Some people say there’s nothing new to be added to the music. Well, no one can deny the evolution of music that happened since the 40s until now, and still, every year new talents show up delivering new concepts and ideas. PRESSURE‘s music provoked me to know more about their Story Metal concept. Let’s find out below what they have in mind.
● First tell me guys, how the idea of the band-shaped and when did you meet up?
Well, it’s a long story! It all started when Simon became Emil’s guitar teacher. Emil got a tip from a colleague of his to try out this new guitar teacher and he did! Soon Emil and Simon became friends and Simon really thought that Emil needed to get out there and play some gigs. So when one of his bass player couldn’t do a gig Simon called Emil and more or less forced him to play the bass. Emil, who had never held a bass in his life, almost moved into Simons house and over 2 weeks he learned the 60 songs of the cover gig. It all went well and when the bass player returned they decided that Emil should continue as a rhythm guitarist in the band. After this, they played all over Sweden for over 10 years together with different musicians. After doing this for 10-11 years they started to try to rewrite the songs to better fit their preferred playing style. Do metal and hard rock versions of the songs. Simon also rewrote the lyrics and translated them into Swedish. Simon and Emil soon found out that they needed a real frontman, a lead vocalist who could do the songs in a way that they wanted the music to sound like. So after a lot of auditions, they found Olof, and the line-up was complete. We continued to develop the music and soon found out that we didn’t want to rewrite other material so we started to write and do our own songs. Simon has always been collecting stories and writes a lot of music and songs. We soon found our calling and that was to talk about and tackle different kinds of Pressures around us. We all have to handle pressures. No one does have a pressureless life. So the whole idea of the band Pressure is to reflect what we want to tell the world about – Pressures – and give all our listeners tools to handle their own life and situations with the guidance of our music.
● Okay, based on your portfolio I noticed that you’re the inventors of Story Metal. Can you tell me how it’s different from any other metal style?
Story Metal is a sub-genre of Heavy Metal. Story Metal is mostly based upon storytelling so the lyrics have a really big place in it. The lyric or the story always comes first and you build the “mood” around it. So the sound differs from song to song because you have to catch the meaning of the story and enhance it through the awesome force the exists in metal and hard rock music today. All the stories are true and based upon our own experiences or stories that we have been told at a very close level.
As for differences from other metal styles, there is quite a few. As the focus is on the story, the show and the lyrics the importance of the whole band experience is not the same as in other metal styles. For example, we usually play live without a drummer on stage. Simon prerecords them. Why? Well, we can change drumkits between each song, that’s one reason, but we also like Story Metal to challenge to old traditional metal band line-up. All other music styles are evolving, so we just evolved Heavy Metal into something more exciting, more challenging and more interesting. You never know what the next song will bring or what we choose to include in our sound. Other Story metal bands could do whatever they feel they need to do to get the story out there as we do! Story Metal for us is how we want to impersonate and show the amazing stories that need to be told through the music and instrument and melodies that should be used for just that story.
● It’s pretty nice to use old school elements but keen to present it with modern techniques. Was it intentionally or just came through the recording process?
Yes, we always evolve. And we have a lot of people around us helping us to develop both the sound and the experience. One of our producers, Izzy Ander (Izzy von Scarecrow) has done wonders with how we should combine modern techniques with an old school dirty rock vibe. And mix it with a lot of different other things. We are constantly working on our sound, on our show and on how to tell the story through music. We want to bring the modern sound of today and the old sound together with a bridge that we want to call Story Metal. Our recording process is a part of our rehearsal, we do record a lot of “internal” demos to ourselves to check different things. So yeah, basically we love to combine old and new and all in between to get our sound right!
PRE-RELEASE REVIEW – NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU!
● Well, many bands from non-speaking English countries just use their native language or only English. What is your concept behind singing in English, German, and Swedish?
This is quite easy actually for us. We want to tell the story in your language so you can understand it and get a personal connection to it. This is the essence of the Story Metal concept so it’s really important! We have chosen Swedish because it’s our native tongue and we always write our songs in Swedish first. English we do because it’s one of the big international languages so many more people can enjoy the stories. German? Yeah, we love German! We will be releasing a whole german EP later this year so that’s why German!
● I noticed that your single ‘No One Can Hear You!’ gonna be introduced in English and Swedish, will you apply the same for each song in your debut album?
No, not all the songs will be released in English. Some of them are just in Swedish, and one is only in German. But lyric translations and lyric videos will be provided so everyone can understand it. Why do we do this if we want everyone to understand it as we said before when we talked about the Story metal concept? Well, the mood and the energy should be enough here to get you into the mood of the song and then when you read the translation it will hit you even harder!
● I was really impressed with the back vocals in ‘No One Can Hear You!,’ Was it recorded by Olof Jönsson or all of you?
The backing vocals are sung by Simon Forsell. He does all the backing vocals.
● Actually, I see it confusing that you’re releasing ‘No One Can Hear You!’ on the same day of your album release. Why don’t you release earlier to promote the album?
Haha, that’s us! We always try to do things in some other way that others don’t do! So people notice us. That’s the music business for you! So good that you find it confusing! Then you will remember it more!
● “Path of a Shadow” is supposed to be a concept album, can you provide a glimpse of its lyrical theme?
Yes, it’s a concept album! The album is actually a story about your life but told from your shadows perspective. You cannot escape from your shadow. He always follows you and stays by your side. Watching, supporting and never judging. He has been there for everything you have experienced. And now he wants to tell you about your life through his fiery eyes. The first track is his story, and the tracks are showing different highlights of that story. He will show you truths about yourself that you didn’t want anyone to find out, and some that even you didn’t know about yourself. The Shadow knows you in a way you cannot comprehend. He is the one who will never ever leave you or let you down. He is always around.
Here is the text for the short Prelude of the album story
“Lost in an ocean of terror and dishonour, you realize you are nothing but alone.
You fall to your knees, whispering along the breeze, but the waves do not even reach you.
You reach out to the stars, but they move further away.
You swim and swim, but you drown until you decide to rise from the waters.
Lit by the moon, you glisten in glory as you see me reflected on the sands you once hated.
Unlike the waves that ignore, my support outpours.
Unlike the stars that turn back, I’ll keep you safe from the pack
of wolves that desire to devour you and have you gated.
I am your Shadow, and this is my path.
A journey that starts with you and concludes our wraths.
They say ignorance is bliss, but I say to know is better than to dismiss.
Nowhear me!”
● I noticed that you have previous releases, but this is supposed to be your debut album release?
Yeah, the other releases we have done is just singles. Some of them have two tracks on them but it’s the same song but in different languages. So this is our first full-length album!
● In your opinion, how do you see the Swedish metal scene evolved since the 80s till now?
There has been a lot of things going on in Sweden. We have great bands here and we love to listen to them! There has been a shift towards heavier music here now and some of our more successful international bands are now sounding heavier than ever.
The only problem I see both in Sweden and international is that there is a bit too much music released each day so really good smaller acts drown in the noise. That is too bad. I know a lot of small bands that are so good that they should have been getting the chance but nowadays they just have to rely on luck.
● Lockdowns still on! What are your plans for promoting the album?
The album will mostly be promoted on radio, the internet and through other channels. We long for the day we can get out there and play our album live.
● Finally, I cannot wait to listen to the album guys! Also, to see you in Egypt soon! 🙂
Thank you so much for talking to us! We would love to come to Egypt and rock you so hard that we turn the sand to glass there!
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