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Track by track commentaries to The Contaminated Void

1. THE INTERLOPER

Andre: So what inspired me to write this song? A drum track. I had programmed a drum track and had no riffs, so I came up with the riffs afterwards. That's something I like doing when I'm having trouble coming up with riffs. For me it just feels more natural to jam to a beat than just sitting with an amp and trying to "compose". It's a very energetic song. After the intro riff (verse) there is a break, followed by a really hysterical 2-beat riff. The chorus has a nice, groovy feel to it. We decided to put this song as track no. 1 on the record, and I think fits really nice as an opening track.

2. D.E.A.D

Anders B: "D.E.A.D" features the most technical stuff I've ever done. I normally don't write very technical riffs, but I think this song turned out really fun to play, since it's quite challenging (very much due to the fact that the song is rather fast). I came up with the verse and chorus riffs, and Anders J and André had one riff each that fit this song like a glove. This is one of the two songs on the album that I wrote the lyrics to (this time dealing with something I feel a strong disliking for; organized religion), and I think that they turned out great. I struggled with them up to the point that I almost started to hate my riffs, listening to them over and over trying to get a nice lyrical flow. However, when the song was finished, I was really pleased, and Joel truly brings the lyrics to life. As a finishing touch, André plays a killer solo on this track, amazing really!

3. AN UNFORGIVING SEASON

Joel: One of two, the other being "Flammable", very metaphor-heavy lyrics I wrote for the album. Of my four lyrics, this is probably my favorite one. Partly because it was the first work I ever did, song writing-wise, for Coldworker, but also because the lyrics for this one are quite personal to me. I have to admit that I was very nervous letting the other guys read them, as I had just joined the band, and wasn't at all sure what kind of lyrics they wanted me to write. Luckily for me, they gave their approval. The vocal patterns for the verses were originally somewhat different, but I had to simplify them a little, as they turned out to be very hard to pull off once I started rehearsing them. Musically, I know that there were some problems settling for a version of the verse riff, but other than that I think the song has been pretty much the same since I joined Coldworker. All in all, this song feels really special to me.

4. THE CONTAMINATED VOID

Anders J: This was the seventh song we wrote and by that time I've seen the quality of my fellow Coldworkers and decided to write some more complex stuff. The intro might sound easy, but it is slightly tricky to play and I think all of the others have struggled with it at some point or another. I believe that music benefits from the challenge of playing something that is on the verge of what you can handle, technically and musically. The rest of the track has a nice groovy feeling and quite aggressive vocal patterns that pushes it forward. When we had recorded our first multi-track rehearsal and listened to our songs in a more objective way I remember feeling that this one was a killer track, and it's very fun to play too!

5. DEATH SMILES AT ME

Oskar: This was the forth song we wrote on like our third rehearsal, still as a three-piece. We later rewrote it when André and Joel had joined the band and it turned out a lot better. The intro-riff was something I came up with one morning still snoozing before I had to go up and get to work. Lyric wise this was the first song I wrote on the album. From the beginning it was supposed to be a lyric for "Antidote", but the vocal patterns I wrote fit this song a lot better. I rewrote it a couple of times, and would probably have done it a few more times if it wasn't for the lack of time before the recording. We had some trouble finding a suitable title.

6. A CUSTOM-MADE HELL

Oskar: When André joined us as a second guitarist we soon realized that nothing would be like before. He always has like 10 new complete songs. I don't understand where he gets it all from. So after he brought us the most of "Heart shaped violence" he showed us this song. The slow/heavy riff after the first chorus is one of André's "jamming between two songs on a rehearsal just making up a new riff"-riff. A really cool, heavy/slow riff which he came up with on the spot. The lyric deals with overprotecting parents, keeping their children from the outside world: "They're refusing to show, but I am dying to see. This is a custom-made hell, constructed only for me". I came up with lyrics for the slow part first, and then wrote around it. Joel really helped me out with the vocal patterns. There is an instrumental rehearsal video of this song available at coldworker.com.

7. RETURN TO ASHES

Anders J: This song came to me after really enjoying the instrumental "Infinite Misery" on the latest Cannibal Corpse album. It felt right to write an all heavy song to bring some dynamics to the album. If I remember correctly the first riff came to me as I was going home from work and virtually went straight to the guitar and played the riff once I'd opened the door. The rest of the song came pretty easily and André had one heavy riff left over that we tossed in as well. I remember feeling very proud and happy once we played this death waltz during the first rehearsals - of all the 200 something songs I've written in my life this one really stands out. I love it!

8. STRAIN AT THE LEASH

Oskar: Once again a song by André. Track 11 in the making process of the album. This one was considered to be the opener for the album. At least until André came up with "The interloper" a few weeks later. This one came together really quick, we only rearranged a couple of small parts due to André's original idea for the song. The lyric is one of three "Anti-organized religion" lyrics on the album. Anders J, Anders B and I wrote one each basically at the same time, without knowing that someone else wrote about the same subject. I guess that shows that we sort of share the same lyrical vision.

9. FLAMMABLE

Joel: The music for this one was written before I joined the band, and it was one of the first Coldworker songs I ever heard. The chorus and the slower part, I think, were originally even shorter than they are on the album, but after some discussion it was decided that the song needed to be longer to fit better with the other ones. The lyrical inspiration came from the music itself, as I thought it had a very "explosive" quality. So it seemed fitting that the lyrics should be, at least superficially, about fire and things burning up.

10. ANTIDOTE

Anders B: The intro and verse riffs for "Antidote" were the very first I had when we started Coldworker. They had been lying around for quite some time, originally meant for a grindcore project a couple of friends and I had together. I must say that I think they turned out awesome, exactly as chaotic as I wanted them to sound. Anders J had an excellent chorus riff to go with my four riffs. I'm very pleased with the musical aspect of this song. The lyrics to "Antidote" are the second of my two lyrics for the album, and they deal with the suffering caused by sadistic human beings...

11. THEY CRAWL INSIDE ME UNINVITED

Andre: I like to record my ideas and riffs, and then send them to my band mates. So I did with this track, but it has been modified quite a bit. In my recording the intro riff is played four times to a blastbeat. Anders J came up with a nice tom-and-bass drum beat instead, which I think sounds much cooler. We cut the length of the intro riff in half, which made it sound less repetitive. The second part of the chorus sounds a bit chaotic, because it has a dissonant feel to it, just how I like it.

12. WAITING FOR BUILDINGS TO COLLAPSE

Anders J: This was my first contribution to Coldworker, but from the original song only one riff remains. I rewrote it and rewrote it a number of times. A video of the original song is available at coldworker.com. I think the song came together for real once the intro was added. It was originally planed as a slow part in the middle of the song, played one octave up, buy once we played it; it was obvious that it was a killer intro. And it is. This song is the most "Nasumesque" on the album. The title was the first one I presented for the band, setting some sort of standard for our lyrical theme. I see Edward Norton in the final scene of "Fight Club" in my head when I think of it.

13. HEART SHAPED VIOLENCE

Andre: I wrote this song long before I joined Coldworker. Or well, I had at least written the riffs long before. This is actually the song I recorded and mailed Anders J when I saw that he had a new band, and they were looking for a second guitarist. I thought "what the hell, I'll give it a shot" and sent it to the band. They liked what they heard and a couple of weeks later I was rehearsing with Coldworker. When we were rehearsing before Joel had joined the band, I used to think the song was a bit boring, but when Joel's vocals got there, it kicked ass. It's a quite simple song to play, and it turned out just fine in my ears.

14. GENERATIONS DECAY

Joel: This song is quite interesting, as it underwent a complete transformation somewhere along the line. It had quite a weird structure, and I actually had to ask the other guys which parts were supposed to be verses, choruses, etc. Then I was gone for one rehearsal session, and they changed the whole song. For the better, I might add, as I was totally blown away by the new arrangement. The heavy, dark outro didn't exist in the first version, but once it was incorporated into the song it was pretty clear that this should be the album closer. The lyrics were originally going to be about war, since I think that every self respecting death metal band should have at least one song on that subject. But after several weeks of really struggling trying to get words onto paper, I said "fuck this", and discarded the whole idea. Instead, I opted for an apocalyptic theme, recalling that I had wanted to write something like that for years. I watched the intro of "Mad Max 2", and from there the rest just came naturally. Anders J suggested the title.

FAR BEYOND DRIVEN (Japanese bonustrack)

Anders B: Another song that I contributed with the verse and chorus riff for, this was the third song we wrote, and it's probably the song on the album that's least "death metal". It ended up as the bonus track for the Japanese edition of "The Contaminated Void". I really like this song, it just oozes with pure grinding energy, definitely hinting some Napalm Death influence. It's not a Pantera cover as a certain website managed to write. Why the hell would we cover an entire album (even though it's indeed a killer album by one of the greatest bands in the history of metal)? There's no Pantera song by the name of "Far Beyond Driven", hello...

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