Rockezine.com interview with In Battle on Oct 18, 2004

with Odhinn on Oct 18, 2004

In Battle have just released their debut album Welcome To The Battlefield on Metalblade, so it was time for an interview.
		For the people who don`t know In Battle could you please introduce the band and yourself? In Battle is a four member death thrash metal band that started in 1996 with two albums of raw black metal. We were silent for five years and recruited two new members to get back into the brutal metal scene and to deliver a good sounding and well played album released by Metal Blade with Erik Rutan on guest appereance and as the producer of this album Welcome To The Battlefield.
		You`re a band from Sweden, what is it with this country that just doesn`t seem to stop giving this world great metal bands? We are a small country with only a population of 9 million people but we are a very big country in the music scene. I don’t really know why Scandinavia is such a good place for music export. We got the folklore that we are born to sing and hear, maybe that’s why we are a good music nation.
		Frölén is the only member of the band who is with In Battle from the start, does that make him the band leader? Me (Odhinn) and Frölén are the only members from the start and no we don’t have a leader. Everyone is his own leader. We are great friends and brothers and try to help each other out in any situation, good or bad.
		Why are In Battle different from the other death/trash metal bands? I mean there are a lot of death/trash metal bands in the world. I think we are really well played/rehearsed and we do care about everything we play. We got to play the guitars exactly to the drums; the same speed as the bass drums hit, we got to be exactly tight. It’s very important and we mix different rhythms into this music that’s pretty odd. The way we do things I think the vocals are somewhere in between black and death but not to yell and not too growly and dark. Just nice and aggressive.
		Welcome To The Battlefield is released by Metal Blade, why did you choose for this label? Were there any other labels that would have liked to sign you? Yes we got a lot of offerings but who doesn’t want to be on one of the greatest labels in the world. I have never heard any bad things about Metal Blade and that’s why we chose this great label!
		Are you planning a tour to promote your album? On the website I couldn’t see much tourdates. Hey look again. We are going on a 9 day tour in Germany with Unleashed and after the New Year we hope to go with a big headline band as Vader or something like that. We hope to tour as much as possible. We are a live band and you will not be dissatisfied, we will bring you one of the greatest live performances ever for sure!
		What is the strangest thing you ever have seen during a show? Haha!! We have seen a lot of crazy stuff on stage. But in 1997 when touring we had a session bass player who jumped around the stage in only his t-shirt (hehehe).
		What is your all time favorite classic album? There are a lot, but I really love all the old Kreator and Slayer ones. They really rule my music!!
		Anything I forgot or you want to say? Yeah!! I hope you guys want us to come to your home town and let us totally blow your mind and I hope to see you all drink a lot of beer and have a really good time. Thanks for the interview and take care!!!
(Jeroen Habets)