Metal Mayhem: Hi, how's it going?
Henrik Ohlsson: Hi there, things are going great! Thanks for asking.
Metal Mayhem: Can you tell us a bit about the band, we know you guys are all from Sweden and from various metal bands, but how did you all end up as Scar Symmetry?
Henrik Ohlsson: I was recording drums in Jonas' studio for the debut album of my other band Altered Aeon in February 2004 and all of a sudden Jonas asked me if I would be interested in starting up a new band. He had an idea of what the music should sound like and I said “hell yeah” because I liked Jonas as a person and a musician. Then I suggested that
we'd use Per as a second guitarist, he was also in Altered Aeon at the time. Jonas agreed to do that and he wanted to have a friend of his called Kenneth on bass. Then we contacted Christian for the vocal spot because Jonas had recorded some other of
Christian's bands and liked his voice and everything. So that's how the band was formed and we recorded a one-track demo with the song “Seeds of Rebellion” in April the same year, got a deal with Cold records who collaborated with Metal Blade during the release if our first album “Symmetric in Design” in February 2005 and moved on to Nuclear Blast from there. And here we are, ready to release our second album “Pitch Black Progress”!
Metal Mayhem: Congratulation on the new album "Pitch Black Progress" we loved it here,
how's the response to the album been so far?
Henrik Ohlsson: Well, the album hasn't been released yet so there hasn't been much feedback yet,
we've only read like two reviews and those were great anyway. The support from Nuclear Blast has been fantastic though, we seem to be a top priority band for them. Who could have dreamed of that?
|
Metal Mayhem: The album really surprised me, I didn’t know anything about the band before getting the new cd and I thought it was going to be another "cookie cutter" Swedish melodic death band, but that’s really far from the truth! Do you ever feel that because your from Sweden you get dumped in with melodic death metal genre just because of your location and musical background? |
Metal Mayhem: Like I say I was surprised by the sound you guys have it seems you have a real mixture of
influences, death metal, bay area style thrash, classic metal like priest and even some elements of dare I say power metal and prog! Do you think that’s fair? What would YOU say are your influences?
Henrik Ohlsson: I think you're right, we are influenced by metal as a whole because
we're fans of almost every style of metal music. There's always good bands in all genres and we want to take all the good shit from death, thrash, doom, power, heavy metal and mix it up in our bowl of Scar Symmetry-music. So,
we're influenced by every style of metal and also progressive music and some more mainstream stuff. But our basis is metal,
there's no doubt about it.
Metal Mayhem: There is some fantastic musicianship on the album but it never seems clinical, there is a real groove to the playing but then there is also some really shredding solo work it’s a nice mixture how did that balance come about?
Henrik Ohlsson: As far as song structures we've kept it pretty simple on the two albums that
we've released, and that makes way for more of a groovy feel in my opinion. The shredding solos came natural because both Per and Jonas are extremely good guitarists who are able to shred or play emotional solos, anything that the song needs. So the balance happened naturally, we really
didn't think that much about it. We just tried to make the best songs we could at the time and incorporate all the basic elements of our first album mixed with some new stuff that we
didn't have on the first album.
Metal Mayhem: The vocals too are a real mix a great range that really suits the music
Henrik Ohlsson: Yeah, Christian is a phenomenal vocalist and he's getting a lot of appreciation from the media. Rightfully so, because his vocal work is outstanding.
|
Metal Mayhem: Can you tell us about the song writing process within the band? Is there a main songwriter or do you all contribute equally? Henrik Ohlsson: Jonas and Per writes the music and they write about 50% each of the material, Jonas probably writes a little bit more. Per writes the vocal lines for some of his songs and Christian writes the vocal lines for Jonas´ tunes plus some of Per's songs. Then I write lyrics for it all. That's basically how we have worked since the beginning. |
|
Metal Mayhem: What about the lyrics of the album, is there a general concept running through every song? Or even the whole album?
Henrik Ohlsson: There's sort of a concept on the album that revolves around the album title
"Pitch Black Progress", but the concept is only present on 3-4 songs, for example "Slaves to the Subliminal", "Mind Machine" and "Pitch Black Progress". The idea behind the concept is that a small elite of leaders has taken over all media, economy and monitors every step and every thought of every individual in the
planet's population through microchip-implants in their bodies. Technology is used to control the masses! Anyone who opposes their agenda is taken care of in the appropriate manner, the world has become a prison planet. The other songs deal with mysticism, occultism and alien forms of consciousness.
Metal Mayhem: Your on Nuclear Blast now as opposed to Metal Blade for the last record how did that come about?
Henrik Ohlsson: We were originally signed to Cold records who collaborated with Metal Blade during the release of the first album and when "Symmetric..." was released we got an offer from Metal Blade to sign for them. Unfortunately we were still signed to Cold and Metal Blade
couldn't pay the amount of money that Cold wanted to let us go. Cold, on the other hand,
didn't want to stand in our way when we had the chance to move to a bigger label and they checked with other label-giants to see if anyone else was interested. Nuclear Blast was interested indeed and they had the money to buy us free too!
Metal Mayhem: I know you guys are going on the Neckbreakers Ball tour in April how are you feeling about that? Looking forward to getting on the road?
Henrik Ohlsson: Yeah, it will interesting to see how the bigger bands do it and to get an insight into the whole touring thing. None of us, except Jonas, has much tour experience.
Metal Mayhem: What about the UK? When are your fans over here going to get to see you Live?
Henrik Ohlsson: I think you will get to see us sooner or later but there is nothing planned for the UK right now.
Metal Mayhem: OK guys well we hope to see you soon, thanks for the interview, any last shout outs or comments you have?
Henrik Ohlsson: Remember to visit our website at http://www.scarsymmetry.com Another interesting thing is that we recently shot a video for "The Illusionist" in Serbia, the video will get heavy rotation on all channels that feature metal music in a month or so. Thanks for your support!
|
|
