Yihaa. We are sending out the advance this week. The cover of it is shown here,- if you are an A/R at any respectable label on this planet you will find this in your mail this week. Give it a spin, and give us a call... Besides that: Big Thanks to anyone who took the time to download the first 2 songs, "Eye of Horus" and "Warmonger", a lot of you seemed to like it, and we are thankful for the mails and post on our web forum, its really cool and great and helps us withstand and beat the odds... nice to know that we have friends out there!!......and thats enough of the oscar speeching and down to business: There are 2 new mp3´s on our site for your enjoyment: "The Lions are Hungry" and "Reality Check". These are 100% genuine danish pieces of twisted metal ready to go: you heard ém first here... Like last time: any comment is very cherished, share your thoughts on our web forum, as long as it´s good it´s all good.

www.metallian.com

News: April 19th.

We are finishing rythm guitars on all songs today.
Vokills and bass coming up next week, as well as leadwork and noises.

News April 13th.
We are almost done recording the drums. One more to go and we will start guitars next week. Everything went well, and it sounds absolutely crushing. We will do small video update ASAP. with footage from the sessions. The songs that made it this far are:

Reality Check
The Lions Are Hungry
Day Of The Dog
Eye Of Horus
Lowlife ( this song was done in preproduction in 1996 before the band broke in half..)
Murder One
Fear Of God
Grapes Of Wrath
Warmonger
Parasite
Hellhound On My Trail

We already premiered a couple of these on the tour with King Diamond, and we will play 5-6 new songs in Turkey on the 29th of June.

News April 2nd:
The festival in Turkey will take place on the 29th of June in Istanbul. The promoters are hostproductions@turk.net , and everyone should feel free to inquire about the festival through this email address. Other bands confirmed so far are: Blind Guardian, Rotting Christ, Autumn Blaze. More bands will be added soon.
We also did set up the drums and got the tones for tracking. Photos will be available soon from the recording sessions.

News April 1st.
We have confirmed our involvement in a metal festival in Istanbul, Turkey at the end of June this summer. We are happy to finally greet the Turkish fans who have been among the most sincere and dedicated we´ve been in touch with through the past years, ever since we started releasing albums in Turkey. Prepare for a fast, furious and infectious metal massacre...we will premiere 4-5 songs from the upcoming album, all among the absolute most tenacious Konkhra songs ever. We don´t know which day we are playing yet, as soon as that is settled we will post the show under tourdates...


April Update:
The yet unpublished interview for In Deed Hell Magazine, Czech Rep.

DAEMON versus KONKHRA

1 - There hasn't been much heard about you lately. I only saw you somewhere
as a producer. Is that job interesting for you? Do you like it?
What recordings have you worked on, so far?

Yes, I have been building a studio the past 3-4 years. I have collected superb microphones, and several special modules that work excellent with metal production,- ( as well as rockbased material...) and even purchased an American custom console, that is top of the line as far as eq´s and preamps goes. I also got a Pro Tools Tdm system which is the absolute dream when it comes to music production. Now everything is possible. It´s more than a hobby, I actually am planning to work more extensively on records in the future. I didn´t get to work on alot of records yet, but I have been involved in Exmortem, Artillery, Corpus Mortale, and I am producing a french band "Strangulation" this summer. The Haunted´s live album was mixed here as well. And as the new Konkhra, I´ll be producing it myself like with the new Daemon... My studio is called Starstruck and I have a website: starstruck.dk. Foreign bands shouldn´t hesitate to ask, because my prices are very competitive and I´ll go far to make things work for foreign bands here...

2 - So Anders, what has your band DAEMON been doing these days? It is said
that DAEMON have been working on their third album, is that true? What can we expect from the new stuff?

I can guess that you havn´t had the chance to hear the record and that's a little disappointing. I mean, its easier to talk about something that I know you heard. But Ì´m very proud of the record. Obviously working with Gene has been a privilege and I think his work on the record is amazing. I don´t think its much like old Daemon records,- nothing "Swedish" about it this time, much more speed and aggression,- the inspiration was older stuff like Deicide, Metallica from "ride" and much else from when I was a kid.

3 - Where's gone the DRACULA logo? I'd also like to know what the cover "EYE
FOR AN EYE" is supposed to represent. I'd say that the same author who did
the solo album of JAMES MURPHY made it.

Dave McKean did the cover. He also did the cover for the last Konkhra and I was very pleased with his work So I asked him to work on the new Daemon as well. The past Daemon covers have all had Jesus on the cover and we decided to do something like that,- but more fresh with some hints to the knights Templar and historic stuff, which is a great inspiration to me. The old logo is gone, because Dave doesn't like old school logos like that, I´m OK with it, it was a dracula rip off anyway. Dave is absolutely amazing in my opinion and I`m very pushy when it comes to cover art. I think that packaging is crucial and when working with Dave you´re bound to be happy. This time he topped himself I think...

4 - In KONKHRA, you were cooperating with JAMES MURPHY, in the first DAEMON
with NICK ANDERSEN and now you've got GENE HOGLAN. How do you succeed to
get in touch with such personalities? Is it like that when you need some
help, you call that guy and he is like: "Oh yeah, I'll help you with that!"?
How does such cooperation begin and how does it work in the time of playing
gigs etc.? I bet it isn't easy. Are there any problems sometimes?

I have been playing this music for 12 years or something like that now. During that time I met alot of different guys, and sometimes I ask people if they want to do something with me. Sometimes they say yes, sometimes they say no, but I´ve had the chance to play with great musicians,- sometimes they are a little disappointing and sometimes something truly great happens and that's definitely the case with this Daemon record. I think it turned out really good.

5 - Do you suppose that we will wait to see DAEMON playing live one day?

I will be happy to tour. If Diehard wants me to tour for this record it will happen. Gene is ready to, as long as we can work around the schedules we have planned. So I´m game if the financial situation is OK, I prefer opening for someone with Daemon since we never really toured this band before. But we will see what happens...

6 - DAEMON is kind of reference to the old school of Scandinavian death
metal. What bands have inspired you most and which bands do you still like?

I think the only truly great band from Sweden was Entombed. And when working with Nicke in Sunlight you are bound to get some of that Swedish vibe going. But I don´t think this new record as anything like any band from Scandinavia. I think the inspiration sources are widespread but generally American in origin and mostly old school. Its just a little uglier and angrier than most of the old stuff.

7 - To be sincere, dear Anders. You can't even imagine how much I love the
old KONKHRA albums. I have a VHS, all the albums, a T- shirt etc. ha, ha.
but your recent stuff doesn't attract me as much. What opinion about that
are you of ? Why has the creation of KONKHRA changed so radically? Why? Why does it sound like METALLICA in spite of the fact that KONKHRA had always been a death metal band? It might be a stupid question, but put yourself in the opinion of a KONKHRA fan, please. This is very important for me.

Well. I guess you can boil it down to this: Making records is always a chemistry situation and the chemistry when we did Come Down Cold was not really that great. On top of that, I think I was tired and uninspired. Per didn´t want to play fast, and the little common ground we had was some rock based material, we were drawing on the Second Coming with Daemon and nothing fast got on the record. I can understand why people get disappointed when they are used to Konkhra being an obnoxious beast with angry and fast stuff happening. I mean, I don´t even think Per likes Konkhra material and its safe to say that it was a very poor choice on my part to hire him. He left as fast as he got in to play with the Haunted,- when that happened I was relieved to say the least. But that's in the past, and this whole experience made me really eager to get back to roots so to speak, and Johnny who was drumming on the first 2 records got back in the band as soon as Per was out the door. To me this too good to be true, and I think you can tell from the next record we will release that something right is going on this time. When we did "Spit Or Swallow". We are starting to record in April and I hope to have the record on the streets Kim is back as well, so the line up is totally like in the old days in the fall. But there is more to it than that. We supposedly got the top notch producer but he turned out to be a fucking asshole. He didn´t know shit, and we got treated like idiots. That guy is Vincent Wojno and its good advise to any band to stay the fuck away from this motherfucker, he will spend all your money + some and the record will sound like crap.

8 - When are KONKHRA gonna release a new album? What will it contain? What
will it sound like? Who are you gonna have for new members? What label will
release it? I've heard that not DIEHARD anymore, why?

We already touched base on this a little, but like you know: the line up is complete in its old form and the music is definitely very aggressive and its probably the most angry record yet. We don´t have a label, we parted ways with Diehard, the contract was fulfilled and we would like to get a better label this time. Diehard is OK, but they are limited to certain territories and I got sick of having to explain this to people writing in to our website. But we´ll record the album first and then well look at our possibilities.

9 - What is more important for you, now? KONKHRA, DAEMON or anything else?
What is the main priority in your personal life?

I´m very happy to be living off music. I built a studio and I will be working with music for the rest of my life. There will be alot of records and projects to come. I´m planning to do a very extreme blast beat death metal record under the name "Killswitch" in the fall, as well as more Konkhra and Daemon records. I´m happy doing this, and producing albums will probably get more attention from me in the future. My dream for the next Daemon would be to get Dave Lombardo drumming on it. I don´t know if he would want to and I don´t know abut the financial aspect of it. But writing songs for Dave would be a dream come true. I still think he is the epitome of metal drumming, and his fills and general aggression is something rarely found. But future will show what it´ll show...

Update April:
We are ready to record the first drumtracks for the new album and we will start on April 8th. We are going to have this entire recording session filmed and are planning to release a video from the recordings on this website sometime before the record release. We will also update the photosection more frequently since well have digital camera during the session with shots from the studio. The "best off" is mixed and we are looking into layout and postproduction this coming month. Release date is yet to be set. The following songs made it onto the record so far:

Facelift
Warzone
Centuries
S.A.D.
Dying Art
Visually Intact
Blindfolded
Heavensent
Back Stabber
Time Will Heal
Godgiven
Lost To The World
Back In The Day

Life Eraser and Crown Of The Empire are still discussed and might end up on the record as well. We tried to remix the songs from S.A.D. and Spit Or Swallow as well as the rest, but the original mastertapes have deteriorated severely and there is nothing but noise above 4KHz on every track. To bad, but the songs will appear on the "best off" in their original mixes. We are also confirmed for a festival in Turkey at the end of June and as soon as we get final details, well post the gig under tours. We are not playing any other shows this summer, but are looking at some offers for early autumn and as soon as anything is cleared well let you know.

March 2002.
We will probably commence recording this month. We are almost finished with the remixes for the greatest shits album, due out later this spring on either our own label or Diehard Music. We are also currently engaging in serious discussions concerning the validity of our past statements and contracts. On Tuesday we have a meeting with a music attorney who will hopefully cast some light on the "missing royalty" situation and also make some serious numbercrunching for us to make it clear whether we should form our own record label and release the fifth record on our own label. We have some very interesting offers from distributors that makes it look very attractive to us, and even though this will most definitely strain the availability of the record world wide, we like this solution since it means that we can triple our income and sell the product ourselves without third party involvement. Our question for you is this: if the option was offered would you pay approx.. 8$ via the Internet(creditcard..) to get access to a full download of the record including artwork? this is most definitely the future for most independent artists, we are just not sure whether its too early to launch releases this way? please let us know what you think... konkhra@konkhra.com.
( Bear in mind that this doesn´t exclude that we will produce regular CD´s that will be available at least as wide spread as what we´ve been used in the past...)


140202:
There will be a greatest shits album coming out this spring. We are still discussing which songs to remix, which to remaster and if YOU have any suggestions feel free to pass them on to us: konkhra@konkhra.com. The general idea is to take 1-2 songs from each album, cream them up, and put them on this release. The album will be out through diehard, and it should be available this spring. The remixing process will commence next week.
New Album status: we are going to open three more songs this weekend which will make a grand total of 11 songs for us record. There is some material lying around still, and we might record as many as 14-15 for the next record.

0202-2002:
The Daemon record will be released soon, Dave McKean is working on the cover art right now, I´ve seen some roughs and it looks absolutely amazing.
Taste the cover


20. Jan. update:
Now Johnny is well recovered but Anders has been in the hospital twice for kidney stone symptoms. Ridiculous, but real. We are still rehearsing and hope to be ready for recording this spring.

10. Jan. update:
Johnny is well again and we are back rehearsing. We´ll probably record the album early spring. We are also talking about doing a "best of" record, with remixes of some of the older songs, possibly a couple of new ones as well. We are looking at the possibilities for releasing this in the spring, but if it looks like it can´t get out before the summer we´ll probably wait till after the new record.

I also did the first interview for this record for The Mighty Magazine, due out in January in Denmark, Sweden, England and some other countries. I´ve included the interview below:

1. I am very amazed by the new Daemon album, both musicwise and soundwise. What inspired you to make these songs and please describe the writing/recording process.

Thank you very much...
Well, I started writing songs after we got off tour with Napalm Death in ´99. Our relationship with Diehard had deteriorated, and we didn´t expect to tour more for "Come Down Cold". I had a couple of new songs that was written, but I got in touch with Gene very early, and after he was interested I kinda wrote the record for him. I had certain beats in mind that I was sure he would execute to perfection, and being the drumgod that he truly is I had exceptional freedom in the songwriting process. I´ve always been more of a "rhythm" guy as opposed to "melody", and the songs were all finished with Cubase programmed drums, so I could send it to Gene in advance. The stuff is sort of demanding for a drummer and I think Gene was a little surprised of the severity of the songs. But he got it all in the summer of 2000 and we fit in drumsessions between Strapping tours. I think Gene was at my studio in October of last year, he was here for about a week and he cut three songs the first day. I mean, the man is unreal. Hearing the songs played like he did was just astonishing. And he´s tracks lay a solid foundation I could record to on my studios downtime.

We ( Konkhra) played some shows during that fall, and got the King Diamond tour offered.
I also had a new mixing console coming in, that I really wanted the record mixed on, so the production has been underway for some time. We did final mixes in August.
Inspiration comes from many sources. But mainly I had in mind from the get-go, that Gene was going to do the drums. And that spurred some sickass beats. I wanted to get some aggression back into my songwriting after "Cold". I changed my approach a great deal for this record, and I think the basis is my old favorites,- Slayer, Metallic ( Master...), Decade and maybe some other old Death and Thrash. Chats what I grew up listening to, and there is alit of good lo´ anger it that stuff.

2. You have been working with some of the most acknowledged drummers in the metal scene during the years and this time you had the pleasure of working together with Gene Hoglan. Howcome you chose him? Please describe the positive and the negative sides of these drummers you've been working with:

Gene Hoglan
Chris Contos
Nicke Andersson
Per M. Jensen

Well, who am I to pass judgment on a fine group of drummers? I´ve got alot of great things to say about each and everyone, but there is someone missing on the list: Johnny Nielsen. Johnny is damn fine drummer in my book, with personality and a style which is personal. I think there is couple of guys on the list above who would acknowledge that, since they had to play Johnny´s beats on several tours. He´s swing is great to play to and he spurts 2xbass with a stamina of few.
Gene: is definitely one of a kind. I mean he is deadtight and loose at the same time. Gene talent is undeniable and he´s background is a school of groundbreaking material. There is just one Gene.
Chris is a different kind of drummer, but a mighty one to say the least. Chris chops are deadly and when he pounds a fat beat on the toms you know what´s up. He energy is great and he beats are HC based. He is definitely a great drummer with a depth that is so cool. I mean listen to "Burn My Eyes"..
Nicke: he is my old favorite. I think Nicke is a very loose drummer but at the same time he's feeling is undeniable. In my humble opinion its is a great loss that he's not doing too much drumming anymore. "Wolverine Blues" is a classic.
Per: is a very talented and technical drummer, who probably knows more about polyrythms and weird chops than the rest. But we had a strained working relationship and our common ground isn´t that broad. We compromised a bit both of us but even so I think we came up with some decent songs together. Per was reluctant to play any death metal beats or anything fast at the time we worked on "Come Down Cold", and I think he really refound himself a little later, when he was offered to join The Haunted. He was recently awarded 8th best drummer in the world by a Japanese magazine. He is capable of anything he sets he's mind to on a drumkit. The Haunted "made me do it" is living proof of that. And Invocator´s first album was great as well, and that was from ´91 or something.

This list is unbelievable. I have to get Tommy Lee for the next one, hehe.

3. I don't recall if I heard it from Diehard or from people involved with the making of the new Daemon album that you wanted this album to be released under a different moniker. Please explain what went "wrong" and what the actual idea behind the new album is? In my opinion it would have been wise to chose another bandname since the music/sound is so much different from previous Daemon albums and the actual "Daemon concept"?

You heard right. I think the old Daemon record are a bit unserious in the way that the most time spent writing one of those records was 2 weeks. The first one with Nicke was done 3-4 days writing recording, mixing and everything. I spent the time I needed on this one. I mean, there are still things I would change but everything came in the right pace. I try to push the boundaries everytime, and finishing records will probably get slower and slower from now. I don´t want to do another record which is compromised on in any way, or something that is "unserious" like the first 2. I was fun, but that was then, this is now. It´s going out under the Daemon monicker because Diehard doesn´t want to start breaking a "new" band which is actually just me fucking around with some friends. I can relate to that, but the people who picks this up as the first of the Daemon will probably be a bit disappointed if they pick up the older ones. As far as "concept", I did a bit of "anti-Christian" lyrics on the past ones, as well as some stuff which was inspired by historical events and that also the case with this one. On the other hand that is big part of my overall topics in many lyrics. I don´t write lyrics differently for each project, so in theory any lyric I write could show up on any record I´m doing. But on the other hand the Konkhra lyrics are not antichristian, or "devilsongs" like some on the Daemon records and they are a little less serious somehow than Konkhra material. ( Now I´m getting a bit schizoid so lets leave it at that...)

4. Will you be playing live and possibly touring with Daemon, I don't recall if you did it previously in connection with the two first albums?

I never did any touring for past Daemon records. I would love to tour this, though, and if there is a good chance and people have the time it could happen. Gene would go, if there is space in his schedule, and even if he couldn´t I have some in mind that would pull it off great, Reno,- from Human Erupt, Exmortem. That's a kid with fast feet, and he would play the songs great if Gene doesn´t have the time. But I´m not expecting too much, it´s not Roadrunner who is putting out the record, and we´ll see what push we get from Diehard.

5. Which would be the ideal tour package for Daemon to be included in?

Let´s open for Slayer. Or Morbid Angel.

6. You have been going through a lot of changes during the last few years, both personally and on the musical front. How do you see Anders Lundemark anno 2001/2002 compared to five years ago and ten years ago. Have you settled down the kind of person you are and have you "found yourself", what are your goals for the future, both personally and musically (let's concentrate on Daemon and not Konkhra)?

Well, I´m turning 30 next time, and I´ve been constantly evolving since my birth. I think everybody gets a bit wiser and "more settled down" as time passes. I certainly have a better perspective on things than I did 5 or 10 years ago. I´m quite comfortable being who I am and thankful I got the chances I have and have been able to fulfill dreams and make music my livelihood. I have seen some pretty cool things in my time, and know there is more to come. 5 years ago was when I did the "Weed" album with Chris and James. That was a very turbulent experience and great fun to do. 10 years ago we put out demos and played local shows. And now I´m almost finished building my dream studio: Pro Tools, a great custom console and the best mic´s and outboard. Studio work is taking up all my time, when I´m not writing or playing live. I make a decent living being my own boss, and working some job never got the best of me. I think there is great times ahead and I´ll be some gray old geek someday who spent his life playing, producing and enjoying music,- I mean if it all had to end tomorrow I´d be proud of what I did so far, but hey, health is good, I´m living in one of the best countries in the world, I make a living doing what I like to do? how much more can you ask for?
But in all honesty I still have alot of goals. I want to write music. I want to release albums. I want to tour. I want to become a better producer, musician, as well as a better human being. Family will eventually happen and that's going to be good fun too. ( doesn´t sound all that evil, huh?)

7. Please explain with five words what Daemon is all about and please try to explain with three words what categorized the three albums you have made so far.

I should write: "heavy as a mother-fucker". But is that 4 or 5 words? What about "faster than a speeding bullet?", its 5 but it sounds like some crap movie trailer. I don´t know....what about: "mean, lean and ugly metal". I give up.

4. Please give the readers a brief update on Konkhra's current situation?

Well, Johnny and Kim got back in the band, so now we are intact in our old lineup. We had some differences in the past that lead to the breakup in ´96. It´s a long story but we all got together before the King Diamond tour and talked it over. We have alot of common ground musically and the chemistry in the band have never been better. We all grew up a bit, and the songs we got are killer. The next record is almost written and I can´t wait to put it out. We dug out the old beast that was Konkhra before "weed" and "cold" and I can´t wait to get the album done. Johnny´s been sick this fall, he had to be operated on for hernia, and once he was almost well his moraine bit him. Its a big moraine 1,2 m and 4 kgs. But he´ll be back in the saddle in January and I expect the record will be out in the fall. There is no label yet, but we had alot of good talks with people and I know for sure we can get the record out. I hope it will be out on a label with great distribution, but we´ll see. I don´t expect to sign anything before the record is 100% done, so we can get the best offer available to us.


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