5to1: 5 Q&A with Hungarian black metal perfectionists 'de profundis'

Finally a brand new edition of 5 Q&A interview series.
[of violence] sincerely hopes you would enjoy this one. Hungarian duo is back in 'action' after their quite long hiatus.
By the mean time before you move on to read the rest, maybe you'd like to hear the tracks from the EP. www.myspace.com/deprofundishu

1 Let's start with the 7 year hiatus and getting back together. What were the reasons to give that kind of a break? And what you guys missed most in that period of time?

- The main reason was that I finished a long relationship and I wanted to change my life. I got a job opportunity in London, so I made the move and left Hungary. I was going to stay for a year, maximum, but at the end it turned out to be 7 long years. Meanwhile, Yzokras was focusing on his studies, got diplomas in Hungarian and German languages and literature.
Well, I think what we missed the most was the lost oppurtunity of creation, but on the other hand we got time for developing our style and the band became more sophisticated.
So, basicly after I came back we immediately started to work on de profundis, again. We were full of ideas, I managed to put together a small home studio, so there was nothing in the world at this time that could have stopped us.

5to1: 5 Q&A with UK punkers AFS

a history [of violence] working really hard to come up with worth checking out 5Q&A interviews! The newest installment is done with UK punk rockers AFS (aka Arthritic Foot Soldiers). A scene veterans with a discography full of fine vinyl releases that'd make every single vinyl enthusiast feel excited to track down. AFS released their latest full-length studio album Immature Nobodies last year. [of violence] caught up with the guys before they start working on the follow up.

1 Let’s kick off the 5 Q&A with a question about the newest full-length AFS released. Immature Nobodies was recorded in United States, and it has an overall American way in both production and songwriting wise… What was the main motive and goal behind this decision?
Jonny: I think we felt it was time to reach out to a new audience in America,although the album has a very American sound to it,we are still writing about things that piss us off and playing the music we love,a natural progression for us as a band.
Carl: Thing is, we have always held back in what we have played, since a lot of us are from rock/metal/thrash backgrounds, we didnt want to have these influences seaping into our songs before. When we decided to write this album, it was gloves off and play what the fuck we wanted.

2 After checking out the discography section at AFS’s official website, you can’t help but have a feeling of getting quite confused with all those releases in various formats. Can you lead us briefly through AFS’s recorded material history?
Jonny: Kind of what Carl says below,we have this ethos that everthing we write is good enough to record so that's exactlly what we do,we didn't want to be one one those bands who were together for years and tehn looked back and had nothing to show for it,hence oue somewhat prolific output
Carl: Record everything .... release everything ... as simple as that :)3What’s it all about about www.middle-age-shred.com and band’s name origins? Correct me if i am wrong but AFS also stands for British Army’s Fire Service in UK. Speaking of origins, AFS is from a city like Manchester, a very important city in rock history in 80s especially. Do you think you guys somehow benefited from the city’s musical climate?
Jonny: Seemed like a good name for a band and helped us design an eyecatching,if rather tongue in cheek,logo
Carl: AFS, yes that an old term for Aux Fire Service from the 2nd world war i think?, AFS is short for “Arthritic Foot Soldiers”, which was a remark about “middle age shred.com, which is a skateboarding site for older skater, which we set up.

4What’s AFS up to these days? As it’s been awhile since the release of Immature Nobodies, any plans for new full-length on the way?
Jonny: We are currently writing and rehearsing songs for the new album,Trash Vegas,we've around 8 pretty much written in a rough form and over the next few months will continue working on arrangements etc,in preparation for recording in December this year.
Carl: We took a year off after we recorded “Immature nobodies in the US, not because of the album, more our of time, we all have other bands we write record with. But now we are back writing our 4th album “Trash Vegas”.

5Choose one and let us know why..
- Playing at NY’s CBGB in mid-70s or at London’s 100 Club in 1976 ?
Jonny: London’s 100 Club in1976 – just to have been part of the embyonic beginings of Punk Rock in the UK
Carl: Always wanted to gig CBGB’s ... just because really
- The Stooges or MC5?
Jonny: The Stooges – Iggy just keeps on going and going and going...
Carl: Stooges, they just did what they did, they didnt give a fuck.
- The Clash or Sex Pistols?
Jonny: The Clash – A big influence on my songwriting and helped me join the Great Punky Reggae Party.
Carl: Sex Pistols ... dispite being manufactored, they had a massive impact on me as a child.
- Army Boots? Or a whole catalogue of Skater shoes?
Jonny: Skater shoes every time, I never fancied Army Boot trench foot !
Carl: Skate shoes every time.
- Vinyls or Mp3s ?
Jonny: Vinyl- Something nice about physically holding a piece of music you've created yourself.
Carl: VINYL.... fucking love vinyl.
- Sid or Nancy?
Jonny: Niether – Sid became a puppet and Nancy,well just bad news all round really.
Carl: Neither ... both were fucking useless twats!


to check out AFS @ myspace: www.myspace.com/arthriticfootsoldiers
for the official website: www.afs.me.uk

5to1: 5Q&A with Turkish Death Metallers CARNOPHAGE

Here is another installment of 5to1 interview series. This time its Carnophage, death metal heavyweights coming from the land where east meets west with a critically acclaimed debut record released in 2008 through Unique Leader Records under their belt. Berkan, one of the 5 ambitious guys responsible for this brutally charged, technically rich extreme metal is here to give answers to things on [of violence]'s mind about Carnophage.

1 Signing with a well-known label for the debut release sounds like a "dream come true" for every single band in the world... So, was the whole thing really like a dream come true for you? Feeling satisfied about everything happened since the getting a records deal and relase of "Deformed Future / Genetic Nightmare"?
- A question frequently asked during wedding ceremony is like “This is the happiest moment of your life, isn’t it?” I think we won’t agree when we'll hear this. When we saw the mail which is from Erik (UL – Deeds of Flesh) I can’t describe the feelings... It was a childhood dream for us. When I saw a cd with Unique Leader logo on it, I used to buy with no doubt. It’s more like a label based fan act. And I know a lot of people think the same. About satisfaction, yeah everything is ok. They are very kind to us and the promotion is being done the way it has to be. Of course they’re happy with the sales :)

2 Being a band from Turkey, has some certain disadvantages... But on the other hand it also must have some advantages too... What's Carnophage's opinion about it all? Would you guys will be considering living in -for example- Tampa,Florida?
- The only good thing could be the beer . “Efes” tastes like no other!! All the kidding aside, we have no advantages at all. Since the overall income level is not enough for a musician who wants to earn his life from that, we have to work in full time jobs. Thus, touring becomes a hard thing to overcome. Anyway, we are not demoralized yet... Signing with a well known label was an initial step and we will carry on this shit. Not only for ourselves, we have to do this for whom believed us!! So living in US or Turkey is not matter. We will try our best for next releases then sit back and wait to get it’s worth.

3 What's missing after a critically acclaimed debut full-length is a busy tour schedule. And with a fine record label supporting your band you should have been playing in summer festivals these days instead of replying [of violence]'s 5 Q&A :) Any plans of booking live dates in US and Europe?
- I explained the missing thing about touring but still have no idea about (not) playing in summer fests as well. If you resolve the issue of that, let me know ;) As I mentioned in the previous question, we are not demoralized yet and still following up touring and playing in Europe and US. I don’t want to disclose anything before the things are definite but 2010 seems to be a good year for Carnophage.

4 It's probably quite early to ask but, what about the plans for a sophomore release? Will there be a full-length Carnophage record next or we'd better be expecting some splits and/or EPs from you guys?
- I think it’s the right time to talk about that!! We are fully concentrated on new songs and they will be pretty different from the first one. More aggressive, more chaotic and more planned stuff is coming. To be honest we are not as productive as a regular heavy metal band. Always looking for better shit and this brings slow production time. So we don’t want to spent any songs for a split or an EP. Thus, you can always expect full length releases from Carno.

5 Seeing "Deformed Future // Genetic Nightmare" between which two albums of a death metal fan's cd shelf would make you feel satisfied with the album's recognition? Or that can be asked in this way too, what would be the mp3 folder's name that "Deformed Future // Genetic Nightmare" placed at a death metal enthusiast's computer or ipod?
- Began with the first days of the band, a lot of metalheads said that Carno reminds earlier era of Suffocation to them. We know that we’re not a Suffo rip-off or tribute act but we also admit that they’re one of our biggest influences… We follow popular sites and forums on internet very often and they categorize Carno as “technical brutal death metal”. We look more major and don’t want to categorize just as technical or brutal death metal cause you can spot a black metal or a doom part anytime in Carno which sets us apart from a regular genre definition. So you could put our music to any death metal folder. By the way I prefer “shelves” more than folders ;)


Carnophage @ myspace: www.myspace.com/carnophageturkey
for Carnophage merch : www.carnophage.bigcartel.com

5to1: 5 Q&A with Greek newcomers Celestial Immunity

[of violence] keeps coming across some fine metal from all over the world with the help of myspace. This time we are presenting an interview of Celestial Immunity, a fresh Greek band worthy of receiving some more attention. George Stoiloudis, responsible for band's vocal duties and lyrical concept, was the victim of [of violence]'s 5 questions. Here we go!1 Celestial Immunity was formed in 2006 but it seems it took awhile until February '09 for you guys to settle down and record a demo.. didn't want to rush things?
- Yes it took us 3 years to be ready for our first demo. In fact we had a few changes in the line up and our drummer had military duties. So thats why it took us so long to prepare the songs. Of course we want rush things but if you force things you probably do something wrong, we want the time to be in our side not against us! :D The time has come and we recorded our demo and we are very happy.

2 Could you give us more info about 5-track demo "...Lost In Shades" which is limited to 500 copies only ?
- Our demo was recorded between February and April 2009. At the end of April we finished the recordings and we begun mix/mastering with our sound engineer Doukas Siskopoulos. The recordings took place at Music Temple Studio at Alexandroupolis/Greece.The demo includes 5 songs and the artwork/layout made by Dimitris Polymeridis. We decide to release only 500 copies just for the beginning to see how it goes and if we need more copies its easy to be created. All music written by our guitarist Simos and Celestial Immunity. All lyrics written by me. Produced by Doukas Siskopoulos owner of Music Temple Studios and Celestial Immunity. The title of the demo is "...Lost In Shades" and our lyrics discourse subjects about the human feelings and souls, about the failure and how we ruin our lives and overall about sad and depressed themes.
3 How's the reactions you've received about the demo? Both from Greek scene and international audience?
- We are very happy because we hear only good criticism about our songs and the audience here in Greece is very excited about our music. This is the feedback we received and you know we are out here especially me i go to all gigs to the northern Greece and i hear very good comments about our music. We havent received any criticism by a zine or major metal magazine because we send our 5-track demo recently. So we wait for the criticism of major magazines and zines with great impatience. We have our site in myspace and the comments are very good. The feedback is that keep us chained together as a band and give us strength to go on.4 It's kind of a tradition to ask a newcomer band about their inspirations, reasons to form a band and write songs.. so what are yours? [of violence] would like to know about your all time favorite albums too..
- Heeh thats an easy question. Inspirations? The darkness, sadness, failure, the hope, all the human feelings even fanatsy themes like our song called Angels Cry. All the sad situations we ever lived, our unfulfilled dreams everything is possible to insipre us. We formed Celestial Immunity because we want to express all our feelings, thoughts through the music. We do reahersals we go out and drink beers you know its the whole package i think that lead us to form the band. We love what we do and we have faith to Celestial Immunity. Many bands insipred us but i think the most important with the most effectiveness are Dark Tranquillity/At The Gates/Amon Amarth/In Flames/Rotting Christ/Septic Flesh and our favourite albums are Damage done or the last of DT/ With odin on our side of Amon Amarth The jester Race of In Flames, Triarchy of the lost lovers of RC and the list goes on.
5 Whats next for Celestial Immunity? i guess booking live shows is top priority for the moment, right?
- Right! We wanna play live shows all over the Greece and we recently confirm some shows with Septic Flesh/Overgarven/Crossover at Northern Greece during September. We will play live to the following months. We planning to send more copies of our demo to magazines for reviews.Next year we will prepare the music for our debut full-lenght album and we will search for a deal. I would like to say Celestial Immunity will participate in the compilation cd of the metal magazine RockHard Greece with title Greek Power V1. We parcticipate with the last song of our demo named "The dream fades". I wanna thank you for the interview i will remember this interview cause it is our first haha! Thank you very much keep deathin!!

Celestial Immunity @ myspace: www.myspace.com/celestialimmunityband

5to1: Five Q&A with graphic designer Ozan YILDIRIM

This time 5to1 has a quite different victim.
Well, he is a musician and a very well-known one in his own country's territories but he's also a graphic designer working with bands like Lividity, Nafrat, Carnophage, Embrace Damnation, Decimation and Kasatura not to mention he's also doing the artworks etc. for his own musical projects.
so here we go:

1Let’s start with what you are up to these days Ozan.. Any new projects in progress?

Well.. i’m pretty busy nowadays.. We are working on the new songs for the upcoming RAVENWOODS album, the recording process will probably be over by the end of the first half of 2009. Also, as Sarcophagus (my side-project), we have completed our work for the LP named "HATE CULT", which features Niklas Kvarforth of Shining on vocals will be sold by OSMOSE PRODUCTIONS. Furthermore, "Towards the Eternal Chaos", again by Sacrophagus, will be out on the market on 2009. That’s how my musical career is going on. Other than that, as you know, I’m designing graphic stuff to make a living. The latest update about that is; my new t shirt illustration for Lividity is currently available on relapse merch store. I am currently working on artworks for many local and international bands . That includes a new illustration I have done for Suffocation, which I hope that will be used with their new album. You can always follow the newest updates on myspace.

2Apart from being a designer and a fellow metalhead, you’re also quite well-known with your musicianship as you've mentioned above… Especially with one of the Turkey’s leading extreme acts RavenWoods. Can you tell us more about your career in “metal world”?

I have been trying to create something in this “metal world” since the day I got into it. I have been playing in RAVENWOODS for 12 years, participating in many gigs, fests and records. We have always kept our standards high. I’m trying to do my best for either my bands or Turkish metal scene. Turkey is a tough country for that stuff but we have always believed in the spirit of these acts and that’s how I survived. I think we have affected the Turkish metal scene with what we have done as RAVENWOODS, forcing people to try harder and harder to make a progression.

3Tell us more about the way you design artwork, myspace profiles or band logos? An artist or band comes up with an idea or you tell them about what you have in mind according to the concept of the work?

The bands get in touch with me via myspace or my website and inform me about what they want. I work on projects by the ordering time. I start working on the project as soon as we come to agreement with the band. I prepare some sketches and send them to the band. If they like it, I finish working upon that sketch and send them the final documents as soon as I recieve my payment. You can also check out the "how to request artwork" section on myspace or my website. As far as my principles goes, I just try to do my best for any band, regardless of their genre or fame. If they don’t like what I have done for them, I don’t demand more payment, I just come up with new ideas and work on them until they are satisfied. I used to work for commercial agencies and work on boring designs all day. I gave up on that and just concentrated on creating extreme stuff for extreme people, and that’s how I kept on going for 2 years in my own art studio.

4It's kind of a must to ask about your influences and about people whose work you admire. So yes i want names :)

My main influence, the one that made me who i am now, is Jon Andreas Nödtveidt of Dissection. His music and lyrics are my main influence. I felt like I was shot in the head when I heard that he was gone, and a part of me died with him. Jon is a huge loss for music. Hail to his spirit and all his fans!
Other than that, there are lots of illustrators and designers that i admire their work.. The first one is Dan Seagrave, commonly known with his work for Suffocation. I think I had learned a lot from him.We are in contact with him through myspace and I sometimes get his opinions about my work. I use his comments to improve myself and my work. He is just an awesome artist.. Also, Mark Riddick is one of my favourites, his work and style impresses and influences me.. And of course, Chris Moyen, the spirit and darkness in his work has always amazed me. I hope I can be as good as them one day. I am doing my best with my amateur spirit for extreme music in Turkey and I hope it satisfies people.

5You think an artist/designer always has to reflect a unique style which will be his trademark or you think sometimes its only important to do whats to be done and get the job finished on time? Do you think every single work you did up to now has a speacial unique “Ozan YILDIRIM” style?

Back in the days when I worked for commercial agencies, I was doing graphic designs fort he market, I just used to do what they want from me without adding any extra effort or soul, because none of that works had an artistic value. They didn’t need artistic value at all either. Then I realized that those stuff would never carry me forward. I hated business people with no taste whatsoever who thought they knew it all, and I quit. I started doing stuff about the subject that my soul belongs to, so now I care about artistic values. I am trying to do my best for any job, huge or small, doesn’t matter, trying to reflect my style too. As far as the deadlines go, of course getting the job done by the given time is crucial for me. A proffessional job must be delivered whenever promised earlier, or your reliability burns to the ground and nobody offers you anything.
Thanks for the great interview. HAIL CHAOS !


for more info and visual samples here are the links:
www.myspace.com/ozanyildirim
www.ozanyildirimart.com

5to1: 5 Q&A with Echoes Of Silence

Here we are back with a newest installment of 5to1 series...
Echoes Of Silence, a one man project of Sir Leviticai Mortus hailing from US has replied [of violence]'s questions...
The next full-length release of Echoes of Silence is titled Beyond The Crimson Gates and will be out January 6th. So right before that a small appetizer for your darkest tastes.

-For those who are still unaware of Echoes Of Silence, could you please give us a brief introduction? Why should we check out your music?
Hails, I am Leviticai and Echoes of Silence is my solo Symphonic Black Metal project which I started in 1999. People should listen since the music is not just lyrics and instruments but it is true feelings and emotion poured into sound.
-You are under the official banner of USBMS… Can you tell us what is it all about this US Black Metal sect?
USBMS is the United States Black Metal Sect which is the main supporter behind the movement of American black metal. Many assume that good black metal just comes from Scandinavia but it is not just there where the black metal scene has a major following.
-Black Metal genre, although is being performed all around the world, is stil mostly associated with Scandinavian Countries (Norway in particular for sure). Do you think this is a disadvantage for all the other bands/projects hailing from different regions of the world?
I do not see it as a disadvantage since if the band is good, it will get true fans that will listen. I have heard many great bands from all over. The great Taiwanese Symphonic Black Metal act Chthonic is getting some notoriety and they come from a country we'd least expect to hear black metal.
-So Far So Good.. whats the biggest thing you think Echoes Of Silence have managed to accomplished up ‘til today?
Echoes of Silence is solely a one-man project. I have accomplished many, many things within the almost ten years as a project from sound-wise to member problems. "Stormbringer" will be the first album in three years to have all real instruments so that is a big accomplishment to me. Just being a project this long is an accomplishment in itself.
-As you’ve just uploaded a brand new tune titled Twilightning, to your myspace profile, its kind of a "must" to ask about the plans for the year 2009?

My plans are to keep writing new material. "Beyond the Crimson Gates" and "She is the Night" are to be released early 2009 since both were supposed to be released this year but due to complications, the albums will be released on Hypnotic Dirge Records. "Beyond the Crimson Gates" will be released January 6th so pick up a copy!

click on the advert to check out Echoes Of Silence myspace page!

5to1: 5 Q&A with German newcomers ONE BULLET LEFT

On this new episode(!) of 5to1 interviews Önder from German newcomers One Bullet Left answered [of violence]'s questions here we go! Before you move on to reading i suggest you to browse their profile and check out their brand new recorded tunes.
one bullet left @myspace

- Let's start with giving us a brief info about who the hell is One Bullet Left? :)
One Bullet Left is a metal band from Germany founded in 2005. We are 5 guys having a good time making loud, noisy music with really heavy sounding riffs but also a lot of melody involved. I hope that's enough information ... You can find more about us on our myspace page (especially our biography), of course...
- I know that you guys are currently working on the debut full-length. What's the current state of the album? Any release dates confirmed?
There is no release date confirmed yet, no. But we have finished five songs completely, and three other ones are almost done. The working vibe is pretty good at the moment, so we are confident that we will succeed finishing this first album soon.
-The overall sound and style of the debut album will be like the tracks featured at your myspace page or will there be any minor or major differences? which one of the songs you have at your profile page do you think represents OBL's sound best?
One of the best things about this band is, from my personal point of view as a musician, that there is a broad range of diversity within the music. You can say that each one of our songs somehow is „metal“, but one track can sound like thrash metal, another one is more like metalcore or death metal or whatever... i know that most bands claim to be innovative and diverse like that, but in this case, i would swear on my mom that to be true ;)
„Armageddon Sunrise“ shows our melodic side, i would suggest, „Feast For The Carnivore“ is a more brutal song, so those two combined, you maybe can get a feeling for what to expect of our album, maybe ..
- Current German metal/hardocore scene seems to quite active maybe even the most productive scene in European territories.. what would you like to tell us about the scene and OBL's place and goals in this scene?
The German scene really is active, yes, but this does not necesserily mean an advantage for a band, because it's pretty obvious, that it gets difficult to catch some attention when you are one among thousands...On the other hand, it's is pretty cool to meet new people so often on concerts and having the opportunity to play on so many different locations, festivals etc., and we don't take that for granted; I guess, we are very lucky to be a metal band from germany, a lot of metal things going on here...
I don't really know what to say about our „place“ in this scene, other people have a more objective point of view on that, I guess... Finishing our first full length- album is our main goul at the moment, a record, that each member of the band can be proud of...that should be the most important thing...if other people like our stuff, we feel very comfortable with that, of course...but you can't predict the future anyway, so we will see, what will happen after that, who knows...
- Apart from OBL, tell which other bands you think will be big sooner or later from Germany's underground metal/hardcore scene?
Wow, difficult question. As you know and I told, the scene here is SO active...Seriously, I really don't have a clue... there are a lot of bands with much potential, that's for sure...

5to1: 5 Q&A with German Death Metallers NECROID

Here is a brand new 5to1 interview after some time. German death metal trio Necroid's Stefan -the man behind the mic and guitar duties- generously replied [of violence]'s questions.
To accompony this reading session first i advice you to browse their myspace page and check out some brutal tunes from their latest offering Nefarious Destiny!
www.myspace.com/necroid

-Germany's not quite best known for its death metal acts to be honest... So how does it for you to be a German death metal band? What was the main motives for you when necroid first formed?
Why isn't germany famous for death metal? Fleshcrawl, Debauchery, hmmm... well that's all, probably you're right! But in fact the underground scene in germany consists mainly of death metal acts... When we formed Necroid we were all in the age of 16-18, it was the music we loved and we wanted to play and conquer the world! ;)

-As far as i've checked out latest full-length of you guys, Nefarious Destiny got very good reviews.. After some months passed since the release of the cd, when you sit back and think about the whole recording process and the feedback you had after the release.. can we say you are fully satisfied with the result?
Yes, indeed - we can! We still like to listen to this record. There is absolutely nothing that i like to have changed! The sound is heavy, the songs are great - perfect!

-Eike Freese of Dark Age produced Nefarious Destiny... He has a quite promising career in production apart from his highly praised frontman skills at Dark Age... How did you guys decided to work with him? And how was the whole recording sessions? Any big fights to confess?? :))
I'm a huge Dark Age fan, so I wanted him to produce our record. I called him and we made everything clear! When we travelled to him, to Hamburg, we had a great time - without any harsh and brutal fights. He is a great producer: he has always additional ideas, but hasn't any problems if the band wants to do it her own way. In addition to that he gives every band a very personal sound... and not the same sound for every band like unfortunately many producers do! Well, enough advertisment for Eike! ;)

-I wonder what are the favorite albums these days at the Necroid headquarters?
Woo, at the moment i'm in a hard rock mood - Ugly Kid Joe, AC/DC, Guns 'n Roses and stuff like that... but that changes from week to week!

-Whatz next for Necroid? What are the plans 'til the end of the year for you guys?
Unfortunately our drummer Andi left Necroid, so our first plan is to get a new drummer to be able to play shows again! Beyond that we're talking to some labels... let's see if we find something interessting for us!


click here to purchase Nefarious Destiny online!

5to1 : 5 Q&A with Sweden's Calm

Starting the week with a brand new episode of 5to1 interview series. Swedish madmen Calm are this time had to deal with my 5 humble questions. As you've probably heard, or will hear a few seconds later, they released their album themselves via their website for free. So what better time can you think of to discover some brand new heavy stuff for free than now??
--Lets start with putting online an album for free idea... are you guys big radiohead fans?
Whats a radiohead? ;) Actually we were first.. haha.. We put it out for free cause we don't make music to earn money, and what's the best way to spread your music?
-- So what would be next for Calm? as the reactions you got for "Army Of A Few" concerned..you're gonna release the album in may, will it feature any extras from the downloadable version?
Since we released it on the web people begun to ask for a printed one, so when we got in touch with a label we decided to print it.There's nothing new with the printed version except the case with a printed booklet. We don't want to entice people to buy our record cause of extras. They should buy it cause they want the songs on a real compact disc with some great cover art. If you want extras you should show up when we play live or be creative and make a personal remix of our songs and put on the web for free.
--Being from Sweden is some kind of a trademark, a quality certificate in extreme metal scene.. do you think you guys benefit from advantages (and disadvantages) of this thing?
We do our thing in our way, and we put everything we are in to it. the result is a product with a Calm trademark, its just a coincidence that we are from Sweden.
-- It is written at your myspace page :"insano metal-crew which consists of six madmen and an elephant" :) what does this concept all about? an elephant??
We had this mad grey elephant pursuing us on live shows for some years. and to honour him we labeled him sidekick on "army of a few".
--To end this tiny little interview, could you please name your biggest influences for creating Calm's "insano" music??
Life and all its contents !



click here to download "One Moment To Seize"
calm @ myspace.com

5to1: Lion's Share

5to1 is an interview series i've started to put online consisting of 5 quesitons (and 5 answers for sure!). First "victim" of 5to1 is Lars from Lion's Share. here we go:

1 Six years have passed since Lion’s Share’s latest studio release “Entrance”... Can you tell us what happened during this 6 year time period?
After the “Entrance” album and tour I was totally burnt out after taking care of everything regarding Lion’s Share plus doing the album tour - album tour routine for over 8 years. I hit rock bottom pretty much overnight and playing guitar wasn’t fun anymore so I put the band on hold to be able to re charge my batteries. At first I didn’t do anything. Then I did a couple of shows with friends like the guys from Europe (the band), the most famous weather man in Sweden (at Sweden Rock Festival 2004), etc just for fun without any pressure, just to get the fun back into playing music again. I also co wrote songs for a couple of records and did a couple of guest solos here and there, plus produced, wrote for, played on and mixed an album called AUDIOVISION “The Calling”. It was mainly the solo album from Narnia singer Christian Rivel that he hired me to do, but we had some very cool guests on there like Jeff Scott Soto, Mic Michaeli, Bruce Kulick, IA Eklundh, Tony Franklin and some past members from Thunder, Electric Boys etc. Also towards the end of the break, Sampo and I wrote the ROAD TO RUIN album together with singer Matti Alfonzetti (Jagged Edge, Skintrade, Scott Gorham). Of course also a LOT of hard work to make the new LION’S SHARE album as good as it turned out.
2 Patrik is also working with some other bands & projects mostly know for his work with Astral Doors and Wuthering Heights, was your first choice when you were writing new material for a possible new album in 2007? What caught your attention most about Patrik, what hit you about his voice & style? What is your favorite non-Lion’s Share album of Patrik by the way? :)
My favourite singer of all time is Ronnie James Dio so I like singers that are similar in style like Tony Martin, Jorn Lande, Russel Allen etc. I think this style of voice fit my way of writing riffs and melodies very well. My melodies have a wide range and my riffs and guitar style demands a powerful voice to match and cut through. In 2003 I heard a sound clip of Patrik Johansson on the net right before the first Space Odyssey album came out. We got in touch and he was a fan from before and liked the new songs I had written so he joined Lion’s Share. I still wasn’t ready for the big race that releasing an album means with everything from the production to interviews and live shows etc, so we decided to not go public until we were 100% ready. Had we gone public the fans and media would have started requesting a new album and we had been put under pressure. Now we had the luxury of being able to work with this comeback album until we were 100% happy with it and ready to return to the scene.
Best non Lion’s Share album from Patrik would be Space Odyssey.
3 Richard Evensand was behind the drum-kit while recording “Emotional Coma”, how did you guys get together, he’s a very well known drummer for his works with Soilwork and Chimaira.. Lion’s Share’s music seems to be quite different for his previous efforts..
I early on decided that I wanted to bring more energy to the songs and that I wanted a more “modern” and “busy” drumming style. I was aware of Richard and he was my first choice for the album. Even though Richard has played on a lot of different things he’s a huge fan of Saxon, Judas Priest etc so he was really into our songs and doing this album. Unfortunately he was about to move to Australia to get married so we all knew he would only record the album and not tour with us.
4 There are some very significant guest appearences at “Emotional Coma”. Like my favorite Kiss guitar player for their post make-up era, Bruce Kullick, and one of the most important voices around these days Mats Leven (who has just left At Vance, and i just did an interview with Olaf Lenk) and Glen Drover... Can you tell us storied behind their appearences? Their involvement? Was there anybody who you thought would also be a guest musicians on this new album but you couldnt manage to arrange it?
Mats Levén is an old friend and he also did the backing vocals for our first two albums, so that was a no-brainer. His voice blends really well with Patrik’s. The studio where we did most of the demos was co owned by the former KISS Army president of Sweden, so when Bruce Kulick was in Stockholm to do a KISS Expo he suggested we invite Bruce to the studio to do a guest solo. I’m a KISS fan since I was 8, so of course I wanted a former KISS member on my record. Obviously Bruce liked the songs and cut a solo for “The Edge Of The Razor”. He even did it on my guitar since the song is tuned down and he wanted to use the whammy bar. Glen Drover from Megadeth, I’ve known for a couple of years after working with his other band Eidolon. I asked if he could do a solo and he agreed. He did it over in Canada and just sent us the file. Eric Peterson from Testament was working on a solo too for “Bloodstained Soil”, but unfortunately we had to start mixing before he managed to finish it off. They all did a killer job on the album and are extremely nice guys!

5 You’re a big fan of classic bands like Sabbath, Judas Priest, Kiss and Rainbow... it seems you dont enjoy much about the heavy music made in the 90s and 2000s : ) are there any bands you like which formed not in the 70s? : ) Rammstein for example? any else?

I like a lot of different stuff. From POP and AOR through progmetal to classic heavy metal and real aggressive stuff. I’m a fan of Arch Enemy, Soilwork, In Flames, Distrurbed, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein and many many more. It’s just that when you list your all time favorite albums it’s also a lot of nostalgia. Memories from grewing up and stuff. The albums I’ve listed at http://www.lionsshare.org/ are albums that have meant a lot emotionally to me (and still do). They have influenced my guitar style and songwriting in a big way.

for more Lion's share music: http://www.myspace.com/lionsshare