Unleashed

UNLEASHED interview

Unleashed are one of the very first Swedish Death Metal hordes, founded back in 1989, and still alive and kicking today! The new, 14th album “No Sign Of Life” was just released, and I had the opportunity to have a phone call with bassist and singer Johnny Hedlund. Here we go!

-Hi Johnny! How are you? Please let´s start at the very beginning, okay? Is it true that you were kicked out of Nihilist before you founded Unleashed?

Oh, I think you can say it like this, yes, about four hundred years ago, haha!

-Were you angry about them when you found out that the left members founded Entombed? Was there any bad blood between you?

No, not really. I mean, we were young kids, teenagers, you know? Okay, I was angry on the first day and on the second day maybe, but then we said, let´s start a band called Unleashed. That was about how it was. But it wasn´t really all that bad. But some people made a big story of that.

-Their singer Lars-Göran Petrov died lately. Did you still have contact to him? And how did you find out about his death?

No, I haven´t spoken to him for a few years actually. Of course, like anybody else, I know about it. We had many common friends. It was a very bad thing, of course. I would say he has always been a very good friend. We met so many times, not only when we were young, but also on tour and on festivals. He was a really good friend, and it was a really sad thing.

-But let´s talk about Unleashed now, haha! I think you sound different than all the other ´typical´ Swedish Death Metal bands. What´s the recipe behind it?

Okay, haha! I think even at day one, when we founded the band, we wanted to something that sounded different than somebody else because all our friends we hung out with at the weekends and drank beer with, they all had bands. We had like six, seven, eight bands. And we didn´t want to start where we were, so we really wanted to stand out. And the only way to do that is to do your own production and have your own sound and write lyrics about things that the other bands don´t do. So we wanted to make something on our own. That´s how it started. .

-Which bands had an influence on Unleashed? And have those influences ever changed through all the years?

Oh, I would say that it´s very many bands because the influences you have as a child, as a kid or as a teenager were totally different than now that influenced our music. It´s a hard question. When I was younger I was influenced by bands like Venom, Celtic Frost, Necrophagia, Morbid Angel and stuff like that. And our music developed during the last thirty years or so. That´s the difference of that, yeah.

-Your lyrics changed from satanic lyrics to Northern Mythology. What were the reasons for that?

Oh, I wouldn´t say it totally changed. I mean, we have been doing both ever since day one, since the first album. But of course there are a lot more Viking and traditional lyrics than before now because right now I like to do this more. For me it´s a deeper inspiration to dig influences from than to write about other things. Maybe in the future we will do something different or get back to something that we did before either. But we´re doing this for five albums now. We´ll see where that ends. We don´t know for now. We´re just pleased to do this for now.

-People say that Unleashed were the first Death Metal band singing about this topic.

Today it´s normal that bands like e. g. Amon Amarth do this. Do you see yourself as ´godfathers of the scene´ concerning this at all? What do you think about all those bands who keep your heritage? Well, I actually wouldn´t say ´scene´. I would say we introduced the Viking traditions to Death Metal music back in 1989. If you look at Black Metal, Bathory was way before us. If you look at Heavy Load, they were a Heavy Metal band who did it way before us. But that´s not the kind of music we are talking about. We never founded a ´scene´, we were just the first to introduce the Viking traditions though the lyrics. I´m really fine with others doing the same. That´s something I hoped for when I was younger. I would never had imagined that this happened, haha! 

-Despite of the lyrics, you still kept the inverted cross in your logo until today. Would you say that Unleashed are still a satanic band?

I would label it like that. It doesn´t matter. If you take a look at the lyrics we were writing, the inverted cross is our symbol of freedom because it´s the exact opposite of the Christian cross which means that you only have one leader, one strong leader who tells you exactly what to do. And that´s also the meaning of the band name. Unleashed means: ´Get free from the chain´. That´s the inverted cross like this. I´m still fine with the logo. I know a lot of people who asked us to replace the inverted cross by Thor´s Hammer, but we said ´no´, not by any means. There´s no need for that.    

-On the “Victory” album you used the Thor´s Hammer on the cover. Many people reacted negatively about it and called Unleashed a political band. Were you ever aware of this when you first did it?

Hehe, it´s funny that you say that because we had this problem actually! I think it was a different story in the 90´s because actually it´s no political symbol at all! The problem is that we have never used the Thor´s Hammer in a political way. Not at all! For us it´s a way of life. And I don´t understand how people can look at it as a political symbol. It´s strange. I don´t know why. 

-But in 2018 you had an album and title track entitled “The Hunt For The White Christ” with a verse in it, “Through the vest Germania…”. Isn´t that the wrong way if you state not to be a political band? Or was it a kind of kick in the ass or revenge to those people telling rumors about you?

No, not really. It´s just a storyline of a book that I know. It´s actually a book I haven´t finished myself. All lyrics have been influenced by this book. And that´s just one of the songs in the storyline. It´s a story of thing that might happen in the future. And so there´s a big portion of fantasy obviously there.

-Many fans say that “Warrior” from 1997 was your weakest album to date. Was that also the reason why you had a five-years-break (the longest break ever for an Unleashed album!) after that before you released “Hell´s Unleashed” in 2002?

Oh no! I think if you look back at 1997/´98, after that tour: We have been releasing albums and playing tours for seven-eight years, and after that time we were pretty worn out. We had been touring a lot, and we closed the book and asked ourselves, we do we go from here? And the fact of the matter is that we made literally no money at all. All the label people, promoters and mangers bought a house and cars etc. They got money to invest it. But we had no money to buy new guitars, no vocal systems, no equipment, nothing! It was really sad, and we were worn out. So for us, we had to take a break to charge our batteries to become alive and kicking again. That´s the truth. So we just took like to or three years to work on a new album. And that was good for the band. The next album, “Hell´s Unleashed”, came out in 2002, but all in all the break for the band was only two or three years actually; like always. But it was a good thing to do!

-Unleashed never needs more than three years to release a new album. Where do you take the energy for this?

Oh yeah, haha! We have been doing this for 32 years now. I don´t really know. It has always been like this. I almost don´t remember how it was before. You know, that´s something we have always been doing. And we like it. I would even say I like it more now than before! 

-I think your new album “No Sign Of Life” sounds like typical Unleashed musically, just with a modern production. Is this the compromise between old school sound and modern sound in your opinion?

Oh, thank you for saying that! Because we have always tried to keep our roots and not drifting too far away from the original sound. But it develops somehow. Obviously the productions have become better during the years. And we were crazy if we didn´t. I think if you want to keep your roots, and that´s something that we have always done, if you want to keep it better all the time. The guitar sound changed a lot through the years, drums and everything will change a little bit, but they shouldn´t change a lot. That will make the sound different. I hopefully will not retire. We want people to pick up an album from 1995 or from 2021, and hopefully they will see, ´Oh, it´s Unleashed!´. And that´s the main point. And I think if we do that, we´re on the right track.

-I read in the internet that the GEMA told you to take thousands of euros from your bank accounts. Do you know why? What happened?

Oh yes, that has been a long time ago. I don´t remember that exactly though. I know that something like this happened, but I don´t know why. I tried to figure out why, but I don´t know. It has been a long time ago.

-You have the same line-up since 1995!

Guitarist Fredrik Folkare is still the ´new guy´, haha! All others have been in the band since 1989 or 1990. Is it important to you that Unleashed is a horde of friends and not just a ´business thing´? Oh yes, that´s what it is! If you have a band without friends and you only do it for the money, then it wouldn´t last long. That´s a fact. But if you have a band of good friends, everybody will help out and works at the same thing. We also have to agree on everything. If you´re friends, you can do that. If you have a one-man-show, and it´s like only one guy who writes music and lyrics and everything, that will be a hard track on the line. I think that´s one of the reasons why we have been doing this for such a long time.   

-When I saw you live several times I was surprised that you speak German very well! Where did you learn it?

Haha, yes! They told me at school, a very long time ago. Yes, when I was younger I had German at school for five years.

-So you don´t have German relatives or something like that?

Oh no! I have many German friends though that I meet on festivals etc. So I was able to continue speaking German many times.

-If you take a look at your complete discography, is there an album you like most or least, and if so: Why?

I think I can only give you a boring answer, but I always like the new album the most because when we worked hard on an album for two or three years, it will be very strange to say, I like, for example, album number 10 the most, haha! 

-But many people say that “Warrior” was your weakest album, for example…

Yeah, maybe. That´s fine. But if you asked me in 1997, I would have said it´s our best one, haha! That´s how it is! Maybe in January or in February we will start working on the next album. And the only aim I always had is to make a better one than this one. Otherwise, what the Hell am I doing here? Haha! And after “Victory” we obviously also tried to make a better one. But it depends. Others say it´s better or worse. But it´s not really my job. My job is to make all that I can. And if people like it, it´s great. If not, it´s okay, and we should do it better! 

-You´re 53 now. What do you think how long you can still continue playing Death Metal on this high level?

Oh, I have no idea. And I´m not sure if I want to know, haha! I don´t know about anything else. That´s what we do. I don´t see why I should stop her eternity, you know? If something does not make me proud anymore, it´s bad. But as long as I can, I keep going!

-What are the future plans with Unleashed?

Well, right now I´m really looking forward to release the new album and obviously play the first shows. The last one was like two years go. So hopefully, all the other festivals where we were booked will happen! That´s all that I can hope. It does not make sense to make plans for 2022 or 2023 yet, you know? We should just hope that thing will work out now, so that everything is a little bit easier, and we can actually start playing and get back at some kind of normal life, play festivals, meet people again. That´s what we are looking for. The whole world is really looking forward to it now, and that all shows are going! 

-Okay, Johnny! The last words are yours!

Well, just let everybody know that we are looking forward to go out there again. That´s what we want to do. Keep looking onto our website now and then and we if there was a show. And hopefully thing will start working! 

-Daniel Müller-