Monolord
Vaenir
Riding Easy Records
Interview with Esben Williams (drums) by hutch
Monolord came out of nowhere to drop Empress Rising less than a year ago. Most metalheads quickly placed
it in a top slot of their year’s end lists for 2014. Initially formed as a side
project in 2013, out of the ashes of Swedish bands Marulk and Rotten Sound,
guitarist and vocalist, Thomas Jäger, drummer, Esben Willems, and bassist, Mika
Häkki, Monolord shot of Sweden to decimate ear drums. Together, the trio cranks
out fuzz soaked, slow doom metal riffs. Heavy as hell and plodding, the
nefarious, churning atmosphere staggers through speakers onto audiences trapped
in awe.
This April, Monolord is releasing Vaenir, an album of completely new material. Willems explains, “We
always work on new stuff. We started pre-productions directly after the masters
to Empress Rising were delivered. Itchy
fingers, you know. It wasn't an elaborate PR plan, we just love making new
music.” They garnered enough focus to have the final track of the six track
album stand at seventeen minutes.
Even still, this relays the fervent energy and dedication
these men have to Monolord. “We're pretty efficient when we record,” continues
Willems. “Our studio is my portable equipment that is more or less permanently
set up in our rehearsal space. We produced it. I engineered, mixed and mastered
it. In a band, it comes in handy to be a professional sound tech.
The conversation of an objective outsider was bandied
between members. “That's both a discussion of budget and finding that perfect
person that's brilliant at hers or his job and, on top of that, understands and
likes the band's ambitions. And we're skeptical old fucks”
That internal formula has worked exceptionally. The bass
line is accented and utilized to propel sinister doom riffs. Vaenir is a more focused album, with
cleaner production; without losing a sense of the heavy. “We see Vænir as a natural development of our
sound. The foundation is the same, but we keep on evolving our songwriting. At
least that's our ambition.”
The pressure is not felt in the band, but many fans have to
wonder if Vaenir is a project of
opportunity or momentum. The pressure to duplicate was not internalized; but it
was recognized. “We were really surprised by the response to Empress Rising, to be honest. It's
always a bit nervous to release new material, and twice as much when it's with
a new band. To get the response we got was insane. The good kind of insane. We're
still a bit high from that feeling. Regarding the stress of recording new
material, it was both stressful and not at all. We record and produce
everything ourselves. The songwriting and recording environment are second homes.
With worse coffee, that is. But it's a comfortable place to work on new stuff.
Actually, it's an escape from the reality outside.”
Willems’ calm personality and humble honesty welcome
questions with a direct embrace. Stress is not conveyed in his inflections. Willems
conveys the simplistic approach to a highly lauded album. The doom genre has
seen much genre-splicing, but Monolord harnesses a direct lineage to tradidtion.
“Our goal has always been to write and record music that we feel is the
heaviest and grittiest rumble that we are able to produce. Depending on the
listener, I guess there are people who like it because of their perception of authenticity,
but that's not been our guideline.”
Monolord are exposing audiences to this new material, along
with “oldies”, across Europe. Willems lists, “We just came back from a European
tour almost three weeks long. The next upcoming show is opening for Candlemass
in a town nearby, Uddevalla. After that, it's Roadburn Festival and Berlin. And
some festival dates during the summer that we'll announce soon.”
As members were surprised by the interest in their once side
project’s music, Willems insists that the main focus for all three is Monolord.
He quickly appends his statement, “But there are always other side projects
going on, which I think is really good for the drive and the inspiration.” That
inspiration is motivated by the usual dark doom themes. “Our permanent theme is
more or less misanthropy. The disgust for what humans do to each other is an
endless source of inspiration.” Provided much fodder from a few minutes of
world news, coupled with Monolord’s restlessness, maybe in another eight
months, audiences will have album number three. “We're usually eager to make
new stuff. As soon as we've caught our breath from our recent tour, we will
start jamming out some new fuzz, that's for sure.”
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