answers by Daniel (Drums)

Hi, first, thanks answering this interview. And could you start it with a little biography of your group ?
Arise was formed back in 96/97 by me and Patrik and from the beginning we played covers by Sepultura and Machine Head among others. We recorded two cassette demos by ourselves in –99 and one professional CD demo in –00 which we caught Spinefarm´s interest with. Our first album “The godly work of art” was released autumn –01 and received good reviews. In april/may –03 Arise made a European tour as support for Vader and during that tour the second album “Kings of the cloned generation” was released. It´s the only tour we did so far, but not the last I hope.

Your new album will be published this month, it seems that the first reviews are quit enthusiastic no ?
Yes, so far the reviews have been very good, except here in Sweden. I think it has something to do with the awful trend among Swedish reviewers nowadays. You see, if you want to get good reviews here in Sweden you should play very hard-listening-to emotional music, like Isis or Neurosis. Or you can be just as aggressive as possible – like Nile. Then you will get top reviews no matter what.

Do you think those who liked " Kings Of The Cloned Generation " will enjoy the new album just as much?
Yeah I really do. The new album has got a heavy production like the first one “Godly work..” and that´s good. Another thing is that the performing is better and the songs are more worked through this time. So far we have got nice reactions on “The beautiful new world” and that´s cool.

What are your favourite points about the new album?
That would be as I said the production, which is clean and heavy and the musicianship. And then we have made this tribute song to Carcass which I like very much. Instead of recording a simple cover we made a song that would sound so much Carcass that it would be a tribute, and I think that we really succeeded in that.

How would you describe your music ?
Modern death/thrash metal with angry vocals. A good mix of speed, melody and heaviness blended together.

What do your lyrics talk about ?
Mostly about your state of mind. Our mind is one hell of a weird thing sometimes and can fuck with us in most horrific ways, and we find that interesting. In a way we are all a bit neurotic you know. But they are also about the future and how it could be or just plain horror. It depends in which mood you are in when you are writing the lyrics.

The cover is very interesting, what is its meaning ?
As you can figure out by the artwork the album title is meant to be very ironic, because it´s nothing beautiful with it at all. I guess the symbolical meaning is that our world is not getting better and better, but worse. We are destroying our environment and spoiling our natural resources. The machines is taking over the human work and the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer. It´s no beautiful world we are going to have in the future.

Do you have a favourite track on the cd ?
That has to be the opening track “How long can you pretend” and the Carcass tribute “Tribute to the flesh”

It seems that you get much inspirated of At The Gates, isn’t it ?
Everyone says so, and of course we got a little from them but hey, you do not sound like At the gates just because you play fast. For example we´re much heavier than At the gates were and more melodic too. But they were a great band and they made the one and only, immortal “Slaughter of the soul”. No one will ever make a better album. It´s still as good as in 95.

What are the other groups that gave you inspiration ?
I think that bands like Hypocrisy and Carcass has given us much more inspiration musically than At the gates have for example. But we do listen to so different music that I believe it´s coloured by several bands, not just metal bands.

As your two previous album, “The Beautiful New World” is signed by Spinefarme, so are you happy with the support from Spinefarm so far ?
Well, some things has been good and some things not so good. I won´t go into anything deeper than that. But they seem to really like and believe in the new album so I think everything will be fine this time.

Is a tour planned, will french metalheads see you on stage soon ?
Not for what I know. You see that decision is in Spinefarm´s hands, not ours. We do need a booking agency for Europe and I´m going to start working on that this very week, so let´s see what will happen. We wants for sure come performing for you.

Is there a group which you would like to go on tour with ?
We would really like to go on tour with Dark Tranquillity, because we know them, and their audience would fit us well I think. We were supposed to support them and Kreator on their tour, but Hatesphere from Denmark took our seat. They have a great booking agency and politics is running who´s going to supporting who. Hypocrisy would be nice too. During april/may –03 we supported one of my absolute favourite bands Vader – that was great!

Other projects ?
None of us have any at this time. It might be so in the future though. I have been asked many times to play the drums in other Swedish bands, but I have never had the time. I got a request last week again and I´m still thinking about it, so we´ll see…

And, to finish, could you explain to us, your vision about the “spirit of metal” ?
My vision is that everyone should show that they are enjoying the music when visiting gigs and not be so boring. Just standing there quiet will make no band happy. And stop acting like music police. Don´t waste so much time in complaining about what you don´t like – spend your time on what you do like instead. Most metal people I have met is very friendly and generous and that is a typical sign for a real metal head I think – not like fucking pop brats who are noisy and impolite. Metal fans is more like a brotherhood than any other genre and that´s cool. Let´s keep it that way!

Thanx for your precious time, a last words to all your french fans ?
I really hope that you will like the new album as much as you like the other ones. Pleace visit our homepage at www.ariseonline.com and let us know what you think. And I will be working to get Arise to a place close to you so that you can experience us live in our right element. Until then – cheers!