Blistering.com: As for Five Scars, I’m really impressed by how melodic it sounds. It’s like a return to your Thunderbeast days. Was that the intention?
Gooßes: That´s funny. I did an interview the other day when I was confronted with the impression that Five Scars would even be more progressive like Nailwork, while you compare it to our most “Rock´n´Roll” album Thunderbeast. And that´s a good thing, because I think Five Scars features all Night In Gales trademarks, has a little piece of each album inside, yet offers new shades. We took a step back, one to the side and two forwards. This is no retro thing; we never said like “ok, we gotta sound like 1995.” Bullshit! We´re right here, right now, and we play our 2011 version of classic fuckin melodic death metal!
Blistering.com: Even the production doesn’t sound like other production jobs these days. Were you shooting for that classic melodic death metal sound? How did Dan Swano get involved? Is he an old friend?
Gooßes: Yeah, right! The production is organic and rough, but not too old school. We wanted a “2011 yet classic” sound, and Dan did a great job. I think it would be too much to say we´re old friends, but we knew each other for a while, though. He was totally into it, and it´s an honor to have an icon like Dan working on your album and even saying so many good things about it!
Blistering.com: What is the title, 5 Scars representative of?
Gooßes: “Five lives, five sins, five scars upon our skin” says the title track, and that´s what it means. We are those scars; our five albums are those five scars. We wear those marks with pride, and these scars remind us of how we became the persons we are now. Each album is like a snapshot of the world you live in when you write it. So these scars are both our lives and our legacy. And what kind of men would we be if we didn´t have any damn scars?
Blistering.com: The cellos in the title track and “The Tides of November” add a great touch. What brought those on?
Gooßes: Jens´ cousin Gunnar wrote and recorded them by himself, and we´re really grateful that he came up with something so emotional – I really love these parts!
Blistering.com: Do you feel with the explosion of melodic death metal in the late 90’s you missed some opportunities?
Gooßes: We probably missed some chances indeed, but we don’t point fingers, cause basically we ourselves are the ones to blame. I mean, if we would have stuck to the Thunderbeast style, while this album was by far our most successful, we could have grown a lot more I suppose. But we were hungry young metalheads, curious to explore new horizons. So we did, and I thinkNailwork is pretty awesome, though rather progressive and freaky. At least not what people expected, and maybe ahead of its time. Then we took it even further with Necrodynamic. From the commercial point of view I have to admit that with the four albums we did before “Five Scars” it must have been really hard to place a band like Night In Gales on the map, ha-ha…
Blistering.com: What do you think of the respective paths your old peers like In Flames, Soilwork, and Dark Tranquillity have taken?
Gooßes: They are all good bands, but don´t have that much to do with what I liked about them years ago. But they evolved their styles more carefully than we did, I suppose. And I mean that in a positive way. A band is nothing without its fans, and fans can be pretty unforgiving if a band the love turn their own style upside down ha-ha. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn´t. However I think that almost none of the bands from the first generation of classic melodic death metal still plays that style nowadays. But that´s ok, art must not obey rules, and sometimes things lost are the most precious. At The Gates for example were brave enough to quit when they were best. And what can I say – their show at the Party San Open Air a few weeks ago gave me goose bumps. And that definitely doesn´t happen often!
Blistering.com: Do you hope you can build some momentum off of the new album and reach some new people?
Gooßes: Of course we do! It would be insincere if i said we only do it for ourselves. Of course we first do it for ourselves; because we felt we hadn´t said everything yet with Night In Gales. But does a word make sense if it´s not heard by anybody? So yes, we hope to reach some new people, we hope to show people that classic melodic death metal can be still up to date in 2011.
Blistering.com: Finally, what’s on the agenda for the rest of 2011?
Gooßes: We´re just about to plan a few release shows in November/December, we´re negotiating with a few bookers and try to prepare a good live season for 2012. We also plan to shoot a video clip for one of the new songs, and the promotional work of Lifeforce including interviews like this one here just started, too. So, there will be some more Night In Gales, and if you read this but haven´t heard of the band yet – go and get yourself a nice little scar and buy our new album!