The Project Hate MCMXCIX

K asked me to write a little something about my experiences from this record, so here we go.

Working with K is always a trip. He is one of the few friends I have left since “the old days” and he hasn’t changed a bit. He will always give you what he thinks, straight to your face. Praising or wrath!! (I have only experienced the praising this time, which is nice!!)

This makes the mixing a very easy process in one way, no messing about with psychology to get an honest opinion, but his obsession to details is enough to drive any studio-engineer to tears, lucky for me that I am a perfectionist to the core myself and can relate to his uncontrolled joy of “that perfect fade” or when I magically inserted an “S” sound to Jörgens vocal!!

We both share the vision that we first and foremost do this for ourselves. The only thing that matters is that WE can listen to the album, back to back without annoying us to death with little details. Once achieved, it´s sonic nirvana, sex for the ears, for all mankind!!

And this time we got there, faster and more painless than ever!!

I have been there in the background from the very foundation of the unique union that is TPH and have always been fascinated with the blend of the hardest and heaviest of metal clashing against the sound-scapes from the world of electronics. (Nothing you ever dreamed of hearing when the metal-fans puked over the heavy used of synthesizers on “Turbo” by Judas Priest, that I secretly loved together with “Somewhere in Time”…and, god forbid, Depeche Mode!!)

Anyway.. What always surprises me is their ability to write even better songs… all the fuckin’ time. I thought the last album was gonna be impossible even to match. But, of course, they had to make it so much better than the last one it hurts!!

A big part in what makes this album so incredible is the perfect aligning of many important elements. First of all, finally, at last.. REAL DRUMS!!

Say it with me: R E A L D R U M S ! ! !

And, my… I was gonna say God, but that doesn´t really go with the K-man, so I say..Dra Ã¥t hela jävla helvete what an amazing drummer he found!! Even though K’s drum-programming skills are out of this world, Me and K used to dream of contacting (and blow the budget) on a drummer-for-hire like Gene Hoglan Back to the praising of Mojjo. When K told me he had found a real drummer to record the album, alarm bells the size of Malmköping went off in my head, but I shouldn’t have worried. If there is one man more picky with drumming than me, it’s Mr. K!! He can tell you more about how magnificently Mojjo pulled off the whole recording. He’s worth a grammy for his performance, goddamn!! Hat Off!!

This time Michael once again proved that he is a true talent. It’s so good to hear him really “find his space” in the world of TPH. He runs over those strings (Not sure how many, 5 I guess!!) like a rabid squirrel from beyond!! His timing and his ability to NOT play what K plays all the time and still not clash is uncanny!! And the bass-sound we got is awesome too!! ‘ Even loud and “cloinky” enough for the K-master…

Both Jörgen and Jonna were much better recorded this time. Robban and Ture did a tremendous job in capturing the beauty and the demon in both their voices! It was a pleasure to mix. A little spanking from an UAD 1176 and some proximity-reduction with a Pultec (Hey, a little bit of geek-talk is cool!!) was all it took to place these voices right in your face!!! And K… I promise, there is NO reverb on Jörgen!!! Ever!!

Since it is no surprise that K is one of the best rhythmguitar-players in the world and Mazza is a mean bastard on all the six-strings, I really don’t have to mention this, but I just have to say that some of the riffing present on this record is top ten death metal riffing!! K is sick!!

There is a passage in “The Innocence of three faced-savior” that just blew my fucking ears off, no joking!! I had just imported all the files from Reason and had really no idea of what was on those tracks since you export and import them in silence.

Another spooky incident was when I had finished listening to one of the early mixes on my 25€ computer-speakers, I turn around and see my Decibel-meter reading 66.6 dB. I nearly crapped my pants…. again!!! Every now and then I would find the perfect balance of a guitar at -6.66 dB… of course…. and when a disturbing frequency turned out to be 666 Hz I nearly told K that I was off the project, and volunteer to mix the new Stryper or something!! I told K today, that if the whole album would have been 666 MB instead of 660, I would have stopped my involvement with this record right there!! (Since I had a flight to catch later that same day… I am actually writing this 38.000 feet in the air, closer to God than to the ground… I hope he’s not pissed!! If you read this, I survived!!)

I also hope that you hear that the mix is a notch up from my previous work. I have finally given in to the physics of sound-engineering and done everything according to the book and it’s weird, I have never used Less stuff to mix an album, but it sounds so much More that it brought me to an extreme outburst of joy after hearing the finished master in my so-fucking-hard-to-please car-stereosystem. I am one happy man writing this!!

It was a pleasure to mix this album and it’s and even bigger pleasure listening to it. I am sure you’ll all agree with me once this bomb of blasphemy is released upon mankind!!!

/ Dan Swanö, somewhere, way above Germany 27/4 2007