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August 28, 2008 |
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Ola Lindgren
September 2, 2004
By Tony Antunovich
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Death metal masters GRAVE have long been known as one of the most influential bands ever to come out of their native Sweden. After putting out many albums since their debut "Into The Grave" back in 1991 and countless tours along the way, the band have just unleashed their brand new sixth studio offering, "Fiendish Regression". I spoke with GRAVE's founding member and vocalist/guitarist, Ola Lindgren, via telephone about the new album, the recording process, today's death metal scene, and much more.
So what's happening with GRAVE at the moment?
Just a bunch of interviews, lots of promotion. The album is out here in Europe already since about one week or so, and it's released I think next week in the States, which is much more closer than we're used to. Usually it's like two or three months after the European release, but this time it's like two weeks. So, it's pretty hectic at the moment. Other than that, we're looking at trying to get on some tours for promoting the new album.
The new album is going to be released in the United States on the 7th.
Yeah, that's right.
I think that's next Tuesday.
Yeah.
Do you know if you will be touring North America in support of the new album?
Hope so, yeah. Absolutely! We're looking into that at the moment. We had some plans for Europe which didn’t come through so it looks like we might be doing Europe next year – like February or March. So if everything goes as planned, we'll be doing the U.S. or North America before that.
That would be great.
Yep. Absolutely!
You worked with Tommy and Peter Tägtgren this time around. How was that experience for you?
It was very cool actually. We wanted to get away from Stockholm and go somewhere and only focus on doing the recording and not have anything else to interfere with it. So, rather than doing it here in Sunlight (studios), which is located like 10 or 15 minutes from our houses, we wanted to just go away and just take it easy for the whole recording period. I've known Peter for many, many years and he's always been talking about that we should come up there and record with him. So we called him up and then he really liked the idea. We booked him and his brother - they were doing it together. Peter was more or less only producing and Tommy was handling all the recording for the new album. It was a very cool experience.
We never recorded there, so we really didn’t know what to expect. We were sure to get a good result though, but it's pretty hard when you are not too familiar with everything and so on. So it took us a couple of days to get into the kind of working way that they use, and after that it was very, very easy actually.
The new album sounds a lot like traditional GRAVE, but it also has that sense of individuality as well. What inspired the writing behind it?
We had ideas for a couple of songs early last year already and were just jamming around with it, but then in November last year we got our new drummer Pelle, who is playing on the album. We got him into the band and he really contributed a lot playing-wise and so on, and showed us stuff that we haven't really been able to do before since Jensa (Paulsson) wasn't at all into playing fast or like that anymore, which showed on the "Back From The Grave" album pretty much I think.
So I'd say that was kind of a turning point for us and we felt that we could really pretty much do whatever we wanted and everybody in the band would go for it, you know. Also Jonas, the second guitarist, has been much more involved in writing on this album, so I guess we kind of worked 50/50 on the guitar parts and put everything together in the rehearsal place more or less. So, everything is written by me and Jonas and we pretty much shared everything I think - the written process on it.
Pelle toured with GRAVE in Europe in 2002 right?
Yep, exactly!
As I said earlier, your new album is going to be released next week. I received a promotional copy of the new album and reviewed it. I have to tell you that I think it's one of the best pieces of work the band has ever done.
Cool, thanks!
It's excellent. To me, the songs are a lot more varied than "Back To The Grave". Would you agree with that?
Absolutely, yeah! That has a lot to do with Pelle as the drummer to have been able to give like another dimension to it and not holding anything back writing-wise and so on. He has a lot of thanks to what came out on the album I think.
I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions about some of the meanings behind some of the songs. Can you tell me the meaning behind "Breeder"?
"Breeder" is kind of a story about a demon or spirit or whatever, captured inside another body. He goes from body to body taking souls from the ones he inhabits. It's kind of a story from his point of view, and it's written like that it's actually him that's telling the story. So, it's just a made-up story with some blood and guts in it.
It's a really good song. I think it's one of the best. "Reborn" is one of my favorites as well. It's about a vampire's victim and the strength he finds in transforming into the beast he becomes. Does the song have any other meaning to it?
Not really. That's pretty much it. It's also a totally made-up story with a kind of vampire/demon theme. Those two and I think, what else is on there? A lot of the other ones deal with criticism against religion in any form and way, pretty much. A lot of.... not true stories, but they're also written like stories, but have more like a serious meaning behind it, like really hard criticism.
Like the song "Out Of The Light"?
Yeah, exactly! "Out Of the Light", "Heretic".... what else? There's like four or five on there that are totally just criticizing religion.
"Last Journey" is another one I really like. The intro to it reminds me a lot of SLAYER'S "South Of Heaven" intro.
Yeah, but from Sweden! (laughs)
Yeah! (laughs) When I first heard it, I thought "Oh this is going to be a good song!" The intro is just a really great prelude to the song.
Yeah! It's got that "South Of Heaven" vibe. It's got a couple of notes in there that are similar and then the rest changes. But it also has the same kind of sound - the same kind of tone almost, in the guitar. It's actually one kind of little distorted guitar and one 12-string acoustic together. So, it's kind of cool. We absolutely knew that were going to get hassled about that but it's more like a tribute than a rip-off I think.
Oh no, no. I wasn't saying you were ripping the band off at all. I thought it was excellent. I mean, it's totally original. Just to me, it had the same sort of sound to it, which was really nice.
Nah, I know.
You also recorded a ST. VITUS cover, "Burial At Sea", and re-recorded the unreleased demo "Autopsy". Will this be part of the album or only on the limited edition version?
I don't know how they’re going to release it in the states really. The European version has the first pressing - it's limited with the two bonus tracks, and it also has the special kind of a slip-case cover with just the big logo on it and the title.... and then you kind of slip the whole piece out of that with the original cover work and so on. So that's from the first, I don't know how many they printed, but it's the first printing anyway, and I think they're going to do the same in the U.S. release. I know that the two tracks are going to be on there from the start for sure. I don’t know if it's limited or not really, but they're going to be there from the start.
Jacek Wisniewski, he created the cover artwork for the album, and he also did the artwork for "Back To The Grave" as well. Can you explain the meaning of the cover for "Fiendish Regression"?
We were thinking about what we should do. We gave him the title. We gave him some rough translations of the words – something that could be put on paper so to say. For us it was more like.... I don't know how to explain.... like a dark, evil, brutal return to the past or to what once was, which in one way reflects on the band, on the album, and on the songs I think – that rather than progressing, we go back in time to what we had in our luggage and in our roots, more or less. The cover is also reflecting a lot of what I said, that a lot of the songs talk about anti-religion and that religion doesn't bring any good or any happiness in the world at all.
It just fucks people up. The reason for like 99% of all the wars in the world are religious-based and it just seems to bring more evil and darkness than joy and happiness that it's proclaiming to be, really. So, that's why we have the Jesus figure turning into kind of a demon or a darker side.
You took over as vocalist on "Hating Life". How did the transition go?
The hardest part for me was to learn how to play and sing at the same time basically, during live shows and so on. The vocal parts on "Hating Life" - it's totally different than what Jorgen (Sandstrom) did on the first album. But it’s not because I didn't know better or couldn't sing anything like that, but it was totally because the songs were so different also. Music-wise, they were a lot more thrashier and so on, so we didn't want top put pure death metal vocals on there, which might have been a mistake because a lot of people thought that it was not really that way we wanted it - that it was a very strange album coming out when I took over the vocal duties on there. It was kind of two-wayed also.
A lot of people liked it actually and a lot of people that hadn’t heard us before got turned on that album and kept listening to us after that. So it was good in one way, but sometimes we didn't like it at all. It's absolutely our least popular album. But also a lot of the old fans liked it a lot. It was kind of different and more thrashier and thrash-based than the previous one.
The first part of what you said about the most difficult part being learning how to sing and play guitar at the same time, especially on tour, was actually something I was just going to ask you. That must be quite difficult.
It was in those days. Absolutely! It's the same for us now. I'm a really lazy lyric writer and for "Back From The Grave", we didn't have any lyrics written when we entered the studio, for instance. Everything was written during those weeks of recording. At the same time now for "Fiendish Regression", I think I had like half the verse or something of "Last Journey" and when it was time to put down the vocal parts, I think I had maybe two or three songs written that I wrote in the studio during the nights and evenings of our time there. So I put those songs down and wrote a couple of new ones during the night and recorded them the day after. When we do new material, we never rehearse it with the vocals in the rehearsal room.
So now it's up to me again how to learn to play the new songs and learn how to sing to them. I've never done that before because the lyrics were written so late, you know. But once you get a hang of every song you have to let the guitar more or less play itself and then focus on the singing, otherwise you’re fucked if you're going to think about what you do with your hands all the time. You won't remember anything really, from the lyrics or anything, so. I've got a good system for it so it's working most of the times.
How do you keep your voice in shape to able to pull off those demonic growls?
I don't really do anything special to take care if it. We've done touring for pretty long periods and so on and I never had any problems really with it, never losing the voice or anything like that. But it's pretty strange since I smoke a lot and when we're on tour, you drink a lot and have parties and scream and yell. But it's like, you have good and bad nights, you know.... some nights that are worse than others, but it's never been that bad that I haven't been able to sing at all. Usually I take a big sip of whiskey before we go on, just to kind of numb it down. So that always helps.
What age did you start playing the guitar Ola?
Thirteen.
Did you take any lessons or did you learn on your own?
No, I never took any lessons at all. It was me, Jensa (Paulsson) and Jorgen (Sandstrom) - we started playing together when we started the seventh grade. The only one really who knew how to play was Jensa. He was taking drum lessons and me and Jorgen, we didn’t know shit. We had bought a guitar each and started trying to learn how to figure it out.
Well, your guitar playing is very impressive.
It's pretty basic stuff. We never try to do anything complicated or technical - like leads and so on. I've never been into sitting at home and trying to work out scales or stuff like that. The leads we do are totally pretty much chaos-like - more like SLAYER or the old DEATH albums or stuff like that, you know. A big inspiration for me is Randy Rhoads, who did a lot of whammy barring stuff. We never have anything picked out. If we write a song, we never write the lead for it. We always put that on in the studio and try to get something that sounds pretty good and then we try to do the same thing when we play live - like pick out the notes and try to go by what we recorded.
You grew up listening to a lot of death metal bands like SLAYER, DEATH, CARCASS, KREATOR. Did any of them influence you more than others?
I'd say SLAYER I think was the one that made the hardest impact on me for sure. I always liked everything they did. Some people don't like their latest albums like after "Seasons" or whatever. I enjoy every new album with them. It's evolving but they still keep their very, very special style. If there's one band that really got me into playing this kind, and keep playing and keep getting influenced it would be SLAYER for sure.
They're definitely one of the greats. That's for sure.
Yep.
What are you currently listening to besides "Fiendish Regression", of course?
Well, I don't even listen to it that much really (laughs).
Really? (laughs)
No. I think I listened to it maybe like two or three times since it was finished - just to check it out again, that the sound really is okay on it and so on. But it kind of holds up pretty good I think towards other productions also. But other than that, I pretty much listen to the stuff I grew up on, still today.... nothing really newer that kind of interests me that much that I can fall in for a band for a very, very long time. But I listen to the old ones like SLAYER, old thrash like KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, POSSESSED, METAL CHURCH - stuff like that.... CELTIC FROST, of course.
Newer stuff - I like DIMMU BORGIR. I like what they're doing. Pretty good stuff. HYPOCRISY, of course - Peter's band. The last one "The Arrival" I think is very, very good. Other than that, I think the last band that kind of impressed me in any way was GOATWHORE from New Orleans I think. They toured with us over there in the year 2003. That was kind of a revival back to the old CELTIC FROST stuff I think. So that was pretty cool.
I haven't heard them yet.
No?
No. Haven't had the chance yet.
Pretty cool stuff. Very CELTIC FROST influenced but very, very cool stuff also.
How would you compare the Swedish or the European death metal scene with let's say the U.S. scene? Do you think the styles are different in any way?
Well, I think in the early days, sure there was a difference between the European and the American. Like the Morrisound (Morrisound Studios) or the Florida bands, for instance, had a very particular sound in the start and we had our Swedish sound and I guess a lot of the other European bands were trying to get something in between there. Today, I think a lot of the American bands have more and more concentrated on setting speed records. It's very, very much about speed and blasting and I think a lot of the bands do that very, very well. I love MORBID ANGEL and CANNIBAL CORPSE and so on, and always have.
But they have something more in there too. They have heavy parts and everything is in there to make it interesting and not just speed the whole way through. I'm not sure really. The styles today are very, very varied. There are bands in Sweden that sound like the American bands do and there's American bands that play Swedish death metal. So, I guess everybody influences everybody.
Your band has influenced a lot of bands I think.
That's what they tell me (laughs). We don't look at ourselves that way really. But of course, we understand when we meet people, like when we meet fans on the road and stuff like that, or people send you a demo tape with their band and they're playing GRAVE covers for instance, and stuff like that. Then you know you've made an impact of some kind on somebody and that's pretty cool in the end if you think about it.
How do you feel GRAVE has progressed over the years since the beginning?
I think first, when we started out, the first demos we did were very much more thrashier than anything else really. It was very much like thrash-influenced by like SODOM, KREATOR, DESTRUCTION - bands like that. Then we came into more and more of the harder and more death metal-like bands. I guess when we heard SLAYER, for instance, or POSSESSED or stuff like that, we got into more and more of that kind. The first album, of course, is what most people look at as the most important one from us and the most popular one - pretty much total, straight death metal I think.
Then we evolved more and more, and the "Soulless" album gave another dimension with the kind of more grooviness and more finesse in the songs I think. I'd say from "Back From The Grave" and on it's a progression from what we started on "Soulless" - keeping it heavy, groovy, and a good mixture between fast and slow and just keeping it very brutal all together.
What made you decide to take such a long break before the release of "Back To The Grave" in 2002?
That was just waiting out to see what would happen after kind of everybody turned towards black metal and that was the big interest in those days like in the mid or late 90s. There didn't really seem to be any interest at all in death metal, so we were kind of looking at what we should do - if this trend would go on then there wouldn't be really a big place for death metal we thought. A lot of bands kept going but it's very hard to name even one record from one band from let's say '95 or '96 up 'til 2000 that's really good. ENTOMBED kept going.
They did some very strange albums on those days, in my opinion at least. It was just a very slow time for metal at all I think, until people got tired of the black metal hype that was going on in those years and started listening more and more to death metal again. That's when we thought we had something to offer again, really.
What are your plans for the future?
Plans to get on the road as soon as possible to support this album, of course, and hopefully next summer get a lot of festivals here in Europe and also be able to get over to North America and play lots of festivals over there. I know there's a lot of death-fests all over there, so hopefully get on some of those. There's also talk about maybe doing a South American tour, which we are looking at right now also, early next year I think. Japan is in the works. We're trying to get over there. So, it's pretty much happening. I just hope that everything falls in place so we can really get something going again. And then, of course, after that there's nothing else to do than write new songs again.
Well, I wish you nothing but the best of luck with that, Ola. I certainly hope that everything works out the way you want it to.
Absolutely!
Do you have any words you would like to say to the readers of METALEATER.COM?
Just a big thanks to everybody for every bit of support everybody is showing and again tons of e-mails through the homepage and so on. I manage our official homepage and take care of all the mail and everything that comes from there and obviously there's a lot of interest in the band. It's cool to get mail from people like "I saw you in '92 on your tour with MASSACRE", for instance and "We've been waiting for you to come back", and so on. It's very cool and encouraging too. That's what keeps you going, you know.
You don't play this music for yourself. You play it to get something back from the people that you're writing music for. So, it's very cool. I'm pretty close I think, to the fans, since it's kind of direct to us. When people write to us, it doesn't go through anybody else. So just a big thanks for all the support and of course, check out the new album and hope to see you over there on tour very soon.
That would be great!
Oh yeah!
We're going to do all we can to help promote the band and the new album.
Killer!
Well, Ola, I thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with METALEATER.COM. We support your band and your future endeavors and we wish you the best of luck!
Killer! Thank you.
Thank you very much. Take care.
You too, man! [FIN]
» Official GRAVE Website
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