"A Word" With Adrian Erlandsson from At The Gates, Nemhain, Brujeria and Ex- Cradle Of Filth !

First of all, I'm the biggest At The Gates fan out their ! (wanna bet ? gimme a mic and start
riffing "Slaughter Of The Soul" ) and having the chance to have "a word" with the almighty Adrian Erlandsson for the second time, is beyond an honor !

Adrian is one of my all time favorite drummers, he's Daniel Erlandsson's older brother, who drums for Arch Enemy.

Among many of the bands that Adrian has worked with, he used to pulverize the drums in Swedish Death/Thrash band The Haunted and English extreme metal band Cradle Of Filth.

At the moment he is pounding the drums in his latest project Nemhain, along with his wife Morgan Hel.

The band is a completely different approach for Adrian, a straight up Rock N Roll band with alot of balls !

They recorded their debut album "From The Ashes" at legendary "Studio Fredman".

Recently the band supported Municipal Waste.

I asked Adrian about the band's sound, which songs they played on TotalRock, working with Peter Dolving from The Haunted, if there will be a At The Gates DVD, Cradle Of Filth and more.

Here's how it went:

TMR: Hows everything with Nemhain ?

Adrian: Hey all is good, we are finishing the artwork for our debut album "From the ashes" due out feb 09.

We just did the last show for this year supporting Municipal Waste and Iron Lung in London. Which was a totally over the top crazy show!!
Early next year we have our first UK tour running between 16th-21st of Feb to coincide with the release!!



TMR: Can you tell me about the band's sound ?

Adrian: We have alot of different influences I would say that our sound is somewhere between Ramones, Motorhead, Nirvana, Guns n roses and Black sabbath. But everyone that hears us has a differnt opinion. So what do you think?



TMR: How was playing TotalRock, which songs did you play for the first time ?

Adrian: The totalrock show is a internet radio station based here in London which has shown us great support since we started out. We came onto the show talked some bollocks and played some songs from the new album.
Filth and the fury, Clear my eyes, Second skin.



TMR: Peter Dolving from The Haunted pops up on Nemhain's debut album "From The Ashes" how was the collaboration ?

Adrian: Peter is a friend of mine since many years before we were in the Haunted together. When i realised that he lived just around the corner from Studio fredman i rung him up and asked if he'd be up for it. He came down to the studio and did some amazing vocals on 3 tracks!



TMR: Are you still in contact with the guys from COF ?

Adrian: Yes as a matter of fact they were all here on afternoon tea not so long ago. No... we dont really have much to say to each other anymore.



TMR: Is there any talks about the At The Gates DVD ?

Adrian: Yes, we have some killer footage from the reunion tour.
I would be very surprised if it doesnt become a DVD.



TMR: Which bands are you currently listening to ?

Adrian: Danzig, The Hives, Kyuss, Morbid Angel.



TMR: You guys had a crazy time while recording "From The Ashes" at Studio Fredman, whats one of the crazy encounters you had ?


Adrian: The night before entering the studio, Amber fell onto the floor smashing her eyebrow open against the floor after having a hard night with JD and other things....
She didnt want to go to hospital cause it is boring there hahah eventually i coerced her into going and she had some stitches. hahah



TMR: Today tons of bands are strongly influenced by the "Gothenburg Sound" how would you compare the metal scene in Gothenburg today with the scene back when you guys first started out At The Gates ?

Adrian: I have no idea about the metal scene in sweden today as i live in england.. but early 90s it was amazing. With bands like Dark tranquillity, In flames, Eucharist and At the gates. Very creative!!



TMR: What advice do you have for a young drummer trying to make it in today's metal scene ?

Adrian: Practise til you bleed, chops is a must.
Work on being good around people, social skills is a must!!



TMR: Would you like to add anything ?

Adrian: In Soviet Russia, hills run to you!!


I would like to thank the pounding veteran Adrian Erlandsson for taking the time to answer my questions.

Make sure to check out Nemhain's Myspace for their latest album sampler, some of their awesome tunes and for the latest updates concerning the band's debut album "From The Ashes" which will be released on February 2009.


Here's the band's video for the song "Ana"