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DIABOLIC
- Supreme And Total Death
By Adam Wasylyk
Those who follow the underground are aware of the death metal exploits
of Tampa, Florida's Diabolic. Making waves with their City Of The
Dead demo which received rave reviews from fans and critics alike,
the death metal phenoms have released their debut CD, Supreme Evil,
on Conquest Music. Showing growth and boasting better production,
Supreme Evil still holds the characteristics that make Diabolic
so intense: amazing drum work, great guitar leads and the ability
to aurally crush the listener. Sit back, relax, and allow the decimation
to take hold.
"Diabolic was formed in January 1997, determined to become a force
in the worldwide death metal scene," begins Malone on the band's
line-up and other pertinent info. "The line-up consists of Paul
Ouellette (vocals/guitars), Aantar 'Blastmaster' Coates (drums),
Ed Webb (bass) and myself, Brian Malone, on guitars. In April '97
we released the three-song demo City Of The Dead which has since
been called 'already classic' and 'the best death metal demo ever
released.' We've pounded Florida clubs and venues with our furious
live performance, toured the west coast with L.A. death-crushers
Infamy, and headlined an east coast tour. Festivals victimized include
Milwaukee '98, New York's Demon Fest, and the New England Death
Metal Fest."
Malone speaks with pride about their very first recording, which
did very well for the band. "We've sold and traded over 2,000 copies
of the demo to the death-starved underground scene in 30 countries!
Support has been incredible from the unholy legions of zines, radio,
bands and fans/friends! Hail to the worldwide underground!"
So how did the jump to Conquest Music come about? "We sent Conquest
a promo pack containing the demo and a copy of the rest of our songs
pre-produced on [an] 8-track. They witnessed the impact we've had
on the Tampa scene and the worldwide underground and sent us the
contract. It's a brutal label, with Diabolic, Vader, and Monstrosity!
They've scored major label distribution in Canada (PhD) and Europe
(Sony/Metal Age) and are definitely supportive of Diabolic!"
Malone also got into some detail about their new gem, Supreme Evil,
and what a death metal fan should expect to hear on it. "Supreme
Evil was recorded at AudioLab Studios and mastered at Morrisound
Studios," Malone states. "[It contains] ten tracks of dynamic death
metal at blasphemous speeds! Aggressive and creative song arrangements,
cut-throat, flesh-tearing guitar work, single-foot hyperblast drumming
with scorching double kicks, thundering basslines, vocals ranging
from demonic lows to soul-ripping highs, chaotic yet controlled
leads, dark and powerful lyrics, and production that delivers all
of the desired intensity! Fans have written and told us their favorite
tracks, and they covered all of them! 'View with Abhorrence' and
'Ancient Hatred' seem to get a lot of notice!"
Anyone who considers themselves a death metal fan knows that Florida
is the spawning ground for some of death metal's finest acts: Deicide,
Obituary, Monstrosity... and the unconquerable death metal band
of all time, Morbid Angel. Diabolic are a worthy example of a prodigy
in progress. "Definitely the scene in Tampa demands respect!" proclaims
Malone. "With so many great veteran death metal bands here, the
standards are high for newer bands to meet. Diabolic definitely
meets those standards and gets total respect from those bands and
the entire scene! Our shows are packed and the pits are violent!
It's killer to look out and see members of Morbid Angel, Monstrosity,
Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Angel Corpse, Acheron, etc.
in the crowd!"
Malone then gave me an update on what the band are presently up
to. "We plan on hitting the studio in September to begin recording
the second CD. We've completed most of the writing and some possible
song titles are 'Failed Extraction', 'Necromancer of the Ancient
Arts' and 'Deadly Deception'. It will be a brutal follow-up to Supreme
Evil!"
He ends our chat by saying, "Diabolic will continue to pulverize
the listener while progressing as musicians! There's always room
to improve and grow as a band. We are adding new facets to our sound
while maintaining the straightforward demon-invoking death metal
that pours from our dark souls! Thanx for the killer interview,
Adam. UNRESTRAINED! is a premier zine in the underground! Hail!!!"
Contact:
Diabolic
P.O. Box 9689
Tampa, FL
33674-9689 USA
E-mail for band/merch info: blastmasters@hotmail.com
ARCH
ENEMY - Sowing The Seeds Of Hate
By Paul Schwarz
When a number of musicians you respect from different bands come
together into one band, you might expect that the resulting music
would be better than any of the individuals' bands. Well, you would
think that if you hadn't seen the track records of most so-called
'supergroups'. Basically, many of them don't live up to the expectations
you have of such a meeting of minds, and some are just downright
bad. Arch Enemy are the exception which proves the rule.
"This band -is- full of legends," chuckles Mike Amott on the phone
from his studio in Sweden when we discuss the band's 'supergroup'
status. "It doesn't really count in the end though. If what we're
doing now is interesting to people or they find it exciting or good,
what we've done in the past is (irrelevant)." An admirable attitude
when your band's roster reads like a who's who in Swedish death
metal. With Christopher Amott (Armageddon) joining his ex-Carcass/Carnage/Candlemass-playing
brother on guitar and Johan Liiva (Furbowl/Carnage) dealing out
the vocal massacre as only he can, original drummer Daniel Erlandsson
(Eucharist/In Flames) has also recently returned to the fold. "Daniel's
really important for the sound of Arch Enemy," according to Mike.
But the line-up who recorded the band's latest, greatest effort,
Burning Bridges, was not merely a reunion of the original all-star
cast. The latest addition to Arch Enemy's impressive roster is the
prolific Sharlee D'Angelo, known for his work with Mercyful Fate
and Witchery. "We kicked out our previous bass player, but we had
the studio booked for 3 weeks later," elaborates Mike on the circumstances
leading to D'Angelo's recruitment. "I wanted somebody really good
that could work really well with our drummer. Sharlee's been a friend
for a few years and I knew he was a great bass player, but I also
knew he was very busy. I didn't expect anything of him. I called
him up and we were talking and he actually said, 'I'm doing so much
stuff and I have to stop', so I said, 'Well, I'm not gonna tell
you why I'm calling then', but he said, 'Why? What is it?'. 'Do
you wanna play on our new album?' And he's like, 'Oh yeah, sure'
(we both laugh). 'Sounds like fun'." As it turned out, Sharlee joined
full-time. "I didn't expect him to do anything other than the album,
but he's really into it now," and Mike couldn't be happier with
this result. "This is a great rhythm section with Daniel and Sharlee,
it's really swinging now, (laughs) it's kind of grooving a little
bit. Even in death metal it really makes a difference to have a
great rhythm section. I wanted the sort of bass playing that, instead
of just following the root notes, was more a traditional, hard rock
style of bass playing." But Sharlee was only a player and not a
writer for this album, though his live contribution is now where
he is showing his worth. "He's toured for years with Mercyful Fate,
so he's great live. It felt very good in South America and at the
Dynamo festival, and his bass sound is way heavier than what we've
ever had before. It's made us heavier and better (laughs)."
Though he is no Schuldiner in his masterminding or pre-planning
of how material will turn out ("When I write I have the riffs and
a lot of the structures, but I bring that down with me to the rehearsal
room, and that's where it really happens. Everybody's an important
part of the band. We change the whole feel of the song, and it can
turn into something else."), heaviness -was- a focus for Mike when
Arch Enemy were writing and recording ...Bridges. "I wanted some
of that brutality back from Black Earth -- that's one of my favourite
albums I've recorded. Stigmata, for me personally, was a bit of
a disappointment with how both the writing and the recording turned
out. I think we went overboard on the progressive, more technical
stuff on Stigmata. I think ...Bridges is a combination of the two
previous records. We're not really out to prove anything now; we're
just going with it. We're really into having softer, more emotional
parts though, lead guitar and clean guitars: pretty-sounding stuff.
I like to have this sort of scope where there are two opposites.
I think ...Bridges is just a mixture of everything."
Mike's attitude to how Arch Enemy develop reflects this fact. "We're
really open musically. I don't really put any limitations (on our
progression), and what's fun with Arch Enemy is that the playing
is very high quality in the band." Does this mean that Mike never
has doubts when he writes something like "Silverwing", which, as
Mike tells me, is written in major and not minor chord structures?
"Sometimes me and my brother play, and think, 'Maybe this is gonna
sound too...soft', but then when we play it at rehearsal, with Johan's
vocals -- even if we have something that's maybe more traditional,
hard rock/heavy metal -- our delivery is just so brutal and aggressive
that it just sounds good anyway. It doesn't sound wimpy, I think.
We were kind of aware of stuff like 'Silverwing'. We thought maybe
it was a bit close to the edge (laughs). We were afraid it was gonna
sound too happy, but I don't think it sounds happy. I like to have
really strong emotions in the music, [in] the melodies and stuff.
What we wanna do is have the extreme emotions: really sad and then
really brutal."
This combination is something the Swedish melodic death scene is
noted for. "We do fit into this whole Swedish melodic death thing,"
Mike admits, "but we're not only that though. We don't really feel
like we're a part of anything like that -- we just wanna play metal
(laughs). I think I have developed my own writing style, and I don't
think there's anybody out there who's mixing things exactly like
Arch Enemy. I have a really strong belief in riffs. Riffs are like
my religion (we both laugh). I really believe in heavy guitars and
guitar solos. That doesn't seem to be too much a part of a lot of
those bands. I think some of those bands are really good, but I
don't think we have the same (sound). Especially now, all these
bands are coming out with new albums, and they all sound totally
different from each other. So I think the bands that have been going
for a few years in that scene are coming into their own now anyway.
You can't really compare Dark Tranquillity to In Flames anymore."
One thing which sets Arch Enemy apart further is the members' more
brutal backgrounds, especially Mike's years in the mighty Carcass.
"A lot of people are saying Arch Enemy reminds them of Carcass,
and that's not so hard to understand: I wrote maybe 40% of the Heartwork
album, and they influenced me a lot, shaped me."
But Mike isn't sticking in any one place for too long. "I think
bands that are only influenced by their own genre are really boring
often," says Mike of the scene's stalwarts. "Some death metal bands
wanna become more rocky or whatever, and a lot of times that doesn't
work out that well. There's a fine balance. I don't like bands who
have their own mixture of everything. I think it is good to have
a healthy, broad spectrum of influences. What kind of happened with
Carcass was that we got into mixing in more traditional metal, metal
chord progressions, and guitar solos and the melodies and stuff.
You just have to do something with it, and that's what I've continued
with Arch Enemy. I think it is natural that the sound evolves. In
Arch Enemy there's a lot of influences that aren't strictly death
metal. You'd be surprised to hear what influences us sometimes.
I don't think there are any set rules for music; music is just a
huge, vast sort of landscape really, and just staying in one place
all your life must be pretty boring." Mike does admit one thing
though -- "I do like bands like Deicide because they are kind of
reliable (laughs), you know? Buying an Arch Enemy album can be a
risky affair (laughs). Maybe that works for us, but I think in many
ways it probably works against us. It's often easier to sound like
something that's a trend or whatever's going on."
As influences go, Mike is far from solely a death metal, or even
a metal, listener. "I listen to a wide variety of stuff, and that's
my parents' fault because their record collection ranges from classical
music through jazz to soul music from the '60s and '70s. I listen
to a lot of more progressive stuff; I'll listen to anything really.
Pop, rock, anything."
Of course he has various metal roots though: "I like a lot of '70s
rock, classic stuff: Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, the beginnings
of heavy metal. For Arch Enemy I suppose the whole twin guitar thing
has a heavy emphasis. That's from Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and
stuff like that. Then the more brutal aspects of it are just me
growing up listening to underground death metal and stuff from the
'80s. Listening to all those demos and tapes and stuff kinda ruined
me I guess (laughs)."
Let Burning Bridges 'ruin' you, you won't regret it.
DARK
TRANQUILLITY - Projecting Into The Future
By Paul Schwarz
It is often challenging for artists to change, to break out and
do something very different and apart from their previous work.
Likewise, it is often hard for listeners and especially fans of
a band to adapt to the band's changes in style. One's image of a
band can be branded by what they began as, and we often accept nothing
but rehashes as being sufficient to satisfy our desire for more
of the same. If you're a fan of Unleashed or Bolt Thrower with this
problem then you should be okay, but if you see Dark Tranquillity
through such tunnel vision, you might have trouble focusing your
interest on their newest creation: Projector.
Vocalist Mikael Stanne stands behind this new release as Dark Tranquillity's
best work and is happy with the progression they have made. Though
he states, as many bands do, that he and his cohorts (guitarists
Niklas Sundin and Fredrik Johansson, bassist Martin Henriksson and
drummer Anders Jivarp) -do- make their music primarily for themselves
and because they want to listen to it, he also acknowledges the
importance of his fans and their opinions.
"They're the people who have followed us all this time and who we
make music for. They're very important to us and so their opinion
of Projector matters a lot." Mikael has some idea of what this opinion
might be from monitoring the band's website. "We had over 22,000
downloads of the 'FreeCard' sample track and the response we have
been getting so far has been great," states Mikael with positivity,
though he knows that this will not go for everyone. The singer acknowledges
that there will be people who aren't happy and who wanted him and
his bandmates to remake The Mind's I (1997), "but (Dark Tranquillity)
don't do that," as Mikael points out. Stanne remarks that even the
negative responses have been more emotional than reactions to ...Mind's
I were. This can be accounted for by the much bigger break Projector
makes, compared to its predecessor, with the band's previous material.
"People really liked ...Mind's I; they were really positive, but
also they were saying how much they liked it because it reminded
them of The Gallery. With ...Mind's I we knew exactly who our audience
were, and with Projector I don't know who our audience is anymore."
Dark Tranquillity's audience was previously comprised of fans of
the so-called Gothenburg melodic death scene, but not only does
Projector break somewhat with this scene's traditions, Dark Tranquillity
have pretty much broken themselves off from this scene. Mikael freely
admits he does not keep in touch with it or much of the metal scene
in general, and that dislocation seems to have been somewhat key
to the way Projector turned out. "I think that it's better often
to be detached from things. I think it often means that you produce
something which is more true to yourself. We just did whatever came
naturally to us."
Projector was written after the band finished their ...Mind's I
tour, and they wanted to do totally new things and take a different
direction. "We've changed the way we write. We write a lot more
with piano or keyboard. We also weren't so interested in being fast
this time; we were more interested in getting more emotion," comments
Mikael on some of the changes to the writing process. His use of
clean singing is another change, something the singer has always
done, just never before excessively in Dark Tranquillity. Though
different overall, tracks like "The Sun Fired Blanks" and "On Your
Time" on Projector retain Dark Tranquillity's previous sound while
incorporating new touches. Though I suspected that these tracks
were penned before Dark Tranquillity were fully comfortable with
incorporating their new influences, Mikael informs me that all the
songs, however different, came quite naturally.
Evidence of Dark Tranquillity's, and especially Mikael's, courage
in doing what came naturally is borne out musically in one particular
track: "Day To End". "Day To End is quite different," confirms Mikael.
"That was a song that I wrote about a year before the recording
of the album. I just wrote it for myself and it was never meant
for Dark Tranquillity, but then I showed it to our drummer and he
thought it was cool so we worked out a metal version of it to play."
However, the version on Projector has virtually no ounce of metal
in it and is backed by programmed drums. This was the result of
producer Fredrik Nordstrom's ideas for the song, which Mikael was
happy to see implemented.
Nordstrom's production has graced previous Dark Tranquillity albums,
but this time around the end result was a fuller sound than ever
before. This was more down to Dark Tranquillity getting involved
in the production side of things. "We wanted to get a big metal
sound," says Mikael of the motive behind the band's increased involvement.
"We spent a lot of time getting the kind of sound we wanted in the
studio. We wanted a bit less of that brutal, in-your-face sound.
I really enjoy trying out different stuff, like amps and effects
and things in the studio anyway, so it was fun. We were really inspired
by each other and we used a lot of computers, which was interesting."
With a "big, metal sound" which is "less in your face and brutal",
programmed drums, more keyboards and clean vocals, are the old Dark
Tranquillity still recognizable through all these musical facelifts?
Quite frankly, yes. "I think whatever we do we will always have
a certain feel which is ours, even if the actual sound and speed
changes. I think you can still tell that it's us playing," is Mikael's
take on the matter. He's right with respect to Projector, but I
get the impression that, just as Projector is softer than ...Mind's
I, so future releases will also be softer still. "It's never been
our intention in that way," says Mikael defensively, "but you have
to develop; that's natural. I agree that Projector is less aggressive,
and I think that as we go on from now on we will probably go more
in that direction and be less angry and aggressive with the music."
Mikael further points out that the older you get the harder it is
to be convincingly aggressive, especially live [a cop-out if I've
ever heard one - ed].
And what are Dark Tranquillity going to do with all these new elements
in their music when they play live? "We've got a live keyboardist,
and we have quite a different sound live now," is Mikael's logical
reply. "It sounds a thousand times better like this and we have
also been reworking old material using the new live players. Some
songs now have the keyboards doing the guitar part or something
like that. It's fun playing a song you haven't played in five years
and really changing it around."
Five years ago Dark Tranquillity were quite different. Their influences
came primarily from speed and thrash bands like Kreator, but what
influenced the changes of Projector? Not Kreator, methinks. "I really
don't know what I'm influenced by," states Mikael frankly. "I hardly
listen to metal at all anymore. I think a lot of acoustic pop influences
us now."
Mikael dug deep inside himself for Projector's lyrical subject matter,
drawing on experiences which were deeply personal and which he wasn't,
at least at first, entirely happy with putting into words. Even
once he -had- resolved to do this he was careful, to some extent,
with the way the lyrics came out. "Sometimes I'll sit down in the
evening and write lyrics about something, and then when I wake up
in the morning I'm like, 'Oh, no, I can't use that, that's too blunt'.
I have to hide behind metaphors." Stanne is no Rollins in his delivery
-- his lyricists of choice are more metaphoric writers like Morrissey.
In summing up Projector's lyrical content, Mikael says this: "The
album is basically about things I don't like to say, my errors,
and also things I hate."
Along with changing lyrically and musically, Dark Tranquillity have
also moved labels, from Osmose to Century Media, a move which was
made after the completion of Projector. "We did a copy of the master
and we sent it out to record companies," explains Mikael on how
the ball got rolling. Most labels, strangely enough, weren't happy
they didn't have to shell out for Dark Tranquillity to record a
new record, but instead wanted Projector re-recorded or remixed,
things Dark Tranquillity bluntly refused to do. "Century Media were
a good choice because they're really open to what we want to do,
didn't want us to change, and they have the power to take us to
the next level."
Which is where this band is headed. In five or ten years though,
where do they see themselves musically? "Hopefully we'll still be
playing -- either we'll be really old men playing Status Quo covers
or we'll do a Journey kind of thing, I guess. I think people will
still be able to recognize what we do as us because even though
we might play more softly, the -way- we play it, it's still us."
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