With their new Party Smasher Inc. released album Vilseledd, Swedish intricate mathcore metallers GOD MOTHER continue to refine their style, resulting in an offering that might appeal to more listeners while still being heavy as hell. It feel like we are just passengers on their schizophrenic adventure, messing around with deceiving slowings of the tempo, and forced to go where the controlled chaos takes us. The band’s guitarist Max Lindström sat down to discuss their newest work, the making of the band’s most accomplished artistic statement yet, being creative on their own terms and plans for the future.
On Vilseledd, God Mother packs hardcore, grind, and sludge into lethal projectiles, fueled by bilingual lyrics denouncing society’s ignorance, in both Swedish and English. The sound is electrifying – inspired as much by the grinding speed of Nasum and Rotten Sound as by the almighty weight of the Melvins. God Mother’s 2015 debut Maktbehov was hailed by Pitchfork as “an asteroid crash of an album that renders most of its competition extinct.”
Vilseledd was recorded at Soundtrade Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, the historic studio where artists from ABBA to Rammstein have made music. The album was mixed and mastered by Magnus Lindberg of Cult of Luna.
Band photos by Stephen Odom.
Hey guys! Thanks for joining us here on IDIOTEQ! How are you? Ready to go live with Vilseledd?
Hey man! We are good, been waiting to release Vilseledd for a while now, feels good to finally have it out.
Well, I remember when I shared Maktbehov 2 years ago. I was thrilled. But this time, it seems like you have surpassed all expectations. Congrats on that! How are you proud of this release?
We feel it is an overall more thought-out release. We’ve put more effort into the song writing, made sure the songs work together on the album as a whole so that you can listen to it from start to finish without feeling bored. We’ve also put more effort into the recording process, the album is more fun and sounds better than anything we’ve done previously. What is also new to this release is that it’s released on a record label, having it distributed and promoted in a way we wouldn’t have been able to ourselves.
What led you to teaming up with Ben’s Party Smasher Inc.?
After finished recording the album we did what most bands do; emailed a bunch of record labels that you admire. Ben and his label PSI was one of the first replies we got, saying they liked our sound but was not ready to fully commit to another band yet. We took the opportunity to ask if we could open for Dillinger Escape Plan in Stockholm and got offered the Gothenburg gig as well. After the shows Ben said he was ready to work with us.
Writing and recording wise, how your working process has changed over the years. How has the constant technological pull and digital music evolution changed your working practise?
We’re a pretty traditional band when it comes to writing, all our songs are written together in our practice space. We do however rely a lot on “pre-prods” before going into the studio, meaning making simple recordings of the songs. Working with pre-prods gives us the opportunity to make final adjustments of stuff you might not notice otherwise. Small things are often overlooked, it can be something obvious like the bass and guitar not playing the same tone even when you’ve practiced the song 1000 times. Making realizations like that in the studio is time consuming, costs money and often results in something you are not fully satisfied with. All of this of course would not have been possible to the same extent if it weren’t for the digital tools of today.
Listening to the new record, I’m struck by how much a good idea of dynamics and technique can be usefully employed for effective and adventurous delivery. Is it an aim of your work to undertake a systematic and progressive experimentation? How do you see you sound develping over the coming months?
Dynamics is definitely something we strive for, to make blastbeats hit as hard as possible you need something slow or heavy as a build up. We’ll probably try out new things on the next record to make it even more interesting.
Could you speak a little about the importance of lyrics to your work? How do you approach storytelling within your wild compositions?
There’s no direct process we revisit when writing lyrics, it is often done on a song-to-song basis for what the song needs or if there is anything special to say. We write some of our lyrics in Swedish when we can’t express ourselves fully in English, our native language can feel more powerful at times.
How do you transfer your ideas of into your artworks and the visual part of the band? How important is it for you guys?
Every band needs a visual profile. You need something that expresses the style of your band, content to keep your social media going and merch to cover gas money. In this day and age all things matter, even the small stuff. Most of the visual aspect we produce is done by our very own Sebastian. The Vilseledd album art was done by our talented friend Elin Ghersinich.
You’ve just announced your next performance at Obscene Extreme festival. Do you already have 2018 touring plans secured? What’s the plan for the next 14 months?
We plan a lot of touring as always, right now we have confirmed some swedish shows, complexity fest and obscene extreme. Stay tuned on our social media for more announcements which will happen soon. If you are looking that far ahead I’d definitely say other continents is our top priority.
Alright guys, thanks so much for your time and all the best for all your projects. Feel free to drop your final words, share some late 2017 recommendations and take care!
Thanks!
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