An Interview With Horndal

In the southeast corner of Dalarna County, Sweden, a couple hours north of one of metal’s capital cities, Stockholm, lies the miniscule mill town of Horndal. This unremarkable little dot on the map off the southern shore of Lake Rossen and its thousand or so inhabitants have experienced the boom-to-bust, rags-to-riches-back-to-rags-again tragedy that so many towns and hamlets around the world have endured throughout humanity’s reign.

It is a story as old as civilization itself: Powerful, influential men with money sweep in, drain the natural resources, devastate the area, and once all the profits have been sucked dry, they leave only an empty husk behind, caring nothing for the plight of the land or the people and families who’ve lived there for generations.

Ravaged, raped, and finally forsaken to rust in the late 1970’s by international industrialists, Horndal, Sweden’s story may not be uncommon, however through incredible hardships sometime also come incredible artistic inspirations – and even more rarely, sometimes from multiple generations of the same family.

You see, in 1977, as the industrialists were pulling up stakes and slithering along to the next little town that they were no doubt planning to ransack, a local theatre ensemble in Horndal were performing nightly for the townsfolk in protest of the impending socioeconomic collapse of their beloved home.

In said performance, Satan himself (called Hin Håle in old Swedish) comes to town, enlivens the populace with shiny new mills, homes, and hope. All the while, though, what Hin Håle is truly up to is despoiling the local terra, flora, and fauna for his own gain. Once this is done, Hin Håle abandons it all to die a slow, torturous, and blatantly obvious allegorical death.

Managed and staffed by residents of Horndal itself (most of whom were about to lose their own situations with the closing of the mills), the theatre cast’s lead role of Hin Håle was performed by none other than the future father of two aspiring musicians and brothers who would one day shed further quantities of light upon the depressing story of their diminutive hometown – and then share that story with the entire world through their music, band, and brand.

Naming said band after their abused and exploited haunt, Sweden’s blackened sludge upstarts Horndal have taken their own family connection to the rebellious spirit of that small theatre ensemble from decades ago and have channeled it into an incredible, modern force of inspiration and creative expression.

“We had no choice but to start this band,” explains drummer Pontus Levahn, who along with his older brother and guitarist/vocalist Henrik make up the pair of sons of Hin Håle himself. “The story of our hometown, the shutdown of the steel mill in the late 70’s… The protests and despair following [the shutdown have] been flowing in our veins since we were kids. Add [our father’s role in the story of the town] to our love for heavy and aggressive music and you have the perfect template for a metal band.”

The perfect template, indeed, but without the rest of the players, a perfect template it would’ve remained in name only. Also joining the Levahn brothers in bringing this mesmerizing blueprint to life are bassist Erik Welén, and arguably the most experienced metal musician of the bunch, lead guitarist Fredrik Boëthius Fjärem (also of Stockholm’s veteran act C.B. Murdoc and former member of the recently rejuvenated Mörk Gryning).

With this talented cast in tow, Pontus admits that the chemistry was palpable right from the get-go. “We all come from different musical backgrounds, [and] we are not that kind of band that grew up together sitting around a boombox worshipping one specific subgenre. We’ve all been playing music, touring, and realizing albums in jazz trios, black metal, energetic indie rock, techy death metal, art rock, and everything in between since we were young, so when we finally formed [Horndal], the riffs, lyrics, and ideas just appeared naturally. I know it sounds like cheesy bullshit, but it’s the honest truth. So help me, Hin Håle.”

For guitarist Fredrik Boëthius Fjärem, though, playing in a blackened sludge act isn’t just a departure, it’s also a desired destination, posits Pontus. “Fredrik is our alibi for playing metal at all. [The rest of us marvel] at the skill set he’s [attained] from playing really complicated death metal. But he was really into joining a band that’s focused more on organic energy, raw force, and songwriting compared to the more technically impressive stuff that he’s done in the past.”

Fully formed and rearing to go, Horndal immediately jumped to the task of setting the grievous tale of their hometown to a heavy metal soundtrack. After laying down an initial EP in 2017, Pontus and the gang started composing the true first chapter of this tale, their 2019 Prosthetic Records debut full-length, Remains.

Telling the historic epic of Horndal itself throughout nine tracks and thirty-four minutes, Remains kicks off Horndal’s earnest efforts to conceptualize their deep, deep connection to their home. When asked in not so many words, “Why Horndal?”, Pontus’s answer was astute and sagacious.

“[It is] the very real and very human aspect of it all. The story of Horndal, which is the exact same story [as] thousands of other small, rusty, post-industrial towns around the world, has everything you need for making bleak music. So who needs made-up stories of dragons, sword fights, or cannibals when you have really dark and very true stories to tell? It comes down to the people of Horndal, from way back then to the present. All this is an homage to them. Much love. They are the toughest people I know, and they’re really supportive of what we do, even if we’re not painting the most colorful picture of the place.”

And keeping those same ill-fated people and their 21st century descendants in mind, Horndal will bring the exemplum of their star-crossed stomping ground up to date with the April 9th, 2021 release of Lake Drinker, again brought to us all by Prosthetic Records.

Ambitious, prodigious, and immersive, Lake Drinker represents the second chapter in Horndal’s cathartic autobiography of their eponymous home, and it modernizes the tale by dragging the latest, virulent strain of bloodsucking outsiders who’ve come to exploit the region anew kicking and screaming into the light through eleven killer cuts of forty-six riveting minutes’ worth of spellbinding blackened sludge.

“It took a lot of work, both for the brain and the muscle,” admits Pontus without a hint of lament or regret, “On Lake Drinker, we gave every idea a shot [as] the plague gave us the time to do so. We dug in archives to find people that participated in the protests around the shutdown in ’77, we found local flügelhorn players, classic percussionists, and death metal legends [to guest on the album]… [all this] just to make sure we’ve done our absolute best to turn every idea into a reality. Right now, I feel creatively drained…and [it] wouldn’t feel right if I wasn’t.”

Indeed, Horndal poured their hearts, souls, blood, sweat, and the collective tears of generations of mistreated locals into Lake Drinker, almost as if they were trying to refill the emptying lake basin all by themselves. Persistently inspired by their unknown and unnoticed homestead, Horndal’s fantastic forthcoming work has the potential to not only gain this Stockholm-by-way-of-Avesta project a boatload of dedicated new fans, but also to finally share their unique perspective of the world with a wider audience in general.

“The town of Horndal is our own little microcosmos through which we look upon the world,” concludes Pontus, “With such a pair of glasses and with such a specific perspective, you can see a whole lot. Bigger historical events, zeitgeists, human tragedy, triumph, downfall again, and so on. I think we can go on forever finding new, relevant stories to tell. Horndal is the world. The world is Horndal. Sort of.”

So, on that note, here’s to all of you rusted out, used-up little homesteads out there. May you all have a Horndal spirit inside you, somewhere.

To get excited for the impending release of Lake Drinker, simply press play below to check out the official video for “Horndal’s Blodbad”, and if you’re digging the assertive riffage, monstrous melodiousness, and sheer, desperate energy as much as Hated One, then be sure to support the band further by checking the Horndal links at the bottom (and don’t forget to look for a bonus surprise beneath that, too)! Ω

Rating: 98 / 100 (A+)

Release Date: April 9th, 2021

Genre: Blackened Sludge

Don’t Skip: “Horndal’s Blodbad” (Track 2), “The Black Wheel” (Track 4), “Ruhr” (Track 6 – Hated One’s Favorite), “Town Burner” (Track 10)

FFO: Mastodon, High on Fire, Inter Arma, Lord Mantis, Immortal Bird, Lord Almighty, Plaguewielder (see below!), Yatra

Some Favorite Bands of Horndal: Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Entombed (R.I.P. LG), Neurosis, At the Gates, Elder

Horndal Links: Facebook, Instagram, Prosthetic Records Webstore

Bonus Mini-Review of Plaguewielder – Covenant Death

Releasing tomorrow, April 2nd, on Disorder Recordings is another solid LP from another blackened sludge act – this time hailing from right here in the States – Plaguewielder. Containing eight cuts and spanning thirty-five minutes, Covenant Death is the third full-length to drop from this southeastern Ohio quartet.

Focusing audibly more heavily on the blackened aspects of blackened sludge, Plaguewielder’s latest effort is one of those sneaky good albums that while possibly flying under your radar is also one that you should not miss at all, especially if you’re at all interested in acts such as Horndal and the like!

So, don’t sleep on it, people: Covenant Death, Plaguewielder, due out tomorrow!

To get a taste, press play below, and support the band if you’re enjoying what you’re hearing! Ω

Rating: 95 / 100 (A)

Release Date: April 2nd, 2021

Genre: Blackened Sludge

Plaguewielder Links: Facebook, Instagram, Disorder Recordings

"Intimate, Painful, and Liberating" - An Interview with Gaerea

The coastal port city of Oporto, Portugal – with its mild year-round climate, narrow cobbled streets, and colorful façades of hill-nestled dwellings and cafes –wouldn’t normally be the first place you’d look to find a highly talented, intellectually-inspired, anonymity-craving black metal band with a keen eye for misanthropy, but so it is that the masked, fast-rising troupe known as Gaerea call this quaint, seaside town home.

Formed in 2016, Gaerea have stepped proper all along the path of their meteoric ascent. Starting off with an independently released, self-titled EP in 2016, this eremitic Portuguese quintet caught the ear of India’s plucky mid-major label, Transcending Obscurity Records, who championed the act’s initial full-length in 2018, Unsettling Whispers, to much fanfare and critical acclaim.

And thus, upon the strength of Whispers, Gaerea signed with one of the strongest, most well-established international metal labels out there, France’s Season of Mist, who have backed the recent release of Limbo, Gaerea’s second full-length, studio effort.

Arguably the boldest and obviously the most widely distributed of any Gaerea release to date, Limbo represents not only these rising stars’ greatest achievement, but also appears to be the catalyst that will propel these otherwise reclusive black metallers into the stratospheres of international success and fame.

Hated One Metal Reviews is proud to allow Gaerea’s anonymous founding member’s full and cogent answers speak for themselves in the following interview, and while normally abhorred around Hated One HQ, the more it was read in the “Q and A” style, the more it just made sense to present it in its natural form, “as is”, and with only as much editing as was necessary. So, without further ado, please enjoy Hated One Metal Reviews and Interviews’ exclusive interview with Season of Mist artist, Gaerea!

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Let's talk about the formation of Gaerea and its enigmatic members... Are all or most of the members from Portugal, or is it more of an international collaboration? Either way, how long have you all known each other? And what were the motivating factors for forming an act with your individual sound, feel, and message?

We are all based in Portugal and fortunately we don't live very far from each other. That makes our lives super easy when it comes to rehearsing, planning or simply meeting for all other band related stuff. We have a very strong bond when working together and mostly when we perform these songs live but we do not know each other much outside the band world. I simply prefer it like that and I think the other guys understand it the same way as I do. We do care for the personal matters of each other but we try to not be the closest friends in the world because that ruins bands and since we are very different individuals with different life experiences, tastes and interests, it's safer if we all understand what truly [keeps] us together, taking the most out of what this band brings to our life without messing with all the other things that make us totally different individuals. I formed this band back in 2016 out of the inner stress of creating something of my own and [to] let my deepest thoughts emerge under a new musical form. Then, as time passed, the band was born as we all know it.

With Limbo dropping during this unprecedented pandemic, one must assume that most of the writing and recording was done before the shit truly hit the fan worldwide, but now that it has been released during this, the summer of our discontent, do you feel as though it is a fitting soundtrack for these heady, plague-addled days?

I feel like we released this album in the [exact perfect] moment and that’s what brought people together to listen [to it] and embrace such a personal and intimate album as their own. I'm ready to let this music be taken [up] by others who are struggling with depression, financial problems, abusive relationships, and loss. These are very bleak and awful times, and every day after the release of the record wakes me up to someone writing emotional words on how this music is helping them through a rough time in this life. We never intended to write an apocalyptic soundscape, but I'm very emotionally struck to know that the world needs intimate, painful and liberating music such as Limbo is in my opinion.

How do you feel Limbo compares to Unsettling Whispers in your own perspective? And, most importantly, why so?

Different. I've said it many times and I will do so again. The Unsettling Whispers album introduced us to a whole new society of lost creatures who thought themselves to be perfect even though life had been erased from their soul. We acted as reporters who walked among these appalling humans and deciphered what kept them going. In the end we discovered their only purpose in life was to find an individual way to die. Limbo has taken us by surprise in letting us know [that] we are now part of this world. We spent so much time praising the Void’s words we have been sealed into it. We are now wandering humans seeking the same goal. With a totally new perspective we now tell the tale of the Grinning Martyrs, the Wandering Souls of the Vortex Society with such more passion and emotion. We are part of this world. As the last text of this album says: “We were finally allowed to die”. Not as lost individuals, but as a mass suicide where millions of souls stand firm in the waters of time and let their souls slide away from their rotten bodies.

Who are some artists that you hold in high regard? How about your influences? What bands would the collective members of Gaerea unanimously list as influences?

We’re mostly driven by artists who have found the most beautiful purpose in their creation method and artistic expression: freedom. In cinema: Dennis Villeneuve, Wim Wenders, Christopher Nolan, Scorcese. In music: Watain, Shining, Selbst, Obsidian Kingdom, Johnny Cash. In literature: Thomas Ligotti.

Obviously, anonymity is incredibly important to Gaerea, but why so? What does the facelessness of the band represent and what do you think it adds to the band, it's image, and live show?

Aren't we all just mere fractions, reflections of what our imaginations truly are? Are we being truthful to ourselves and others amongst us all the time? We all wear masks in our daily lives. We need acceptance from others, and we will not hesitate to put our right face on for the right moment and to impress. Impress our boss, our peers, the love of our lives, our children, ourselves. In the end, no one is truly real, and if nothing is real and life is nothing but this intense way of lying in order to grow higher, we’d rather cover ourselves. We are no different from the audience.

How would you describe the sound of Gaerea to someone who's never heard your music before?

I'd say it is the sound of the very last breath before we [close our eyes] for the very last time. The last moment of liberation.

What is your favorite song on Limbo and why? Is there a special backstory behind its conception and composition?

“Mare” is the one which speaks to me the most. As I wrote in its texts:

"I heard it. A mysterious sounding Alarm which echoed through every Building, every Street, every House, every Store. A sound like Prophecy. The Great and Final Call had finally happened to all of us. And under the most notorious Trance we all left our duties of said redundant lives to gather in the endless Street. Like a blind Army of lost warriors, we walked towards the vast Nothingness, the endless Haze which never revealed nothing but bleak Memories and grey Halls. The Ancient waters appear at last under the last sunlight of that especially bright day. As the first ones stepped into those bluish waters, all who were lost had been found and all appalling had turned Cathartic. And so, Madness took over my body. This is the moment we all have been waiting for, the end of the Cycle, the only gateway to Salvation from this Pale Nightmare. For the very first time in my life, I heard the organic sound of Nature swallowing us, the Roar of the great Thunder which had to come to witness our Final Fall. And for the first and very last breath I was able to feel Joy. I was able to see all my fallen brothers singing down these waters with me. Each breath is so heavy. Why did we fall so low? Why does the Eternal Abyss taste like Rebirth? And so, it happened. Millions of us filled those Grand Rivers of time with Screams, Tears and Laughter. We were finally allowed to die."

The haunting cover art to Limbo, as conceptualized by Eliran Kantor

Post-Black Metal and Atmospheric Black Metal have seen a major swell in their ranks and a major uptick in popularity over the past few years...why do you think that is?

I think it's too early to study or even understand what's happening with this third wave of Black Metal art and it does not depend on us to wrap our heads about it since we are the ones crafting it among many other fantastic bands. I think we will only understand what happened with the scene in 2030 when the new generation dives into it and overtakes it. They will be ones defining what happened to bands like us.

As I see it, it was very unfair to judge 90’s Black Metal in the 90’s. History will demand quality moments and factual, interesting moments to study what happened back then and define it, contextualize it and write about it. Still, I think Black Metal has finally opened its doors to Human emotions, what makes us so vulnerable, so horrid, so unique, so unnecessary to this world. It's not about our imagination, magic, or our ancestors anymore. It's about the present, which is calling for our attention to get inspired by it and document it in the most contemporary way we know. Black Metal needed this to survive. Black Metal was everything about opposition, hate, and extremist behaviors. But for me, this is the genre that can portray Liberation, Freedom, Pain, and Love like no other genre can.

FILL IN THE BLANK: Live shows and tours will only really return when: we all understand it's not up to the government to tell us when to perform. It never was.

Speaking of playing live, are you doing like a lot of other acts out there and scheduling shows for 2021? Or are you just going to stoically wait for a return to more of a "true normal" like many others?

Yes, we are rescheduling and booking new shows for 2021 while being optimistic that they will happen. We cannot expect more than that.

TRUE or FALSE (AND WHY): The response to Limbo has been about what we expected…

True. We have worked and are still working very, very hard on this record. It's not fair to all that hard work to just be politically correct and say we were not expecting the insanely good reaction to the record.

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Consequently, an “insanely good reaction” is precisely what Limbo has received, both from the public and critics alike. For a taste of its dark deliciousness, mash that play button below to listen to “Null”, and if you dig what you hear and see, be sure to support Gaerea by procuring yourself a copy of Limbo by following the links provided below!

Thank you to Gaerea for this excellent interview, and many thanks to all of you hallowed readers out there! Stay tuned for more reviews and interviews featuring many of today’s cutting-edge metal artists… if you keep reading them, Hated One will keep writing them! \m/

Rating: 96 / 100 (A)

Release Date: July 24th, 2020 (Season of Mist)

Genre: Melodic Black Metal

For Fans of: Watain, Shining, Selbst, Obsidian Kingdom, Uada, Katavasia, Glaciation, Winterfylleth, Serene Dark

Gaerea Links: Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp

"In Search of a Psychoactive Shift" - An interview with Roman Ring

Coming to invade your brains and put their own conceptual stamp upon the world of death metal, another burgeoning act full of budding superstars has arisen from the streets of Chicago. Formed nine years ago, the quintet known as Roman Ring is a pseudo-supergroup whose latest full-length release, The Halogen, seeks not only to ensnare ears and bewitch senses with its impressive tunes, but also endeavors to carve out its own brand of “Psychedelic Death Metal” ascendancy through its artistic motifs, lyrical themes, and consciousness-expanding abstractions. Part art, part music, and all goal-oriented, Roman Ring aim to set themselves apart from the herd; and if the way they’ve garnered their already massive fanbase prior to the release of The Halogen is any barometer, this accomplished group will hit their marks with ease.

Roman Ring’s guitarists and founding members Bill Fay and Nate Madden established the band as a departure from the act of their youth, as Madden explains, “Small Town Murder was a band that I started in high school. We had several lineup changes [from 2005 to 2011] under that moniker, and thus decided to rebrand. Initially, Roman Ring was a new name that better fit the [new] music we were writing.”

But the lineup changes didn’t stop there. After recording their initial EP, Gateways, bassist Franco Caballero came aboard in 2012, and about a year later, vocalist Danny Rodriguez – a former bandmate of Caballero’s in an act called Erjony – joined the fold. Along with original drummer/songwriter/lyricist Johannes Jans, the group then recorded their next EP, Babel, but before the release even saw the light of day, Jans was replaced with Jason Nitts, and the lineup of Roman Ring, which remains to this day, was solidified. “We’re all friends, [and] our music has a cohesion that directly parallels our personal lives and relationship to each other,” explains Caballero, “A big mix of dudes that have known each other for a long time. With each member, we make a well-rounded unit.”

However, even with the lineup finalized and gelled together, Roman Ring still faces the challenge of being fully comprised of members bound to other acts. Madden is also one of the guitarists for the popular blackened sludge artists on 20 Buck Spin, Immortal Bird, Kay moonlights in the enigmatic Something is Waiting, Caballero is also the bassist of the up-and-coming tech death outfit Wounds, Rodriguez was already the vocalist for eOne’s melodic deathcore group Through the Eyes of the Dead when he joined up, and Nitts also drums for the blackened progressive death stars of The Artisan Era, Warforged.

“We joke together about how our band is a supergroup”, quips Madden, and they’re essentially right, but one of the drawbacks to being such an act is that multiple projects for each member means multiple commitments of time and effort for each member. In other words, the more established bands usually take precedent over Roman Ring, and as a result, they’ve had to rely more on playing live to remain relevant with fans rather than staying consistent with releases to achieve the same ends.

That being said, Roman Ring have firmly established themselves as one of the premier local openers in Chicago for just about any of the national tours that involve technical or progressive death metal, and since the release of Babel, they’ve shared the stage with such big name acts as Pig Champion, Beyond Creation, Revocation, Gorguts, Aborted, and Archspire, among many others. In doing so, they’ve procured themselves a sizeable regional following, and Caballero adores them all: “I absolutely love our fans because there are so many types of people that we seem to appeal to, and I feel that’s the way it should be. We’re all a family when it comes to metal, [and] I think our breadth of influences and personal styles [allow us] to manage pulling it off originally and in a way that does not seem forced, which seems to resonate with others as well.”

Resonate with others it certainly has, and over the past few years, as the reputation of Roman Ring has grown and grown, the only thing that’s been missing to really kick things into a higher gear has been that big, satisfactory, full-length release to appease their ever-growing fanbase... and lo, the bubble finally burst on March 20th, 2020 with the independent release of The Halogen.

As it is, The Halogen represents only the third offering to be issued by Roman Ring, but since the band is on their own and not working under the pressures of a contract with a label, they could take all the time they needed to finetune and perfect their latest work. “I’m definitely proud of the album, we got to try everything we wanted to,” says Madden, “Half of a fourteen-hour day was spent auditioning different guitar heads and amps just for the main rhythm tone, [and] the album features [added] acoustic guitars, fretless bass, triple-tracked drums, scissor samples, and even some [guest] piano work by Adrian Perez of Warforged.”

The beautiful artwork of The Halogen as rendered by Parin Cashmony

The Halogen was mostly recorded and mastered at various times between 2016 to 2018 at IV Lab Studios in Chicago by engineer Paul Aluculesei, and Caballero feels the choice was a good one: “[Paul did] a spectacular job as helping us achieve our vision. His patience and dedication are second to none, and I enjoyed working with him immensely. His input was so valuable, as was the care and love he put into this album. We couldn’t have done it without him.”

And now that The Halogen is officially available to the masses, Roman Ring’s full and true vision of “Psychedelic Death Metal” is out there for all to see, hear, and experience, but what exactly does that mean? Nitts explains, “I want people to think less of it as yet another subgenre in death metal and more of a branding. I was looking for something that would really resonate with our band and the ideas that go along with what we’ve worked on musically and thematically. Sure, people can listen to us and think we’re a tech death band or a progressive death band, but I think our experimentation with adding different sounds and feelings into our form of death metal, even in one composition, makes the difference, [and it will] most definitely be a theme continuing forward with new works as well.” Succinctly put, “Psychedelic Death Metal” more than just describes the music, it summarizes the very essence of Roman Ring itself, from album concepts to imagery and everything in between.

Available to the masses or not, though, The Halogen, like all other albums released amidst these trying times, has been hampered by the global COVID-19 pandemic. “We were working on getting physical copies rolling right when the situation got really serious,” says Madden, and not only are CD’s tougher to get going right now, Roman Ring are just like every other band on the planet in that they cannot play live to support their new effort.

But also like most other bands on the planet, they remain optimistic and dedicated to their craft: “We’ve been using this as an opportunity to start working out some ideas for [more] new music,” says Nitts about the quarantine, “Once this is all said and done, hopefully we will have some solid foundations for new songs, and we’ll be back to playing the Chicago-area as regularly as we can.” Caballero agrees, adding, “Hopefully we can make some time to really buckle down and perform after all of this has settled, and we’ll be dedicating some time for writing our next release and doing our best to keep on the up and up with our creative process.”

So, fear not, fans of Roman Ring! Not only will copies of The Halogen be available as soon as nonessential businesses return and get cranking out the CD’s, but just perhaps the follow-up to this remarkable release will already be well under way as well!

All in all, the plague has thrown a massive monkey wrench into the works of the world, but once we can return to our normal, show-going lives, Roman Ring plan on hitting the stage posthaste, so prepare yourselves for the inevitable by checking out The Halogen in its entirety below, and be sure to purchase a digital copy for the time being, and support this incredible band in the time when they need it the most! \m/

Roman Ring Links: Facebook, Instagram