| Past Issues:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27
BACK
MESHUGGAH
- Chaos Swirling!
By Adrian 'The Energizer' Bromley
It would be a major lie if I were to tell you that Meshuggah's latest
effort, Chaosphere, was a mediocre follow-up to the groundbreaking
LP Destroy Erase Improve (1995) by these industrial/metal/death/noise
enthusiasts. This record serves as such a powerful display of creativity
and evolution of the band's demented array of ideas, that it deserves
to occupy a shelf of it's own. Their enthusiasm to strive to be
unique in this day of age is relentless. Meshuggah holds reign to
one of metal music's heavy hitters.
"Making this record was a long effort," sighs guitarist Marten Hagstrom
over the phone from Sweden. "It took three years to get this record
out. We were stressed a bit with the working on this LP, having
less time to record. There were a lot of circumstances which led
to the long gap between albums [touring, band member changes and
relocating from Northern Sweden to Stockholm] and when we figured
out we only had three months to do this record, we put our minds
to it and hammered out the record. More time would have been great,
but the results are what you get. It was an intense period for us."
Through past releases - 1991's stunning Contradictions Collapse
or None (1994, EP) - the band has continued to evolve their whacked-out
melding of metal-fusion chords and industrial stompin' rhythms.
The band has aimed to come out with a unique release each time.
It's that way or no way. Explains Hagstrom, "Yeah, we aim to write
songs that we really like. We like the fact that people can hear
our material and know it's us right away. When we sit down to write
a record, it's not about variety or other cool ideas, it's about
us making a record that we would buy as a metal fan. That's the
key to what we do. Would we want to hear this LP? Every band always
tries to do something different each time out, we do the same, but
we also aim to find and discover material that will work within
the framework of Meshuggah and also come across as challenging to
the listener."
To many, Meshuggah's music is all about the band channeling the
anxiety and aggressiveness of metal music, forged deep into the
pockets of industrial mayhem. It's different and chock full of different
modes of aggression. The new LP showcases this profusely.
"I like the aggressiveness and the intensity of Chaosphere," says
Hagstrom of the new disc. "We aimed to make this our best record.
When it was clear that we had only three months to work on this
record, we thought of what side of Meshuggah's sound that we could
cover in that time frame. We sought out the aggressive side. Destroy
Erase Improve was done over two years time, where we could work
on the dynamics and have clean parts. It wasn't the case here. We
took all that away here and went for the throat. We went in and
tried to do as much damage as we possibly could."
He adds, "We cut a lot more stuff from this LP than we thought we
would. Because of the time frame we had, we needed to make sure
the songs were assembled quickly. We don't need pieces and ideas
hanging off the side of a song. It's got to be full-on intensity
in a potent package."
The band - rounded out by singer Jens Kidman, guitarist Fredrik
Thordendal, bassist Gustaf Hielm (who replaced original bass player
Peter Nordin) and drummer Tomas Haake - had come across quite a
bit of pressure to compete with the success of Destroy Erase Improve,
a record deemed one of the best of 1995 by many critics and a record
that many thought was underrated. The need to compete with past
success weighed on their minds. "It sure did," says Hagstrom. "We
had all of this great response to the last record and we were expecting
people to assume the follow-up would be this monster masterpiece.
We worked hard with Chaosphere but tried to not think of any outside
pressure. It's hard to have that on your mind when you are being
creative. We realized we had three months to do this and knew we
had to get things going. We knew what we had to do and I think it
turned out quite well."
Unlike many bands out there nowadays - both new and old - Meshuggah
have managed to be versatile with their music. Multiple styles working
off one another take form as the pounding force that Meshuggah lays
claim to. Must be hard to keep all those ideas blended? Did that
idea of multiple styles mixed together just appeal to the band early
on?
"We have always been this way. The unique thing about us is that
we never aim for any sound or style. A lot of bands who work on
new material aim to sound or be a certain way with each record.
Not Meshuggah. We have a lot of influences within our sound. We
work off one another with ideas and [if] it sounds good we use it.
If not, it goes in the trash."
So, to hear it from the horse's mouth, where does Meshuggah fit
in the metal scene nowadays? "I dunno... it's always a hard thing
to pinpoint for us. We don't really know. We have toured with many
types of bands and I never get the feeling that we fit in on any
bill. There are only a few tours that we could probably fit in.
It's just being what we are. When Entombed started up early on,
there were hundreds of bands out there like them and they had their
own scene. We don't have that with us. We're just one of those bands
doing our own thing, our own way."
DAN SWANO - Transcending The Edge Of Sanity
By Alex Ristic
The best possible way to describe the musical entity
know as Dan Swano is as a superhuman machine, with lots of soul.
For those who don't recognize the name, maybe Edge Of Sanity will
ring a bell. After almost ten years with the Swedish quintet Swano
decided last year to break out on his own and make music that was
more personal.
Enter Moontower, which Swano describes as an album for his own personal
ego. You'd be hard pressed to make the listener believe that, however,
as the album is full of melodies and harmonies, with death metal
growls. It never drags on, like some symphonic black metal act,
and actually uses a keyboard as a main instrument while never sounding
out of place. If you think it was planned that way, though, think
again as Swano says he does much of his work as the inspiration
hits him.
"I never really came up with the ideas until I wrote the first song
on the record, 'Son Of The Night,'" admits the amiable Swede. "It
took me in a different direction than what I was planning to go
in. I just wanted to make more songs in that specific style. Sometimes
I plan my records and try to make them as varied as possible, but
this time I just wanted to make a one-dimensional album. I never
really came up with song concepts, I just wanted to make an album
for myself with the combination of progressive rock that I like
and the kind of metal that I like."
Speaking his mind, the unknowing may think Swano was being a bit
selfish, but he makes a good point in his defense. Having worked
with Opeth, Hypocrisy, Edge Of Sanity, Diabolical Masquerade, Pan-Thy-Monium,
Godsend, Nightingale, Therion and a host of others, he says it's
about time he did something for himself.
"For Moontower I just did what I wanted to hear. To be honest, I
didn't give a second thought about anyone or what they would think
about the album when I wrote it. After leaving Edge Of Sanity and
feeling that I was writing for someone else all these years I really
wanted to make an ego album. It really wouldn't have bothered me
too much if Black Mark would have refused to release it or told
me to do another album. Moontower is almost like a second child
to me. It's a very, very, very important recording [to me]. It's
my biggest release really."
Speaking of the aforementioned Edge Of Sanity, it seems that Swano
has almost forgotten his former mates. He quit the band after feeling
like the other members weren't living up to their potential, and
only mentions them one other time when in response to a specific
question about the band.
"I wanted to make an album like (Moontower) when we did Crimson.
The problem was that [the rest of the band] were totally allergic
to those kind of keyboard sounds and they're allergic to not having
other certain kind of riffs. I'm not a particular fan of their new
style. I'm not a fan of the songs that they wrote when I was in
the band either, but I had to swallow because that was what they
wanted. They were part of the band. We didn't co-write anything
anymore so it would have felt stupid if I picked on their songs,
because they didn't pick on my songs, they just let me do what I
wanted to do. I could have done five or six Moontower type songs
and just told them to 'Shut up and do your thing.' We could have
released one more Edge Of Sanity album, but the contrast would have
been too big. They would have done some really hardcore, death metal
thing and you would have my totally twisted symph-metal style. If
I would have done one more Edge Of Sanity album it would sound like
the second track, 'Patchwork,' which is really some old riffs I
wrote after the recording of Infernal. I wanted to get out of Edge
Of Sanity because I didn't want to fool around anymore."
Judging from the sound of Moontower, there wasn't any fooling around
during the recording, but the interesting tidbit here is that he
recorded every single instruments himself as well. Swano said he
actually wouldn't mind so much if someone took his music and played
it well, but from his point of view it wouldn't have worked out.
"That had a lot to do with timing. I am a drummer originally and
I was longing to play drums on the record, so I really wanted to
do that. I write all the music on guitar, and the way that I play
guitar is pretty different. I hold the guitar left handed, but I
don't change the strings, so I just pick up a normal guitar, flip
it over and play. The way you write riffs that way it would just
be totally impossible to transfer to another guitarist that plays
normal. Since I knew the guitar lines I also played the bass lines.
The keyboards could have been left to someone else, but there's
no one around here that can play keyboards that much better than
me that they're worth it. Then you have to get social things as
well; wait for people to get off work, pay them, teach them the
music. I felt that the music was the most important thing, and the
playing was very important too, but who played it didn't matter
too much."
If it ain't broke don't fix it. Which leads us to another interesting
aspect of Moontower; the vocals. Taking much background from his
past with Nightingale, Godsend and even Edge Of Sanity it was almost
expected that the majority of the CD would have been performed with
clean melodic vocals. Fat chance! Try 95 per cent death and 5 per
cent clean. Swano explains his decision.
"I was so fucking aggressive at the time of the whole recording.
I had 1997 as the worst year of my life in all categories. It was
total hell. I just needed to get out all this frustration [out]
and when all the subjects of the lyrics are just so [angry] I wanted
to scream them out loud, but I needed to have more of a growling
vocal thing. It was therapy for me to do the growling. I tried to
record a few songs with all clear vocals. The problem was that it
sounded so lame. It sounded like the early Dream Theatre stuff and
I just didn't want to make an album like that... So I just started
growling one day because I was so fucking pissed about everything.
People will just have to accept that it was the only thing that
worked for me in the recording and since this album was for me only,
I just did what I felt was right."
Have no fear faithful reader, Swano has no intention of giving up
his roots or his activities with other bands, however he's leaving
room for more personal material in the future as well. Currently,
he's working on a third Nightingale record, his own pet project
Unicorn, as well as soon to be released 3-4 song EP on Intensity
Records under the moniker Odyssey. Swano explains why he just can't
get these projects out of his system.
"Odyssey is just a one off type of project. I like to do that. It's
my way of touring really. I just want to spread my music as often
as possible. I would like to release one thing a month. That would
be totally cool. I like a lot of different kinds of music and I
just totally worship melodies. It could be really any music from
electronic to country, as long as the melodies there. Hopefully,
I will be able to release these little strange things every now
and then so people don't have to wait for two years. That's the
way I like to work."
Check out Dan Swano on the internet: http://come.to/Swano
ROTTING CHRIST - Still Far From Angelic
By Paul Schwarz
When people think of black metal the country they
probably associate with it, is Norway. Norway is where the scene,
at least of the early 90's, started, and where all the sensational
events (church burnings, murders etc.) occurred, for the most part.
Some bands, in an ironic twist which harks back to Nazi racial exclusion,
have found it quite a handicap to not be able to trace their roots
back to Norway. That is not to say that there aren't bands who have
forged successful careers without the aid of any northern heritage,
Britain's Cradle of Filth are one such band, Greece's Rotting Christ
are another. With a name which positively screams black metal, Rotting
Christ appeared around the early days of the Norwegian scene and,
despite their origins, built up a friendship with Euronymous of
Mayhem, who liked their stuff enough to ask them to join the roster
of his legendary Deathlike Silence label. As it turned out Euronymous
was killed before any contract was inked and as a result, after
their Thy Mighty Contract debut was snapped up by Osmose their second
album, Non Serviam, saw them sign to Century Media where they have
remained.
Which, to make a long story short, brings us to the present and
the band's fifth album, Sleep of the Angels. 1997's A Dead Poem
caused a bit of a stir in that people believed Rotting Christ were
not sticking to their allotted musical territory, an area which,
on a global scale, is seemingly only slightly bigger than a small
backyard in the conservative black metal scene. Sleep... develops
their sound even further and will not, I am quite sure, silence
their previous detractors. When I talked to composer, guitarist
and vocalist Sakis he was very proud of his new creation, and eager
to explain why it is better than all that has come before it.
"First, I think it is more mature as an album. Better sound, more
atmospheric and this album is really dark. ...Poem, in comparison,
is not dark, believe me. For me, Sleep... is the darkest album we
have released." Even darker than the cult album, Thy Mighty Contract?
"Yeah, it is even darker. In my opinion."
What Sakis doesn't feel, however, is that the album lacks progression,
"We are getting more mature. We have different styles of music that
we listen to, really gothic sometimes, really dark stuff. So that
really influences us as a band and myself as a composer, because
I am the composer of the album. I think that really reflects on
the new album," in fact, he thinks the band have been progressing
right from the word go. "Everything was good as it was recorded
at the time," states Sakis diplomatically.
"With ...Contract it was really OK at the time it was recorded but
now for me it is not so modern. I still love it because that album
for me was really cult. But we can't keep playing the same [stuff].
The people that buy, who listen to Rotting Christ, would get bored
if we kept playing exactly like ...Contract." So Sakis feels that
the fans have grown -with- the band? "Not exactly but the great
majority."
As I mentioned earlier, one other person who appreciated the band's
music was Euronymous. Euronymous is widely regarded as heavily conservative
and it seems doubtful he would appreciate Rotting Christ's "progression".
Does Sakis feel he and his band would have progressed in the same
way if they had signed and stayed with Deathlike Silence? "I think
so. Yeah, because I don't care what label we are on. We don't care
what the label says to us. We always play the music we like and
this album, it's really -- black. I can call it even black metal,
it is not so fast, but it doesn't need to be fast to be black metal.
To me it is really black, dark, why not? To me it is something like
...Contract in 1999."
One thing which defines black metal is its lyrical content. Some
believe, whether from a positive or negative angle, that the lyrical
content has to be Satanic for it to be black metal, that without
Satanic lyrics music can not be black metal, and with Satanic lyrics
a band is classifiable as black metal. I don't agree with this dogma,
and nor do Satanic death metal bands such as Incantation, but nonetheless
it prompts the question, in the case of Rotting Christ, as to how
much Sakis' lyrics have progressed, in what way and whether this
changes the way in which we should see the music. "It has changed
a bit," Sakis freely admits, adding, "simultaneously with the music."
He points out, "I still deal with fantastic, dark, poetic lyrics
that reflect our inner thoughts. They seem to be fantastical but
if you search then you'll find many ideas that you might have hidden
inside you. Like "Imaginary Zone", we have tried to fit the lyrics
very well with the name."
However, like any stubborn journalist, I try to pull more out of
Sakis, quizzing him on whether he feels that his subject matter
has changed since the band's beginnings or whether he simply takes
a different perspective on the same issues or ideas. "I can say,
both, because we are improving in our music, [and] we have improved
sometimes in our ideas about life." He continues his contemplation,
"We now know life in a different way. This is influencing us. We
are now 27 years old, we are not 18 or 17 years old. I'll never
betray our old ideas, our beliefs always are the same, but we cannot
express through our music like we did in the past. We are being
more serious now."
Sakis and Rotting Christ, though steadfast about protecting their
integrity, have similar hopes and aspirations to other bands. "[Anyone]
that releases an album, I think their hope is for more people to
listen to their music. We do the same. We really do hope that more
people will listen to Rotting Christ," and this, of course, will
include touring. "We want, first of all, to play around the world,
like we did with ...Poem. We really want to do the same, the first
and most important is for us to play, to express our feelings on
stage. Then, of course, we hope more people come to listen to our
album." Rotting Christ, like many small European bands, have not
made it to the U.S. thus far, but they are determined to make it
over. "Yes, we have been planning to do so for a lot of years, but
due to financial problems we haven't made it yet. We hope to make
it this year."
What happens next I ask, however I do not expect his reply. "OK,
what do think of our album, did you listen to it?", Sakis asks flatly.
At the time, dear readers, I hadn't had long to live with said disc,
but still I managed to foster a response which showed my feelings,
'I like this one a lot more than Triarchy of the Lost Lovers (1996),
it has more melody, you've taken the sound of ...Poem a bit further
by putting in more clean vocals. I think it adds a lot more depth
to the album. I think Sleep... is definitely a step forward from
...Poem'.
Satisfied with my response, Sakis has but few short words for you
with which to close this interview.
"I want to say to stay metal, that's it."
|
