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Deathember on their Going Postal tour

 Deathembered: Swedish Metal In India

“THIS is what our sound is, THIS is what we’ve been trying to do since the first release!”- Elias

Out of the creative suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden, that has seen many contemporary acts emerge, comes Deathember. Groove metal to the core, their sound reflects the angst of today’s age, with certain progressive elements thrown in.  The five piece act released a 2011 EP, A Thousand Flatlines, and then a 2013 album, Going Postal. The album tour features a 2-city tour of India. The tour, organised by Sumeet of Metamorphik Productions, sees the band play and judge bands at college festivals at IIT Hyderabad and NIT Silchar. We caught up with Elias, drummer of the band, who spoke on behalf on  Deathember.

Going Postal Album Art

soundplunge_test: This is your first time in India. What are you expecting from the audience?

Elias: We don’t really know what to expect! We’re really looking forwards towards meeting and getting to know the Indian metal scene. We will be bringing our A-Game to this show and we expect some insane moshpits to go with it!

soundplunge_test: What other groove metal acts do you associate yourselves with and what kind of influences can be found in your music?  There is a great deal of good stuff coming out of Sweden.

Elias: Our closest relatives within the genre are probably Lamb of God and Pantera, they play the kind of groove metal that our music originates from. Our influences on the other hand come from more progressive bands like Protest the Hero, SikTh and Strapping Young lad as well as more stoner rock sounding bands like Clutch. The biggest influence of them all though is without a doubt Meshuggah from Umeå, Sweden. The music we play is pretty different from theirs but their innovative way of creating a whole new genre of metal and a new way of playing metal in general have really given us a lot of inspiration to create something a bit different than the usual breakdown-chugchug kind of metal that most young/up and coming bands tend to play.

soundplunge_test: With Constrain’s vocalist, Johan, taking over vocal duties for the show, have you played with him often? Will he be a permanent feature of the live band from now?

Elias: This is actually the first live shows we do with Johan, but no worries. He was the natural choice for us when Simon (original singer) couldn’t go because of sickness. He’s one of the most professional vocalists we know and he does the songs justice without breaking a sweat. Expect an insane performance from him on the show. He’s very energetic on stage! Having a live/session musician is not a permanent solution for us but something we do if the original member or members can’t do a tour or show. The most important thing is that we come and deliver the Swedish Groove, and I promise you, we will.

soundplunge_test: With 2013 wrapping up the release of Going Postal, what will the New Year bring in after touring?

Elias: We’ve been working on new material for about 6 months now. We will record a new release this year. We just can’t share with you what it is and when it’s going to be released just yet. We’re taking a couple of months off touring after these shows in India to get all of the songwriting and pre-production wrapped up. After that we’ll be doing as much touring as possible.

A Thousand Flatlines Album Art

soundplunge_test: How do you feel the change in sound has been over the years, from A Thousand Flatlines, till today?

 Elias: With the release of Going Postal we felt that we finally had gotten to the spot where we could say that “THIS is what our sound is, THIS is what we’ve been trying to do since the first release!”. We’re still really proud of A Thousand Flatlines but that EP was greatly compromised in terms of how the songs turned out. We wanted to make something different and unique but didn’t really take the leap forward to do so, which resulted in something sounding 50% like modern type metalcore and 50% like the kind of groove metal we wanted to play. Going Postal is the first time we feel that we have something new, different  and fresh to give the listeners. The biggest difference between ‘Flatlines and Going Postal is probably that we’ve matured a lot musically between the releases. Especially in terms of the more serious tone to the music and lyrics.

soundplunge_test: Do you perform often at college festivals? What was the concept behind a college festival tour?

Elias: These shows are actually the first college festivals that we’ve ever played. The concept behind it is something that our tour manager Sumeet created. But reaching out to a big and young crowd is probably reason enough I’d think!

soundplunge_test: How do you feel about performing at IIT Hyderabad ? Do you have anything to say to the Hyderabad Metal heads ?

Elias: We can’t even begin to describe how psyched we are about doing this!

To all the Hyderabad metalheads: Take Going Postal for a couple of spins and come throw down with us on February 2nd!

Deathember play at the IIT Hyderabad festival Elan 2014 on 2 February 2014 and NIT Silchar’s Thundermarch on 9 February 2014.

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