ANGEL BLAKE

Dark rock is in our DNA

For those of you who haven't heard anything about ANGEL BLAKE- this is a Swedish band founded in 2004 by guitarist Marko Tervonen formerly known from the legendary death thrash metal killers THE CROWN. After the break-up, Marko decided to form his solo project and explore a darker side of heavy/ rock music under a name inspired by one of the DANZIG's classic songs from "I Luciferi" album. The debut album entitled "Angel Blake" was released in 2006. All the instruments for that record were performed by Marko, only vocal duties were handled by session vocalist Tony Jelencovich. The second full length release (recorded in a regular line up featuring new vocalist, bassist, drummer and ... contrabassist) hit the stores a few months ago. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to talk to Marko the more so because "The Descended" is not only one of my favorite albums of 2008, but also one of the best in dark rock genre from years...

-Hi Marko! How are you doing today? Hope that everything is going fine! Thanks for taking some time and giving me a chance to talk to you. I hope not to disappoint you with my questions regarding ANGEL BLAKE and some other things...ha ha...First of all, let me ask you a few questions concerning your new album „The Descended” which was released in October 2008. What has the response for this new album been so far? Are you pleased with all the reactions your new album has gotten to date?
I think the album turned out really good. And the response has been good as well. There´s still people complaining that it doesn´t sound as The Crown, and that is getting a bit old to be honest.

-How about your personal opinion concerning „The Descended”? Are you satisfied with every single note and word put on this album in one hundred percent? Or have you already started throwing curses and complaining about some mistakes here and there?
I´m cursing everything..hahah. But I have always felt that about everything I have recorded, not only my bands but other bands that I have produced. Usually a few months after an album is done, you start to grow some distance to it, and you see things a bit differently. You start to get ideas listening to the music with fresh ears, not neccessary better ideas, but different. I guess it´s the human nature to never be satisfied...

-I know your first album „Angel Blake” quite well since I was listening to it many times, too many I guess. I think it's a perfect soundtrack for long winter evenings, but... OK, let me explain it that way- your new effort is a WAY better from the debut one. To tell the truth, I can't stop to listen to „The Descended”. It surpasses its predecessor in every way. Can you agree with me?
I must say that I do. I`m still proud of the debut album, but this one has a better unity to it. The debut consisted of about 60% old ideas, ideas that never fitted to The Crown. So I started writing „Descended” sort of from scratch, and you can tell that the sound has improved. Also the contribution of Tobias vocally made a drastic improvement.

-Where do you see main differences music- wise, comparing your new album to the debut one? What are the common elements?
Basically the stuff I mentioned above. And also productionwise it turned out better in every way. I managed to get some new toys to my studio, so everything turned out a few notches more pro.

-It appears to me that your music on "The Descended" has become even more rock-oriented, compared to you self-titled debut album from 2006. Was it your goal to follow that way or it just...happened...?
I guess the songwriting + arrangements are more straightforward. And I really tried to make good catchy choruses. My mind is set up on continuing the next album with the more „in your face” song styles, like „Anywhere but here”, „Defenseless”, The Decended”... I really like that style.

-Could you try to describe the atmosphere of your new album compared to your previous effort? I got the impression that lyric- wise „The Descended” is at least as dark as „Angel Blake”, if not darker...
Yeah. Angel Blake has really grown into a private sphere where I can simply just ventilate my emotions. I´m a sucker for melancholic music like Paradise Lost, Katatonia + Sentenced. And since the music turned out to be a bit melancholic, the lyrics that comes out of me tends to follow the same path. It´s basically a matter trying to find the right lyrical feel to increase the impact of the music.

-„The Descended” has a very strange artwork. Would you mind telling me something about that picture and the idea behind?
I´ll let the artist Claudio Bergamind answer this one: „The concept this time, is a tricky one. The voyage from this life to the next one... the transition from the plane of the living to the plane of the dead. How we as culture and in our minds deal with that concept; with that permanent situation that generate infinite questions and very few answers..." The idea was to approach the subject as poetically as possible but with a very blant modern aesthetic. For that purpose I took inspiration from ancient greek mythology (that's a new one uh?). Greeks believed that Charon took the newly dead across the river Styx (or Acheron in christian mytholgy). A river that separates the world of the living from the underworld or Hades. Styx it is said winds around Hades nine times. Despite modern connotations about Hades being Hell or evil, in greek mythology was a place where all mortals go to be judged after death and are either rewarded or cursed. A place of contemplation if you will... I like that idea. Charon (Caronte in latin) is the first character to appear in Dante's Inferno (Divina Comedia, Canto Dell'Inferno, 1308). King Diamond wrote a song about him in his album "Fatal Portrait" (1986). This image however, is a very personal approach to the mythos. I combined several ancient concepts, placed them in a modern everyday enviroment and played with the idea of both planes being on top of each other or using the same space, but in different frecuencies. The dead can see the living, but not the other way around. For some reason that idea send shivers down my spine. For Charon, I used the modern archetypical representation of the Angel of death or Grim Reaper (although it might represent The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come to some of you) just because I knew no one would've been familiar with the greek's or christian's original depictions of Charon... not even Dante's version of him. Besides this is a METAL cover... XD. The design for the boat is greek (1500 BC), and historically acurate... you can check on that. So I guess all of this is my way of saying that death being just a transition, it's something I will face alone... this is true today as it was 3000 years ago.”

-The new album features 10 songs of.... Ok, I don't want to put your music in boxes, but it's quite fair to describe ANGEL BLAKE's as a jigsaw puzzle of influences coming from various rock, gothic and metal genres. Is there a better way to describe your music to someone who never got an opportunity to listen to it?
I use to answer this question like: If you´re familiar with The Crowns music, and enjoy the more heavier songs like „Dead Man´s Song”, „In Memoriam”, „Bow To None”, „Death by my side”, I´m sure you´ll find some tunes of Angel Blake to your likening. But If you´re not familiar with The Crown, I would say that if you´re into the heavy side of Sentenced, Paradise Lost, Pain to mention a few, I´m sure you´ll digg it. The main sound of Angel Blake is midtempo metal. Heavy, melancholic and catchy.

-„The Descended” album offers a great variety of songs, from direct and heavy cuts („Anywhere But Here”, „Defenseless”), through epic pieces („When All The Lights Are Out”, „You'll Never Need To Feel Again”) to even more mellow, almost ballad tracks („In Silence”, „Silent Voice”). Listening to so many various songs I get the feeling this album is maybe quite incoherent. How do you respond to that?
I usually don´t make up a plan before I start writing music, like „I need 5 fast ones, 1 instrumental, 1 ballad etc etc.” I simply just write the music that pops up into my head. And when I have 10-11 good songs, I hit rec.

-There's actually one particular band that's continuously coming to my mind while listening to „The Descended”. I mean Finish SENTENCED. I think their recognizable music style shines through your new release. How about that?
I totally agree. I´m a huge fan of Sentenced. And i guess it´s the Finnish DNA that unites us there. I simply feel „home” listening to Sentenced, it´s sort of „my style”.

-BTW, „Silent Voice” sounds almost like SCORPIONS' classic ballad track „When The Smoke Is Going Down”. Actually, listening to the vocal melodies on the verses I would say that's a plagiary...Of course it's not since the other parts of the songs sound completely different. But that little coincidence only proves a theory that almost everything in music has already been said and it's pretty hard to come up with something completely fresh and unique. Can you agree with that opinion?
This is a funny one. I remember when the album was done, and I played it to a friend of mine. When we got to the „Silent voice” song he started raising his eyebrows, and saying „But this is Scorpions”. I was like „wha?”. The thing is, for about 15-17 years ago I listened to Scorpions a lot, I was a big fan. And when he pointed out that „smoke is coming down” melody, I almost died of chock. This was totally a „theft” that was made unconsiously. For some reason I never noticed this during pre-production. But I do remember when I wrote the song I felt like „damn, this sounds like a classic ballad”, my mind was set on writing something of a „bay-area” type of song like Sanitarium or Return to Serenity. A sort of ballad type of writning that I haven´t heard in a while, I wanted to bring that back a bit.

-As I said you before, I've been a fan of this band. If I promise to follow ANGEL BLAKE in the future, where is this dark entity going to lead me? How do you see the future of this band? What should we expect on your 3rd, 4th and 5th album?
Like I mentioned earlier, to the more „heavy” side. I think that´s the strength of Angel Blake, more energetic songs with catchy hooks. I have actually for the first time in my life made up a plan how to continue my musical journey. I´ll attempt to guide my self a bit more. As mentioned, the midtempo metal songs will be released as Angel Blake. And the really soft ones like „In Silence”, „”Autumnal”, „ ...´til the end”, „Solitude my friend” etc will be released under the name „Lady Mourning” with female vocals. This is a really new band, but check out www.myspace.com/ladymourningmusic for more info. And when the Death Metal monster inside craves some uber Death Metal, then those ideas will go to Dobermann. You´ll hear more about this infernal band during 2009.

-Vocalist Tobias Jansson is the newest addition to ANGEL BLAKE's line up. His vocal parts on „The Descended” are just brilliant! Toby seems to be more versatile as vocalist, compared to your former singer Tony Jelencovich and in my personal opinion he has more „natural predispositions” to sing in a rock band. He's like a incarnation of Axl Rose and Rob Halford in one. You know what I mean?
Yeah, I agree. His favourite singers are legendary rock singers from the 70´s, and modern singers like Eddie Vedder. The „real” singer types. Tobias is very very versatile and I´m looking forward to exploring more of his vocals for the next album.

-By the way, why did you part ways with Tony?
Let´s just say that this decision had to be made to secure the future for Angel Blake.