Pic courtesy of: Evocation "We are here for the sole purpose of bringing people raw, pure and brutal Death Metal the way it was meant to be"

CR: Hey man thank you so much for the opportunity! How are you?
Marko Palmén: Hi, and thanx to you for doing this interview with us! Well everything is really great with me and the band. To be quiet honest this is probably one of the best periods I have ever experienced for several reasons. For the first I just got my Psychologist exam from the University in Gothenburg a couple of weeks ago and the second reason is that we are really having the time of our lives with Evocation. Just recently we started to record the next full length album and we are also confirmed to play at Wacken Open Air 2008 which is the worlds largest Metal Open Air Festival. This year’s edition will be really exceptional with bands such as At The Gates, Carcass, Iron Maiden etc.

CR: Evocation is no “new” or rookie band, you guys have been playing since 1991, but why such a long time to release a full length?
Marko Palmén: Yeah, we were formed back in 1991 but due to musical differences we split up already back in 1993 after having done 2 demos. One of them was recorded in the nowadays legendary Sunlight Studio with the demon producer Tomas Skogsberg behind the wheels. But anyway to get back to the question; there were several reasons why we didn’t release an album until 2007. In 2001 we were contacted by Akhenaten at Breath Of Night Records who wanted to release our old demos and we also thought it would be a cool way to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the birth of Evocation. But due to the fact that Akhenaten mysteriously vanished some time after he contacted us it wasn’t released until 2004 by Merciless Records. Some rumors say he left to the US but to be honest we haven’t got a clue. The reactions for that release was quite astonishing all over Europe and that really made us realize that we had to start doing what we enjoy most in our lives – Death Metal! So finally in the summer of 2005 we started to rehearse in our new Studio. Then in 2006 we recorded the album and Cyclone Empire Records released it in April 2007. So if circumstances would have been a bit different I think we would have released an album a couple of years earlier and that’s the only thing I regret today since we are having such a great time together.

CR: I heard someone said that if you guys would have released a full length back in the early 90’s, by now you could have been bigger than Dismember, At the Gates, you know the now cult Swedish death bands; do you think this could have been a possibility? Is there anything positive about releasing a full length after so much time?
Marko Palmén: Wow, that’s some really nice words about Evocation and I feel really honored when I hear it. I mean those bands that you mention have been my favorites since ages ago and just to be compared with the bands feels cool. But to be honest I have also heard people say it to us and still I and the other guys have difficulties understanding it; that people actually consider us to be in the same league as the bands that you mention.

And could Evocation have become bigger than Dismember or At The Gates? Well that’s a really hypothetical question but I mean if we have the possibility to create music that is in the same class as the other bands, then why not? Today we are here to do what we do best – Death Metal the way it was meant to be! For us it’s the best thing in our lives and if there are people out there that enjoy listening to our Death Metal, it’s merely a great bonus for us.

I think the most positive thing about releasing a full length after so many years is the fact that the friendship between us has grown so immensely and I wouldn’t want to give it up for anything. Besides that I think we somehow have evolved as musicians through the years and that’s a positive thing as well since the tracks on the album are better structured and thoroughly thought through.

CR: Do you guys consider yourselves an “old school” band?
Marko Palmén: Definitely not! We consider ourselves merely as a Death Metal outfit. Back in the early days there was only Death Metal and that’s what we do. The term “old school” and “new school” is something that was invented later on when journalists couldn’t place new extreme metal bands in a genre. So they simply placed them in the “new school” and the “old school” genres. I’m not either sure on what one should call the so called “new school” bands but it’s not Death Metal. Death Metal is simply Death Metal and is the type of music that was made in the early 90s. We consider Evocation as a Death Metal band and nothing else.

CR: Why did you guys decide to stop all Evocation activities back in 1993? Are all the factors that made you guys stop activities gone? Can you assure us that Evocation is back for good?
Marko Palmén: The main reason for us to call it quits back in 1993 was musical differences. We just simply couldn’t agree on which direction to take for the future. This actually feels kind of weird today since there is nothing of that left today and we are on a total consensus on Evocations direction for the future. We are here for the sole purpose of bringing people raw, pure and brutal Death Metal the way it was meant to be. Another thing that’s weird when you think about when we called it quits is the fact that there were labels such as Roadrunner, Relapse, Black Mark, Osmose, No Fashion etc. that wanted to sign us. I mean, why quit when there was a possible record deal coming up… But anyway that’s what we did. Today I can assure you and the readers that we are back for good!

CR: Let’s talk about your return cd or your debut full length if you like; when you guys took it out this year, did you find many fans from the early stages of Evocation approaching you guys one more time?
Marko Palmén: Absolutely, there have been lots of old friends from around the world that has contacted us and it feels great to have their support once again. For each and every show we do there are old friends coming up to us and saying that they have our old demos and stuff like that and it never stops amazing me and the other guys. We are just stunned that people remember us after all these years. Back in the early 90s we were just a bunch of youngsters having fun, drinking beer and doing what we enjoyed most in our lives – Death Metal! We didn’t have a clue about the impact we had made within the Death Metal community. It has come to our attention in the recent years since the re-release of the old demos on Merciless Records and the live shows we have done since then.

	Pic courtesy of: Evocation "I think the catchy and yet brutal riffing style is the trademark of Evocation. I guess we always have strived for writing this kind of music and I think we managed to come up with a really cool album"

CR: Got to tell you the more I listen to Tales From The Tomb the more I like it, heavy, catchy, what ever you want to call it, the songs just get under your skin and it’s inevitable to headbang to them! What do you think is the strongest characteristic of the album?
Marko Palmén: Yeah, I agree with you! I think the catchy and yet brutal riffing style is the trademark of Evocation. I guess we always have strived for writing this kind of music and I think we managed to come up with a really cool album. There isn’t a single track that I don’t like on the album although I have some favorites such as “Feed the Fire”, “The Dead”, “The More We Bleed” etc. To sum it up; I think “Tales from the Tomb” is a real classic Death Metal album that I’m proud of having been a part of making.

CR: Before you guys released this full length was there any “concerns” on how the fans were going to react to it? Did you ask yourselves at any time “does anybody remember us?
Marko Palmén: You are absolutely spot on here, this circled through our minds through the whole process. I mean we released 2 demos back in the 90s so of course we had some serious concerns on whether anyone would remember us, but to our surprise people still remembered us and the reactions on the new stuff has been amazing! So naturally this feels like the time of our lives at the moment.

CR: I would like to know what you think about this extract from a review in Lords of Metal (www.lordsofmetal.nl) they did on your debut; “In eleven songs ‘Tales from the Tomb’ takes us back to Gothenburg 1990, the defining years of Swedish Death Metal”.
Marko Palmén: I think this extract is spot on what our ambition was with this album. We wanted to create something that hadn’t been done in the last 12 years. For us the development of the Death Metal scene has been a big disappointment since 1995 when At The Gates released the ever classic “Slaughter Of The Soul” album. I don’t think anyone in the band has bought any albums after that and also none of us has followed what has happened in the scene. I think this has been a major factor in why Evocation still sounds the way we did back in the early 90s. Somehow we got stuck in the freezer or something back then… hehehe From the very first moment when we started to rehearse in the summer of 2005 the same magic between us as in 1991 was back again. So we just picked up the thread where we left it back then and started doing what we were meant to do.

CR: Is it me or does your guitars on “Tales from the Tomb” have almost the same effects as the ones Dismember uses for many albums… Am I totally wrong here? Even the cover art work reminds me of Dismember! (Dan Seagrave is definitely THE MAN!)
Marko Palmén: Hehehe It’s almost the same effects as Dismember use but to be honest we actually used the same effects as At The Gates used on the “Slaughter Of The Soul” album. We were aiming to get the best out of the Sunlight Studio and Studio Fredman sounds. I think we did a really good job on this although I must say that it was some real hard work behind it. I think we worked around a week trying out different cabinets and amplifiers before we found the right ones. Finally we got hold of a Peavey 5150 MK II and a Marshall cabinet with Greenback speakers. Before we tried out the 5150 I was on the phone with Kristian Wåhlin (aka Necrolord) and he just told me that; “it is as safe as a Volvo, you can’t go wrong with that one”. And as soon as we plugged in the 5150 I heard that this is the one we are going to use. It had that fuzzy yet distinct attack in the sound that we were looking for. After a couple of more days trying out different pedals we chose to use the BOSS HM-2 and the BOSS MT-2 for my guitar and for Vesa’s we used the BOSS DS-1. Together the two guitars create the monstrous Evocation sound.

And the cover art; yeah Dan is really “Da Man” for a Death Metal cover artwork. I really love his work and have always done so ever since the classic cover artworks he did for bands like Morbid Angel, Dismember, Entombed etc. Dan Seagrave is alongside with Tomas Skogsberg one of the most professional artists I have ever worked with. The artwork he created for us really exceeded all our expectations and I just have to quote Dan’s own words about the cover artwork: “I think this one will be a classic, one of my best pieces so far”. I totally agree, I just love it and hope that we will work together with him again in the future!

CR: Tales From The Tomb is being praised by the critics (at least the ones I have read) as the true example of what Stockholm death metal is all about, what does that mean for the band and for you personally?
Marko Palmén: I think it’s a nice remark about our music and I think it is pretty much what we have been trying to achieve with this album. Evocation was a bit more Stockholm oriented in the early 90s although we always have been striving for integrating the best pieces of both the Stockholm and the Gothenburg scene. The “Tales from the Tomb” album became more Stockholm oriented although I think next album will be more oriented towards the early 90s Gothenburg scene. It’s always nice to read good comments about the music we create although it is not something that we think about a lot. The important thing for us is to have a great time together again and if somebody else likes the stuff we do it’s simply a great bonus for us.

CR: Apart from the great reviews online, pretty much every body singles out the fact that this debut has nothing new or original, that it has all been done before, what do you think about that, are they wrong?
Marko Palmén: No, I think they are right in big parts. The only unique thing that we are trying to accomplish is that we are trying to integrate the best parts of the Stockholm scene together with the Gothenburg scene. And that’s what the Evocation sound is all about. So yeah, although to my knowledge we are the only ones doing this it is still Death Metal the way it sounded back in the early 90s. We don’t care that much if it’s original or not, for us it’s all about creating music that we like to play and listen to.

	Pic courtesy of: Evocation "The only unique thing that we are trying to accomplish is that we are trying to integrate the best parts of the Stockholm scene together with the Gothenburg scene. And that’s what the Evocation sound is all about"

CR: You guys have your own studio right? Why is that and how’s it going for you?
Marko Palmén: Yeah Man, we built our own recording/rehearsal studio and it was finished in the summer of 2005. It came out really cool and is located in a basement in the center of our hometown Borås. Originally it was a project between Daniel in Lake of Tears and Vesa in Evocation although it has developed to become the headquarters for both Evocation and Lake of Tears. Unfortunately we are moving the studio before the 31st of March in 2008 due to that the man that has the contract for the place wants it for other purposes. At the moment we have one new alternative place to locate the new studio and I think it will be really cool. This time we will have a completely own rehearsal/recording studio. This feels great and we already have lots of plans for the new Evocation Headquarter. This new place will be named Evocation Studios.

The reason why we chose to build a studio in the first place is that Vesa has worked as a studio technician for several years and we felt that we could do this by our own instead of going to another studio. It feels much better to have total control over the end product than leaving it to other hands. So far it has been working out extremely well for us and we are really pleased with the recordings we have done there.

CR: When you guys recorded your first demo you did that in Sunlight Studios, it appears, at least from reading other interviews that this studio meant a lot to you guys; how much do you think the influence of somebody like Tomas Skogsberg mark Evocation on the sound that you posses nowadays?
Marko Palmén: The recording at Sunlight Studio back in 1992 was really our highlight in the early years of Evocation’s history. Tomas Skogsberg is one of the most professional guys I have ever worked with; as soon as we entered Sunlight Studio it felt like being at home. He really made us relaxed and brought out the best from us. Tomas got really impressed by Evocation as well and some time after the recording he named Evocation as “the best demo band he ever had recorded”. For us that was a real honor considering all bands that he had recorded there. He also took upon him to promote us to the major labels at the time so we really have a lot to thank him for. And of course he has influenced the sound of Evocation today. The recording we did up there in 1992 is really great produced by Tomas Skogsberg and we like it a lot so when we started again in the summer of 2005 we talked a lot about how we wanted Evocation to sound. And of course the recording from 1992 in Sunlight Studio was one of the references we used in order to get the new Evocation sound although I must say that we had some other references as well.

CR: Apparently we are experiencing a “revival” of old school bands, and I don’t mean that bands from the 90’s just are coming back to life, but also new bands and young kids are refusing to play the new wave of metalcore and nu-metal. Instead they are taking all their influences from very old school sounding albums. I have seen this happen more in thrash than in death metal, but what do you think about this, are we going through a “nostalgia” era or is this just a “counter attack” to oppose the new sound that metal has taken recently?
Marko Palmén: In some way I think we are going through a nostalgia era but in some ways there is also a real new born interest among youngsters. I have experienced this myself recently when we had our release party for “Tales from the Tomb”. There were lots of younger people there and especially one kid impressed me with his knowledge of the old school Death Metal scene. Whatever we asked him he knew what we were asking him, he actually knew more about the early scene than I did… That was really cool!

Besides that there are several other examples of the huge interest in the Death Metal bands from the early 90s. For instance next summers reunion shows of At The Gates and Carcass at Wacken Open Air have gained interest from around the world as soon as the shows were announced. I think it’s great and I also believe that we are about to witness a second coming of Death Metal the way it was meant to be…

CR: Is there a central idea that you want to put out there with your lyrics?
Marko Palmén: Unfortunately I’m the wrong dude to ask this since Thomas, our vocalist writes all the lyrics for Evocation. But I think Thomas handles some classical Death Metal themes such as occultism, sacrificing, death, horror, etc. as well as issues that concern his and our lives. I think he does a marvelous job both with the lyrics and the vocals.

CR: I just saw your video for “Feed the Fire”, very nice! Most bands nowadays go for the “performance” video type; you know were the guys just stand and play their instruments, nothing against those types of videos but its cool to see from time to time a band that actually creates a sort of script. Who directed that video for you? And what was the main idea of it?
Marko Palmén: The video was directed by Vesa (our other guitarist who also is a media teacher) and produced by 2 of his very talented students, Filip Gustavsson and Johannes Öwall. Nowadays they have their own production company www.motiveproductions.se The main idea behind it was to create something different and I think it came out really cool. The idea was just to have some really weird, horror-like and insane different cuts that would work together. There isn’t any story behind it except for the dude that’s being chased in some strange buildings. We shot it mainly at a military exercise facility in the outskirts of Borås and we were actually chased away at one point due to that the Swedish Army was going to have some training there. They told us that it was illegal to be there and we just played innocent and said that “we didn’t know”… hehehe So they just let us go and told us not to come there again without a permit. Anyway, I’m really pleased with the result and it was a really cool experience to do it and we will absolutely do more videos for next album!

	Pic courtesy of: Evocation "The idea was just to have some really weird, horror-like and insane different cuts that would work together. There isn’t any story behind it except for the dude that’s being chased in some strange buildings"

CR: How important do you think it is for a metal band to have a video?
Marko Palmén: I think it always has been important for a band to have a video. The visual appearance is almost as important as the audio appearance. However it is much more difficult nowadays to get airtime on different channels etc. but there is another new channel for bands to get their videos out – YouTube. We have put up our video on YouTube and we have had great response there and gained lots of new friends. So yeah, in my opinion it is important to have a video.

CR: What are you guys planning for 2008, any big tours, festivals maybe?
Marko Palmén: There are some really nice things coming up for us in 2008. At the moment we are actually recording our next full length album that is scheduled to be released in the autumn of 2008. Besides that we have some real nice live shows as well planned for next year. At the moment we are booked for Wacken Open Air in Germany where we will be sharing the stage with bands such as At The Gates, Carcass, Iron Maiden etc. Later in the autumn we are booked for Way Of Darkness III Festival which also takes place in Germany. Besides that we are also in contact with several others but since none of them are confirmed I can’t reveal anything. At the moment there are no tours planned but that might change on a short notice…

CR: Ok man thank you so much for your time, Tales from the Tomb is really a great album, keep it up!!! If you would like to add anything else please do so…
Marko Palmén: Thanx as hell for the interview and the support! Hope to c ya all on the live shows we have ahead of us. In the mean time check out www.evocation.se if you want your head blown away by Death Metal the way it was meant to be!

/Marko Palmén – Guitars tuned in B-flat since 1991