With Anti Life, the band dives headfirst into a darker, more aggressive headspace, reflecting both personal struggles and the weight of the world around them. We caught up with Fredrik to talk about the album’s themes of anger and hopelessness, their surprisingly smooth creative process, and how they handle criticism when not everyone hears what they hear.
Hi there! Anti Life hits really hard right away. Was it more about stuff happening to you personally, or just stuff you’re seeing in the world around you?
Hey! That’s really what the aim was, because like the state our world is in at the moment also hits you hard.
It was a perfect inspiration for “Anti Life”. I kinda feel like the title is more relevant than ever!
Did you want it to feel angry, hopeless, or just like letting off steam?
The album didn’t really have a title until about 9 months ago or so , and the more I read about what was going on in the world and how much darker things were getting , it just got inspiring to build a theme around hopelessness and anger.
I bet recording with three strong personalities gets messy sometimes. Was there a moment where someone totally changed a song and you just had to go with it?
Actually, it’s not! Would you believe that we rarely clash on ideas or so at all.
Everyone trust each other and how we work just works for us.
Very seldom will something change or someone want to change something.
Fredrik, coming from your other bands, do you feel like you’re calling the shots here, or is it more back-and-forth with the guys?
It’s funny you should ask that, because I kind of see myself as a kind dictator, haha. Just kidding, but yes, I do feel like I call the shots, or for the most part, do as I please. But the other guys are fine with that, and they trust me as much as I trust them with what we do.
And Mathias, Anders – do you ever throw ideas at Fredrik that completely flip the song around?
Mathias usually does, and sometimes Fredrik listens or tries to compromise, haha. Anders is fine with everything more or less. He’s the least demanding out of the 3 of us.
Mixing metal with electronics can be tricky. Did it ever feel like it might go too far one way or the other, or was it always working out?
Well, not really? I mean, we’ve included less and less of it with every album. But every album has like a soul of its own, I mean, our DNA is very much there, and you can hear it. But you can also hear how we move away from our original sound.
Were there songs that came more from dealing with your own stuff rather than the outside world?
On “Anti Life” not so much, but on the first album, there were a lot of personal issues and self-loathing in the lyrics. I’ve always looked at myself (Fredrik) as kind of broken, low self esteem etc.
But I’m trying to work on myself, so it doesn’t really fit the band’s style anymore. Self Improvement Metal! Doesn’t sound too awesome, I think?
Blackened death metal can go from chaos to atmosphere. Where do you think you sit on that spectrum?
If you ask me, we are def in the middle section. I’d like to think we have a bit of everything. But depending on who you ask, we might miss the mark entirely on everything, or we might be a good mix.
Well-balanced is a pretty good word for it?
Any Swedish bands, even underground ones, that you feel connected to?
I’m going to say, not really. At least not at this stage. Since we haven’t played live yet, and we don’t really meet a lot of others (besides online ofc). Hopefully, we’ll get to know more once we go out and play live.
Do you think your sound feels Swedish, or could it be from anywhere?
Probably? Or at least you can probably hear remnants of Swedish metal?
It’s kinda hard to say, basically, we all listen to everything from all over the world.
So, inspiration comes from that.
Criticism is weird. Some people say negative things… Does that bother you, or do you just ignore it?
It is, and it can hurt. I’d love to be a badass and say it doesn’t bother me (Fredrik), but in reality, it can drag me down. And this album has gotten a lot of pretty poor reviews, which sucks.
But nonetheless, you gotta try to ignore it, not everyone will love what you do.
Have people ever interpreted your music in a way that completely surprised you? Like, “Wait, that’s what you got from it?”
Haha, all the time! Genres are interesting, because to us we play one type of music, and to others we play like groove metal? For me, that would be like Pantera or Lamb of god, and both are great, but we have nothing in common.
If you could change how one review, good or bad, landed, which one would it be, and why?
I wouldn’t want to change any reviews; everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just wish I could unread the bad ones and just ignore their existence.
Do you ever surprise yourselves with what you end up making, or is it usually what you imagined?
Always! Often, there are ideas, and they never turn out the way you want them to. Usually they turn out better, but since I never know what Mathias, for instance, will come up with, I always end up being surprised.
Now that it’s out, how do you hope people experience it – headbang, get lost, think about stuff… all of it? Thank you for your time!
I hope people will just think it’s a solid album and we did good, because I am super proud of what we’ve done. And I hope you will enjoy it as well.
Thanks for having us!
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