The Forsaken
Patrik, the band's guitarist and main composer is a good friend and a person really intelligent and with tons of humor. A while ago, The Forsaken released their latest album entitled "Traces Of The Past", which is one of the best releases I've heard lately, a real diamond that no fan of death metal should miss. Need to learn more? Here it is...
1.FIRST OF ALL CONGRATULATIONS FOR "TRACES OF THE PAST"! 
  • Thank you very much! We are very pleased with the album ourselves.
2.SO, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FORSAKEN FROM THE RELEASE OF "ARTS OF DESOLATION" TILL NOW? 
  • Oh, nothing much. Between albums we are pretty much locked in the rehersalroom trying to come up with the next album. Besides the tour we did in 2002 with Grave and Disinter nothing really happened for "Arts Of Desolation". It got good reviews and all but somehow I don't think it got that much attention. We did a few gigs in Sweden but that was pretty much it. "Traces Of The Past" was recorded in May 2003 and was released in Europe in November, unfortunately too early to be the most popular Christmas present. Anyhow it got good reviews and we went on yet another euro-tour with Soilwork. This was great for us since it was really well organized and we got the chance to play in front of people that probably hadn't heard of us before. Suprisingly we got better response than ever before on most of the venues. Why? Maybe our hard work is paying off or maybe we're just becoming a better live-band. Being a support act for such a big band means that you have to work twice as hard on stage to get half of the response when compared to the headliner. Still, being on tour with such a good band forces you to get your act together otherwise you will look like an idiot so it's really good. By the way, "Traces Of The Past" was just released in the US a few weeks ago, it'll be cool to see how it does over there.
3.IF I ASKED YOU TO PRESENT THE ALBUM YOURSELF, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL TO THE FANS? HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE IT? DO YOU THINK IT'S YOUR BEST RELEASE TO DATE? 
  • I don't know what I would tell the fans. Perhaps I would say that it is the most varied album we've done to date. It has everything that the previous albums have and then some. The fast songs are faster, the melodic songs are more melodic and the brutal songs will throw you face first into the wall even harder than before. Heh... of course it's the best release to date! I bet that was what Megadeth said when releasing an album like "Risk"... But seriously, the latest album is always the best to us because it sounds fresh when compared to the old albums. We try very hard to take each album to the next level when compared to the previous. In the end it's a matter of taste but personally I think this is the most complete album we've done so far. I'll probably say that about the next album as well.
4.WHY DID YOU ONCE AGAIN RECORD WITH TOMMY TAGTGREN IN THE ABYSS STUDIOS? AREN'T YOU AFRAID THAT YOU MIGHT SOUND TOO COMMON SINCE MOST OF THE BANDS NOWADAYS EITHER RECORD IN FREDMAN STUDIOS OR IN THE ABYSS? WOULDN'T YOU BE INTERESTED IN HAVING ANOTHER PRODUCER AND TRY ACHIEVING ANOTHER PERCEPTION OF YOUR SOUND OR ARE YOU AFRAID OF EXPERIMENTING? 
  • Sure, every studio has its own certain sound but on the other hand we've always gotten a different production every time we've visited Abyss so we don't really fear getting stuck in the same tracks. Besides, we really love recording in Abyss and we get a very familiar feeling when driving there, almost as if we've never left. We've had a great time recording every album and we've never been disapointed with the result so far. No, we aren't afraid of anything! Well, a certain bandmember who shall remain anonymous (*cough* drummer* cough*) is scared to death by spiders but that's another story. Perhaps we are a conservative band? It's true that you can get quite comfortable with old habits and perhaps sometimes that can hold you back. Recording an album is pretty serious business. You have a certain period of time in which you have to be able to perform your very best and everything has to add up. Needless to say sometimes things don't go your way. It's very important to be relaxed and to be able to ignore the pressure when the red button is lit. Even when working with someone we know very well things can get pretty tense when your trying to push everyone to their limit so we're a bit hesitant when concidering another studio and engineer because we know what we get with Tommy. Time will tell if we use another studio, we'll just have to see. 
5.WHY DID YOU NAME THE ALBUM "TRACES OF THE PAST"? IS IT THAT YOU SOMEHOW TRY TO SUGGEST THAT YOU TRIED ON THIS ALBUM A VOYAGE TO THE PAST AND TO THE MORE PRIMITIVE AND RAW SWEDISH DEATH METAL SOUND OR DOESN'T IT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOUR MUSIC? 
  • It was Anders that came up with the title this time. His concept behind the title was that history always repeats itself. Today, tomorrow, yesterday... in a hundred years our time will be reduced to being traces of the past. It's intimately connected with the lyrical theme we've had since the beginning, the gloomy, pessimistic view of the world that is presented in our lyrics. In a way it does have something to do with our music. Every album has had its fair share of "retro" riffs. We've always thought it was cool to mix stereotypical old school stuff with more contemporary sounding material. Sometimes when me or Stefan come up with a riff the other guys will say: "Hey... that sounds like Bolt Thrower" or Entombed, or Dismember or any old school band you can think of, and that's just cool with us. Take "God Of Demise" for instance. The intro riff sounds kind of like Bolt Thrower on speed. It should be seen as a tribute from us to them.
6.I WROTE IN MY REVIEW THAT YOU BELONG TO THE SWEDISH DEATH METAL SCENE, HOWEVER YOU ARE NOT A TYPICAL BAND. YOUR MUSIC COULD BE DESCRIBED AS A MORE TRADITIONAL AND OLD FASHIONED VERSION OF THE SWEDISH SOUND WITH AN INTENSE BLACK METAL TINGE AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU ARE ALSO DANGEROUSLY FLIRTING WITH THE AMERICAN BRUTAL DEATH METAL SOUND. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ON THAT COMMENT? DO YOU AGREE? 
  • Yes I can agree with that. Almost every band from Sweden has a certain touch to their music that sounds Swedish. I do think that our debut "Manifest Of Hate" was the one album that sounds more Swedish than the others, "Traces Of The Past" has a slight touch of Algeria. The black metal stuff comes from me 99% of the times. I like the black metal sound and it gives the music yet another dimension and a great contrast to the more chunky American style riffing. We pretty much try to squeeze in every style of music we enjoy listening to. Some of the solos have a sort of power metal feel to them and that is yet another way to give variation to a song.
7.NIKLAS SUNDIN IS REPSONSIBLE FOR THE BEAUTIFUL ARTWORK. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE HIM AND HOW IS THE COVER RELATED TO YOUR LYRICS? HOW WAS THE ARTWORK INSPIRED? 
  • The artworks for our albums have always been quite abstract, sort of a mental picture of the general feel of the album rather then pointing towards a certain topic. The covers always reflect the lyrics in one way or another and there are thousands of ways to interpert them and we like it that way. There is no absolute truth behind the covers, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. The detail I like most about the cover is the colorful sky in the background. Quite beautiful but completely barren, seemingly containing none of the needed ingredients for carbon-based life. Almost like the atmosphere of some distant uninhabitable planet or an oilspill on the waters surface. Visual beauty doesn't always represent positive things. A lesson this shallow world needs to learn. The artwork for "Traces Of The Past" was actually the first cover that wasn't finished before the albums was recorded. We gave Niklas the basic topics behind the lyrics and he came up with a few cover ideas. He constantly sent us sketches and we gave him feedback on them. So it was sort of a collaboration between us and Niklas, with him doing all the thinking and hard work and us arguing about whether the cover should be in shades of grey or neon-pink.
8.WHERE ARE YOUR LYRICS REFERRING TO THIS TIME? FROM WHAT I SEE MOST THE TRACK TITLES HAVE A CLOSE RELATION TO DEATH AND DEMISE. WHY? WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST IN THESE SONGS AND HOW WERE THESE TOPICS INSPIRED? 
  • I don't know. This has been something we've written about ever since our demo days. The lyrics are almost always neutral and describing rather than lecturing. The lyrics don't tell what is right or wrong, they just say this is you and this is the world as it is, was and will be. Inspiration can be found just by looking at what happens in the world today. For every course of action there is a reaction and this never ends. It's a downward spiral with every reaction getting more and more severe. Sure, there has been peaceful progress but it's just a drop of water in an ocean of blood. 
9.THE ALBUM CONTAINS A COVER OF METALLICA'S "BLACKENED". I THINK YOU COVERED IT INCREDIBLY AND YOU MANAGED TO OFFER IT A THE FORSAKEN TOUCH. HOW DID YOU ACHIEVE THAT AND HOW DID YOU SELECT THIS SPECIFIC SONG? 
  • The idea for covering this song came back when we recorded our second album "Arts Of Desolation". I'd always had this feeling that we could make a great cover of this song. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to do it so we recorded a simpler song, "Creeping Death" instead. The idea never left my mind though and when picking out covers for this recording session I suggested "Blackened". At first the others thought it was lame to do two Metallica covers, but I just kept arguing until they caved in to my demands. In all honesty we didn't change that much of the song. The guitars are pretty much the same, only faster. The big difference is the drumwork that got a stereoid-injection. 
10.A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO, YOU DID A SMALL TOUR. PLEASE SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH US... HAS ANY FUNNY OR WEIRD INCIDENT OCCURRED DURING THE TOUR? 
  • It was actually the biggest tour we've ever done... and you say small? That really hurts my feelings you know... ;-) Anyway, it was a six week euro tour with us as support band for Soilwork. It was fucking great and we did some of our best shows ever on that tour. Of course we got some lame responses as well but that's just the way it goes but overall it was really good. Some parts of the tour were quite suprising. We got great responce where we didn't expect it. In Norway for instance where we hardly sell any albums at all, we did three killer shows. Also most of the gigs in Great Britain were great, especially Scotland and Ireland. Well, there was the time when some of The Forsaken guys were a few minutes from getting arrested for indecent exposure. It was the night before the last gig and we wanted one hell of a crazy party. I don't know how but somehow we ended up naked on a gas station trying to buy snacks. For some strange reason the old lady behind the counter didn't see the humor in the situation and started yelling something in German at us. After an analyze of the situation we thought it would be best to leave at double speed. On the bus we found out that she had called the police and that there were secutity cameras in the shop. So there is a big risk there are X-rated videos of us ciruling the internet. Perhaps that will help us sell more albums?
11.IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN, YOUR BASSIST COULDN'T FOLLOW YOU, SO YOU HIRED AS A BASSIST THE LEADER AND MAINMAN OF NIGHTRAGE, MARIOS ILIOPOULOS. WHY COULDN'T STEFAN COME WITH YOU AND HOW DID YOU SELECT MARIOS? 
  • You are indeed correct. Stefan was just in the finishing stages of his education and couldn't take any time out if he wanted to graduate. So, we were left with the task of finding a replacement. At first we asked the guy that filled in on our fist tour but he coudn't make it. We put together a long list of candidates and asked Century Media Sweden if they knew anyone. They suggested we ask the Nightrage bassist. Unfortunally he had left the band, but we got in touch with Marios and asked him instead. He asked for some time to think about it and then called 10 minutes later and said he'd do it. It wasn't only the bassplayer that had to be replaced, Anders our vocalist had just started a new job a few weeks before the tour and couldn't take the time off. That's the downside to be in a deathmetal band. You need a job to have beside the music. Again we made a long list of possible replacements. One of them was Cribbe, the singer of a band called Portal we played together with a year ago that we by chance had bumped into at a gig in Malmö. We asked him and lucky for us, he accepted the task. So we actually went on tour and left 40% of the band at home. Anyway, both of the replacements did an amazing job and we owe them a lot for saving our asses.
12.DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR ANOTHER TOUR IN ORDER TO SUPPORT "TRACES OF THE PAST"? WHICH ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE? 
  • Nope, sadly it doesn't look like there will be any more touring for this album. We'd really like to tour the US or Japan sometime but we'll just have to wait and see. It doesn't look too good at the moment. Besides that we've got a couple of gigs in Sweden and on the steel meets steel festival (www.steelmeetssteel.de) in Germany and nothing more. We are in an intesnse songwritingprocess and we have something like 10 different songs we're working on. If they turn out good enough to make it to the next album remains to be seen.
13.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW? 
  • An emotion? A really slimy and ugly emotion for sure. An emotion appealing to the lowest possible sides of man. Hate, fear and apathy melted into one. If it were a painting it would be a blend of our albumcovers. Twisted and deformed bits of machinery and flesh in a nightmarish fusion. Mankind and its mechanical creations unsepearable as siamese twins.
14.IS THERE AN ELEMENT IN YOUR MUSIC YOU THINK YOU ARE OVERUSING AND YOU'D CONSIDER OF REDUCING IT ON YOUR NEXT ALBUM? IS THERE AN ELEMENT THAT YOU'D LIKE TO ADD IN YOUR MUSIC? 
  • Where are you getting at? Are you suggesting we overuse elements in our music, isn't that rude? I have to say I'm deeply offended! First you say we only do small tours and now you say we have no imagination. Is this an interview or are you just trying to make me feel sad? Just kidding... there's a fine line between over using something and having a special identity as a band. I think our trademark on the first two albums were the speed and intensity of the music, just full speed ahead most of the time. ”Traces Of The Past” is a little more liberal in that aspect, we try not only to focus on those things but rather have some songs that are more heavy and groove oriented, like "One more kill". I think there will be a bit more of that on the next album as well as some speed kills of course. We will always have fast songs as well. Another thing I can think of is the guitar solos that are in every song. I don't think that is something we'll be reducing that much because there are litterally a thousand different styles you can play when doing guitar solos and we always try to make the solos blend in with the music. Oh yes, we have drums in every song as well and I don't think we need to use them that much. I mean, every metalband has drums in their music and it's getting quite predictable. We will have a lot of drum-less songs in the future. 
15.IF YOU COULD BE AN IMPORTANT PERSONALITY FOR A DAY, WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE AND WHAT PERIOD OF HIS/HER LIFE WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE A TASTE OF? 
  • Oh goodie! I'd probably want to experience what it would be like to be one of the powerful egyptian pharaos. Somewhere between the age of 20-30 sounds OK. I would like to have a taste of ridiculous wealth and the feeling of having thousands of people worship you as a god. That would be cool wouldn't it? If I had to choose a living human... perhaps an important politician or EU-representative. I want to know what the hell they do all day long and if they, like I suspect they do, have weird kinky S/M… tastes after work. People with tight stuck up jobs are probably the ones that let loose the most after work hours.
16.WHICH REVIEW YOU READ DO YOU THINK DESCRIBES YOUR MUSIC THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY? WHICH REVIEW, ACCORDING TO YOU, HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR SOUND? IS THERE A COMMON STATEMENT YOU READ IN ALMOST ALL THE REVIEWS YOU RECEIVE? 
  • Oh... tough one. The thing I've learned by reading reviews is that music is very subjective, it all depends on the reviewers perspective. To a person who mostly listens to Power metal we might appear to be the most brutal band on the planet, and to someone who is into gore/grind stuff we are a melodic pop band. We've gotten reviews in every direction and gotten compared to most of the bands on the planet by now. I don't think I've ever 100% agreed with a review even when we've gotten a perfect score. And when you think about it, it's quite natural that it is like that because no reviewer can ever hear the songs the way we in the band do. And there's nothing wrong with that, quite the opposite. I love the fact that music is something that isn't absolute, it's not mathematics, it's something more abstract. There's really no such thing as bad music, only the wrong kind of listeners. Though I sometimes doubt this theory when listening to the radio. As I said, we've gotten many different reviews, and I know I said music is subjective and blah blah blah... but some reviews make you wonder if they actually listened to the music, or if they ate some strange mushrooms before listening to it. There was one review where we got compared with Arcturus... that whole review made me look like a big questionmark. 
17.WHICH WORDS DO YOU THINK COULD DESCRIBE IN THE MOST IDEAL WAY YOUR MUSIC AND THE BAND IN GENERAL? 
  • The music? I've always had the opinion that music never can be described in words in a good way, much in the same way a visual impression never can be retold in the exact same way as the real thing. If I say "death metal" some people will think of Cannibal Corpse and some will think of Carcass and some who are way off will think of David Hasselhoff. The only way to get the picture is to listen to the music, so I really don't have any good answer to this question. As for the band, we are much easier to describe: A bunch of stupid metalheads. So there!
18.THANK YOU! LEAVE YOUR MESSAGE TO THE READERS AND TO THE FORSAKEN FANS ALL AROUND THE WORLD... 
  • A big metal-sign to all those who made the Soilwork tour so memorable, you rule! And a big thanks to you Christine for this interview though it didn't have any questions about my favourite color or anything. Maybe next time. Check out "Traces Of The Past" because it's worthy of your time and money. Cheers!
Christine  Parastatidou

 
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