Blood Incantation (U.S.) Vale of Amonition Introtyl Evergrey (Sweden

#103 Washington state, U.S.
August 26, 2016 (no.4 in August)
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Blood Incantation (U.S.)
Introtyl
(Mexico)
Vale
Evergrey (Sweden)
of
Amonition
(Uganda)
interview, part 1
Seattle/Washington state concert calendar: there many shows coming up; check
out the list for more details
issues of this zine are avalable online at: www.fuglymaniacs.com
Metal Bulletin Zine
P.O. Box 1339
Lake Stevens WA 98258
Metal Bulletin Zine
#1-20:
#21-26: (2009-2010): Texas
Washington state
cerebral whirlwind of powerful Atmospheric
Death Metal.
USA
(2006-2009): Wisconsin
#27(2010)--now;
All album reviews, news, updates below are
by MMB, unless stated otherwise.
**
NEWS: Blood Incantation
Starspawn
Dark Descent Records
Release: 18 August 2016
Death metal squad Blood Incantation (U.S.)
has a new album that you can hear in its
entirety at the link below. The official
information says that the album is analog,
which, of course, means that the band is not
pleased with the weak sound of modern
extreme metal drums and in general with the
clinical sound of modern metal. Not everyone
is happy with having drums that sound like
kids' toys or with robotic music, and Blood
Incantation appears to be one of those
rebellious bands. Also, if you play death metal
and you choose to have the word incantation
in your name, that's not an accident, correct?
That's a statement. Thick, claustrophobic
death metal is a huge element here, but also
there is a sideways energy going on, but you'll
have to hear it for yourself to decide what
exactly it is. It's not weirdo stuff, but it's a bit
atmospheric. The best part of it all? You don't
to take anyone's word for it! Check it for
yourself and see if you hear the difference
with this band.
OFFICIAL: Colorado Death Metal band
BLOOD INCANTATION will release its debut fulllength album this summer on Dark Descent
Records. After signing with the label just prior
to the August 2015 release of the
Interdimensional
Extinction
EP,
BLOOD
INCANTATION returns with a 30-minute
Produced entirely in analog, the energy and
magnetism of live BLOOD INCANTATION is
tangibly melting through the speakers, and
the songwriting, production and performance
constellations have all fully aligned. The
intense
and
otherworldly
technical/ambient/funeral death metal of
Starspawn
leaves
the
listener
feeling
transcendentally disembodied at the end of
an unknown dimension. With appearances at
California Death Fest and Covenant Festival
(Canada) already on the horizon, and an
even more extensive US tour this September,
the worldwide spread of the BLOOD
INCANTATION tentacles into all orbits is as
inevitable as your own death and this galaxy’s
violent collapse.
www.darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/al
bum/starspawn
www.facebook.com/Blood-incantation508899805936788
**
Vale of Amonition (Uganda)
Vale of Amonition's specialty is bluesy,
tripped-out doom, for which the band likes
the words: dark, epic, tribal, doom,
progressive, ancient and occult. The music is
simplistic, raw and strange, and that’s how the
band likes it. Of course, this means, that some
people will be very confused when they hear
what this band from Uganda has in store for
them, while people interested in doom that
sounds way out there might just find
something to peak their curiosity. Currently,
the band has posted a preview of a release
that is coming up. The band says about the
preview: "An unmastered snippet from the
Dark Queen Chronicles and rare initial mixes
of Infernal Supremacy and War Of
Incantations from the upcoming compilation
When We Were Earthly". Listen to the preview
at the link below. The track list is as follows:
1.Infernal Supremacy 03:42
2.War Of Incantations 01:24
3.Dark Queen (Unmastered) 02:55
released May 5, 2016
OFFICIAL: The VALE OF AMONITION or "Valley
of Ammunition" is a home to things of a tragic
persuasion. A sanctuary for warmakers, a
province for mages, an abode for ancient
tribal lords and their possibly doomed
descendants and a whole world of creatures
divine and devious. Surrounding the Vale is
the Abyss which is now inhabited by the most
ancient of beasts. Light does not flow into the
3
Abyss and its creatures never venture into the
Vale. But a storm is brewing and events shall
soon unfold in a harrowing and dramatic
fashion.
Vickonomy: guitars, vocals, V.O.A. mastermind
We are the band that speaks of the Vale of
Amonition to Earth. We tell of its glorious
history, its troubles and triumphs and of the
heavy hand of doom that refuses to abandon
it.
Musically, Black Sabbath and Mercyful Fate
are our most important influences but rather
than remain rigid, our aim from the beginning
has always been to evolve as much as we
can within the heavy metal context.
Therefore, "progressive" is a term of
significance for us and tells of our collective
spirit as musicians. Our willingness to grow, our
love for dynamism and intricacy and our
purpose to create and to imagine INFINITELY!
Doom is our ultimate governor and the
principle by which we play. Hail Dagory!
www.valeofamonition.bandcamp.com/releas
es
www.facebook.com/valeofamonitionwebcult
/
Introtyl
A last matter that should of interest is that they
actually have several videos on YouTube,
including their full show in the Wacken Metal
Battle and also another full show at the After
Winter Fest in June of 2016. As you can
imagine, YouTube videos often have a
substandard sound quality, but even so, the
energy of the band comes across really well
and also their experience. Metal Archives says
that they started in 2008. At the moment, the
members of the band are: Sara (guitar), Kary
(vocals), Ale (drums), and Rose (guitar).
www.facebook.com/IntrotylMx
www.reverbnation.com/introtyl
www.youtube.com/user/INTROTYL
**
Introtyl is a death metal band from Mexico. It
is not for nothing that they name Bolt Thrower,
Suffocation,
Behemoth,
Severe
Torture,
Cannibal
Corpse,
Bloodbath
and
Decapitated are reference points. Their
recordings and their live shows bring upfront,
efficient death metal, but at the same time
the band has always stated that the quality of
the music is important, too. It's not just playing
fast or heavy as a band that is casually
jamming together, but rather as musicians
who are proud of their skills, their songs and
their genre. Of course, they always seek to
communicate musical brutality. That’s a
given. According to Metal Archives, their
second EP is called Inception, and you can
hear songs from it on ReverbNation. This year
they have some shows coming up in Mexico,
for instance:
September 17: Toluca
September 24: Durango
October 7: Mexico City
October 29: Guadalajara
November 19: Celaya
4
Evergrey – Interview 2016 – “We’re
getting stronger and stronger, every
day”
interview by Matt Spall, The Man of Much
Metal.
Matt writes some of the most in-depth reviews
and interviews to be found in 2016. Matt’s
particular preference is prog music and that’s
what he covers on his blog The Blog of Much
Metal. He writes only about music that he
enjoys and the adult contemporary metal
band Evergrey (Sweden) is music that he
loves excessively. Evergrey happens to have a
new album coming up, The Storm Within,
about which he already wrote up a review.
The next project he’s tackling is the interview
that he did in London with vocalist/guitarist
Tom Englund and drummer Jonas Ekdahl. He
has not finished writing the complete interview
yet, but he has now posted the first part,
which you will find below. If you are interested
in reading more of Matt’s work, please see the
links given at the end of this interview.
MMB
THE INTERVIEW
When you have a job and a young family, it
can be tough to get out of the house
sometimes, even if it is to just nip to the shops
briefly. So you can imagine that it is almost
impossible to get an entire evening off.
However, when you are summoned to
London by your favourite band to undertake
an interview, you have to try. And you have to
succeed. And so, late in the afternoon, I
found myself heading towards the capital, in
direct contrast to the 4th birthday party that
I’d attended earlier as part of my ‘Daddy
Daycare’ responsibilities. It’s the way I roll.
Knowing that I was running late, I abandoned
the car, got on the tube and headed to
Russell Square eventually arriving in a sweaty
mess. The unmistakable shapes of Tom
Englund and Jonas Ekdahl could be seen
through the windows, enjoying a quiet chat
on the hotel patio. The greeting is warm from
Jonas, but I’m gathered in a bear hug from
Tom who, since our last meeting even, has
somewhat unbelievably become a closer
friend. You ask why I do this writing for no
monetary reward? This. This is why.
After the usual pleasantries have been
exchanged and beers have been delivered
to the table, we get down to business. I begin
by asking the guys whether their present
outlook is as positive as it was around the
release of the highly-lauded ‘Hymns For The
Broken’. Tom is first to reply and his response is
emphatic.
“Yeah, for sure”, he nods. “Better. Now that
we have had the amount of time that we
have had in between those albums, our
confidence as individual players and as a
band has increased. We feel strong, we feel
confident and we feel respected too which is
an important part of feeling great.”
5
“[Expletive] no”, Tom fires back with brutal
honesty when I enquire as to whether this
confidence has always been present within
the Evergrey camp. “I would say that it has
been 20 years of self-doubt up until the last
album. Even then we doubted if we were
good enough to come back to do another
album. You second guess yourself so much in
this business, it wears you down. But it also
makes you stronger. When things are going
great, then you are the strongest person on
Earth. But when things start to fall, then it’s just
shit.”
The softly spoken and articulate Jonas adds
his first thoughts of the conversation at this
point.
“Especially nowadays”, he offers, whilst I
silently admit to being jealous of the guy’s
hair. “Because it is so easy to get a hold of
your stuff on line, with all this social media stuff
and people writing about you or your music.
It’s like heaven or hell, highs and lows. So you
have to be careful what you take in from that.
You have to know yourself and that you are
good at something, no matter what people
say. Even if they think you are the best in the
world or the worst in the world.”
“You can read 400 comments”, Tom agrees
with his percussionist colleague, “where
people say that you are genius, a God , gifted
or the best band in the world. But then you
get this one comment that says you are
[expletive]. For me, it is a matter of me being
bullied when I was a kid. These comments
stick to me immediately, so I don’t look. When
we put the video online the other day, I didn’t
look at the comments. I just saw how many
views we had. It’s not good for me.”
This is a response that resonates deeply with
me. I too suffer with self-confidence and
mental fragility, often lacking the self-belief
that what I’m doing is either the right thing or
any good. Therefore, when I receive any kind
of negativity, I tend to take it to heart. To
know that I’m not alone in this is more than a
little comforting.
“I’m trying to be better at it”, Tom continues. “I
don’t care if people say that they don’t like it.
That’s fine. But when people are stupid,
unintelligent and say things because they
want to hurt people, then it makes me want
to tear them to pieces in text…but I don’t.”
I remember speaking with Tom and Johan
Niemann around the release of ‘Hymns For
The Broken’ and the return of Jonas Ekdahl
and Henrik Danhage about the effect the
feedback had on them. Tom admitted that
the positivity almost moved him to tears. It is
surprising therefore to note that this time
around, a decision was made to consciously
not look at the social media feedback. I ask
Tom for his reasoning.
“I don’t know”, he shrugs, looking around for
6
inspiration. “I just took the decision that I felt I
didn’t want to look. Maybe it’s because I’m
super tired right now from doing all this work
for such a long time. I didn’t want to know if
somebody hated it because we have done
exactly the album that we wanted to do in
every aspect; everything from the production
to the final imagery of the videos. All of it. For
us it might be one of…”, Tom pauses, “maybe
it is the album. I don’t know.”
“That’s how I look at it”, Jonas agrees with a
big smile. “I’m super confident. Usually I am
über sensitive about the comments and
things. I take in very easily all the bad
comments. But here, I felt so confident when
we released the video, almost like I didn’t
recognise myself…”
“I didn’t” Tom interjects with a broad grin and
a good-natured chuckle, emphasising the
friendship between the two. Jonas responds
with light-hearted laughter of his own before
continuing.
“I almost felt arrogant”, he states with wideeyed disbelief writ large across his face. “The
comments don’t matter, because I know
what the five of us did and what Patric
(Ullaeus – rEvolver) and the five of us did. If
you don’t like it, it’s your problem and maybe
you should just listen to something else.”
“That’s just it”, Tom responds, bringing this
particular topic to something approaching a
natural conclusion. “It is weird if you make an
effort to tell everyone as much and as loud as
you can that you don’t like it. But we have to
think about it differently. We have to think that
people are caring about us. They care so
much that they are pissed off that we don’t
sound like we did before, based on their love
for the band. If they can’t handle their
emotions now that we sound different or
can’t follow the evolution of the band, it’s up
to them. But it’s not like those albums are
gone. You don’t have to miss them, they are
there.”
“Yes, they are”, I quip. “They are all in my car.”
“That’s what I’ll say next time”, Tom laughs,
“they’re all in Matt’s car”
One of the most noticeable things to a longterm fanboy like me, is that ‘The Storm Within’
offers a number of subtle and not-so-subtle
references to the now extensive back
catalogue. Hints of ‘Solitude, Dominance,
Tragedy’ can be heard as well as a vibe of ‘In
Search Of Truth’ here or an echo of
‘Recreation Day’ there. ‘The Storm Within’ is
definitely the next stage in the gradual
Evergrey evolution but to hear these flashes is
strangely comforting and entirely welcome as
far as I’m concerned. What I’m keen to
identify is if this was a deliberate move from
the quintet.
“Some lyric lines were deliberate”, Tom
counters referring to the line ‘…in search of
truth’ within the song ‘Astray’. “But no, it
wasn’t deliberate, we never thought about it
like that.”
“We just went with the flow”, Jonas interjects
before struggling to elaborate further. “It is
hard to explain.”
“But it might be”, considers Tom, helping his
friend out, “that we said ‘wouldn’t it be great
if we had a ‘Touch of Blessing’ melody run
here’ for example, but I don’t really
remember that we did on this album. The
guitar line melodies were done by Henrik just
like that”, he clicks his fingers. “But it is good if
we have influences from our old albums.”
And yet, from some of the comments on
social media, some people have, after
7
hearing only ‘Distance’, dismissed the new
album as ‘Hymns For The Broken’ part two or
worse. Having been lucky enough to hear the
entirety of ‘The Storm Within’, I disagree
vehemently with this point of view and am
very keen to know what Tom and Jonas think
about these comments as well.
“It’s like judging a four-course meal after the
salad”, Tom quips with more than a hint of
acidity to his words. “‘I know that the steak will
suck because I hate this tomato’. We cook for
ourselves. It’s not like we cook, think it tastes
like [expletive] and then eat it. We cook and
then we’re happy. And if the rest of the
customers don’t like it…”
“…Then go to a different restaurant”, finishes
Jonas with impeccable timing. “We can’t
help it. This is how it sounds and how it is
supposed to sound.”
“And we are the ones who decide how it
should sound”, adds Tom, now in bullish
mood. “This is the right that we have. And this
is what I mean by unintelligent comments. It’s
like judging a TV show based on the first
episode. ‘That sucked’. Yeah, maybe you
didn’t get into it with that song, but we are
not Britney Spears or Justin Bieber. We’re not
writing hit singles. This is not a single; it is the first
song to represent the album. A single? What
the [expletive] is that? It is a video, the first
video to set the tone for the album.”
“In general”, offers Jonas when I ask for the
reasoning behind choosing ‘Distance’ as the
first song, “it represents the album better, in
the sense of the vibe and the atmosphere.”
“We wanted to make it dark”, nods Tom in
agreement whilst taking a large glug of his
beer. “We wanted to have the slower paced
thing and it is one of the first songs that we
wrote.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah”, continues Jonas eagerly,
clearly engaged with this particular subject.
“And it was the song where we realised the
vibe for the album. This is it! The video goes
well with the story and the concept of the
record, so many different factors. It was the
most obvious thing to do and we wouldn’t
have been true to ourselves to release any
other song. We need to follow our hearts with
what we do.”
Will we see these ideas on a future album?
“Everybody said that we should have
released ‘Passing Through’ as the first song”,
Tom admits candidly, “but we’re not even
making a video for that one.”
The words used by Evergrey themselves to
describe ‘The Storm Within’ are ‘eerie,
desolate and cinematic’. These are powerful
words, emotive words and entirely fitting with
an album from the kings of dark melodic
progressive metal.
This isn’t the first time that the ‘vibe’ has been
mentioned during this conversation. I ask the
gents to elaborate and they duly deliver, in
the process offering a brief insight into the
songwriting for ‘The Storm Within’. Jonas kicks
things off.
“We were sitting in the rehearsal room when
me and Tom discovered this vibe”, he
explains, smiling at his colleague and friend
across the table. “We were thinking that it felt
like Iceland where you’re so deserted and
lonely. We got so inspired and had visions in
our heads and we knew that this is what we
had to aim at.”
“We had written stuff for a month or three
weeks already before that”, Tom reveals. “All
of a sudden, a lot of this stuff didn’t fit into that
vibe at all.”
“It still exists for the future”, Jonas clarifies, “but
that was hard because there was some really
beautiful stuff. One evening we realised that
we had to decide what we were doing. There
were some songs that didn’t fit into this vibe;
they would just clash if we put them on the
album.”
8
“They are good enough for sure”, affirms Tom,
“but it depends if they’ll fit into a vibe for
another album. The thing is, we usually write
and write and write and then we find the
vibe. We take parts from ideas that didn’t fit
previous albums to work on to see if they fit
into the new vibe. All of a sudden, you have
30-35 song ideas to work from.”
“The first image that I had in my head”,
reveals Tom fascinatingly, “was a guy
standing on top of a planet on his own with his
loved one orbiting around him, but orbiting in
circles that were so far stretched that it would
take light years to reach them. I have all these
lines in the album, like in ‘Paradox of the
Flame’ where Carina (Englund) sings exactly
that, ‘even though there are light years
between us’. That’s how we tried to create
the vibe, using these interstellar terms as well.
It is something that I am very happy with.”
One of the biggest strengths with ‘Hymns For
The Broken’ was the intensely personal subject
matter, reflecting Tom’s own health problems
over the preceding years. Evergrey are at
their best when dealing with such things so
naturally, I want to find out if the bold and
emotive concept on ‘The Storm Within’ has a
basis in reality for the band. Tom thinks for a
moment before responding in considered
fashion.
“I think this album is still personal”, he says,
“but it is more based on experiences of close
friends over the past years. Of course, being
an empathetic person as I think I am, I think I
have the know-how of putting myself in a
person’s shoes and understanding…well, not
understanding them”, he qualifies carefully,
“but understanding how I would feel being in
the same position. And then writing about
that makes it feel sincere and honest.
Everybody has been heartbroken sometime,
been left by someone or left someone. You
can even draw influences from people who
have died.”
Jonas and Tom both agree that the concept
applies to any relationship with a loved one,
not necessarily just a partner. It leads me to
make a ridiculous comment that it could
therefore even apply to the death of a pet
goldfish. I’m rightly ridiculed but I’m glad I said
it, as it prompts Tom to offer a humorous aside,
one that leads to plenty of laughter around
the table.
“I’ve not told you this”, Tom giggles to Jonas
before composing himself. “When we were
recording the video for ‘The Impossible’, I sing
‘I’ll cross the dark side of the moon’. We find
this place in Iceland that we think looks like
the moon. Patric and me were like ‘Let’s film!’
We come back after 4 hours of filming and we
were so excited. We’re describing the
landscape, saying it looks just like the moon,
with this cool waterfall over there and…and
then Patric’s wife says quietly ‘water? On the
moon? Really?’ We were like ‘…oh
[expletive]’. She ruined it all in one sentence.”
One story leads to another as both Jonas and
Tom cut relaxed and happy figures in the last
remnants of the late evening sunshine. It
transpires, to more loud laughing that Tom
managed to get a speeding ticket in Iceland
from the police at around 2am. Apparently,
the police car was the only other vehicle Tom
had encountered in around two hours!
9
It genuinely feels by this point less like an
interview and more like an evening out with
good friends. However, the Dictaphone on
the table reminds me otherwise and I pull the
conversation round to hone in on one of the
descriptive words in particular, namely
‘cinematic’. I want to understand exactly
what is meant by this.
“For me, when listening to Evergrey, I get
visions”, Tom offers more seriously than
anything uttered in the last ten minutes.
“Somebody wrote in the very early days that
‘Evergrey is music for the inner eye’. I thought
was very well put because when we write, we
get all these images.”
“It’s like this”, Tom then offers after a pause for
reflection, apparently not satisfied with his
previous explanation. “I listen to a band
called M83, a French electronic band. I also
listen to a girl called Susanne Sundfør from
Norway. I listen to them a lot. All of a sudden, I
watched this movie called ‘Oblivion’. I loved
the music in the movie and I realised that M83
did the whole soundtrack. ‘Fucking great!’, I
thought. And then the ending song comes
and it’s Susanne Sundfør and M83 together.
The coincidences were amazing and it felt like
they did that just for me.
‘Ah, the smell of grass in the morning!’, mutters
Tom in his best posh English accent, as the
unmistakeable waft of cannabis floats in off
the breeze, momentarily tearing Tom’s
attention from the topic at hand.
“Anyway”, he continues after the brief pause,
“I presented M83 to Jonas who started
listening to it. When we started writing, he
came in with some song ideas and I guess it
had that M83 vibe with the synthesizer sounds.
So then we started vibing on that. I started
watching movies like ‘Oblivion’ again,
‘Interstellar’ and ‘Prometheus’. ‘[expletive],
let’s do this, this is the world, let’s do that’, I
said. Carlos (Fides – Artside) did the booklet
artwork quite early and we were like ‘woah,
he’s got it, he understands us exactly’. And
then we discover that all of these movies were
shot in Iceland. We didn’t know that. So we
were like ‘we have to go to Iceland’. Luckily
we had the means and the record label
pushed us actually to finance it. So that whole
build-up thing is great.”
“I remember sitting there with an acoustic
guitar and a keyboard”, offers Jonas, taking
up the story. “It was just me and you”, he says
pointing to Tom, “and we were talking, saying
things like ‘imagine this in Iceland’. We
thought about shooting a video there, so we
got back to work and were so creative.”
contributions of the female vocalists on ‘The
Storm Within’. I’m delighted to hear Tom’s wife
Carina involved again on the song ‘The
Paradox Of The Flame’ and I’m intrigued by
the guest appearance from Nightwish’s Floor
Jansen on the song ‘In Orbit’. Both do great
jobs but I must be honest. I therefore suggest,
perhaps controversially, that I prefer Carina’s
voice. Naturally the guys are too polite to
either agree or disagree.
“I think you’re painting with a different brush
when you use Floor for sure”, Tom suggests.
“And Floor definitely does add something.”
Raw power?
“[expletive] Me, yes”, agrees Tom vehemently
and without pause, before Jonas takes over.
“And I can assure you, at that time”, Tom grins
wickedly, “the music did not sound that
good.” Cue the playing of an air banjo
complete with dodgy sound effects.
“Floor adds the perfect spice to the song and
the lyrics, to where the story goes. When Floor
comes in, it’s perfect and when Carina comes
in, it makes sense too.”
As the guys are talking, I begin to wonder
whether the song ‘Disconnect’ has been
influenced by M83 a little, a band with which I
have a passing familiarity. After brief internal
wrangling, I decide to voice my query.
With “The Paradox Of the Flame”, Tom
reveals, “we wrote the vocal lines in half a
day for that. Carina is just a tremendously
talented singer, end of story. It’s not technical;
it’s just raw talent and a quality voice.”
“That’s the first one we wrote”, cries Jonas
animatedly, leading me to throw my arms in
the air and couple it with a suitably smug
face.
“She growled on Hymns”, Tom replies when I
ask whether his daughter Salina makes an
appearance having made such an impact
on ‘Drowning Alone’ on ‘The Glorious
Collision’. “And yes, she’s on this album too.
She is part of the girl choir on ‘Distance’, with
her class.”
“They are very good at finding the sound or
the vibe for the song”, explains Tom. “And
that’s what Jonas did with he created that
synth sound.”
“And the working title for ‘Disconnect’ was
actually ‘M83’, smiles Jonas, allowing my
annoying smug face to immediately return.
Changing tack slightly, I move onto the
10
One of the reasons why Evergrey are so
special to me is because they connect with
me on an emotional level like very few other
bands out there. And I’m not alone. Based on
the comments via social media and to the
band directly, there are many fans who quote
Evergrey as a big source of comfort, support
and strength. I’m keen to find out how the
band responds to this very positive by-product
of their labours.
“It’s overwhelming”, admits Jonas with brutal
honesty. “What do I say to this, how do I
answer? We just do this for us. It is so weird that
we do what we love but we can help other
people in their lives too. I can’t get it into my
head somehow.”
“We make music and if that aspect at all
helps people then”, Tom offers before tailing
off, apparently unsure of how to continue. “I
get a lot of emails too and I can’t take it all
in.”
“Somehow”, Jonas continues, “you need to
draw a line because if you take too much of
that stuff in and make it personal, when it
comes to the next album, it might not be
about us anymore.”
“We’re super happy of course”, Tom is eager
to clarify, “but I don’t know how to respond
when I hear the words. I don’t know how to
describe it. It is such a big feeling, it has to be
the music for us. If people find comfort in it
and it helps them, then that’s an additional
thing we’re grateful for.”
The sense of camaraderie and positivity that
emanated from the Evergrey camp upon the
return of Ekdahl and Danhage was like a
breath of fresh air, welcomed by fans the
world over. It is now a couple of years on but
as the duo explain, the relationships within the
band show no signs of diminishing like they did
in the past.
“I think it’s even better now”, responds Jonas.
“We’re getting stronger and stronger, every
day and every week. Where we are now, it’s
fantastic.”
11
“Also”, adds Tom, “we’ve been able to
approach the music in the way that we want
to. We know how to talk to each other now,
which we didn’t before. It is just as easy as
that.”
And how do you approach things?
“Everything is on our terms”, is the succinct
and immediate answer from Tom. “We don’t
have to do gigs just for the sake of it anymore.
It needs to be on our terms and we need to
look, sound and feel the way it should be to
be a proper Evergrey show. Then it doesn’t
matter if we play the Underworld or at a
festival in front of 60,000 people, as long as we
feel confident when we go up there. We play
music because we love to play music and we
don’t want to do that half-assed.
Tom and Jonas touched briefly on the
songwriting of ‘The Storm Within’ earlier.
However, I want to explore this a little more
and the guys oblige, beginning with Tom.
“We found the format on ‘Hymns…’ where
me and Jonas wrote most of it and produced
it.”
“The other guys came in”, Jonas states, “with
their parts and pitched in with their objective
views.”
“They weighed in more than us sometimes”,
Tom adds with an agreeing nod. “For
example, the piano ending at the end of
‘Distance’ was initially removed but Henrik
was really stubborn to keep it. There was no
democracy there”, he chuckles. “But when
someone thinks so strongly about something,
they are usually right. But even though we do
a lot of demos, when they come in and put
their paint on the canvas, that’s what makes it
what it is.”
At this point, I’m advised that Tom and Jonas
have a table reserved at their favourite curry
house in Camden. What I wasn’t expecting
was the invitation to join them and to
continue
the
interview
in
different
surroundings. How could I refuse?
THE END of part 1.
www.manofmuchmetal.wordpress.com
www.twitter.com/ManOfMuchMetal
**
concert calendar
Seattle/Washington
concert
calendar,
updated August 22, 2016. If you have
information
about
shows/updates/cancellations, please get in
contact with Metal Bulletin Zine.
August 24 Sammy Hagar at The Tulip
Amphitheatre, Tulalip, WA
August
27
Power
from
Hell
(Brazil),
Crurifragium, Vomicus, Hereticon at Black Zia
Cantina, Burien, WA
August 27 Funeral Age, Progenitor, others at
McCoy's Tavern, Olympia, WA
August 28 The Devils Of Loudun, A Sense Of
Gravity, A World Without, Children Of Seraph,
Thieves of Eden, Vesuvian at El Corazon,
Seattle, WA
August 29 Power from Hell (Brazil), Sacrament
ov Impurity, Sarcalogos at Tony V's Garage,
Everett, WA
September 1 Lesbian, Nosretep, Xoth at Chop
Suey, Seattle, WA
September 1 Cobalt, Mantar, Into the Storm
at Highline, Seattle, WA
September 2 Dissidence, Athamé, Toecutter
at Georgetown Liquor Company, Seattle, WA
12
September 3 Begrime Exemious, Drawn and
Quartered, Oxygen Destroyer, Ashen Pyre at
Highline, Seattle, WA
September 5 Volbeat, Killswitch Engage, Black
Wizard at WAMU Theater, Seattle, WA
September
6
Phobia,
Nomads,
Wilt,
Colombian Necktie at Obsidian, Olympia, WA
September 7 Phobia, Rutah, others at The Big
Dipper, Spokane, WA
September 8 Wolves in the Throne Room,
Dispirit at Obsidian, Olympia, WA
September
8
Phobia,
Nomads,
Wilt,
Colombian Necktie at Highline, Seattle, WA
September 9 Mortuary Drape, Dispirit at
Highline, Seattle, WA
September 9 Ghostblood, others at The
Kraken, Seattle, WA
September 11 Body Void (SF), Rhine, Morrow,
tbd at Highline, Seattle, WA
September 13 Black Nights Rising at Studio
Seven, Seattle, WA
September 13 Inanimate Existence at High
Dive, Seattle, WA
September 14 Savage Master, Substratum at
Funhouse, Seattle, WA
September 15 Hellgoat, Vimur, Vomicus at
Substation, Seattle, WA
September 16 Hellgoat, Vimur, Sacrament Ov
Impurity, Ashen Pyre at Tony V's Garage,
Everett, WA
September 16 Marduk, Rotting Christ, Carach
Angren,
Necronomicon,
Funeral
Age,
Inquinok at Studio Seven, Seattle, WA
September 27 Megadeth, Amon Amarth,
Suicidal Tendencies, Metal Church at WAMU
Theater, Seattle, WA
September 29 The Devils Of Loudun, Without
Mercy at Highline, Seattle, WA
September 30 The Devils Of Loudun, Without
Mercy at Obsidian, Olympia, WA
September 30 Kataklysm, Deathmocracy, A
Flourishing Scourge at Studio Seven, Seattle,
WA
October 1 Def Leppard at Tacoma Dome,
Tacoma, WA
October 4 Black Death Resurrected, Christian
Mistress, High Spirits, Acid Wash at Highline,
Seattle, WA
October 6 Discharge, Eyehategod, Toxic
Holocaust, Oxygen Destroyer, Disciples of
Dissent at Studio Seven, Seattle, WA
October 10 Black Breath, Hissing, Of Corpse at
El Corazón, Seattle, WA
October 11 Gojira, Tesseract at Showbox
SoDo, Seattle, WA
October 12 Brujería, Cattle Decapitation,
Piñata Protest at Studio Seven, Seattle, WA
October 13 Leprous (Norway), Earthside,
Binary Code, Dissona, A Sense of Gravity at
Studio Seven, Seattle, WA
October 13 Ringworm, others at El Corazón,
Seattle, WA
October 14 Between the Buried and Me,
Devin Townsend Project, Fallujah at Studio
Seven, Seattle, WA
October 15 Saint Vitus, The Skull, Witch
Mountain at El Corazón, Seattle, WA
October 15 Gorguts, Intronaut, Odyssian at
Studio Seven, Seattle, WA
October 15 Skeletonwitch, Iron Reagan,
Pathbreaker, Homewrecker, Gatecreeper at
Highline, Seattle, WA
October 16 Anthrax, Death Angel at Knitting
Factory, Spokane, WA
October 17 Tony MacAlpine at Studio Seven,
Seattle, WA
October 19 Alestorm at El Corazón, Seattle,
WA
October 23 Sleep at Showbox, Seattle, WA
October 25 Opeth at The Moore Theater,
Seattle, WA
October 29 Himsa at El Corazón, Seattle, WA
October 29 Soilwork, Unearth, Battlecross,
Wovenwar, Darkness Divided, After the Fallout
at Studio Seven, Seattle, WA
October 31 The Drip at FBK House, Seattle, WA
November 1 Wake, Theories, Vermin Womb at
Highline, Seattle, WA
November 5 Ulcerate, Zhrine, Phobocosm at
Highline, Seattle, WA
13
Nevember 10 Vektor, Black Fast, Xoth at
Highline, Seattle, WA
November 15 Armored Saint, Queensrÿche,
Midnight Eternal at Showbox at the Market,
Seattle, WA
November 16 Epica, FleshGod Apocalypse,
Arkona, The Agonist, Xandria at Studio Seven,
Seattle, WA
November 26 Dark Tranquillity, Swallow the
Sun, Enforcer, Star Kill at El Corazón, Seattle,
WA
November 26 Castle, Mos Generator at The
Shakedown, Bellingham, WA
November 29 Sonata Arctica, Leaves’ Eyes,
Omnium Gatherum at El Corazón, Seattle, WA
December 31 Trans-Siberian Orchestra at Key
Arena, Seattle, WA
January 18 Udo Dirkschneider "Back To The
Roots - Farewell To Accept" at El Corazón,
Seattle, WA
January 28 Blue Öyster Cult at Historic Everett
Theatre, Everett, WA
February 22 Nile, Overkill at El Corazón,
Seattle, WA
April 4 Swallow the Sun at El Corazón, Seattle,
WA
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—
metal programs in Washington (Pacific Times)
Excuse All the Blood (Olympia, WA): Friday
night 11pm-1am www.kaosradio.org
Metal Shop (Seattle, WA): Saturday 11pm3am KISW 99.9fm www.kisw.com
—
This zine is also available at:
www.issuu.com/metalbulletinzine