Gothenburg, Sweden's resident blues rock barons Graveyard gave fans quite the trip when they announced their unexpected breakup in September of 2016.
Five months later, the foursome were back, albeit without founding member and drummer Axel Sjöberg.
On May 25th the retooled and revived Graveyard will release their fifth studio album Peace worldwide through Nuclear Blast.
"It's good to be back. We missed it quite a bit," shared guitarist Jonatan LaRocca Ramm in an interview with Metal Injection. "We just play music. It feels great to be back."
Drumming duties will be handled by Oskar Bergenheim, who Ramm sites as an amazing jolt of energy to the group
"He's an amazing drummer. He know what he's doing and he's a great person and of course that's just as important. We feel he's fitting right in. We were lucky I suppose."
Confronting the bands' unexpected breakup head on, Ramm shares that at the time the group was being pulled in different directions, to the point where carrying on as status quo was near impossible.
"It was a bad time within the group," he said. "We started to move in different directions and we couldn't understand each other. That's why Axel chose to quit. It was a long time without us knowing if we were going to get back at all, or if we would try again. I guess we did as in school, you just have to raise your hand if you want to continue. That was the question in the end. We did."
Graveyard have always occupied a rare space in the hard rock/heavy metal spectrum – their varied influences dictating as much.
"It's always been a lot about Black Sabbath, which has been a big inspiration to everybody," Ramm said. "Also a lot of blues music and blues rock. I think everybody started with some sort of punk or hard rock. I think we all individually moved on to that kind of blues rock or heavy rock. That part brought us together as Graveyard somehow."
Graveyard's newest album Peace is everything fans love about the band dialled up to eleven. Heavier, bluesier and impossibly catchy, leadoff singles like "Please Don't" show that guys haven't lost a step.
"It was definitely a great experience to record this album," Ramm said. "It went smoother than it has, ever probably. We were on the same page and the dynamics were really good.
"I hope people still relate to Graveyard," he adds. "We still sound like Graveyard, but it's also at a new level kind of. I hope people enjoy it."
Graveyard's Peace is available May 25th on all major platforms. Pre-order here.
