In the beginning – Where it all started COMMUNIC is a Norwegian metal band that was founded in March 2003 by guitarist/vocalist Oddleif Stensland and drummer Tor Atle Andersen (both ex-SCARIOT), who shortly after was joined by bass player Erik Mortensen, (a former band mate of Oddleif’s from INGERMANLAND). In April 2004, Oddleif Stensland quit Scariot to fully focus on COMMUNIC for the future – so now all priority for both Oddleif and Tor Atle went into COMMUNIC.
A Conspiracy… In Mind? Finally, in July 2004, all the details were in place and the band had signed a long-term record deal with wellrespected German label NUCLEAR BLAST. In September 2004 COMMUNIC spent 3 weeks in the Danish JacobHansen-Studios with producer Jacob Hansen to recording their debut album “Conspiracy In Mind, which was released February 21st 2005. The debut album received fantastic reviews around the world, and was a.o. voted “Album Of The Month” in Rock Hard and Heavy Oder Was, two of the world’s major metal publications. Oddleif did tons of interviews for the album, and the response from both media and fans were amazing. COMMUNIC went on tour to promote the release of “Conspiracy In Mind” throughout Europe. A tour that went very well for the band, and garnered them a lot of new fans. As a result of the great critics on the album and their live-gigs, the band was asked to perform at various festivals, including the Rock Hard Festival in Germany – a gig that further established COMMUNIC as a name to remember. Communic had their first European tour together with Ensiferum and Graveworm following the release.
Waves Of Visual Decay In early 2006 the band once again went to Denmark for recording the new album together with producer Jacob Hansen. “Waves Of Visual Decay” is the album that brought COMMUNIC yet another step up the ladder of success. 7 tracks of pure asskicking heavy metal, delivered with a technical expertise and lots of power and aggression. Communic completed another European tour and played the biggest festival stages all over Europe.
Another scarifice – Payment Of Existence Fuled by the success of the first two albums, late 2007/early 2008 the band were ready to record their 3rd album. Once again together with producer Jacob Hansen. Drums was recorded in Norway at first and then the rest of the tracks where laid down in Hansens studio in Denmark, and revealed an even darker side of Communic that was released on the world 30.05.2008, The songs was hitting more straight forward then the previous albums, but then with more impact, and a more personal twist on the lyrical aspect. 8 mindcrushing tracks of Thrashy power, feelings and emotions, progressiveness and GROOVE that will twist your mind!!! Another tour followed together with Scar Symmetry.
To reach the top – you first have to touch the bottom…. ”The Bottom Deep”
Some difficult matters on the main man Oddleif’s personal side, forced the band to spend a long time off, to find the strength to fight through life and death, to tighten the unity and continue as a whole, even tighter band unity. Oddleif spent a whole year, not even touching the guitar. When he then started playing again, ”The Bottom Deep” was written in a short periond of time, it had a very personal topic, and he even concidered not to release this under Communic, just to keep it for him self as the writing process was more like a therapy session, getting some stuff out of the system, but then Erik and Tor Atle coinvinced him to let it live it’s own life, let people hear it. So, early in 2011 the band were finally ready to record their 4th album. The band entered Sanden Studio in Norway, where they recorded the highly acclaimed album ”The Bottom Deep” Leaving everything on the table, their mind and soul, blood, sweat and emotions into the making of this album, it turned out to be just the kick in the ass the band needed. This was the first album where Oddleif took the producer role alongside with producer Roald Raasberg for the recording and mixing. Guitars and bass was recorded in Stoneland Studio, Oddleif’s own studio, while the drums, vocals and mixing took place in Sanden Studio, engeneered by Roald. Album was in the end mastered by Dan Swanö. Following the album release, Communic toured through Europe together with RAGE, TŸR and Scar Of The Sun.
10th anniversary In December 2015 the band celebrated their 10th anniversary of the release of ”Conspiracy In Mind” with a grand concerts with friends and guests in their home town Mandal/Norway.
Time for a change… At the end of 2016, the time had come, and it was clear that Communic were leaving Nuclear Blast Records. It was freiendly mutual split-up with the band and the label, with the only reason that the band had spent to long time to follow ut the release of The Bottom Deep. In fact this was the kick in the ass the band needet to get going again. Early 2017, the band inked a new world wide contract with AFM Records… The band had been waiting a while for the perfect timing on when to release their next album, and the deal with AFM surely boosted the urge and will to get it done.
Where Echoes Gather…. A long winding road back to the roots In 2017, october 27th – the band was ready to release their 5th and long awaited followup to the TBD album, but the road to get to this point was long and winding. Already in 2012/2013 the band was putting new songs together, but when Oddleif’s latest son was born, they decided that they would wait with the recording and the release, bacuse it would be difficult to support the album and doing tours, as Oddleif wanted to be home with his family the first year or so. In this ”home” time Oddleif decided to scrap all the new songs, putting them on hold for later, and went back into his eary songwriting archive. Somehing had been haunted him for a long time. There was some ideas and songs thatwas echoing in his mind, that screamed for attention. So together they went back and gave back the life to some hidden gems that had been waiting in the shadows, and as Oddleif said: “I need to get this stuff out before I can continue, I want our fans to hear this stuff – the new stuff can wait, now is the time, it’s now or never”. Some of these ideas are over 20 years old. Moste of these ideas dates back to before their debut album, and the title chosen for the album, ”Where Echoes Gather” became quite obvious as the band kept working on the songs. These old ideas was reworked, mixed with some new ideas, new grooves, new updated inspiering lyrics, and a progressive joyfull touch that made the guys smile while playing and rehearsing on the songs. So, in June 2014 the band entered DUB studio under guidance of producer Endre Kirkesola to record the drums for the album and everything was on track – they thought!!!. The guitars, bass and vocals was to be recorded at Stoneland Studio, Oddleif’s own studio as soon as the drums was done. Then, while in studio, recording the drums – Tor Atle, the drummer dropped the news, he was expecting twins, and soon later he later welcomed two lovely girls into the family picture, and the road got some new bumps. Another year or so was taken into the ”break”, because they knew, it was not the right time to release and support a new album. The band had already recorded most of the parts for the upcoming album at this time, and was waiting for the right time to proceed. The band stuck to the plan: ”There is no point in releasing this before we have time to support it”. ”We have been waiting for so long now, we have to wait for the right time”! Late in 2016 the band went into negotiation with AFM, then early 2017 the band inked the deal, and got the ball rolling again. When all the official matters was taken care for, Oddleif completed the last part of the recordings that was still yet to be done, the vocals – and sent all the recording tracks off to be mixed. The mixing task was handed over to Eike Freese at Studio 3A/ Chameleon Studios Hamburg, Germany, and in June 2017 the mix and master was finally done.
One last step of the plan for the album, was that the band wanted to record some special bonus tracks for the fans. So June 10, the band booked time at Krutt Studio in their home town to re-record a few old songs; performed live in studio, with no overdubs or additional instruments added to the mix, no clicktrack or backingtracks, just the band, as a trio, live in studio to try to capture the moment, the energy, the emotions as the band is known for in their live shows. It was an experiment – and two of the three recorded songs found it’s way on the album as bonus tracks. The third song was to be saved for a later purpose, probably as a video showing how all off this came together. The last bonus track that made it to the album was an acoustic version of ”Waves Of Visual Decay, that Oddleif and Erik performed live on stage on their 10th anniversary concert in 2015. This shows the song in a stripped down version with only
acoustic bass and guiar/vocals. ”This is something we probably never will do again” said Oddleif, so a cool bonus to close the album.
So what is it? – Progressive?, Power?, Thrash?, METAL? The musical style of COMMUNIC is rich in both emotional depth and musical broadness and includes many elements from various metal genres. Catchy vocal melodies, thrilling bass and guitar lines colliding with power, thrash, progressive and a bit of doom and groovy metal. COMMUNIC consists of highly skilled musicians that deliver quality metal with variety and originality. The music has a progressive touch in some experimental form, yet easy to listen to – quite moody, mellow and emotional, and a mix of influences from the 80’s and 90’s metal scene, but most of all it’s a mix of the different approach each member of the band has on the music, thus giving it the unique sound and feeling, that makes it hard for fans and media to compare COMMUNIC to just one other band.
”With COMMUNIC the Norwegian – … no, the worldwide … – metal scene ”still” has an exciting and forwardlooking name to remember”
2017 … and the future Now, the calendar says 2017, and it sounds almost like a science fiction movie from the 80’ties, but it is a fact. Communic have survived since early 2003, and are still the same three members in the band today, as to the day the band was formed. That is something to be proud of…
So the wait will be over and the world will see the release of a brand new Communic album that will hit the world hard, followed by festivals and touring!! ”We are ready”
Tracklist:
01 The Pulse of the Earth (Part 1 – The Magnetic Center)
02 The Pulse of the Earth (Part 2 – Impact of The Wave)
03 Where Echoes Gather (Part 1 – Beneath The Giant)
04 Where Echoes Gather (Part 2 – The Underground Swine)
05 Moondance
06 Where History Lives
07Black Flag of Hate
08 The Claws Of The Sea (Part 1 – Journey Into The Source)
09 The Claws Of The Sea (Part 2 – The First Moment)
Line-up:
– Oddleif Stensland – Vocals & Guitars
– Erik Mortensen – Bass
– Tor Atle Andersen – Drums