1. Hello my friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.
Hello, thanks for having us on! We are currently sitting on the couches outside of our rehearsal space. We just got finished rehearsing with our other band, and are now getting ready to venture into the cold winds of Sweden.
2. What or who was your inspiration to become musicians? Do you have a special “dream” to achieve in music?
For me [Lino, drummer], my biggest inspiration has always been Dave Lombardo. Ever since I first heard Slayer I wanted to pick up the sticks, and eventually I did.
My [Jack Guitarist/Vocalist] introduction to heavier music was System of a Down, and I wanted to play heavy riffs like Daron. Now my main inspirations are Jon from Dissection and Scott from Repulsion. Vocal-wise it’s Will Rahmer from the almighty goddamn Mortician!
However, the person that inspired us to start playing together was none other than Derek Boyer, from Suffocation. He encouraged us to start playing together when we met him after their latest show in Stockholm.
When it comes to our aspirations as a band it's actually really simple. We simply want to become the most extreme music act in our hometown. We also would like to get somewhat of a dedicated fanbase for our music. Whether it's big or small doesn't matter. We simply want to make heavy music that we enjoy, and if other people like it then that's just great.
3. “Arosian Brutal Death/Grind” is your main musical slogan, as much as I know, Arosian is a religion in Alamayn Nation. Did this doctrine come with time as a natural choice for expression of your ideas?
Sorry to disappoint, but we are not associated with this ancient cult from the Alamayn nation. Actually, we had no idea it even existed until now. The “Arosian” part of our slogan is, in this case, derived from the old name of our hometown. Västerås is one of the oldest cities in Sweden, and it has gone through name changes in the past. Aside from Västerås, the most common name for it is “Aros”, or “Västra Aros” (meaning Western Aros). Therefore the “Arosian” part is simply a glorification of our home.
4. For those who are not all that familiar with you yet, could you tell us about the musical background of the band and how you came to work with each other?
As previously stated, the reason we started playing together was because of Derek Boyer of Suffocation. However, Innerot was not the first step in our journey as bandmates. Originally, we formed a Black/Death metal band, but it didn’t work fully so we started Innerot as a side-project to quench the thirst of creating music. In early October, when Innerot was first created, Jack sent me [Lino, drummer] some riffs and told me we should make deathgrind. I believe my answer was along the lines of “Okay”, and that's that. That is how this whole thing started.
5. Its well known that the province of Vasteras in Sweden has a lot of metal bands and releases that have come out over the years. There always seems to be a thriving interest and on-going support there for what I have seen. What do you think makes all this possible?
We believe what makes this whole charade possible is the fact that the scene is generally pretty small here. Everyone supports each other and are aware of each other's presence in the scene, even if they don’t know you on a personal level. We would like to take this opportunity to give praise to Jörgen Kristensen (Dead Awaken, Centinex) for being extremely supportive during this time. He’s a real stand-up guy!
6. So as a band that plays death/Grind, which are the major bands that had an influence on your music? And do you only listen to the European death/grind bands?
Most of our big inspirations are actually from outside the death/grind genre. But to name a few we’ve compiled this list: Mortician, Repulsion, Devourment, Suffocation, Archgoat and Inquisition for showing us that playing extreme music as a duo is more than possible.
7. In the less than one year the band has existed, you have released two demos already, where does the fire comes from to create and release new music so regularly?
Easy answer: the Swedish winters are cold as fuck. Therefore to stay warm we play music. We also consume a lot of horror media, so that has inspired us to explore themes along those realms too.
8. When comparing “Exhumed” to “Lead Pulverization” I feel that the song-writing has become more intense, both demos are really chock full of crushing songs. How do you feel the band evolved from a demo to another?
The thought process for both demos was really quite similar. We just took more time the second time around, than we did the first.
“Lead-Pulverization” was written during the first two ever rehearsals as Innerot, then fully rehearsed once on the third, and recorded and mixed/released on the fourth. The recording process for each song couldn't have been more than three takes per song, and the recording equipment was literally one microphone in the corner of our rehearsal-space. The equipment and the fact that we recorded this thing essentially as a rehearsal-tape led to the extremely raw-sounding production that now is “Lead-Pulverization”.
For “Exhumed” we wanted to make it heavier. This time we opted to record all instruments and vocals separately, so everything would also be clearer. However, it's still just one microphone, so we had to get creative to make everything heavy and clear simultaneously, without compromising the raw energy that we like. We also spent more time writing the new material for “Exhumed” than we did for “Lead-Pulverization”, and we spent more time mixing to reach the end goal for the release.
9. When you write music, is it a group thing or is there someone who writes all the music and someone writing the lyrics individually?
Jack writes riffs that I [Lino] can write drum parts to, but there are of course some exceptions. However, what we do from there, we do together. We arrange everything together, so both of us are satisfied with the end results, and most of the lyrics are written as a team.
10. What are the most challenging aspects when writing a song and how do you go about the approach?
The most challenging aspect of the songwriting is composing the riffs. Once the riffs are done everything else works out nice and fast. When I write the riffs, I mostly experiment until I find what feels right and brutal.
11. Most of Innerot’s lyrics seem to be inspired by horror. Who inspires you the most and what are some works of horror that you’d recommend?
I’d say what mostly inspires our work are the slasher films of the 80’s. The obvious one being “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, considering our song “Claws of Horror” is about the franchise’s antagonist, Fred Krueger.
Some recommendations are “Låt den rätte komma in” (we might have some future material inspired by this one entirely), Gialli like “Tenebre” and “A Bay of Blood”, and “Zombie” by Lucio Fulci. The Spanish film “Pieces” is also great.
12. How do you record your music? A pro tools set up? Garage band? Are you self taught or do you have a friend that helps out with the mixes etc?
We use Reaper and a laptop with a Focusrite. I [Jack] am self taught from the beginning, but now I am studying music production at my school, so expect better production in future releases. Everything is mixed and mastered first by me, then approved, or disapproved, by Lino. But sometimes he is with me when I mix and master. Lino finds most samples and adds them to the finished song in Adobe Premiere.
13. What is your opinion about the Swedish death metal scene in general? Do you think the scene is more active than it was before?
In our opinions, the Swedish death metal scene is arguably the best, instantly recognizable, especially with the signature buzz of the HM2. But sadly all good things must come to an end, and we think the Swedish death metal scene is withering away ever so slowly. Most legacy bands that are still active kick ass, but we feel it's been suffering on the newer side of things. There are of course some exceptions. Take us, for example.
14. We have reached the end of our conversation, is there something that you want to say still?
We want to thank everyone at Rotten Pages magazine for giving us this opportunity. We would also like to thank Renzo, our good friend and manager, for helping us throughout this entire process. Another big thanks to Jörgen Kristensen for almost acting like a mentor for us. And of course we would also like to thank our friends and families, but most especially the fans for listening to and supporting heavy music.
If you haven’t heard of us, all of our music is available on our bandcamp, just search us up. We also have a small social media presence through our Instagram, @innerotband .
Also, we are currently in the middle of planning our next release, which will hopefully (if all goes according to plan) be our official debut record. That's all we’ll give you for the time being. More information will be made public closer to its release.
Grind on.
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