Given the well-deserved legendary status Spawn of Possession has in the tech-death sphere, it makes more sense to offer up a light introduction to today's feature instead of rambling at length regarding my love for the band. If you're a fan of this style of music, you already know Spawn of Possession and their history more than likely so I don't think it's important to rehash that here. Having been a fan of Spawn of Possession for over half of my life, it's an honor to share this feature with you today.
Even in the present, Spawn of Possession's influence continues to grow, it just took the world a while to absorb the group's unique style and maze-like songwriting style that still sounds ahead of its time now. To date, their hard-to-pull-off style of neo-classical inspired tech-death driven by palpable darkness and mind-boggling brutality remains out of the playing capabilities of most and always will.
To celebrate Incurso turning 10 years old this upcoming Sunday, I've got a deep dive interview with Spawn of Possession's vocalist (formerly also the drummer on their first two albums) Dennis Röndum, guitarist Jonas Bryssling, bassist Erlend Caspersen, and drummer Henrik Schönström. The first couple of questions aren't specifically tied to Incurso, they're just ones I wanted to ask before getting into all things Incurso.
For those unfamiliar with what the band's name signifies, please share with our readers out there what Spawn of Possession means?
Dennis: "At first I just thought it just had a nice ring to it. Later on, I started thinking more about it, and to me, it basically means the effects of demonic possession. In other words, all the bad stuff that comes with possession could be summed up as the spawn."
Jonas: "Well, that was something I came up with a long time ago, probably around '95-'96. One of my all-time favorite songs is 'Spawn of Azagthoth' by Grotesque. So I took that and combined it with two favorite movies of mine: Possession (1981) and Amityville II: The Possession (1982). So it became Spawn of Possession! And at that time we played melodic death metal in a different band, and sometimes when I wrote riffs I came up with some more brutal stuff that didn't fit that band. So I called those riffs Spawn of Possession. A couple of years later I and Dennis took those riffs and formed Spawn of Possession. And those very first riffs survived and are now in 'Dirty Priest.' So what does Spawn of Possession mean? I have no idea, to be honest, I just wanted something that sounded brutal and mysterious. You could perhaps think of it as what a demonic possession does to the host and the people around.. complete misery, corruption of the soul, all kinds of manipulative evil, perhaps death and eternal damnation in the worst case."
Are the band's members aware of Spawn of Possession's continual influence in the world of technical death metal sphere? If so, what do you make of that?
Dennis: "I find it a bit hard to grasp. I could never imagine being part of a band that influenced others in the same way we were influenced when we started. I never thought of us actually getting actual fans as we were so entrenched in the whole mindset of writing music for ourselves. It's a weird thing but I find it super flattering and it's also a stamp on the fact that we were right when people told us to tone down or not be so crazy with the music. Time has shown that they didn't get it, our fans do!"
Jonas: "No not really, I have heard a little bit over the years perhaps, I'm completely detached from the scene and have been for many years, I rarely talk to anyone about music at all to be honest, except for Dennis maybe when he calls, and both Spawn of Possession's and my Facebook accounts are hacked so I don't see any potential fan mails or so anymore. I have a new account though, which is in my second name Andreas, but I barely use it, never been a big social media guy. I have heard Faceless and Archspire, I would recognize Archspire since they play really fast, the vocals are really fast. Faceless was different, sounded somewhat jazzier with clean vocals, and so on. I don't know many technical bands but I know those two and a couple of more. of course, it feels good if someone gets inspired by Spawn of Possession. That's something you can't take for granted."
Henrik: "It's always hard to take in that you have influenced someone with your music. I guess it is a little bit easier when you're part of a band in the later part of their career. That way you can see it all from both sides. I'm just really honored to have had the opportunity to be a part of the Spawn of Possession journey and that there are bands that still are being influenced by what they/we created."
At one point, it looked like some members of Spawn of Possession would be creating new music under a new name? Is this still happening?
Dennis: "I guess you mean Retromorphosis!? This is happening for sure but it was never set out to be a reunion thing or a project. This is a stand-alone band. The album is more or less complete so all that's left is getting into the studio and start recording it. All I can say about it at this point is that it's going to be quite the record."
Jonas: "I have written a death metal album which is more old-schoolish and not particularly technical in nature, The band is called Retromorphosis. We are in the progress of trying to find a label that can pay for some of the studio costs and release it. I have been in touch with two labels so far and both of them want to release it, but the studio budget seems to be a problem since the discussions kind of just ended there. This album won't be nearly as expensive to record as the Spawn of Possession albums. We have eight or nine songs ready and some other small weird tracks – it's 50 minutes in total. The line-up is complete. The only thing that's left is a label and we are ready to go. So we will keep trying."
In regards to the loss of guitarist Jonas Karlsson after the release of 2007's Noctambulant, are you all comfortable discussing why he left?
Dennis: "Sure, as far as I know, there were never any bad vibes with Jonas Karlsson. He decided to move on from music after Noctambulant. I think he had had enough of the whole band thing. He sold his gear all except his seven string and got a job in construction. I see him once in a while and we hang out and drink some beers. Karlsson is a fun guy to be around and in his prime, he was absolutely insane on the guitar."
"Yeah, I think he submitted more riffs to Cabinet but he never really was a riff guy in Spawn of Possession. Karlsson was more or less all about shredding solos."
Jonas: "I'm trying to remember, I think Karlsson might have lost some of his interest during the Noctambulant writing era, He had a girlfriend and other stuff going on that seemed to take more and more of his time. During the Cabinet era, he wrote more riffs and was way more into it. That's just how life can be sometimes. And eventually, when the whole band split up he just moved on and away from guitar playing. So there were no fights or anything like that. He just wanted to do something else I guess."
How the hell did you all get former Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O' Brien to guest on "Render My Prey" on Noctambulant?
Dennis: "I remember we talked about it on tour with Cannibal Corpse simply because we thought he was a sick guitar player. And by the end of the tour, I just asked him if he would be interested in doing a guest spot on our next album. What shocked me a little was how surprised he was that we asked him. He immediately said yes and if memory serves me correctly he told me that he had never been offered to do a guest appearance before that. I remember he recorded it over at Mana with Eric Rutan. It was a nice treat to have Pat on the album. Cool guy."
Jonas: "We toured with Cannibal Corpse two times, so we got to know them pretty well. And Dennis had a suggestion on bringing on some guests on Noctambulant, so we asked Pat O' Brian, and he said yes. It was just like that. And then he went on and recorded it at Eric Rutan's studio."
Can you explain what the cover art on Incurso is depicting and how that ties into the album?
Dennis: "I think Jonas handled this with Per and I can't remember if any deeper meaning was talked about. I personally always related it to Apparition. The laserfish is not exactly what I described as the antagonist in the lyric but it works really well for the cover. It's one of those, once you've seen it you'll never forget it."
Jonas: "The album cover is the last song of the album, called 'Apparition.' All our covers are based on songs or concepts, The Cabinet cover shows the inside of Cabinet and so on."
What do you remember about writing, practicing, or recording for your performance on Incurso?
Dennis: "I wasn't part of the writing, I stepped in when the thing was ready for the studio. Thinking back the first thing that hits me is that it was a lot of hard work and long hours. I went down with Henrik to assist him with the tracking of the drums. I think all of us including the producer Mankan Sedenberg got overwhelmed with the number of drums this record needed. We treated it as a regular studio session like it was a matter of 35 minutes of music not realizing that it was close to an hour of the most intense drumming Spawn of Possession has ever put out. It was a rude wake-up call and Henrik really busted his ass to get everything perfect and on par with the rest of the music. I remember being very impressed by his tenacity and will to deliver at his best, not recording anything half-ass.
"The drum files went directly to another studio where Jonas was recording the guitars. By the end of the drum session, me and Henrik went down there and Jonas was shredding through the songs like crazy. Just as the drums Jonas had long intense hours to get it ready in time. He is also a real machine in the studio and doesn't cry for breaks every five minutes. He just wants it done. We hung out for a bit and he played us 'Where Angels Go' with guitars and drums and that alone sounded really cool so I had a good feeling all this labor was going to be worth it.
"As for the vocals it was basically the same thing for me. I had written a little bit of the lyrics before we entered Pama Studios but ended up writing most of it during nighttime. I recorded most vocals in the early stages of the mixing I remember. Again, long hours with a lot of dubbing the growl with the high-pitch scream. Even though I was pleased with the outcome I was really burned after those sessions.
"Chris and Erlend recorded their parts in their respective hometowns so I never had any insight into their process. All I know is that what they delivered as finished products went well over my expectations. To this day I think everyone's contributions were incredible and everyone made just the right choices for the record. Incurso is still a blur to me simply because there was so little sleep and so much work. Making an album like this demands total attention 24/7 from everyone involved. You don't casually put an album like Incurso together haha."
Henrik: "When hearing the songs that would end up on Incurso, I knew I needed to dig in deep and practice a lot to do the material justice. A lot of long days were spent in the rehearsal room! During the drum recording, it was me, Dennis, and our producer Mankan in the studio. The days were long and intense, just pushing it, trying to play at the best of my ability at all times. I especially remember the last day. I think we ended up recording for 18 hours. The last pieces of the puzzle had to get done and we just had to power through. I was a walking corpse the week after, haha.
"Dennis and I brainstormed quite a lot during the drum recording. It was very refreshing and different. It was way more demanding than having everything completely written beforehand, but we have such a great 'drumming-chemistry' so it just felt like the natural way to go."
Jonas: "Around 2007-2009 I was just playing a lot of guitar and drinking beers, listening to Metallica, Black Sabbath, Anthrax, and classical music, that's what I remember. And I got the program Guitar Pro which enabled me to write drum tracks. before that I used Powertab or just wrote everything on paper. Anyway, In 2010 my daughter was born, so my ex and I made a schedule, I practiced for 2 hours and then I took care of my daughter for 2 hours and then back to practice for another 2 hours and so on. And that worked out pretty fine. So in the end I knew how to play all the songs on one of the guitars, but I only learned two songs on the second guitar properly. So In the studio, I had to read the tab and then record it. Not the most stimulating way to record but the job had to be done no matter what. It was a lot more fun to record Cabinet and Noctambulant since we had practiced those songs way more and you had everything memorized."
How did the band link up with Relapse Records for the release of Incurso?
Jonas: "Erlend and I made some cheap pre-productions with MIDI drums ('Where Angels Go..,' 'Spiritual Deception') We did some more pre-productions, but I remember sending only those two tracks to Relapse and they pretty much signed us right away. And that was it, so we got signed on our first try, really easy-going label, everything just went fast and smooth. We got a good studio budget and we booked the same studio and producer we had on the previous albums (Pama Studios, Magnus Sedenberg). So it was just easy like that. And then we recorded the whole thing and sent it to them. And they seemed to be happy with the result.
"But I remember now, they wanted 10 songs, and we only had nine, so that was a problem. And I have never written a filler. So a couple of days before the recording began I panicked and took three unfinished songs that were discarded and just mashed them together. It had some good riffs in it but it was a pretty awful track, you could tell it wasn't thought through and it was kind of messy. Anyway, during the recording of the drums, the computer crashed and Henrik had to record 'The Evangelist' all over again, so we lost a lot of time. That was a wonderful moment for me, that day when Dennis called from the studio and said we have to remove one track and he asked which track I thought was the least important one. And I said remove the 10th track, kill the filler!
"And I remember Relapse had an artist that was going to do the cover art for us, but it didn't work out at all. Not to say he was bad or anything but the style just didn't fit us as I saw it (I still have those covers here somewhere). So we ended up going back to Pär Olofsson who did the Noctambulant cover. And that was a lot of fun and of course, he made a perfect cover for us. The colors and everything with it are just perfect."
On Incurso, the band's average song length exploded in comparison to both prior Spawn of Possession albums. Was this part of the band seeking to top themselves consciously or a purely organic development that happened as the material progressed?
Jonas: "Before the split-up, Dennis and I had already discussed making more 'epic' songs. And to me personally, the reason for that was that when Noctambulant was finished and I was listening to it I realized that there were some ideas in there that could have been used a little bit better. You can let ideas grow, you can write variations on the same themes and riffs, and make longer buildups which will make it not only more dramatic but the parts will get fleshed out in a more natural way, as they deserve to be. So instead of making another chaotic album like Noctambulant where the ideas had shorter time spans, I was very much into taking the Noctambulant style and in a sense straightening everything out, the same type of melodies and all that. But turning those small ideas into bigger parts. Cut down on tempo changes, less rhythmical craziness. So the songs would get a more natural flow, a little bit more like Cabinet perhaps."
As we all know, touring for Incurso was largely a European-related affair. Can you fill us in on who you toured with and any personal observations and memories of those Incurso related tours?
Dennis: "For me, that was a great tour. All the bands were super cool. We had a great tour manager and we stacked the clubs, selling out all over the place. I tried to watch Gorod, Obscura, and Exivious at least for a couple of songs every night. They all brought their own styles and put on great shows. Fun people to hang out with as well. The parts I remember between all the beers is that it was a fun experience."
Jonas: "We toured with Gorod, Obscura, and Exivious, we didn't rehearse enough before the tour so we played really shitty the first week, and then it got a little bit better. We took a chance and pretty much worked it out during the tour. The tour was really good, good attendance at the shows and everybody was really nice. Drank lots of beers and was lucky to not get sick."
Henrik: "It was my first real longer tour and a really cool experience. We more or less had an awesome turnout on all shows. It was a 30-something consecutive day tour. The package was very varied in terms of the 4 different bands' cool styles (Spawn of Possession, Gorod, Obscura, and Exivious). Everyone got along really well and our great tour manager was on top of everything at all times. One fun thing I remember is that I got a pretty bad cold halfway through the tour and somehow played my best shows during those days."
As I understand it, Jonas wrote the whole album alone for the most over a several-year span. Is this true? How much creative freedom were other members such as the bassist and drummer given to incorporate their ideas within the songs?
Jonas: "Yes, Well I started to write pretty much right away after Noctambulant, we only did one tour on Noctambulant and then we split up and I just kept going since I already knew what I wanted the next album to be like. So the writing era for Noctambulant and Incurso are extremely close, it's pretty much the same period for me. But of course, I couldn't be sure Incurso actually would ever be recorded since the whole line-up was gone. But I started to write anyway. In 2007 I already had a finished version of 'No Light Spared' and had begun on 'Bodiless Sleeper' and 'Apparition.' And then it went kind of slow for a while, I think I started to play a lot of classical guitar and drink beers again and probably wasted a lot of time on that. And then Erlend got in touch and wanted to join Spawn of Possession, and that was a big boost for me, now I had someone I could send pre-productions and tab to for evaluation.
"Writing Incurso was kind of hard, at least in the beginning since I was used to having Dennis around for arranging, In the old days I could come to rehearsal with maybe two or three riffs arranged and then Dennis would listen to that and he would come up with lots of ideas on how to continue from that. So on Incurso, I had to rely way more on colors. So when I have written a riff I see what color it has and I know I can put that riff together with other riffs with the same color. So 'Bodiless Sleeper' is red and black while 'Where Angels Go' is dark blue and black with white small ornaments and streaks in it, you could never take riffs from 'Bodiless' and mix them with 'Where Angels Go,' It would not only sound incoherent but it would kind of look splashy in my brain. So I worked like that. When I was arranging with Dennis on the previous albums he could take a rusty brown riff and put it in a red song, and that would work. Those colors work pretty well together, So he could arrange in a way that's a little bit out of the box for me, and that was really fun. I tend to keep it safer when I'm arranging on my own.
"On Incurso, Erlend was the one who got to evaluate everything, I sent him stuff and he would listen and tell me if something was missing or if it needed better flow or whatever could be done to improve the songs. And then I corrected all those parts until he said it was okay and then I jumped to the next song. Erlend has a really good ear for arranging and I think we were looking for the same result, so we never had any arguments or wild discussions about anything. So when Erlend joined I started to write a lot. I was working on 24 songs simultaneously for Incurso. Some of those were incredibly weird and melodic and should never have been written. But as time went by you could clearly hear what songs would end up on the album."
"I was 100% open to ideas from the other members, but Erlend was the only one who actually sent me riffs and ideas he had written. I used one of them to build the middle part of 'Servitude of Souls,' He wrote the first part, and then I took that and continued and wrote several different variations on it. And that was a lot of fun. And then he wrote a really difficult riff which I put in 'Deus Avertat.' And of course, he did a lot of bass lines. Dennis felt that 'Where Angels Go' should be more epic, so I took his thoughts about it and rewrote the song with the type of riff he had in mind and it turned out to lift the song several notches. I had problems with that song for such a long time, but that solved everything. And Dennis and Henrik went through my drum tracks and rewrote everything they felt could be better, not only for the songs but also from a drummer's perspective I guess. And of course, Dennis wrote all the lyrics and did all the arrangements by himself. And it was perfect of course."
Erlend: "I had no restrictions in terms of how I could shape my bass lines, or add to the final product as I saw fit. Considering it was my first time recording with Spawn of Possession, I'd always check in with Jonas whenever I made changes from the pre-written lines, to make sure it fit his vision. Since we had no way of actually rehearsing the album before recording, you end up not knowing much of how the end product will sound. Considering the different angle this album takes compared to prior albums, there were a lot of ideas on my end just left to chance since I was only going by notation and very raw tracks for the recording process.
:The general approach to bass ended up being very different from previous albums, where it used to have a more traditional role locked in with the drums playing 8th notes. For Incurso it would have some traditional sections to keep things locked in, and then makes lines that mimicked the guitars as a third voice going off on its own. Having fretless on previous albums would probably not have worked too well, but as busy as this album is there's also some room to be creative as it has a severe impact on the general sound landscape. In my ears, using it sparingly but effectively will break some of the monotony that a lot of these types of albums tend to have.
"When piecing together the hundreds of riffs Jonas had collected over the years for Incurso, I sent him some of my songs that had been collecting dust for years. Just in case something would fit. I think two or three riffs ended up on the album, and Jonas ended up 'Spawnifying' them a bit to fit the theme of the album better and just make more sense in the new context. I've made some changes to the general framework of the album, but saying I was a contributor is a bold statement in my eyes. This is all Jonas' brilliant effort."
Henrik: "The foundation for the drums had been created by Jonas. Dennis and I took that foundation and went all-in with crazy beats, patterns, and fills. As a drummer you think a bit different from a guitarist, so we were shooting ideas back and forth like crazy during the recording. That's the great thing about having two drummers in the band. More is more!"
How did Spawn of Possession bassist Erlend, drummer Henrik, and Christian Müenzner (Obscura) come to join the fold for Incurso?
Jonas: "I think Erlend wrote to me on maybe Facebook and asked if I needed a bass player to Spawn of Possession, and I said yes and that was it. I already knew who he was since we did a tour together once. Christian also wrote to me and I didn't know who he or Obscura was, but Erlend did and said we should really check him out. So I did, and Christian sent me some Obscura songs so I could hear the solos, and then I did some terrible recording of some solo-riffs and sent to him, and he recorded some tasty solos on those. And that was it.
"I had several guitarists contacting me before him, from all over the world, sending me solos and stuff, it was weird. But Christian was the right guy for sure, he isn't the kind of guitarist who just shreds mindlessly, he actually studies the riffs first and then works out all the scales and arpeggios that can be used. So before the studio, I sent him all the songs in tabs so he could get the overall feel about the songs and what kind of solos would suit best for each song.
"Henrik was at the time drumming in Dennis's band Begotten, and it was Dennis who brought him into the band. We needed a drummer that could go into the studio and record everything without any previous band practices, just go in and nail it. We had another drummer before him which was a joy to play with, but I live too far away from him and he wanted to practice and learn all the songs in the old school way. But at that time I just couldn't go anywhere, I had a newborn and had just started to work again."
Erlend: "Around the early 2000's I lived in the south of Norway and was asked by a local band Carpathian Forest to join up on a tour, as their current bass player was unable at the time. Mainly because my then band colleague Tchort (Emperor, Satyricon, Blood Red Throne) played guitar in Carpathian and recommended me. The tour was the No Mercy festival going around Europe, with Cannibal Corpse as headliners, and Spawn of Possession as openers. As Cabinet had been my favorite album since it came out it was pretty much a no-brainer to say yes, even though I had little to no interest in the music I was hired to play.
"The tour was a gateway to getting to know a lot of people and in hindsight a 'job interview' for Spawn of Possession. A couple of years later after Noctambulant came out the band slowly fell apart. I can't remember the specifics at this point, but there were some indications that Jonas was still active making music. I reached out to him to see if the band was in need of some help getting things up and running again, assuming there weren't many local options that could handle the content he was making. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into at the time as this stuff was way over my head, but I'm glad I did and that Jonas took a chance on me."
Do you all care to discuss the period in time where it looked like ex-Psycroptic vocalist Matthew Chalk might have been the vocalist on Incurso?
Jonas: "Yes, Chalky and Ben from Mephistopheles joined us for a moment. I was so into the songwriting at that time and I wanted some faster results from Chalky, I think the distance and the different time zones slowed down the progress too much. And then we had some differences in the vocal arrangements I think. That's what I remember anyway. He has a great voice, a huge variety of different kinds of voices which makes it really dynamic and interesting. Both Ben and Chalky did a great job on the tour we did back then and we had a lot of fun."
Erlend: "At the time I knew Matthew through a forum, and was a big fan of his work on The Scepter Of The Ancients. In my eyes, his performance was akin to the death metal version of Mike Patton in Mr. Bungle, which is obviously the perfect match. Talking about options with Jonas I figured we'd try him out and see if it worked, and ended up with a little pre-production demo for a few songs off of Incurso and a mini-tour in Australia/Tasmania managed by him around 2010.
"I guess the pre-production files are floating somewhere around the internet still, for anyone curious. With the different angle to songwriting for Incurso and a very different approach to vocals, it was basically a totally different band sound-wise. So on one hand it was an obvious risk for older fans to make such severe changes, but progress and evolving your sound is equally important on the other. In the meantime Jonas and Dennis made efforts to patch things up, so for consistency's sake, Dennis came back in to keep the original sound of the band intact."
What is your favorite song on Incurso?
Dennis: "These things are very organic to me and change around as the years pass by. But right now I have to say 'Abodement' and 'Deus Avertat.'"
Jonas: "I don't know to be honest, they are all the same to me. 'Where Angels Go' or 'Apparition' maybe?"
Henrik: "My favorite song on Incurso changes all the time. All songs have so many cool parts and things to cling onto. At the moment I would say it's 'Deus Avertat.'"
For our readers out there who may not know, what is Incurso all about lyrically and thematically?
Dennis: "It doesn't really have a theme that runs through it. The lyrics are more chopped up in smaller stories. Some of them have stronger religious connotations than others. Some songs deal with the dark psyche of man and others are more meant to be a rush of terrifying panic. All the lyrics were indeed inspired by the actual music."
Given how long it took Incurso to come out, is the band still completely satisfied with the release? Or, are there any aspects that might have been changed in hindsight?
Dennis: "For me, I always have tons of anxiety when we release a new album. Even if it's 98% perfect I always tend to focus on those 2% percent. Sometimes it takes years for me to fully accept it but when I do, it shifts and I instead start to appreciate the record for what it is. I am at peace with all three albums now and feel super proud of our collective achievements on those releases."
Jonas: "It is what it is, I forgot to record some minor tiny details in two songs. Maybe some parts could have been a little bit better written. other than that it sounds good to me. I got the colder, sharper sound as I wanted. The first mix/mastering sounded very much like Noctambulant to me, warm and soft. And I really didn't want to have that sound again so the producer and I tweaked it a lot during the mastering. To me, the album is a completely natural follow-up to the other albums, especially Noctambulant."
Erlend: "Personally, I'm my own worst critic, and there are quite a few things I'd like to change regarding my own performance. I recorded my parts over 1-2 months and my process is to not learn the songs upfront, but rather learn along the way and record in chunks while improvising. The benefit is that you end up with stuff that can be creative and very uncommon and surprising, but the drawback is that everything might not fit as well as a whole in hindsight since some of the contexts between parts might end up missing. Having more time with the end product would've definitely changed how I'd record some parts today. Some parts really irk me still, but I figure you wouldn't able to tell without actually playing the parts yourself for proper context to what's actually going on. But, considering the staying power this album has had in the metal community over the years, I feel like there's no need to make any changes – warts and all."
Henrik: "It's hard to be 100% satisfied with an album. On some level, I think you never should be 100% satisfied. That way you will push yourself further for the next one. With that said, I think everyone in the band really delivered their best, and at that time and place, it was the best album we could collectively do. When I listen to it today I'm still really proud of the outcome."
We’re at the end here. If there is anything you’d like to say to the fans, go for it?
Dennis: "Tack för allt stöd! Keep watching the skies."
Jonas: "Yeah well if there still are any fans left out there after all these years. If we ever get to record Retromorphosis you might check that out, its not tech like Spawn of Posession but still within the same universe I must say. Keep blasting, Cheers!"
Henrik: "Thanks for all the support and accolades! It's really cool to see that so many people still dig Incurso ten years down the road!"
The band's longtime producer Magnus Sedenberg who worked on all three of their albums sent over the following statement below. So at the band's request it's being included after the interview portion of this feature.
"After working together with the band on the previews two albums I knew that this third effort would be something special. I already had the sound in my head before we even started. I would say that it was easily one of the most prepared albums I have ever done.
"Everything was planned out down to what strings we were about to use to get us the end result desired. I remember Dennis and I talked hours and hours about the lyrics theme of the album even so long as a year before the start of the recordings. Jonas sent these totally crazy mind-blowing amazing pieces of music. I won't even call it 'songs,' I think about it more in the vein of compositions.
"On the first day of recording, he (Jonas) threw this massive pile of note sheets on the desk. I kid you not, it was probably 200 pages. Every note of Incurso was in there. My God. We all worked hard on this album. Super-dedicated. Endless hours of work.
"In the end, I think we all felt that we had achieved something really special. I´m still stoked about this album when I revisit it. Sound-wise, we always strived for the listener to be able to hear every tone clearly on the albums.
:We used a little less distortion when we recorded the guitars than other bands in that genre did only to get that clarity. We never listen to other albums for sounds. Always strive for their own sound and that as engineer and producer was great. Amazing band."
