SOURCE WEBZINE | We don’t have readers – we have believers.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Not all of our readers might know you, so maybe you could start off and tell us a bit about the background for The Cleansing?
Toke Eld (V) – Sure no problem. As some of you might know, we had a band called Usipian before we started The Cleansing. Jeppe, Andreas and myself just didn’t feel we could do what we wanted to do with Usipian, so we felt it was easier to just split up, instead of starting a different style with the same band. After Jeppe and Andreas had written a couple of songs we asked Morten to take the drums, which, after listening to the songs that we had made, was more than happy to – even though he has more than enough bands to keep him occupied. After that we just concentrated on making good songs.

There was a pretty clear vision on what kind of death metal we would produce with The Cleansing, and I can speak on all of us when I say we are all very happy with the result. It’s pretty much exactly what we wanted to do.

We knew we wanted to make a full length straight away. We didn’t want to do a demo or a mini or something like that. We made a full length and shopped it around.

We then felt that we had something to offer, instead of being a band for a long time, with no real music. Now we can begin to reach out and play concerts etc. I think it’s better that way. It feels like a lot of smaller bands makes t-shirts before they make music you know? Of course we also have the advantage that we all have been in bands for the last 10 years.

SOURCEWEBZINE – “Poisoned Legacy” marks your debut on the Deep Send Records. Tell us about the how the album came together?
Toke Eld (V) – The songs were pretty much all written in 2007 by Jeppe and Andreas. The two of them sits in Jeppes home studio and compose for 2 or 3 days a week. Because our drummer live in the other end of the country, we can’t rehearse 3 or 4 times a week anyway. We just outline the basic drums with a computer, and rehearse with that whenever we feel like we have to rehearse together. And it gives us much more time to shape the songs as we want them. I can personally rehearse by myself in our rehearsal room with only the iPod plugged in. This is perfect for us, since none of us really want to be standing there rehearsing the same songs over and over again till you just want to puke all over it. We can get away with just rehearsing them when we’re going to play concerts.

SOURCEWEBZINE – So, how are The Cleansing doing at the moment? How far or long are you guys into the release of your new album and how are you living towards the release date?
Toke Eld (V) – Well, “Poisoned Legacy” has just been released, and we have only gotten a few reviews by now. They all seem positive though, which is pretty cool. The idea now is to play Denmark thin and get our name out there before we have to tackle the next album, which we are currently writing. We are hoping to do a mini tour with a bigger band within the next couple of months, but nothing has been set in stone yet. It’s all thoughts in progress.

SOURCEWEBZINE – What do you think divides The Cleansing from other bands in the similar genre?
Toke Eld (V) – We’re not out here claiming to re-invent the wheel. We just feel like making good death metal. There’s isn’t much else to it. We just try to do what we feel we want to listen to ourselves. I don’t think we’re that much different than other bands, but at the same time we try to do our own stuff. Nobody wants to listen to the same Behemoth or Morbid Angel album for all eternity, so we just want to give the crowd some good quality music. If we can compete with the big ones only time can tell, but I think we are up for it. What you do doesn’t have to be all original. It just have to be really good, and the bar these days are set very high.

SOURCEWEBZINE – What are your plans to promote the record?
Toke Eld (V) – We hope to go on the road and promote it with a lot of concerts, but as I said before nothing is certain yet. One thing is for sure though, we don’t get recognized by sitting at home on our asses, so we will try and get out there as much as possible. We are here to stay.

SOURCEWEBZINE – What are you doing besides The Cleansing, job wise as well as hobbies?
Toke Eld (V) – We all have jobs of course since playing death metal doesn’t pay the bills. At all hehehe Jeppe and me are taking education though. Me as an electrician, Jeppe as an electronics engineer.

Personally I’m also very much into movies. Always has been. Movies and Martial Arts. But I also dives and skis as much as I can. You can go to myspace.com/thecleansingnet and find our personal profiles for more information.

SOURCEWEBZINE – What do you see as the main differences between The Cleansing and the mass of Metal bands from Denmark ?
Toke Eld (V) – I wouldn’t necessarily call it a main difference, but our above all codex is blending catchy and brutal elements. Meaning that we don’t go out of our way to make it as brutal as possible or anything like that. It should sound and feel like death metal, but we try make it as memorably as we can. It’s a tough competition though as we have some very strong and skilled bands in Denmark right now.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Fan reaction, as is often the case, seems to have been mixed if the Internet reaction is any indication. Have you gone online much, if at all, to read some of the responses that fans have had to the new album?
Toke Eld (V) – I haven’t really actually. Since people don’t really know us yet, it would seem strange to me if we were the highlight of every forum discussion out there. But from people we know, or are otherwise in contact with, the responses seems to be very positive. I haven’t heard any negative feedback of any kind yet. But of course I look forward to hearing more as we feel it’s a strong album, and I’m always curious to know if people feel the same way. Even though we make the music primarily for ourselves, it’s nice to know if we have an audience. There’s not much fun in having a conversation with yourself right?

SOURCEWEBZINE – What do you see the future of death metal? Do you think it will go on its own, or do you think it will have to adapt to the modern times in order to survive?
Toke Eld (V) – I think it’s looking very bright actually. When I started listening to death metal in 1990 it was beginning to built up. In 1993 it seemed huge. Every show was almost sold out here in Denmark. Around 1996 it started to decline, and it seemed it would go back to be ultra underground. But these last five years or maybe more, it seems that extreme metal has returned. It’s something most people know of. Death metal won’t change or adapt or anything. Death metal will always be there in it’s present form, but in many variations. Some bands will mix it with other genres, like All that Remains or something like that, but that’s nothing new. Fear Factory did that as well many years ago. It’s not a trend that will infiltrate death metal and transform it into something unrecognisable.

I think with the wide spread of information, music and movies on the internet, more and more people accept that there’s something different than their own tastes. People don’t give me a weird look or anything like that when they learn what I mostly listens to. I think death metal is much more accepted as an artistic form of music now. People know it isn’t just some morons making noise because they haven’t learned how to play their instruments.

I think mostly black metal bands take credit for that now these days hehehehe.

SOURCEWEBZINE – You worked with Jacob Hansen on the new album, what was that like?
Toke Eld (V) – Unfortunately I was unavailable at the time we mixed the album, so I honestly haven’t spent that much time around him. But he seemed like a professional chilled out dude, pretty easy to work with. I would recommend him in a heartbeat.

SOURCEWEBZINE – What do you learn from working with Jacob Hansen? What’s the best advise he has given you?
Toke Eld (V) – I think Jeppe was the one learning the most, since he is a sound engineer as well. Maybe Jacob Hansen taught him ‘a trick or two’ hmm?

SOURCEWEBZINE – You must have some funny stories from the recording time with Jacob Hansen?
Toke Eld (V) – Nope, none whatsoever. It was all pretty straight forward. Sorry to disappoint hahaha.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Please feel free to add a last comment?
Toke Eld (V) – Yeah man, thanks for the interest! I hope people will check out The Cleansing, and keep death metal alive. Over and out.

The Cleansing Site
The Cleansing Myspace
Deep Send Records