Sweden's DARKANE have been releasing ripping melodic Death Metal/Thrash albums since 1999, starting with the stellar "Rusted Angel" LP. Through the years, the lineup has remained constant save for the vocalist, changing three times over their five albums. Their most recent album, "Demonic Art" featured the debut of vocalist Jens Broman and was released by Nuclear Blast in North America in February, 2009.

Let's talk a bit about the new album, "Demonic Art". What was the song writing process like in preparation for the album?

"For this album, I wrote mostly by myself this time, Peter wrote one song, Peter (Wildoer) the drummer, Klas (Ideberg) wrote four songs and there's only one song where Peter and I got together and wrote together, like we used to in the old days; but we moved in different locations, geographically, now it's harder to meet, so we write by ourselves. I hope we can write more together on the next album because that feels best - that is more the DARKANE way; we've always written together. I programmed the drums, recorded guitars and sent out the guitar tablature to the guys so they can learn and then we worked on it in the studio."

How was it working with your new vocalist?

"It was very positive. He's a fast learner, he's happy to experiment. He nailed it pretty fast; ten days, for us, is pretty fast. So we are very satisfied; he has a good, strong voice and he can do a lot of different stuff."

Tell us a little bit about the production process; what things have you done differently on this album than you have done in the past?

"I guess we only had one rhythm guitar each tracked; both of us used to double our guitars on the previous albums, but we tried to have just one guitar each this time. It makes you hear a little easier what's going on, but maybe the guitar sound isn't that fat; we tried to make it as fat as possible anyway, but I think it turned out good. Otherwise, Peter experimented a lot when he mic'd the drums and stuff like that, but he always does that, so I don't think that was a big difference. We did it all by ourselves, as we've done with 'Layers Of Lies'."

What would be some of your favorite tracks off the album?

"Well, that's hard to say. I would say 'Execution 44' is pretty fun to play, it's quite challenging and I like to play the solo in the beginning of the song 'cause that's when I get to be alone on the stage and I have a big, huge ego! (laughs) Not really, but it's cool to do that - the other guys can rest for a few seconds and then we all continue the song. I like that a lot. I'm also very proud of the intro. It's a lot of work behind it, so... it was played by real strings, horns, tuba, French horn..."

It sounds fantastic.

"Thank you. It took a lot of time to put all those instrumentalists together and record it, but it's good. I think we won't have an intro like that on the next album because it takes too much time. (laughs)"

Future touring plans... are you planning on coming back to North America anytime soon, possibly headlining?

"We don't have any plans, so far. This tour is pretty massive and hopefully we'll get back after the summer. I enjoy touring the U.S. a lot, this is almost eight weeks, so it's maybe a little too long, I mean we have families and stuff like that, so I would prefer to tour for four or five weeks and then maybe come back again. It's also that we had one day off in the beginning of the tour and one by the end of the tour, so we're doing forty-two shows in a row, no break. We have some issues now, peter (drums) has his wrist problems, he's having problems with his hands, I do, too because of playing everyday and the vocalist is doing pretty well, but sometimes his throat is sore and it wouldn't be bad for us to have one day off. It's also quite cool to have done it when we get home. Anyways, we can say we played forty-two days in a row without a break. But we have some summer festivals in Europe - that's the plan so far."

How difficult do you find it being away from your family while on the road?

"It is quite difficult, I must say. I have two kids; one hasn't turned one yet, the other one is three, so of course you think about them a lot and we are fourteen people in the bus now and for two months, you really have to be aware of each other. You have to not spread out too much, you have to have your stuff together because... if you want to sit on the couch and there's like jackets and bags and you just want to throw it away, stuff like that. But we're doing great in the bus, I think, both SOILWORK and DARKANE are very careful to not step on each other's toes and we're very good friends, so it is working out, but I look forward to when I can go home and lay in my own bed and without a shaking bus driving when I'm sleeping and stuff like that."

Do you find it's easier sharing a bus with SOILWORK since you've toured North America with them before?

"Well, not because of that reason but because we come from the same town; we've known each other for a very long time and we are very good friends with them, so I think it's the best band we could share a tour bus with. We're not that young anymore; having to share a bus together with a young band that wants to party and trash everything, it wouldn't be that cool. I enjoy more to just lay down in my bunk, just watch a movie and stuff like that than partying all night. I think my health wouldn't be able to handle it anymore. We party sometimes, of course, but not every night."

Are there any plans for a full length DVD down the line?

"Yes, there is - there's been a plan for that for a long time. (laughs) It is made, it's ready for printing, but it's up to Nuclear Blast or whoever wants to release it to decide when to. I know Nuclear Blast America wants to release it, but the Europeans said 'stop, we have to release the album first' and now when it's released, we are hoping to get the live DVD out before the summer. We're going to talk about it when we meet them in two days; we're going down to California after this. Yeah, it's a very cool show and there's a lot of bonus material. It's like three hours and fifteen minutes packed with everything that a DARKANE fan would want to see from the recording of every album, a lot of footage from tours we've done over the years, from our first show ever in '98 and also the main concert filmed with eight cameras and very good sound, so it was with Andreas, our last vocalist before he had to stop. It will kind of sum up his era with us."

Do you feel that the melodic Death Metal and melodic Thrash styles have been watered down with its explosion in popularity over the last few years? 'Cause it seems like everybody's doing it.

"Yeah, probably. I mean, (there's) a lot of bands that don't sound that good, but it's like that with all genres. I haven't thought about it, but then I don't listen that much to music anymore. I don't know why... well, I listen to Classical music and stuff back home, but I am very bad at knowing about... that a strange sentence, but I know very little about the new music that's coming out and it's a shame because when I hear people talking on the bus 'oh, you should hear this record and this band' and maybe I've heard of the band, but I'm never interested. I only like my old heroes, like MESHUGGAH, SLAYER, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, but they're not there right now, they will hopefully come back someday. I like to go back and listen to those albums, but so far there's not much new Metal that interests me and I'm not happy about that - I wish I could be more into it, but... so my answer to that question would probably be yeah." (FIN)