After the midsummer weekend, it was time to get back to biz. The recording facalities down in Varberg were changed to David’s own Ghost Ward studio (off the record referred to as “the rathole”) which is located in a suburb north of Stockholm. This week’s schedule was rhythm guitars, so I stepped into the picture together with Jonas and David to find a heavy distortion sound to fit Daniel’s great drum production.

We recently entered a brand new collaboration with with Laboga amplifiers from Poland and we endorse both their Mr Hector and Aligator models. Obivously, the entire Monday was spent fooling around with different configurations of mics, speakers and knob settings. In the past, this procedure could very likely end up taking more than one day, but this time we found the “sweet spot” pretty much right away.

Laboga deliver fantastic quality and I believe we nailed the optimal setup for this record. We’re talking low bottom heaviness, a mid crunch register which we like to refer to as “the drill”, all perfectly pushed through the active EMG pickups of my wicked Mayones axes. The coloring and balance between the amps different equalizers and different distortion levels shows also in the clear high end resonance. Even full 6-string chords ring out beautifully seperated without turning to noise. It sounds expensive and pro.

When we came back on tuesday to start tracking we were disturbed by a foul smell. To enter the studio, you head into this kind of sketchy house located in a industrial area, take a couple of stairs down to the basement and enter a steel door that leads to a corridor where the studio is located like a rathole in the wall. But on the outside of the steeldoor there’s this kinda elevator room with a sliding door, sometimes open, sometimes shut. The smell couldn’t have come from anywhere else but there. We’ve had our suspicions before and they turned out to be true. None of us ever investigated what’s behind the door, until now. A flashlight and a camera revealed that this tiny room is being a residence for bums and junkies and their grotesque needs. What was reeking as we passed by turned out to be piles of excrements and urine on the floor… Yay! We learned that in the upper building is a couple of floors with apartments used as “temporary solutions for temporary people”… Put two and two together. We’re recording in a rathole, in hell!

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The last cymbal hit of the drum session still ringing in my ear… I have a very good feeling about the whole thing. The playing first and foremost, and the sound is beautiful, the acoustics are ace! Plus we won’t have to listen to nothing but drums 10 hours a day anymore. Daniel should be proud. We haven’t had the time to do anything else as we’re on a pretty tight schedule with this album. We saw some horses the other day and we celebrated David’s birthday with cake, beer and various medications and oh, our new collaborator Frank Default (more known as the creative force behind the previous single’s remixes and ‘Unfurl’ production) came down to help edit some of the drums and made sure we didn’t fall behind schedule. So the time has come to wrap up and get outta here. Feels good to have a few days at home in Stockholm and celebrate midsummer. Next week we’ll move on to rhythm, lead and clean guitars. The foundation of darkness is now rock solid. /Jonas

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After a long nocturnal car ride through heavy rain and on frog flooded roads, me, Daniel and David (recording engineer) finally found the lonesome path leading to a studio pretty much located in the middle of nowhere. We got the gear into the studio, had a quick lookaround and were then heading for bed. Both me and Daniel were (are) sick and since drugs are a big part of rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle we went through our medicine stash and found a big bottle of cough surpressing stuff that would also provide extra good sleep… yummy.

Day two was all about getting the drums up. Provided with a beautiful orange Gretsch kit Daniel started to play around with his setup. It took some time. Putting up all the microphones took some time as well. By midnight we could finally hear the sound of the drum kit through the studio monitors.

Me and Daniel had a walk around the studio building and found: 1. an electric fence (that we wanted to but didn’t have the guts to touch) and 2. two cows (that we wanted to but didn’t have the guts to touch). Time to hit the sack again with some sleep providing liquid.

Day three, four and five can be compressed into one word: drums. The ultimate instrument. Daniel is playing better than ever despite his sickness and the new material is shining even more with real drums on the songs. Difficult parts (to my ear) are smoothly executed and easy going parts are… easy going. It’s interesting to discuss with Daniel about the direction the drums are headed for certain songs and parts, since this is the first time we’ve actually met and listened through the new material together… that’s the way we work, folks. Exciting times ahead! /Jonas