finally able to make an album like we always used to do. We just went at it, there was no analzing anything. We played and created ten to eleven songs and when we felt that these were good songs, we worked on them in particular and created a package out of it, and it's the mindset we always had. We never plan anything in advance. But there is a time when we agree these are the songs and stop. After that, we try to figure out what type of concept it should be (laughing) Less brain, more playing is the best recipe for us.
DDR: How long did it take you to put the album together?
Marko: It was a lot of work for many reasons. Creating the songs has never been the problem. Nowadays, being grownups and shit, it's more difficult to get us all in the same room at the same time. The biggest problem was our drummer was offered a job with Apple in San Francisco. He is a accoustical engineer and he acutally was the one that designed the microphone for the iphone 6. He's amazing! (laughing) So if any one has a problem with the iPhone 6 call him! He got a two year contract and he had our full support to do it. Unfortunatley, this all happened about a month before we were set to record the album. We tried to the bitter end to send him tracks to lay down drums, but he basically sold his soul to Apple and he had no time available. We needed to figure out how the hell to get the album done. They asked me to do the drums and I was like, are you insane? I'm the guitar player! After I took some time to think about it, do I do the drums or do we bring in some hired gun to do it? We knew if we brought someone new into the band it would create something we were not used to. I tried drumming on two songs and let the guys hear it and they liked it, so basically I had to rehearse for two to three months. I have played drums my whole life, but never super technical death metal stuff, so I had to work on the speed and all the details. It's actually me playing the drums on the entire album. We tried to keep it in the dark for so long and we didn't want to tell Century that I did the drums. I mean come on, I don't want to hear Kirk play drums on a Metallica album! People would be like, what? So we sent Century a couple of songs to listen to and they didn't say anything about the drums and I was like, yes! Now we have Henrick and he is really fucking brilliant, but at the time we knew how the album should be, we decided to keep it in the family.
DDR: But think how special this particular album will be for you fans though, knowing you pulled double duty..
Marko: The feedback so far has been incredible and I know how crazy it sounds to fans, but we definitely created something unique.
DDR: On this album, is there a particular song you would pick out as your favorite?
Marko: I like the instrumental song 'Medusld', it turned out really good. It's nothing super unique, but for us it's something special. It's a lot like this nordic folk music, we even added a special hand made instrument called a key fiddle. It is kind of like a violin that goes through the song. For me, that song shows that we are not stuck in our way of thinking, its something new. We like to call that song our own Orion. It's a classic place to put an instrumental song. I also like the last song 'God Eater', it's about the heaviest song we ever have done, and for me the best song I have ever done.