High Roller Records are set to release the debut album from Swedish rockers Vojd. Entitled The Outer Ocean, the record will be available from February 23, 2018.
However, all is not as straightforward as it seems on the face of it.
With Goin’ Under and Shadowline the Swedish band Black Trip had released two classic metal albums to great critical acclaim. When drummer Jonas Wikstrand was replaced by Anders Bentell, the band, now consisting of Joseph Tholl (vocals and bass), Peter Stjärnvind (guitar) and Linus Björklund (guitar), decided to make a fresh start by changing their name to Vojd.
“With the new line-up and the new material we felt that we wanted to start a new chapter in a way,” analyzes vocalist Joseph Tholl. He adds: “I still see the new album as the third album, a follow up to Black Trip’s Shadowline, though this new one contains a lot of stuff we haven’t tried before. The significant elements of Black Trip are recurring throughout the album, though the variety of the songs is much broader this time around, in all directions.”
The name of Vojd’s first album is The Outer Ocean. There is quite a big difference in sound, style, and execution between Vojd and Black Trip.
Matthias Mader spoke to Tholl, and felt that Vojd are much more classic rock than Black Trip ever were, and much less traditional heavy metal… “Yeah, I think you’re right,” says Joseph Tholl. “And I’m glad you say it sounds different from the previous ones, change and development is very important to me. Whether it’s more classic rock, I don’t know, but It’s something different from what we’ve done before. I take inspiration from anything that has good melodies, whether it’s Swedish pop or German thrash metal doesn’t matter.”
“This album was recorded bit by bit during almost a year,” describes Tholl of the actual recording process of The Outer Ocean. “It’s the first time we tried this technique for this band. Previous albums have been recorded in one coherent session. There were very few occasions where the whole band would be in the studio at the same time.”
