We'd originally booked Fascination street from the 15 th of March til the 18 th of April but ended up staying unttil the 1 st of June. Slight miscalculation?? Indeed! But we needed it. Even though we had plenty of time, looking back it feels like we barely made it. As usual we started with the drums and it was as usual very boring to record. Lopez was up and down in his mood so we had to wait until he was ready...drummers! Martin played his wine red Premier kit on this one although he'd just secured a new endorsement with Tama drums. Anyways, as the takes we're down for the first time in history I knew already this was going to be good. Only with a guide guitar and drums, people!! I've been next to running away by this stage on all previous recordings...Now I was excited. Then we did the rhythm guitars...setting sounds with Jens was very easy and interesting. We tried several different amps and changing valves etc...we ended up using Laney's, Mesa Boogie's, Vox's and even some fucking Pod's. I hate those things but I can't deny they sound great occasionally. The rhythms we're done quite fast although slower than usual. 7 days for the electrics while "Deliverance" was done in 3. Jens is very, very picky, maybe too picky but the end result is so tight and good that it was worth the pain. I'm fairly confident in my playing and "no one will tell me blah, blah" but I guess I needed that pressure of performing better than ever.

The solos was a blast for me to record! All songs but 2 or so are written in a open tuning, so the solos had to be done that way too. This meant I couldn't use my ol' licks but really had to think deeper about the notes I wanted to play. I think the solos on this new record is by far the best ones for me personally. Peter blasted out some very nice licks as well, we both agreed it was fucking hard writing solos with this new tuning but it helped us coming up with some cool runs at least! The acoustic guitars was quite a drag as they didn't intonate as good as the electric guitars. If you're ever working with Jens this is his main concern. He will tune every fucking chord if he has too, to be honest, I don't care so much if it's slightly out of tune here and there, but he's like allergic to it, even if he can't hear, only see that it's out of tune almost. Anyways, the acoustics were recorded on my Martin 00016GT as well as my Takamine 12 string...loads of 12-string on the record as oddly enough I wrote a lot of the songs on it. The electrics used was my ol' buddy the blue 80´s Custom 24 by PRS as well as Peter's red single cut Custom 22 + Jens has a Fender Stratocaster that we also used here and there. Mendez did his bass takes pretty fast, basically playing his 3 Fender Jazz basses, one fretless which I can't remember if he used or not...I think he did. His bass-lines on this record is outstanding people!! His best work yet!

Then it was time for the new kid on the block, Per! He'd brought his 2 Nord-electro keyboards, one which is basically used for all the organs and electric pianos and one which is used for the moog type of sounds and effects. We had a old sampler of Mellotron sounds that are really great! We used the Chamberlain mellotrons the most even though the old "shouting lady" samples also made its way onto the record. By this stage everything sounded marvellous and I was sure we'd made it in terms of making a great record, but I was still slightly worried, or maybe excited rather for the vocals. They usually change everything so drastically that it's scary. Anyways, I started with the clean vocals and Jens started mixing at the same time. The first song I recorded was "The baying of the hounds" and I was on form...sounded really good. The vocal lines sounded way different from before and I guess I'd be holding back too much where I should have just fucking wailed. Singing for me is very mentally charged. I gotta feel good to sing good so I went through some stages of singing pretty bad I guess but hard work pays off in the end, and I can truly say this recording is my best performance ever!

The screams we're a blast. I can't wait to see the footage (Yes, documentary again courtesy of Fredrik Odefjärd) of me screaming my balls off.

I literally went insane. I guess the old death metal blues is still in me after all these years and I get excited when confronted with some evil lyrics. Really, it was a blast recording this record over all, but I guess our skin is a lot thicker now since we've done the D&D albums! The mix by Jens is majestic and it's sonically by far the best record we have ever done. I tell you, this guy is going places...he's 25 years old and he's better than everyone I've ever worked with! Insane!!! Well, I guess that's it for now...C ya!!