The Swedish Vampires of Tribulation have been bending the rules of extreme metal since their inception in 2001 and topped many ‘best of 2015’-lists with their previous masterpiece “The Children Of The Night” which mixed crushing death tunes with hypnotic vintage hard rock moments. But the story of the mystical Swedes has only just begun. On January 26th, their 4th haunting album titled “Down Below” will see the light of a cold winter day and even before Century Media served the record to the press, Metal Wani’s Anne Catherine Swallow was able to speak to guitar master Adam Zaars, who revealed several first details.
In the interview, he unveils that the album will be more in line with the style of “Children Of The Night” than the previous, more death metal-ish releases, and that all their records follow certain atmospheres based on colours and images. In the case of “Down Below”, it was an cold haunted house and while working further on the project, it transformed into a church-like building playing with Christian allusions. With such metaphorical descriptions, Adam manages to evoke the sound in one’s ear and create a first impression of the nine upcoming tracks.
He explains that the release will have an ‘older’ sound than the previous records and evaluates what the four young musicians learned within the last years and how their sound constantly evolved, even though he tries to keep his songwriting as unconscious as somehow possible, waiting for inspiration to strike.
Furthermore he reveals how the songwriting was split into two ‘camps’, one being the trio of Adam, singer Johannes and the new drummer Oscar on one hand and the second one being guitarist Jonathan working alone. Together they forged a new trademark sound in (among others) the Soundtrade Studios, where already Abba recorded, and also created their cover art and booklet design on their own.
