By David E. Gehlke

For all the chatter on “consistency” and “staying the course,” perhaps few embody this better than Sweden’s UNLEASHED. One of the first death metal bands to weave Viking and Norse mythology topics into the frame of death metal, UNLEASHED‘s reputation is built upon a steadiness like an oar hitting the ocean — constant, churning and reliable. UNLEASHED may be without a true-blue, genre-defining classic in their discography, yet, since 1989, they’ve never turned their back on who they are, which perhaps explains their longevity and the strength of their 15th studio foray, “Fire Upon Your Lands”.

Picking up where 2021’s “No Sign Of Life” left off and building upon bassist/vocalist Johnny Hedlund‘s wrote “The World Of Odalheim” book for lyrical inspiration, “Fire Upon Your Lands” is stocked with mini-anthems that bask in the band’s trademark brutality and catchiness. In fact, the “Odalheim” story has provided UNLEASHED with an angle that makes their lyrics far more interesting than standard Viking fare, something that Hedlund was kind enough to share with BLABBERMOUTH.NET, among many topics.

Blabbermouth: In many ways, your lineup has defied the odds — you and Anders [Schultz, drums] have been together since 1989, while Tomas [Olsson, guitar] has been with you since 1990 and Fredrik [Folkare, guitar] since 1995. Why has it worked out for this long?

Johnny: “We started hanging out when we were pretty young. I think Anders was 15 and I was 20. I think I may be responsible for dragging him to a bunch of parties and shit. If I may so, I should have held back on the liquor. [Laughs] He was pretty young, but oh well. That’s another story. [Laughs] We hung out at parties and met other people who had the same interests. One thing led to another, and we started thinking about forming a band. He said he could play drums. I said, ‘I have no idea if I can play bass!’ I was in NIHILIST, and I knew I could play, but none of us were real musicians. Nobody really was. It was more of, I would say, a feeling of ‘Who do you want to be in a band with?’ It wasn’t really, ‘Maybe this guy can play bass like crazy.’ Or, ‘This guy is a talented drummer.’ I had no idea. It wasn’t how we spoke to each other. You would ask, ‘Tomas. Can you play guitar?’ He would say, ‘Yeah, I can play guitar.’ ‘You’re hired!’ It was the same with Anders and me. I don’t think any one of us would even think about criticizing anyone for not being extremely proficient at his instrument. We thought, ‘Well, if we can party together, then why wouldn’t we play together? It has to work, and it has.”

Blabbermouth: Do you think there’s something to be said for the idea that UNLEASHED has stayed pretty consistent? It seems like, then, you and your bandmates are always going in the same direction.

Johnny: “We never had these talks, from day one. We said, ‘None of us wanted to be in a band that would change with the wind.’ We really spoke about keeping to the roots — no matter how far this would take us. We still do. Today, obviously, we don’t have to because we’ve agreed way back, also with Freddie. Well, he’s not new anymore! He joined in 1995. [Laughs] We still call him the new guy. Anyway, it’s just a matter of our decision that this is the way it should be. We have to develop and try new things to bring freshness to a new album, but we’re not going to go very far away from our roots. It’s always going to be UNLEASHED. Hopefully, when fans put on an UNLEASHED album, they hear it’s UNLEASHED. It’s a goal we always have.”

Blabbermouth: What did you think, then, when some of your peers were changing direction?

Johnny: “To be honest, I’m the type of person who has always been into my own music. I’m not one to say too much or criticize. You never know what decisions are the basis for a change in a band. You don’t know. I would say if you’re in one band and you make some kind of change, then there’s another band that plays another style, maybe heavy metal compared to death metal, then they change a little bit, and maybe that album wasn’t selling too well. You don’t know what made them take that position. I only know that UNLEASHED has had the same roots and the same vision for what we should do next since 1989. I don’t see that ever changing, but, of course, I didn’t want to change. Neither did Anders, Tomas, nor Freddie. We have always agreed on that. If you’ve been together for such a long time and there are very few changes, then it’s easier to make those decisions. If you join a band like UNLEASHED, you agree to this agreement. That’s what you signed up for, and a few other things as well. Anyone in the band can play some other style of music; that’s fine, but it’s not happening in UNLEASHED.”

Blabbermouth: What was the process for following up on “No Sign Of Life” with “Fire Upon Your Lands”?

Johnny: “We continued where we left off, lyric-wise and music-wise. I think we perhaps tried to add more dynamics to this album. I wanted it to be even catchier than the previous one, if possible and maybe a little fresher, but that’s always something I would say. It has to be that way; otherwise, you’re copying yourself. Then, of course, when the album is ready and done and you feel that, ‘Okay, now we can mix and master this one.’ That’s when you know. The second time is to see if people like you think the same as we do. Then, the next phase is to go out and play. If people don’t think the same, then maybe we didn’t do our job. We have to come back to the table and see what the hell we were thinking. That really doesn’t happen too often, which is good. That would be horrible. [Laughs] We’re anxious to go out and see what people think about the album. When you play live, you’ll know whether people like the album or not.”

Blabbermouth: You’ve been using ideas and themes from the book you’ve been working on, “The World Of Odalheim”, for the last several albums. Do you see a point where you’ll stop taking inspiration from it?

Johnny: “I could make a qualified guess that maybe, maximum, we have two or three more albums from the book. If I translate a chapter of importance so people can understand what the hell is going on from A to Z, then you would have to, well, one chapter could be three songs or one song as well. I’m not sure. Plus, the entire book isn’t finished. Everything isn’t in there. I know where it starts and it ends. I have a lot in it, but if it were a hundred percent finished, I could publish the book, but that’s not the case. We’ll see. As long as people really enjoy it and think I should continue, we’ll continue, but I don’t think it’s another eight albums. [Laughs] It’s probably in the region of two or three.”

Blabbermouth: Your book has been such a foundation for what UNLEASHED has done for over a decade now. What have you gotten out of writing a book?

Johnny: “I don’t know if I’m that talented, if I could write a book that big, otherwise, it would be published. It was an amazing amount of work. My friend and I just said, ‘Life is going to kill us if we start digging into this and make it happen.’ So, I guess that’s why we took that decision and said, ‘You can do whatever you like with it in UNLEASHED. It has so much UNLEASHED in it anyway, so why not?’ That’s pretty much what it is. I don’t think there’s a chance for me to dig back and become an author of such a big thing. I have, though, completed another book, which is a totally different story. It’s a Viking tradition type of book.”

Blabbermouth: Speaking of which, I thought “Hold Your Hammer High” was great not only because of its chunky chorus, but because it delves more into Thor.

Johnny: “Fredrik made the music, and I can’t speak to his influences on the song, so it’s over my pay grade. [Laughs] The song is at the end of the storyline. Obviously, there are 11 songs, and this song is more about the Midgard warriors’ fight against White Christ, which is coming to an end on the album, so they’re looking forward to going home. The son of Thor is asking his army to follow him; the journey isn’t over. They are not going to go home in a heartbeat. He needed to know that they were still with him. Of course, there’s something in there that he, as a leader, is asking if they’re still with him. After such a long journey, people are tired, and many friends and soldiers have died in a most horrific way. He doesn’t really know. He needs to ask them if they’re still holding their hammers high. That is when they are about to leave for the open sea again. That’s where the album ends, story-wise.”

Blabbermouth: What about “Left For Dead”? Is this where the son of the White Christ comes in?

Johnny: “Yeah, and the problem is that for the entire campaign, they are hunting White Christ, but they are catching the son. That’s not really the end of things. One might think so. It’s a win, yeah. It’s a big one. It’s a big battle that happened on the previous albums that continues into this one at the foot of Mount Sinai. They kill the son of White Christ, but he’s not talking — he’s not telling where his father is. The journey isn’t over; they are tired of all the battles and the dead. They know they have to continue.”

Blabbermouth: Where does “To My Only Son” fit into the storyline?

Johnny: “That song is strange because I almost, well, told Fredrik that ‘Maybe this one isn’t as strong as it should be for the album.’ Even when I was ready and had done the vocal melodies, I still wasn’t sure. I hadn’t started putting the lyrics to it, yet I didn’t know how it would sound. I had a lot of music to choose from, but then he said, ‘Whatever songs you are going to make lyrics for, these are the songs that will be on the album. Do whatever you like.’ I’m like, ‘Okay!’ When the vocal melodies and lyrics were ready for the song, then I realized, ‘Yes. It should be on the album.’ [Laughs] That was a strange thing, because all the others, I was one hundred percent sure, but this one, I wasn’t. The song is about this warrior at the end of the campaign, the journey, he’s on his deathbed. He will have his last breath in just a few minutes. He knows that. He asks a fellow soldier to bring a letter for his son, with some final words. It’s an emotional song for a death metal album, but it fits extremely well into the storyline.”

Blabbermouth: Switching gears, there is a gap in your discography when UNLEASHED wasn’t so active, which was between 1997 and 2002. What was the band up to? Was it an intentional break?

Johnny: “After ‘Warrior’ in 1997, we kind of felt that the entire machine of UNLEASHED was breaking down, literally because our gear was broken down — we had toured like crazy for many years. We didn’t have any money to reinvest in the band. Plus, we just got home and we felt pretty sore. It was time for a break. We used that break to get some new education. I studied and earned a finance degree to learn more about the business side of things. I think that was inevitable. It had to happen at some point. Otherwise, we’d just go and go and go. We’d probably crash if we had never taken a break. I think it was healthy. It probably doesn’t matter what trade or industry you’re in. You have to take a break at some point and reflect on what’s happening. And, it was about, ‘Where do we go from here?’ If we need to make more money to buy a new instrument, you have to do something. Or, you keep going, and things will get worn out and sound terrible. Really, for the band members, the break was about two to two and a half years. After that point, we had the necessary meetings. We were pretty much ready for a new album, but that album, ‘Hell’s Unleashed’, took two years to create.”

Blabbermouth: Did you miss the band? Did you miss death metal?

Johnny: “I don’t think I did. The reason was that we had been doing it 24/7 for seven or eight consecutive years. It was time for a break. It’s like if you’re a soccer player or an athlete, you have to take a break, otherwise you’ll go on empty. Looking back, maybe we should have taken a year break. We took two and a half years, which is smart for us. I didn’t spend much time with friends at all; I studied like an idiot for 14 to 15 hours a day for two years so I could get a degree. I left school and started playing death metal. I worked, but I also played death metal for most of my life. [Laughs] I never expected to start studying again as an adult. Of course, it took time. It was worth it. It was good for the other guys in the band as well. They did whatever they had to do.”

Blabbermouth: What did you end up doing with your degree?

Johnny: “I became a financial manager. That’s actually what I do as a part-time job today. Looking back, it was actually inevitable for things to be as good as they are today. Otherwise, things would have crashed in many other aspects of life, so it was a good move.”

Blabbermouth: Death metal and finance. That’s a good combination.

Johnny: “How about that? [Laughs] It’s not your obvious combination, I understand that.”

Photo credit: Jens Rydén