EVOCATION

We have nothing to loose

-In 2004 Breath Of Night Records released a compilation of your old demo tapes called just „Evocation”. At that time the band was still dead, but at the end of 2004 you decided to reform EVOCATION. It looks like if those old re-released tapes sent you flying. Did it affect your decision to start rehearsing?
First of all it was because we got so good reviews all over the world with our over ten year old material, it was amazing we could not believe it. The pressure from fans and magazines was out of this world, so we said what the fuck this might be our last chance ever to finally release something worth space in our diaries, our last chance to close the old book the right way. Marko, Vesa and Janne went down to Lake Of Tears studio and used their equipment just to try the old stuff out again, they were blown away the second time and asked me if I were interested and of course I was. Evocation was my greatest and best memory of all time when I was young. But also thanks to all the people around the world, we are back and we are horny as hell.

-Could you describe the atmosphere in the band, when you re- started?
It was fantastic, some of us haven´t seen each other for almost a decade. I think I saw Vesa once over, at least 6-7 year period. Marko didn't even have a single guitar string left and Janne not even drumsticks. Loads of laughs and loads of bullshit, and of course so much memories from the old days to share again. It felt like yesterday the second rehearsal together. Pretty soon we noticed exactly the same kind of developing as before, none of us are shy to one another so it´s kinda easy writing together. The atmosphere is amazing and we have so much fun together still, but what you know we might kill each other as well some day. I hope I kill Vesa, Janne kills Marko and Tore kills me and then Janne and Tore starts with football instead. Of course we don´t take anything for granted but as for the moment it works out just fine, I hope it will continue for a very long time.

-The first regular album „Tales From The Tomb” was released in 2007. On that album you managed to capture perfectly both aggression and atmosphere known from most famous Swedish death metal albums from the 90's. Was it a challenge?
Yes, first full length album ever together for us. The challenge was not the music and writing it was physically hard on us, god damn. Janne playing double kicks hardly breathing gasping for air, Vesa and Marko stiff in both fingers and arms. Tore`s first death metal recording ever and me with constant headaches and sore throat and I was off the beat so many times (I was not use to it anymore) that Vesa almost shot me on the spot several times. At this time I had not been singing in a studio since 92 and my first time in life were I am writing almost all the lyrics on my own. Now a dream came through though, I rarely wrote lyrics in Evocation 92´and now I was responsible for a big thing. The hunger I got for more, when the guys told me I did a really god job, so did they of course. It turned out great for everyone and we were on the hook. We got really great credits for tales from the tomb all over the world. After that we said fuck it, it´s now or never. Why it sounds in a certain way I cannot explain, we started writing new material from were we once stopped. Fair start we think. But of course we wanted the sound and production to be a wake up call for the whole business, as well as for us.

-Listening to „Tales From The Tomb” is like sitting in a time machine and going back to time when Swedish death metal was born. What is interesting, the album features a cover song of ENTOMBED's „But Life Goes On” which suits the other tracks very well...
First of all Entombed has been of very big importance not only for Evocation but also for the whole world´s death metal scene same goes for Unleashed, At The Gates, Dismember and many more. We belong to the Swedish style wich many people prefer to call it; we think that this is what death metal should be all about. We have it in our blood. For us using but life goes on is showing Entombed how much we appreciate them as well as to show that the old style don´t need to die. It is all about the music and not the masks, spikes or even nut squeezing hallelujah vocals on every chorus. The thing is we just started at the very same spot we once finished it all, we don´t know better I guess ;) And if our songs have the very same quality, man we are happy about it. Entombed/Daddy.

-The album featured a stunning artwork made by Dan Seagrave- the guy responsible for artworks of most classic death metal albums. How did you get in touch with the legend?
It was quite easy actually. We mailed him and asked if he was interested. He wanted some music and the title of the album so we sent him some stuff and told him to name a price. He said yes and gave us the price; we said ok, sounds great. This is also a hymn to the guy we grew up with him as well, he has our fully respect. The best with his art is all the details, it´s like reading a book or see a movie. The paintings has so much details that you can look at it for hours while listening to the album over and over again and you would still find new stuff.

-After one year you are back, with another lesson of Swedish violence. The feedback for this new effort entitled „Dead Calm Chaos” has been overwhelmingly positive so far. As you said, when you were working on this new material you really knew it's gonna be a good album, nevertheless the response for it has surprised you a lot. How does it feel to be blessed by such well-known and magazines as Metal Hammer, Close Up, Legacy or Rock Hard?
This is not what we had in mind a couple of years ago; it is still beyond our wildest dreams. We knew we could make pretty cool music together but never this. It feels amazing of course, and we think it´s so nice to have this new kind of hunger for music and life it self again. Today, even if you get really nice reviews it doesn't have to mean something. People don´t buy music anymore they download instead and that´s fine for me actually. What we need to do is tons of live shows over and over again. I think after many years of touring, festivals and single shows we might look upon it and see it in an objective way. Personally the good reviews make us hungry and willing to sacrifice what ever to do this 100%, and it´s great that even the new audience and young people like it as well. We try to do as many interviews as possible and as long as there is a need for us we will do shows, otherwise we stay in the studio to do music together and enjoy spending time together. To get away from families, work and all the responsibilities that we still need to be a part of to get food on our table.

-Personally, I'm also quite surprised with all those compliments concerning your new album, especially those ones coming from big, major magazines. Of course, „Dead Calm Chaos” features all the best elements of so called Swedish style, this is definitely a very good and solid album, but it has nothing to do with all those popular trends mostly promoted by big magazines themselves. It's still more like an underground piece of shit, can you agree?
I really hope that people stand by our side no matter people call it underground or not. For us this is our second full length album and it contains blood, sweat and tears as well as laughs, love and devotion. We make music mainly because it feels so good. We also think that people should never expect anything from us because we´ll do what ever we feel like anyway. The only thing that still makes the album underground would probably be because of our record company are still quite small, and we have yet not the distribution we would have needed, at least we have the internet. If we make it the long way, and the record company grows with us and we pick up devoted fans from the start it would be perfect. We think it is important for us to do all the stuff the other bands have to do as well, all the dirty work. We don´t wanna wake up one day, we want to grow slowly but steady.

-As „Tales From The Tomb”, also the second album was recorded at Evocation Studios. Could you tell me something about that place? Is it your own recording studio or maybe this names' convergence is just accidental?
It is our own studio with full facilities and it is our so called tribe nest, were we create and record. There we record everything from hard core porno movies to music and workout shows. We all are involved in most of the stuff.

-The album artwork was made by Travis Smith and I think he perfectly captured the album atmosphere. Can you agree? By the way, destroying angel's statues is sooo typical for Swedish boys...
It was mainly my idea. Last angel on earth, fallen apart and time is eating her slowly, none even bother to clean the area up. She may also be the sign of and shattered soul, the way that many people might feel inside when life doesn't seem to be on our side all the way. I found her in an old nearby graveyard not far from my home here in Gothenburg. I was out taking fresh air and I was looking for angels that Travis could use, and found this tombstone on wich she was standing and I could not believe my eyes. She was perfect; she was also eaten up by time, the wings was broken and no flowers at the old grave. Her left eye was broken and missing and some parts of her wings were also gone in a natural way. She had really nice scars and cracks all over the body. We all worked it out with Travis until the final result. Yes, I also think the cover works out fine with the music. So nice of you to say that by the way...

-The album features some special guests. Anders Björler from THE HAUNTED played some guitar parts in songs like „Razored To The Bone” and „Angel Of Torment”, Dan Swanö appeared in „Antidote”. How much did you pay for their appearances?
Well both of them were pretty easy to convince for some reason, to our surprise!?! Both of them are kings in extreme metal, they are so powerful in what ever they do, we do really admire them. Same for Gustaf Jorde who did guest vocals on „Tales From The Tomb”, his vocals are lovely. Anyway we went to see a The Haunted concert here in Gothenburg, and after the show Marko and Janne asked Anders if he was interested, and to our surprise he said yes, no problem guys. Since Dan gave us so nice words for the „Tales...” album, we thought he might be interested as well. First he said that he probably would not have the time. Nevertheless, he wanted to give it a chance and hear what we had in mind. So we thought that the end of Antidote would suit him just fine. I guess he thought so as well, he wrote back the other day and said hell yeah, to our surprise as well. Though Dan charged us 50 Euros.

-Musically, lyrically, what differs „Dead Calm Chaos” from „Tales From The Tomb”? Do you see any major differences?
For me this album is more personal, I think the other guys stand behind it as well. „Tales From The Tomb” is more like the past, we created that one upon skills. „Dead Calm Chaos” is what Evocation produce after grown together again. It is now when we start to be more involved and gained more routine. Now we just have to keep on growing I guess and time will tell in the end. The lyrics might be more painful for some to read but also they might even make you stronger in the end, it is their main purpose. Musically we all have of course developed a lot and we are a lot more mature in our writing and working, both in the studio and outside, the doors are open.