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Insision.
 A group who started out with the aim of injecting some good old-fashioned brutality back into their country's stagnating death metal scene - a scene that they felt was in danger of being overrun by more melodic, listener-friendly bands - Swedish death metal band Insision are on the verge of doing their first tour of Australia: one that, according to vocalist Carl Birath, will bring to an end a long and rather intensive period on the road.
"For the past year, we've been doing a lot of touring," he informs me. "We've done a European tour with Suffocation, and a Scandinavian one with The Haunted, as well as some small ones of countries like Germany and Finland. We also just recently came back from the UK, so it's been quite intense for us during the last few months. This will actually be our last tour before we start writing material for a new album."
When it comes, that new album will be the follow-up to last year's 'Revealed and Worshipped', itself the successor to 'Beneath The Folds Of Flesh', the 2002 recording which really brought the band to the attention of many in the underground. It was very much a traditional death metal recording, and Birath reveals that the band has followed much the same approach with their more recent work. "We're still into the brutal death metal thing; it's in our blood, so there's nothing really strange about it for us", he says. "The big difference between this record and the first one is the fact that this one has, if you like, a thread going through it; it's got more of a theme to it. It wasn't just a bunch of old demo songs mixed together with new songs; all the songs in this one were written around the same time."
The album was that it was made with the help of compatriot Mieszko Talarczyk, a member of grindcore outfit Nasum, owner of Soundlab recording studio, who tragically lost his life in last year's Asian tsunami disaster. It becomes obvious that his death still affects the band greatly. "It's a terrible thing", Birath laments. "He helped us out so much with the record; he was a great producer. He just spent so much time with us; we were in the studio for at least two and a half weeks, and spent every waking hour with him. He worked with us for eight hours each day, and then gave us a whole night in the studio free of charge to just experiment, to make different parts of the record that we wouldn't have been able to otherwise; he just gave us the key, and said 'Hey! Play your arse off, man!' And for those two and a half weeks, we thought, 'This is a really great guy!' Just before we found out that he was missing we talked about doing the new record in his studio, because it was a great experience. It's a big loss for the scene in both Sweden and the world; Nasum was a great grindcore band. It's just sad, man."
On the subject of the Swedish scene, and a somewhat happier note, Birath says that that scene is a lot better for bands like his than it was even a couple of years ago. "I remember when we were doing the first record, it was like we were in a war against the melodic stuff," he recalls. "From my point of view, we actually won that war because we've shown that Sweden isn't only a melodic death metal country any more. Now you have lots of death metal bands here that play much less melodic stuff, and people know that. There's us and bands like Visceral Bleeding and Spawn of Possession. Of course, we're talking about the new bands here, but I think the scene right now is growing and just getting better. Death metal is really on the rise again, though hopefully it's not going to become trendy! I think the scene is healthy and well."
Another thing Birath is very positive about is his band's impending tour. "It's a great opportunity, and I'm really looking forward to it," he enthuses. "I've never been to Australia before myself and none of the other band members have either - so it's great to just get this chance to go over there, and play a few gigs with some of your bands; it's going to be really cool. And hopefully we're going to meet some crazy fucks too; that's something else I'm looking forward to!"
James Brazel
 | Insision play an all-ages show at the Crown & Anchor Hotel on Sun 24 July with Infernal Method, Slaughter Thou, Juggermath and Mythica: doors open 4pm. 'Revealed and Worshipped' is out now on Earache/Wicked World. |
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