GRAVE "Into the Grave" special (2013)

Featured in Supposed to Rot 'zine #4

Answers by Jorgen Sandström

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How was it for a bunch of teenagers to be contacted and signed for a label like Century Media back in the day? Even though you had already released “Tremendous Pain” through them I guess “Into the Grave” was the real starting point for a band like Grave… Did you feel at the time that you were taking a big and crucial step forward with the band or not?

Even though we had already been in the scene for awhile, since back in 87-88, and already had established our name in the underground scene by releasing demo tapes, tape trading and numerous interviews in fanzines around the world, we were of course very excited when CM called us and showed interest. They asked if we could record more songs for them so we did a six track sampler and then they called back and asked us to come to Germany and record in a professional studio, so we did. That was the recording that they released as the “Tremendous Pain” 7". Yes, it was a major step forward of course in Grave’s career. Imagine being only 18 when you get a record deal! It was nothing we thought would happen but of course embraced to the fullest.

“Into the Grave” was recorded at the famous Sunlight Studios but it does not have the typical Sunlight Swedish sound so to speak (you know what I mean), it’s much rawer and brutal as compared to other albums released around that time. Did you really intend to get that raw and unpolished sound? Why then the change to the much more recognizable Sunlight sound in your second album? Maybe you thought that the result was not good enough so you and Thomas decided to give it a ‘new treatment’ in the second one? I mean was it Thomas’ decision to change the sound for the second album or yours?

First of all, after the "Tremendous Pain" recording we didn’t want to travel out of Sweden to record. During that recording we learned that to get our vision through we need to speak the same language. Not only the spoken language but also on the mental level. We had just moved away from our hometown Visby to Stockholm for many reasons and in Stockholm at the time Tomas was the only studio owner that we could think of that could work our for us. We entered the studio with no intention to sound like other bands and that is why it sounds different. Of course you can hear the Sunlight production in there but we had a totally different approach on our Death Metal than the Stockholm scene. On the second album, which is the one we like the least, we rushed into the studio in between tours and our mental level was set on, record the goddamn album so we can get out on the road again and get drunk!!!:-)

As far as you can remember, how was the response to the album back in the day from both the media and the fans? Most fans consider it to be your very best album (me too), do you agree with that? In what sense do you think it’s better/worse than “You’ll Never See…”?

From what I can remember the response was great. Maybe more from fans than media, but we still had good support from media with interviews etc. I spent a whole week in New York just doing interviews from their office with radio stations and magazines all over their nation. And the tour supporting Massacre after the album was released over there was killer too. It is always easier to say that the first album was better than the second. What you have to keep in mind is that before the first album there was no pressure and there were shitloads of songs to choose from. When CM wanted a second album out only a year after the first we had to write new songs and record them. We included two old demo tape songs, "Morbid Way to Die" and "Severing Flesh" which was on our sideband Putrefaction´s demo (if I remember correctly, haha..) I dont think "You´ll Never See.." is a bad album, it just feels a bit rushed...

“Into the Grave” includes a bunch of old songs (from the previous demos and promos) re-recorded for the album and only 4 new songs, why was that? Did you feel any kind of urge or pressure to get the album ready quickly (maybe from Century Media) so you only had the chance to sort out only 4 new songs? Also, was there any song left behind during the recording sessions that was initially planned to do it into the album by any chance? Besides, the title-track includes a new section with a very ominous keyboard before all hell breaks loose, that’s an addition to the initial song, who came up with the idea of including that particular section?

The songs were not new to us, we had them for awhile just never recorded them before the album. We didn’t see it as any problem of any kind to include old songs since we really liked them and they represented Grave at the time. We had already recorded “Into the Grave” with a keyboard like that for a split LP with the band Devolution, out on Prophecy Rec. It came out just about the same time as “Into the Grave” and in fact we weren’t sure if that split would come out or not, so when we recorded “Into the Grave” for the third time (the version for the debut album) we included the keyboard part once again. Can’t remember whose idea it was and doesn’t matter because I think we all liked it anyway.

Out of curiosity, where was the band pic on the album back cover taken, I mean that one among the rocks… There seems to be very little amount of promo pictures for that album (apart from the individual pictures on the CD booklet and vinyl inlay), is it only my impression?

From what I can remember the photo was taken just outside the Sunlight Studio. We had a few promo shots but not so many. Looking good on pictures was never anything we got famous for, hahaha.. We hated the camera and the camera hated us.

How do you see the album from today’s perspective, do you think it has stood the test of time? And also, how do you see it in comparison to the whole lot of great Swedish Death metal albums of the time (ie “Left Hand Path”, “Dark Recollections”, etc…), have you noticed it’s among the very favourites of most of the freaks of the old Swedish sound?

It seems like a lot of people are still listening to the album and every now and then people post a song on my facebook wall to let me know that we were one of their fave bands etc. and that feels awesome.

Ok Jorgen, let me know if you still pay a listen to “Into the Grave” on a regular basis or not these days… Also, do you have any favourite track in the album, and why?

The regular basis is maybe once every two or three years, haha.. Maybe even more. I like “Obscure Infinty” the most because of the memory from recording the vocals. During the middle part with the harmonizer effect the whole studio went black. The power was out. The studio had no windows so we went out to get some air and noticed that the whole part of town was out of electricity...

How often does the band play “Into the Grave” stuff in their live gigs nowadays? I guess it must be the most demanded stuff by the audience, right? Is there any particular hit-song off that album that people ask you for to play live?

I have not been in the band the last 18 years or so, hahaha.. I know they play some songs from the album still and last year they did some gigs when they played the entire album from start to finish. Although, with Torture Division, the band I am in nowadays, www.torturedivision.net, we play the song "Into The Grave" sometimes live. People still like to hear it and start to headbang like maniacs!!!