By Carl Begai

During a recent interview with Shadowside vocalist Dani Nolden for BW&BK; (found here), it came to light that the band’s new album Inner Monster Out features a decent amount of Swedish input behind the music. Not what you’d expect from a band with Brazilian roots, but Nolden will tell you that the new music is better for it.

Inner Monster Out is most certainly a step up from Shadowside’s previous record, Dare To Dream, largely due to the band being able to deliver the songs on their terms. They chose to hire Gothenburg-based Fredrik Nordström to oversee the production, which proved to be a far better experience to being holed up in the studio with System Of A Down / Audioslave producer Dave Schiffman last time out.

“To be honest, working with Dave taught us a lot about following our instincts,” says Nolden. “Dave is great but he’s certainly not metal; his idea of metal is different than ours. The two words we heard the most during the production of Dare To Dream was ‘too much’ (laughs). Of course, sometimes musicians have to be ‘contained’ a little bit, as we get excited and want to use all our abilities and ideas at once and often need someone to filter that for us. I feel Dave filtered a bit too much, especially when it came to the drums. When you hear Fabio playing on Dare To Dream you might think he’s an average drummer because he did pretty much the basics, but then you hear Inner Monster Out and you’ll understand what Fabio’s identity as a drummer really is. He’s aggressive, extremely energetic, and when you compare both albums you’ll think he improved a lot, but no… he was always like that. He was restricted because Dave felt drums should be kept simple. Maybe it works great for a band like Audioslave, which is supposed to be more commercial, but we felt we could have done more as a metal band. So this time we decided to work with a producer who had a background more similar to what we like and listen to, and that man was Fredrik Nordström. We didn’t have to tell him what we wanted; it was an immediate match.”

Nordström is a revered name in the metal world. When he’s not masquerading as Dream Evil guitarist extraordinaire Ritchie Rainbow, he can be found behind the board in his studio putting bands through their paces, making them bleed for their art to get maximum performance. With a resumé thicker than an old school phone book boasting 20 years worth of experience, he has worked with seemingly every metal band on the planet. Those results speak for themselves, making Shadowside’s decision to work with Nordström a no-brainer.

“Fredrik knew we wanted the album heavy and we wanted it angry,” Nolden says, beyond pleased with Nordström’s efforts on Shadowside’s behalf. “I remember the funniest moment during the recordings of Inner Monster Out; Fabio (Buitvidas / drums) was so used to being told not to overplay anything that he recorded this really cool drum fill, stopped and asked Fredrik: ‘Too much?’ And he said ‘Yeah, but I love it!’ (laughs). While Dave is more laid back and the type of producer that doesn’t worry much if you made a mistake because he feels it’s rock ‘n’ roll, Fredrik is a perfectionist and will get the best performance of your life. He’ll get from you what you had no idea you were capable of. Both experiences were great because we learned a lot about soul from Dave and we managed to apply that to the perfection Fredrik – and ourselves – were after.”

Click here for the complete story. Check out the track 'Inner Monster Out' below.