The famous metal guitarist talks about new album ‘Khaos Legions’ and many many more.
‘Khaos Legions’ is the eight studio album of Swedish metallers ARCH ENEMY who don’t exactly thing they are the typical Swedish metal band.
Find out why, reading the lines below.В
an interview conducted by Vassil Varbanov
HEY MICHAEL, HELLO, HOW ARE YA?
I’m really good, thank you. Thank you for having me.
LAST TIMEВ WE SPOKE WAS IN AUGUST 2007, QUITE A WHILE AGO. THAT WAS WHEN ‘RISE OF THE TYRANT’ CAME OUT. SO, HOW DOES IT FEEL NOW THAT YOU’VE GOT A NEW RECORD, READY TO BE RELEASED VERY SOON?
Yeah, it feels great. It’s been a while and we were really hungry to make new music. We’ve been just touring and touring and touring. That’s a lot of fun too, but it was exciting to go back to our place last Summer and in the Fall and just put all this music together. Yeah, it’s been an exciting process, but a lot of hard work through the Winter months here in Sweden. But now we’re sitting here and the sun has come out and there’s a new Arch Enemy album.
DON’T TELL ME YOU’RE A SPRING PHENOMENON HAHAH.
Oh, I love it now, it’s just starting to heat up. We get these brutal winters up here in Sweden, we’ve had heavy snow since November, so…I don’t know what it’s like down there in Bulgaria, but I’m sure it’s better weather than here.
ANOTHER MAJESTIC PRODUCTION ON YOUR NEW ALBUM. IT’S HEAVY AS HELL. TO WHAT EXTENT DID YOU INFLUENCE THE PRODUCER OR WAS IT THE OTHER WAY ROUND?
No, we were heavily involved, we’re control freaks. We have a lot of ideas. Like I said – it’s been a while since we recorded a new album, so we had a lot of ideas, even on the production side that we’d been discussing, how we wanted this album to come together sound wise etc. Yeah, we definitely put a lot into it, we were all very involved. The album’s co-produced by Arch Enemy, so, yes, we were very involved.
IT WAS ANNOUNCED RECENTLY THAT PER WIBERG IS LEAVING OPETH. WAS ONE OF THE REASONS FOR THIS THAT PERHAPS HE WANTED TO HAVE MORE TIME FOR ARCH ENEMY?
No, no, he doesn’t tour with us, he just plays on our records as a guest. So that had no influence on the whole Opeth thing.
I’M SURE THAT MOST OF THE INTERVIEWS YOU GUYS HAVE TO DO ARE DIVIDED BETWEEN YOU AND ANGELA. WHY AREN’T YOU GIVING THE OTHER GUYS THE CHANCE TO TALK…OR MAYBE I’M UNDER THE WRONG IMPRESSION?
Hahaha! We definitely do give them the opportunity to talk. They’re actually doing a lot of the phoner interviews for this album. It’s just that the attention has kind of been focused on me and Angela, which is kind of frustrating because it’s a lot more work for me and her. We’d rather spread it evenly among all the members.
Everybody does interviews in our band. Actually our bass player Sharlee does a lot of them and he’s really good at it as well, he enjoys it. Not everybody enjoys doing interviews, you know. But you get that with every band – in Iron Maiden you mostly see interviews with Bruce Dickinson or Steve Harris, it’s just the way that things work.
I’M SURE THAT THE NEXT STEP AFTER THE ALBUM COMES OUT WILL BE FOR YOU GUYS TO HIT THE ROAD AGAIN. YOUR TOUR STARTS IN CASABLANCA, MOROCCO, IF I’M NOT MISTAKEN.
Yes. That could be exciting, it will be the first time Arch Enemy play the African continent. We’re looking forward to that. And then we continue towards Europe towards the end of May, where we’ll play all these metal fest shows. Then we’re into the festival season in Europe and we’re really looking forward to that.
BEAR IN MIND THAT NORTHERN AFRICA ISN’T THE QUIETEST PLACE AT THE MOMENT.
Hahah, that’s true.
WE JUST DID AN INTERVIEW WITH ESA FROM AMORPHIS. HE’S FROM FINLAND AND YOU’RE SWEDISH. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE RIVALRY BETWEEN SCANDINAVIAN BANDS? WE HEAR THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF JOKES ABOUT HOCKEY GOING ROUND.
Oh…you’re really asking the wrong guy here, cause I’ve never been into hockey, haha. I don’t know anything about it really.
WHAT ABOUT WHEN YOU GO TO, SAY, JAPAN FOR EXAMPLE, AND YOU MEET ANOTHER SCANDINAVIAN BAND THERE. IS THERE A FEELING OF SOME SORT OF BOND? LIKE THE SOUTH AMERICAN BANDS, THEY ARE LIKE A SORT OF COMMUNITY.
Yes, I’d say there is. I guess we definitely feel a connection because we all come from the cold, dark North, spreading our metal music all across the world. Yeah, we kind of feel a connection I guess, somehow. But I wouldn’t describe it as anything closer than that.
ACTUALLY THE NEXT SWEDISH BAND COMING TO BULGARIA IS DARK TRANQUILLITY AND TANGRA MEGA ROCK IS PROMOTING THE SHOW. THERE’S BEEN A LOT SAID ABOUT THE GOTHENBURG SCENE. WHAT IS THE THING NOWADAYS THAT DEFINES THE TYPICAL SWEDISH SOUND? I MEAN, YOU HAVE GONE GLOBAL AND BANDS LIKE IN FLAMES ARE SOUNDING MORE AMERICAN.
I don’t really know.
AND YOU OBVIOUSLY DON’T CARE.
No, I don’t. Because I never really focused on us being from Sweden. I’m half British – my father’s British, my mother’s Swedish. So me and my brother being half-British and Angela being German, it’s not something we’ve though a lot about. The band is based here, in Sweden, but our music is global. We see ourselves more as world citizens.В
WHICH SONG FROM THE NEW RECORD ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN TERMS OF YOUR GUITAR PERFORMANCE?
Probably the one you just played – ‘Bloodstained Cross’. That song’s got some pretty crazy guitar things going on that we’ve never done before, it’s kind of pushing the envelope a little bit. So I’m pretty proud of that one, we’re gonna have to rehearse a little bit before we can pull that one off live I think.
BECAUSE OF YOU, EH? HAHA!
Hahaha! Because of everybody, it’s just a very intense song, it’s very fast and it’s quite complex, it’s got to sound tight and right.
ARE THERE ANY ACOUSTIC GUITARS ON THE RECORD?
Yeah, a little bit here and there.
OK, AND FINALLY – WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE SPIRITUAL BEGGARS CAMP?
Hmm, not much right now. I think we’re doing four shows this Summer. That’s going to be about it for this year, cause Arch Enemy‘s gonna be so busy.В
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