As with most great works of art, there was plenty of suffering involved in its creation.  Vocalist/guitarist Jim Kjell explains...

Are you pleased with how the new album (Soulburner) turned out?
Yeah, definitely.  There's a few mistakes here and there, but as a whole, I think we made a great album.

The production is particularly good.  Did you do anything differently this time around?
Yeah, I bought a new amplifier and a new guitar and so did Nicklas and we used it.  Thim Blom bought some new drums, too.  We wanted to give it more time this time than we did on the last album, so we tried to get a higher and more extreme sound than usual Gothenburg bands have.  Especially heavier, when it comes to the guitar sound, and I think we succeeded with that, too.

Definitely.  How did you hook up with Erik Hawk?
Nicklas had a dream of having him in the band, so he got a hold of his phone number from a friend of his in Norway.  He didn't dare to call him up himself, so he had me call him.  I called him up and was like, 'Hi...could you put some vocals on our album?'  And he's like, 'Uhh, yeah.  Just let me ask my wife."  So, he called me back later that night and was like, 'Okay, I'll be there at 9 AM tomorrow if that's okay with you.'  He came down and put down the vocal on five songs in six hours.  He hadn't heard any of the songs before, so it was pretty amazing.  He just did them in one shot.

Wow, that's pretty impressive.  Did you write those parts specifically for those kind of vocals?
Yeah, most of the songs.  I was supposed to do it myself, but it didn't work out.  I didn't have the kind of vocals that we wanted on the album.  The idea was there before he came down, but we developed it as it went.  When he put down the vocals on some of the first tracks, he ended up putting his voice on a couple more songs than we originally planned.  (laughs)

Do you think you will work with him again in the future?
I really hope so, but it seems right now he's pretty tired of the whole metal thing.  He just wants to be with his wife, have an ordinary job, and like that.  Hopefully, we will play some gigs in Norway later this fall and he can join us.

Will you be handling his vocal parts on the tour otherwise?
Yeah, I will.  I will do [something garbled on the tape-ed.] and our new bassist Chris will do the other ones.  I think it will work out great.  We've been practicing a lot and sounds real good.

Who writes all the lyrics in the band?
On this album, I wrote nine of the lyrics and Nicklas wrote one.  Basically, I write all the lyrics now and Nicklas helps write some.  He had a special feeling for this song that he wrote the lyrics to.  He wanted to put down his words, too.  But, I don't have anything against anybody if they come up with a lyric that is good.

Which songs on Soulburner were more personal to you?
When it comes to the lyrics, "Soulburner" and "Tell The World I'm Sorry" - those two songs are the most important ones, both to me and to Nicklas.  Those are very personal lyrics and the songs were written at a time when we felt that this is the end for the band and we didn't have any feeling to live, either one of us, so it was quite weird.  The songs came out very good in the studio and when we wrote them in the rehearsal room, everything worked - this is what we want.  The same went for the lyrics.  Every time I listen to it, I remember that time and how I felt when I wrote it.

I was going to ask about "Tell The World I'm Sorry" as it is really in-your-face lyrically.
Yeah, it is.  Nicklas was together with a girl and she left him and, after just a short while, she met another guy.  He [Nicklas] just wanted to break his face, you know the feeling - too much at the same time.  That came down on the lyrics to "Tell The World I'm Sorry."  I think he thought of suicide and whole thing.  He was pretty depressed for like a year or so.

It's definitely an emotional song.
Yeah.  For me, I think we've got three very emotional songs on the album:  "Tomorrow's Gone," "Soulburner" and "Tell The World I'm Sorry."  Those songs are similar lyrically and [deal with] a lot of anguish and agony and shit.  You get strange feelings when you get left by a girl.

Yeah, I had that same experience a couple years ago - it's really bad.
It sucks.

How did you decide on 'Soulburner' for the title?
I wrote lyrics for "Soulburner" and first it was called "Sadness, The Soulburner."  Then we shortened it down to just "Soulburner."  We had some other ideas for titles, but Soulburner seemed to be more correct for the name, as the album carried so much pain with it lyrically, for Nicklas and myself and Thim has been experiencing the same thing, too.  The 'soulburner' for us is the last thing that would make you lose your life in some way, either you take it yourself or something takes it for you.

The cover art is beautifully done and I was curious who did it and how did you get in touch with them?
It was done by a guy named Niklas Sundin from the band Dark Tranquility.  Nicklas has been on tour with him, since he played in In Flames before, and he had an idea that Niklas could be one of the best guys for doing an animation of a girl on the cover.  So he told him to put this and this color into it and do the best you can.  I think he succeeded in doing a very good job and that goes for the CD and the booklet, too.

Were you happy with what Listenable Records did for you guys?  How did you make the jump to Nuclear Blast?
Actually, (laughs) we were quite unhappy with Listenable.  They didn't give us promotion and we couldn't find the album anywhere.  People would call us up after reading interviews and stuff and were like, 'Hey, where can we find your album?'  Then there were some tours that we were supposed to go on.  We were booked on a tour with Arch Enemy that was through Norway, then we had one set up with Cannibal Corpse, but it didn't work out for either.  So we thought it was time to change labels.  We sent tapes to some labels like Earache, Century Media, Metal Blade and some others.  They called us up and were like, 'Okay, we're interested.  What kind of contract do you want?'  We told them what kind of contract we wanted and Listenable were like, 'We need some money to sell this band,' as we were in a big dispute at the time.  Nuclear Blast were like, 'Okay, you get 250,000 DM, just give us the band right now,' so he sold us.  Now we're on Nuclear Blast and we're very happy.

It seems from my perspective here in the States that a lot of top-quality bands have been coming out of Sweden in the past few years.  What is it like from your vantage point?
Yeah, it's the same thing.  All the bands, especially the ones from Gothenburg as we know most of them, every one of them is developing their own sound and I think we're doing a whole new thing here in Sweden.  Just a lot of bands coming from everywhere.  The younger kids get inspired by it and they start to play music themselves.  I think it will go on for ten, fifteen, maybe twenty years.  There's a lot of bands in Sweden that are doing very well in Europe, the States and Japan.  I don't have any explanation why, it's just weird.  Everybody's just interested in Swedish music right now.

You're not complaining I'm sure... (laughs)
Definitely not!  (laughs)

What first got you interested in music?
I've got an older brother and he listened to heavy metal and stuff, so I first got to listen to Judas Priest.  I got to play guitar in a band before I was like 13 years old and ever since then, I've gotten inspired by everything I've heard, Sepultura...it's just been going on since then.  Death metal came along in '93.  I don't have any particular time that I first got interested in music...  I guess I started getting interested when I was 5 years old or something.

What else do you listen to besides metal?
I listen to all types of music, actually.  I listen to everything from disco to [garbled-ed.]  I listen to Madonna, I like Madonna a lot.  I think her last album was very good, and Lenny Kravitz's was very good, too.  I listen to everything, except for real hip-hop, I don't like that.  I don't understand it - everything sounds the same.

Can you tell me a bit about your upcoming tour?
Yeah, we're going out with Hypocrisy, Covenant, EverEve and Brimstone.

Wow.
Yeah, there's a lot of bands.  We're going out for ten days in Germany and Austria and that's really all I know.  Next Friday, we're going to leave Gothenburg, fly down and play the same day.  It's going to be very exciting for us, as it is our first tour.  I think they are cool guys, so I think it's going to be very cool.

Where will you be on the bill?
I don't know exactly.  The first three bands, us, EverEve and Brimstone, we're going to mix it a bit.  So, some nights, we'll play first and some nights we'll play third.

Do you have any plans beyond that tour?
Ehh, not right now.  We've been trying to get on every tour we can. (laughs)  We tried to get on the Testament tour and that didn't work out, then we tried a Nevermore tour.  As long as there is a band that is a little bit bigger than us, we're going to try to get on every tour we can.  But we don't have any more tour plans right now.  We've got to show the label that we're a good live band and we kick ass on stage, then we will probably get more tours and hopefully sell a bunch of albums, too.  (laughs)

Have you done many shows in the past?
We've done five.  In three years.  So, that's not much, but every time we get a gig, we give 100%.  We're going to show them who's the boss! (laughs)

Do you rehearse a lot?
Yeah.  There was a time before we recorded the album where we didn't rehearse for three months or something, but now we do four or five times a week, and it's much better.  There's more of a special feeling in the band and we've become tighter together as persons, so that's very good.