THE DUSKFALL (Interview 2004)
Born from the ashes of GATES OF ISHTAR, THE DUSKFALL has released 2 masterpieces of Swedish death metal (Interview made before the release of the third album). Unlike lots of Swedish bands going more accessible, THE DUSKFALL continue to play death metal like it was playing in the Swedish scene in the mid 90's, that is to say violent, technical and melodic. I wanted to know more about the motivations of this band and Mikael (guitar) answered my questions.
First of all Mikael, why did you decide to put an end to GATES OF ISHTAR after three albums ?
We had many problems within the band in the past and also with our label at the time, Invasion Records. It all came to a point when we decided to close the gates. I live for music, but there will always be times when it´s better to move on and keep the spirit alive instead of staying in a bad environment that suffocates you as a musician.
Could you, please, relate us the story of THE DUSKFALL? I know it was difficult in the beginning to find a stable line-up, even now because Joachim (lead guitar) has just left the band!
The band was formed in January 1999 by myself and Glenn. Back then it was supposed to be more of a "jam/cover" metalproject, playing metal in the vein of Pantera and Judas Priest. It only took a couple of rehersals until we realized that we wanted to put together a full-time band, playing our own music. At that time I had plans on doing a soloproject after Gates Of Ishtar was buried, named Duskfall, but I changed my mind and took the written material to this new project instead. We currently have the strongest line-up in the history of the band. All members get along great and Antti Lindholm (guitars) is a excellent replacement for Joachim.
Is there an allusion to the album “At dusk and forever” by choosing the name THE DUSKFALL?
Yes, how nice of you to notice :) I actually had plans for another GATES OF ISHTAR CD after “At Dusk...”, but that one never came. Then I decided to use the name for my planned solo-project, Duskfall.
Kai, your vocalist, lives in Oulu (Finland) and he’s also the vocalist of the Finnish band DEATHBOUND! It’s not too difficult for the gigs and for the future?
The fact that Kai lives in Finland and that he is involved in other bands is solved perfectly. It is not that important to have him present while we rehearse the music, he only attends the rehersals if we have a gig or a recordingsession pending. We all have done this for over 10 years now and each bandmember knows exactly what´s expected of them. It´s all about keeping good schedules and keeping your prioritys straight.
I have one thing to say! All the time when I’m listening “Frailty” and “Source” (maybe 2 times per day!!!), I say to myself “How can they manage to create only great songs?”. I mean, your music is powerful, melodic, the guitar solos are staggering and the vocals are devastating! Furthermore the chorus are very heady and have a rock n’roll feeling! You’re playing thrash metal with speed metal touches from the 80’s and you remind me also swedish death metal from the early 90’s! Are you agree with me?
Thanx alot! We all listen to so many different styles of music. I love the 80´s melodical heavymetal and rock and of course it affects my compositions. Then we have our mutual love for bands like Entombed, Slayer and Morbid Angel, this leading into the more aggressive elements of our music. I like to blend all the different aspects of Speed, aggression, power and melody into each other, embracing the best of both worlds.
How did you meet Magnus Olsson and how did you manage to convince him to record all the solos for “Frailty”? You need a very good lead guitarist now to play the amazing solos from the “Frailty” songs ( same thing for “Source”, because Joakim is really good as well!)!
Me and Glenn talked alot about the soloparts for “Frailty”. We felt that we couldn´t do the leads justice since we´re both rythmguitar-players. It is one thing to play leads, another to write good ones. Glenn told me about his old friend, Magnus Olsson, a guitar genious that lived in his hometown. We talked some more and decided to ask him to play lead on 2 songs, just to give us a feel of where we should go with the leadparts. He got crazy and recorded some improvised leads in his home studio. I remember listening to the first solo for "Age Of Errors". I couldn´t close my mouth and after hearing the second solo I called Glenn and told him to tell Magnus that he had to do the rest. I think that Magnus and Joachim did a great job in writing interesting leads for both albums and we work hard on delivering them to our fans live as well.
In the second album “Source”, there are not anymore clear vocals. Why?
Been there, done that... No, but seriously, I personally believe that the reason those clean vocals worked so well on the song “Frailty” was the fact that it was just on that song alone. If we would use them on all the songs it would be to much. There is also an interesting story behind those clean vocals: Lawrence ended up doing the chorus for the song “Frailty“ by a coincidense. He came by one day to pick up some stuff from the studio and we were stuck on the chorus part. Daniel came up with the idea to ask if Lawrence could come up with a cool “clean chorus“ approach to Kai´s lyrics and he tried it out for like 20 mins. The result of his efforts is on the CD.
Another thing that impress me is the quality of your artwork (both albums, covers and booklets)! Do you have all the ideas for this? Can you talk a bit about the artist who realized these artworks? The cover of “Frailty” represents “the futuristic alteration of the human existence”, what about the “Source” cover?
The name of the artist is Seth. We liked the artwork he made for "Frailty" so we didn´t hestitate when BLR wanted to use him once more. This time he already had an basic idea and then we had some changes made to to fit our preferences. Seth is a very proffesional artist and we did the same procedure as on "Frailty", sending him the lyrics to give him the insight on what we were aiming for. He must have a way of reading our minds because he always delivers exactly what we need. The cover image for me represents a person that wears all the different faces of the world. Afraid to be a strong individual and show the inner self, the person adapts to all the shit that goes on outthere, adapting more and more to the "Source" of evil.
What are the plans for the near future (tour, festivals...)? “Source” was released only one year after “Frailty”! Can we expect an album for this year?
We have just signed a contract with Nuclear Blast Records and the next CD will be recorded @ Dug-Out Studios in April 2005. The release will follow in August and then we will focus on more liveshows again. We are currently working on some new songs and have no plans on playing live as we speak. There might be some showcase gigs before the end of the year but the next CD is our main focus right now.
Thank you very much Mikael! The final words are for you?
Thanx alot for this interview! I hope that people will continue to support the band in the same way even though we have signed to a bigger label. We are still the same guys and will keep delivering metal the only way we know it: faster, harder and more melodic! Cheers!
Mikael