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| Photo by Dante Torrieri / Blow The Scene |
Steve Jansson. You may have heard his name before due to February's fabulous release from Crypt Sermon. But did you know he is part of 3 other bands, all of which predate Crypt Sermon? I talked with him recently regarding each of these.
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| Artwork by Brooks Wilson from Trenchrot |
Thanks for talking with me Mr. Jansson. Let's first discuss, Trenchrot and the Necronomic Warfare album.
Trenchrot is a project that was started purely for fun. Brooks Wilson and I had talked about doing a death metal project for a long time but it wasn't until we met Justin Bean that the ball got rolling. The goal was strictly to make death metal in the style of bands we have loved for years and grown up listening to. Progress or breaking ground isn't really in the agenda. It's strictly a studio band as of now for a variety of reasons.
To me it has a feel of a cross between both American & European styles without coming across as a total retro fest.
A lot of people have said that and I think that's very cool. Melding the two together came very naturally and I wouldn't say that it was a conscious effort on our end as much as we were just simply writing death metal that we liked and wanted to hear. Regarding the retro thing, there has definitely been a pretty big resurgence in this old school styled death metal. I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing for us but people seem to like the record and again, it's something all of us have wanted to do for a really long time.
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| Artwork by Brooks Wilson |
Let's talk some Infiltrator. This is some speedy dirty thrash with maybe even a touch of blackness to it. Very much an 80's feel to this one and even more of a throwback then Trenchrot is.
Infiltrator initially started off as a solo project. I wanted to do really energetic and dirty speed metal with a shitload of ripping guitar solos since the band I was in at the time wasn't very fulfilling. Initially, I would have had an actual singer do vocals but I sort of got stuck doing them. I eventually got a band together and it became more than just a solo project. However, we lost the second guitarist and it put us out of commission for live shows and we never ended up finding anyone to fill the shoes.
Funny you mention that, as I saw a review, which loved the album, but felt it could use clean wailing vocals, to make it stand out ever more. Did that thought ever cross your mind or does it now?
The direction of the music now is a bit different then it was in the beginning. We have a lot of material written but are currently taking a bit of a break due to schedules, life events, etc. I really do wish I would have tried to find a vocalist or at least tried my hand at "singing". It is what it is, though.
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Finally, let's talk some Unrest. With an album title of Grindcore, I think people know what to expect here.
Yeah, we certainly weren't trying to trick anyone. Unrest goes back to 2007/08, actually. Chris Grigg and I wanted to more or less do a Nasum styled band but in the end I don't think we sounded much like Nasum, haha.
Anyways, we recorded this album in 2011 or 2012. It seems like a lifetime ago at this point. but we finished the vocals for it this year. This album was something that we thought would be haunting us for the rest of our lives. It never got finished or released for a variety of reasons and the main one being that we just weren't happy with how the album sounded.
Chris moved to NYC and life just sort of got in the way for everyone, so the album got shelved and buried. However, Chris dug up the files and managed to fix everything we were having issues with at the beginning of 2014 and we finished the vocals in March. I think that I can speak for everyone and say that this record is very personal to all of us. For me, it was my first actual band and I learned so much about songwriting, recording, etc. This is also how we all became friends as well as developed working music relationships.
Needless to say, we are fucking stoked to finally see that this album will see the light of day. We are all very proud of it.