Formed by former Entombed members LG Petrov (vocals), Victor Brandt (bass), Nico Elgstrand (guitar) and Olle Dahlstedt (drums), this marauding band of death metal warriors have steadily established their own identity over the last five years. Debut album “Back To The Front” was a raw and raucous revelation that delighted fans old and new. Two years later, the monstrous “Dead Dawn” emerged, building on the debut’s furious power and confirming Entombed A.D. as major players in today’s world of brutality. The Swedish death metal band is gearing up to release their new album “Bowles Of Earth” on August 30th so we chatted to guitarist Guilherme Miranda about the new songs and what’s in store for the rest of the year.
Andrew: So I’ve been checking out the new album and it’s great stuff, I love it! Tell me a little about it and how it all came together.
Guilherme: I think that the whole thing with this album is that for the past years now since “Back To The Front” album that we’ve been quite super active live, I think we’re one of the most busy death metal bands around Europe nowadays. So we have played so much live that I think with this new album, these songs are naturally giving back to what we do live. What is our vibe live, there are a little bit faster songs and aggressive and is a sound that recorded with a pedal board that I use on stage, I just plug it on the amps so it’s pretty much this. We played so much live and then we put all the vibe that we put on the shows and we translate it to the new songs.
Andrew: Yeah I definitely felt that listening to these songs that this is really the band finding I guess it’s signature and sound and I guess playing live for so many years together has really cemented a good chemistry with everyone.
Guilherme: Yeah I would say so because now that it’s been a few years that I’ve been with the band, so now we’ve gotten quite solid live. It’s not only playing, you have to connect together also of course. So on tour we are so close to each other that either the band ends up connecting or killing each other [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Is this your first recording with the band or were you on the last album as well?
Guilherme: No this is my first recording with them. During “Dead Dawn” when we were writing the themes and stuff, I was here in Sweden but I wasn’t living here yet so I had to do other stuff and play with my other band. I had some other stuff to do and the other guys did the album on their own without me and then on this one I’m full on.
Andrew: How was that process with recording with the band? What was it like working with all the guys there?
Guilherme: Oh it was super cool and relaxing. Some days of course it flows super fast and some days you go there and sometimes you enter the studio and then talk about life and make coffee and go to the table and go back and drink two more coffees and nothing happens [laughs]. It’s funny but I don’t know how to explain it but I think everybody that has been through recording albums, they have that same vibe. Some days you go there and do 2 or 3 songs super good and some days you stay there for hours and drink 15 cups of coffee and get shaky and nothing happens.
Andrew: Well whatever works I guess! As I said before it sounds fantastic and whatever the process that you have done has worked quite well. There’s a lot of great songs on there but I do want to ask you about the couple of cover songs that you have added on there including the great “Back At The Funny Farm” by Motorhead. What was the story behind adding these bonus tracks on the album?
Guilherme: For the bonus tracks it was like we had to do these bonus tracks, we talked to the label and stuff and we were like, ‘Yeah let’s do a certain amount of songs’. Because we recorded more than these 10 songs that we have, we recorded maybe 15 and we had 20 something. So these 10 songs after we sit with the label guys, we added the stronger ones and of course you have to combine them together to make an album, they have to somehow communicate there. And then we had the cover songs and we were thinking, ‘Yeah let’s try to go for something that’s not so obvious’ for the bonus tracks and I ended up just getting obvious suggestions! With the Motorhead song it had a death and roll vibe and I think suited LG’s voice for singing Motorhead songs. We have 3 or 4 more covers for the bonus tracks as we recorded 6 or 7 but I don’t even remember what are the bonus CD now.
Andrew: Yeah there was the Motorhead one and then the Hank Williams “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” which was a great rendition of what is traditionally a country song I suppose.
Guilherme: Yeah the thing about country music is there is so much poetry in the lyrics that you just keep thinking of that if you are on the road! Just the title speaks for itself, it’s like “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” and this is quite a death metal statement. But with Motorhead it’s amazing, everybody likes that album of course and the lyrics for that song, I mean Lemmy is God [laughs]. I really like “Back At The Funny Farm”, I think that one really hits with us because it’s not a secret that we like to party and “Back At The Funny Farm” expresses some of the party moods so it’s quite cool.
Andrew: So what have you got planned for the year and into next year as far as touring and being on the road?
Guilherme: We’re going to finish the summer season, actually we’ve practically finished the festivals now. We have 2 left and then we go on tour with Aborted in the Fall in October/November in Europe. And then for next year we have some offers and stuff but nothing confirmed but I’m pretty sure we will be on full on festivals, as many as possible. We’re already receving offers and I think we’re preparing for some cool tours for Europe and America. I hope we can go to Asia and Australia again and Latin America so we’re waiting for the offers and stuff to see how we can organise the whole thing but I’m pretty sure we’re going to be fully on the road.
Andrew: Yeah definitely! A lot of our readers come from the US as well so a lot of the fans are looking forward to seeing you across there but we saw you down in Australia about 2 years ago I believe in 2017. How did that tour end up going for the band?
Guilherme: The tour was one of the coolest tours ever, the Hardline Media guys are amazing! Australia is super cool, we really like the vibe there. People are quite friendly and the crowd response we had was really good, people enjoyed the concerts. It was really fun, Australia is amazing, we really loved the turnout of the whole tour there. We had a lot of fun, one of the funnest tours in a long time.
Andrew: Awesome man, glad it went well and love that you enjoyed yourselves. We loved seeing you guys live and for many of us it was actually our first time as well. I love how LG is really quite an animated and quite a funny guy as well.
Guilherme: Yeah he is one of a kind right [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Well congratulations on the new album, as I said it sounds killer and we love that you guys are continuing the Entombed name for many years to come. Thanks for your time, really appreciated and we hope to see you across North America and Australia soon.
Guilherme: Yeah let’s make it happen! See you guys on the road I hope as soon as possible!
