‘We felt like we created a masterpiece'
There’s no mucking about from Raised Fist frontman Alexander ‘Alle’ Hagman when he’s asked for his feelings on the band’s new studio album Anthems. The songs on the Swedish quintet’s seventh album are delivered with a searing urgency and intent.
‘We have worked much harder on this album than ever before. By a large margin. Drums and vocals have, for the first time in our career, been given exactly the space and time needed to get to the same level as the music and melodies’ Hagman says.
‘Right at this time, we're actually producing something that has a new sound.’
Raised Fist wanted to focus their efforts on just ten tracks to keep the album short and sweet and the intention clear. Hagman explains: “After our inventory of the material, we quickly found that we had rough foundations for ten songs. We made the decision right there and then, that this particular album would build on these ten foundations and them alone.
If a song suddenly appeared later in the writing process, and sounded damn good, it would still have to knock another song off the album, not be added to the album. We've never done anything like this before and the quality is a big step-up from the things we’ve made in the past.’
Produced by Roberto Laghi & Jakob Herrmann at Top Floor Studios in Gothenburg and Oral Majority Recordings, the guitars and drums punch through with a driving beat to raise your fist too. At 3:34, Into This World is the longest song on the record ‘I wanted this album also to become a rock n roll album. I wanted to not have everything be deep and dark and symbolic. It's like AC/DC; meaningless but sometimes you just want to have a beer, listen to a song and understand the whole thing from the start.’
As a result, Hagman insisted that all ten songs have a recognisable hook to grab the audience’s attention. ‘I told the boys, ‘I'm going to have a hook on every song before I leave the studio. There's not going to be a song on this album that I leave out vocal wise. I'm going to work, I'm going to sit, I'm going to write, I’m going to scream, sing and sweat until I get it fucking right, otherwise, it's going to have to wait for me.’
Hence straight to the point sloganeering that can be picked up by crowds en masse within 15 seconds - ‘Put your fist to the sky if you love it. ‘We know that you are venomous’ ‘Another straight from the heart when all the others fell apart’ ‘We are Raised Fist, this is how it is’ ‘This is a brand new anthem coming your way’ – the album is chock full with hooks that will earworm their way into the ears of the listener and become the new doctrine for Raised Fist fans to live by.
