Much like the recording process that produced ‘Anthems Of Rebellion’, the putting together of ‘Doomsday Machine’ was a relatively painless ordeal, and quick in putting together after the decision was made to record close to home, rather than relocate to England in Andy Sneap’s Backstage Studios.
“Over the last three years we’ve been touring quite extensively, and you have to fight for any sort of free time with the label and management. We just decided that we needed time to make a new album. They pretty much gave us three months to record it, and deliver the final product, so we spent close to two months rehearsing the songs, and another three months in the studio. We chose to record it close to our hometown in Sweden (Of Halmstad, in south-west Sweden), and that basically meant that at the end of every day, we could go home and sleep in our own beds. Providing of course that you wanted to! (Laughs) That was a huge advantage. I mean when we were recording ‘Anthems Of Rebellion’, we were recording with Andy Sneap in England. That meant that you had a return flight ticket, so you knew that you only had eight days to finish all your tracks. You had to leave whether it was complete or not, because the flight was already booked. But having said that, every time we record an album, we always book plenty of time in the studio. Not matter what you do or how much you plan ahead; you’ll always find yourself pressured at some point. You will always come up with new ideas while in the process of recording, and the more ideas you come up with, the more time you burn. You tend to put the pressure on yourself in a way.”
Unlike ‘Anthems Of Rebellion’, Arch Enemy decided to use Rickard Bengtsson (Who is vocalist for Last Tribe and Armageddon) at Slaughterhouse Studio as co-producer (With the band), with Andy Sneap handling the mixing.
“We recorded the album with Bengtsson in Sweden, and then took the hard drive over to England and Sneap mix the album over a three-week period. I think when we looked back at ‘Anthems Of Rebellion’, we thought the album was a bit too clinical sounding, and almost monotonous in a way. So we actually wanted to try a different producer with this album first. But in the end, it just seemed like a good idea to go back to Sneap for the mixing part anyway. He proved to be flexible, and try some new ideas that might otherwise be a bit new to him. It’s not that he’s so much reluctant to trying new ideas, but because he was so involved with ‘Anthems Of Rebellion’ from the very start of pre-production right through to the finished product, it was hard for him to hear something new after a while. He was there the whole time. With ‘Doomsday Machine’, he had a fresh approach to the album. He only heard the songs for the first time when they were about to be mixed. We obviously went to England, and we brought along Bengtsson with us as well to come up with ideas. I think we managed to get a pretty unique sound on this album. Sneap’s album tended to sound a bit similar one another. But with ‘Doomsday Machine’, I think the differences are evident, and it really stands out. I think it’s got a bit of a natural touch to the sound, as well as being very precise and machine like! (Laughs)”
Another important aspect to ‘Doomsday Machine’ is Gossow’s vocals, and how she’s managed to find her place within the band after her third effort with the group.
“I think she’s done a great job. I know when it came to ‘Anthems Of Rebellion’, she wasn’t very happy with the sound that she got on the vocals. So this time, she wanted to make sure that her performance was a lot more varied sounding, and different from song to song. It I think she may have found that easier with ‘Doomsday Machine’ because every song has it’s own mood, and you wouldn’t want to have the exact same sounding vocal on every song. Like I said, we recorded in our hometown of Halmstad, so she chose to do a couple of hours worth of vocal recording in the evenings, so therefore she didn’t have anywhere near as much pressure on herself like last time.”
One question that couldn’t pass without an answer was just where did the title ‘Doomsday Machine’ comes from, and what exactly is a ‘Doomsday Machine’?
“That’s a good question! (Laughs) Basically the title comes from a line in the song ‘Dead Eyes See No Future’ (A song based on the atrocities of war) on ‘Anthems Of Rebellion’. We pinched it from there. The way I look at it, Arch Enemy the band is the ‘Doomsday Machine’. We sort of roll in from town to town, and destroying everything in our path! (Laughs) It’s something like that. There’s no deep concept behind it. The ‘Doomsday Machine’ isn’t a metaphor for the world as we see it today. We didn’t see the title in that way. People are coming up with all kinds of interpretations, and we’re hearing it more and more, but it’s nothing like that. For us, it’s just a cool title for a cool album.”
Another interesting title comes up in the song ‘Machtkampf’.
“Roughly translated from German to English, it means power struggle. It obviously comes from Gossow because she’s German. Originally she wrote the whole song with German lyrics, but we all thought that was a little too much in the German style for a Swedish band, so she had to strip that down. In the end, all that remained was the title.”
Even though ‘Doomsday Machine’ has only just been released, Arch Enemy have plans for another release before the end of the year, which will be the bands first D.V.D.
“We recorded the footage for a D.V.D. in London last year at a live show that we did, and we have plans to release that sometime before the end of the year. That was filmed with around ten to twelve cameras, so that will look and sound pretty cool. We’re just putting the finishing touches to it now. I can’t say too much about what to expect at this stage, but I think fans will enjoy it.”
In the meantime, Arch Enemy will keep themselves busy with the most extensive tour ever undertaken by the band to date, with the current Ozzfest dates just the beginning.
“We’re probably going to be on the road for the next eighteen months to promote this album. So we have a lot of gigs ahead of us! (Laughs) We’re doing Ozzfest at the moment, and I think that still has around five weeks left of that. Then I think we have three weeks off before doing a full European tour, an Eastern tour and then finally an Australian tour. I would like to say that the Australian tour is one hundred percent confirmed, but you never really can be sure until you have it written down on paper! (Laughs) But we’re definitely planning to come to Australia sometime before the end of the year, sometime around early November I think. We hope to do around three or four shows, perhaps as the headliner. But again, I can be certain of that. I hope that it all comes together. We have had a lot of requests over the years from Australian fans asking us to come down, so it’s going to be great when we finally get there.” [END]
