PREMIERE: Enter the Thralls of Death Metal Majesty with Floating

One never really knows what the metal year will bring, which is part of the fun when an album drops out of the sky to save your week. But at other times you know. You know that there's an album coming that will dislocate your world and unhinge your soul. As soon as I saw the post declaring a new album from Swedish band Floating, I knew. Their debut The Waves Have Teeth, other than being an entirely factual statement as to how I view waves, blew the rooftop of my mind, landing on my ridiculously unnecessary 2022 list, and with each listening growing to become one of my favorite modern death metal albums, period.

So, yes, I knew. Their new album, named Hesitating Lights, will be out this summer via Transcending Obscurity Records, and you can already listen to a whole bunch of it as well as pre-order it and support them in the many ways of support. It's brilliant, easily one of the best albums of this unholy year, and a general succor to this dying body and decaying brain as it continues to come to terms with whatever the fuck life is right now. And so I am more than thrilled on two accounts: On the privilege to premier a new track/video right here. It's called " Still Dark Enough," and it beautifully demonstrates they other-worldly, diSEMBOWELMENT-meets-post-punk-magic.

It's safe to say that Floating are continuing down their strange, beautiful path of post-punk death metal (yup, you heard that right), into realms of even greater majesty and emotion. Just undeniable music. You know when I say that I mean it, and I mean it.

The second privilege is the extra privilege (running out of words here) of presenting this new interview with Uppsala's brightest sons, Andreas and Arvid, about the music that moves them and continues to move them still.

Read and listen, enjoy if you have ears and eyes.

If you're new to this metal blog of bones you can also check out the various interview projects I have going on as well as the weekly recommendation posts. And if you'd like to keep abreast of the latest, most pressing developments follow us wherever I may roam (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Bluesky, etc), and listen to my, I guess, active? (no) podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Apple), and to check out our amazing compilation albums. You could also possibly support my unholy work here (Patreon), if you feel like it. Early access to our bigger projects, weekly exclusive recommendations and playlists, and that wonderful feeling that you're encouraging a life-consuming habit. It's probably a bad idea, but to each their own. On to the wonderful Floating.

What was the first album you bought with your own money, and where did you buy it?

Andreas: I think it was The Number of The Beast by Iron Maiden, and I bought it at a supermarket while my mom was getting groceries. I became obsessed and I still am. 

Arvid: Genuinely not sure. I remember that I got Ride the Lightning and Fear of the Dark as a birthday present from my two uncles when I was 11 years old. I listened to those two albums freakishly. I think I bought Master of Puppets shortly after that, with my OWN money. If I remember correctly, from a local record store called Skivcentrum in Uppsala. Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets are, as everyone knows, basically considered the best ones from Metallica. However, my favourite album by Iron Maiden was hence always Fear of the Dark which, as I understood as I grew older, is not the popular opinion. 

What 2-3 albums did you hear the most growing up?

Andreas: Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Black Sabbath’s greatest album Sabotage and probably some awesomely cringey extreme metal like Enthrone Darkness Triumphant by Dimmu Borgir before I discovered, I don’t know, Morbid Angel. A lot of my first CD’s were homemade and burned copies that I received from teachers and staff at my school, who wanted to teach me the right way, I guess. We played games and drew evil pictures with kids’ crayons while listening to heavier and heavier stuff as the years passed. 

Arvid: I listened like crazy to In Lust We Trust by Swedish band The Ark when I was very little, like six or seven years old. My mom had a few CDs of theirs. Ride the Lightning was an album that really moved me when I was around 11-12. I read the lyrics until the booklet looked like a museum object. Mind you, we are not very old, so streaming was a thing when we grew up. However, Metallica still thought they could defeat the tech bros of the streaming industry and kept their music off of it. Therefore, growing up listening to Metallica was kind of like living in a retro-world where I needed the CD in order to hear their music. When I was a teenager, I was ridiculously obsessed with the Danish indie band Mew, and especially their records And the Glass Handed Kites and No More Stories. They are having their farewell shows in Copenhagen this year. Both members of Floating will of course be there. 

What albums taught you the most about the technical aspect of making music?

Andreas: That’s a tough one, since I don’t know anything about the technical aspect of making music. I don’t even know what the different knobs on my bass guitar actually do. We just kind of play and record what comes out and I am sure there are better methods to do it than how we do it. We’ve always been surrounded by older and more experienced people who has helped us out with equipment and song writing tips

Arvid: Well, I probably have to say Metallica again, since I basically learned to play guitar by learning their songs. I think bands like Slayer, Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel taught me a lot when it comes to regular thrash/death metal chops. I vividly remember watching Youtube tutorials trying to learn how to play ”Hammer Smashed Face,” which we also sometimes played in our practice space with our old band Morbid Illusion as a way of letting off steam. I don’t think I really learned it that thoroughly though. Cannibal Corpse tracks are a little… counterintuitive sometimes.  

What is the last album that absolutely shocked you?

Andreas: I came across the Japanese noise/avantgarde jazz/rock/whatever group Ground-Zero a couple of weeks ago, and specifically their hour long recording Consume Red is definitely the most jarring piece of music I have heard in a long time. The unhinged flute sample, the bursts of noise, the creepy plucking. It slowly builds to this monumental Swans-ish climax. It’s meditative and sheer terror at the same time. I found it by listening to the debut album Attempted Martyr by the American noise rock band Prostitute, where they sample the Ground-Zero track. That album is also quite fantastic. 

Arvid: Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s last album NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28 340 DEAD was a potent listen. The title – the death toll in Gaza at the time of the album’s release – says it all. 

What album relaxes you or centers you the most?

Andreas: Anything made by the Swedish ambient techno producer The Field, but let’s say his album Yesterday and Today, I just love the organic, very human, sound of his productions. Right now I also listen a lot to the Italian composer and modular synth nerd Caterina Barbieri. Another go-to is Laughing Stock by Talk Talk, it’s just so beautiful. 

Arvid: Stina Nordenstam’s album And She Closed Her Eyes is enchanting and it definitely takes you places. Many of Mogwai’s records have a very relaxing and somber quality to them. ”As the Love Continues” for example. One of the coolest subtle songs in the world, but which also has such a scary vibe, is Julee Cruise’s song ”Into the Night” from the Twin Peaks soundtrack. It really sends shivers down my spine for some reason, but it is also good to put on if you just want to float away into a chilling nothingness. The track also basically has a jump scare in it, which is kind of fun. 

What are the 2-3 albums you’ve listened to the most recently?

Andreas: The last couple of days I have been blasting the actually rather shitty but quite fun new Playboi Carti album Music. The absurd laziness of that guy, the (rumoured) use of AI, the fantastically lame and stupid lyrics, all just makes it a really postmodernist musical nightmare, in a good way. The new Imperial Triumphant has been spinning quite a lot too, it is a perfect record if you want your death metal to be weird. 

Arvid: Dimension Hatröss by Voivod, Dogsbody by Model/Actriz and Skinty Fia by Fontaines DC. Great albums by great bands. I think Skinty Fia is one of the best records to have come out this decade. I have also listened a lot to Songs of a Lost World by The Cure. I was floored when The Cure dropped it last year. To hear a band that defined a genre that I love so much sing about the sheer terror of growing old in such a bleak and non-preachy way was moving. It is also such an anti-nostalgic move of them to center the record so heavily around growing old and losing your life as it once was. It’s really cool to do that when you are a band who were big in the 80s and could easily preach into some kind of nostalgic choir. As someone who has sometimes felt sad that I didn’t get to be young when The Cure had their glory days, I suddenly felt happy to be alive to see them drop SOALW.

What album is grossly underrated?

Andreas: The obvious choice is Metallicas and Lou Reed’s Lulu. It has of course become a meme to hate that album, but I feel like everyone who calls it garbage has either never listened to it or is just kind of close minded. “Junior dad” is such a moving finale to that album, with some great highlights in general. True outsider art. 

Arvid: I have to second Andreas on this. Lulu is great. It features some blunders, but some of the songs are genuinely incredible and forward-thinking. The track “Dragon” is one of Metallica’s best songs, hands down. 

What album would you recommend from your local scene?

Our dear friends in Gold Spire from Uppsala make stellar death metal. Their self titled debut is a proggy jazz-death odyssey, and they might just have a new record in the making (hush hush), so be on the lookout! Rumor has it that the band Träskfeber is also from Uppsala, but nobody knows who they are, as they’ve kept their identity hidden. They are great, regardless.