[Coldworker - The Promise of Decay] “Compared to what's been going on in the Arab world lately for example, things here are probably quite timid. But there are other things/problems that might not sound so serious when compared to the worst possible conflicts. However, I don't think it's completely fair to always compare things that way. You always look first to what's close to you. There are situations in Sweden that are shit, and where many people would like to see a change. Then there's the usual stuff, like for example politicians making empty promises and so on (and this goes for any political party/political direction).” – Anders Bertilsson

[Goatwhore – Sworn to the Blood Oath] “I wanted to get back on my feet. There’s two directions you can go: Wallow in self-pity, or get up, dust yourself off and go forward. When you’re in the hospital, you’re exposed to all the bad. They don’t lead you in a positive direction. At that moment, you have to tell yourself to make something out of it. At one point, I was told I wasn’t even going to be able to walk again. So you have that running in your head, and it’s like, ‘If I have to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, I’ll sort it out.’ In the meantime, I will try to walk and try to get out of this thing.” – Ben Falgoust

[Christian Mistress - Over and Over...and Over] “I've never felt that our band quite fit into any scene; it has been this way since the beginning. We had a hard time getting small tours together because people didn't know how to take us. Some people would say we weren’t heavy enough while other would say we were too harsh. I still feel like a lot of the music that comes out of us doesn't really fit, probably because I'm a weirdo. We just went for it though, we liked it, and that's all that matters.” - Oscar Sparbel

[Savage Messiah – Hybrid of (British) Steel] “Again, it comes down to the ubiquitous psychological effects of living in a society composed of institutions and an understanding thereof. However we don't see ourselves as belonging to that particular movement so its rise or decline is somewhat inconsequential as far as I'm concerned. How other people choose to perceive the band is entirely up to them, and I'm a strong supporter of free-thinking.” – David Silver

[Psycroptic – Alpha Breeding] “We all have our own opinions about politics and society in general – some of it the same and some conflicting – so we aren't a 'message' band. I write my lyrics and they are about certain topics and Jason [Peppiat, vocals] writes his and they are about topics he wants to write about. The title is just a general statement about repression that is handed down from generation to generation. This is a fact not an opinion. But as far as preaching a message to listeners – no, we won’t do that. I'll discuss my opinions with anyone who wants to talk about it, but we won’t force it on people.” – Dave Haley

[Corrosion of Conformity - Discarding the Albatross] “The generic answer is that Pepper [Keenan] mentioned he had some offers from people to get back together and play a couple of festivals in Europe. It sounded like a good idea. It was exciting to get him and Reed back together and it would be a fun thing to do, but then it turned it out we wouldn’t be able to do it because of Down’s schedule. At that point, we thought, ‘Why don’t we do a three-piece?’ We could write some new songs so it won’t be a completely nostalgia-based appeal and we could play some shows, and probably, we could do an album if there was some interest.” – Mike Dean

[Ram - Battering Away] “When we started playing, 80's-influenced heavy metal was more or less a joke to people, we would enter the stage dressed in leather and spikes and people would laugh…that just made us harder and more extreme, which drove us to take the whole thing a step further. Since we have always experienced this alienation to the metal scene and the music industry in general, we never felt the pressure to compromise with our sound or lyrical content this is our strength today.” - Oscar Carlquist

[Alcest - Dreaming the Inverse] “I am growing up, so of course I am changing as a person. That’s why each album is a different side of this concept. What I will do on the next one, maybe I will do things in different way. It always changes with me, but at the core, it’s the same. I always take direction from the same source. I have this inside me; it’s always here. I just have to go inside myself and make it. Of course, it’s not easy. The more I grow up, the less it is for me. It’s something I had when I was young; now it’s a bit blurry.” - Neige

[Majestic Downfall - The Dance of the Dead] “The most important thing that you need to have when putting an album by yourself is discipline. You have to have continuity when it comes to the creating and recording process, otherwise it can take forever and all the magic is gone. When I write an album, I wake up every day at 5.15 am and go to my little home studio and start throwing ideas. I spend two hours a day without any kind of contact and focus purely on the music and what I want to achieve with it. At the same time, I have to start visualizing what art can go with the music, as well as vocals and all in between.” - Jacobo Córdova

[Shear - Breaking From the Melodic Metal Mold] “You don’t need massive orchestrations to make a big and melodic soundscape. Actually, I think many bands try to hide their lack of originality with big orchestrations. There are already too many bands that try to mimic bands such as Nightwish, and we are definitely not one of them. Many bands seem to think that having a female vocalist would force them to play a specific type of music. This makes the majority of the bands very boring and repetitious.” - Lari Sorvo

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