The Project Hate MCMXCIX

“The Cadaverous Retaliation Agenda” is COMPLETED!

This is going to be a long fucken post, so grab that coffee mug and sit back. It’s about to be unleashed…

I went up at 03:30 this morning to take care of the last details, that’s how much this album means to me. 03:30, people… On a Saturday. You know why? Becoz we are there now, Haters. The album of our career is completed. It’s muthafucken done! I have been living and breathing this material since early 2011, more or less on a daily basis. I have never been as determined with anything in my life as with this recording. That’s how much “TCRA” means to me. And the way it came to life, through your donations and endless support… That is the sole fact that has been my driving force every single second. To see so many people give a shit about what we do with TPH – it’s mind boggling. It’s extremely rewarding. It is the biggest thanx I can ever get when it comes to my own music. And I thank you for it. “TCRA” is how we pay you back. And trust me, we do not take lightly on that. We have given it our everything. The day you experience this absolute beast first-hand is the day you will understand it all.

It’s no secret that TPH is created to satisfy my own musical needs since no other band offer what TPH offers. That’s why I do this. And I have said it so many times, there are a lot of people involved without whom this would be impossible. And when it comes to “TCRA” there’s quite a bunch of them that I wanna say a few things about.

Jörgen Sandström. My goddamn crony. The one guy who’s been with me since 1999 doing this. That’s a lot of fucken years to be in a band together. I can never imagine TPH without him. I don’t want to do TPH without him. He’s second to none. To have your best friend and the number 1 grunter in the world doing vocals on my musical vision is a blessing. To have that for as many years as we have been going now is even more of a blessing. He’s not exactly the biggest fan of what I do with TPH when it comes to the music. Techno influences and jungle beats on top of brutal and intricate death metal (and beyond) isn’t really his cup of christian blood, but he gives his all every single fucken time there’s a new album to record. And not only that, he tops himself every time he enters the studio with TPH. I have no idea how he does it, but thankful I am. You’re the best, J. The best.

Ruby Roque. My Portuguese powerhouse vocalissa who’s one of the sweetest gals around. I’m so happy I found her since she is absolutely astonishing. She came in on “Bleeding the new apocalypse” and just crushed everything. She helped bringing my vision closer to perfection. Instead of stagnation we took a huge step forward. Some didn’t like the change in vocals, most did. I couldn’t care less. She was needed for me personally. From the second I heard her the first time I knew I had to have her in TPH. This kid can do it all. She’s got the power, she’s got the softness and the emotions I am after to implement in our music. And on “TCRA” we have explored it all. You will hear different sides of her on “TCRA”, becoz now was the time for it. She probably hated me a bit while recording “TCRA”, she never said it though. But it was needed. I wanted to push her, I wanted to criticize her to make her even better. To make her deliver to the best of her abilities, more so than ever before. And that is exactly what she has done. This kid is truly a phenom and I so cherish her involvement in TPH. She’s a lioness. I applaud her endlessly.

Dirk Verbeuren. I have a few fave drummers in this world. Sean Reinert, Gene Hoglan, Tobben Gustafsson, Nicke Andersson, Ed Warby. That’s pretty much the ones. It’s not exactly a laundry list of drummers. And Dirk’s always been one of my absolute faves. Even to the point where I have went to one of his drum clinics, and I don’t even care about drum clinics in the first place. That says quite a bit. When Tobben Gustafsson decided to step down for the recording of “TCRA” due to lack of time it put me in a tricky situation. Who the fuck was going to play? I mean, we’re not playing the most advanced kind of music, but I demand more from the drumming in TPH than the work of Regular Joe, if you know what I mean. I wanted someone with a recognizable style. Someone who, just like Tobben, plays like he means it. There are too few of such drummers in the world. Since I had met Dirk a couple of times on some festivals, and expressed my admiration for his drumming on more than one occasion in the process, I thought I could at least ask him if he thought he could do it. Not only that, but if he could do it and not get paid like he should be or normally is. Sounds like a sweet deal huh? You get to play on 15 minutes songs with so many parts it’s not even sane AND not get paid accordingly. Or even reasonably. I must be one absolutely lovable bastard to make such an awesome offer work. Fuck knows if I had been Dirk I would have said no. Dirk said yes with some restrictions (such as doing it when time allowed it). Still to this day I have no idea why he decided to help us out on this album, coz it sure as fuck couldn’t be becoz of the great payday. He is a Torture Division fan, maybe that helped, haha… Anyways, it’s a dream for me to have Dirk’s drumming on this album. I never thought that would happen in a million years. Dirk’s one of the nicest guys I have ever met in this business, and I have met a lot of people. Not only is he an absolute phenomenon when it comes to laying down beats, he’s so friendly, so determined and so awesome to work with I understand why you won’t find a single bad word about him on the Internet, nor hear anyone badmouth him in the least. I can never thank him enough for the work he’s done on “TCRA”. It’s drumming orgasms 24/7. Which leads us to…

Tobben Gustafsson. Naturally we had to include my other close friend and Torture Division comrade, Tobben, in some other way since he didn’t have the time to do this album drumming wise. So, the natural move for a drummer who’s not drumming would be to… Well, guess you’ll see that when you have the album in front of you. It was actually Tobben’s idea about his inclusion that came to fruition, and it did wonders for the specific part in the song he’s in. Thanx, Golden T.

Peter Dolving. Peter is one of those guys that I have always respected a shitload. A truly excellent vocalist and multi-talented musician who rubs a lot of people the wrong way with his honesty and opinions. I salute such human beings and I support them a hundred percent, maybe becoz I am one of them, haha… I have been wanting to do something with Peter for quite some time and I knew that if I approached him about it, and he accepted, I would get something more than your normal guest vocals. Well, you could say that I did. I asked him to do a few things for “TCRA” and what I got was something like 10 different files that when put together became absolute annihilation. I knew he wouldn’t make something simple. I knew he would take the fucken ball and run with it. That guy is a genius and I am honored to have him on board on “TCRA”. Respect. Total respect, Peter.

Lars Johansson. It feels like I am repeating myself with these “dreams come true” things, but prepare yourself for another one – coz here it comes. When I was a young teenager I used to go to Candlemass concerts as often as possible, simply becoz they were (and to some extent still are) one of my fave bands. I used to be in their fan club and got to meet the guys once or twice for autographs and so forth. That was huge being a kid, you know. A few years back I ran a blog that dealt with tons of awesome stuff and in some post I directed a message directly to Lars that I wanted some solos from him for this album I am currently working on since he’s a fantastic guitarist and I always loved his playing. Have in mind I hadn’t really ever talked to him, and even less so since I left teenagedom, haha… One day I get a mail saying:

“The guitar and I are ready / LJ”.

That was all.

And now Lars is doing a bunch of solos on MY album?! Solos that are so amazing I further understand why I never gave a fuck about learning how to play them myself. You can’t really teach yourself to play like that. Either you have it or you don’t. Not only is Lars another one of those incredibly awesome people to be around, he’s a guitarist I admire to the fullest and to have him playing on “TCRA” is blowing my mind. Just wait until you hear his stuff. Oh, and not to forget; the guitar he’s used for his parts is of course the very same one used on Candlemass’ “Nightfall” album. Becoz it was the only demand I had, haha… Thank you, Lasse. Thank you so fucken much.

Magnus Söderman. And this fucken guy… I used to play with Magnus in a Swedish band called Rosicrucian back in the early 90’s. He even did all the guitar solos for the first album I ever recorded, Leukemia‘s “Suck my heaven”, back in 1993 or so. He played the fuck out of everyone even back then and it’s not like he’s gotten worse over the years. You might remember him from a TPH album released a few years back as well. Once again Magnus helped out on very short notice when the amazing Mike Wead had to step down. I so appreciate it, Magnus. And the work he’s done is just brilliant, as always. The fact that this guy is not playing in a huge metal band is so wrong on so many levels.

Danny Tunker. Tobben actually said to me, when he heard about Mike Wead stepping down, “- You remember Danny that we met in Holland, who sorted the guitar sound for you on stage. Ask him to play some leads coz he’s awesome”. If Tobben says so – I listen. And so I contacted Danny and explained the situation. He gladly accepted the invitation and how he delivered – GODDAMN! We had some fun times of total confusion with me missing some files he sent, talks about changing some drumbeats (which we didn’t, I might add, haha) and whatnot to fit one of the solos since the pre-production had different patterns than what Dirk put down in the end. It all turned out fucken fantastic and Danny delivers with the best of them. Kudos for stepping up on such short notice and delivering stuff I could never, ever even dream about doing myself.

Petter S. Freed. You remember Petter. He played with TPH for quite a bunch of years and is still to this day one of my best friends as well as an excellent guitarist. I didn’t originally plan to include Petter, it just happened as he was over visiting me. There was this part in a song where I felt I could need another solo and was about to ask one of the already included guys if they could do it before it dawned on me that, of course, Petter must play it. He turned in a killer performance in a nicely, at the time, alcohol infused environment (The Dungeon) in one fucken take. Feels great to have Petter in here as well considering the insane amount of music we have been writing together over the years. Thanx, Mazza.

Marko Saarelainen. My brother from another mother. Or sister from another blister. Whatever, you get the point. The visual stuff Marko’s done for us since a hundred years back… I don’t even know where to begin. He’s the one member of the band who actually isn’t playing an instrument, but he’s still as important to us as everyone else involved in TPH. Marko takes as much pride in how he presents us artwork wise and website wise as we do music wise. What he has cooked up for the booklet and actual album cover is astonishing. It reflects what this album is about just perfectly.

We would be half the band without Marko. Thank you for always being there for us.

Dan Swanö. Dan recorded the first ever demo with TPH. That was quite some time ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Me and Dan have known and worked with each other since the early 90’s and he understands me perfectly. What he has done with the production for “TCRA” is just fantastic. Of all of our productions, this one is definitely my favorite. We had quite a few sessions (as always when it comes to this particular thing) before I was happy with the bass sound – but that was also pretty much the only hassle during this mixing process, and it wasn’t even much of a hassle. He’s outdone himself on “TCRA”. The production is crystal clear and heavy as fuck. With that incredible bass sound on top of it all. There is no one I rather work with but Dan. Cheers for being the best, D. And cheers for not saying a thing about my 4 million minor corrections every time we do TPH, haha… Let’s do it again, asap.

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Writing and recording “TCRA” has been a truly phenomenal experience in all aspects. It’s all gone very smoothly and now I have the result in my hand. Almost 2 years of work completed, and it’s been worth every second of it. It will be real interesting to top this album when the time comes. I know myself quite well and guess I will start writing for it shortly, in small doses, when I least expect it. It will be a monumental task to match this monster of an album, that’s for sure. But if I felt we can’t do it – I wouldn’t write music in the first place. “TCRA” holds every fiber of what I am and what I have become over the years by being able to work with the best of musicians and friends, people who assist me in reaching my own personal musical perfection. This is as close as I have ever been to that.

“The Cadaverous Retaliation Agenda” is the epitome of The Project Hate MCMXCIX.

And now you’re all wondering: “- WHEN THE HELL CAN WE GET THE ALBUM WE HELPED CREATE BY SUPPORTING THE TPH DONATION EXPERIMENT?!“

The answer is soon. I still have a few things to take care of (that is not musically connected. That part is, as mentioned, done) when it comes to this recording. You will notice when the Day of Reckoning has arrived. It might take another week or two, but trust me when I say it’s not being given to you before it’s perfect. Every aspect needs to be dissected and cleared one final time. Then you will finally have it. And I advice you to listen to it very, very closely. There are things in there for you to discover.

On many levels.