"Old Men In New Cars" (maybe you know that very cool Danish movie) might be a good title for In Aphelion (of course they are not as funny as the movie though). It is a new band which just released a demo (find review here) and will release an EP called "Luciferian Age" in November (find review here). Nevertheless, we don't have any newcomers in this band but two members from Swedish death metal legend Necrophobic (namely Sebastian Ramstedt (voc, git, bass) and Johan Bergebäck (git) and Cryptosis drummer Marco Prij. I talked with main man Sebastian Ramstedt via Skype about the reasons for creating this band, the upcoming releases and plans. Enjoy the interview and check the releases. Thanks again for taking time for doing this Sebastian!

Michael

Hi Sebastian, how you're doing?

I'm fine, thanks!

You've started a new band named In Aphelion. How did it come to this?

It was during the pandemic, and we were discussing to launch "Dawn Of The Damned", the latest Necrophobic album. We had some kind of internal struggle about some issues, and I am not the founder of Necrophobic and so, if the band goes away, I will not have the band name and I've been the main writer and I was thinking that it is time for me to start something that nobody can ever take away from me. Something I have the power over, and I had a lot of ideas that was out of the Necrophobic box. Different tempos, different harmonies and a different approach to the music that I want to try out and I felt now when we have at least a year of restrictions I will have the time to actually do something over this. First, I just wrote songs that were not supposed to be put out on record at all because I normally write music for myself. I have demos of over 100 songs lying around but then I felt that something happened. I got some kind of serious atmosphere. I mean Necrophobic is also serious but it's also a bit cliché at times, metal for the sake of metal. I believed in "In Aphelion" in another way. I didn't have the restrictions of the other band members, it was straight from my heart. There was nothing holding back and when the songs started to form, there were no stops and it ended up with almost 70 minutes of music. So, I felt that I have to release this in some way. This cannot be only for my own sake. I wanted to try it and see what people would think. But I think the main reason was that I realized that Necrophobic is not my name, not entirely my music because I write the songs that they shall fit in but it's not 100% as I want it. I wanted to try what this would be.

What do the other members from Necrophobic think of this project? Are they afraid you may leave the band?

They are supportive in the way that they like the posts I do but it is also like a silent agreement that we do not speak about In Aphelion (laughs). At one time Joakim (Sterner; M.) said that he supports the band but that it doesn't really feel good in the guts. Of course, when people you're working with do something else and maybe you see that it has the power to be successful this may be a kind of a threat. It's like your best friend has a new best friend – it doesn't feel that good (laughs). I think there might be some kind of conflict in this, but I don't think it will ever be an open conflict. I think they will keep it to themselves what they think.

What do you think makes the difference between Necrophobic and In Aphelion? You are quite influential in the songwriting process in both bands.

The death metal elements from Necrophobic are not from me. These elements were how David Parland, the founder of the band, wrote his music and I kinda borrow the death metal feeling from him but I am not a death metal guy. Maybe since 1991 I haven't listened to death metal at all. I like thrash, speed, heavy metal and I like some black metal but rarely death metal. I mean except for Morbid Angel, early Autopsy, Possessed and Death, it's not really my genre. It's kind of senseless aggression, it's like a gore movie with just only the gore scenes put together while black metal has the atmosphere and the thought behind the gore. Death metal is just up in the front, it's like a porno movie without any sense (laughs). With this I wanted to take all my heavy metal influences and create black metal in the way I would like to hear it. It would say it's similar to Necrophobic in some kind but it lacks the death metal elements.

You're going to release an EP called "Luciferian Age" in November via Edged Circle Productions. Can you tell a little bit more about it?

The actual reason I wanted to release an EP before the LP is because that is how it was in the 80s. The first release always was a maxi single or EP and then came the album. I am a record collector so I kind of thought that if I can do this my way, like I want, then I want to do an EP. That's like throwing money into the lake, you don't get rich from it but I want it so I will have it. I think the EP will show pretty much what In Aphelion is about. The first song is very epic; it has this entire emotional atmosphere that is In Aphelion. It has an acoustic part, it has very raw, kind of Bathory-like, black metal parts, it has speedy parts, it has a brilliant guitar solo if I can say it myself but I'm really pleased with the solo (laughs) and it has a very epic ending. If you wonder how the LP Moribound will sound, I think this song; 'Draugr' it's called summons it all. The next song 'Luciferian Age' was the last song I wrote for the album, and it will be also on the full-length. I wrote it because a lot of the songs were very lengthy and epic and had so much on it, so I wanted to do a very simple, raw, strict-down, short track and I came up with this. I mean it's a very driven riff it relies on the bass and the drums and very simple guitars. It's almost Satyricon-it wasn't on purpose at all but when I heard it I thought this is a bit of Satyricon and I even don't listen to them! So, it's pretty coincidental but it sounds like something from the "Now, Diabolical" album or something like that. But we were discussing about releasing this "hit" because this could be one. But is this what In Aphelion is about? No, it's not really but we thought it's a good song and why should we hold back a good song? I not afraid of people who think we're posers, I mean I've been in that game forever and I'm soon 50 and I don't care about that and I felt that it's a good song to put In Aphelion on the map. On the other side we have 'Wrath Of A False God' which is one of my favorite In Aphelion songs. I really like the mid-tempo middle part that has a lot of acoustic atmosphere and I like the lyrics. It's actually one of the songs that Johan (Bergebäck; M.) isn't that fond of (laughs), but Marco (Prij; M.) and me, we both think that it's one of the best songs that we have done. So, we said that we should have this song as an extra that will only be on the EP and not to put a filler there. We end with 'Pleasure To Kill' of Kreator, fantastic song. I always felt that when they recorded "Pleasure to Kill" in 1986, everybody in the band played on their own. It's so untight, so hard to see where they go because everybody is playing on their own direction and a couple of years later when Kreator got better to play, they made a bit slower version of the song that didn't have the aggression of the original. For years I felt what if we could do the original song but strengthen it up a bit and keep the aggressive feeling? So what we tried to do was make a cover of it like Kreator would have played it in 1986 if they would have known how (laughs). Of course, we don't do it better than Kreator, of course not but it's a bit easier to follow our version. I think it came out very good, it suited my vocals, it suited our guitar playing and we had a fantastic guest appearance by Dennis from the Swedish black metal band Avslut who made the bass line for this. I also was important for me to show where our origin is from. Our influences for extreme metal is not from Mayhem or Darkthrone or Dimmu Borgir, they are from the 80s German thrash metal scene. So, I felt like this is how In Aphelion started 40 years ago. This is the seed that is what In Aphelion is now. All in all, I think it's a good EP with 23 minutes running time and not a short thing.

What are the lyrics about? Are they also that metaphorical as on the last Necrophobic?

The last Necrophobic album was very personal because it was about where I was in a really dark place, but lyrics are first of all themes and myths and tales that I think fits the songs. I usually read something, the song 'Draugr' is about the northern mythology, revenants…

…like the White Walker in Game of Thrones…

..exactly. These Draugr are so jealous about the living, they want to make them one of theirs. They come in the sleep and derange you in your dreams and they cross from the cemetery and go into your house, so it's a really cool story. I felt this eerie feeling, it starts hopeful or sad and it turns into this really evil, eerie atmosphere and I felt this is a good theme for the song. But then I always twist the lyrics that it is from my perspective. I mean, would you choose to live forever? These Draugr, they have eternal life, but they also have eternal sorrow. Would you, as a person choose a short lifespan with all kinds of feelings or immortal life on the dark side? I always put in my own thoughts and how would it be if I was one of them. And the lyrics take form both from the living side and from the side of these undead. In the song, I'm sometimes the one that tries to lure more humans into this dark world and point at everyone who tries to stop this. The rest of the lyrics have also a mythological background and then I put in my own thoughts, everything we dwell with – life, afterlife, how we react with other people, and I take something from the literature that matches this, and I twist it into mine.

What would you say, which bands the most obvious influences for the songs? Can the listener hear some clear influences in the songs?

I didn't listen to black metal at all when I wrote most of the songs. But at the very end of the song writing, I had this black metal spree when I listened to Darkthrone, Bathory, Venom, everything and I kind of got the last puzzle together. So, I was influenced by them but also from "Russian Roulette" by Accept. I think on that album they have a really interesting song structure. If you listen to "Heaven Is Hell" (sings the refrain), to take down a song for 2 minutes and they just repeat this one voice and then the answer comes back, that's great. There are even more songs on the album that are so interesting in the arrangements that I actually took notes of pieces and parts and I felt like that I have to do something this good. I have to use these stones to build my own temple but I hadn't thought of switching the chords like that or making the harmonies go down. So, I think that album was very influential for this. Now we will have to see for people will say this – yeah this Accept, "Russian Roulette", haha!!

The full-length will be released in early 2022 and the first two tracks are on the full-length, too….

It could have been done to be just on the EP because the actual album is a double LP with about 60 minutes playing time. It's a pretty strong debut to have an EP with extra songs first and then a double album with everything written within 9 months. We decided that these two songs, 'Draugr' and 'Luciferian Age' are written and needed on the actual album to make the full experience. If we took it away it wouldn't have all the building stones that the album needs. For people who cannot wait until the album, they have the EP first.

How content are you with your label? What I get to read on social media let me guess that they must be pretty glad having signed you.

It was a big decision if we should go to a big label like Century Media as with Necrophobic or if we should go to a small label. The advantage of being on a small label is that you can have pretty much your will. For me, it was important to do an EP and Century Media might have said there is no money in it, so we won't. You can have some digital singles if you want to, but we will not press this expensive LP format with four songs. Stian (Smørholm; M.) of Edged Circle is also a record collector and he said that he wouldn't make any money off of it but I was totally right that there should be an EP. He would like to do this because it's fuckin 'fun and it's the way it should be'. So, he agreed, and he was not greedy. You know, that is important for me, to create music and I don't want greedy fingers on my music. And I felt that Stian is also in this for the right reason, I'm sure Century Media also but they have to make some money. Being a big company, they cannot take any risk. With Stian I have a certain connection and we talk about the artwork and videos, he's on a friendly level with me. Maybe distribution and stuff like that may suffer from being on a smaller label but as for now, I feel it's worth it.

You designed the cover for the EP. What was the influence for this? It reminds me a little bit of "Deathrace King" by The Crown.

Actually, I don't know it. We didn't had any budget for bringing an artist in and I am an illustrator. I've always had been doing stuff like that. And I felt what can I do with what I have that will not be bad. I don't have the time to do an oil painting and I don't want to do an oil painting in Photoshop because people will think that's an oil painting in Photoshop. It's better to keep things simple. If you only have black and white colors, then use that and don't try to mix in some other things – people will see that. I just tried to make powerful and some kind of direct album covers that I felt have a lot of heavy metal feeling. I wanted to look at the cover and see that this is a black or heavy metal album cover. The result is pretty much how I wanted it to be. It's very drawn, if I say cartoonish, people will think it's funny which it's not but it's on purpose. It's not made to look real. I'm pretty happy with the aesthetics and it goes through the booklet, and we did a video for 'Luciferian Age' which is in the same way. It's very simple and I am a little bit afraid what people will think about it. If you put in a lot of money, you can also have a great artist doing the cover, but I wanted to do it by myself. I've written the songs, I've recorded it so this is all how I feel it should be. It's inside in my head.

You had some troubles with the sound of your first demo. What happened there?

I don't know. They printed in Estonia, I think, and Stian had used this printer all the time, and he never had any complaints. But something must have happened to this batch, I don't know if it was in the sun or demagnetized. A lot the cassettes had sound problems like the volume was up and down and it was mono in some and some were fine. We didn't get so many complaints and most people keep it as a souvenir and most people don't have a tape player and just want a physical format instead of listening on Spotify. The company who printed it was nice enough to offer everybody a new copy that needed one and we also made a post that everybody who wanted a new one could get in touch with us. I think we solved it well.

How much were Johan and Marco involved into the songwriting process?

Marco not at all. He did alter some of the drums - I programmed the drums first and he made a couple of choices where to go with the drums but mostly he kept it within my frame so to speak but he added some things. He is a drummer, and he is so much better than me, he is so brilliant. Johan did the title track for Moribund and that was all he actually had time for because he joined In Aphelion so late, and I was just finishing the song writing so I had one song left and said that he could write it. He came up with this riff and it was so good that I felt that this should be the title track. In the future of course he will have more time, but Johan rarely writes whole songs. He is a brilliant riff maker. I think in the future he will provide me with more riffs and more ideas but maybe not so many songs. But of course, he is free to write as much as he wants.

You said that you are going to play some concerts in Sweden. Is it with Necrophobic or with In Aphelion?

It's with Necrophobic. With In Aphelion, we have loose plans how to start when the album is released. We probably will do some kind of mini release fest tour, we also have friends – Jacob Björnfot of Kvaen, I've been talking loosely with him because he will also release a new album at the same time, we will release Moribund that we should do something together. There are no real plans but we're thinking of it. But In Aphelion has to find a way to rehearse because Marco is in Holland so it's not very easy to go to the rehearsal room and just try out things. I will have to rehearse a lot because I am the lead singer and the lead guitar player. I will manage but it will be a lot of work (laughs).

So, what would you think about a tour with Necrophobic, Cryptosis and In Aphelion?

That would be kind of good for the flight tickets and would be a good package (laughs)! Good idea, let's do that, haha!

The last words are yours!

I hope that people will listen to our music, and I hope they will see the honesty in this music because there was no one demanding me to do this. There was no one telling me how to write this. This was only and purely for the music and my drive to create something. I hope this will shine through, also in the not so commercial parts. It is exactly how it works in my mind when I do not do the pieces together easily. I hope they can follow my feeling through this and add their own atmospheres to it. It will be very interesting to see what people think about this.

In Aphelion just released their first full-length "Moribund" (review here). After releasing a very appealing demo and EP the album comes out at full 60 minutes of darkness and hate. I had the chance to chat with Sebastian Ramstedt (also in Necrophobic) via Skype so he explained about the lyrical intentions behind all this, the (short) history of the band and his further plans with In Aphelion. Enjoy reading the interview and check out "Moribund" if you haven't done it yet!

Michael

Hi Sebastian, how are things in Sweden?

I'm doing fine. I had a very mild case of Covid these days which I wouldn't have even noticed. My wife took a test because she felt a tiny headache but we were not sick at all.

Your first full-length album "Moribund" was released in March. Did you have any expectations about the reception from the listeners?

Those who already have spoken to me like you and a couple of others like it. I haven't heard any negative criticism yet at all but if you read your own threads on Facebook, people are generally positive but if you follow these black metal communities and someone that is not me sharing this then it's usually something that can turn up. But I try not to do this because I think people kinda like to talk shit about things and it doesn't affect me in a good way so I stay out of it. But I hope that people will like it. I am not doing this to sell a lot of albums and we don't need to make money but we don't want to lose money. I hope we can keep the balance and that would be some stress relief for me to know that the record company is not bleeding money. Then I can be a creator and write music, I just want the things to be smooth. That's what I hope. I don't know how many albums we have to sell, probably not that much. I mean, this is not Century Media and this is not thousands and thousands of albums, we're talking about smaller amounts here (laughs).

Did you get to know how many EPs you've sold?

No, I haven't seen any numbers yet. Usually you get the calculation two times a year but I don't know yet.

The demo was sold out pretty fast, within two weeks, I would guess?

Yeah, less I think. That was very quick. That is the thing when you do limited stuff. Sometimes it sells more than the non-limited stuff because people think that they have to buy it now. We made this special thing and we didn't want to spread hundreds and hundreds of demos. I think that people were kind of curious what I was up to outside of Necrophobic and other bands.

On "Moribund" I think your classical influences come out much clearer than on "Luciferian Age". The riffing in some tracks is pretty much untypical for black metal, I would say. Would you agree with that or would you say it's on the same level as on the EP?

I don't know. You know, I'm old and I don't listen to black metal to write black metal. I listen to heavy metal and hard rock and what comes out happens to be black metal. It's not something I want to create – that is just how it is. It's my voice, just like the old bands – Venom, Bathory, all these old bands- they were listening to Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and when they created music, they created black metal from that. I listen to Saxon, Priest, Ratt, even Def Leppard and out comes black metal. If I was listening to Watain or Mayhem and inspired by that, that would make more typical black metal riffs but I try to make the Iron Maiden riffs just faster, harder, more aggressive and more evil. I'm trying to make an evil "Piece Of Mind" and not an evil "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" part two. I think that's the reason. We kind of handpicked some songs for Luciferian Age from which we thought that it would catch the listener into what Moribund is and in some of these songs I think, like 'He Who Saw The Abyss', 'The Origin' or 'This Night Seems Endless' there is a much wider musical landscape than 'Draugr' or 'Luciferian Age'.

Did you want to break out of these stylistic boundaries with that?

I don't want to be limited. I don't need to have another Necrophobic where there is some kind of dogma. I don't want any formula for In Aphelion – this is something else. I can write freely in it, whatever I want. When I wrote those songs, I just kind of let loose, let go. Normally when I get a theme or a melody that works in my head; those are not created by me. I don't sit down and try to create that. That will come to me as inspiration or hallucination or whatever you want. From there I start to build. It's like when I play one riff, before it ends, I hear the next riff already. If that turns out to be a heavy metal or a slow, doomy riff or whatever it is then it is what it is. It's not like cooking when I say I should try some cinnamon in this – it's like all the jars have no etiquette on it and I start trying. When a song like 'This Night Seems Endless' is formed, I kind of celebrate that it goes into a certain direction I normally wouldn't write. I let that track open up and follow that path. I don't try to stop and don't tame it, I don't try to take it back, I don't care if it's seven minutes or pretty slow and boring music (laughs) because that's the music that wants to be born. But I think at the end I'm good enough with arranging to make it not boring. I think my honest ideas make it interesting in some way and I want people to lose themselves in the songs. A good seven minute song is when you don't think that seven minutes have passed.

Talking about the title 'This Night Seems Endless' – this could also be a description of the pandemic, is there such an agenda behind it?

No, it's not. But what I wish is that you put your perspective into that title. The title is very direct and it's also not very mystical (laughs). I mean this is what you feel during distress or depression, during the long nights when you doubt that you are good enough for the job. When you go to sleep and feel like "What the fuck have I done with my life? Who am I?". And even worse in the years when I was drinking and stuff like that when I had this horrifying anguish. In the daytime we don't blow things up but at nighttime, that's when you get cancer. You have this bump and say "oh this is cancer" and at the daytime you say "oh, I only have a cold". That's what I wanted to write about but for me I wanted to write about the fact that when you are in a state of misery, the only thing you have to hold on to is your misery. If someone takes that from you, then you have nothing. People who are unhappy are more comfortable in their unhappiness than they are in ten minutes of love somewhere. That's why it's so hard to go away from the dark side. 'This Night Seems Endless' but this endless night is mine. This is what I have and this is the road I cling on to. If you take that from me I have nothing. The song is about being in absolute horror but still choose the horror. This is what I have been doing for such a long time of my life and I think people can relate to that.

Can you tell a little bit more about the other lyrical topics?

They are very varied. All is about me in some way. I try to make it my perspective but I try putting it within a myth. 'Moribund' is about Urd, one of the Norns that told your fortune in the North mythology. She is down the well and in a life thread. It's the same in Greek mythology. But what I'm really writing about are the scars on your body that show the paths of life. Every scar you get is like Urds we get. It's the wheel of life – you can look at a person's skin and see what has happened to this person. I found it kind of interesting to take this very old, much known mythology but what I really think is about how everything I have done can point out where I will be tomorrow. It's no bad luck, it's no guessing. If you take a close look at what you have done, you will see what kind of future you will probably have in ten years. That is what it's really about – the scars that mark our way through life but I put it into this other perspective. All these old stories were probably told to kids and people to learn about life. That was the way of saying: "if you do this, that will happen!" just like Draugr – we spoke about this in our last interview – the revenant that comes at night and gets into your mind. This is probably how you described mental illness. Why is this person now mentally ill? Because Draugr came. I found it interesting that these stories weren't myths in the beginning but descriptions of life. So I tried to describe my life with these myths.

Is the title 'Sorrow, Fire And Hate' a homage to Bathory "Blood Fire Death"?

No. Sorrow, Fire and Hate are three of the rivers you have to cross to the kingdom of death in Greek mythology. They are Styx and the other ones and the meaning of the names are Sorrow, Fire, Hate, Oblivion and another one I forgot. It's not really about crossing the rivers into death. In this life, you and me, we try to behave. But you don't want to get stuck in the 9-5 wheel without ever feeling anything. You want some kind of fire. So I rather cross the rivers Sorrow, Fire and Hate than getting stuck on the shore. I rather have all these negative or powerful emotions than just to keep calm at the shore. You cannot cross these rivers without paying the ferryman. If you miss the ferryman you have to wait for a hundred years or more. I kind of feel this when you're stuck in a relationship that goes nowhere. I cannot stay there for a hundred years or more because I see that the ferryman is here and I have to go now. It will be a sacrifice of maybe good stuff because I will have to go through sorrow, fire and hate from this relationship but there will be peace for me on the other side. It can also be like doing In Aphelion instead of just being in Necrophobic. It's probably not only a positive thing for all the members in Necrophobic that I do this but I have to go through sorrow, fire and hate to not just stand on that shore doing the same thing for a hundred years.

….but you don't want to leave Necrophobic, do you?

No,no. I need to widen my life. You want another dish on the table now and then, you know.

Listening to "Luciferian Age", you have some marching samples in this song that makes it appear quite militaristic. What's the idea behind this?

It is a song about war. If you believe the creation story that man is made by God – we have a God, he made us. The problem is that he made us really enjoy all the deadly sins. We, the people, the humans, we will end up in hell and that's a hell of a bad creation of God. And it's also supposed to be that we are made like him. This is a bad match, something is wrong in this story, right (laughs)? But for the Luciferianists they mean that Lucifer is the creator. It's not God and it will hold up because the Devil celebrates everything that is men. If we are God's mirror then the Devil is the creator. No question about it. The Luciferian people will get mad at me for telling it that simple because it's much more serious and for those who really believe in it, it is much wider and darker stuff like this. But what I saw is that people are trying so hard to fit in, especially on the internet about what you say and what you cannot say – we are forced to not be ourselves because if we are ourselves we can be canceled. If we don't think about the right stuff at the right time then we're out. I will sell no more albums and can just go home, which would be good (laughs). But what I'm saying is that it's time for Lucifer to return. We must have Lucifer's war because we cannot live by the rules of God which are the rules that humanity thinks that we need to live after. It's wrong. We should be free, we should be happy, angry, and we should be everything that we are. This song celebrates the coming of the Luciferian age and the world will get scorched, mankind will burn. It's our marching boots that take over the world in this song. It's kind of hard (laughs) but in a way I believe it's necessary. Every now and then something has to happen and I don't believe we should diminish ourselves. I think we should be greater.

I always have the feeling that when you use keyboards they were originally some guitar work. Can you tell a little bit more about this technique?

In the end of 'Requiem' there's a bell that rings four times but it's all through the album. There are bells at a certain point to magnify the next part. Those are made with a trick that Michael Schenker did (shows me his guitar; M.). You cross the strings the wrong way and then you get this sound (plays it on the guitar; M.). When you put distortion to that it sounds just like a church bell. It gets really cool and I also have a lot of clean guitar playing behind the distorted guitar. That you will never hear, it's so low that you cannot hear it but you will think it might be a synthesizer or keyboard or something. It just widens the soundscape so to speak – there's a lot of clean guitars here. I cannot even tell where anymore because I forgot. I just feel like this is a great song here (laughs). I always try before doing real samples, like the first note in 'Requiem' that is a sample, to create the sounds I need with my guitar because you can go very far with a guitar. It's not really needed and I think it's a little bit lazy to download the right sound when you can create the sound.

Who produced the album?

That was Frederik Folkare again and he has produced almost everything I have done since the 2000s. He knows how to make my guitar playing sound good so there was no question about this.

Apart from In Aphelion, you are currently working on another project called "Saints & Sinners". Can you already reveal a little bit more about this?

This is a thing we have done once a year since last year. It's me, Perra Karlsson who used to play in Destroyer666, Tobias (Christiansson; M.) from Grave who also plays in Necrophobic now, then we have Erika Wagenius who is an artist of herself but she was married to Yngwie Malmsteen in the 90s and she is very professional and a kind of next level musician that would never work with death metal musicians in the past but we have become friends through the years and I thought it was kind of fun to do something outside of extreme metal. She is very much AOR, more soft rock and the rest of us are extreme metal musicians so we try to cover tunes or songs that would be in between us. We did a Europe cover last year, "Scream Of Anger" that we made a video for and we collected money for Suicide Zero and this year we do a Gary Moore cover, "Out In The Fields". We released it on the 4th February which is World Cancer Day and this has been kind of close to us in the death metal community by age – I mean, people are dying and so we thought while we are doing something fun during the pandemic we can also make something good about this. So I have a hell of a time doing the video on this and I don't even have all the files yet (laughs) but it's a big challenge for me to play the Gary Moore solos and this is the next level. But it also makes me a better musician. I have to practice like crazy to make the song good!

Do you also plan to release an album with Saints & Sinners?

I think these two songs will probably be 7" singles. I mean we're kind of a band but we have no plans of becoming a band, you know? This is something we'll do once a year because we like it.

You always post a lot of music from 1984, what makes this year so special for you?

It is the best year in heavy metal music. It's not something I think, it's a fact (laughs). Right now I'm collecting all these albums (shows me his record collection in the background; M.) and I'm trying to buy all heavy metal albums that came out in 1984 and I mean ALL heavy metal albums from 1984. In 2024 when there's the 40-year celebration of it I will listen to those albums on their release day the whole year. Isn't it brilliant? Oh, it's the 9th of February – Lee Aaron put out an album – perfect!! And I will probably write reviews about it. I'm gonna live that year one more time in musical history. Back then you recorded an album in February and it was released in May or even in April. There was a very short turn around for printing albums. When Iron Maiden released "Powerslave" in August that year, all the other bands panicked, went back to the rehearsal rooms and you could hear "Powerslave" in their albums that went out in November. By listening to the whole year I can see what the fuck happened in 1985 because then music died. That was when Mötley Crue stopped being Satanists, that was when Ozzy Osbourne started to write the follow-up to "Bark At The Moon". Everything was cotton candy and 1984 is the last real heavy metal year in history.

Besides that, what are your plans for the near future? I know that some worldwide festivals are scheduled with Necrophobic, is there anything else?

We actually started to plan the first gigs with In Aphelion yesterday. We decided that we will take this out on the road and we will start playing in June this year. I have no more specific information but we decided to do this. It will be very small of course which will be nice instead of the big festivals to go back in time a bit. Right now we're planning very much on how to learn the songs and how to do this, which musicians because we need a bass player (they announced Dennis Holm from Avslut as bass player lately; M.).

Finally, what are your hopes for 2022?

I hope more than anything that I will enjoy being out on the road again. Like so many other people I got used to being at home. I missed the stage for the first year but now I don't miss it anymore. I'm kind of afraid of what I have become. The worst scenario would be to go out on the stage and say "nah, fuck this! This is not my life anymore." Right now it seems quite possible but what I hope is that everything will come back and I will say "Yes, this is where I belong!". I really hope that it will be a great time and good concerts and so on. That's what I hope. If I feel like this, many people feel like this. And if many people feel like this, the scene dies.