DIABOLICAL

Manifest your rage

-The album booklet features some purely amazing paintings of Matthias Esterberg which is definitely worth underlined here. The majority of albums' graphics released these days base on digital Photoshop graphics. Personally I don't have anything against Photoshop, there are so many incredible digital graphics made on this software, but still love these traditional forms of visual arts, such as oil paintings. They are usually more soulful, compared to digital ones. Would you agree on that?
Carl: No. Actually, the most part of the paintings in the booklet are made digitally. They are made not only from Matthias' paintings. The thing I did was that I begun making the images for the booklet by mixing photography and digital painting. A very talented photographer named Olof Elm helped me to take photos of models that became the basis for the images of the booklet. I then painted on top of those photos to turn the models into demons, undead and creepy figures. Then I sent those images to Matthias who projected the images onto canvases and painted them old school style. He then scanned his paintings and I brought them back into Photoshop and mixed his versions with mine, to get a classic painting feel to the artwork. So what you see in the booklet is actually photography, classic oil painting and modern digital painting coming together...I can agree that oil paintings can have a lot of soul, but that doesn't necessarily mean that digital art hasn't. There are many talented digital artists out there and they mostly do art that is significantly different from classical painters work. Both technically of course, but also thematically. I think it's unfair to compare them because they are very different artforms with their own qualities. However, I can agree that you find far more soul if you go to the Louvre compared to browsing through galleries of gfxartist.com. But once again it's an unfair comparison. I have done both oil painting and digital painting myself, and I can say one thing for sure: it's extremely helpful to use Ctrl+Z when you paint digitally. Wish there was some way to do it when painting with oil!

-I'd also love to know some more about the artist. So, could you tell me some more about Matthias Esterberg, his works and so on? How did you get in touch with him?
Carl: Sverker has known him for many years and he’s a good friend of ours. I was a natural choice to let him do the classically painted parts of the artwork. I think he did a great job and the result was very pleasing.

-Now I'd like to ask about the lyrics since I get the impression they are as much important for DIABOLICAL as the music. Lyrics on the new album are long and pretty much involved... What is the general message your new album stands for? The meaning behind its title?
Carl: The overall concept of the album is about vengeance. It appears in sevral of the lyrics and title track is about not being able to retaliate on your antagonists and instead manifest your rage within yourself. There are other topics within the lyrics as well, so if you enjoy studying the dark corners of human existance just dive in and enjoy.

-Are you serious in your straightforward anti-christian, anti-relligious attitude?
Pär: We are serious about getting our thoughts out there, whether it's about the ultimate end or if it's things and ideologies that question your way to get there.

Carl: The answer to your question is yes.

-In February/ March you will be touring Europe together with UNLEASHED, BELPHEGOR and DEVIAN. What should your fans expect from DIABOLICAL? Are you going to open the gates of hell on stage, or rather focus on playing everything correctly?
Pär: Our primary goal is to play the songs as well as on the records and after that we just put up a show. And as it feels at this moment, it's gonna be quite a show.

Carl: We have built up a lot of frustration and aggression being away from the stage for so long. Now all we want to do is wipe out everybody’s ears with a hellish death metal onslaught and mosh ourselves into oblivion together with the crowd.

-Some killer songs from your new album will be definitely featured in your setlist. Are you going to present some of your old hits as well?
Pär: Oh yes, of course. The past will not be forgotten. I can not tell you more than that though, you'll have to come and see a show to hear the songs.


Carl: The fans always appreciate when we play our old hits. We wouldn’t want to make anyone disappointed.

-OK, what's next? Do you have any concrete plans for the second part of 2009, to promote the album in a best possible way?
Pär: The main goal is to promote the album to the fullest, after that it's pretty open ground for writing more material for another record.

-How about the next DIABOLICAL album? What and WHEN should we expect?
Pär: The thing you should expect is pure metal of death. In one way or another. It can have twist of anything, you can't really know before you hear it. We already have material done which might be unveiled on the "Hammer Battalion North Tour".

-How do you actually see the future of your music? Is there a chance that sometime you'll record a totally surprising album featuring some elements that you have never used before?
Pär: Well, the future is your only answer. I think everything we do will be influenced by new sights and new paths to follow musicwise.

Carl: We have added new elements to our music on this album, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we kept doing that. We constantly try to develop the sound that we have and time shall tell how it will evolve. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll freak out on acid and start adding synth pop and bebop jazz influences.

-What is the current status of DIABOLICAL on the metal scene? You know, listening to your newest offering I think you deserve a lot more respect and attention than ninety percent of so called leading metal bands...
Pär: Thank you, it's appreciated. Anyhow, the reviews for "The Gallery Of Bleeding Art" have been, overall, really good so far.

Carl: We will constantly progress and continue making cutting edge death metal. If people like it we will gladly take the lead and show everybody how the strings should be strummed.

-You are definitely one of the most underrated bands coming out of Sweden... Any particular reason for this?
Pär: Well, as I think both you and I have thought, "The Gallery Of Bleeding Art" revealed a new, expanding, part of us which was not seen on the previous albums, and hence the future is before us.
A lot of bands from Sweden get recognition but that's mostly for the clear reason of making music that fits our time. Our goal is to create music that fits us, not the time we live in.

-Is there anything specific you want to achieve with DIABOLICAL?
Pär: My own goal with playing in Diabolical is to get my musical vein totally out there. I think it is very inspiring to play with each and every one of my fellow members and they all have a big part in contributing to the full sound of the group right now. We want the part of the world that's ready to hear it, and those who are not ready... to hear it anyway.

-Thanx for the interview and unholy blessings for your brand new effort. It killzzzz! You can compliment me now. Any words of wisdom?
Pär: First of all I want to thank you for the opportunity for us to make this interview. And to all who know Diabolical and who have supported us through the last 13 years : Keep supporting the metal of death and we'll see you soon on tour!

www.diabolical.se
www.myspace.com/religionist

Line Up:
Sverker Widgren - Vocals/Guitar
Carl Stjärnlöv - Guitar
Tobias Jansson - Guitar
Pär Ivy - Drums

Discography:
Deserts Of Desolation (EP 2000)
Synergy (2001)
A Thousand Deaths (2002)
The Gallery of Bleeding Art (2008)