Answered by vocalist Martin Sjögren.
Translated by Petra, thank you!
Recenze/review - CRAWL - Rituals (2018)
http://deadly-storm.blogspot.com/2018/06/recenzereview-crawl-rituals-2018.html
Ave CRAWL! Greetings to Sweden. How are you? Ever since I'm following your social networks, I think now you are experiencing great times. You've joined Transcending Obscurity Records, and everywhere I have read about your new album just the superlatives. Your new record is great. Your work and determination bear its fruit. How do you feel right now?
Hey man! Im fine, little bit tired after this weekends headbanging in Stockholm! I‘m feeling pretty satisfied over all the positive response from “Rituals“! It’s been a great ride after our release so far and can’t wait to see what more it will hold for us.
Let’s go to talk about the new record „Rituals“, our readers must be very curious. How the record was created? How long did you record it? How exactly CRAWL writes the new material?
Well, the record was recorded, mixed, mastered in Husqvarna at Hobo Records, we had the great opportunity to work with Ulf Blomberg. The process in the studio was really fast and productive, I think we recorded drums, bass and guitars in just 4 days. Due to the circumstances by the absence of both bass player and singer it was just us 3 people in the studio.
Me and Ämir is always jamming when we creating new material. The riffs and beats are always pretty much in focus. Is the d-beat serving the riff? Could we play it faster or should we slow it down? Too simple? To technical? Questions like that always pops up. But you know, in the end, we always land in the most simple, aggressive and primitive riffs.
The new record is decorated with nice cover art. Who is an author and how have you been choosing this motive?
The artwork is created by Jonas Holmberg from This Gift Is A Curse. Well, we know Jonas, he had done our artwork before on our two EP’s (I: Serpents & Worship Death) so the choice from our side was pretty obvious. And like I said to others before, it always seems that Jonas understand the concept behind Crawl. Really talented and nice guy. I just talked to Jonas and quickly explained the concept behind Crawl and he kind of took it from there and created “Rituals” in his own interpretation.
The sound is also really great. It is dark, cold and sharp at the same time. In which studio did you record the music? Did you have the "last word" concerning the resulting sound, mastering and so on?
Yeah thanks man, we recorded the album in Hobo Records and Ulf Blomberg was the man behind the sound. We came into the studio and like: “Hey Ulf, feel free to try new things and stuff audio-wise, but just keep the sound old school and filthy as fuck”. You have to ask Ulf about that but I remembered it as Ulf as honest and said what he thought about our vision and idea but also listened to us.
The lyrics are also an integral part of your record. Where did you take inspiration for specific topics? Could you reveal us who is an author of the lyrics and how they were created? Do the lyrics have big value in your music?
Actually it was I (Martin) who wrote mostly of the lyrics and I gave them to Joachim who corrected them and made them his own (Exeption is “Suffer” who Joachim wrote all by himself). The lyrics were created at a time when so many things pissed me off. It was a difficult change of members, job situations and stuff like that. Just negative patterns who build up for me, brick by brick, to the point that things felt so fucking frustrating. For me it was pretty nice to have the opportunity to open that ventile through the lyrics. In “Rituals” the lyrics is important because it’s mostly focused on death and all his friends. That’s kind of the theme here and has always been for me. You can say it’s personal issues blend with some more classical old school lyrics! Death do always fascinates me.
The new album was released by Transcending Obscurity Records. This label has a very good name in the underground scene and does a very good job. How you are actually satisfied with Transcending Obscurity Records as a band? How exactly did you bind together with Kunal Choksi?
Well, the work with Kunal has been great from the start. This man understand the concept of many bands and just how to promote them. Much of the attention we got is thanks to Kunal and his work with us. I think it was Kunal who contacted us and offered some collaboration. The quality of the stuff he releases is honestly one of the best quality I have ever come across. He is a great man and easy to work with from our point of view. I have nothing but good things to say about him and his label. We are very satisfied and glad to be a part of the Transcending Obscurity family!
I’m sure you will agree with me, that your music is very influenced by the bands from the eighties and nineties. It seems like we were growing up with the same metal bands. But I’m sure there is one first band, which inspired you to start play and write music actively. Which one was it? How was it, to grow up in the metal Sweden?
I’m not going to argue on that point. There’s no doubt that we are influenced by bands like Dismember, Entombed, Vomitory, Morbid Angel, Autopsy etc. But we also take big inspiration of bands like Totalt Jävla Mörker, Skitsystem, Nails and stuff like that. For me all these bands have taken great influence from one of my favorite band who is Slayer, It’s always been Slayer for me. But one of the absolute first band was Black Sabbath. Remember when I was like 8 years and my dad started to spin “Master Of Reality” on vinyl. That’s my first encounter with “heavy” music. Me and Ämir grew up in the south of Sweden so it was not so much to do other than listen to music and hang out. Pretty sure the other guys in the band have similar experiences with “heavy” music.
Nowadays, most of the music fans download new albums from the internet and use only their digital form. What do you think about this problem? I’m interested in your view, from the sight of the musician?
Honestly I’d never cared so much about Spotify and stuff liked that. I use it myself but do always prefer physical formats as vinyl. With that said I understand that people use these services to promote their music. What pisses me off is the profit Spotify makes on others music and how low earning the artists get. But from another point of view maybe some artists get some form of recognition due to the services of the internet. So my last words to the youngsters out there would be: Yeah, listen to Spotify, but don’t forget to support those bands you really dig and buy their music in physical format in every way you can. Support your local scene!
Lately, a lot of young bands start to play “old school death metal” again. Most of them are not very good, but there are some, who really understand the message of this old genre. Do you have such favorite band, about which you think it has a potential “to resurrect the old times”?
In Crawl I can pretty much say that we all listens to old school bands but even newer bands. Lately I have really started to dig bands like Taphos, Bastard Grave, Obliteration, Inculter and also Feral. I think they are pretty much all from Scandinavia, haha. But there so much more, but that’s the bands I listen to right now. I do fucking love DEATH BREATH. Have you heard them? I think they are no longer active but the “Stinking Up The Night” album is one of my favorites all time.
What about the CRAWL and concerts? How demanding is to organize a tour for you? Do you preferentially “hold” to Sweden or would you like to go also abroad? I know, behind everything are the money, but still, I think, the concerts can bring more true fans to your music.
I can put it like this; Things are brewing and we are hopefully going to play outside Sweden. You have to stay put and look out for us. But yeah, if we got an offer to play outside Sweden we would absolutely consider it. Yeah, it’s a question about money but we are pretty much DIY-guys in the band so shouldn’t be any problems on that front.
What CRAWL is planning for the next few months? Will we have the possibility to see you in the Czech Republic? I strongly believe!
Well, we are going to take it pretty slow these coming months, we just have some successful gigs in Sweden from our “mini-release tour”. So yeah, next year hopefully means more gigs and more searmon of our filth infused death metal! Maybe some new songs too, maybe..
Thanks dude, we would absolutely want to play in Czech Republic!
Thank you for the interview, and I wish you a lot of sold CDs, hundreds of crazy fans and a lot of happiness also in personal life.
Thank you for taking your time to interview us! Skål!
Recenze/review - CRAWL - Rituals (2018)
