Interview

The Defaced Are Back And Facing "Charlatans"

Since the 1990s when death metal exploded in popularity, Sweden has been revered for producing so many bands and has become known as one of the homes of metal music. Not only did the likes of At The Gates and Dark Tranquillity help put the country on the map musically, but so did preceding legends like Candlemass and Bathory. To this day, Sweden is still giving the world amazing heavy music and with such a long history of music, it's only natural that some of the superb groups of the past return, as is the case of The Defaced.

The Defaced began life in 1995, initially going by the name Rehab until changing it to their more familiar moniker in 1999. Their debut album, "Domination Commence" followed two years later, with a sophomore full length, "Karma In Black" arriving two years after that. After some lineup changes, the band released their third album, "Anomaly" in 2008, but also split up that same year. Fourteen years later, the quartet are back with "Charlatans," a vicious ten song release which is sure to evoke fond memories from fans, as well as bring in new ones.

To find out more about the record, Metal Underground spoke with vocalist Jens Broman and guitarist Mattias Svensson, who revealed all about how the band came back to life three years ago, the music and meanings behind the new album and much more. You can watch the interview in full below.

Diamond Oz: Well, first of all, welcome back! It's been a long time since there's been a new Defaced album. When you reunited three years ago, did you always intend to release a new album?

Mattias Svensson: That was the intention, to record a new album and pick things up from there. I'd written some songs that I felt I needed to do and I felt that the songs were in the line of where we left off in 2008. Me and Jens, we hadn't talked for a while. We kept a sort of slow contact on and off and I got in touch with Jens and you kind of agreed.

Jens Broman: Yeah, I did! I hadn't done music for quite a long time. I was actually at home with my newborn kid and I was like, "How about doing some more creative stuff?" I was missing doing music and if you have kids/will have kids, I'm sure that you feel that something is missing in your life. You need something more creative. Mattias had contacted me before but we were in different stages in our lives, people in bands are always going through different stages, so it's really hard to re-align and feel that and this was perfect timing.

Mattias: I kind of felt that you were a bit surprised that I made that call and that I was thinking along those lines, but it was sort of a short discussion really. "Send me the songs," you said and I did and we just picked things up from there.

Jens: Yeah, exactly. I was really surprised that you called me. I mean, we talked maybe once a year and met at music festivals or whatever. But it was perfect timing and life is about perfect timing. I think that was the story, actually.

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