ANGEL BLAKE

Dark rock is in our DNA

-So far you have been mostly associated with such bands as THE CROWN or IMPIOUS. What has turned your attention on dark rock? What do you find there so attractive for you?
I don´t really know. It seems like Finnish and nordic people seem to prefer minor keys instead of major. Maybe it´s in our DNA. But I really hit it on with sounds from Paradise Lost, Katatonia, Kent, Muse, Woven Hand, Type O Negative, Sentenced etc... I tried to include these types of influences into The Crown, sometimes it worked, but mostly it didn´t, I guess mainly because of the Death Metal vocals. For me this „dark rock” expresses something personal, something that has a lot of honesty and heart. Lyrically the themes tend to end up as sad stories with a personal touch, that´s simply just something that I embrace.

-With ANGEL BLAKE you made a step in a new direction. Reached some new fans maybe. Don't you have a fear that this band may be considered as „betrayer”, especially by your old fans? Do you care of their opinions?
There was a lot of talk about sell-out and shit like that when the debut was released. I really don´t get it. AB is selling maybe 20% of what Crown sold, and is basically an unknown band. I think that if I would have tried to continue Crown style and tried to ride the „success” we had, name the band Deathexplosion or something like that, then it would have definitely been about selling-out. What people don´t understand is that I made it very difficult for my self to kind of „start from scratch”. I choose the more difficult road, and why? Simply because I felt for it, I had to do it. The music that was coming out of me after the Crown splitup was Angel Blake music. And I really wanted to explore the world of writing music with vocal lines, that´s something I have never done before. I simply felt a need to do something new, something that felt creative and fresh.

-Over the last few years the quality in extreme genres of metal has drastically gone down and most of contemporary death, black metal bands could make the world a much better place by never recording, playing or releasing. That's another reason why you decided to continue your career in a new direction? Did you get bored with extreme metal?
I don´t want to create Death Metal with other people than my Crown homies, so I choose to put my Death Metal thinking into hibernation, and when the time comes my Death Metal will explode and kill!!! Watch out for Dobermann in 2009!!! I wouldn´t say I`m bored with extreme metal, the thing is that all the new music I hear, it just doesn´t move me. I LOVE Death Metal, and trust me when I say I´ll be the first in line to get the new Morbid Angel album with David on vocals.

-THE CROWN was considered as the leading act of Scandinavian melodic death- thrash metal scene, one of the genre's originators. How do you see the status of ANGEL BLAKE in your „weight category”? Would it be possible to make this band so big?
I guess it would be possible. But then it would mean that I would need to really promote Angel Blake like hell. Do 200 shows/year and live like a dog on the road. I´ve done that before, and that is nothing that interest me anymore. My focus lies in making as good albums as possible, then I leave the rest to the rec.label. If they find a good tour for Angel Blake, I´m up for it. But I don´t wanna tour the europe in a van playing for 70 people every night, and come home in debt. Been there, done that, no more.

-Actually, how does the fact that you're ex- member of well known Swedish metal band help you to establish ANGEL BLAKE in music industry?
Sure, it helped a lot. Today it´s really really difficult to get signed, since if you´re not In Flames, you don´t sell albums. The Torrents killed the bands. It sure helped to get noticed and it gave me a better chance to get the labels listening to my music.

-Your previous album was released by Metal Blade. The second one is unleashed by Dynamic Arts Records. Weren't Germans satisfied with selling figures or what? Why did you decide to change your record label?
The Germans were satisfied, but the US department were not. They said that „only metal core sells nowadays”, so the US department were not interested in continuing the teamwork. But they were interested in still keeping the rights to the new music and release it digitally. I just thought that it sounded insane to have physical albums for sale in Europe and only in digital form in the US, wich is like half of the planet. So I asked for a release notification, and got it. Then I made a demo and send it to some labels, and Dynamic Arts showed the biggest enthusiasm to it.

-OK, what are your expectations with the new album release and plans to promote it as much as possible? How's everything looking at the moment?
Right now I`m doing interviews to promote it. And the album just got released in Japan as well. Unfortunately Dynamic Arts has no power in the music scene, so they can´t get interviews in big important magazines like Rock Hard, Hammer etc. Sad but true. Maybe I´ll forget all about labels for the next album, and offer it for free on the internet. I´m seriously thinking about it... I´m tired of record labels...

-The last words are yours. Thank you very much for the interview and another injection of great music coming from ANGEL BLAKE!
Thanx for the support man! I´m glad you liked the album. I have already started writing new material and I`m very sure you´ll like the more „focused” style of Angel Blake. Peace.

www.angelblake.com

Line Up:
Tobias Jansson - vocals
Marko Tervonen - guitar
Anders Edlund - bass
Örjan Wressel - contrabass, backing vocals
Janne Saarenpää - drums

Discography:
Angel Blake (2006)
The Descended (2008)