The bells are ringing—could an earthquake, a tsunami, or a wildfire be on the way? No, not at all! Something much more magnificent, yet all the more relentless, awaits us. A good three minutes of heaven and hell, straight from Sweden!
In March 2024, the Swedish metalcore band released their fourth album, feel something new, which—true to its title—presented something new about everything we hold deep in our hearts and that accompanies us through our daily lives—sometimes spoken, sometimes unspoken. Its predecessor, Do You Like Violence, was a lengthier album with a different vibe, featuring unmissable gems such as “Pink Mist”, which emerges from a dissipating pink mist; “Calm”, which (certainly) doesn’t exude calm; or a personal favorite, “Now Let’s Make Those Teeth Leave Your Pretty Mouth”. With fewer songs, a heavier sound, and a more lively tempo, Feel Something New resulted in a high-quality follow-up, giving each track more room to showcase its strengths to the audience. This approach clearly marked a step forward in the band’s career and reached a wider audience than before, while also demonstrating just how diverse their songs are. We’d like to highlight a few songs from this album that are great for getting started: “Still Hurts”, “It Consumes Me”, and “two”. And if you would like to start with a song that’s intense and leaves no room for mercy, “Verified” is the perfect choice.
In addition to their recent history, it’s worth noting that Grayscale Season had been performing as a trio in the last few years. Their lineup consisted of singer Eddie Lejhagen (who takes care of the screams), guitarist Richard Sörensen, and bassist Adam Dahlman (who also delivers the beautiful clean vocals). This year, not only did a new song arrive, but also a new member: Johan (drums). With their well-thought-out progress and now complete lineup, everything is in place for the band to confidently pull “Strung Up” out of their magical hat. The new single combines the strengths of the aforementioned albums: it’s soft and heart-wrenchingly emotional, only to throw us into the deepest depths the very next moment with heavy riffs and amazing screams. And with the music video, we’re sure to be treated to an even more unique—and, in a good way, bizarre—experience. Everyone can decide for themselves whether, in their “Strung Up”-fueled dream, they’d rather take a deep dive or find themselves staring down a rabbit-masked figure. Are you ready? Then let the dive begin…
Following the release of Strung Up, it didn’t take long to figure out what was pretty obvious by then—the members of Grayscale Season quickly announced that a new album is on the way. They’re returning with another record, but as we’ll discuss a bit later, this album won’t follow the example of Feel Something New and breaks with the approach of focusing on fewer songs and, consequently, a shorter length. The album, titled The Weight of Things We Cannot Touch, will feature the following tracks:
1. Strung Up
2. soulmogged
3. Yarusenai (Ghost)
4. Infinite cc
5. Exit
6. Second Breath
7. mov
8. Square Terror
9. Heart&Ache
10. HER
11. I Know What You Are
The upcoming album gets off to a promising start and will hopefully bring Grayscale Season closer to the breakthrough they clearly have the potential for. Anyone who, for whatever reason, hasn’t been looking forward to November can finally find a new motivation to enjoy the end of this autumn!
We’ll be talking with the band members about the new album—and lots of other things—in an interview sometime in late November or early December, but we’ve prepared a mini-interview for you, so you can get even more insights into the band, their new single “Strung Up,” as well as everything else you might need to fully enjoy the new track.
Grayscale Season short interview with Adam Dahlmann:
It’s been more than two years since we had the chance to interview you. The most striking development in your band’s life since then has been that you’ve expanded to four members, thanks to the fact that you now have a drummer. How did you find your new member? What has the experience been like so far, and how smoothly is the process of working together going?
It’s a pleasure, always and thanks for having us back! Without Johan this project wouldn’t be as it is. Johan is an old friend and he helped us all the way back on Do You Like Violence. He wrote drum parts for Pink Mist and Pillow Grin. He’s a phenomenal talent and a great friend and collaborator. He fucked off abroad for a couple of years and serendipitously he came back just as we were searching for a permanent new member. Of course, he was the only real and obvious choice. We have spent countless hours together and I am looking forward to countless more. It works very well and he brings a lot of energy into the band.
You’ve played several gigs since the release of ‘feel something new’. Was it a rewarding experience? Is there perhaps a particularly memorable moment from one of these concerts?
It’s really about meeting people. I think I’ve talked about this before. But for me writing music is about connecting with people and I get to speak and meet amazing people out there. We are truly blessed to have a fantastic fan base who really care and the biggest supporters out there. If I were to give you one example of a core memory, it wasn’t even mine, but it sticks with me. Some of my dearest friends live in Denver, Colorado. They were out at some venue, one of them had a Grayscale Season shirt on and some dude walked up to them saying that he likes the band only to find out they are some of my best friends. That is amazing and for us to reach into people’s hearts and homes all over the world is just crazy and so humbling.
So, now that some time has passed, how do you view the reception of ‘feel something new’ in Sweden and internationally? What sort of feedback have you received? What are the things you’d definitely take with you, and is there anything you felt you’d like to change?
The biggest take away from that album was that it was too short. People wanted more. That is a good issue to have! I know people were wondering whenever the hell Pillow Grin 2 is happening. We’ll see.
Look, I mean, you do listen to what people say. I’m not sure if we did change anything in our approach except that we knew we shouldn’t do 8 songs.
What’s worth knowing about the making of the song? Although part of the beauty of music is that it can be interpreted in different ways, would you share with us the underlying meaning behind your new single?
Strung Up was both a bitch and a pleasure to write. We spent a ton of time trying to figure out how to make the song effective. The absolute first draft was an acoustic guitar and a walking bass. Very strange and pretty cool, but at its core flawed. Richard (guitars) is a clever cookie, so we managed to realize the bones of that first draft were the vocals. So we created those eerie strings instead. Then Eddie (vocals) wrote the fantastic ending. There’s plenty to talk about this song, but I think we would need to do a stems breakdown to really cover it all.
You’ve proven time after time that you’re really good at blending clean vocals with screams; your voices and the instrumental come together to form a brilliant overall sound. How much practice goes into achieving this harmony?
Oh, this comes natural to us. It’s very seldom we don’t know where the vocals should be or their placement. I think mostly because it comes naturally, but also that we have done it for a while now. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I believe in playing to one’s strengths. :D
You mentioned that Grayscale Season started to become more successful when you began taking it more seriously. How do you manage to make time for everything else whilst becoming more and more well-known? What keeps you going?
Playing with Grayscale Season and the boys is the biggest pleasure in the world. This is the escape. The biggest time constraint is being away from the family. But getting home at 1 or 2 in the morning because you’ve been all evening at our studio. That is a privilege. So, what keeps us going? The connection with others, the escape that is writing music and the absolute thrill of releasing something.
If you had to describe your new song using three words, what would you choose?
Contrast, Obfuscation & Verisimilitude.
Let’s move on to the music video! You love to go all out when it comes to bringing a song to life visually, and ‘Strung Up’ is no exception. Where did the idea for the video come from? Did you know straight away that this was what you wanted to create, or were there other ideas on the table? Where was it filmed, and what’s your favourite moment from the shoot?
Brother, I mean, we are no Imminence, but the visuals are super important. We like the DIY aspect of music videos and the visuals in general. Strung Up was fun, we basically wanted to explore the idea of something opening up. Going from below ground/under water to finding air filling your lungs again. The tension and release. We talked a lot about doing more advanced underwater shoots, but that became too impractical for this one. We also wanted to do some drone shots. That never happened. I think my favorite moment is the 2 seconds of Eddie vibing out close to the end of the song. It just feels right.
Grayscale Season
Featured Image: Daniel Falk
by: Mark Farkas
Leave a Reply