THE
FORSAKEN
Here
is an interview with Patrik ...
1.TELL US IN A FEW WORDS THE MOST IMPORTANT
MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY. WHICH IS TODAY'S LINE UP?
Ok! We formed in the autumn of
-97. That was pretty important. The firstt demo “Patterns of delusive design”
was recorded half a year later and got us some pretty good reviews. Not
much happened for the next year or so besides Anders joining us on vocals
and Michael replacing Roine on bass. In the autumn we recorded “reaper-99”
with Tommy Tägtgren in abyss studios and this demo got us a record
deal with century media. A year later our debut “manifest of hate” was
recorded at abyss. The reviews and sales were much better then we had dared
to expect and got us a good reputation. In the winter/spring of -01 we
went on our first tour with Nile, the Haunted and Carnal forge, a very
important experience. Unfortunally Michael left the band just before the
recording of our second full-length due to his duties with Evergrey. Anyway,
“Arts of desolation” was recorded just before christmas -01. As it was
released in may -02 we did our second tour with Grave and Disinter. A new
basist, Stefan Berg was recruted for the tour and is now a full member
of The Forsaken, and now I’m writing this interview, and that’s the story
of The Forsaken. The current line-up is:
Patrik Persson: Guitar
Nicke Grabowski: Drums
Stefan Holm: Guitar
Stefan Berg: Bass
Anders Sjöholm: Vocals
2.WHY ARE YOU FORSAKEN? FROM WHOM ARE
YOU FORSAKEN? WHICH MEANING DO YOU WANT TO PASS TO THE METALHEADS WITH
YOUR NAME?
To be completly 100% honest, when
changing the name for our second demo (our first demo was released under
the name “Septic Breed”) we only thought that it would have to sound cool,
fit with the music we make and not be too long or complicated. We went
through the same stuff that I think most bands do when trying to find a
good band name, english dictionarys, books, movies and some of the lyrics
for our oldest songs. One of them was called “Greed of the forsaken”, so
in truth, there’s not much thought behind it (we try not to think too much,
it makes our brains hurt...) but we could make up some tale on how it’s
about mankind being forsaken by god and how we all are forsaking ourselves
as the planet slowly turns into hell but nah... it’s just a name that fits
pretty good with the music and the lyrical topics.
3.WHICH ARE THE BAND INFLUENCES? COULD
YOU GIVE US A LIST OF SOME OF YOUR MOST BELOVED BANDS AND ALBUMS?
My favourite albums and bands is
pretty much what got me starting to play death metal but not nesseserely
what influences me nowadays. Metallica was the first band I really got
into. I used to sneak into my older sister’s room and listen to her albums
when noone was at home. “And justice for all” was pretty much the heaviest
piece of music I had ever heard back then and I thought Lars Ulrich was
the best and fastest drummer in the world, but I was so young... Even though
I didn’t really like it at first it grew on me and a bit later they released
the black album and that got me completly hooked. Another very important
album a few years later was Dissection “The somberlain”. Because it was
really the first deathmetalband I had heard that mixed brutal music with
beautiful melodies and atmospheric parts and that really made a big impact
on me and it is still one of my all time favourites, not to mention the
masterpiece “Storm of the light’s bane”. And of course, Death. I saw the
video for “Lack of comprihension” on headbangers ball and I was blown away
by how skilled musicians they were and that really made me determined to
start playing an instument suitable for metal. I played the keyboard back
then but I thought it was too wimpy so I started playing metal on my mothers
old acoustic guitar. Besides those I can’t really remember anything that
changed my world. Sure there are many great and amazing albums but nothing
can give me that same special feeling, but perhaps I’m just being nostalgic...
4.TELL US SOME GENERAL THINGS ABOUT
THE BAND RELEASES AND ESPECIALLY CONCENTRATE ON YOUR LATEST CD. ARE YOU
STILL SATISFIED WITH IT OR IS THERE ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO CHANGE?
Patterns of delusive design(demo):
Our very first recording ever. Pretty much the same style as today but
obviously less technical. Personaly, I’m still very proud of it and I think
it’s a great effort for a band that only was 6 months old.
Reaper -99(demo): Recorded one
and a half year later it was a great improvment both musically and techniclly
and overall it was much more proffesional. And I guess the great production
we got in Abyss also helped.
Manifest of hate: The debut album.
I guess it turned out pretty good but we should have been better prepared.
Spending a weekend recording a demo is VERY diffrent from spending 2½
weeks in the studio. At the end we were pretty worn out and some things
really should have been done better. But, no use bitching about the past.
Whats done is done and overall I think it’s a great album.
Arts of desolation: The second
album. This time we were much better prepared, better rehearsed and more
confident. The material is much more focused since it was written in less
then half of the time we spent writing songs for “manifest...”. The recording
itself was so incredibly smooth and relaxed, leaving much time for some
serious drinking with the guys from Susperia who were recording the “Vindiction”
album at the same time. The only really time-consuming things were the
lyrics which were with the exception of two songs written in the studio,
and the bass which was pretty much improvised as we went along. We are
all very satisfied with the album and it’s definetly our best release so
far. But as alway there’s things that we would have done diffrently/better
today. That’s the musicians curse and blessing, never to be completly satisfied
and always striving to improve.
5.WHAT ARE YOUR LYRICS TALKING ABOUT?
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM? WHICH IS YOUR SOURCE OF INSPIRATION?
The lyrics deal with the different
tools of manipulation (DNA-manipulation, religion, propaganda, politics).
At least that’s how I see it. The lyrics are more critical towards society
in general but are written with lots of metaphores and symbolics. They
deal with what’s to come, the annihilation of earth by mankinds greed and
stupidity. Anders lyrics are a bit more about the dark side of religion
and stuff. I can’t say exactly what influences them but I guess books,
movies and real worldly events profide sufficiant inspiration.
6.HOW WAS YOUR COOPERATION WITH
CENTURY MEDIA ESTABLISHED? DID YOU HAVE ANY OTHER OFFERS FROM OTHER LABELS?
WHY DID YOU END UP SINGING TO CENTURY MEDIA?
We sent out “reaper -99” to many
recordlabels and we got like 6 or 7 replys. Among others, century media.
They contacted us less than a week after we sent the demo so I think they
were quite keen on singning us. The reason we went for century media was
because they seemed the most proffesional label. We had most frequent contact
with them and they could offer the largest studio budget. I guess there’s
always a risk of becoming “just another band” on a bigger label but we
were willing to take that chance and I think it payed off in the end.
7.WHY HAVE YOU SELECTED PETER TAGTGREN
AND HIS FAMOUS ABYSS STUDIOS TO RECORD YOUR CDS AND NOT JUST AN ORDINARY
OTHER NON - FAMOUS STUDIO? WHAT MORE DID YOU EPXECT HIM TO ADD?
First we must make one thing clear.
We’ve never recorded with Peter, his older brother Tommy has been responsible
for both of our albums and our second demo and deserves full credit for
them. Since both Tommys and Peters studios are in the same building, Tommy
sometimes wants a second opinion on the sound but Peter usually just says
that it sounds great. The reason we started recording there was because
Andres had recorded his other bands (Ominous) debut with Tommy and they
had only good things to say about it, and the production pretty much speaked
for itself. So we got in touch with Tommy and got a good deal for a weekend
of recording (this was for our second demo “reaper -99”). The sound turned
out great and the atmosphere was just wonderful and we all got along fine
so we thought there was no reason to try another studio. Sure, there are
cheaper studios around but Tommy always does a great job with his productions
and we’ve grown quite fond of each other, so our next album will also be
recorded with him.
8.YOU HAVE TOURED EUROPE WITH NILE,
THE HAUNTED AND CARNAL FORGE. COULD YOU SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCIES WITH US?
Well, looking back on it I´d
say it was a really good tour for us. Both Nile and The Haunted attracted
a lot of people so I guess we managed to spread our name and pull of some
good shows for those who didn’t know about us. Also, it was our first ever
tour and playing every night with three great live forced us to get our
act together, making us a better live-band. When compared to the tour we
recently did with Grave and an american band called Disinter, the Nile-tour
was better organised, had larger crowds and went much more smoothly. But...
the Grave tour was much more fun since it felt like every band was on the
same level, all helping out just as much and sharing the beer and everyone
got along better I think. It’s not like the Nile-tour wasn’t fun, it was
totally cool from start to finish but I’d say us Grave and Disinter connected
in a very special way that only men can do sometimes.
9.WHICH WERE THE REACTIONS OF THE FANS
AND PRESS ON YOUR LATEST RELEASE? WHICH WAS THE BEST AND WHICH WAS THE
WORST REVIEW YOU HAVE RECEIVED?
Actually I haven’t seen any really
bad reviews for “arts of desolation” yet, only average ratings which on
the other hand is the worst review a band can get. After all, if I read
a really, really bad review I think “I’ve got to hear this shit” and see
if it’s really that lousy. I mean, no bad reviews can ever change my taste
in music. If I think an album is good I think it’s good no matter how many
bad reviews it’s gotten... OK, let’s get back to the question: In other
(fewer) words, the reactions have been really good. Though everyone has
different views on wether it’s more melodic/more brutal than the last one
or more commersial, it seems most people thinks it’s a great album and
that’s enough to make us happy. The best and coolest review so far has
probably been from an e-zine called eSpudd. I can’t make it justice by
reciting just a little bit from it so... read it for yourselves: http://www.espudd.com/articles/music/forsaken.php?cat=musThe
worst... as I said we haven’t gotten any totally bad reviews for “Arts
of desolation” but there was this review in a swedish e-zine that totally
dissed “manifest of hate”. The cover was ugly, the production sucked, the
songs were utter crap and sounded the same and most of the riffs were totally
stolen. But since we got so many good reviews for “manifest of hate” we
can ignore bad reviews. After all, it’s just one persons opinion.
10.WHICH DO YOU THINK IS THE BEST AND
WHICH IS THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC? WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU NEED IMPROVEMENT?
I don’t know. The best part of
the music I think, is that it doesn’t have any dead spots. There’s always
intensity intense riffing going on and that’s really important to us. Not
nesseserily to play fast all the time but rather to make sure that every
single riff sounds cool. The worst part... we have had a hard time variating
the tempo of our songs. On “arts...” there’s at least some variations but
on “manifest...” pretty much all the songs have about the same bpm and
that’s a bit dull. We always seem to play as high tempo as we can but sometimes
that’s not the best thing to do. I blame Nicke for this. He always plays
drums like he’s got some electric shock thing up his ass, and he seems
to like it that way he he.
11.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T
ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC? WHICH SONG OF YOURS DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IDEAL
TO REPRESENT YOUR WORK?
I would probably have thrown myself
in front of a train or something... maybe not, but music is pretty much
the only thing I’m good at and it’s my nr. 1 motivation and inspiration
in this world. I guess I would have been working 9 to 5 as I do now. The
difference being that I would never have any tours, gigs, recordings and
other stuff to look forward to. In other words, no real fun... ever. My
life would be quite dull indeed.
The song I think represents the
way we sound in the best way is Collector of thoughts from “Manifest of
hate”. It has a little bit of everything, fast grind stuff, thashy parts,
melodic parts, slower heavy parts and technical parts. All of that pretty
much sums up what we are all about.
12.IF YOU HAD THE MONEY TO MAKE A PROPER,
EXPENSIVE VIDEO CLIP, HOW WOULD YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE?
With an unlimited budget I would
think it would be in the same way as the artwork on our albums. Very carnal
but without being gory, and very dirty and sort of ugly in a way. Perhaps
it would be a bit abstract and without a real story-line. Just these bizarre
creations of flesh, bone and metal, as lost souls terribly deformed and
crippled in their own nightmarish forms, condemned to suffer within themselves
for all of eternity... or something like that.
13.MANY EXTREME METAL BANDS EXPRESS
RACISTIC IDEOLOGIES. WHICH ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
Well, actually I haven’t seen much
of that. I guess that’s more common in the blackmetal scene which seems
to attract a lot of idiots. Racistic ideologies is nothing I’ll ever have
any part in and I think it’s just plain and utter stupidity. We are all
people, shaped by the enviroment we grow up in, and some simply grow up
to be morons. Every “race” has it’s fair share of assholes and I think
it all evens up in the end anyway.
14.IF YOU HAD THE ABILITY TO CHANGE
SOMETHING IN THE WORLD WHAT WOULD THAT BE?
Damn! These difficult questions!
I’ve already told you that too much thinking makes my brain hurt! ;) There
are actually a lot of things I would like to do, like erase techno-music
from the face of the earth or make The Forsaken bigger than The Beatles.
But since I’m such a goodhearted and unselfish person I’d wish for world
peace and maybe help save the enviroment as well... seriously! And I’m
not just saying that because I want to enter a “miss World” contest.
15.IF SOMEDAY YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO
MEET THE CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHICH WOULD YOUR BIGGEST QUESTION
BE?
Hmmmm... so many questions that
just pop into my head... The real story on Elvis. Is it true that there
is no Santa-Claus? Why don’t men understand women? What is the opposite
of a cow? No... I think I might ask about the life after death thing. Simply
put: What happens after you die? Is there an afterlife (will I go to hell
because I play death metal?)? And if so, what’s the point of this life
then?
16.IF TIME TRAVEL WAS POSSIBLE, WHICH
HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY? WHAT WOULD YOU MISS
THE MOST FROM OUR TIME?
I guess it would be pretty cool
to see some dinosaurs like 100 million years ago but in that case I’d probably
get eaten or something so I’ll pass on that one. I’d probably go back to
the 60’s because I’d be able to experiment with strange drugs and later
be a part of the metal/hard rock scene from the very beginning. Things
I’d really miss would be a guitar amp with a good and heavy distortion
sound because they sure as hell didn’t have them back then. And I’d also
miss my microwave a lot because I’m a lousy cook.
17.ARE YOU ANNOYED BY THOSE GUYS WHO
JUDGE THE ARTISTIC VALUE OF A RELEASE BY THE NUMBER OF COPIES IT SELLS?
Actually, I think it’s usually
the other way around. That most people seem to think the artistic value
of an album decreases with every copy it sells. I think that’s even more
stupid. If an album sells 1000 copies or 100000 it makes no diffrence because
it’s still the same album and sales figures does not make a bad album a
good album and vice verca. So yep, I’m annoyed by that kind of narrowminded
thinking but I tend to ignore idiocy whenever I encounter it.
18.WHAT PROLOGUE AND TITLE WOULD YOU
LIKE THIS INTERVIEW TO HAVE?
I thought that was your job to
do that :) but oki-doki...
Title: The Forsaken – Evil, in
league with Santa!
Prologue: Here is an interview
with Patrik, the slightly retarded but good looking guitarplayer from The
Forsaken.
19.THANK YOU!HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
I think you pretty much covered
all of the essencial questions and then some, but perhaps I should mention
that the next album will be recorded in june next year and will probably
be released in the autumn of -03 or something. Untill then, take care and
thanks for the (intresting) interview. Stay metal!
Christine Parastatidou
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