Nekrodawn is a Swedish death metal band that features members from prominent bands such as, Grave, Centinex, Hypocrisy, Interment, and The Crown. Following the release of their first album, "Sculpted By Torture", they are seeking to expand on the viciousness while still retaining a sound that is a combination of both the old and the new. With a focus on both brutality and an emphasis on quality song-writing, they are proving they are a force in modern death metal on "Covenant Of Carnage". Jonas (guitar and vocals) took time to talk about Nekrodawn, song writing and the evolution of extreme metal.
Nekrodawn is a newer band soon to be releasing your second album, “Covenant of Carnage”. The band though comes from musicians with many years of experience. How did the band come to be and where do you believe the band sits within the context of everyone’s prior artistic pursuits?
I started to write the songs for 'Sculpted By Torture' in early 2022 before there even was a band so to speak, my wife Emma was handling the bass duties in the beginning, she also came up with the band name 'Nekrodawn' and designed the logo, then she realized this was going to be a “real” band and got cold feet as they say... I asked Henrik Axelsson if he was interested to be the drummer of the band and Johan Jansson and Mika Lagreen (bass and guitar) joined shortly after and we recorded the songs in 2023 I think it was. I don't think Nekrodawn sounds much like any of our previous bands in the compositions but of course each players style can be heard in some way without a doubt.
I was such a fan of the new album that I purchased your first album, “Sculpted By Torture”. What did you hope to capture on your new album in relation to your previous one?
Very happy to hear that, many thanks! The progress between the debut and our new album is a natural process, I wrote all the songs on our debut before I knew who was going to be a part of the band line-up so it was more of a basic meat and potatoes Death Metal album in a way. On 'Covenant of Carnage' we are a full band with more input from all the members in the band, Mika for instance wrote the music for three tracks and they are a bit different from my songs which makes it more of a diverse sounding album. Also we had a much more loose approach to the recording now with less re-takes on the instruments, a lot of the songs are first takes and no editing was done to the material; what you hear is what we played 100% which makes for a more “lively” sound I think.
Time is obviously spent cultivating strong, memorable material with your releases. Where do you think the healthy balance resides between the brutality of good death metal and striving for songs that embody quality songwriting?
I'm sorry to reveal that no thoughts of that kind ever crossed my mind when doing the album. All the songs came together pretty naturally without much thought put into brutality vs. quality song writing. If the riffs fits together and you get that special feeling, then it's perfect/good enough for us. But of course aggression and brutality/heaviness is needed in spades for the material to be considered Death Metal imho.
Everyone in the band has seen some successes already in music. What are your hopes for the band as it goes forward?
We will continue to make music as long as it feels fun and rewarding. We have no secret rockstar dreams or hopes for commercial success, it's all about the Metal and the pursuit of the next perfect crushing riff, nothing more nothing less.
You are the vocalist as well as the guitarist. If you are also the lyricist, what are the topics you most like to pursue and can you describe in deeper detail the meaning behind a favorite track or two?
Unfortunately I'm also the lyricist haha...My english is a bit limited so there is a lot of Google translate going on because I can't find the words in my head in english only in Swedish, it works but takes time. Most of the lyrics deals with the darkside of things, the usual stuff; corruption, shitty politicians, the never ending wars ect. The song ' Thy Spineless' is about all the spineless politicians in the world who make all the rules but never takes any responsibilty for when they fuck up which they do more than us “regular” people, they can all go and fuck them selves imho...'I have lived long enough to come to the conclusion that it's all a big hoax made to make us obey. 'Feeding the Greed Machine' is pretty self explanatory.
How have you personally experienced the evolution of extreme metal throughout the years?
I remember hearing Napalm Death when I was 12 (around 1989), I couldn't believe it was real, sounded so brutal I thought it was fake haha... If I hear the same track today it does not sound especially extreme, everything has gotten faster and faster and more brutal/extreme over the years, but I think that race ended maybe 10 years ago. 360Bpm tech Death does not sound as fast as 200bpm Slayer if that makes any sense?I can miss that rawness that earlier Death Metal had and also the shock factor was much higher since every new release offered something unique. But there are a lot of great new young bands out there today in all kinds of Death Metal genres, both the ones looking at the past and the ones plowing new grounds so to speak. It's been a hell of a ride, and the progress has been immense if you compare Death Metal with for instance Heavy Metal which has been pretty unaltered since 1984.
What are the pros and cons of how things were when you first started in music compared to now?
Not much of a difference really, now it's easier to release your material on your own if you want to do that, recording is easier since people started recording on computers. On the other hand, back in the day a band might have attended a semi professional recording studio and recorded a killer album in like 10 days mixed and ready. With a computer you can sit in front of the computer for 10 days and listening to the same song you're trying to mix to “perfection¨” and will still sound like generic crap haha...I don't know, it's all good as long as you're having fun. It's the journey not the destination that is important I guess. I do miss the old days from time to time.
With the band having other commitments is Nekrodawn solely a studio band or will you perform live as well?
Nekrodawn is a real band, we have only made one live gig so far, more will come eventually. We are not in a hurry, but we all have “regular” day jobs+ familys with kids so it's hard to find the time to do any proper tours, some festivals and shorter tours are absolutely doable.
Sweden has carried the flag for many years as a home to many exceptional bands. What is it in the country that you believe allows such quality music to flourish?
I think it has to do with the long winters and the fact that there is not much stuff to do around here other than music or sports. Also we have great music schools free of charge (or close to free) so you can learn an musical instrument of your choice, basically free private lessons from skilled musicians, also when you're a teenager you can get help with a rehearsal space from the government (only time politicians are not shitty moahaha) so it is easy to form a band with your friends. I started my first band when I was like 10 or something, shortly after that I quit hockey because the guitar was more fun.
One of my favorite tracks off your new album is “Thy Spineless”. When the first aggressive portion of the song hits after the introduction it is strikingly powerful and brings about a strong emotional response for me. In a world of being overstimulated by new music releases how often does something you hear have a similar effect on you?
I feel honored hearing that from you, many thanks for sharing that! Every now and then I hear something similar and get the chills, mostly it's old stuff but sometimes I hear some new stuff and I get the emotional impact you're talking about. I heard a song from the American Doom Band 'Castle Rat' and was blown away, really epic stuff! Also some songs with Mortiferum have given me a similar feeling. Thank you so much for the interview Taylor, wishing you all the best with everything you got going on in your life! Big Cheers/Jonas
Nekrodawn is a newer band soon to be releasing your second album, “Covenant of Carnage”. The band though comes from musicians with many years of experience. How did the band come to be and where do you believe the band sits within the context of everyone’s prior artistic pursuits?
I started to write the songs for 'Sculpted By Torture' in early 2022 before there even was a band so to speak, my wife Emma was handling the bass duties in the beginning, she also came up with the band name 'Nekrodawn' and designed the logo, then she realized this was going to be a “real” band and got cold feet as they say... I asked Henrik Axelsson if he was interested to be the drummer of the band and Johan Jansson and Mika Lagreen (bass and guitar) joined shortly after and we recorded the songs in 2023 I think it was. I don't think Nekrodawn sounds much like any of our previous bands in the compositions but of course each players style can be heard in some way without a doubt.
I was such a fan of the new album that I purchased your first album, “Sculpted By Torture”. What did you hope to capture on your new album in relation to your previous one?
Very happy to hear that, many thanks! The progress between the debut and our new album is a natural process, I wrote all the songs on our debut before I knew who was going to be a part of the band line-up so it was more of a basic meat and potatoes Death Metal album in a way. On 'Covenant of Carnage' we are a full band with more input from all the members in the band, Mika for instance wrote the music for three tracks and they are a bit different from my songs which makes it more of a diverse sounding album. Also we had a much more loose approach to the recording now with less re-takes on the instruments, a lot of the songs are first takes and no editing was done to the material; what you hear is what we played 100% which makes for a more “lively” sound I think.
Time is obviously spent cultivating strong, memorable material with your releases. Where do you think the healthy balance resides between the brutality of good death metal and striving for songs that embody quality songwriting?
I'm sorry to reveal that no thoughts of that kind ever crossed my mind when doing the album. All the songs came together pretty naturally without much thought put into brutality vs. quality song writing. If the riffs fits together and you get that special feeling, then it's perfect/good enough for us. But of course aggression and brutality/heaviness is needed in spades for the material to be considered Death Metal imho.
Everyone in the band has seen some successes already in music. What are your hopes for the band as it goes forward?
We will continue to make music as long as it feels fun and rewarding. We have no secret rockstar dreams or hopes for commercial success, it's all about the Metal and the pursuit of the next perfect crushing riff, nothing more nothing less.
You are the vocalist as well as the guitarist. If you are also the lyricist, what are the topics you most like to pursue and can you describe in deeper detail the meaning behind a favorite track or two?
Unfortunately I'm also the lyricist haha...My english is a bit limited so there is a lot of Google translate going on because I can't find the words in my head in english only in Swedish, it works but takes time. Most of the lyrics deals with the darkside of things, the usual stuff; corruption, shitty politicians, the never ending wars ect. The song ' Thy Spineless' is about all the spineless politicians in the world who make all the rules but never takes any responsibilty for when they fuck up which they do more than us “regular” people, they can all go and fuck them selves imho...'I have lived long enough to come to the conclusion that it's all a big hoax made to make us obey. 'Feeding the Greed Machine' is pretty self explanatory.
How have you personally experienced the evolution of extreme metal throughout the years?
I remember hearing Napalm Death when I was 12 (around 1989), I couldn't believe it was real, sounded so brutal I thought it was fake haha... If I hear the same track today it does not sound especially extreme, everything has gotten faster and faster and more brutal/extreme over the years, but I think that race ended maybe 10 years ago. 360Bpm tech Death does not sound as fast as 200bpm Slayer if that makes any sense?I can miss that rawness that earlier Death Metal had and also the shock factor was much higher since every new release offered something unique. But there are a lot of great new young bands out there today in all kinds of Death Metal genres, both the ones looking at the past and the ones plowing new grounds so to speak. It's been a hell of a ride, and the progress has been immense if you compare Death Metal with for instance Heavy Metal which has been pretty unaltered since 1984.
What are the pros and cons of how things were when you first started in music compared to now?
Not much of a difference really, now it's easier to release your material on your own if you want to do that, recording is easier since people started recording on computers. On the other hand, back in the day a band might have attended a semi professional recording studio and recorded a killer album in like 10 days mixed and ready. With a computer you can sit in front of the computer for 10 days and listening to the same song you're trying to mix to “perfection¨” and will still sound like generic crap haha...I don't know, it's all good as long as you're having fun. It's the journey not the destination that is important I guess. I do miss the old days from time to time.
With the band having other commitments is Nekrodawn solely a studio band or will you perform live as well?
Nekrodawn is a real band, we have only made one live gig so far, more will come eventually. We are not in a hurry, but we all have “regular” day jobs+ familys with kids so it's hard to find the time to do any proper tours, some festivals and shorter tours are absolutely doable.
Sweden has carried the flag for many years as a home to many exceptional bands. What is it in the country that you believe allows such quality music to flourish?
I think it has to do with the long winters and the fact that there is not much stuff to do around here other than music or sports. Also we have great music schools free of charge (or close to free) so you can learn an musical instrument of your choice, basically free private lessons from skilled musicians, also when you're a teenager you can get help with a rehearsal space from the government (only time politicians are not shitty moahaha) so it is easy to form a band with your friends. I started my first band when I was like 10 or something, shortly after that I quit hockey because the guitar was more fun.
One of my favorite tracks off your new album is “Thy Spineless”. When the first aggressive portion of the song hits after the introduction it is strikingly powerful and brings about a strong emotional response for me. In a world of being overstimulated by new music releases how often does something you hear have a similar effect on you?
I feel honored hearing that from you, many thanks for sharing that! Every now and then I hear something similar and get the chills, mostly it's old stuff but sometimes I hear some new stuff and I get the emotional impact you're talking about. I heard a song from the American Doom Band 'Castle Rat' and was blown away, really epic stuff! Also some songs with Mortiferum have given me a similar feeling. Thank you so much for the interview Taylor, wishing you all the best with everything you got going on in your life! Big Cheers/Jonas