Getting a little bit tired of all those melodic death metal bands? Pick up the latest The Crown outburst "Crowned in Terror" and I promise you won't be singing any of those sweet melodies for a long time. Although their music is also based on good dose of melody; aggression, speed and power is what makes them stand atop their peers. Those five guys are like bulls on Speed ready to tear any place down wherever they show up. With the addition of Tomas Lindberg (ex-At The Gates, Skitsystem, Lock Up, Disfear, The Great Deceiver) The Crown opens a new chapter in their career and sets the bar even higher. Just a week before they hit the States I had the pleasure to talk to Janne Saarenpää (drums) about their new member, album and musical inspirations.

Chris


Ready to conquer the States?

Yeah. [laughs] I hope so.

What's next, what are the plans for the rest of the world?

I don't know. There's a lots of talk and a lots of stuff going on but you know, there's always a lots of talk in the music industry. [laughs] So, there's not much worth mentioning since nothing is decided yet. We have two festivals booked; one in Germany and one in Finland but we're hoping for a good European tour and there's actually a talk about second US tour so, we're hoping for the best.

Tell us more about the latest news of Axis Percussion officially signs you?

Well, cool thing. I'm using their pedals and they were interested with endorsing them with people like me. It feels really cool to have my first endorsement deal; I'm actually first in a band to have one. I'm nothing but honored.

Maybe that's your first step to live from drumming only?

Yeah, I hope so. [laughs]

Since At The Gates called it quits Tomas Lindberg was involved in and still is, I think 4 (Skitsystem, Lock Up, Disfear and The Great Deceiver) projects so, how did he end up in The Crown?

We have known him for several years, actually. When we did our first tour in Europe we had a warm out band called Sacrilege and they didn't have a singer so he was hired to do the tour with them. That whole tour was one big ass misery; poorly arranged, everything was shitty but from all this we could always get into part mood and do great shows and have fun. We could see it right then that Tomas was really a cool guy and if things could go rough with The Crown he would be the good guy to work with. So, when Johan quit we wanted to have a guy that's experienced who've worked on the scene for many years and is as hungry as we are. Tomas was really the first and maybe the only name that come out when we were talked about replacement.

Aren't you afraid that with all these bands that are issuing albums with Tomas fronting that his voice won't be recognized as a unique for The Crown only?

Yeah, of course that's never good. I, personally really want to stay true to The Crown because playing in only one band only I'll help to preserve our sound somewhat unique. Of course he's wearing his voice out in many ways with those other bands but most of those bands are maybe not that... big and they are not into this same kind of music. OK, it's metal but it's not death metal so, it still feels it's really worth the shot because he's a great singer. You can hear that on this new album that he's at least as hungry, if not even hungrier then we are. It's a move in the right direction anyway.

Since you've announced the change of the vocalist so long ago was Tomas involved in the writing process of this material?

It was pretty much lyrics only, also Magnus, our bass player, he also wrote some of them since he already started coming up with the titles and concepts for them. It really helped Tomas to get into the band even faster. So, for this album he worked on lyrics only but I'm sure on the next one he will have as much input as everyone else in the band.

Since 'Death Metal Holocaust' features Johan Lindstrand as a guest vocalist does it mean that the band's members are still good friends with him and there was really no bad blood when he quit?

That's pretty much it and that was very cool way for him to say goodbye to us and fans. Of course it was hard when he mentioned that he wants to quit the band but he was nice enough to say it in due time. When he actually quit it was almost a year since the first time he mentioned it and that's of course helped us to still be friends through all this.

Was it also like returning the favor since Tomas guested on your previous album?

Yeah, that also. It was cool, Tomas sang on our previous album so why not switch everything. [laughs]

Going back to the hunger topic... It seems like The Crown have sped up the tempo and it's even more aggressive than before. Was it intentional or new blood ignited the flame?

No, it wasn't intentional and I feel really good saying that because you can tell that many band are only aiming to get more brutal and that sucks 'cause you can see that their songs aren't turning out as good as they could have been. It just turned out this way and I think the main reason that our songs are faster and more brutal is because we have been touring with these total high quality bands. The US tour with Cannibal Corpse, Nile and Krisiun [laughs] it can't get any better. European tour with Morbid Angel... after seeing those bands every night for four- five weeks it brings back memories how it is to play fast. They are gods in handling their instrument so all those bands really inspired us a lot. Plus we are big fans of those bands too so; it just felt natural to speed it up.

The Crown started as a death metal band but it's hard to call "Crowned In Terror" a death metal release. Did it also just turn out this way or you don't want to limit yourself within one music genre?

Well, when people ask us what we're playing we say death metal but after the second album we were quite confident in ourselves that we could try stuff that all of us like even though it might not be the purest death metal. We didn't want to limit us to one genre only we wanted to do death metal but with other elements in it that we like and what style it would be it's not really important as long as we feel it sounds as The Crown.

What in your mind differs The Crown from the rest of the Sweden's scene?

I don't know... there's a lot of talk about Gothenburg sound that is almost purely about melody and we're not about melody only. It's hard to say... but I think we are a bit more brutal and faster than usual Swedish bands.

I've got one more that's even harder to answer... where do you feel you stand among your peers (Entombed, The Haunted, Soilwork...)?

Somewhere in the middle... [laughs] It's really hard to say. I would pay money to get a chance to jump out of the band and become a fan not involved in the band just to know how people look at us. Are we big in Sweden? Are we small? It's impossible to tell from where I stand, really.

Wasn't the choice of Mega Studio a conscious decision to separate The Crown from all those bands that record in Fredman and Abyss?

Well... [laughs] We were actually about to go to Fredman's studio again but as usual we were very lazy booking the studio and stuff, so when we called him he told us he has some free time in March, right now. So, we would begin recording now and that made us to pick Studio Mega. We knew he didn't do any big albums before but he has a good equipment and right attitude so, we felt like we can take a shot and try it right there. The plan was to mix that stuff in Studio Fredman and we did so, but it didn't sound good, those studios didn't mix well. So, we went back to Studio Mega, which was a good decision because at the end we could really hear that we sound as good as it does on the album. We weren't afraid to get Gothenburg sound going to Fredman because we're pretty confident that when we go to the studio with ourselves and our equipment I'm sure we will preserve at least parts of The Crown. You'll always hear it's The Crown album, no matter what studio we're in.

Can you explain why on the back cover of the booklet your logo remind me so much of Venom? I don't see too many similarities between two bands?

No, it's very much a coincidence. It was this German friend of our bass player who had made it for fun on his computer and he send it too him to check it out. We though it was so well made that we might as well put in on the album. Yeah, we don't sound as Venom but having this sign there is kind of a paying tribute to them for being there when this form of music was created. They are one of the most important bands for us; we wouldn't sound like we do if Venom wasn't there at the beginning. I hope Venom guys won't take it as a plagiarism...

Since you've started playing as young kids I was wondering if are you still good friends that meet together for a beer, go out or wives and families (or girlfriends) took it all away?

No, that's pretty much part of the magic. When Johan quit I was afraid that we would lose this because we have always been very good friends, seeing each other often and going out together but we still do. That's pretty much the magic of the band because we stayed together for so long and we're still good friends and I really hope that it will last forever.

Unfortunately it's time to end this interview... all I can say is to congratulate you on really great album and I hope to talk to you in person in two weeks in Chicago. Any final comments?

Cool. I hope that all the people that would read this interview will check out our album and maybe come to the show to see us 'cause we love playing live and the more people the merrier, as they say. [laughs]

In 1986 St Louis thrashers Anacrusis formed, by 1988 their debut album Suffering Hour was released and by 1993 they were one of progressive metals best acts. However, that was the last we would hear of this amazing yet overlooked band. Anacrusis was one of the most underrated bands in thrash metal and their founder and braintrust Kenn Nardi one of the best songwriters and musicians in the genre. 20 years later Kenn has released a solo album that will satisfy the Anacrusis fan base. With 28 tracks on 2 CDs and over 2 and half hours of music, Kenn definitely made up for the time away. I recently had a chance to discuss the album, Anacrusis and future plans with Mr. Nardi.

Brian Grebenz

First off congratulations on the release of Dancing With the Past. It's an amazing album. I understand that you at first were going to release it under Anacrusis. What made you decide to release it as a solo album?

Thank you. I just would not have ever felt comfortable releasing as an "Anacrusis" album since aside from a few bass tracks I am the only member on the recordings. It isn’t so much a matter of the material since most of it was intended for a new Anacrusis album, but releasing it under my own name allowed me a bit more freedom to try some new things that I don’t think would have fit well otherwise.

A few years back Anacrusis got together and played several festivals and also did the 'Hindsight: Suffering Hour & Reason Revisited'. Very well done by the way, I am not a fan of re-recordings, but you stayed true to the original songs and it is quite enjoyable. Was it at this time that you began writing new material or did you already have songs written prior to this?

Thanks. I feel the same way most of the time. I will usually listen once just to see how things sounded "updated", but usually not much beyond that. I didn’t want that to happen with Hindsight. I know it is hard for the older fans to accept new versions no matter what we would have done, but I also know there are many fans old and new that never listened to the first two albums much due to the production. I think the material strong enough to be heard so hopefully hindsight will make discovering those songs a little easier.

Our drummer Mike Owen and I began jamming together right away and we always had really great musical chemistry. Mike’s drumming always made me come up with riffs left and right. 'Made' was the first new song I wrote after playing with Mike one afternoon. Before Kevin even joined us for rehearsals in the spring of 2009 I had this song fully written. Most of the other stuff I came up with as we rehearsed for the other shows and I also had a handful of older songs lying around before we began. Several songs were written after we stopped playing together again in 2013.

A lot of the songs have the Anacrusis sound, but also are very fresh and modern. When you were in the songwriting process were you writing it as an Anacrusis album?

Yes, definitely. I did have some older stuff that I wanted to try to give the "Anacrusis" treatment to, but most of the rest was written with an Anacrusis album in mind. Not that I wasn’t envisioning a somewhat more mature version of our band. I knew that I wanted to bring some new elements into the mix just as we had done from album to album while maintaining a style that was true to our sound. Not having Kevin involved would have made this more difficult since we all had a hand in writing and brought different things to the table.

Now that you have finished with the recording process, what's been going on with you? Work? Family? Hobbies? What is regular day for you?

Working on the album took up almost every spare moment I had for months and months and of course it's a good feeling to have finally finished everything. However, I have a few other things in the works now, so I am still keeping busy with music. I do work full-time at a "regular" job which takes up most of my time, so I have to squeeze music in around that and spending time with my wife and the usual things people do. We are in the process of working with Metal Blade to re-issue all of the old albums, which will have tons of bonus stuff, so I am trying to get all of the best quality live recordings and things like that together to see what the best stuff is to use. I have also begun recording some more music which may end up being an album at some point.

Do you have any plans to bring the material on the road? Or at least to play live locally or are there any festivals lined up?

As much as I'd love to play some of this new material live, I have no band or anything so there is no way I can do that. I don't have any plans to do anything live at the moment. That could change, but it isn't anything I am actively pursuing though. I been asked by a couple people to play and they have even offered to assemble musicians to play behind me, but that would just be too strange for me. I need a lot of practice to get things done in a live setting and walking on stage with strangers is not anything I would ever be comfortable with. Maybe if the demand is great enough from the new album, I will consider trying to put a band together locally, but I am so far out of the loop I wouldn't even know where to begin finding people willing to basically just learn and play my songs.

Anacrusis was ahead of their time and has been an influence on later acts. Who influenced you early on? Who influences you today? What influence to you draw upon outside of music?

KISS were my big heroes growing up in the 70's and even if their music isn't an obvious influence, the whole experience of being a KISS fan certainly planted the seed in me to make music. Also, my Dad was a singer and guitar player and we always had music around the house. The Beatles were also a major influence along with Pink Floyd and many others. Later it was Priest/Maiden and then the thrash bands. I was heavily into Hardcore/Punk and even some alternative bands that came out of the 80's too which also found its way into some of my music over the years.

These days I don't listen to much newer music, but Muse are one band I can think of that I really did some great stuff in recent years. I am a fan of great songs, whoever writes them. People give me trouble because I like Coldplay, but I think they are great songwriters no matter what their audience is or how many albums they have sold. I have honestly been so focused on Dancing with the Past for the last couple of years that I don't like to listen to other stuff because I don't want to be influenced at all by what I hear someone else doing musically.

As for metal, I don't really listen to many newer bands. Some of my friends will send me videos from YouTube to check out and there is some really great stuff out there, but I guess the whole aggressive thing just doesn't resonate with me much these days. I still listen to all of the old bands that got me into metal in the first place, but my days of seeking out new bands are behind me. If I do listen to metal, chances are it will be old Mercyful Fate or Metal Church or something like that.

You mentioned that during the writing and recording process of Dancing with the Past that you didn't want to listen to other music. I have heard other musicians say that same thing. What did you draw inspiration from during that time?

I didn't really need much inspiration for this album aside from what I thought Anacrusis fans might like to hear after so many years. I generally try and write music that I myself like. That is the standard that I use. if it doesn't do anything for me then it will probably never end up as a song. I knew there were certain trademark that the band had established and I focused on trying to bring those elements together in some new ways rather than repeating what the bad and I had already done in the past. Once I decided to finish the album myself I was even more free to try some different things using many of those same ingredients.

You also mentioned that you are writing some new material. Is it building off of Dancing with the Past or is it a new direction? Will you ever write something that's not metal? Is that something that you have ever considered?

Well, the Cruel April project was definitely not metal, though it had a mostly dark tone to it. I'd like to just write some songs again like I did then without Anacrusis or anything else in mind. Maybe something dark and melodic like Nick Cave or something. As for right now, I still have some very heavy riffs and a few old songs that I'd like to properly record, so if I do something in the near future it will probably be similar to Dancing with the Past, with maybe a few more twists. I knew with Dancing with the Past there were Anacrusis fans out there who were dying to hear some new songs that sounded like that band, but if there is a next time, I won't be too concerned with repeating that pattern again. I think it would be hard for me to write anything heavy without it sounding somewhat like Anacrusis, since I was the vocalist and main writer in the band.

What are your 5 favorite Anacrusis songs?

That's always a tough one to answer. I think "Sound the Alarm" is the best song I wrote for the band. Other favorites are "Release", "Stop Me", "Explained Away", "Driven", "Paint a Picture". it changes all the time, but I tend to favor the more melodic stuff for sure.

My 5 "Stop Me", "Paint a Picture", "Too Many Prophets", "Tools of Separation" and "Terrified"

You just like the letter "T", (laughs)

Thank you for taking the time to do this with me. It was great to learn a little more about you.

No problem at all. I was happy to do it.