Blistering.com: Jonas definitely has some moments where he sounds like Johan [these Swedish names…confusing – ed.], so what made you pick him for the vocal spot?
Tervonen: We sat down and started writing names, actually. Some were impossible singers, like David Vincent [Morbid Angel] [laughs]. But we were focusing on what kind of sounding singer we were looking for. Jonas was in a band in the early 90s and I had the single, and in the beginning when we were younger, we’d get beers and we’d always put it on and thought it was amazing. Now, when we started writing down names, someone suggested Jonas Stålhammar and we had never met him. I went on Google
and tried to find him, and found him on Facebook [laughs]. I asked him if he was interested in singing or death metal in general, I had no idea. He sent me some links to some bands he was involved in, invited him to my studio, tried him out, had a few beers…he was the first and only guy we auditioned. It was right from the start. He’s a cool guy, very creative guy. He’s the new guy, but he wrote about five or six sets of lyrics for the album.
Blistering.com: Do you still talk to Johan?
Tervonen: The relationship is great – it always has been. We actually asked Johan to re-join when we were forming Doberman, but at that time, he was about to release a new One Man Army CD, so that’s when we went further and found Jonas. We have no problems with each other. He lives a few hundred meters from where I live – we go out and get beers and it’s all cool.
Blistering.com: The first that struck me about the new album is how fast it is, and it resembles Hell Is Here. Is that something you wanted to do with this comeback album – come out of the gates sounding fast?
Tervonen: Yeah, we’re pretty proud we’re just making a comeback and doing live shows and that’s it. We’re making a comeback and doing an album, too. It feels very important to have an album that has a strong statement and I feel this album is what The Crown is about. There is some melodic stuff in there, but I’m usually the melody guy and for the past albums, it was divided Magnus wrote the fast stuff and I wrote the melodic stuff. For this album, it’s all Magnus songs. He had the songs done…I did a few things here and there. It’s basically the core, Magnus death metal album, but for the next album, I will be more involved. I already have some songs, actually. It’s going to be what The Crown is all about – a lot of things mixed in with extreme death metal. We’re always going to take a different approach…I’m already itching to do the next album [laughs].
Blistering.com: Ten years ago is when you did your first North American run with Cannibal Corpse and had Deathrace King to support. Was that your peak? Also, was it part of the reason that led you to be burnt out on things?
Tervonen: The Deathrace album was the beginning. For us, the big change was when we signed to Metal Blade and released Hell Is Here. We were able to do some proper touring and supported Morbid Angel in Europe. And withDeathrace, it just grew. That wasn’t a problem at all – we really enjoyed it. We played the US and it was amazing considering there is an ocean between us.
Blistering.com: Did getting Tomas Lindberg in the band for Crowned In Terror set you back?
Tervonen: Of course it’s always not a clever thing to change a singer in the band. Having Tomas in the band for the time he was with us was great. He was the best possible choice we could come up with and were lucky to get him. After a while, things didn’t work – different chemistry. But then we were able to get Johan back, so I’m not going to regret doing it.
Blistering.com: Going into 2011, I know you mentioned tour dates will be spread apart, so what do you have in mind?
Tervonen: Right now, we’re waiting to get some feedback when the album is released. During the summer, we did a lot of festivals in Germany. We love playing live, we will just be very selective when doing it. Hopefully the feedback in the US will be very good and that will allow us to go to the US and do shows, but right now we’re waiting to see what will happen. Today, it’s a totally different method than when we released Possessed 13. I’ve heard from a lot of bands that no one sells any albums anymore and it’s just about playing live. Hopefully we can sell come CD’s so we can put some money on a tour.