| Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: With Torchbearer being newly conceived only a year ago and just signed to Metal Blade and a great new release in “Yersinia Pestis”, what are your hopes in conquering the masses? I would say you’re off to a great start! Par Johansson: Well, I’m not sure what I should say on that one. To be flatly modest I have to say I just hope we can expand in a good enough place, which we’re not naming to be the biggest death metal band of the planet or so. Hopefully we’ll gain more and more fans and make more and more extreme music. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: “Yersinia Pestis” was an organism responsible for the plague and originated in the 6th century that caused millions of deaths. I’m curious as to why this particular matter was chosen when naming the album as well as much of the lyrical content bordering this subject as well? Par Johansson: When we started to write for the album, me and Christian one of the guitarists discussed different concepts for the album because we both felt that we wanted to do a concept album and most likely we will keep doing concept albums at least for the next one also. We had discussed some different themes and after some pondering, we settled for the “plague” theme as it has quite a lot of material to cover. As you say, I think there’s only one lyric that’s not related to the plague on the album which is “Bearer of The Torch”. I should add also, about half of the songs are based upon actual historical events like “Thus Came Dying Unto Kaffa” and while the other half are more like fictional, short horror stories relating to the plague in different shapes and forms. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: I see that you wrote all the lyrics for the new album. When writing for the new release, did you have a basic storyline in mind or was it something that just developed? Par Johansson: As a matter of fact, it all developed quite fast. I sat down with some books on the plague and wrote a little here and a little there. Actually, some of the lyrics were not complete before we were in the studio so it was very fast and quite painless. Still I guess I should add there are no bullshit lyrics. When I say we wrote them in the studio, you might get the impression that they were just like blah, blah, blah, but they were not. (Laughs) Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: While in the studio for “Yersinia Pestis” you had “Jonas Kjelgren” (Carnal Forge and Centinex) do the mix as well as help produce. What affected your decision in using his studio as well as letting him contribute to the album and had you worked with Jonas previously? Par Johansson: I personally have not worked with Jonas but some of the other guy’s are all from different other band’s and they had worked with him before and I guess that was the basic idea behind why we picked him. He’s a really good guy and he’s an up and coming guy. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: You recorded and mixed at “Black Lounge Studios” but then decided to master at “Tailor Maid Studios”. What made the band decide to change studios for the mastering? Par Johansson: As a matter of fact, I have no idea. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: (Laughs) Oh, ok because some studios don’t have the mastering facilities so that’s why I kind of figured. Par Johansson: (Laughs) Well I guess that’s a good reason why. (Laughs) I really don’t know the discussions behind why we chose exactly Tailor Maid as I had already gone back to the north of Sweden. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: With two guitarists already in the band, why did the band feel the need to bring in an additional guitarist for leads on certain tracks when entering the studio? Par Johansson: This is really a question for the guitarists. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Well, no it’s a band effort to bring other musicians in. Par Johansson: Yeah, well I guess the reason was Tomas is simply a great lead guitarist. Also, it’s kind of a friend thing to let him guest appear. It brings a little bit of extra flavor to the album I think. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: As stated earlier, the band was recently signed to Metal Blade Records through an affiliation with Cold Records which is the label whom originally signed you. How did that come to be and how excited are you to be working with them? They’re a great label! Par Johansson: We are very pleased to say the least. When we signed to Cold Records we had no idea that we were going to end up on Metal Blade. I think we had just about signed the contract when the discussion came in the final process between Metal Blade and Cold Records. So, I guess you could say it was a stroke of luck for us. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: What are your touring plans for supporting the new release and had you ever played the states with your other project Satariel while signed to Pulverised Records? Par Johansson: With Satariel when we were signed to Pulverised Records nothing much happened. After that we had released another album for Hammerheart Records the Dutch label and we did a European tour. We have played live quite a lot. But we have not played anything live so far with Torchbearer. For this album “Yersinia Pestis” I don’t think much will happen actually. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: You don’t? Why do you say that? I think it’s a great album and I’m a touch critic! (Laughs) Par Johansson: Well if we could decide, we would of course like to go on the road as much as possible but I think Metal Blade wants to see how this first album goes and then for the next one I think it will be more in Metal Blade’s interest. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Have you ever played the states at all with either band? Par Johansson: No, we would very much like to do so. The market is kind of tougher I think if you’re not signed to Metal Blade (Laughs) as we were not with are other albums. It’s kind of hard to get the proper audience in the states without proper promotion and so on. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: But now that you’re on Metal Blade though maybe you’ll have a chance to get over here. Par Johansson: Yeah, we really hope to get to the states with the next album. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: They’d eat you guy’s up over here, honestly. With the likes of The Crown and you have Amon Amarth, they love that stuff over here. I think you guy’s would do well. Par Johansson: We’ll keep are fingers crossed and hope for the best. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: As well as being a vocalist, you’re an illustrator and did all the cover artwork for this release. How did you come up with the cover concept to represent the album and is there any artwork that you’ve done for other bands or businesses that you’d like to speak of? Par Johansson: I don’t know where to start. Yes, other bands I’ve done quite a lot. I think I’ll start with the most recent one, Incapacity which is also on Metal Blade. I did their latest stuff. Some of the bands that I’ve worked for are not known. I don’t do that very much in artwork for bands. I work as an illustrator for a graphic designer normally. It’s kind of a side thing of my business to do artwork from time to time when it permits it. Anyway, the cover for this album “Yersinia Pestis” it was quite simple actually not very original or anything. The graphics help you pretty much tell you what it’s all about. As you see, the reaper on the cover and the grim reaper is sort of a standard symbol for the plague and if you look closely you’ll see black rats dropping out of his robe. So, it didn’t take much pondering to come up with a design. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: It’s simple and it works. You have some of these covers that are like totally crazy and it’s too much. That was simple and it’s to the point. It fits the album well. Par Johansson: It’s representative. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Being that I don’t like labeling bands music, I’m going to let you do it! (Laughs) Par Johansson: I really hate labeling music too. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: For the people reading this that do not know of Torchbearer, how would you classify your music or what can they look forward to when hearing “Yersinia Pestis”? Par Johansson: I think Metal Blade summed it up pretty good when they described us as the bastard child of Hypocrisy, Dark Angel and Deicide. I would call what were playing a blend of death metal and black metal with some thrash. (Laughs) I think that’s the best I can say actually. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: (Laughs) Just tell them to listen to it, right? There you go and make their own assumption. Par Johansson: That’s the best medicine in all these cases. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: Congratulations on the new album, great stuff! With that said, do you have any final words for The Metal Web!? Par Johansson: Well, I hope to see our fans as soon as possible. So I recommend you guy’s to nag on Metal Blade to get us to the states. Dawn/TheMetalWeb.com: We shall. I’m telling you, they’d love you over here, seriously. Par Johansson: That sounds really good. Also, I can add we will record our next album in I think we are booked in February so by next spring or summer the next album will be released. Thanks for the interview. OFFICIAL SITE “TORCHBEARER”: http://www.torchbearer.tk HOME |
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