Formed in 1995, Sweden’s Soils of Fate are OGs of slamming death metal. Their two early full lengths, 2001’s Sandstorm and 2003’s Crime Syndicate are the purest distillations of slam you’re ever likely to hear and are among the genre’s seminal releases. After a decade-long break from recording, the band returned in 2014 with Thin The Heard, arguably their grooviest and most crushing album to date. I recently caught up with founding guitarist Magnus Lindvall to discuss the band’s return, their influences and whether or not we’d have to wait another decade for the next Soils of Fate album.
THKD: Soils of Fate took a ten year break between the release of Crime Syndicate and your latest album Thin The Herd. What were the circumstances surrounding the band’s lengthy hiatus and what prompted you to resurrect the band after all that time?
Magnus Lindvall: The biggest reason was that we couldn´t find anybody to fill Kevin’s spot. Nowadays drummers grow on trees but back then they were a rare breed. We also were a bit fed up because we felt satisfied with what we had accomplished so far, a European tour in 2001, a great album in Crime Syndicate and a spot on arguably the most star filled festival that ever took place at Maryland in 2003. It was more than we ever could have hoped for at the time.
In 2009 I started messing around with some ideas but they never materialized until 2012 when I began the songwriting for a new album. A big part of us coming back was, in our heads, the lack of quality music coming out. At some point bands began to race to see who could play the fastest but lost the song structures in the process. It turned out to be a new form of slam that we weren´t into at all. So we figured we´d bring back some old school stuff.
THKD: You guys put out the first Soils of Fate demo in 1997 and now here you are almost twenty years later, still writing, recording and playing live as a brutal death metal band. How has your approach to the band and this style of music changed and evolved over the years? Do the same things that inspired you back then still inspire you today?
ML: Our approach to writing hasn´t changed at all. We always try to think outside the box and bring in some odd influences. Our inspirations change all the time though, whenever you hear something cool, no matter what genre, it could be used for inspiration. You can´t really get stuck in one place, for example if you have a favorite album that you draw a lot of inspiration from, you take whatever you can get from that and move on. It would be difficult to vary your style of playing if you don´t find other sources to drink from.
THKD: Soils of Fate is arguably one of the pioneering bands of slamming brutal death metal. Do you think you guys get the recognition and respect you deserve?
ML: Oh absolutely. Most people who have remained in the scene for the last 10-15 years know who we are. I guess we must have left some kind of impression and that´s all you can ask for. We write music that we like listening to and if others like it too then that´s a huge bonus.
THKD: To the outside world, your home country of Sweden is known more for black metal and Entombed/Dismember/Grave style death metal than it is for slam/brutal death metal. What attracted you to slam/brutal death metal as opposed to Sweden’s more well-known styles of metal? Is there a large brutal death metal scene there that outsiders don’t know about?
ML: Like most death metal fans we grew up listening to Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Malevolent Creation and stuff like that. It laid a great foundation for our music. But in 1996 I heard Internal Bleeding for the first time and everything changed. I immediately went out and bought Voracious Contempt and that was it. It changed the way I approached writing music and made me realize that you can play fast AND groovy. So that´s the direction we took from there on. Dying Fetus, Devourment and Dehumanized followed and that´s where the biggest source of inspiration came from. But instead of just copying what they did, we took some different elements from all styles and created our own.
I understand the charm of playing Swedish old school stuff but I never understood the lack of progress. Still to this day that´s what the majority wants to hear in Sweden.
THKD: Something I’ve always appreciated about Soils of Fate is that you eschew the horror/gore lyrical and visual aesthetic that’s so typical of brutal death metal in favor of songs and imagery that revolves around more realistic depictions of crime and violence. What inspired you to forge your own unique path rather than simply follow the established horror/gore trend?
ML: To be honest, we started out with gore lyrics. It was a direct result of having Cannibal Corpse as a favorite band. But after the 1997 demo we started to evolve. Our vocalist used to read books and watch documentaries about mobsters so it naturally started to sneak into our writing. Later on, all we had to do was look around in society to draw inspiration from violence and organized crime. It´s everywhere you turn.
THKD: Was Soils of Fate at all inspired by rap/hip hop music? The rhythmic cadence of some of the vocal lines, as well as the gritty urban aesthetic of the band always lead me to think there might be some underlying influence.
ML: Not much at all. Sure we listened to some hip hop stuff but it would be a stretch to say that it inspired us. Vocally I know Henke’s mentors were John Gallagher (Dying Fetus), David Vincent (Morbid Angel) and Joe Ptacek (Broken Hope) and both John and David are very theatrical and have great rhythmic patterns while Joe had those deep guttural growls and they laid the foundation for Henke’s work.
As for other sources of inspiration, we use anything that sounds cool no matter what genre. Could be hip hop, punk, country, rock, death metal, you name it. But it´s never an album or even a full song. Often it´s just a passage in a song that catches our interest and we draw something from it. For example, on the song “Weaponry Wisdom” I used a cool passage from a Beach Boy song. But no one would ever make that connection which is cool and kind of the whole idea.
THKD: There are some in the metal community who write off brutal/slamming death metal as uniformly misogynistic and/or offensive. What is your response to people who badmouth the genre? Has Soils of Fate ever experienced any of this sort of criticism first hand?
ML: Of course some are gonna criticize your music but we don´t waste our time worrying about that. That´s their problem and I´m not gonna lose any sleep over it. If you talk back then you´re just gonna fuel the fire you know.
THKD: Let’s talk about your most recent album, 2014’s Thin the Heard. Was it difficult to get back into creating Soils of Fate songs after having been away for so long? What was your mindset going into the writing and recording of the new album?
ML: It was a lot easier than expected. It felt like I hadn´t missed a beat. Bear in mind that I had a three year old climbing my back almost every writing session so I´m very pleased with the results!
I wanted to pick up where Crime Syndicate left off. The mindset was to have a natural bridge between the two albums, make it in the same vein as CS but still an album than can stand by itself, if that makes sense to you. I think we did a great job at that.
THKD: Do you have a favorite song or moment on Thin the Herd? If so, what is it and what makes it your favorite?
ML: Hard to pick just one, but I really like “Brotherhood.” It´s a punk/thrash/death serenade. My favorite song to play live as well. “893” is also a great one with guest vocals by Frank Rini (Internal Bleeding) and Takanori Fujioka (Vomit Remnants). We had Taka do a part in Japanese, I´m guessing we are the first non Japanese death metal band who has done that.
THKD: Are you pleased with reception Thin The Herd has received? Were you at all worried that fans might have forgotten about the band due to the lengthy gap in activity?
ML: We are very pleased with the reception, it seemed like a lot of people had been waiting for a band like us to come back and put some new music out there. Unfortunately our label didn´t push Thin The Herd too much so we feel that we didn´t get as much out of it like we had hoped for.
THKD: Is there any new Soils of Fate material in the works? If so, what can you tell us about it?
ML: Yes I´m currently writing for a new album. You can expect a smooth transition from Thin The Herd, a little more experimenting going on. If all goes as planned we should be able to start recording around this time next year. Also we have a re-issue of Crime Syndicate coming out featuring a new song.
THKD: Do you have any touring plans for 2016? Any chance you’ll make it back to the US any time soon?
ML: No touring in 2016, just one show booked in Germany at the Slamming Brutality Fest with Condemned among others.
We´ll see what 2017 brings but nothing planned so far. We have two shows scheduled in the UK this upcoming summer, Death To Cancer Fest being one of them.
We´d love to do another swing into the US again. We´ll try to work something out.
THKD: What are you currently listening to? Do you have any recommendations for Doomsday Device’s readers?
ML: I´m having kind of an old CD revival now with bands I started out listening to like Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Guns N Roses, Morbid Angel, Pantera and tons of others. And as always Yngwie Malmsteen is torching my CD player every day!
THKD: Are there any final thoughts you’d like to add?
ML: Many thanks for the interview, it´s always nice to spill my guts on social media.
For those who haven´t heard us, please check out and like our Facebook page for updates on shows and other happenings. We have lots of stuff on YouTube as well.
See ya´ll!
THKD 