Swedish melodic metal outfit DYNAZTY recently released their new album, “Game of Faces,” via Nuclear Blast Records. We chatted with vocalist Nils Molin about the record. Watch the interview here or read the complete transcript below…
Hi there! Thanks so much for your time for this interview. It’s the beginning of 2025, so how have you been? How has the start of your year been?
It’s been good. It’s been busy times, but at the same time, I’ve had quite a lot of time to recoup some strength and power for the upcoming year. So I’m very happy with the start of 2025.
You’re also releasing a new album, “Game of Faces,” which I guess is to be released in some days or maybe a week or so. How are you looking forward to the release?
I’m looking forward to it very much. This is an album that’s been a long time in the making. We already started writing it back in 2022, and here we are in early ‘25. And we’re releasing it very, very soon and going out on tour and everything. So I’m very excited.
Since it was three years in the making. What took you so long? Was there anything challenging about creating this album?
Not necessarily, but we came out of the entire COVID-19 pandemic thing when we released our previous album. And there were two albums for us to go out and tour on, because we released the one before that right in the beginning, at the start of the whole lockdown and everything. So we had two albums to tour and a lot of ground to cover. So we had to write this album a little bit here and there in between everything. So maybe that’s why it took a little longer.
Throughout DYNAZTY’s discography, the band changed styles a few times, first switching from hard rock to power metal with “Renatus” in 2014 and then to melodic metal with “The Dark Delight” in 2020. However, you approach the genre a bit differently from many other acts, as usually, the formula is an ebb-and-flow of melodic parts (usually the verses) and a more up-tempo, heavier section that is the chorus. In your case the heaviness is pretty steady throughout the songs, so there’s no break there, but instead, I feel like you play around with the melody a lot more – a more direct melody in the verses that ramps up in the chorus. From this perspective, how would you describe the band’s current sound within the melodic metal genre?
You get asked this question a lot. How do you describe the sound of your band? And sometimes that is not the easiest thing. And I see that as a positive sign. Some people have a little bit of a hard time pinpointing what DYNAZTY sounds like. And to me, that is a plus at this point. That should mean that you have a pretty strong musical identity and can’t mention, “Oh, they sound like this band and this band combined with that band or whatever.” But I would describe ourselves as first and foremost, primarily a melodic hard rock metal band with a lot of influences from the past and a lot of influences from today. This is how I would describe it. And like you said, we have always put melodies central. And this is where we start and end our songwriting. It starts and ends with melodies. And we build everything around that. So I would definitely say that we’re a very melodic band in that aspect. But as you said, this album, I think there’s an extra push in the heavy and aggressiveness part of things on this album. I think it actually stands out a little bit in our discography in that sense.
Where do you think that that comes from? Do you think it’s a cultural thing I know that in Sweden melodies are very important if you look at bands like ABBA. Or is it just who you guys are as a band?
I think there are definitely a lot of melodies embedded in our musical DNA [because of] growing up in Sweden and everything. Like you said, we have a long history of very, very melodic acts coming out of Sweden, not only in hard rock or metal, but pop music and a lot of other genres. So there’s definitely going to be that edge. And I think that a lot of Swedish bands have that kind of characteristic a little bit. And for us, like I said, we’ve always focused on trying to nail down something that is melodically very interesting. And this is what we focus on while songwriting.
Now, this is your first release on Nuclear Blast Records after you changed from AFM Records. So how has the collaboration been so far?
Very good. I’m very happy with where we are at the moment. Things are running very smoothly. We have a great team that we work together with and we are very happy so far.
I guess that’s not the only thing you changed around. You also have a new production team behind the album. I think it was Jens Bogren and then Tony Lindgren. So how did you feel they contributed to the album’s overall sound design?
I definitely think it’s pretty clear with this album, it has a different characteristic sound-wise, and that is definitely, without a doubt, Jens Bogren. And he’s—at this point—a legendary figure in the metal industry and a very, very renowned producer. And I think this album will always have a very unique characteristic compared to our other albums because it’s Jens Bogren mixing it. So there’s definitely a lot of that Jens Bogren sound on this one. So that makes it a very unique DYNAZTY album, I would say.
Why did you feel for this album it was important to change the production team? Do you think that’s a good thing to do once in a while to switch things up and thus maybe take your sound to the next level as well?
I think that with this band, we always both consciously and subconsciously try to stay progressive and not really do exactly the same thing every time. So I think we just looked for new ways to evolve and to try something different. And as you said, sometimes it’s good to switch things up. You learn a lot and you see where things are going. So this was mainly because our previous two albums were done by Jacob Hansen. And I consider Jacob Hansen and Jens Bogren to be absolutely top-of-the-line at what they do, but different aspects of top-of-the-line, I would say. And I would never compare them. I wouldn’t. It’s just different shades of really awesome.
One thing that didn’t change or hasn’t changed in a while, I guess, is your lineup. You’re one of the bands that have had the same lineup for a decade. I’m assuming that the creative process has been kind of the same for all the albums. But do you feel like having such a steady lineup and not changing members around all the time, is like a catalyst for creativity? And do you feel like that’s part of the success of your band?
Definitely. As you’ve said, it’s not exactly very common that you have the same lineup, the same people for 10-plus years. But we have that in DYNAZTY and this is definitely a major foundation of the band. We’ve known each other now for so long, everybody within the band and we are all great friends together. It’s always very easy to hang out. There aren’t any major issues that can arise when tensions are high on the road or when you spend a lot of time together. So it’s definitely a very good foundation for being creative and making as good albums as you possibly can. So we’re very happy with where we have been and where we are at the moment.
Is there a secret to having this steady lineup? Do you think communication within your band is pretty good or is that an important factor for your band?
I think it’s that we, I mean, Jonathan, who was the last member of the current lineup to join the band, but that’s over, that’s like 12 years ago at this point. So it’s a long time ago. But the four of us have known each other now since, well, since I was 19. So we’ve known each other for ages and still with Jonathan 12 years ago, we were primarily great friends. We spent New Year’s Eve celebrating together, you know, all the Swedish traditions, midsummers, we spent the weekends just hanging out. So we’ve been friends for ages. And when it comes to music, we basically just want the same thing and our goals are always aligned. So it’s very, very, very easy for us to work and has been for a long time.
Don’t you ever feel like balancing business and friendship is a difficult thing at times?
Oh, it can be for sure. And I think this is where you have to realize what is the most important thing. And even for the business to work properly, you might have to prioritize friendship.
Anyway, going back to the album, the album’s title “Game of Faces.” I believe the main theme of the title track is about the duality of men. But what can you tell about the album in terms of content, like lyrical themes and such? Is there an overarching theme or are they all separate stories?
Yeah, I think that every track has an individual story, if you will. But like you said, some themes reoccur that pop up here and there. The “Game of Faces” theme was something that came to me when we were writing that song. I thought it had a bit of a duality thing melodically and sound-wise. It’s a very aggressive and pretty dark song. And then it has this kind of upbeat, almost childish, happy-like start of the chorus. So that just made me think like these if you think of these two theatrical faces, one sad, one happy. And then the whole “Game of Faces” theme just got rolling. But there’s definitely when I write lyrics, I we haven’t done anything like that where it’s like an overall big theme that goes throughout the whole album. So these are still individual tracks, all of them.
When you write lyrics, has there ever been a time when you come up with like a great idea, but then it doesn’t fit the arrangements? And then what happens to that? Do you use that for other songs?
Oh, that has happened. Definitely. Also, the same thing goes for if there is a song in which I wrote some lyrics that I really liked, and then we don’t end up using that song or whatever, then I might just take those lyrics and write them for another song that will eventually be on an album or something like that. Actually, speaking of “Game of Faces,” those lyrics I wrote independently as like a poem, which I’ve never done before. So I didn’t write it for that song first. I just wrote it freely. But then, you know, when you put it into the song, you have to change a little bit of everything to make it work. But that was actually one time when I used a different method than I normally do.
Yeah. I mean, I was just going to ask you, like, is writing lyrics similar to writing poetry for you? But I mean, like you said, do you write poetry a lot or was it just the one poem coincidentally?
It was just the one. I don’t write like that normally. It was just for that one for some reason. Writing lyrics is oftentimes more like putting pieces into a puzzle. It has to fit and you want it to rhyme at certain places to make the music flow the way you want. And then you have to think of something that binds it all together. So oftentimes it’s like laying a puzzle.
Yeah, it must be at times really frustrating as well, or at least I can see that.
It can be.
Yeah. Now, I felt like most of the songs on this album were really anthemic and dynamic, but of course, you know, there are always moments that surprise you. And I think for me that happened in the bridge of “Fire to Fight,” which felt a bit unexpected. So I was wondering who came up with that idea and how you managed to incorporate it so smoothly in a song.
We were putting the song together. And I think that I was telling Love that I think that this song needs a freak-out part where everything just goes bananas. So we came up with something, Love came up with some guitar stuff and we just built something on it. If that was what you’re referring to, then that’s the crazy part at the end where the song sort of freaks out.
Yeah, that was pretty much it. I think you were also able to play some of the songs live last month during a show in Germany. But how in general do fans receive tracks that haven’t been released?
Well, we actually tried that in December now. We played a song that has not been released before and we started our shows with that song, which is a bit of a bold move. Yeah, it goes straight to the title, “Fortune Favors the Brave,” which I thought was a little bit funny maybe to do that. And I think that at this point, we’ve now been out playing live for two and a half years with pretty much the same set of songs. So both for our regular fans that come to almost every show that we do, we wanted to switch things up a little bit and also for ourselves to try a different dynamic, especially at the start of the concert. So this is why we tried out a song that wasn’t even released and two of the released songs. So I think it was a very learning and pretty cool experience for us.
Does that bring you some stress to start with a song that you haven’t played before or is it just normal business?
It’s not normal business. It definitely adds an extra edge and an extra bit of tension before going on and it just focuses you up a lot. So it was exciting for this particular reason for us to see how the songs would actually fit into our set and everything.
Yeah. I think most of your songs actually, like your live shows, there’s a lot of energy and it seems like most of the songs are also built for that. But is that something you take into account while writing music as well, that it needs to have a certain vibe live, or is that just sort of how the music turns out?
A little bit of both. Sometimes we think like, okay, we need to write something like this because it will work so well live or on a big festival stage or whatever. And sometimes you just write something and then if it will go down really well live, we don’t know yet and we’ll find out eventually. But definitely, sometimes you feel like, okay, let’s try something like this and we know for sure that it will work very well on stage.
Towards the end of the album, there are also two cool songs that I’d like to talk about. One of them is “Phoenix” and it’s a very positive and uplifting track. So I was wondering if there’s anything you can talk about that song musically or lyrically.
Yeah, this was one of the last songs we wrote for the album. And as you said, it has a little bit more of a happy, positive, or uplifting vibe, if you will. And this was the main reason behind writing the song was that we felt that the album would need such a song because there’s a lot of energy. There’s quite a lot of aggression and furious stuff, fast-paced stuff on the album. So we wanted something that would have a different mood and different atmosphere. And that became “Phoenix.”
Yeah. And well, then there’s “Dream of Spring” on the other hand, which feels like a plea for peace and stability in these times. I don’t even want to talk about that. But like what was that sort of the main idea behind it? Do you feel like you needed to write a song like that to get all that’s on your mind out there?
A little bit. Same thing as with “Phoenix.” This was one of the last songs written. And I particularly felt that we needed a slower song, not necessarily a ballad, but definitely something that would be slow and a lot more moody than than maybe some of the other songs. Lyrically, this was a reflection of the current times that we are living in. And it just felt natural to write about this.
Well, since the new year also has started, do you have any resolutions for your band specifically? And are there any things this year or maybe in the future you still want to achieve?
Yeah, a lot of things that we want to achieve, for sure, but we’re looking at this year, 2025, and the main goal is just to get out and play this new album as much as possible and everywhere. And we are starting this after the album’s release with a four-week European tour. And after this, during the year, we’re going to cover as much ground as we possibly can. Try to be everywhere. Before the end of 2025. So this would be my New Year resolution to take the DYNAZTY show out on the roads and cover as much ground as we possibly can.
Are there any places that you haven’t been to yet with a band that you would like to perform at?
We’re actually going to Brazil in May, which is a first for DYNAZTY. So we’re playing over in Latin America for the first time. And there are always places that we haven’t been to yet. And we actually have some pretty solid plans now for going to certain places where we’ve never been before. Yeah, well, you know, they are not announced yet, so I can’t really talk about it.
Yeah, that’s fine. I’m sure people can stay posted by following you on social. Anyway, that’s pretty much it for my questions and our time. So do you have any last thoughts you want to share with your fans before we wrap this up?
Not besides check out our new album “Game of Faces” coming on February 14th and I hope to see you out there on the road somewhere.
Interview by Andrea Crow & Laureline Tilkin
