20th May 2020

Under The Influence #47: NADA on “Masstaden” by Vildhjarta!

Progressive DJentlemen Vildhjarta formed in Hudiksvall Sweden in 2005 and are known for employing Meshuggah influenced jarring staccato riffs, harmonic minor chord progressions and when “Masstaden” was written back in 2011, a dual lead vocal attack. Recorded with Jens Bogren (Sepultura, At The Gates, Arch Enemy) handling mastering and guitarist Daniel Bergström handling production, the album is filled with densely packed harsh riffs and nuanced dark shadows which saw them pushing the boundaries of the genre with the clean sung “Traces“. A concept album that tells the fable like story of a hidden and isolated town with lyrical narration and of all things is said to take influence from Disney’s ‘The Jungle Book‘.

NADA comment: “The album that influences us the most when we were composing our album “Red Sky” was “Masstaden” by Vildhjarta. The album influenced us mostly technically but we were chasing a different vibe from the Vildhjarta album, we wanted to make a metal album because that was what we were listening the most at that time but with the vibe of a Tim Hecker album. We wanted the songs to have the feeling of putting us inside a bubble and just levitate, that’s basically the premise for this project, we want to make music so tense and intense that make us feel that we are inside of a bubble and flying. We believe that “Masstaden” is on of those albums that will be timeless. Yes the album is pretty much inspired by Meshuggah but there is something very special about it, you can really feel that this album was very personal to some of the members, we can really feel the emotions, it´s not just a dark DJent album. There is much more to be told and we think that albums like this should be a model to make any kind of art because when you put all your heart and soul into it, it shows. The artwork of the album is very well adjusted with the music, the albums is like a dark journey through some dark forest or other dark places, pretty much a fantasy album and that’s also a thing that we didn’t identify ourselves for making our music. We wanted to make a more human, real feeling album, we wanted to explore a psychotic sound, we were fascinated with the total chaos of the mind and what extreme things can a human feel and like we said in the presentation the concept of this EP is about someone who lost everything and the progression of his or her state of mind”