In Solitude Discuss 'Sister,' Touring with Watain + More

Swedish dark metallers In Solitude have been making some waves lately. The band was featured on last year's Decibel Magazine tour supporting Watain, with In Solitude scheduled to perform even more shows with Watain this year. With the band releasing their third full-length album, 'Sister,' we caught up with bassist Gottfrid Åhman.

'Sister' was released on Sept. 27 through Metal Blade records. In our exclusive interview with Åhman, we asked the bassist about how 'Sister' differed from past In Solitude records, their incredibly sinister sound, touring with Watain + more!

Does 'Sister' showcase any nuances that aren't present in any of your past releases?

It depends on what you mean, we're still a rock band consisting of guitars, bass, drums and a singer. The music has evolved along with us and our lives. I think it's easier for the listeners to tell. There's an acoustic song on the album, we've never done that before.

In your opinion, what separates In Solitude from other contemporary heavy metal acts?

Courage and honesty. Other bands seems afraid of getting personal with their music. There are too many bands out there who are just about musical references and repeating the past. In my opinion, that's not what heavy metal is about. It's not something conservative in a musical sense. It's about breaking boundaries. Look what Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Venom did for music. Or look at Priest, there isn't a single Judas Priest album that sounds like the one before for example. Now, suddenly, there's very strict "rules" on what heavy metal should sound like, and that is to sound as much as these bands as possible. The closer you get, the more heavy metal you are. To me, it's extremely contradictory. We're expressing ourselves and not our taste in music, I guess that's the answer to you question.

Your brand of heavy metal feels incredibly dark and sinister. Are there any particular techniques that are especially crucial to create that sound?

What we listen to in general is most often dark and sinister and I guess that's something that also reflects who we are. Saying that, I don't find it a surprise our music turns out that way as well.

The music video for 'To Her Darkness' is awesome. Who or what did you draw inspiration from to create that clip?

The ideas was worked out from the lyrics and then we did our best to think of ways to carry it further and make it serve the song as good as possible as well as really taking advantage of the medium of film to portrait sides of In Solitude which hadn't been expressed on the album. It wasn't easy but I really hope we succeeded.

You performed with Watain on last year's Decibel Magazine tour and you've got even more upcoming dates with them. Is there a unique relationship you've developed with Watain?

Yes there is. We are very likeminded people who are using rock to explore life and death and everything in between and we have found a good way doing that together as well I think. Every trip we've done together have been a true adventure and very enlightening, this tour won't be an exception. We learn a lot from each other.

In Solitude's 'Sister' is available right now! To pick up a copy of the album, click here.