Spawn of Possession
Wywiad przeprowadził Aleksander Krzeczkowski
When I was reading Dennis's answers and analysing the number of exclamation marks he used I was happy I had not been doing this intie via phone - I would be completely dumb after that :)! I'm joking of course, but listen to "Cabinet" and you will understand why this guy is so excited - killer debut album, cool deal, great Europe tour behind them - and it's just a beginning...Hi Dennis! How are you? How's the spring time in Sweden? We've got really nice sunny weather here in Poland at the moment!
Hey Olo what’s up!!! I’m doing great and the weather is pretty sweet over here too! Soon we’ll be able to sit outside and drink our beers :-)!
The Violating Europe tour is behind you. What are your feelings on it? Which place was the best to play? What can you tell me about the company of other bands?
I think the tour was a major success for us as well as the other bands! It gave everybody and nice turn of exposure and I think people who came out to the shows was quit happy with the live set we were packing! My favourite places on the tour were France, Switzerland and Poland because those countries had the best and most supportive crowds! All the other bands were cool as fuck to tour with. A lot of the guys were pretty crazy and fun to be around and we all had some major drinking sessions together which was funny as hell!
How would you compare the gig in Poland with others on the tour?
Well Poland was very different in many ways because the promoter wasn’t very professional! We had no stage and we got no food or even a backstage room and the guy also tried to rip us off and not pay for the shows! But the crowd was totally insane so in the end the show was really cool to do and I would love to go back there again and play!
Jonas Renvaktar of Disruption helped you on the Violating Europe tour, as a stand-in vocalist. Why didn’t Kelly Izquierdo, who was announced as your new vocalist some time ago, hit the road with you?
No, things got fucked up in the last minute so Kelly couldn’t make it out to Europe! We got Jonas right before the tour started and got him to learn all the songs on a very short time! He was a great stand in and a very cool guy to tour with!
I'd like to ask about the "Bloodletting America" tour - is it cancelled or postponed?
Postponed!!! The plans are that it will kick off in late fall around Nov/Dec. I’m not sure about the line up yet, all I know is that the tour will happen after the summer!
Also, your appearance at the Maryland fest is cancelled now. You do not coddle American fans :). Is there any other tour planned for promoting "Cabinet" in North America at the moment?
It’s very sad that we couldn’t make it to Maryland and we feel really bad about it but there are some very unfortunate circumstances that prevent us from playing that fest! The only tour in the US right now is the Bloodletting!
George Prasinis - an artist that painted the cover art for "Cabinet" also painted a cover for the Suffocation tribute, and I think his work is reminiscent of a lot of classical Suffocation covers ... Was it intentional? And by the way - what do you think about their return? I guess the Maryland fest is going to be their first show since their reunion.
Well I saw that cover for the Suffo tribute and liked it a lot so I got in touch with George about helping us out! Of course I could see a resemblance between his work and the Suffo covers, especially “Pierced from Within” but I love those old covers so I didn’t mind him taking inspiration from that! About their return I’m really happy because I’m one of the few unlucky bastards that never got to see Suffo live before they broke up, this time I will not miss them! But another very important aspect is to see what their next album will be like without Cerrito; I’m really exited to hear it! I think that Maryland is their second gig actually; they did the first one at the New England deathfest!
OK - let's back to Spawn - Dennis, it looks like you are the only person in the band that takes over its promotion at the moment. Is that true?
More or less yeah, Nick helps me out once in a while thou! The other guys prefer to play and practise! I know Bryssling wants to answer interviews and stuff but he doesn’t have a computer so he plays guitar all the time instead!
But most guitar solos (by the way - really great) on "Cabinet" are played by Jonas Karlsson. What is the reason for the lack of Bryssling solos? Don't misunderstand me - your music is very technical in all the guitar parts and I'm sure Bryssling is a great musician! I simply wonder if guitarists share their duties in a way: "I'm working on riffs and arrangements, and you're thinking about adding solo parts to this stuff"?
Well it’s a little like that, Bryssling is a hard worker when it comes to create riffs and he also plays a lot classical guitar so in a way, I think the solos are secondary for him! Karlsson on the other hand basically plays only solos and no riffs when he’s practicing so this is a very natural progression for the band. It’s just about what you prefer as a guitar player I guess. But Karlsson did make some riffs for the album and Bryssling apart from the album, does play solos! Not only are they very good, they’re also quite different from Karlssons shredding. I’m sure that you will get more of Brysslings solos on the next album!
Did you mind making "Spawn of possession" your leading song? I mean, it shows perfectly what Spawn of Possession's music is - catchy, but intense and brutal - technical and heavy at the same time...
When that song was written I just knew that Spawn of Possession was the name for it! I just went on a feeling I guess and when I listen to it now I feel that that song is a perfect presentation of what we’re all about!
Are you truly satisfied with the "Cabinet" sound? Isn't it too "clear" in your opinion? On the other hand - when I think about balancing between legibleness and brutality I must admit you have found a really good compromise. But... don't you feel it should be a little bit deeper and "fleshier"? :)
I know what you mean but I must say that I’m really happy with the production. We wanted it clear for two reasons; the first one is that there is so much stuff going on with the guitars all the time so we 
needed the sound to be clear to make all those little details visible to the listener. Second thing was that the most depressing thing that can happen is when you put on an album with a band that you know is really good and the sound is just a big shitty mess! You hear no bass, no snare and it’s really hard to figure out what the guitars are doing because the guitar sound is so muddy and full of bass. On top of that you get way to high triggered bass drums with a bad synthetic trig sound that reminds you of a door knock or something! Another reason for the crisp sound I think is that we played everything (without bragging hehe) very tight. Some bands are so out of line when they’re playing but that sometimes adds to the production in a very good way! The truth is that we wanted to work more on the final mix to make it a bit darker and heavy but there was no time for that! We have already started to discuss the sound for the next album and I can tell you right now that it will have much more identity and brutality in its sound, more flesh as you say :)!
Unique Leader seems to be a really honest, proper label. Do you agree with that? Have you got any special wishes that you would like Unique Leader to realize in the future?
Yeah I totally agree about Unique Leader. They have treated us very good and are really cool to work with! In terms of wishes I guess the only thing I want is for them to spread out even more across the world to get more people able to take part of all the goodies Unique has to offer!
Being simultaneously a vocalist of Visceral Bleeding, and the drummer in SoP - how would you compare the promotional activity of Unique Leader and Retribute Records?
Well put it like this, both those labels are hard working organizations that wants to push brutal music and grow bigger! What limits Retribute is that it’s still a fairly small label and doesn’t get that much 
promotion in the US. Unique Leader on the other hand operates both in Europe and America so obviously they get more exposure. I hope and think that Retribute grows bigger in the future and gets the chance to promote them selves more world wide like Unique does because there’s some real killer acts on that label!
And since we mentioned Visceral Bleeding - have you got any news about this band? Any plans about the second album?
Yeah the new album is being written as we speak. While I have been busy with Spawn and Marcus (VB guitars) has been studying over seas, Peter, Calle and Tobbe has been working hard on new material! Seven tracks have been finished so right now the plan is to start record the new album after the summer! I went to practise with them a while ago and the new stuff sounds totally killer! Pure Visceral Bleeding brutality with a lot of technical aspects as well as grooves, I can also mention that Tobbe the new drummer has adjusted really well to the band and has added a lot of technical shit on the drums. For my part I know there’s gonna be a lot of lyrical parts with fast vocals so I better start prepare my self for that since I haven’t sung in quit a while hehe!
Isn't playing in two bands a little problematic? And, since Niklas left the band last year - was there any possibility that you would take over the drumming duties in Visceral Bleeding?
I have always played with Spawn in first hand because without me, Spawn can’t practise but Visceral can! I haven’t really played seriously with Visceral since we recorded Cabinet because of the tour and everything but I’m about to start working with them on a regular basis again soon like I did before. I usually play once or twice a week with Visceral and the rest of the nights goes to Spawn but that has never been a problem really, both bands are cool with that! I was never asked (as far as I can remember) to be the drummer in Visceral after Nick left! Being the drummer in one band is enough for me, I just want to do vocals for Visceral and I think that’s what the rest of the band wants as well!
Would you be "artistically fulfilled" if you had to resign from either band?
I don’t know really, I still have a lot of stuff I want to do both on the drums and with my vocals! I have so many ideas that I’m working on that I plan to express in the bands in the future!
There are very few bands on the metal scene with singing drummers. Have you ever thought about doing such a thing? Is a front man so important for Spawn of Possession?
I guess that would be kind of unique, the only problem is that I could never do the vocals live with Spawn! I love singing for Spawn on the albums but the fact that we need a vocalist on stage remains. A front man I don’t know, is that the guy who takes care of business or is it the one who gets all the chicks after the gigs :)!?! We have never cared about a front man to be honest, for us it’s all about being a band and play the music we grace!
What can we expect from Spawn of Possession in the way of future releases? Hope you're not going to start playing Gothenburg melodic death/thrash!? :)
We’re gonna continue to push the boundaries of brutality, technicality, speed and sickness! The other day I heard some brand new riffs that Bryssling had finished and with those in mind, all can say is that the next album will probably make Cabinet sound like a fucking lullaby haha.
OK - that's all! Thanks a lot Dennis for your time! Keep on your brutal crusade!
Thank you Olo for this opportunity, it was a pure pleasure to answer this interview! I hope we get to talk more in the future! Keep that awesome magazine of yours running!
Stay sick
www.spawnofpossession.com
Olo
