Doomed Confessionary: N.N. (Grand Harvest)

Hailing from Malmö, Sweden, the band took a permanent shape as Grand Harvest in 2017. The musical style could be described as blackened death/doom metal. The lyrical themes reflect a deep contempt for, and the utter futility of mankind’s existence.

Grand Harvest just released their new EP »Till Förruttnelsen« on October 25th, 2024, containing two songs with lyrics in Swedish. The first is a musical interpretation of Swedish romantic poet E. J. Stagnelius and the second is a Swedish rendition of the title track from their debut album »Consummatum Est«.

The release furthers the band’s development into blackened soundscapes and epic, heavy melancholy with a strong attention to the lyrics. This EP is a heartfelt project which musically point out the direction of the band’s coming full-length album.

Grand Harvest are Dr. Häll (vocals), A.L. (guitar), F.B. (guitar), N.N. (bass, backing vocals) and R.M. (drums).

Can you say a few words about your band?
Grand Harvest is a necrosophic black/death metal band from Malmö in Southern Sweden. We released our doom-laden debut album »Consummatum Est« in 2022 and just released a two track EP, with Swedish lyrics. The next album is written and recordings will commence in the beginning of 2025.

What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Getting noticed and thereby getting booked for shows. In today’s world with social media, streaming and so forth I think it’s hard for most bands to break through the constant feed of information/misinformation, music and other streaming media. The amount of likes and streams govern if your band gets booked for shows and musicians are now forced to also become “content creators” on top of all the work it takes to keep a band going.

What can you be most proud of so far?
How our releases have turned out, especially the vinyl version of our latest EP »Till Förruttnelsen« turned out beautiful with its gold foil embossing and amazing artwork by Misanthropic-Art. Also touring with Mayhem and playing with several other great bands have been highlights so far.

What was your biggest regret?
Having an album finished in the middle of the pandemic. We couldn’t have known it was coming, but it really made things way harder.

What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
It has been nice to play bigger venues with Mayhem. But our best performance and venue/atmosphere so far must have been when we played the small club Farárova Sluj in Mladá Boleslav, Czechia. A truly sinister evening together with our brothers in Malphas who also put on an amazing performance, the crowd was wild and the place was packed.

What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
We’ve been at it for so long also before Grand Harvest that we’re not too surprised by the usual stuff. The thing that we least expected is the social media handling that I mentioned above.

What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
The latest albums by Pallbearer, 40 Watt Sun, Vanhelgd, Unto Others and Blood Incantation are all great. There’s also a lot of black metal in rotation, right now mainly Malokarpatan, Faidra, Hellbutcher and Seth.

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Bring all rider items from the backstage area when leaving a venue is one good tip. Another is to always think of a band like a package deal, writing music is one part of it but you also need the other parts to match. Image, looks, artwork, titles, lyrics, stage show etcetera.

What are your guilty pleasures?
I have a wide range in my taste in music and play in an AOR band besides Grand Harvest, so I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures. I like what I like, and that can be anything from early Michael Bolton to Dissection. Great music isn’t defined by genres.

Can you say something more about the current music scene in Malmö?
There’s a few metal bands in town besides ourselves. Among the ones worth mentioning are Ultra Silvam, Völva, Nigrum, Cursus Bellum among others. There’s a great festival each August called Malmö Massacre and a few gigs as well, mainly at the venue Plan B. The thing with Malmö is that you only have about 20 minutes over to Copenhagen, which is a capital city and therefore has a much larger selection of gigs and festivals, Kill-Town Death Fest being one of them. We get two cities for the price of one so to speak.

Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
No gigs planned at all for the rest of the year, since we are rehearsing the songs for the new album. The recording starts at the beginning of next year, after that we’ll see how we choose to go forward. Nothing booked as of yet, but we’re hoping for at least some gigs in the summer and once the album is out we’ll aim for a tour.

What are your plans for the future as a band?
See above. The new album will show a slight shift in musical style, but mainly an incredible lift in songwriting capacity. It’s a true killer of an album and I hope that listeners will agree.

Do you have any special plans for New Year’s Eve?
Not really. Another year in the grind of existence isn’t perhaps that much to celebrate. We won’t do anything together as a band but my guess is that we’ll all enjoy a good meal and good drinks.

How can people best support your band?
Follow, like, comment and share on social media. The algorithms need comments and shares to favour the band. Also buy our releases (shop.silentfuture.se), listen on streaming platforms and of course come to the shows if we play nearby.

Do you have any message for your listeners?
Support smaller bands struggling and go to concerts. Blessed be the sanctity of Death!

Links:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well