It’s time for vocalist Jowl Nyberg and guitarist Marcus Skantz to make some noise in this fun interview where they talk about their excellent band Through The Noise and their brand new album Dualism .

Through The Noise

The Headbanging Moose: Could you please introduce yourselves to our readers? How would you define Through The Noise?

Jowl Nyberg: I’m Jowl and I’m the vocalist and one of the founders of the band. We’ve always struggled to define Through The Noise, at least genre-wise, since we’ve never tried to fit in to a specific genre. We’re just a couple of guys who enjoy heavy music and try our best to present our listeners with just that: heavy music. We play metal with a touch of hardcore, that’s as close as we can come when we try to define it.

Marcus Skantz: Marcus and one of the guitarist in the band. To me, Through The Noise is a high energetic with both a lot of aggression and big melodies.

THM: Your brand new album Dualism is a fun and electrifying feast of heavy and hardcore sounds, but also full of melody and very polished. How was the recording process of the album, and did everything go according to your original plan?

JN: We knew from the start that we wanted to work with Erik Wiss at Wiss Music Productions again, why change a winning concept, right!? He knows our sound and we love to work with him, he always pushes us towards perfection and has nice inputs on our work. Although this time around Marcus had joined the band and he have some recording skills and equipment that the rest of us don’t, so we decided to record only the vocals and drums at Wiss Music Productions. The guitars and bass tracks are recorded in Marcus bedroom and then mixed at Wiss Music Productions along with everything else.

We only had like two-three tracks to work with before we booked the studio, so the process to write the rest of the songs was pretty intense, but that’s the way we like it: we thrive under pressure! Marcus and I spent many late nights at his place during this period. This was a bit different than our last album ´Fall Of Gaia´ where we wrote all the songs together in our rehearsal space.

MS: We booked the studio to record our second album just a month after I joined the band by the end of the summer 2017. By then, we just had one finished song and two song ideas to work with but we really needed a sharp deadline to kick our selves in the butt and write some new music. Five months later we had nine songs pre prodded and ready to be recorded. Peter went to Erik at Wiss Music Production and tracked all drums by the end of February and then me, Victor and Martin had about a month to record all the guitars and bass in my home studio before we returned to Erik to finish with all the vocals. The whole recording process went great even though it resulted in many late nights in my home studio due to my day work plus me, Jowl and Peter participating in a short film project where I helped with all post editing of sound and effects.

Jowl Nyberg (Through The Noise)

THM: Which songs from Dualism do you think better represent the band, and do you think your fans get that message while listening to your music or while watching you guys play live?

JN: We’ve always strived for intense, energetic songs with catchy and melodic choruses and I’d say that we deliver on that with all the songs on ´Dualism´ but if I had to pick one, I’d go with Psychomachia. If one truly wants to experience Through The Noise though: live is the way to go!

THM: One of my favorite songs of the album, Maktbegär (which I believe means “lust for power” from Swedish), is the only one sung in your mother tongue. Why did you guys decide to record that specific song in Swedish? Is there a special reason behind that?

JN: You are quite right in your translation, it does indeed mean “lust for power”.

I’ve always wanted to try and write something in Swedish and this is something that I’ve dabbled (and struggled) with at home for some time. ´Maktbegär´ actually started out as a translation and my own interpretation of a song called ´Mercy Me´ by one of my favourite punk-rock bands ´Alkaline Trio´ that I made for fun. The more I worked with it, it turned into something completely different that was too good not to use and the first time Marcus showed me this song I just knew that it would fit like a glove. I’ve also always felt like our regional dialect “skånska” fits well with hardcore-type vocals.

THM: How did you guys invite local Swedish punk vocalist Jahna Lund (from Death By Horse) to sing in three songs from Dualism? She has an amazing voice and matched perfectly your music. Can we expect more of that type of partnership in your future releases?

JN: Jahna and her band ´Death By Horse´ are close personal friends of mine: I love their music and Jahna’s characteristic voice! We’ve joined each other on stage plenty of times and I love collaborations and features on records, so it felt natural to invite her to add another level to our work. On our last record ´Fall Of Gaia´ I did a similar thing with a friend from work for the song ´The Accursed´ which turned out great so it might be a recurring theme on our albums!

MS: Jahna is a personal friend to us and we asked her to do some vocals on Psychomachia. While writing the song Secret Project we realized we needed a lot of choirs so we thought that she could be part of that song as well. The day she was in Erik’s studio she listened to some of the songs that was finished and when she heard the track Beyond Betrayal she got some ideas she wanted to test and that’s how she ended up in three songs of the record.

You just never know! If we write a piece where we think her voice would fit, we would not hesitate on asking her to do some more guest vocals.

Marcus Skantz (Through The Noise)

THM: Do you consider yourselves a metal band with punk and hardcore influences, or a punk and hardcore band with metal influences? How are the more diehard fans from both sides reacting to your music?

JN: This is interesting because we’ve always felt like we’re “in between”, so to speak. We’ve been considered “not hardcore enough” for hardcore festivals as well as “not heavy enough” for metal festivals. This is both a blessing and a burden in my opinion, it makes us somewhat unique but at the same time it alienates us from some gigs and crowds. Since I come from the punkrock/hardcore-scene originally and most of the other guys are more metalheads it’s only natural that our music sounds like something in between and that’s what makes us who we are.

MS: If you ask me we are a metal band with punk and hardcore influences, but that is me coming mainly from a thrash and melodic death background and I write songs in a certain way. If you ask Jowl I bet he thinks of it the other way around. I don’t think it really matters. We are a metal/hardcore band and we blend many different kind of styles into the mix with the outcome that we sound like Through The Noise.

THM: How’s the local metal and hardcore scene in your hometown Lund, in the city of Malmö and in Sweden in general? Can you recommend some bands from the underground scene that you think our readers should take a listen at?

JN: We have a lot of great local bands but not a lot of places for them (us) to play, unfortunately. Most bands around here head for Germany, eastern Europe, the Balkans and so on since there are more places to play and bigger audiences. It’s like the old saying “Big In Japan”, many bands are huge in other countries and almost unknown back home in Sweden.

Eastern High (Progressive-Metal), The Generations Army (Thrash-Metal), Wolves Within (Melodic-Hardcore), Mörbultad (Hardcore in Swedish), Chine (Death/Groove-Metal), Escaping Amenti (Theatrical/Apocalyptic Metalcore), Faithful Darkness (Melodic death-metal), Pandemonium (Symphonic Black Death-Metal) just to name a few!

MS: Both in general and locally, we have a thriving metal and hardcore scene in Sweden with a lot of great underground and up-and-coming bands. Kill The Kong, Imminence, Eleine and Eastern High just to name a few. We have a long tradition of great hard rock, metal and hardcore bands coming from Sweden which inspires us all.

Album Review – Through The Noise / Dualism (2019)

THM: Who are your biggest influences in music, and what inspires you to write heavy music?

JN: My biggest influences when it comes to lyricwriting are Matt Skiba of ´Alkaline Trio´ and Buddy Nielsen of Senses Fail. I tend to write deep, often melancholic, emotional and (at least to me) meaningful lyrics with a lot of metaphors that tells a story and I believe that I have these two gentlemen to thank for a lot of that! When it comes to my vocal style I guess Alexander Hagman of ´Raised Fist´, Andrew Neufeld of ´Comeback Kid´ and Tim McIlrath of ´Rise Against´ are some influences but also guys like Jake Luhrs of ´August Burns Red´. Other than that: playing and making heavy music is a great stress and anger release!

MS: My biggest influences comes from bands like Metallica, Pantera, Killswitch Engage and Machine Head in terms of how to build up a song, get the right groove and surprise or satisfy the listener. I often tries to write songs, riffs and so on that I myself would like to hear. I think it’s an honest way to treat the song and keep it real for both the listener and me as a composer.

THM: What about the future of the band? What can we expect from Through The Noise in the short and long term? And how are your tour plans going so far for the promotion of Dualism?

JN: We’re planning and hoping to take the band to the next level with this album! At the moment we are trying our best to book as many shows as possible for the rest of the year, at least, and after that we look forward to the process of making our next album! We’re here to stay and this is what we put all our effort into!

MS: In short term we are currently trying to book as many shows as possible with a fall of 2019 tour in the early planning stage. Of course we’re also planning for a follow up EP or full-length but since, while writing this, we have not released Dualism yet our focus right now is mainly on promoting the record and get out to play.

THM: Thanks you very much for your time! Please feel free to send your final considerations to our readers, to remind them where to buy your music, and anything else you would like to say.

JN: Thank you for taking an interest in our band! We would be very grateful if you visit and follow us on our social media pages and web shop (see links below), add our songs to your playlists and (of course) catch us live! This means the world to us and would really help us out!

Upcoming shows
May 4 @ Helltown Mini Festival at Jutan, Helsingborg, Sweden
June 7 @ Backstage Varberg, Varberg, Sweden

Links
Through The Noise Facebook | Intagram | Twitter | YouTube | Big Cartel | Spotify | iTunes | Amazon | Google Play | Deezer