This Ending

author PP date 27/02/07

Sweden's This Ending were the latest in the continuous stream of melodic death metal bands that the country sends our way. Having performed under a different name in the past, opening for legendary acts like At The Gates, the band decided to give it another shot with a new name and a new album, namely "Inside The Machine", which was released just three months ago. Bearing in mind that this is an album with heavy influence from At The Gates as well as Dark Tranquillity, and contains one of the catchiest yet most brutal melodic death metal tracks you'll come to hear, so it was only appropriate to get a hold of the band's frontman Mårten for a short email interview about life in This Ending. Read on to find out more.

RF.net: Hi! First of all thanks for agreeing to do this interview with us. Can you please introduce yourselves to those readers who might not be familiar to you and your music.
I'm Mårten, the vocalist of This Ending. A dedicated metalfan and have been doing death metal since 1991.

RF.net: "Inside The Machine" is your debut album - how do you think it turned out, did it fulfil your expectations?
The album turned out just as good as we expected it to do. We had our hands free and could do whatever we wanted with this album and i couldn't be more pleased with the way it turned out. The songs are something we all are proud of and the raw and clean sound just fits them perfectly. The media response has been overwhelming so now it's only up to the metalfans to make sure they listen to inside the machine a couple of times and hopefully they'll also enjoy it.

RF.net: How does the band write their songs, and where does the inspiration for them stem from?
We do alot of pre-production when we write our songs, but the first step is always that someone comes up with a few good riffs. After this we send them to Linus who makes some changes and puts it all together. Then we all say what we think and continue to work on the songs in this way until we all are pleased with the result otherwise we skip the song in question. We get inspiration mostly from all the sick things that goes on around us in the world but of course also from writing and hearing music that gives us a kick.

RF.net: You originate from Sweden, where one could say there are almost more melodic death metal bands than people. Do you ever feel the genre is becoming oversaturated in your country, and how do you feel This Ending can stand out from the crowd?
Sure there's alot of metalbands from Sweden but as long as the quality and standard of the music is set high i can see no problem. If there would be a problem it's that labels sometimes release low quality music but that's a problem with the labels and has nothing to do with which country the band resides in. Sometimes i think bands aren't ready to record and then it becomes halfassed and uninteresting. The thing that makes This Ending stand out is that i think we have the ability to write really good songs that demand more than only one listen from the audience. The songs are in your face and filled with energy that is not so common in todays album releases. I would say that we have sticked to our guns and made our blades sharper since the time when we last played together in 1998 under the banner of A Canorous Quintet.

RF.net: Some of you have previously played in A Canorous Quintet, who played before now-legendary acts such as At The Gates and Dissection. Looking back now, over a decade later, how do you feel about the honor of having played before the cult acts who today are considered as some of the cornerstones of your very genre?
We all have played in the latest installment of A Canorous Quintet. Sure it was very cool to play with all of these old great bands but we were also a part of this scene since we started making this kind of music in 1991 so lots of great memories and cool gigs have passed with many great acts sharing stage with us. Already back then i think we all knew we had something special going on within this kind of music and it's great that it has grown so much since then.

RF.net: Related to the previous question, why do you think exactly Sweden is the country producing so many Melodeath bands?
I actually have a hard time finding a really good answer to that question but i have the theory that the underground scene in sweden was extremly strong in the late 80s and 90s. Everyone was so dedicated to the extreme music and wanted to contribute in some way and from that came alot of bands. New bands doing good things inspired to make and develop the sound and this for me is the biggest reason that the scene is the way it is in sweden.

RF.net: The title track from "Inside The Machine" has become one of my favorite melodic death songs in the past year or so, and the consensus around the internet seems to share my opinion. But what is your own favorite track on your debut and why?
Inside the machine is a fantastic song and also one of my favorites. I love all the songs on the album and it changes from time to time which is my absolute favorite to listen to, but as a vocalist there are 3 songs that are of particular interest to me and that is Pitch Black, Nailed down and This Ending. On these 3 songs we have tried to develop the vocals so they really enhance and changes the overall feel of the song more than in any other of the songs. Personally out of these three the one that gives me the biggest kick to sing is Pitch Black which to me is metal in it´s purest form, sheer energy.

RF.net: So have you given any thought to your next album yet? What kind of direction are you planning to take - will you be more melodic or more brutal than the debut?
We have already written 3 new songs but just as "Inside The Machine" the songs are very diverse and it's hard to say which approach it will lead to. I think the album will be like a natural continuation from "Inside The Machine" at least from the 3 songs we have written so far. Most important for me is that we keep the groove and attack intact in our sound.

RF.net: Downloading does not usually plague the bands in your genre, but what is your opinion on people downloading music illegally off the internet?
First of all i have to say that it's really a shame that the music and internet providers haven't found a reasonable solution to the downloading issue. There are thousands of ideas on how to solve this problem out there but noone seems to really pay big interest to this. The way i see it downloading is something that is a reality today and you can either make the best out of it or try to counteract it. I would hope that people who download an album and really like it go out and buy the album, visit the shows and support the bands they love to listen to. If no albums are sold noone will be interested in releasing them so there's the big issue.

RF.net: I'm going to go ahead and assume that This Ending isn't big enough yet for you guys to make a living out of it, or is it? What else does the band do when you're not out there converting new metalheads into your regime?
You're right that so far we can't live from the music just like so many other hard working acts out there. When we're not out converting metalheads into our regime of death metal i for one work with crafts mostly wood and metal. Linus works with music and sounds in tv-shows and in the offbeat studio. Jesper is website managing, Leo is just writing music and living life and Fredrik also shares his time with Amon Amarth.

RF.net: Thanks for the interview guys, we hope to see you in Denmark sometime soon. Any last words for your fans?
Thx for the interest. We really hope to be able to come to Denmark to visit you guys again it's always great coming out to play live. Keep your eyes and ears open for new things to come, merchandise will be available any day...keep listening to inside the machine and stay fucking sick!

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