THE METAL TIMES: Grinder New Album Interview : Intoxicate

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Grinder New Album Interview : Intoxicate

1.Thanks for taking the time to talk to The Grinder! You have a new album out, Tell us about it!

It´s called “Cross Contamination” and consists of eight thrash metal-songs. We wrote, rehearsed, recorded, mixed and mastered this album during three years, so we are pretty excited that it´s finally released. We wanted to sound old-school and not create a production that has that disgusting modern plastic sound, but still to have way better sound than our previous recordings. And we are very satisfied with the result, both with the music and production.

2.Where was it recorded? Is all the material new?

It was recorded in our rehearsal-room by ourselves here in Gothenburg and it´s actually mastered by Andy Laroque. All material is new except one riff in the track “Retention Rumba”. We wrote that riff in 1988 when we started this band and it´s ironically the best on the album.

3.What is the biggest difference between your last release and the new one?

This time when we wrote the music, we didn´t let anything pass through unless we thought it was more than good enough. Same with the sound. For the first time we are really satisfied with the production. And we have made our homework and are now better at building and arranging the songs.

4.Are you signed to a label? , If so which one and how did they help or support the process?

We can thank Downfall Records that this recording finally was released both digitally and on CD. We know how to play, but don´t know much about distribution etc, so it´s a great combo.

5.What has been going on with the band between albums? Did you tour?

We played some gigs, most of them here in Gothenburg but also had the chance to go to the Netherlands for three gigs. But most time has been spent writing and rehearsing these eight songs.

6.Do you have any new members?

Yes, one. We first started 1988 and when we re-united in 2014 we did that with four out of five original members. Tomas Eriksson switched from guitar to drums and Mattias Bolander came in as the new “stringbender”.

7.Who produced the new album and how did they effect the album?

We recorded it ourselves, but decided that someone else with “new ears” should take care of the mixing. Anders Backelin, who is a former bassplayer in Lord Belial, did a great job and had a lot of patience with the five of us having different opinions in every detail. And as I said earlier, Andy Laroque who lives in the area and is a huge idol to most of us, took care of the mastering. To have his name on our CD is probably the nearest we will come to fame 😊.

8.Some like to record naked or in the dark with candles , Did you have any strange studio practices?

Us being naked would be a horrifying sight, since we´re not very beautiful with clothes either. But a ritual we have is eating an enormous amount of snacks and drinking the exotic soft drink Passionfruit. (And it may happen that there is a connection to what I just wrote not being beautiful…)

9.Of course tell us where to pick up your album and how to learn more about you.

The CD is possible to order worldwide via Downfall Records and can also be found on Spotify and other digital platforms. We communicate via Facebook at www.facebook.com/intoxicategbg

10.What is your plans now that the new album is out?

We don´t have any bigger expectations, but are really happy every time we got some attention (like this interview 😊) and are happy with the reviews we got so far. The album is really, really good, but isn´t a guarantee that people will find it anyway. So it´s both good and bad with internet. More easy to spread the music, but the amount that is already there is huge and it´s hard to stand out from the rest.

Would be great to get some gigs and see if the songs will work live.
And then start all over again with the funniest part, crawl back to the rehearsal-room two days a week and create new music to make an even better album.