Richard Sjunnesson

Tjo!

The third and final summer show of The Unguided in Malmö at Malmöfestivalen was a complete and utter success! The most crowded gig of the three, which was indeed a delight for the eye. Skåne does not disappoint, EVER (except for being Danish once upon a time, hehe). It was, however, not a complete delight for the ear. Stage sound was awesome, but the FOH sound left a bit to be desired according to sources, unfortunately. That’s what you get when a cheap ass band decides not to bring their own engineer, hehe. Even so, SUCCESS!!!


Photo by: Pontus Fagerstedt

The third gig of The Unguided we utilized our stand-in drummer Per Qvarnström (By Night). Since John was busy with his wedding. We also had Christoffer “Stoffe” Andersson (What Tomorrow Brings) on stage, for some dual scream action in “Green Eyed Demon”.


Photo by: Pontus Fagerstedt


Photo by: Pontus Fagerstedt

The Unguided Malmöfestivalen 20/8 LIVE Setup:
Richard Sjunnesson – Harsh Vocals
Roger Sjunnesson – Guitars
Roland Johansson – Clean Vocals / Guitars
Henric Carlsson – Bass
Per Qvarnström – Drums
Christoffer “Stoffe” Andersson – Guest Harsh Vocals


Photo by: Max Dengler

The Unguided Malmöfestivalen 20/8 LIVE Set list:
1. Pathfinder
2. Phoenix Down (New unreleased song)
3. Serenade of Guilt (New unreleased song)
4. Betrayer of the Code
5. Iceheart Fragment (New unreleased song)
6. Green Eyed Demon
7. Inherit the Earth (Fallen Angels revisited unreleased song)


Photo by: Pontus Fagerstedt


Photo by: Pontus Fagerstedt


Photo by: Pontus Fagerstedt


Photo by: Pontus Fagerstedt


Photo by: Pontus Fagerstedt


Photo by: Kim Renström


Photo by: Ferbie Chez


Photo by: Kim Renström

The idea was to play around with the set a bit, since there’s a couple of the 616 soldiers that are following us around on all the gigs. But since we had to work in a new drummer for this show as well, we played it safe, like the cowards we are, hehe. It was enough work as it was, and way too little time for enough rehearsals to make other songs sound good enough. Hats off for the whole Malmöfestivalen event and Bandit Rock for booking us, it was a pleasant experience. Once again, humble thanks from the entire band, and to the 616 army, your enormous support and long journeys to attend to our gigs is priceless! For those wondering what shirt I wore during the show, it’s a Sullen Clothing shirt called “Fallen Angel” (appropriate, huh?). If you like their stuff, check their Facebook page here.


Mounted drummer, ridin' in for the rehersal


Trying out "Green Eyed Demon" dual scream version


Student of technology


On our way to Malmö, Austrian death machine in da buss


Roland in a good mood, as always


Austrian loadout machine


Fräulein Roland, counting in das waren


Henric is bass approving the stage...


...while a reincarnated Michael Jackson is performing


DBA bass colleague descending to us on the smaller stage, oh humble you!


"Bambambam-Damdam-Bambambam", that's drummish for "BOTC"


The army securing the ground on soundcheck


"Get to da choppa!"


I got myself a belated birthday present, thank you!


DBA kicking up some dust


We got our own clone army!!!


Henric fell in love with one of the 616, can't blame him! They are magnificent clone soldiers!


Aftershow dinner

Next live mission for The Unguided will involve some piracy, as we will sink the Silja Line ship “Galaxy” going out from the Stockholm port on 11 November. It’s not an option to miss Bandit Boat 12, seeing we’ll need all men we can get to take on the mighty Kraken, dwelling in the dark waters between Sweden and Finland! Announced bands so far are, The Unguided and the American band Black Stone Cheery. Join the Facebook event here, and get your tickets here. Be sure to check out Bandit Rock's official Facebook page as well for more information and updates.


The Kraken is EVIL, we need YOU!

So how’s The Unguided album coming along? That’s indeed a very common and repetitive question from blog readers around the world. Well, for once, I actually have some concrete information! If you are following my FAN page on Facebook (or Twitter for that matter) you already know we’re done with all the vocals for the album. All the rhythm and lead guitars, save from a few solos, are also immortalized, as well as the bass (nailed by Jonas Kjellgren). The drums will be recorded in the coming days by John Bengtsson himself. And soon Roger and Pontus Hjelm (Dead By April) will be busy in PH Studio to do some additional production of Roger’s keyboards. After that, it’s in Jonas Kjellgren’s hands again to do the mix / master the final product in The Abyss studio. Some pictures from the recent vocal recording:


Reached the ghost village of Pärlby once again, it calls for whiskey!


Expect a lot of Paul Stanley inspired vocals on the album


Roland borrowing Jonas toys


Kebab-boats are Jonas approved


This is exactly why I drive Volvo and not SAAB


You're not fooling anyone with that hat


"Vocal recording"


Ghost Rider Kjellgren


As said... "vocal recording"


Shreddin'


Ella found some kind of rodent


Raubtier payed Jonas a visit

Additional information about the album is that there will be two versions of it. One version will be a limited edition with special packaging, and a bonus song. The other is a retail version of the album, and there will be 10 songs on it. In contrast,  you’ll get a total of 11 songs on the limited edition one. There will be various packages to select from once the pre-orders start. Gustavo Sazes will do the layout for both designs, as well as a T-shirt design, and of course a new album related poster (get your frames ready, 50x70cm!). The album artwork was created by Kuang Hong and J.A.Arangurens Betrayer of the Code single artwork will be featured in the booklet to the appropriate lyrics. There is also a lot of other fun stuff in the making of the album, which will be revealed later in time. Hope this information will keep your satisfied for a while! We hope we’ll be able to announce the track list, cover artwork and a release date soon.


Until the bottomless pit freezes over...

My friend Niklas "Smeten" Bjelvén, from the lunatics in Rackartygarna, is doing some back flip practice with his unguided bike to “Betrayer of the Code”, check the video out!


Smeten is one crazy motherfucker

Another The Unguided tattoo champion has been born in Tommy Malmehed. Hailing from Sweden, his colored version of The Unguided crest has been inked out at PulseTattoo in Motala. Looks awesome, here you have a @the-unguided.com mail!


Tommy, Champion of the Unguided

Our progress towards the completion of “Black Mirror’s Reflection” album in Faithful Darkness is close at hand. All guitars have been nailed now as well. And I’ll look into going into Mikael Sällström’s Studio to record my part of the effort in the coming weeks. And the last thing to do is to fire up all the files to The Abyss and Jonas Kjellgren for mix / master. Other good news is that the pre-production version of the song “Hate Injection” is now FINALLY on Spotify. It only took cdbaby.com FOUR MONTHS (!!!). Check it out here. Also, be sure to check out this very impressive drum video of the song “Remember This Fight”:


Naked drummer remembering a fight

Ella and I also checked out Stockholm Inkbash XV a couple of weekends ago. It is an annual tattoo fair, featuring famous tattoo artists from all over the world. I can’t believe how much talent there is in this world, my jaw dropped to the ground plenty of times. After that, we did some Stockholm old town sightseeing for educational purposes.


Stockholm Inkbash 2011


Inkin'


Found Sullen Clothing artists!


Wouldn't mind doing this one


Stockholm - The capital of Scandinavia


And Stockholm's finest


A very narrow assassin's creed like passage


This waiter kind of overdid his suit


Eat Da Poo Poo?

Other than that, there’s is not much to speak about. I had a BBQ party at mom's place in the woods some weekends ago. I also celebrated Dad’s birthday, and upset Ella so much she thought it was a good idea to punch a big hole in the wall. She’s the best <3


Mom's place


Grandma got trolled


A Balrog trophy


Mom's kitchen


Mom


Mom's backyard


Mom's son and his fiancee


Mom performing some kind of shamanic ritual


Dad is happy(?) on his birthday


She's strong my fiancee<3

Despotz had a meeting with Activision / Blizzard the other day for a possible The Unguided collaboration, and we got ourselves some steelseries mousepads. We’ll see what happens. I also traded a signed “Nightmareland” EP for two Fuckyeah.se shirts hehe. Thank you Micke Lilja!


Green Eyed Goblin, Blue Eyed Worgen and Red Eyed Deathwing


Sixpak indeed

Q&A XXIII:
Send your questions to: [email protected] 

Q: Does Roland ever scream in some songs? I look at WRTN and i hear Nathan scream a bit in a few songs (I THINK don’t know, sounds weird and auto-tuned or something) so i was wondering if Roland ever did the same.
A: Roland did heavy vocals on loads of songs on Only Inhuman and Love and Other Disasters. Even for one of the Eden Fire songs, actually. Check out the chorus of “Prelude to Extinction” and you’ll hear there are two different voices. If you want to pin down the differences check the video to Jack of Diamonds. We both scream in the verses, you’ll see what I mean.


"All join in!"

Q: May i ask you, when and where will be your next concert situated!?
A: It will be situated on a boat sailing somewhere on the seven seas. For more info check this link.

Q: Could you put this on your blog too: BOTC review.
A: SURE, CJ! Just because you were nice and cleaned up the forum, hehe.

Q: As an electrician, is your field based on electrical devices or electrical wiring in buildings?
A: Electrical devices.


Nikola Tesla worked at Westwood Studios

Q: What, exactly, did Peter Tagtgren sing on "Pathfinder"? I can't make him out too clearly.
A: Doc colored out the different singers in a forum thread at www.armyoftheunguided.com. And it looked about right. Unfortunatly due to a spam related problem Berran decided to take the forum down for now. He only did guest harsh vocals and here's his lyric lines: "legions of her", "was to begin", "What’s left of me", "Fused by my soul and heart", "the mortar fire", "for me and you", " together"

Q: Do you have any idea what's going on in the background in the first 18 seconds of the song "You Only Live Twice" by you-know-who. And isn't the song "Sounds of a Playground Fading" by you-also-know-who amazing?
A: I asked Jonas about this and he said it's just Peter cursing in Swedish and talking bullshit pretty much. And yeah, SOAPF is probably my favorite track of the album.

Q: Have you managed to play StarCraft 2 as yet? I've actually never played Age of Empires so I have just started the first game from 1998. Ever played that?
A: I’ve not played SC2 more than a few campaign missions unfortunately. I’d love to set aside time for it eventually, maybe when the album is finished? I played some Age of Empires when I was young but not a significant amount.

 
Additional Pylons

Q: I'm just wondering, may i use one of the The Unguided songs in one of my future parkour/freerun videos on YouTube? If i get permission i will make sure i put up a link to your Facebook page, homepage and to where they can buy your music in the description box of the video :) and then will you be kind enough to promote my video on your Facebook :))) ?
A: Sounds cool, always liked watching them parkour/freerun videos, mad shit! I would appreciate if you put out half songs or preview of the three songs already released and not full tracks, though.

Q: First of all EPIC SONGS I MEAN REALLY EPIC!!! Heard the new songs on youtube the unreleased ones but I wanted to know when the new album is coming out. Sorry it must be a pretty annoying question!!!
A: It’s not a pretty annoying question; it is an EXTREMLY annoying question. It’ll show up when it’s done, which hopefully is this coming winter.

Q: A question once you're actually attending Sonic Syndicate who are on tour in Germany or completely finished for you?
A: Read my original statement here. And then ask the question to yourself again.


In Germany

Q: Did Karin herself write the bass lines for the songs, or did someone else from SS do that for her?
A: Why don’t you ask her directly? I’m pretty confident she’s as available as me on Facebook or mail. When whoever delivered a new song in Sonic Syndicate, be it Roger or Robin, it often came as a full composition, bass lines included.

Q: What sweater was Roland wearing at the ''Where does the cooling water go?'' picture in the last blog post and where can I order it? It looks pretty awesome. Keep up the good music! Can't wait for Phoenix Down! \m/
A: I asked him about this when we did the Malmöfestival gig. But he didn’t remember the brand. He said it was something to do with Affliction but it was not actually Affliction. Monarchy maybe? But it does not really look like it. Try to ask him directly at [email protected] and I’m sure he’ll look it up for you!

Q: I found this pretty gay article and I think you would be interested in it if you haven’t read it 
A: Haha, I wouldn’t expect less. What I did expect, however, was a bit cleverer comeback. But I guess some kid’s creativity ends at beating the same bush? Well, well it’s all good since it did result in some more traffic to the blog “which no one reads” (save from Brenocide of course). And he sure did put his “Troll -> Reaction” ideology to test, seems like it worked fine? He generously proved it himself! And, Brenocide, if you ever want to borrow the keys to my car (even if I’m not your friend) and run it into a mountain wall while listening to Accept, you’re very much welcome!

How will this mind-boggling adventure continue? Well, something like this:
1: He’ll read this blog entry, as my blog is his web browser’s start page. (Though he’ll blame Google for taking him here by mistake, ops!)
2: He’ll think to himself that he shouldn’t write a comeback article about it. But then do it anyway in lack of self-discipline, and he just can’t stand the fact that this madness ended in my court. Horrid thought, indeed.
3: Someone will mail me and ask my thoughts of this new, equally predictable output of his.
4: I’ll feature it as a meaningless question in my Q&A, while he writes yet another lengthy, tedious article about it.
5: Repeat.

I set my stopwatch on 27 hours and 5 minutes until I get a new promoting feature from him, and meanwhile I keep myself busy writing a new song about it. Theme it up on people hiding behind pseudonyms, writing nonsense—which in fact, they don’t really stand for anyway, since there’s no proper signature to go with the item. I’m sure Manowar would be really proud of such courageous behavior! And Brenocide, for Hector’s sake, stop use the word “Butthurt” one million times in ANYTHING you write, I’m confident even someone like you can figure out a way around it. Is there any cure for you at all? YES! Get laid… or learn to pronounce my surname, that’ll keep you busy for a while, at least until you hit that mountain wall at full speed. The clock is ticking. Please don’t be late, I hate when I’m wrong. Oh, and by the way! Grave digger does rule, I own all their albums. Keep it true! Au revoir…Tic toc tic toc.


Grave Digger

Q: Now that "Phoenix Down" will see the light of day. Will we ever hear "Assassination of a Martyr" and "Waiting for You to Wake"?
A: You already did. Waiting for you to Wake is Burn This City, just different chorus, lyrics, and melody. Assassination of a Martyr is Iceheart Fragment, but also heavily restored.

Q: And you said you would answer it in the next blog but it seems you might have forgotten or something. It’s not your fault since I know you’re really busy but could you answer it in the next one?
A: There’s always one blog delay on your answers. I write the Q&A’s before I write the blog. Sometimes that can be weeks before the actual blog gets written. So, just try to be patient! If it didn’t show up in two blogs from when you sent in the question, please send it in again. Before that you don’t need to worry about it. It will most definitely be featured.

Q: Awesome blog post. So you're a fan of that Scrubs episode too? I'm impressed and applauded you because I like doing that too. :-P
A: Scrubs rocks! John C. McGinley is fucking brilliant.


Dr. Cox

Q: I videoed it for you. Embarrass me.
A: Why? There’s nothing to embarrassed about! You could take that Suicidal Quietness dude’s job any hour of the week. Keep up the good work!

Q: One of your by far most aggressive songs, lyrics wise, must be Misanthropic Coil. Where did you get the inspiration for this song from?
A: What inspired me for Misanthropic Coil were probably The Omen movies, and a short story I wrote to base all the “Extinction” songs on. Also “Naglfar – I am Vengence” and The Crown was also very topical during the time, I dare to remember.

Q: Can you tell us about how much Nightmareland and BOTC has sold? Both in physical and digital form.
A: We get annual updates on the sales from Despotz, so I’m afraid I can’t. What I can tell you is how much the limited edition of Nightmareland sold, though! But I guess you can figure that out yourself.


Money, money, money

Q. I was watching some clips on YouTube of Eden Fire, and I think his vocals amazing, you intend to produce some songs based in Eden Fire? Sorry for my English.
A: Bro, story, cool. We’ll be sure to hire the very same vocalist for the upcoming The Unguided album. And there will be Eden Fire references all over the album. As a matter of fact, your brain will have a hard time to keep up with all the awesome Eden Fire related details I’ve sprinkled it with.

Q: Another question fallen of my brain: Wiskies, Ron or beer ?? ^^
A: Another question falls from the brain, and end up on my blog.  And the answer is white whiskey!

Q: Will you release any more songs before Bandit Boat 12 or will you continue with the setlist you had the current three gigs?
A: Boat in November, hmm we’ll see what we can come up with. Since a lot of you tend to follow us around (the dedication is compelling!) we of course want to do something special for them, now when there’s time and all.


Bandit Boat

Q: Why did Roland quit Sonic Syndicate?
A: [email protected] 

Q: What metal band do you like the most save from The Unguided?
A: … Blind Guardian?

Q: Why did you quit Sonic Syndicate?
A: So I could start The Unguided with Roland and my bro? Original statement found here.


Eurocorp and The Unguided

Q: Lestat.Rymdraket? The other URL to get to Army Of The Unguided -forums. Lestat from Queen of the Damned and Rymdraket some Swedish? Or is it just some random stuff?
A: Rymdraket is Swedish for space rocket. Now go out and tell the first person you meet about this significant wisdom you just acquired. Learning is fun!

Q: I'm close to get paid and buy new PA and stuff so What type of active (Or possibly passive) speakers do you use for your harsh vocals when you rehearsal with other Unguided? Have you changed them during the time from Eden Fire to here? Recommend any for harsh vocals?
A: Funny enough I haven’t even reflected over what brand the active ones we have are. They are on repair now, through. There was no mid and highs left in them at all. The stand-in PA is just lacking a great deal of highs, but sucks equally much. Back during Eden Fire and Only Inhuman, I had homebuilt non-active PA, which I had bought from a colleague, and ran it through a Yamaha last stage. They were magical! Until our keyboardist went all low-frequency-angel-choir-synth-bullshit on them and blew all the elements… That was the only reason why my voice sounded so cool back then and so shit now! A key that is now lost into oblivion… Forever! True story.

Q: Was it Karin who sang in Crowned in Despair also together with Enchance My Nightmare?
A: Damn straight! There’s nothing fooling you.


Creating enhanced nightmares

Q: What was your LOAD mic since you didn't use your former one?
A: For LOAD LAOD we used an RØDE NT1 condenser microphone for both screams and cleans. And for OI we used a ADK A-51 condenser microphone for both as well. The plan was to use the RØDE NT1 for cleans on the entire The Unguided album, but Roland blew(?) the microphone in the studio. We decided to go back to the ADK A-51 for like 7 songs on the album. All screams recorded with a Shure SM7.

Q: Will your first album be broken up into segments like Eden Fire, considering like Eden Fire it has improved versions of old Fallen Angel songs along with brand new songs?
A: I was thinking about this when we started to write the album, and considered it pretty meaningful, but later scratched the whole idea. I’d prefer to sit down and listen to all the 12 tracks of the final mix and then place them where they would be most effective. I don’t want to be framed and cornered by segments. The goal is to make a dynamic album and we all think this will be the best way to do it, sadly.

Q: I wonder when will the new album be released?
A: Really? Me too.


Out of reach