Thursday, May 30, 2019

Interview with ... FERAL





01. It has been about 12 years since the creation of Feral and it slowly, but surely, did is way through underground metal scene. After 3 years, you've came back stronger than ever with the album "Flesh For Funerals Eternal". Can you tell us how it all began and what brought you to play Death Metal?
In the beginning it was just me (David) and our bass player (Viktor Klingstedt) in our hometown of Norsjö. We were mostly just goofing around and recording some unserious parodies of extreme metal, a genre we were not too familiar with at that point. Eventually we got a taste for it and wanted to give it a more serious attempt, but finding other members in our small hometown was near impossible. I eventually moved to the town of Skellefteĺ, and Viktor followed a year later or so. There we found more members willing to give it a shot. At first we were aiming to do something akin to old school black metal, covering bands like Venom and early Mayhem, but when we tried writing our own material it always came out more in a death metal vibe. A couple of years later we ditched the corpsepaint and all that stuff and continued writing the stuff that came more natural to us: death metal. And we haven’t looked back since.
02. You released new album ''Flesh For Funerals Eternal'' for India's label ''Transcending Obscurity Records''... What is the main reason that you left your prevous label ''Cyclone Empire'' which released your second full length ''Where Dead Dreams Dwell'' (2015) and EP ''From The Mortuary'' (2016)
Things weren’t really working out over at Cyclone Empire, and I can’t really say that it was anyone in particulars fault. It was simply matters that was out of anybody’s hands. We were actually scheduled for another release over there, but after discussing the situation with the label we both agreed that we would be set free of our contract to be able to pursue other options. So the parting was mutual and on good terms. I actually wish that I was in better contact with the guys over at Cyclone Empire still because we had a very good working relationship and it would be cool to stay in touch. Transcending Obscurity Records came very highly recommended from other bands and parties who had worked with the label, and as soon as we came in touch with Kunal over at the label and heard his visions and saw his good attitude and work ethic we knew that it was a label that we would like to work with as soon as possible.
03. Can you give me your vision about Death Metal and it's past, present and future.
I think death metal, much like most genres of metal, is a constant. It is ever present. I mean: this is music that survives throughout the years with hardly any mainstream press or radio play. Death metal gets little to no exposure in the public space, yet the fans keep it alive in the underground. Even the biggest names within the genre I imagine stay relevant mainly due to the work of the underground and their fans. Trends come and go, and it might shift in popularity from year to year, but the bands that built the genre in the 80’s are still here, as well as the bands that came in the 90’s, 00’s or later. As long as the bands that are around stay passionate, and there aren’t many other reasons to play death metal other than passion, I believe the genre can endure anything.
04. How was the preparation and recording process for the “Flesh For Funerals Eternal” album? In which studios did you work for recording? Which equipments do the band members use?
We rehearse a lot before entering the studio. Usually writing a new album takes us a couple of years, and of course we rehearse during this time as well, but even after the album is fully written I’d say we rehearse the songs for about another years before recording them properly. This gives us time to tweak and make small, or big, changes to the songs and give attentions to the small details that give the songs life and make them interesting. Before recording we basically want to be able to play the songs in our sleep. The drums were recorded locally in studio Spiff, probably most famous for being were Swedish hardcore punk band “Totalt Jävla Mörker” has recorded albums in the past, as well as “Vintersorg” at some point. The rest is done in our own studio “Pagan Hell Studios”. It’s all later mixed and mastered by our ex-guitarist Petter Nilsson who has his studio and company “Sonner Produktion” in Gothenburg nowadays. I don’t think we use any particularly fancy equipment, aside from the now famous Boss HM-2 pedal. Markus’s and Sebastian’s guitars are run through a Marshall amp and a Highwatt cabinet. Viktor uses a 4-stringed Sandberg bass without going for particularly thick strings, even though we tune so low that he could theoretically use a 5-stringed one instead. This way it gives the bass tone a bit more attack and metallic feel rather than just a deep rumbling. Roger uses whatever drums are put in front of him, he’s great in that way. He doesn’t need any fancy stuff to sound good. This time though he used his own kit instead of the studios, a Premier Artist Birch. In the past we’ve tried recording with a single kick because it’s easier for the engineer, but since Roger is used to playing with double kicks instead of a double pedal we’ve decided that we’d rather do it that way.
05. Feral is a band formed in 2007. Would you like to talk about the years between 2011 and 2015?
In 2011 we released our first official album “Dragged to the Altar” and the band started getting a bit more attention, we also toured Europe to support the album. We had toured before, but only having demos out back then we noticed quite a difference this time around. Needless to say we had some good expectations for the future, but sadly we were between labels after the release of the first album. On top of that we also lost our drummer and one guitarist while writing the songs for our second album “Where Dead Dreams Dwell”, which didn’t really help the situation. Our hope was to maybe have the new album out by 2013, but instead we lost a lot of momentum when having to find new members. Luckily we managed to at least release a split EP with the Germans in “Revel in Flesh” in 2013. We continued with only one guitarist and our new drummer Roger and actually recorded “Where Dead Dreams Dwell” without being signed to a label, this also caused the release date to be pushed back even further. Cyclone Empire picked us up after having heard the album and released it in May 2015. In a way we saw that album as a last attempt to get things going again and a fresh start, which might be reflected in the album title, with the dream being dead. With a steady line-up since then, including the addition of Sebastian on second guitar by now, we have been working really hard to keep the pace up and the train running.
06. Who did the booklet and artwork studies for the “Flesh For Funerals Eternal” album? I felt it was pretty similar in artwork and preparation compared to your previous album ''Where Dead Dreams Dwell"
Yeah, it’s done by the same guy. Costin Chioreanu of Twilight13Media. He’s a fantastic artist and he also did the cover art for the EP “From the Mortuary”. As we felt that “Flesh for Funerals Eternal” was a continuation of “Where Dead Dreams DwelL” we wanted the album art to reflect that. We always give Costin free hands to create whatever he feels like, as he works great without any restrictions. The only thing we specified was that we wanted the same feel and tone as “Where Dead Dreams Dwell”, and I think it turned out great! “Flesh for Funerals Eternal” really looks like a darker, more evil, older brother of “Where Dead Dreams Dwell” and I think that reflects the music as well. The same, but evolved.
07. In what ways did the composition works of Feral develop in general and how do you prepare them?
As I said earlier, we rehearse a lot before recording. Everyone gets to have their input on the songs while we are working on them in the rehearsal room, but before that most songs are finished in a rough version by a single composer, or sometimes two of us working together on a song. Usually it’s be or Viktor coming up with a pretty much finished concept for a track, but we and Markus work together quite often as well. I think Markus was involved in some way in all tracks that are credited to me on the album. I’ll have to look at the booklet, but I think that is the case. Sebastian joined the band so late in the process that he didn’t manage to contribute any material for the album, but he has already written some really promising stuff for the next one and it feels great to have an additional source of material at this point. He really gets what kind of stuff we are working towards. For “Flesh for Funerals Eternal” we have put even more focus on the minor details than even before, and I think it shows. There should be a lot of stuff happening the background that you can discover after several listens.
08. Your music is a great mix of so called Old School Swedish Death Metal in the veins of old Entombed/ Dismember sound. What determines the proportions of this style in your music? What do you do that your albums are so consistent?
We have a lot of other influences as well. I am very much into classic heavy metal, as well as old German speed- and thrash metal as well. Viktor is a huge fan of prog rock, which I think shines through in his bass playing, and Markus is probably the one of us that is the most into punk. I think all of our influences combined with our love of old school- and Swedish death metal makes out the sound of Feral. Letting our other influences be a part of it all is very important and helps us carve our own identity in an otherwise crowded genre. I think there is a lot more interesting bass playing going on in our material than most “OSDM” and we implement backup vocals in a way that is more akin to heavy- or thrash metal bands. The dual guitar solos is also something that I guess we have mainly drawn from our heavy metal and hard rock influences. I think a lot of that stuff goes over people’s heads due to us having the “classic Swedish sound”, people just hear the “sound” and don’t listen to the actual playing sometimes. As for being consistent I guess it is due to us from the beginning only playing the stuff that we actually want to play regardless of the “old school” genre being on the rise when we released our first album or it probably having reached some sort of height a couple of years back. We love death metal, and that is not going to change.
09. Let’s talk about the lyrics. Could you tell me what is the most important thing to do a good lyric in your case?
I write most of the lyrics and I like having a narrative. Viktor sometimes contributes lyrics to a song or two per album, but he’s very much in the same way. Each song usually has a self-contained story within itself, with a beginning, a middle and an end. In death metal the lyrics are often overlooked, and in that way maybe not as important as in other genres of metal. But for me as a vocalist I wouldn’t want to just sing “cool words” stacked on top of each other. I don’t claim to be any type of lyrical genius, but I want the songs to have a structure and a narrative, even if a simple on, for those who actually care about it. And for those who don’t care about the lyrics I guess it in no way makes the songs worse that I put a little more work into them than what maybe is needed. A good lyrics for me has a structure and a story, and hopefully a punchline or climax in the end or chorus. A bad lyric for me is when you can tell that the song isn’t actually about anything, or that the lyrics are very broad or general in terms of subject.
10. What’s the Feral plan to do in the future? Touring Soon? Where and with who?
No tour plans at the moment, we hope that we will be able to book some cool shows this year and that maybe the album will open some new doors for us. But with us all being family-men with full-time jobs I don’t see us doing any extensive touring at this time. 2018 was very good to us show-wise, with not so many gigs, but the ones we played were of high quality. Hopefully 2019 will bring something along the same lines, or even better.
11. Feral have 3 full length studio albums in their discography and one EP . Which one is the most important record in your career ? Is there a moment in your career that you will never forget ?
Of course the first album was huge for us, and a great achievement for a small band in northern Sweden to actually get to make an album and release it through a respectable label. But all in all I think “Where Dead Dreams Dwell” marked a highpoint in our career and cemented a place for us in the death metal scene, as I said earlier it was kind of our last attempt to get the band going again after a couple of hard years. But if “Flesh for Funerals Eternal” will be remembered as our magnus opus in the future, I think it is worthy of that title even if I know we have a lot of new promising material in the pipeline already. Moments in my career that I will never forget is the fantastic time I’ve had, and hopefully will continue to have, with the guys in the band. They really are the best guys I know and it’s great that we get to do this stuff together and that we all came together in our passion for the music and get to do it at this level, making albums and playing shows.
12. What's the difference between the underground metal scene when you started the band and now?
There’s been a slow shift. I think we were about the last generation of bands, in Sweden at least, that made physical demos and sold at shows and sent them through mail around the world. At our point it was obviously CD’s and not cassettes, but a physical product nonetheless. I’m glad to see that the physical stuff is still around even in this digital age, but I don’t think that there are a lot of new bands, at least bands that aren’t purposely doing things in an “old school” way, that make physical demos at this point. With bandcamp and all other options that are around nowadays. Death metal and its likes are special in that way of course though. Other than the way the music manifests itself, be it CD’s or digital streaming, I think it’s the same close-knit scene as I remember it from 10+ years back. Most bands know each other, or at least if I want to get in touch with a bands I probably know someone else that can help me reach out to them, and vice versa. The underground supports the underground, and that’s how it has survived until today from way before I was ever involved.
13. Have you ever thought of stopping to play music and starting something completely different? What would you be doing if not playing music?
Never. I have a lot of other things I like to do, but nothing that rivals the passion I have for music. Besides my family of course. I do like drawing, but there are years between when I find the time for it. I guess that if I didn’t play music I’d find more time for that. Reading is something that I like doing in my spare time, both fiction and history, maybe I’d study history or something. Or maybe even focus on starting up a ‘zine myself! I have a need of doing something creative, that I know for sure. I wouldn’t be happy just working, eating, sleeping and repeating. Life is what happens between all that, and that time I want to spend with my family and creating.
14. Your final words to the readers of Oath Zine Serbia ? Anything about band's merchandise? thx for the interview and good luck
Thanks a lot for the interview, it was a pleasure! All the bands merch and albums can be ordered directly through the band and we very much appreciate the support. We hope that we will have the honour to visit our Serbian fans in the future, cheers guys!




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