Interview

Christer "Krunt" Andersson On "St. Demonius": "[It] Suits The Album Perfect Since Most Of The Lyrics Are About...The Weird And Crazy Religious Crap That Goes On In The World.."

For years, Tad Morose has been a mainstay on the Swedish metal scene, revered for the band's stellar combination of power riffs enveloped in progressive overtones. Albums like "A Mended Rhyme" (1997), "Leaving the Past Behind" (1993) and "Modus Vivendi" (2003) are only some of the critically acclaimed masterworks.

Over the years, the band has brought forth some of metal's strongest vocalists with Kristian Andrén (ex-Bloodbound/ex-Wuthering Heights) from 1993-1995 and Urban Breed (Serious Black/Project Arcadia) from 1995-2005 leading the way. From 2004 until 2013, the band activities were minimal and then with the addition of Ronny Hemlin (Inmoria/ex-Steel Attack) the band re-emerged from its slumber with a more stripped down metallic riff assault on 2013's "Revenant" (see review here).

Now less than two years later - and along that same path - the band presents its newest studio offering "St. Demonius" (available August 28th via Despotz Records). Metal Underground.com caught up with guitarist/songwriter Christer "Krunt" Andersson to talk about the new album and the meaning behind its ominous name.

CROMCarl: Congrats on “St. Demonius” – I have to say it is great to have the band firing on all cylinders and back with a vengeance since “Revenant” has come out. The album is yet another chapter in what I like to call the “riff clinic” that is Tad Morose. Is that were the writing all stems from – a monster riff?

Krunt: Thank you Carl! Well it feels great to get this album out too! I guess we finally managed to get our shit together! Ha ha ha. Well, in a way I guess you are right, most of the times it actually starts with a guitar riff that get stuck in your head for some reason and then we build it from there. Not always though, but I'm a riff loving bastard! I think much of the newer metal music lacks the riffing. It seems to be more just rhythm figures. And a singer that is so angry all the time… until the chorus, then it is all happiness. And if possible, they bring in a girl too to cheer it up even more. But that's just my opinion, and I´m old!

CROMCarl: How have the reactions been so far for the new album?

Krunt: They have been good. But there will probably be some that hate our guts too! Ha ha ha.

CROMCarl: The material on this and the last album "Revenant" seems to be structurally more stripped down and back to basics. Was that done consciously from the beginning, or was it just how the material turned out as the writing process moved along?

Krunt: I guess it has to do with that we are getting old and lazy. He he he. Honestly, we never set out in advance how to write songs, we just do it. If it feels good to us, then we stick to it and it turns out the way it does. Of course this also has to do with the members in the band since we all get our hands dirty when it comes to writing songs, a matter of fact, when it comes to anything, really.

CROMCarl: In general, do you think there has been a tilt in heavy metal music to get back to guitar centered metal, especially since guitars seemed to take a back seat to keyboards from 2007 or so until about just a few years ago?

Krunt: Perhaps, I don't know, I never thought about that. But if so, that's awesome! Keyboard players take up too much space on stage! Ha ha ha. No, honestly, I guess you are right, there seem to be more bands around nowadays with twin guitars instead of one guitar and a keyboard player. And then there are bands that can't seem to make up their minds and have 'extra – all' and look like half a football team on stage. Ha ha ha. I guess these things change back and forth over time any way in the on-going struggle to be as 'unique' as possible and to stand out. So who knows? We might soon see a metal band without guitar players, twin bass players and three lead-keyboard players…or is there already? Just kidding! Whatever makes people happy!

CROMCarl: Where did the album name "St. Demonius" come from? Tell me about some of the lyrical topics on the new album?

Krunt: The title is a play with the word Sanctimonious. Which also is the title of a Steel Attack song (Ronny's old band) and there was a guy who heard that song and later asked Ronny who 'Sankt Demonius' was... So Ronny came up with the idea of calling the album 'St Demonius,' which suits the album perfect since most of the lyrics are about all the weird and crazy religious crap that goes on in the world, as well as good and evil things in booth real life and in made-up events.

CROMCarl: The band seems to me to be re-energized with Ronny in the fold. Is that the sense within the band as well?

Krunt: I think so too. He is such a talented singer and musician and he is always full of new ideas and just as crazy as the rest of us.

CROMCarl: Back in June, you premiered the music video for "Your Own Demise" with us at MetalUnderground.com. From the quotes about the process of making the video, you noted that it was completed just at the deadline and concept idea was supposed to be different. What was the original idea and what happened when you were putting it all together?

Krunt: "Yeah! That was about spot on deadline! Ha ha ha. Typical Tad Morose way I guess! Ha ha ha. We really didn't know much about it, it was Tommi who told us that the director, Richard, had some ideas for a video. So we said: Well, bloody nice! Since we didn't have any idea ourselves. So we all thought that everything was taken care of. We only knew what day it was supposed to be filmed. When that day came we just went to our rehearsal studio at the Trash Mansion and waited, since we didn't get hold of Richard. After a while he calls and wonders what's happening…then we found out that the plan had been to shoot the video at a certain location with lots of moving cameras and specific lights and so on. So I guess everybody thought that somebody else should have taken care of all this.

Anyway, so we did what we could with what we had there and then, kind of shooting from the hip thing. So the video was filmed at our rehearsal studio. Then the editing and the transfer of the video files got all messed up too, of course, but finally we got hold of the files and Ronny laid the finishing touches to the video and managed to send it in the very last minute. It is really fascinating in this era of communication that such simple things as talking to each other and deciding on who is doing what gets all mixed up in the overwhelming media stream. But I guess it is just that we all had some major senior moments or something. Ha ha ha.

CROMCarl: Are there any other videos planned for the album?

Krunt: Yes. But who knows? You now know how things usually turn out when we 'plan' something! Ha ha ha

CROMCarl: Is the band planning any tours for the album, or festival dates?

Krunt: Yes. We will go on a small headline tour in Europe in September, together with a Swedish band called Silent Call as support, and we got some festivals booked for early 2016. Some UK dates is in the planning too for 2016. But we want more! So we´ll see what happens.

CROMCarl: Do you get inspired by any newer bands these days or is it just the "tried and true" bands?

Krunt: Speaking for myself: No and Yes. Ha ha ha. The rest of the guys are more into newer music than I am. When it comes to inspiration, it can come from just about anything, not only from music. I wish I had more time to check out newer bands though.

CROMCarl: I know the focus, musically, is with Tad Morose, but is there anything on the horizon with Inmoria?

Krunt: Nothing new with Inmoria, as far as I know. Danne is occupied with other musical escapades and at the moment he is in Berlin drinking beer. We are too busy with Tad Morose nowadays too so I have no idea really. There is one new Inmoria song unreleased though. I think it was supposed to be a single for the third album.

CROMCarl: Is it hard to keep the two bands distinguishable since most of the lineup is in both acts?

Krunt: In a way the bands differ because in Inmoria Danne is doing all the song writing and taking care of everything. We just play the instruments and complain about everything! Ha ha ha. But in another way the two bands are pretty similar so I don't know. Looking back at it now it was kind of like that we did the Inmoria thing in the meantime when not much was happening with Tad Morose. Good times though! But it feels unbelievable nice that we are picking up some momentum again with Tad Morose!

CROMCarl: Thanks so much for your time! Best of luck with the album!

Krunt: "Well thank you! Cheers!"