At The Gates are innovators. From debut album, The Red In The Sky Is Ours, through comeback stunner, At War With Reality, the Gothenburg-based death metal act have always traversed the left-hand path on their own terms. Now, four years after At War with Reality, the Swedes recently unleashed their indomitable spirit, ceaseless ingenuity, and raw power on new album, To Drink From The Night Itself. This week the band return to Australia alongside fellow Swedish metallers The Haunted and Witchery for the ultimate Swedish triple bill death metal tour, we talk to guitarist Martin Larsson ahead of the shows to find out all the latest.
Andrew: It’s good to see you come back again and this time around you have a killer lineup by the looks of it – The Haunted and Witchery. All three are Swedish bands as well so you guys must know each other pretty well I guess?
Martin: Yeah this time it’s more like a family tour because we’re all interconnected in one way or another, there is no band without at least one person playing in a different band in the same night.
Andrew: So I suppose the stock standard question is and one that fans probably want to know is, what can fans expect? What are you guys bringing to Australia this time?
Martin: Just some good quality Swedish metal!
Andrew: Yeah three great bands and certainly Swedish metal is big in Australia, we love that kind of stuff. I know you had a new album that came out last year, will you be expecting to bring many of those new songs to us at all?
Martin: Yes of course. We try to do a good blend of old stuff and stuff from the new one. I’m not sure about the amount but five-ish new songs I think.
Andrew: I remember when the album came and it’s the second one that you have done since the return of the band from hiatus for a number of years so with the second album did you feel much pressure at all? What were the feedback from the fans?
Martin: Most of the pressure was off, most of it was on the first one “At War With Reality” after the hiatus. The new pressure if there was any was doing it without Anders [Bjorler, ex-guitar] which we’ve never done, he’s always been there as our guitar player. But I would say his brother Jonas, the bass player that wrote all the music for the last album really stepped up and proved himself. We would never release anything that we aren’t happy with, we would rather take an extra year and try and make it right. But it was surprisingly quick under the circumstances doing this without Anders and next time around it’s going to be with the new guy Jonas Stålhammar, he wasn’t really in the band when the album came together for the writing for it so it’s different this time around he is here from the beginning. So we will see what it’s like.
Andrew: That is a question I did want to ask you about, was it difficult to do a new album and continue on without Anders because as you mentioned before, he was a big part of the band obviously. Was it a difficult process? How did you guys deal with that?
Martin: It was kind of a strange situation because we took a break once touring was done for “At War With Reality” which was August or something in 2016. The plan was to take a break for 3 months, maybe 6 months tops and start regrouping and look to the future and then it just dragged on and then eventually in March we got the call from Anders saying that he thought about it long and hard and maybe it’s better to go on without him. By then we kind of started expecting that call but we didn’t want to but once that happened there was all this pent up creativity, especially from Jonas and also I wouldn’t say that he was in Anders’ shadow but kind of in a way as a brother. So I think he really felt like proving to himself that he could do the writing on his own.
Andrew: Yeah because the creative process is quite unique and special for every different band. What did you find was the biggest thing that changed a lot without Anders, what was the thing that was most impactful on the band?
Martin: I’m not sure, it’s hard to say. Obviously his writing but then again Jonas did write, not half of the material but maybe 30 or 40 percent for the last few albums before Anders quit so he’s always been there.
Andrew: So what is it like now? Obviously it’s been a little while now so being on the road and taking these songs to the fans, have the fans been embracing I guess the sort of new side of the band?
Martin: Yeah I would say they have and Jonas Stålhammar the guitar player, he’s a very active, vibrant guy on stage so it seems like the crowd have really taken to him and we’re just lucky to have him.
Read review of To Drink From The Night Itself
Andrew: Great we’re looking forward to seeing him for the first time ourselves, should be great stuff. I do have to ask you about the album title “To Drink From The Night Itself”, it’s a very thought provoking title, where did that name come from?
Martin: I think it’s a line from the last album somewhere but this is really a Tomas [Lindberg, vocalist] thing with the lyrics but it’s about culture in general I would say but I’m sure it’s probably about these modern times. There are a lot of people looking for quick answers instead of having something with substance, in some ways times are better than ever but in other ways it’s a pretty dire situation and I guess when you do something creative it’s always easier to look to the dark stuff rather than the light stuff. But then there’s a general concept as well, it’s inspired by this writer named Peter Weiss, a German guy I think who lived in Sweden for a long time and he wrote a real brick of a novel called “The Aesthetics Of Resistance” so that’s a big inspiration for the concept of the album lyrically and also vision.
Andrew: And as you mentioned the world has some interesting things happening around us and obviously you can take things here and there as inspiration for your creativity. Personally when you play guitar, what is directly inspiring you? Other musicians, things that you are seeing, what inspires you?
Martin: I’m inspired daily by all kinds of cultural intake that I have but maybe not so much hands on. As for playing figuring out Metallica songs in the 80’s, that was my school for playing guitar and that kind of sticks still.
Andrew: So I assume you are talking about James Hetfield then with the rhythm guitar?
Martin: Yeah.
Andrew: So as a musician and as a guitar player, how important is the technique of it? Because I find that when I look at a guitar player like Hetfield, it seems like the technique of how you play is quite important that shapes the way you play as well.
Martin: Yeah what I get with age and probably more year by year is being relaxed and not tensing up on stage which was hard for a long time because with the adrenaline and all that, you tense up a little bit and with the kind of guitar playing that we have like the intricate thrash metal picking and death metal picking, it’s so much easier if you’re loose and easy.
Andrew: Sure it must be difficult to see a crowd of people and not get a little hyped up or excited about the fact that there’s so many people that are passionate about the band.
Martin: Oh yeah I can’t really explain what’s going on but it’s become easier with age and I suppose that’s what you call experience. Usually that’s easier, staying loose and it makes it much more effortless with the playing.
The Ultimate Triple Bill Kill 2019 Tour Dates
Wednesday 24th April – CANBERRA The Basement
Thursday 25th April – BRISBANE The Triffid
Friday 26th April – SYDNEY Manning Bar
Saturday 27th April – MELBOURNE Max Watts
AT THE GATES Headline Show Date
Sunday 28th April Hobart Odeon Theatre *
* At The Gates only
