Today, Feb. 19, Swedish progressive fuzz rockers Skraeckoedlan release their new single, Universum. Well, new-ish. The song originally appeared as “Universe” on 2011’s Äppelträdet (review here), the band’s debut album, and below, they talk a bit about their original reasons for recording it in English — as well as a few other tracks they’re redoing to celebrate the debut’s 10th anniversary (they grow up so fast!) — and why they’ve gone back to it now. I think it’s safe to say that if the four-piece were on the road doing 100 shows this year, it might not be happening in this way, but more Skraeckoedlan is not a gift gila-monster I’m about to look in the mouth. They’re welcome around these parts anytime.

You’ll by now be familiar with the format of the pandemic-era performance video. Thus we see the four members of Skraeckoedlan — guitarist/vocalist Robert Lamu, guitarist Henrik Grüttner, bassist Erik Berggren and drummer Martin Larsson — in individual boxes, each playing his part of the song in sync with the studio version of the track. Much to their credit, they have some fun with that beyond the simple playthrough. Lamu takes advantage of a break to water the plants behind him. Larsson gradually builds his pillow-kit as he goes and likewise seems to defrock from business-casual to headbang-ready in terms of attire. And, well, Berggren is there live and he’s… he’s ready to proceed. He’s not a cat.

I’ll admit, I kept hoping that at some point Grüttner would get in a quick game of ping-pong, but alas. Can’t have everything. And does the swap from English to Swedish make the song any less catchy? Nope. Still a Rampage-worthy stomp ready to get stuck right in your brain — precisely the sort of fare that’s become a specialty of House Skraeckoedlan over the last decade. They kill it and don’t look back and one would expect no less. Way down at the bottom of the post, I’ve included “Universe” so you can do a compare/contrast with “Universum” if so inclined, but while you’re spending time, take the opportunity to dig into 2019’s Eorþe (review here) again as well, if only to remind yourself how far Skraeckoedlan‘s journey has taken them.

I wonder what they mean by, “In April it is Sunrise?”

Enjoy the clip:

Skraeckoedlan, “Universum” official video premiere

SKRAECKOEDLAN – ÄPPELTRÄDET 10 year anniversary

“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
– Carl Sagan

A decade has passed since we in Skraeckoedlan released our debut album.

The year before, we released two demos: Flykten från Tellus and Världarnas fall.

It was on these two demos that we built the songs for what later became the album Äppelträdet.

We were then faced with a choice: Would we continue to have all the songs in Swedish, or would we rewrite some of the songs with English lyrics. We thought that we might limit ourselves as a band, if we only had songs in Swedish.

We cowardly wrote three songs with English lyrics, because we simply did not know if it would work to play heavy, groovy rock in Swedish and still be able to get out and play around the world, something we all had as a childhood dream.

We were wrong.

It has turned out that the Swedish songs have absolutely worked even outside of Sweden.

Due to our cowardly decision, we have almost never played any of these three English songs live. We want to change that.

Now that Äppelträdet turns 10 years old, we therefore are releasing a new version of the album, entirely in Swedish. The release has been re-mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna).

In order to bake an apple pie from scratch, we have had to first invent the Universe, which will be released on February 19th.

In April it is Sunrise.

Skraeckoedlan:
Robert Lamu – Vocals/Guitar
Henrik Grüttner – Guitar
Erik Berggren – Bass
Martin Larsson – Drums

Skraeckoedlan, “Universe” from Äppelträdet (2011)

Skraeckoedlan, Eorþe (2019)

Skraeckoedlan’s website

Skraeckoedlan on Instagram

Skraeckoedlan on Thee Facebooks

The Sign Records on Thee Facebooks

The Sign Records website

Tags: Borlange, Norrköping, Skraeckoedlan, Skraeckoedlan Universum, Sweden, The Sign Records, Universum

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2021 at 5:44 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.