By Martin Popoff
I asked Leffe what it is that appeals to him about thrash metal.
"I think it's the only style we love. We certainly appreciate other styles in heavy rock music as far as our personals tastes, but this is the only thing we really want to play. The crossing point between thrash metal and death metal has always, to me, been very rich and very interesting. You can do so many things and still have a goal left over for the next recording, unlike what a lot of people think. But I think the boundaries are quite wide, in a way. We may have a few years of history as a band, but I think we are in a position to be moving, step to step, in a positive direction."
Comparisons with The Haunted (or with other Swedish thrasher) that have cropped up in the press, according to Leffe, don't quite capture where Dew-Scented are going. "I wouldn't consider The Haunted as sounding particularly Swedish. I think that is one of the first bands out of that new breed of aggressive thrash metal that really tries to concentrate on rhythms instead of melodies, still not forgetting the positive input of a nice melody, to just make the rhythms sound more aggressive. It's sort of weird. We've always seemed to appreciate more of the American side of thrash music, Slayer, Exodus, Violence, those bands from the early days. Because they were very good musicians and very powerful. The old Central European or German thrash metal sound was always very raw, very aggressive, which we of course like as well. But I think for the most part we've been into the American bands."
The title of the album, Inwards, other than fitting Dew-Scented's "I" scheme, also points to a level of thought and retrospection not often seen in this jackhammer style of metal. "It gives you a hint into what the album is all about," explains Leffe. "We have sort of a theme going throughout the album. It's not a concept, as far as the lyrics go, all been part of a puzzle or anything. It's more of a guideline. The record is about the very negative things we carry in our insides, in each one of us. It's about negativity, been pissed off in life, about feeling that the world is decaying around you. But that we actually have something inside ourselves to become much happier people, which is the power of inner strength. And it's something we seem to forget about using these days. It's so much easier to sit down in front of the TV and believe the lies that people tell you, just reacting instead of acting. I think we just wanted to have something like an opening door through the name and through the rather symbolic artwork of the album. Of course the lyrics read very metal, very aggressive, but I think there are a lot of little nice things between lines. It's perhaps a very negative input but a very positive output..."
Soon to be on tour throughout Europe with well-regarded French band No Return, Dew-Scented can be studied and pontificated at www.dew-scented.de or www.nuclearblast.de/media