by Chris Barnes
July 22, 2009

Back in 2001, I received a self-financed CD EP called Ruin in the mail from a Swedish band featuring Tommy "Wilbur" Eriksson, then late of the legendary Doom Metal band, Count Raven. The band had an especially combustible mix of Uriah Heep, Deep Purple and UFO sensibilities as if their 70's peak performance incarnations were dragged screaming into the new century. The singer, Joleni, channeled Phil Mogg and Ian Gillan in equal quantity and quality. Three years went by, and in 2004, the epic In The Name of Suffering was released. The UFO/Heep/Purple influence was still there, but the band updated their sound with a slower, more intimidating doom crunch. We wouldn't hear anything new from the band until 2009, with the release of the self-titled Semlah. It turns out that the wait was worth it, because Semlah churned out their most dynamic and cohesive release yet. Here, Semlah guitarist and Riffmaster General Thomas Johnson answers some questions for Hellride.


Hellride Music: Thomas, you guys scared me. I thought Semlah was down and out… you had that amazing 2001 demo Ruin, then the great Suffering in Silence in 2004 and then…. Nothing!! It's been five years since the last Semlah release, and now we have the terrific Semlah album out on Cyclone Empire. So I guess an appropriate question to start out with is "what took you guys so damn long?!?"

Thomas Johnson: Well, it was a chain of events during this five year period that really slowed us down. We were recording only on weekends, and many of those recording sessions were cancelled due to various reasons : illness, family issues, other commitments, other bands were booked in the studio - you name it!

Joleni (vocals) crashed with his car and had to recover for some time... we are glad he still is with us today!! And obviously the Count Raven reunion took some space... but the main reason must be all those damned canceled weekends! It's different now though, with Cyclone Empire backing us up and with most parts of the new album written, there is a good chance that you will see a new full length release early next year!


Hellride Music: Whoa! Tell us more about Joleni's car crash - what happened and how long did it take him to recover?? We're glad he's OK here at Hellride, and I have to tell you that the new album is amazing, it has the epic doom feel of the early Candlemass material, but it rocks like classic Uriah Heep or Deep Purple on some of the more uptempo tracks. Was the album written at the same time as Ruin, or was it written some time after that?


Thomas: Joleni was on his way to visit his parents when he fell asleep at the wheel, not a good idea! The car was totally demolished and luckily he was thrown out of the front window, that totally saved his life.

It was a good six months before he was able to walk, broken back, a few ribs and a punctured lung among other things, so it did take some time to recover from it. So we waited for him to come back to his normal strength, and when he did it was business as usual again in fact he was more focused than ever I should say!

Thank you for the kind words about our new record! Every song on this album is written after Suffering in Silence except "Beyond Salvation" which were composed during the same period as the Suffering… songs.

The songs on Semlah were written during a long period of time of course, and it's hard to tell exactly when they came alive, some songs contain parts that are made long before the whole thing became complete.


Hellride Music: Wow, we're lucky to have Joleni back at all and the fact that he walks and talks is icing on the cake. I'm glad he recovered fully, his voice sounds better than ever and he can still pull off those Ian Gillan-like screams like a pro, like in the sprawling epic "Perennial Movement III". Man, that is some song. Given all of this, Was there a point ever in that five years where you guys ever felt like quitting the Semlah project? It seems like you guys encountered more than your fair share of delays and bad luck. What made you soldier on and get this record finished?

Thomas: We have become a really tight quartet and there were never any doubt of us continuing. We have so much fun together and we are almost like brothers, and we really thought that the "Semlah album" was something to fight for. We are friends beyond the music and if it takes five years to do an album it's not the end of the world! But then again we would absolutely not want to go through that again! We had some bad luck and made some mistakes along the way but I guess that all the problems really have made us stronger! The next album is perhaps our "magnum opus", and only death can stop us now hehehe!


Hellride Music: That's great, I love to hear that you guys are such good friends, there is definitely a chemistry there.. Let's dig into the album a little bit. There are three tracks I'd like to ask you about that strike me as particularly outstanding. The first is "Machinations". Good God, that is a steamroller. How did that song come about? The other two are "Perennial Movement II" and "Perennial Movement III". Obviously, these two songs are connected to each other in title and theme, can you expound on that further? And the obvious question is what happened to "Perennial Movement I"?? Does it exist somewhere and didn't make the album for some reason? Lastly, if you had to pick your favorite song off of Semlah, what would it be and why?

Thomas: It was Wilbur who came up with the verse-riff for "Machination". We all liked the rawness of it, and we took it from there. As a contrast we put in a softer part and a short solo passage and we are happy with the way it was balanced up.

Great scream from Joleni at the end of this song! "Perennial Movement" is indeed a trilogy, with lyrical and musical fragments that tie the songs together. The musical heart of "Perennial Movement III" is the verse-riff mantra that goes through almost the whole song except for the chorus. The solo and the sections with guitar fills all have the same riff mantra - a perennial movement!

"Perennial Movement II" is really an unorthodox love song that we chose to make completely acoustic - a first for Semlah! Somewhere in the middle of the song the intro from "P III" comes back but with a different arrangement, and it was really fun to use the same basic idea but in a different costume on this one.

Well then, where is "Perennial Movement I"? The million-dollar question hehehe!
Actually it's being composed right now, you'll have to wait a few months for it until our next album takes flight!

There's at least one song on the "Semlah" album that the whole band likes, and that is "Havoc". This song contains many different parts and all of them are fun to play! There was no question of where we should put "Havoc" on the album, it's the most epic song and it has a strong ending we think, so this one became the closer of the album. Wilbur likes "Axioms of Life" a lot, because he gets the opportunity to punish his poor old bass so much in that one haha! I know that Joleni likes "Perennial Movement II" a lot, Johannes likes "Frayed Wings" ( probably because of the changes between 4/4 and 3/4 measures), and my favourite for the moment might be "Manifestations Obscure" because of the tempo changes and an acceptable guitar solo, hehe.


Hellride Music: Thank God - I went searching for "Perennial Movement I" in my Semlah archives thinking I missed it on a demo or something. A quick follow-up question on that - why did you choose to compose II and III before I??

Thomas: Well, nothing serious really. You can see it as a countdown like when a rocket ship takes away, or maybe we just like to confuse people a little bit haha!


Hellride Music: Ah, I see. OK, that would also explain "II" coming before "I" on the record. Let's talk about your guitar work a bit - it's really great on this record. Tasteful, solid and fluid. But as the only guitar player for the band, it seems like you would face a lot of pressure. You're the guy that drives the car, so to speak. The riffs, the passages and entire arrangements are built around you. How do you handle that? Having to come up with 7-9 decent riffs per album seems hard enough, let alone everything else. Is that a lot of pressure for you? Or does the pressure drive to you to do better?

Thomas: I can tell you that it was loads of guitar to record on this album, but most of the time it was a pleasure to work with all the ideas we had for the different guitar parts. Joleni helps me a lot as a consultant if I am hesitating about a riff or some harmony-line or something else. He is an excellent guitar player and usually he understands my visions. All band members are composing the music so I guess if there is any pressure, it is on all of us.

It can be a real challenge to take on riffs and other ideas from someone else, and that has definitely made me a much better player during these years with Semlah!


Hellride Music: When you guys are writing, is there an emphasis on making the riffs and the rest of the arrangements "doomy"? Or is it more a case of whatever sounds good, you'll use? In other words, are there certain ‘rules' you guys use for Semlah material? How do you guys usually write – do you get together and jam, or does each player come up with his/her own ideas and bring them to the table?

Thomas: There are no certain rules and that's the great thing about Semlah. If we want to do a speed metal song we'll do it! However, the slower material seems to come more natural for us when we are writing. Joleni have talked about making a fast song for some time now (probably with a lot of technical guitar-shit I'll have to learn hahahaha) but we'll see if he ever finishes it.

In the beginning the writing were done by me and Wilbur together at his place, but nowadays the four of us usually work with the main structures of a song alone and then present it for the band when it is rehearsal time. The great thing with this band is that if you feel like there's something missing in your song or if something doesn't feel right the others can almost certainly add pieces or correct the weak parts instantly!


Hellride Music: Nice to hear about true democratic teamwork in a band! You mentioned a follow-up to Semlah that your working on. Tell us what you can about it? What do we have to look forward to and any idea when??

Thomas: Even if the "Semlah"-album took so long to finish we managed to sit in our chambers and write new stuff during that period. I think it's only one song missing for the new one, but there are of course only rough versions that have to be analyzed before we hit the studio. The music is heavy with a lot of melody, and the whole band has high hopes for this one! I guess it's to early to say anything about a realistic release-date but if everything goes well this time it will be in the earlier part of 2010.


Hellride Music: Well, we definitely look forward to the next one in '10 then. Thomas, many thanks for being patient and answering my questions. I'm a huge fan of Semlah as you know and it's great to know that you guys are not only still around, but also actively making new music. Anything you'd like to leave us with before we end the interview?

Thomas: Thank you Chris for the interview and for your support! Hope to see you and all at Hellride if we ever play in the States! Rock on!!


Purchase Semlah and Suffering in Silence at the Hellride Music Superstore

Listen to a MP3 of Path Of A Waning Moon

Read the Hellride reviews of Semlah , Suffering In Silence and Ruin

Visit Semlah website at www.myspace.com/Semlah