Ola Englund shared his opinion on a recent statement from BEHEMOTH frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski, who recently said that Ninety-nine percent of new records “sound robotic.”
He recently asserted that there are only a handful of modern records that genuinely sound raw – despite what people may say. He further added, “perfection makes things boring, imperfect, and a whole lot uninteresting.”
After reading through Nergal’s statement in a new episode of SWOLA, Ola said: “Metal news magazines online can quote me on this one when I say that these are the words of an old metal fart – just like me.
“I absolutely agree with what he’s saying right here. I grew up on albums that were not recorded on a computer; where bands had to really perform well, really know their music before they even hit the studio. And you know, they would just perfect their craft and get a real live groove happening on an album.
“I’m used to that, I bet that Nergal is also used to that. Nowadays, when you hear death metal bands that have 240 BPM per minute songs, and it’s just a grid of kicks, and snares, and perfectly synced guitars – it is a little bit weird. It does sound robotic.”
“But that’s the thing about music, the newer generation that grew up and started listening [to metal] later – they’re used to this,” he continued. “Maybe that’s a sound they like, this completely robotic, super-tight kind of sound. So, I guess it’s really subjective.
“A guy like me, and a guy like Nergal – we like when stuff is grooving. I’ve said this a bunch of times, but I like to leave mistakes in albums, because it’s the mistakes and the grooves that make an album unique. I see Nergal is getting a lot of s**t for his statement right here. But to some extent, I kind of agree with him. I can still enjoy a really good modern death metal band where everything is robotic; that has its own flavor to it.
“But I, personally, like to hear when a band is playing, you know, off the top of their lungs, and you can almost hear the wheels coming off a little bit. You know, it’s supposed to hurt. A lot of things are polished today and it doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt the ear. I like when it hurts, if that makes sense.”
