Biography
The hard rock duo Northward came together in 2007, yet more than ten years elapsed before the pair issued any recordings. Dutch vocalist Floor Jansen of Nightwish and Norwegian guitarist Jørn Viggo Lofstad of Pagan's Mind first encountered each other at the 2007 "All Star Jam" during the Progpower USA Festival. Their onstage performance of several covers ignited an immediate creative connection, prompting the two musicians to write a complete album's worth of material the following year. Professional obligations with their main bands soon consumed whatever free time remained, leaving the Northward songs untouched for the subsequent nine years. The project resumed in 2017 when the duo returned to the studio to capture the tracks they had begun a decade earlier. Producer Jacob Hansen of Volbeat helped shape the sessions into a hard rock statement that diverged from the metal style both artists pursued with Nightwish and Pagan's Mind. Nuclear Blast released the resulting self-titled album in 2018.