Interview with Swedish metaloutfit The Legion"

Conducted by Metal Coven.dk

- I’m more or less satisfied with the album, in retrospect some things could have been done better but all in all as a debut it stands superior to much other shit being released nowadays. I myself wouldn’t mind a filthier, rawer approach to the production, but then all details wouldn’t come across in the music as they do now and then that would be an object for dissatisfaction. I think it’s me being negative here, the other guys don’t have much to complain about if I got attitudes right.

- It’s a reference to an old song, containing the lyric line: “Visions unseen to creation, yet to rise before our lord”. It’s also a phrase of symbolic value considering the cover art: a maelstrom of unearthly creatures never before seen to Gods creation is unleashed and swarms away in space to do… something. The title could also be seen as a reference to the band: this is our debut, you’ve never seen us before and here we are.

- I guess it is. Both the music and the cover art is aggressive, yet carries a certain cold beauty. It’s mystic and suggestive. I don’t know if there are any further direct connections to be discovered.

- The Legion started out as a plain black metal band, which can be heard on the demo “Bloodaeons” (2000). Not many technical passages, just raw and fast straight ahead black metal blast. At the time I joined in early 2001 there were certain plans for how it should sound: more death metal influences, like a mixture of extreme death metal and extreme black metal, pretty much how it sounds today. This was developed without that much friction – after all it was a natural progress and nothing we needed to force ourselves to accomplish. Those steps can be heard on the EP “Awakaned fury” (Neodawn/Ketzer, re-released on CD by Deepsend). On the album I guess there are a few tracks being more technical than others, and the explanation to this is because the writing process of those songs stretches over about four years. So there you have it actually: the more technical, death metalish songs on the album are newer than the blasting black metal ones. In general, that is. Then we have written some really straight forward stuff later, just because we felt it was right.

- There’s no average number on that really. I myself live in Gothenburg since a few moths back and cannot travel back and forth every time the other guys gather in the rehearsal place. We met last night though, and then it was three weeks since I was there last time… Emil is going on tour with Marduk from time to time, he just returned after a month long tour in South America some days ago. When we lived all together in the same town and no other things had to be done though: about two-three times a week.

- I play on a black Jackson bass guitar (same model as the guy in Children Of Bodom uses, by the way) and a Carlsbro amp, I don’t mind remembering the model so I can’t handle you that information, sorry. And no, I don’t care much about equipment as long as it sounds good and is comfortable playing on it.

- I study to become a high school teacher in Swedish and religion. When not focusing on everything that means (which is a lot, and it kills me), I like to watch horror movies, read books, hang out with friends and such… Everything I suppose you do to enjoy yourself. I also play drums and sing in an old school black/thrash/death metal band called Scyther, we have a demo tape out and another one is on its way. Also I freelance at Close-Up Magazine, which you maybe have heard of.

- Of course the lyrics must fit the music to a certain extent, it’s absurd to sing about flowers and little baby cows eating grass if you play aggressive metal. Not that I would want to, but you get the idea. I’m not an all out negative, dark minded lad; those feelings and thoughts only come across in my The Legion lyrics. I could as well write about how I love my girlfriend, how great it is to sit down with a beer and some good friends on Friday night, that my parents always treated me good or whatever, but that’s not fitting topics to sing about in this band, therefore I don’t. So I agree with your theory, even though it would be refreshing with a band thinking the opposite some time. Well, there are thousands doing it – just look at the hardcore/punk scene for example – but in metal there are certain rules you don’t very easy can just skip. That’s the way it is.

Considering tours: we will tour with Impaled Nazarene and some small band from the Netherlands in Europe in February/March 2004. Sorry to say I don’t have any further details to give you what so ever. Maybe we’ll come to Denmark, but most likely we won’t. It’s a shame living in Scandinavia sometimes, don’t you think?

The major changes basically consisted of Sune Hammarström joining on vocals, of the reason you already are aware of, and me joining in on bass guitar since the old bass player wasn’t much to brag about. The whole thing wasn’t as dramatic as it may appear in the biography.

It’s usually David Svartz who comes up with the riffs, which always is the basis we work from. If everybody likes it, we start to arrange it – add bass-lines, different guitar stuff, drum beats. We seldom start from the exact beginning of a song; usually we put separate parts together and maybe re-arrange it twenty times before everyone is satisfied. Some songs demand a lot of work; others are finished quicker without too much friction. I personally prefer the latter – if you overdo the whole thing the song might end up lacking in feeling, which is an artistic disaster far to many bands suffer from today.

- We never have a certain lyric in mind when writing a song. That always comes last. The lyric may be finished before the song is finished, but to build a song from a lyric is not a very wise way to compose. If a lyric really, really doesn’t fit a certain song, we’ll use another one instead. But since our songs are all pretty like each other – at least the new ones we write today – we never experience any conflict between the song and the written word.

A brief conceptual description of the lyrics in the order they appear on the album:

1. Intro (contains no lyrics)

2. Retribution: Our former vocalist Sune Hammarström wrote this one, it’s a part of some kind of lyrical trilogy, being completed by the song “Awakened fury” and “Torment divine” (which is featured on the “Awakened fury” MCD/7”). It deals with the Christian damnation and the vengeance thereupon. Contains lots of biblical references as well as pure fantasy visions I believe. Sune was never very happy with explaining his lyrics, but I guess I got it right.

3. Those Beyond: Written by me. Heavily inspired by Clive Barker/Lucio Fulci and their portals (guess the title reveals some about it) to other dimensions. A person discovers the gateway to the unknown wastes beyond this world, and starts to experiment in order to gain certain powers in exchange of sacrifices – both with body and mind. The demons from the other side kind of fuck him, so he’s trapped some place at the border of life and death, existentially enlightened and experienced with unearthly pleasures but also spiritually spoiled and raped.

4. Redeemer: Written by Svartz. Based on the northern mythology and its ideas concerning the downfall of man and earth. The redeemer is referring to the Fenriz wolf, which is unchained from its locks and releases chaos and death upon the world. A splendid lyric I think – dark, cold and monumental.

5. Cosmopathic Deathvoid: Written by me. At the time I wrote this one (some years ago) I was heavily into HP Lovecraft and tried to imitate, or rather adopt maybe, his pompous, bombastic way of expressing the facing with the other side and its cold wastes of inhuman darkness. In perspective, I think I pretty much over-did it all, hence I’m not very satisfied with this piece today. Still, it has its moments. I actually ripped a sentence straight from Lovecrafts Cthulu suite. Which one? The observant reader should be able to guess.

6. Knee-deep in Blood: Written by Svartz. I remember this song was finished long before it got proper lyrics added to it, and I think Svartz concentrated much on getting the lines together smoothly with the music. Which shows in the great flow throughout the whole text. It’s basically an apocalyptic vision where infernal chaos in erupted upon earth, written in an almost prophetic manner. Includes some great passages picturing utter vast, unfriendly space in its prime.

7. On Swift Wings: Another one from Svartz dealing with themes from the northern mythology. I believe Odins ravens are in focus, combined with wars of vengeance. I’m not sure about this one. Svartz has managed to capture a special atmosphere here, which in this case is more important than the actual message in my opinion.

8. Ascendancy (contains no lyrics)

9. Awakened Fury: See “Retribution”. Definitely the best lyric of the three Hammarström wrote for THE LEGION.

10. Invoking the End (contains no lyrics)

11. Rise of the Fallen: Another piece dealing with Lovecraft themes written by me. Once again one single, curious character unleashes powers upon the world he can’t master. The title symbolizes the return of the Old Ones, as referred to in the Cthulu suite, and their invasion and conquest of planet Earth. Long gone objects and rites open gateways to other dimensions where in the beasts populating Earth before man eagerly wait the time to return.

- I’m getting a bit uncertain here, I believe that “ascendancy” means something like supremacy. Maybe that word has many meanings, I don’t know. Anyway, this song is a cover version of some folk singer Emil is into, and we decided to change the title due to its original one, which isn’t too cool. Glad you like the song, but there isn’t such a deep meaning or feeling behind it as your analysis, sorry to say. The song is basically about nothing, at least not in our version. The original version deals with exploring America in the 16^th century or something I think.

That’s a phrase I’ve figured out myself, I’m not sure if it actually exists. The inspiration to that song struck me when I studied Buddhism in school: this state of absolute balance and emptiness one reaches when you die, what is that really? Just empty joy, or compact suffering? I started thinking around that topic a bit and came up with my very dark, pessimistic idea of the world order outside this physical world we’re dwelling right now. I though like psychopath, that’s when something is severely wrong in your head, then cosmopathic – that would be when something is dead wrong in the whole universe. Something you might experience when you leave your mortal body and get one with space and time. The word deathvoid means this empty void you reach when you’re dead. I have the meaning crystal clear thought over in my head, but it’s a bit hard to express on paper. Wait and read the lyrics. It also carries some influences from Clive Barkers “Hellraiser” movie.

Haha, how am I supposed to answer to this? Don’t have a fucking clue, or I have a clue – I have lots of clues actually – but it’s nothing I’d like to discuss in worldwide Internet broadcast. Besides, it has nothing to do with The Legion.

- OK, so you try to trick me and have me answering the last question? What a nasty little boy. To find a job that suits me and make me feel I’m doing something of value, meet a nice girl to live together with and have kids (maybe I’ve done that already, of course I can’t know that now). It’s all basic things, nothing spectacular or very metal about it anyway. I guess we’re going a bit off topic here, agree? Anyway, I will be metal even though I have an ugly wife and work nine to five.

First of all, “Awakened fury” is not an album, but an EP. We chose that studio due to its nearby location and the number of pretty decent productions emerging from there (Mithotyn, Midvinter, Blot Mine etc). Sure, Andy is a legend, and most sadly, we actually could tell after started working with him. He felt quite distanced to the whole thing, a bit strict. Not uninterested, but neither very excited. “So, Andy, are you ever nervous when you are about to record a new album?”. “No”. “What about really big live events then?”. “Maybe sometimes. Should we try that song another time now?”. You get the situation.

- “Awakaned fury” was released on vinyl because we wanted to release a vinyl EP, as simple as that. But it was sold out so fast, so we agreed on having it released on CD as well with that song we couldn’t contain on the vinyl version due to lack of space.

Yes, Emil plays drums in Marduk, and I myself have this Scyther thing going on as I mentioned earlier. Rikard and David don’t have anything besides The Legion. Anders has some band in his hometown I believe, but they haven’t released anything and they are not very good and I’m absolutely sure none of your readers have heard, or will hear, about them ever.

I’m absolutely not, since I don’t live in same town as the band is based in. Rikard and David both have full time jobs, Emil is officially unemployed but have Marduk to care about. The only one who’s not got any kind of occupation besides the band is Anders, but he doesn’t live in Jönköping and neither contributes shit with anything.

We shipped away a fair share of homemade “Awakened fury” CDs like a year ago to different places, and of the ones interesting Listenable was the best choice. So we went for them.

I actually haven’t read through the contract, but if Listenable want to release more stuff with us, were bound to record two more albums for them. If they don’t we’ll have to go. They have option for two albums, I believe it’s called.

- The press has always been nice to us; I’ve never read a downright bad review ever. On a scale from one to ten we usually get around six to eight points. The crowd always seems to be happy too, we never played any big shows, so I don’t know what the situation looks like all in all. We’ll see on our first tour.

None, we’ve never been on tour, only single shows. So far we shared stage with a number of more or less well known bands, such as: Destroyer 666, Root, Nifelheim (all of them on this 2 Heavy 4 You festival in Sweden a few years ago), Misericordia, Butchery, Pain, Devils Whorehouse… Not much to brag about, except for that festival thing which was enormously cool.

Your number of questions kills me, hence the short answers towards the end… sorry, but I have other interview to deal with as well as completely other things to fill my time with. Thanks a lot anyway, anyone reading this should check out our web page and buy our album. The Legion – because you’re worth it. In hoc signo vinces!

Best Regards - Metal Coven.dk

More info on The Legion at www.legion.nu or www.listenable.net