2004-2007 © BTFS⁄Cerasus Creations
Beneath the Frozen Soil is a Swedish band, formed in 2004. Originally a duo but later a drummer was recruited and most recently a bass player has been added to the ranks. In 2005 the listening audience could for the first time hear Beneath the Frozen Soil, via their self-released EP “The first Wreath”. An impressive debut, musically firmly grounded in Doom Metal with some Black Metal elements. Cold, slow and barren Metal with a dark and sombre atmosphere. In the year 2007 a split with Negative Reaction was released on Israel label Totalrust Music. Beneath the Frozen Soil’s side contains “The first Wreath” re-recorded with an extra track. All fans of slow and dark Metal should get it.
Hello. How is everything going?
Things are ok, just “got back on track” after the relase party held together with It Will Come here in Gothenburg on the 15th of march, support to this brilliant event was the yet unsigned low rumblers In Relic.
We held it a boat in the midst of downtown Gothenburg, was quite a strange sensation to be playing Doom inside the hull of a old ship that was slightly listing to the portside. Real strange indeed.
Why did you start the band? What drove you towards playing Doom, was it the obvious choice?
Buster (lead singer) and I started BTFS for two reasons, first and foremost because of our love for the music, and secondly to find an outlet for various emotions and mindsets.
To call it a kind of electrified primal scream therapy that gradually evolved into something more serious isn't that far from the truth to honest.
Your name is an interesting and long one. Why did you choose it? Does it hold a deeper meaning or was it just a cool name?
Sure it sounds “cool” and that's always a plus, but there most certainly meaning to it, something that I don't really can't/want to put down in words.
But to clarify it a bit I can only say this; who knows what lies dormant beneath the frozen soil what treasures and horrors awaits us.
Interpret it as you see fit, literally or not.
What are the lyrics about?
The basic concept is to invoke emotion, both musically and lyrically. A way to channel the mindset of a given moment, be it real or not. In this we strive to step away from the most common clichés of doom. For example the romanticizing of depression, grief and loss. We rather portray it as one of the uglier sides of being human. And as always with lyrics there's room for personal interpretations.
As said earlier, you don't need to interpret things literally. “To sink beneath the surface” for instance, doesn’t have to mean to sink beneath the waters surface.
Musically you seem to be a mix between Doom and Black Metal, with emphasis on the Doom part. Which bands have inspired Beneath the Frozen Soil?
For me personally there's a couple of releases that for me has served as great inspiration, not be used as something to do carbon copies of but more as guidelines to music I like to listen to and in essence like to play.
Three specific bands/albums that I can give you right at the top of my head is everything with Candlemass, but especially “Tales of Creation”, Evoken's “Embrace the Emptiness”, Paramaecium’s ”Exhumed of the Earth” and Darkthrone's “Total Death”.
I could have giving you a bunch more, but those are the ones that is most important to me.
What made you take that direction when writing the music? Was it a natural process or a conscious decision?
We chose to play Doom because “Fast is light and heavy is slow”
Because if you want to bring forth the ending of the world so to speak, then dark, dismal and utterly heavy music is the way to go.
And Doom Metal for us is just that incarnated in music.
The cello is a relatively unorthodox instrument in Metal music. Why did you use it and will it be used in the same extent in the future?
Basically the choice of using cello had a lot to do with the fact that very few instruments have that sad and minor sound to the as a cello has, and that suited the music perfectly.
And since we had the great joy of knowing Anna-Greta Larsson who apart from being a very talented musician and also an actor, she understood what we where aiming for with our music.
Which basically is to evoke emotions.
Most recently a slit with Negative Reaction have been released. Was it the label that set that up or you? Why did you re-record your side on the split?
The label wanted the tracks from our self released EP “The first Wreath” to be accompanied by a couple of new tracks and released as our full lenght album, but since we felt that that recording lacked in production we said that if they wanted to release the tracks from “The first Wreath” they had to release it rerecorded either as a MCD or as a split.
Luckily they got a hold of Negative Reaction and the rest is history.
You told me that you have spent a couple of days in the studio, are you still there? Are you recording a full-length maybe? Can you reveal any titles, lyrical subjects? What can we expect from the new material?
Yes I've spent a couple of days in the studio, but not with BTFS. I've been laying some backup vocals on some friends upcoming full-length album, unfortunately I'm not at liberty to talk about that at all at this point I'm afraid.
I know that some of the members are involved in other projects. Please introduce those projects.
Me personally I have my other band Gaia to take care of when I'm not doing things with BTFS, it's not at all doomy more of a cross between Tool, Radiohead and Deftones, Robert dabbles with dub/reggea on his own, Olof has his old band Absentia in dormant, and Buster focuses on his layout work via Cerasus design.
How many times have you played live? Best gig? What makes a good gig?
Since we've just recently have become a four piece band and thus have become a functioning live band, and the relocation to Gothenburg, we haven't been able to do that many shows, basically up to now we've only done a few gigs with a live session member on bass.
But best gig for sure was the release party gig we held on the 15th of March here in Gothenburg, first time live with the new permanent bass player Robert, so I'll have to rank that as the best one yet. Right now a gig at all is the best gig, more or less, give of take. I know that that might sound a little bit unserious and “childish” but since Doom is very marginalized in general, not just here in Sweden but within the metal scene worldwide, any show where you can show up and spread the unholy gospel of the worlds downfall is a great one.
And now that that things have changed on the members front and the split is out things are moving along quite nicely, got shows booked on the 30, and 31st of March in Trollhättan and Kalmar here in Sweden, and if everything goes as planned we're going to do a small tour with Ocean Chief in Germany in late July.
What are the future plans of Beneath the Frozen Soil?
Apart from the mentioned gigs the plan is to get as many gigs as possible behind us before we enter the studio in June to record our full-length album that will see the light of day later this year.
Hopefully the work we lay down gigwise will lead to greater things once the album is released.
Thanks for the interview, end in any way you like.
I only have this to say: live slow, die old.