"Reaperdawn" is a huge step forward for Sebastian Ramstedt's other band In Aphelion (read Vladimir's and my reviews here). Switching to a major label they might get other possibilities to gain popularity and this I discussed with Sebastian so if you want to find out why his other band Necrophobic is Spaghetti Bolognese and what Meat Loaf has to do with black metal, don't miss this interview!

Michael

First of all congrats on "Reaperdawn". I think it even turned out better than the last one and I guess it will be hard to top it in the future. I hope you don't end up like Bolt Thrower when they said that they couldn't do another album because the last one couldn't be topped.

I always think like that. There is always a song on each album that I feel that it is the end of the road so I should not write anything more. It has been on the last two Necrophobic albums that way, for example, when "The Infernal Depths Of Eternity" was finished I felt like I will never write a song again because this is as good as it can get. When I wrote "In The Twilight Grey", which has Johan's riffs but when I put it together and arranged it, there was no use ever writing another song. The same I felt with "Requiem" and with "Aghori" from the new album but for some reason, I really try hard to write something better and I think as a human being you develop, you don't reach a peak and then you stop caring. Some people do of course but I don't think you do and I don't do so. I mean I was good today but that doesn't mean that I can't try to be even better tomorrow. I think some musicians get numb when they do something big and then they focus on doing something better. I focus on doing something that I like more, on playing guitar better. Sometimes I think I've run out of riffs. I have no more melodies and then I realize that hard rock music since the first Black Sabbath album is really built on the same ingredients and there are so many albums. In how many albums have I been involved in? Twenty in all – I mean I should be able to write a hundred albums without a problem. So I'm confident that there will come more. I don't know if you will like it but I will like it.

I was amazed at how easily you put together these sweet melodic and harsh parts. How long did it take you to write these songs?

Basically, this whole album was written during the summer of 2022. So it was written before "In The Twilight Grey". That is important, that "In The Twilight Grey" is the newer album, more than a year. I just kept on writing after "Moribund" and the first ideas and songs, "When All Stellar Light Is Lost" and "The Darkening" were written just weeks after the last song was written for "Moribund". The reason we didn't release it when it was written in '22 was that we were looking for the right label for it. That actually took some time, to get Century Media on the line to do this, so to speak. The big on it was done in three months, I think. I really started to work in May and then all the lyrics, guitars, solos, and vocals were actually finished for the recording. What you hear on the album was recorded in the summer of '22. Then Marco and Johan did their stuff, they did it later, a year after that but so I was kind of free when I wrote it. In Aphelion has no expectations. With Necrophobic it's much harder, there you have to fulfill something like a contract. Both with Century Media but also with the listener. We have a contract for thirty years with the listener and you cannot leave that down. For In Aphelion, we have absolutely no obligations and while writing the album we even didn't have a record deal. So I could do exactly what I wanted.

You switched to a new record label. With Century Media you are on a much bigger label than Edged Circle Productions. So why did you decide to change? I mean, I think you were quite, happy with Stian and Edged Circle in the beginning.

I was happy with him all the way and I'm still happy with him. But I want to focus on songwriting. I wake up every day, I want to play guitar, I want to write songs and I want someone else to handle the business side of this because I'm not a seller. It's not my thing to sell my music and with Edged Circle to reach out to the people, I had to work so much that it interfered with my songwriting. And I knew this because it's an underground label and on an underground level you have to work your ass off on all the points, but with a big record label that actually wants to earn some money then I know I will get a bigger reach for my music without working for it at all. It seems like you're spoiled but I think for me, putting out two albums this year with two bands, I work hard for my music. But if someone else can do the selling side of this, maybe it will make me have even more time for writing good songs. So I think, I think it's a good thing. And I felt I needed that. I felt the band needed that. We have to focus on the music. Someone else has to do the rest. Of course, we were happy with Century Media. I really try to get them on early, but I I think they wanted to see maybe if I  would I still create with Necrophobic. I mean that's the big one for them. When they heard "In The Twilight Grey" demos and stuff like that, then they said, "OK, we can do the thing as well". But I have not asked them that. That is just what I think.

So I think you have done nothing wrong with that and get strong support from that label. You said that you wrote the songs earlier than 'In The Twilight Grey' but I think that it sounds much more like Necrophobic than you did before, were there some leftovers from In Aphelion you used for Necrophobic this time?

Never! For me as the creator, they are totally different worlds. For me, there are no similarities. I understand as a listener that you will hear it's Sebastian's signature of both. But for me, I play the guitar in a totally different way. I write lyrics and riffs in a different way. And actually I would say 99% of the In Aphelion material would never be played by Necrophobic. Even if we wanted to, we would not be able to perform it.

OK, why not? I mean you are three of five playing in both bands!

Do we have the same skills in both bands?

Well, I mean, when it comes to the guitar play, I would say yes for some riffs of course, but so the vocals are slightly different, more into black metal. I mean, it's difficult to say…

You can do it at very easy calculation on the beats. If you realize that all Necrophobic songs for almost 30 years since "Darkside" are between the tempos 125 BPM till 160 BPM, all them, that's a narrow tempo frame in all our music and we sometimes get criticism for that. Why does it always feels like everyone's Necrophobic song is like that? It's always within that time frame. In Aphelion is never within the time frame. We are to play slower or faster and it's easy to think that you can slow down a riff or you can just get more velocity into a riff and this still will be a good one. But that is not the case. Every riff has its optimal speed so to speak. I mean, you would not want "Whiplash" by Metallica at another speed, it's because they played perfectly. It wouldn't be better if it was played faster. It wouldn't be better played slower and with Necrophobic, I use all the good riffs for that tempo frame within Necrophobic. A song like "Revelation 666" is perfect at 135. A song like "Mark Of The Necrogram"  is perfect at 160. It should be nothing else than Joakims' drumming and Anders' vocals. It's perfect. But when I have riffs that cannot be executed within that frame, with the techniques of how we play guitar in Necrophobic, with open tremolo picking and stuff like that. We never do palm muting, we never do downstrokes. When you have riffs that are better with palm-muted downstrokes at 210 BPM, then I cannot use it in Necrophobic. Even if it's a good riff, I cannot use it in Necrophobic, then I use it In Aphelion. When you start to count the beats, then you realize these are two totally different bands and the funny thing about it is that Marco struggles with the tempos that Joakim is really comfortable with. Joakim could never reach the tempos of Marco. It is actually that and the vocals, because it's a totally different thing to sing in my own words, even though I write the lyrics for Necrophobic, Anders has to interpret them and he has to do his thing about it. I'm perfectly satisfied with how he does it. But I also feel that sometimes I want to write something that I want to express the way I thought up the words. You know when you say something if you see yourself and someone plays your part in a movie, even if it's your words you would say: I wouldn't say it like that. And that is also sometimes what I feel when Anders sings my lyrics: as you sing it now, it means something else. So the advantage in a smaller band is to be able to express exactly what I want and what I thought out. That is something that is actually totally different than Necrophobic, but it can sound similar to you. But that is not important for me. For me, it's the only importance of it is that I get it right. This time it works exactly as I know and with these things and it's very important to know that I'm not at all saying Necrophobic does it wrong. I just say Necrophobic is Spaghetti Bolognese (laughs). Let's not change the recipe, but In Aphelion is more experimenting with the spices you haven't used before and it's nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't wanna mix the bands. I would really like Iron Maiden to still sound like they do on" Peace of Mind", I would be a Necrophobic fan. But I can understand that Steve Harris has to write something new he wrote for "In Aphelion". That's the difference (laughs). And now people will be angry with me for making the Iron Maiden reference, of course, but they are gods and we're nowhere near but it's just to explain things, that's how it is. And I think both Necrophobic and In Aphelion and especially me thrive from not mixing this. I had so much I wanted to try with Necrophobic and I was trying to cram it in there and it always just bounced out of it and I was dissatisfied. And now when I can do the In Aphelion stuff, it's much more fun to write "In The Twilight Grey". I can even long to write within the Necrophobic frame. I didn't feel like that before, so for me, it's totally win-win and I don't try to push either Anders or Joakim out of their comfort zone. I'm fine with what they do, you know? So I think it gives everybody something. And for those who like my music, they get two albums instead of one (laughs).

I think you were influenced by some bands when you were writing the new album. So at least my thought was with the title track that you were a little bit Motörhead influenced?

Someone else said that actually, I don't know. It's possible. You know, that kind of drive the chorus has, is almost punk. You know when I wrote and recorded it, I felt something very familiar. And of course, if you listen to "Iron Fist" or something, it's the same kind of drive. But I did not sit down and listen to a Motörhead song and thought that I would do this. That is something I can do with Meat Loaf, Def Leppard, or music that is further away. On the last album, I had some Accept references for "Russian Roulette". I think we talked about that. That is so far away and then I can really think I will write that kind of riff. But I never do it with black metal. Even though I listen to Venom and Bathory and the old stuff, I never, listen to "Witching Hour" and then think I will write the riff like that (laughs). I can listen to Meat Loaf and think I will write the riff like that, but I will make it evil and in the right context.

Haha, yeah! Evil Meat Loaf!!

"Dead Ringer For Love" is the blueprint for all songs. It's the perfect song. It's not a Hard Rock song. It's perfect within its own context. You have everything in it. The first riff even has its own sound. When it came out, it makes you wanna play guitar. First off, I need a riff that makes you wanna play the guitar. "Luciferian Age" – ah, that's the riff, you want to play guitar! Then you need this build-up, this escalating in the climax. Sometimes you even need to have another singer like in "Dead Ringer For Love". That's always a good thing; to put in another person.  Also, all parts of that song have a reason. There's no filler part. Every drum beat, every chord, everything is thought through and it's in the right place at the right time. And I try to do that, but I try to write nothing like that song. But when I hear that song, it inspires me to not give up until all the bullshit is gone, all the parts make sense and all the sounds are at their best and it will make a 16-year-old of pick up the guitar.

So you have Tobias Christiansson as a constant bass player now in the band since I think this year. So did you get him in the band because it's easier to play live than instead of searching permanently for a live musician or what's the reason behind it?

It was a hard decision. Dennis had to leave, unfortunately. I love the guy. He is a great person and he's a really good bass player. I think he was a part of the band and he felt it but he had a hard time focusing. For me, this is this band is about no bullshit because I have very little time. So we have to be very professional to get what we do with In Aphelion. We don't have time for breaking deadlines or missing rehearsals and stuff like that. And Dennis,  where he is or was in life, he could not really commit in the way. He wanted so much but he had so many obligations in his life and he could not choose. There was one gig. I think it was "Dark Easter" (in Munich '23; M.) when he decided to not play. And then we had to take in Tobias; that was a year ago or two years ago. And then with the recording, I was waiting for his file. He got the whole recording to record his bass in March and still in October, one day before the deadline, I had not got a single file from him. In the end, I felt we could not work with this. I cannot have him just to be nice, even though I want. So since Tobias had stepped in on the gig and he had helped out, I had even rehearsed with him when, when Dennis couldn't show up, it was a natural thing to ask Tobias. He's the best bass player I have probably ever played with. He's a fantastic musician. But I was thinking maybe this is a bad thing because then we are three out of five members, you know? Maybe this will look strange, maybe the other in Necrophobic will be not so happy with it. But still, since he had actually helped us out, it would feel really bad not to ask him. I was thinking about this with the same members in more than one band. If three persons in Iron Maiden also played in Saxon, we would have a problem, right? That would be strange. But in reality, no one really cares who Sebastian, Johan, and Tobias are. We are not famous at that level where it would be strange. It would be strange if Nergal sang in Watain. They are on that level. Or it would be strange if Metallica and Slayer changed members. But on the on the actually on the level which is still underground that Necrophobic and In Aphelion are, no one cares. Even when we play the same gigs, not one person has asked anything about it.

Well, I guess that is quite an understatement because I know that you have a huge popularity in the scene after all these years!

We're still not rock stars, you know, I mean, everything is on the ground level under Slayer, right? It's what we know about it. But if you ask people if you go to town, if they know who Watain is, they will not. I mean, it's still a very, very small part of the music business this thing we are doing.

So coming to lyrics, I mean, I wrote a little bit in my review about that. So on the superficial level, you deal a lot with darkness and coldness. So if you take a closer look at the lyrics, you may.Come to the conclusion that you deal with a lot of emotions. So for example, I think I wrote in my review 'Further From The Sun' could also deal with something that you miss and without that, you cannot live because it's your home, gives you warmth and safety, or 'In The Fields Of Nadir' could be something that the people pulls down. I mean it's the opposite of zenith if and it's it's under you and it breaks it down or something that is the opposite of that, what you want to do. Is that right what I'm supposing?

Absolutely. My whole idea of making lyrics that matter to me is to manifest something that I feel, long for, and yearn for. Something that I miss or want and I try to write about that in an interesting way. I try to make it into a story that can make the listener change what it's about. If I was saying well I'm depressed because my girlfriend named me like this or left me at this point, then it would be so special. It's only really about me. But I tried to take the feeling and put it in another context so that you, as you said, now, can interpret it. It's not exactly as I thought, but it relates to what you might think it would be. And it's also the thing I have chosen to do now that I did not before. More than a couple of albums ago I tried that everything should make sense. I had to have a red line through the lyrics and if I say this in the beginning, I cannot change what I think about it in the end. But in reality, when we feel stuff, especially when we are let down or when we are miserable, we are not logical. We can think of one thing in the morning and another thing in midday that is something totally different. And I try to get my lyrics to flow freely when I write them. I try to not correct them too much. In "They Fell Under Blackened Skies", in that lyric you are not sure who the storyteller is. Am I one of those who fell on the blackened skies? Am I against that? Am I searching for life and light? Or am I really glad that everything ends on the blackened skies? And the true thing is during the song, I'm not sure, just like we are in life, you are not really sure what you think about everything because you shift. I think that gives the music and the lyrics another level of expression. I can also follow it because black metal as I write it is built upon riffs, riffs with different modes. It's attached like Lego, one riff and then you touch another one to it. If you listen to Rolling Stones, it starts with one mood. You can't always get what you want. And then it's the same thing for fun. They never change the move. That's what it's about. You cannot always get what you want. That's it. With my music, it's something different. The first riff and then since I tricked on the words and changed my mind, also the riffs change, and the good thing with the last part of "They Fell Under Blackened Skies", is that it is almost gothic. It is not black metal anymore. It's gothic music and then it's another person saying "they fell under the blackened sky". It's different music telling this. It's play. Actually, I find it's almost like an epilogue in a book or something. Someone else writes about it, and I think that that makes it interesting and it gives me also freedom with words. But I drifted away with my words….

Haha, all fine! So another interesting song was 'Aghori' which is the album closer. Is it about Hinduism and this religious society? I just read on Wikipedia that they want to reach a special spiritual level free from hate, fear, and denial of all things. So is this some kind of religious song?

The whole album before "Aghori" centers on sun worship cults. What I think about religion, centers on what I see and how I react to that. "Aghori" is actually the song where I am not against what I see. "Aghori" ends as a solution or a different way of seeing religion that is not divided into good and evil. The Aghoris which are kind of Hinduistic shamans, believe if everything is created by Shiva, then everything is created by the good, the God. So beautiful buildings are created by Shiva, but also drugs are created by him, food is created by Shiva, but excrements, too. And therefore they believe that as we do that we say half of what we do and feel is bad. That's the devil telling us to be angry, horny, stuff like that but it's God's side to we behave. They don't believe that at all. If everything was created by Shiva, then it's good to be angry, horny, happy, kind to others. And I feel that this is something I really can relate to. When I read about this, I felt like this is the truth. I'm not religious, but to divide things into good and bad shifts overtime and I don't feel like dividing things. I feel like embracing things. To show that there's nothing bad in the bad they sleep on graveyards or in graves. They are cannibals in some way. They eat each other's flesh. They smear themselves with ashes of the dead and they eat excrement, they drink urine, but they also do good things. And the only way they believe they can be whole is to not fear anything of good or bad. You don't fear love and you don't fear the dead. You should embrace it all and when you embrace it all, you are free. That song has all the different moods and it's almost like some micro songs. It starts off almost like a power ballad, then you have a really bombastic part and then there's a clean break and then there's fear, joy, euphoria, horror – there are so many things going on because it goes through all these feelings the Aghori have to go through to become whole. It's built to guide you as the listener through the whole of God's creation. The song ends an album that is very critical of religious beliefs. It ends with a religious cult that I actually do not talk down, that I actually embrace.

Very interesting. Did you read a book or was it on Wikipedia?

Everything I could stumble over. There are also really good documentaries on YouTube. There's a Finnish team that I've actually contacted before this. They went to live with them and they were sucked deeper into the cult when filming than they really thought they would be. This is really interesting footage and I asked them if I could use some of the footage because that could have been a good video but I didn't get a response. They are big TV personalities in Finland. So it interested me and actually in a way that both me and my wife, did a lot of research on it. She actually wrote the last part of the song, she wrote the lyrics for it. We both were involved in it. I also have Jacob (Björnfot; M.) from Kvaen and Christian (Jönsson; M.) of Avslut doing vocals on the song. We needed to be Aghoris with different voices.

Talking about the cover, I know you designed the cover for "Moribund" on your own. So did you do it this time again or did you have some help?

Yeah, I did it on my own.

What was the influence maybe you had? I got a little bit, reminded of Marduk with all these skulls and stuff like that, and also Necrophobic came into my mind.

I wanted a religious feeling to it. I wanted it like a big religious symbol where I put this In Aphelion symbol in the middle. Instead of Jesus on the cross, I needed it like a centerpiece of a church, which was important. What I tried to do with In Aphelion is almost the opposite of the songs. I tried to not think so much about the cover art either then that I would buy it if I held it in my hands. I like how the old heavy metal albums with really strong kind of cartoonish images look. I mean if you look at the old Motörhead, Saxon, and Maiden cover art, it's really obvious that this is painting some scary things and I want that kind of direct approach that this album looks cool. Let's see if there's more to it. And then it comes to lyrics. But of course, I choose to put a lot of symbols in it just like on "Moribund".  But I try to not overthink it and I guess because I do it myself, the whole product becomes a reflection of me. If you work with a cover artist who is really not on the same wavelength as you - he or she might be professional and get your ideas - it's still someone else. It's the same thing with lyrics, again. Someone else thinks it's not exactly yours. I don't think I'm really good at it. I would not say none of these album covers are the best album covers. But that is less important than that I actually bring in some do-it-yourself work on a major level, but still kind of cool.

I know it's hard to play live shows because of the older families and jobs and stuff like that, but can we expect something coming up from In Aphelion in the future? Maybe show a small club tour or something like that?

I hope that we have had a few offers. We actually have nothing, no tours booked. We are right now booking gigs because Necrophobic is so busy on "In The Twilight Grey", so it's hard to cram something else in. It is not so enjoyable turning down this and that is because we have families and jobs and stuff like that. We are not 20 years old anymore. We need some kind of income to be away. Two weeks on tour. I cannot take the family's money and go on tour and come home with no food for my kids, you know? And I'm still not the rich Rockstar. It's a hard way to have a new band, like In Aphelion. And so obviously we cannot take a big fee. So how do you how do you do this economically? I have not worked this out yet. Right now we have only played one-off gig and that has been really fun. I think we would really grow as a band, as a support act to a bigger band. But most of these tours are buy-on tours, you have to buy yourself on. Then you have to have a budget, which we don't really have with In Aphelion. Of course, I have spare money for the guitars on my walls, but I don't want to let them go, you know so (laughs). I think we will probably continue like this for a while and see where it goes. I mean if the album becomes a success it will probably give us different opportunities, but touring these days is dead expensive, and turn up is not really that great because there are so many festivals swallowing so many people. If you play in Berlin for 300 people on Tuesday and then you play in Munich for 300 on a Wednesday and instead you go to a festival and play for 10,000, that's all crazy. So it's what it is.

We talked about your great plans for '24 in '22, so you wanted to collect all the metal albums that came out in 1984.  How far did you come with the plans?

Laughs. I think I bought close to 100 vinyls but then this happened. I could see that it would be a feast for my ears doing this. I have felt this is a buffet of unheard fantastic heavy metal. But it wasn't (laughs). What's the reason? I hadn't heard about these bands and these albums. There are still so many albums up there that I have not put on yet because I got depressed from the bad heavy metal (laughs). It was so bad and I finally kept buying, you know, I said "94 yes, this goes, this comes" and it cost me quite a lot of money until I realized to do this, I think it was about 700 albums or something that I needed and I felt that that is a fortune. I mean the good bands became famous for a reason. I have not given up but right now I don't feel very eager to do it.

So that's your new project for 2034.

Yeah! That's good. That's good (laughs). I didn't think about that. Now you're buying will start again and I don't have to hear it for another 10 years. It's perfect. Thank you, haha!

Haha, you're welcome! Thank you, Sebastian. It was as always a pleasure talking to you. Have a nice evening!

Thank you, too, Michael!!! Stay safe.