SOURCE – How does Lamenting of the Innocent compare to the rest of Sorcerer’s discography – what makes it stand out?
Peter Hallgren (Guitars) – The songs on Lamenting of the Innocent is a bit more diverse than on the previous albums. There is of course some really heavy epic doom songs on the album, but also some songs that are a bit different from what we usually write. So I think there is a great variety on Lamenting of the Innocent. The other thing making it stand out is that it’s a concept album. Every song revolves around the witch burnings that took place in Europe.
SOURCE – What do you feel the band’s strong points are?
Peter Hallgren (Guitars) – I think we’re a really good band when it comes to writing songs. We always try to write great melodies and arrange the songs in the best way we can. It’s time consuming and sometimes frustrating but we want the songs to be as good as possible. I also think that we have great musicians in the band that are really dedicated to their instruments.
SOURCE – Discuss the video shoot for Dance With The Devil – how did the process work between the band and director, and was this the obvious song to pick from for the album to give the fans a preview into what to expect?
Peter Hallgren (Guitars) – No, Dance with the Devil was not the obvious song. But the song is a bit different for Sorcerer so we wanted to show that we do not only write epic doom songs. Dance with the devil, by the way, is the second singel we´ve released from this new album. The first was The hammer of witches. When it comes to the video the director Daniel Wahlström at Heavy groove media had so many good ideas so we just kind of told him to do his thing. He´s really great and all the filming was done very fast and smooth. Daniel has directed all the videos from Lamenting of the Innocent.
SOURCE – What do you believe was the most challenging period of the band for Sorcerer? Do you have any regrets or missteps that you took that if you had the chance you would correct- or are you of the belief that specific things happen for specific reasons in the career of a band?
Peter Hallgren (Guitars) – I don’t think there was a period like that for the band really. Sorcerer released two demos way back in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Then the band kind of broke up. Then we reunited in 2010 with a different lineup. Who knows what would have happened if the band had kept on playing from the first demo until now? You never know…
SOURCE – What are your thoughts on the state of melodic heavy metal/doom metal currently? Do you believe the level of support and diversity has improved the strength of the genre, not only for the musicians but for the followers/fans as well?
Peter Hallgren (Guitars) – I don’t know. But there is a lot of really great bands out there trying to be seen and heard, so the scene is really vivid I think. For metalheads there is a lot of good new music to keep track off.
SOURCE – How do you believe the band has handled the changing landscape of the music industry from your inception in the 1990s to the current models of promotion with social media, music streaming, etc?
Peter Hallgren (Guitars) – When Sorcerer started playing again in 2010 the whole scene had already changed radically so that was no issue really. Of course with all the streaming going on now the business has changed even more, but I think we handle social media etc quite good.
SOURCE – Considering the worldwide pandemic with the COVID-19 virus, has it caused you to take further measures to protect yourself as a person or have you always been conscious of ‘social distancing’ as a musician, especially when you are out on the road with all the people, traveling, etc?
Peter Hallgren (Guitars) – Yeah the COVID-19 has really changed everybodys life at the moment, and it seems it will for a long time unfortunately. All our gigs around the release of Lamenting of the Innocent has been cancelled. And since we haven´t been out playing anything recently we have not taken any measures yet, but i guess in the future we have to.
SOURCE – What do you have planned for the rest of the year? I know it’s a bit of a big question right now.
Peter Hallgren (Guitars) – We don’t know yet what will happen. Hopefully there will be some gigs in the fall. Some festivals are trying to find new dates after the summer but nothing is for certain at the moment. If we can’t do any liveshows we have to come up with something else to do, we’ll see what happens. Then of course Lamenting of the Innocent will be released on the 29 of May.
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