WITCHERY INTERVIEW
Over 20 years into their existence, Swedish blackened Thrash Metallers WITCHERY stay the course crafted on 2016’s praised In His Infernal Majesty’s Service album and offer a slab of 11 new deadly tracks on their newest full-length studio effort I Am Legion. Forging onwards with their recently revamped line-up they enhanced their newest nocturnal anthems with an organic, yet powerfully up-to-date sound, which deeply pleased every fan of blackened Thrash/Death. A revamped and brilliant new line up has served to open a next chapter in the history of WITCHERY and I Am Legion marks a bewitching next step forwards for these pioneers of the blackened Thrash/Heavy Metal style.
We got to speak to Patrik Jensen from Witchery about their upcoming tour and more.
TM - What can fans expect from your Australian tour?
PJ - It is the first time that we are playing Australia and we are going to play a mix of hits and new songs. We are very excited to play in Australia. I have been over there a lot of times with The Haunted and people have asked me when Witchery is going to play so it will be really good to bring Witchery with us.
TM - What are you most looking forward to doing in Australia?
PJ - I love to travel, one of my main things of wanting to be in a band was getting to write music and getting to travel the world. Australia has always been one of my favourite places to go, the people there are very hospitable and very friendly apart from saying so is that I would like to do some sightseeing.
TM - You toured every Slayer and played Raining Blood with Dave Lombardo on drums, how did this come about?
PJ - The first US tour The Haunted did was with Testament, for the Album The Gathering, on that album Dave Lombardo plays the Drums and he did the tour as well. We did sound check after Testament because they headlined so we jumped up on stage and started to Jam out a bunch of Slayer songs. We started to get an audience and then Dave came out shook our hands and said we should do this live. A couple of days later we were playing in Arizona and right after we played the last song Dave snuck in under whatever was covering his drum kit and started playing the introduction to Slayer for raining flood. We played it live it was amazing and Kerry King showed up and we made friends with him and being friends with him ever since.
TM - That is so awesome, what an experience.
TM - How do you go about juggling a full-time job Witchery and The Haunted?
PJ - We used to do The Haunted full time for 13 years, I do not do my band full-time anymore. I have a daytime job which involves music, so we only do the fun stuff such as touring and putting out albums. Music is our passion so we do not want to stop putting out albums or playing.
TM - You got a new drummer and singer for your last album, do you think this changed your writing and recording process?
PJ - Yes both Chris and Martin are amazing drummers but they have different styles, so that affects how I write music. The band having a new singer also affect how the band sound.
TM - The Haunted and Meshuggah toured together, what was your favourite memory?
PJ - We grew up with the same music and listening to the same music. We have been in bands forever and known each other forever. They have great music Meshuggah is a very special band.
TM - What's your favorite festival you have played?
PJ - Sweden Rock Festival.
TM - If you could have any bands play one of your songs which band would it be, which song would it be and would it be in your style or their Style?
PJ - True North by Depeche Mode in their style.
TM - If you could collaborate with any artists who would it be and why?
PJ - My heroes are Ritchie Blackmore, Tony Iommi or wolf Hoffmann from Accept or do something with Kerry King.
TM- They are all awesome choices!. I remember seeing Deep Purple at Hellfest, that was a great experience. I have also been lucky enough to see slayer 6 times in the past 2 years thanks to European and Australian festivals.
PJ - I will definitely go to some of Slayer's final shows as it is there the last tour.
TM - That will be an amazing experience.
TM - What's your favorite memory of watching someone else perform live?
PJ - I'm old enough to have seen Metallica on the Master of Puppets tour and as you would probably know Cliff Burton died on that tour. They went home for a month, found Jason Newsted and went back on tour. Metallica was scheduled to play in Gothenburg on January 10th the following year but it was so cold that the band made it to Sweden but the Ferries were canceled from Denmark so the show was canceled. Then Metallica moved the show and it was the very last date of the Master of Puppets tour.
They came back and did their last show on Friday the 13th, because it was the last show the bands did all these crazy things like prank the other bands. They also played songs they have never played before such as "Trapped Under Ice" but the song had to stop in the first verse because James didn't remember the lyrics. The tour manager came out and the crew came out and everyone had a guitar and was head banging on stage. Lars picked up a guitar and played a few Black Sabbath riffs in his bathrobe or whatever. Everything was so special and I think it is the best Metallica album, it was a special day for the band and a very good show.
TM - That show sounds entertaining, I wish I was there to watch it.
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
PJ - Come and check out all three bands, this is a really special package and we all share band members.
TM - Thank You so much for this interview today and we cannot wait to see you in Sydney.
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