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 continuedperhaps" file. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia