Magnus attended school to study classical guitar when he was 10 years old. Later on he was very much into bands such as
Iron Maiden,
Dio,
Judas Priest and
Black Sabbath. His influences as a guitarist were
Steve Morse,
Steve Vai and
Allan Holdsworth. He has played in various metal and fusion bands early on and developed a style which mixes metal and folk music. His first critically acclaimed musical project was with the band
Last Tribe, which has released three full-length albums. In 2004, Magnus started to work as a session musician in a project put together by
Frontiers Records, which had the intention to have two acclaimed heavy metal vocalists singing together as a duet. The project ended up featuring powerhouse vocalists
Russell Allen (
Symphony X) and
Jørn Lande (ex-
Masterplan) and was simply called
Allen/Lande. The project released its first three albums with all music and the majority of lyrics written by Magnus Karlsson, featuring a variety of hard rock and heavy metal songs with a progressive metal touch. In the same year he also started to write music for a project with singer
Tony Harnell (
TNT), drummer
John Macaluso (
Ark, TNT,
Yngwie Malmsteen) and bassist Fabrizio Grossi (Steve Vai) that would later on become the band
Starbreaker. In 2008, he worked with
Magnum vocalist
Bob Catley on his solo album
Immortal writing all the songs himself . The same year, Magnus joined German metal band
Primal Fear making a big contribution to the band's songwriting. He also teamed up with the band's bassist and leader
Mat Sinner to work in a number of projects released by
Frontiers Records, such as
Kiske/Somerville (another singer-duet project, featuring ex-
Helloween singer
Michael Kiske and American singer and vocal coach
Amanda Somerville) and the first solo album by Primal Fear frontman
Ralf Scheepers. In 2013 it was announced that Magnus Karlsson would release his first solo musical project called
Free Fall on 11 June in North America and 14 June in Europe by Frontiers Records. It features many guest singers who worked with Magnus before, including Russell Allen, Ralf Scheepers, Tony Harnell, Rickard Bengtsson (former bandmate from Last Tribe),
Mark Boals (who worked with Magnus in the project The Codex), Mike Andersson (who worked with Magnus in the project Planet Alliance) and other guests like
David Readman (
Pink Cream 69,
Voodoo Circle),
Rick Altzi (
At Vance, Masterplan) and Herman Saming (
A.C.T). Magnus also sings three tracks on the album himself and Daniel Flores (who also worked with Magnus in the project The Codex) recorded the drums. Magnus also wrote songs for the melodic hard rock project
Place Vendome, 'My Guardian Angel' from the album
Streets of Fire, 'Break Out' from the album
Thunder in the Distance and 'Falling Star' from the album
Close to the Sun. The second Free Fall album has been announced to be released in 2015. It's called
Kingdom of Rock and features the following guests: Jørn Lande,
Tony Martin (ex-
Black Sabbath),
Joe Lynn Turner (ex-
Rainbow, ex-
Deep Purple),
Jakob Samuel (
The Poodles, also worked with Magnus in the band Midnight Sun),
Harry Hess (
Harem Scarem),
Rebecca De La Moite, and once again Tony Harnell, Rick Altzi and David Readman, the last three also sang in the first album.
Jaime Salazar (who worked with Magnus on bands Last Tribe, Planet Alliance, Midnight Sun and the Allen/Lande project) recorded the drums. The album's release date is 6 November 2015. In 2017, it was announced another new project featuring songwriting, production and playing from Magnus Karlsson called The Ferrymen. The self-titled album also features drummer
Mike Terrana (
Vision Divine,
Avalanch) and singer
Ronnie Romero (
Lords of Black,
Rainbow). In 2018, Magnus and Tony Harnell reunited to record the third album of Starbreaker which is titled
Dysphoria and was released on 25 January 2019. It also features bassist Jonni Lightfoot and drummer Anders Köllerfors.
Heart Healer Heart Healer is a project with the intention to create the first
metal opera only with female singers, with Magnus Karlsson on songwriting and production. Self-named album
Heart Healer released on 12 March 2021 via
Frontiers Records. Current band members: Magnus Karlsson, Erika Sävström Engman, Daniel Tengberg, Anders Köllerfors The invited singers are Adrienne Cowan (Seven Spires,
Sascha Paeth's Masters of Ceremony,
Avantasia,
Winds of Plague), Netta Laurenne (Smackbound, Laurenne/Louhimo), Youmna Jreissati (Ostura),
Ailyn (
Her Chariot Awaits, ex-
Sirenia), Noora Louhimo (
Battle Beast),
Margarita Monet (
Edge of Paradise) and
Anette Olzon (
The Dark Element, ex-
Nightwish). The album's plot follows the title character (performed by Cowan) after she wakes up with no memory and with the ability to heal people with the touch of her bare hands, though that comes at the gradual cost of her own strength. As the story progresses, she meets people willing to help her, use her powers or hunt her. The album has been released on CD, color vinyl and digital formats. On 25 January 2021, a video for "Into the Unknown" was released. Karlsson explained in his words, "my interest in orchestral music has been growing increasingly during the years. I wanted to mix the epic and dramatic orchestral sound with metal and produce something without any limits and rules. At the end of 2019, I started to work on ideas and tried new sounds and arrangements with the goal to create something dramatic, epic, and beautiful. This is easily my biggest and most demanding work ever. First the music with big arrangements and orchestra. Then all the singers and the need to find the right parts for everyone to make it as good as possible. Finally, mixing it all together in an interesting story about the 'heart healer'. I have to say, if I didn't work with such great and professional people it would be impossible to make this happen!" == Discography ==