Interview with UNDER THE CHURCH

by Vpower

The Band: Under The Church

Country: Sweden/Iceland

Answers by: Erik Qvick (drums, guitars)

https://www.facebook.com/UnderTheChurch

Swedish defilers UNDER THE CHURCH unearth more deathly freshness of underworldly graves with their sophomore album "Supernatural Punishment”. Erik gives a real picture of the band’s current situation and what Supernatural Punishment is all about, we also talk about some basic musical concepts that we use to forget more often than not.

Hello Erik, Under The Church is a new death metal monster, it can be considered musically as the heir of Nirvana 2002?

Thank you for the kind words, we intend to keep on feeding the monster. This is a band which share the same members as Nirvana2002 but that’s about it, this not a continuation of that band in any way.

With your demo and the first full-length “Rabid Armageddon” you got the general recognition so this new album was very much anticipated

The demo, the Ep and the full length Rabid Armageddon were very well received, they shared the same kind of tunes and overall vibe. I wasn’t too happy with the sound/production of the Ep but we learned from that mistake and now we mix all our recordings ourselves. “Supernatural Punishment” kinda follows naturally in our evolution and idea as a band which is quite simple, we just keep on making deathmetal records that are as good as we possible can.

Erik Wahlin from the recently resurrected Merciless, former Morbid-axeman Marcus Klack and the voice of Erik Sahlström (General Surgery, Crucifyre), we could even call it a superband?

Well, superband or allstar lineup has a bad ring to it I think. I see it more as 5 dudes having a good time playing deathmetal together...

Supernatural Punishment, out on November 10th, is everything expcept boring, I think it will not dissapoint any fan of the band and the genre

Hard to tell, I personally really like the album. One on hand there will be those who criticize it saying that it’s just another deathmetal album which offers nothing new...which is completely true by the way, but maybe they will miss the point which to me is that is doesn’t have to be groundbreaking and it doesn’t have to be different than our older releases. The only thing that matters is if it’s good songs...It’s like complaining that Muddy Waters “only” plays blues...of course he only plays blues, that’s what he’s all about. Under The Church are all about DeathMetal, simple as that.

Clear as water.  I also would like to mention the fantastic artwork, one of those that makes you eager to open the cd box and play it loud

Mattias Frisk really outshined himself (again) with the artwork for the album, next time we’re gonna have to start giving him songwriting credits.

How long have you been working on Supernatural Punishment? Everything according to the designed plan?

We had the main core of music ready well over a year ago, we then finetuned the songs together with everybody pitching in ideas. It didn’t take too long to record the basic tracks and then we spent the better part of autumn/winter 2016 finishing vocals and some guitars.

Under The Church has undoubtedly that Swedish Death Metal edge, but it also shows a diversity that maybe was not so much present in previous efforts

I guess it’s that it’s the sound that makes it come across that way. The Boss HM2 is not as upfront as before, I wanted it to sound like a old Neat Records release. Musically is pretty much the same as before I think, maybe that the Accept and Venom influences are clearer this time, I don’t know.

Old school fans of Death Metal can be happy, you deliver songs direct to the throat, around the 3 minutes each

I wish I could tunes like Autopsy with many different parts but I can’t do it... we follow a formula that has worked from Chuck Berry and onwards.

Yes, old Chuck knew it very well. I also appreciate very much the chaos in the riffs in songs like The Death of Innocence

I don’t hear chaos in that specific riff but overall the guitars aren’t that well tuned on this record so maybe that’s what your hearing. There is however quite abit chaos in the lyrics to that song, it’s the first time i’ve written a “real” lyric coming from a personal perspective. It’s about fully committing your soul and body to something but experiencing a total betrayal..think Dylans “Blood on the tracks” and you’ll get the idea.

Regarding your previous releases what would you say about Supernatural Punishment?

The newest and so far best release until the next which will be better.

Supernatural Punishment is released by Pulverised Records, any especial promotion in sight?

Don’t know really, what we really need is to get in contact with booking/tour promoter.

Any tour or live shows to present your new album? Any change in the line-up for gigs purposes?

We’re really itching to go out and play gigs, hopefully something will come about early 2018.

UTC is your priority right now or you share your time with other projects?

As far as deathmetal goes this is the only band that I play and write for, but i’ve been working as a musician for 25plus years so i’m always involved in some kind of project or session.

Thanks for you attention and cogratulations for the new album

Thank you for the support and interest in our band, go out see us live and buy our releases!