Jonas Lindblood from Puteraeon: "One of my driving forces is to prove that we still kick ass"
For over a decade, Puteraeon has carved its name into the Swedish death metal with a sound steeped in old-school grit, Lovecraftian dread, and uncompromising intensity. With Mountain of Madness, the band delves into new depths of darkness while remaining true to its roots. We spoke with Jonas Lindblood—vocalist and guitarist—about the album’s creation, the influence of cosmic horror, and what lies at the core of Puteraeon’s identity.
Place of birth: Sweden
How was the recording process for Mountain of Madness, and what moments or decisions had the biggest impact on shaping the album’s direction?
The recording process was very smooth I would say. We recorded the album as we usually do in our own Studio Hatecraft. One thing that stands out this time was that I usually have Daniel helping me out while doing the recording of vocals. This time I did it on my own, wich resulted in that I stood a little further from the microphone. Swanö who did the mix got back to us and told us that the vocals just didn’t do it. So, I had to do all vocals one more time, it took about a week, but I am very happy this happened cause the vocals just got so much better. Other than that, I would say the biggest impact on the album were earlier, in the writing process. I guess somewhere around 3 songs written and I decided to go with “At the mountains of madness” as a theme. Sometimes you just open the flood so to say when you are writing music. It just works out; you have passed the kind of struggle you always start with. Well, it’s like that for me most of the times at least.
Puteraeon draws heavily from Lovecraft’s cosmic horror. What is it about that universe that continues to fuel your creativity?
It’s just a great universe to draw inspiration from. It’s a free space to play really. I love the thing that it’s often not clear if the horrors are true or just mind ghosts. The thin line between genius and insanity. I also enjoy the “less is more” thing, you know, the less you know, the more there is to fear. You make it up in your own head. The greatest fear is the fear of the unknown. I know it’s not the real quote but it’s something like that. But I do feel that there is some truth to that. We are afraid of that which is foreign or alien.
Beyond Lovecraft, what books, ideas, or personal experiences have significantly shaped your artistic vision?
There’s been a lot of horror movies, books and stuff. I had a period in my life when I read a lot of Clive Barker, Stephen King, Dean Koontz and such authors. Clive Barker’s earlier work up to mid-90’s has influenced me a lot. And when it comes to music, I always liked the early death metal albums that felt a bit scary. King Diamond has also been an influence through the years, love the way he did his concept albums. The spooky atmosphere on “Fatal Portrait”, “Abigail” or “Them”, love those albums. When you mention personal experiences, of course, the more songs you write, you always try to do it better the next time.
What does rebellion mean to you in music, and how does it express itself through Puteraeon’s sound and vision?
There’s some kind of energy, a power to it. A force or willpower. We want the music to be filled with energy but at the same time not become dull and predictable. I don’t want it to be like someone imagined Swedish death metal “Old fat dudes in their 50’s doing BBQ”. I want that rebellious youth aggression. One of my driving forces is to prove that we still kick ass. We are not a big band, but we are going to give you all we got anyway.
What are the biggest challenges in the studio when trying to evolve and avoid creative repetition?
Hard question since we in many ways do want to stay in the same folder. But at the same time, we don’t wanna do the same song again. On this album we opened up a little in territories that we usually don’t go. Adding parts that we might not have dared to do earlier. Also we tried to learn from earlier recordings, to make things pop out a little extra. So this time we might have dubbed some guitar melodies more than we did on “The Cthulhian Pulse” for instance.
How has your approach to vocals developed over time? Do you follow specific training, techniques, or a mindset when delivering such intense performances?
As I mentioned earlier, I had to do all vocals again for this album since I recorded with to low volume, so that might have given some extra punch. And I think I will do something like re-recording next time as well, because it sounds better. But I had a very different approach and technique back on the first album. Back then I wanted to vocals to sound imperfect, which was a response to the death metal of the early 2000’s when I felt everything was way to polished. I wanted vocals that felt unpolished. When we play live it was always a bit more energy in the vocals than on album, so I decided to try that out on our EP “Empires of death” back in 2017. I continued with the experiments over the following EP “Dunwich Damnation” and I kind of landed in something on “The Cthulhian Pulse”. From there on I’ve done the same type of vocals, just adding maybe more aggression on “Mountains of madness”. From using more throat in the earlier days, I nowadays more or less scream my lungs out. It’s way more draining method, but I think you can hear the aggression and energy in a completely different way than before.
How has your guitar playing changed over the years, and how much does experimentation influence Puteraeon’s riffs and sound?
I don’t play as much as I did when I was between 15-25 years old so I guess it has slowed down the progression, but I think I have at least these last few years kind of removed some of my own “don’t do this” kind of rules. My opinion is nowadays that there should not be any rules when it comes to art or guitar playing for that matter. Rules are chains and rules prevent creating what you want. I think it’s much more important to look at the final result. If experimentations and thinking outside the box helps you to achieve what you vision, then you should. While building songs I do a lot of experimentation. Save it down, listen to it. Go back and rearrange it. Something didn’t work, okey, let’s try something different and so on until I am satisfied with it. I also try out things combining riffs, trying out riffs in another key and so on, to make it interesting. Sound wise, we are not experimenting. We go with the Boss HM2 sound, it is in a way limiting us for sure, but I think I am able to get away more with adding not the typical death metal influences by using it.
How do you capture Puteraeon’s raw, unfiltered energy in a live setting?
I actually think it’s the other way around. We have managed to capture our raw unfiltered live energy on the album. And this time I think we did just that. Friends who have seen us live multiple times always said we were better live than on the albums, so we worked hard to get the same crazy feel and energy as we have live to the albums.
If all labels, genres, and expectations were stripped away, what remains at the core of Puteraeon?
At the core of it, it’s just 4 guys who enjoy and have fun playing together. Doing just what we want. That being this kind of music. That is the foundation really. If we hadn’t enjoyed this, there would never have been 5 albums and a bunch of demos. Then it would have stopped after the demos.
What quiet rituals or practices keep you grounded outside of music?
We all have our different lives, different problems and different days to keep us busy. I myself enjoy to go to the gym, play PlayStation, draw some skulls and shit with pen and ink. There’s a lot of family activities since we all have families with kids in their teens.
Do you ever feel isolated by the way your mind works?
In many ways I’ve felt like an outsider my whole life, even when growing up and among likeminded people. I don’t know why really. It’s been like that as long as I remember. I don’t wanna cry about it, it is what it is. I haven’t really asked anyone else if they feel the same, so this might be common. I know who I am and maybe that’s the most important thing.
Which artist from another medium—film, painting, or literature—would you most like to collaborate with, and what would you want to create together?
Tough one. I think it would have been fun to collaborate with for instance John Carpenter for something. I always loved his stuff. “In the mouth of madness” for instance is very Lovecraftian for not being a Lovecraft adaptation. This is a fantasy-though I know. Guillermo del Toro also made some cool stuff and I would love to work together with him as well. It would be cool to do something different as well, like play at an exhibition or something, art gallery or something. Or play together with a theatre or something like that.
Which one of your songs would you choose to send into space for future civilizations to discover, and what message would it carry?
I will go with “The land of cold eternal winter” with the words “careful what you wish for”. As I am both fascinated by sending out stuff into space, we -mankind, think we are so above everything. There are risks in doing this. The further we venture into the endless space the more likely we are to find something, or that something finds us. And maybe then we are the inferior race ready for extinction. Just look at the world today, we argue amongst ourselves, failing over and over, to see the bigger picture. If a superior alien race would find us, and if they were hostile, we would suffer terribly.
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