosen as a recording engineer and producer. You can hear some of their early influences at the same time as their Viking theme starts to take shape. That is most prominent in the song The Battle. This demo has not been spread significantly even though a small number of cassettes were printed. The naming of the 4-song tape was Join the Battle.
We are now entering the summer of 1984. Jan Granwik had joined, and it was once again time to record a few songs, this time ”live” in the rehearsal room. I Want You to Know is an early song that was not finished at the time of the Join the Battle tape, but you can hear that the band has started to go for a slightly harder style which is heard in the songs Enemies and Burglary Man.
Just before the band entered the studio to record what later became the basis of Land of Northern, they booked a studio for a weekend to record about 12 songs, once again ”live”. From that session, Neptune recently found demo versions of the songs I Can Feel the Power, Protector, Love Game, and The Child. Now collected to be enjoyed and played loud.