AEON (Eng.)
– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with AEON?
Hi, we are currently rehearsing a new headline set that is based on songs from the new album but with some old hits as well. We will be doing the first show with this set in Denmark on November 24th. Our booking agent is currently working on nailing some more tour dates. We have a UK / Ireland tour confirmed in January and hopefully there will be some more Euro-dates after that. Other than that, we are eagerly awaiting the release of the album and to see what the people thinks about it.
– Though you’ve been around for several years now, could you please share some history of the band for all those who may don’t know about you yet?
The band was formed in 1999 by four members from the newly broken up band, Defaced Creation. The goal was to create a more pioneering and miscellaneous style of death-metal, instead of doing the usual «old-school» death-metal. Later that year, Morgan Nordbakk joined Aeon as the second guitarist. The band recorded a 6-track demo that eventually became the MCD «Dark Order». The MCD was released in 2001 by Necropolis Records. Morgan Nordbakk (Guitar) left the band the same year and was replaced by me, Daniel Dlimi. In 2002 Arttu Malkki (Drums) decided to leave the band as-well and was replaced by Nils Fjellström. Our debut full length album «Bleeding the false» was released in September 2005 by Unique Leader records and did get very good response from both fans and critics. We did our first European tour in 2006 with Cannibal Corpse and Prostitute Disfigurement. Later this year we parted ways with our bass player, Johan Hjelm who later was replaced with Max Carlberg. At the same time, we signed a multi-album deal with Metal Blade Records. In 2007 we recorded our second full length album «Rise to dominate». In January 2009 we did a longer European tour with Misery Index, Hate Eternal. Right after that, Aeon parted ways with bass player Max Carlberg who did not handle the life on the road all that well. After some more bass players, we eventually found the right guy for the job. Marcus Edvardsson /Bass) joined the band in Januari 2010. Later that year, we released our third full length album «Path of Fire». A couple of months after the release, Nils Fjellström (Drums) decided to leave the band and was replaced by our original drummer Arttu Malkki who decided to once again return to the death metal scene. We did some headline touring in 2011 and in June 2012 we started to record our forth full-length album «Aeons Black»
– You will soon release your new album, «Aeons Black». What are your expectations on it?
I really hope that this album will put us a couple of steps higher in the map of death metal. It’s a very solid effort with a great
production, if you ask me and hopefully does the majority of our fans and media feel the same. Besides that, i really hope we will be doing a lot more touring on this album compared to the few real tours we have done in the past.
– After giving the album some spins I’d dare say is your most diverse effort so far. Was this something you wre aiming for?
We have always felt that a good death metal album should be varied and have all sorts of elements in it. When we did our last album «Path of Fire» we kind of walked away from that and wrote a fast paced album straight thru with out any odd tracks. And this time around, we felt that we wanted to go back to our roots and create a really diverse album. I think it gives the listener a much wider experience compared to listening to a 40 minutes assault with only fast songs.
– It’s also full of contrasts, it has some of your heaviest songs, but also some of the fastest ones. Is this dynamism something important for you? As I guess, besides making things interesting for your listener, it may also make things interesting for yourself, both when writing and when performing.
My reply on the previous question answers most of this. But yea, it’s also a matter of the feeling when you write a song and not the least, it must feel good to perform it live.I always try to keep in mind that the riffs i write will be good in a live-situation. Thats really important for us.
– Due to this we could say it’s your most extreme opus to date, not because of being the fastest, but to the contrasts I’ve mentioned earlier, giving a quite unique and extreme experience to the listener. In fact it also has a lot of groove, which contrasts a bit with this. Could you say this time you’ve focused a little bit more on the songwriting? As it certainly gives that feeling.
Like i said, finding back to our roots that we somewhat lost when we did the «Path of Fire» album. This time, we wanted it all. Fast songs, slow heavy songs and a few ambient parts that binds the whole thing together and enhances the whole experience for the listener. Another thing that differs from «Path of FIre» is that Sebastian almost wrote the whole album. I think i wrote 2 songs for that one due to some personal issues. I was in a bad place with my life at the time and i was totally mind blocked. I had a really hard time getting anything done, you know. For Aeons Black, we shared the song writing and me and Zeb has a little different ways to write songs and i think we are complimenting each other well and the result is a more varied album. Aeon has always tried to have a groove in the songs. But it shows less on Path Of Fire i think. And now when Arttu is back on drums, it automatically becomes more groovy due to his playing style compared to Nils for an example, whom is a phenomenal drummer, but he is more precise in this playing.
– Because of this I would like to know how was the songwriting process this time around.
Me and Zeb shared the writing process of the musical part as usual. We are always working on our own songs at home in our home studios and when a song is starting to take form, we share a pre-production recording with the rest of the band to get some feedback. When a track feels done, Tommy takes on it and writes lyrics and lays down the vocal patterns for it. On some songs, Zeb helped Tommy out and wrote a couple of lyrics for him and created the vocal patterns as well. That is also a think the contributes to making an album varied. Not only having one chef that makes the soup.
– It’s also a more lengthy CD, with more songs. So it seems you didn’t run out of the ideas at all but, what did you inspire you that much? Do you need some special environment to compose and come up with new ideas?
No, both me and Zeb where very creative this time. We wrote this album pretty fast i think. I don’t really need inspiration to write music, but i do need to be in a right state of mind. I often get inspired by the sound of my guitar when i start riffing in my home studio. It’s important for me to have a good guitar sound when i write music or otherwise i am fucked.
– Your music is firmly rooted on Death Metal, and I guess Swedish DM would be your main influence but, what other music styles do you listen to?
I listen to everything from 80s hard rock to extreme metal music. There is also some goth bands that i am into and even some dark wave electronic music. But mostly it’s hard rock and metal.
– In fact you are a superb act but curiously you are not among the top of Scandinavian bands into the genre. What do you think would give you the ultimate push?
The problem for us is the lack of touring. To grow a big name you really need to tour a lot. So yea, touring much would give us the ultimate push i think.
– Anyway, playing Death Metal and hailing from Sweden, makes you easier get more attention or reach more people? Or maybe is more difficult to get noticed as I guess the competence out there may be huge?
I don’t really know anything else then playing death metal in Sweden. I have no reference how it would be to do it in some other country. But i guess that it does not really differ a lot from any other country that has a metal scene. Today there is so many other channels to spread your music that is not deepening on where in the world you are.
– Talking about such, which Swedish DM bands could you suggest (besides the obvious and biggest ones)?
I can recommend you checking out a band called Soreption… they are killer. And i would also like to give a push to the band Syn:drom. Both are great bands.
– This time around you’ve had a great mixing by Ronnie Björnström; are you satisfied with the work done by him?
Oh yea, i love the production he created for us. It’s by far the best we ever had and Ronnie is such a great guy to work with. He is often doing our live sound as well and he really knows what kind of sound we are after. He is really a wizard.
– On the other hand, what’s the meaning behind the cover artwork?
I have been doing all the artwork for our previous full length albums and this time, i really did not want to do it anymore. We have
always wanted to a real painted cover and not some digital photoshop mayhem. And the first name that came to mind when we where think of artist who paints great album covers was Kristian Whålin who has been doing some real masterpieces thru the years for bands like King Diamond, At The Gates, Dissection among others. We contacted him and asked if wanted to work with us. He knew about our music and agreed to that. He told me that he actually had a newly done painting that he had done for his own pleasure that he was willing to sell us if we wanted. We got a preview version of it and we felt that it would absolutely suit our album well. It’s a very dark and earie album cover.
– All this about «Aeons Black» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Real death metal
– And finally, what are your near-future plans?
Nail down some more tour dates and get down to business.
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
You’re welcome. I would like to point one thing out… For all of you death metal fans out there. Please keep supporting your favorite bands by buying the albums, go to their shows etc if you really like them. The industry is tightening up and it’s being harder and harder to make good albums with a proper production these days. Cheers!
