Swedish death metallers Aeon have just released their second full-length album, Rise To Dominate, on the mighty Metal Blade Records.  This interview, done by Bill Hugel of the Pivotal Rage webzine, is with guitarist Daniel Dlimi.  He definitely whets our appetite for the new CD, but he also voices some clear disappointment in current drummer Nils Fjellstrom.  What does the future hold for this band?

 

First off, thanks for taking the time to talk. Your new album, Rise to Dominate, was released about a month ago. How has the response been so far?

 

The response has been really great so far from both the fans and critics. We are mainly getting great scores in reviews and so on.

 

Besides obvious things like better production, what did you try to do differently on Rise to Dominate as opposed to your earlier albums?

 

Well, it’s exactly that obvious thing that was our main focus, actually. When we recorded Bleeding The False, we had an obsession in getting every little thing 100% audible and therefore [we ended up with] the somewhat strange choice of sounds. For example, the very “mid sounding” kick drums, almost no distortion on the guitars, etc. Every little instrument track on Bleeding The False is cleaned up to perfection in the studio by removing every little noise, squeak, and microphone leakage, etc. That resulted in a very sterile sounding album as well. So this time around, we decided that we should have a really raw and un-edited production with fat, massive guitars, and so on. We wanted to mirror how Aeon actually sounds like, and I think we managed to pull that off pretty well. Besides that, I really think we are far better musicians and songwriters today compared to how we where back in 2003 when we started to record Bleeding The False. That has a huge impact in how Rise to Dominate turned out, too.

 

Speaking of production, what was it like working with Dan Swano?

 

It was a joyride. Dan is one of the most professional people I had the opportunity to work with. We sent him the whole project on DVD-R’s as soon as we were finished with the actual recording. He started to mix one song at his Unisound Studio. After a few days, we got a pre/test mix on one of the songs so we could listen to it and give him some feedback. Already, it started to sounds really good. We had a couple of wishes that we emailed to him, and he continued to work on our change requests. A couple of test mixes later and a very “easy to deal with” dialogue through email and he was ready to send us a test mix on the whole album. At this point, it sounded awesome and all there was left to do was some small changes to make it perfect. So after about 10 days, we had this killer mix/master in our hands. We are really pleased with the result, and we sure as hell would love to do some more work with him in the future.

 

Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse has been pretty outspoken in his praise of you guys. How did that come about? Are you flattered?

 

I am not really sure how this started, but I think it was Erik at Unique Leader who asked us what band we would like to tour with if we could choose, and we said Cannibal Corpse. And since Erik is a good friend with Alex, he sent him a copy of Bleeding The False and informed him that we would love to do tours with them. Alex obviously seemed to love our stuff and he/they made sure that we did get a spot on their European tour in April 2006. Of course, I am proud. It’s pretty surreal to have someone in a band that you have been listening to since the early 90’s raving about how good your band is. It should be the other way around, you know? I can’t help smiling when I see live photos of them and realizing that George, Alex, or Rob has an Aeon shirt on, or reading an interview when Alex is praising us. Just the fact that Alex actually watched all of our shows on the tour except one, I think. I am flattered as hell.

 

How would you say Aeon differs from all the other death metal bands currently in the scene?

 

I wouldn’t say that we are different from all the other death metal bands. We are just playing death metal in a way we think it should be, and if that makes us different or not, I don’t know. However, we are doing our best to create some really brutal and heavy but yet catchy death metal for you all. Have we succeeded? That’s up to the fans and critics to decide.

 

You guys create death metal that is brutal yet surprisingly catchy. How do you combine those two seemingly opposing elements?

 

There are certain rules we usually follow when we create music. Most important, a guitar riff must sound brutal in some way. Otherwise, it sucks and should be thrown away. You should also be able to bang your head to it, and it cannot be “over-the-top” technical so no one would ever understand what the fuck you are doing. And when we have a couple of parts that match those criteria, and each other of course, we are putting it together in a (believe it or not) typical rock ‘n’ roll song structure. After that, Tommy (Dahlstrom, vocalist) writes lyrics and creates the vocals patterns for it. It’s often then that the real catchiness appears.

 

How has it been with Nils Fjellstrom splitting his drumming duties between Aeon and Dark Funeral?

 

Nils has always been playing in many bands/projects, so that’s nothing new to us. However, nothing has ever been the size of Dark Funeral, and since they are a pretty much active and touring band, it sure as hell will fuck things up for us. It started with him forcing us to cancel our spot at the Metal Blade’s 25th Anniversary Tour which totally sucked. And we have been forced to turn down a great deal of shows besides that as well. I seriously don’t see how this is going to work in the long run. We want to be able to say yes to tours and shows without having to check his busy schedule all the time and have to turn down offers just because of one guy.

 

How did people react to you canceling your appearance on the Metal Blade 25th Anniversary Tour?

 

Right after we where finished with the recording of Rise To Dominate, Nils told us that he had committed himself to Dark Funeral to replace their previous drummer. He also told us that he had to turn down our US tour as he had agreed to do a US tour with Dark Funeral, and that it would conflict with our tour. I don’t think he realized how big and important this tour was for Aeon. He just saw an opportunity to make some money with DF. This was a huge setback and disappointment for the rest of us. It felt like an old friend was backstabbing you. This tour had been in the works for months so he knew very well that it was coming up. We felt that we couldn’t turn down this tour, so we decided to try to do it anyway with a stand-in drummer. We tried out a dear friend of ours who is a killer drummer. He usually plays drums in the vein of Judas Priest’s Painkiller, and he unfortunately didn’t have the skill that is required to pull off double-bass attacks in the speed that some of our most important songs require. So we thought, we’ll do it anyway.  We put together a live setlist with a little more mid tempo and slower songs. But after a while, we realized that we would only be doing ourselves and our American fans a disfavor by doing so. So instead of giving our American fans a half-assed Aeon show, we decided to cancel it and hopefully come there later on and deliver an Aeon show as it supposed to be. Some people where disappointed and angry of course. But most of them understand that the four of us (all except Nils) were feeling the same thing. It sucks when it falls apart just because of one guy’s decision. But what are you going to do? It’s not like we could have forced him to go or anything like that.

 

For all the American Aeon fans out there, what is an Aeon show like?

 

Like a huge fist bashing you right in the face, from the very first second until the last. (In a good way!) We are trying to deliver an airtight performance, and you should expect nothing less. The things we pull off on our albums are done live as well.

 

Most Swedish death metal bands have a clearly recognizable sound that includes a lot of melody, etc, while you guys have a more straightforward, almost American style. How did that come about? Is this a conscious characteristic of your music?

 

It sure is. Me, Zeb (Nilsson, guitarist), and Tommy [Aeon also includes Max Carlberg on bass] have been listening to death metal since the early 90’s, and we all enjoy American death metal bands more than the typical Swedish/European ones. When did melodies become evil and brutal? Never! And since we wanted to play brutal music, our choice was a more typical “American” style.

 

Death metal has been around in one way or another for around twenty years. Where do you see it going in the next twenty?

 

There are always new sub-styles popping up and getting the fuck out through time. But I am sure there will be bands 20 years from now that have followed the typical style of death metal that we have today and just make it even more brutal, tighter, and fatter sounding.

 

Finally, what would you say is the secret to making a great death metal song?

 

Some cornerstones . . . Create a couple of killer riffs, stick to a pretty simple song structure, create interesting vocal patterns, and throw in at least one thing that [sticks] out in the song so people will recognize it instantly. And . . . do NOT stack a million different riffs on top of each other, trying to make some technical madness just because you are capable of doing it. Nobody likes that shit.

 

Thanks again for your time, and good luck with the new album.

 

Thanks, man!