Interview by Kris Peters
Brisbane based international masters of metal Gangs Of Old Ladies are about as underground and DIY as you could get in the modern age of mass consumption.
Making noise out of a top secret gateway to Hell somewhere in the Sunshine State, Gangs Of Old Ladies are as mysterious as they are brutal. They are a musical force unto themselves that has somehow managed to conjure support from some of the heaviest hitters in the international metal scene, with artists from Chuck Billy (Testament) to Dani Filth to Gary Holt (Exodus) lending their talents and wizardry.
Such is the bands allure they had also welcomed former Soilwork guitarist David Andersson into their inner sanctum at a time in his life where friendship and loyalty meant more than anything presented by music.
Andersson's fate became entwined with that of the band - which he joined before his passing last year - and now, finally, some of Andersson's last ever and most soul satisfying work is ready to be shared with the world.
Death Magic Volume One is a neatly woven package of three tracks that starts with the odd yet haunting intro Avresa Fran Stockholm. One of the last pieces of music penned by Andersson before his death, the track celebrates both memorial and rebirth, featuring the newly founded skills of main guitarist and songwriter Simon Unknowne. The intro also features a hauntingly beautiful Swedish goodbye spoken by David's own sister Emma Andersson, with a video shot by David's dear friend Morgan Schrantz.
Released in memory of and to pay honour to their fallen brother, Death Magic Volume One is Gangs Of Old Ladies' way of sharing some of Andersson's future spark as well as acting as a coping mechanism for a life tragically cut short.
Frontman Jekyll Jones and guitarist/songwriter Simon Unknowne sat down with HEAVY to convey their message of metal.
"I think it's the best work we've ever done," Jones fired without hesitation. "That's basically because Simon wrote the whole thing, engineered the entire thing, mixed the entire thing and made it what it is."
While Death Magic Volume One is dedicated to the memory of Andersson, it also serves as a blistering sonic representation of a band that could have easily imploded after such internal devestation but instead chose to rebel.
"The first track Avresa Fran Stockholm - which is Swedish for Departure From Stockholm - is... in David's final months he was in hospital in Stockholm," Jones began. "He hated Stockholm (laughs), and we would video chat every second or third day for hours and hours on end. We were very close. I would actually take the phone down while we were on video messenger and we would watch the sunrise together. I knew everything that was going on with him personally and Soilwork. We were working on music in the background and it was meant to be some other stuff and then David passed and we call it the A.D effect - After David effect. It was almost like he passed his magic onto us, and Simon just gave us these tracks that were not only a lot more sophisticated than anything else we've ever done, but all of a sudden there was violins and cellos and double bass and there was symphonic resonance in there. It was like how did you do this? And that's where the title comes from as well. We got this inspiration, and the girls in the band came on board when David was still with us. He was very much a fan of Luna Black's voice and loves Zoskia's ideas. It turned out that after we lost him it was almost the right recipe - even to the point that one of his other projects was with a French lady - and she makes videos. She was the one who made the video clip for Avresa and we are also very good friends with David's Mum and his Sister and it's actually his sister's voice that you hear at the end of the song. It was... for them, they think it's a beautiful thing to have something that is of David's but at the same time not taking the limelight away from him."
In the full interview we run through each of the three tracks individually as Gangs Of Old Ladies explain their meaning in greater detail, get more of an understanding of where David's head was at musically during his time with the band, some last memories which will act as motivation for those left behind, other exciting things happening with the band, their reputation as one of Australia's most unusual extreme acts and more.