Die seit 2009 aktive schwedische Metalcore Band Imminence ist bei Fans besonders beliebt für die mitreißenden Texte und emotionalen Geigen Soli. Sie vereinen Melodischen Metalcore mit Screams und Heavy Breakdowns, sowie klassischen Instrumenten. Zudem verbergen sich in ihren Musikvideos Geschichten, Erzählungen und Erlebnisse, die den Zuschauer in eine völlig neue Welt eintauchen lassen.
Am 2ten Oktober werden Imminence ihr sechstes Studio Album „Axis Mundi“ veröffentlichen. Wir haben uns mit Eddie, Harald und Alex zusammen gesetzt, um ein paar Eindrücke hinter die Kulissen zu erlangen. In der nächsten Woche finden ebenfalls Listening und Signing sessions statt, bei denen Fans schon die Chance haben in das Album reinzuhören. Den Film Axis Mundi kann man aber vorerst nur in England auf großer Leinwand schauen.
Frontstage: Hello Imminence, thank you so much for taking the time and sitting down with us. Next week on the 2nd of October you are releasing your sixth studio album Axis Mundi alongside a short film or musical with the same name. Let’s talk about it. When did this whole thing of turning the record into a film start as a crazy idea that’s now reality?
Harald: Early it started before the video concept was even discussed. I don’t know exactly when.
Eddie: I think it was in the spring right? So last year.
Harald: Was it that long ago?
Eddie: I think so. It’s like when we were pitched, the idea I think it was the label who asked us, what do you guys think about making a short film for the whole album, instead of music videos and just that as you know, we’re big fans of cinema, and we’ve always been a very cinematic band it just felt like immediately, we said yes without knowing at all, what we’re getting ourselves into.
Harald: Yeah, that idea was more like thrown out there. And then exactly how you do it, how you make a movie? We’ve never done that before, and you’re going to try to also make it very coherent with the actual album and the visuals of the album. Like, we have no idea on how to do that. So that took some figuring out to do. I think we wanted to tell the story that was like more cohesive than ever before, and that actually made sense, like that has a clearer message and a clearer story than ever. So we really needed to like, dig our heels in and make sure that we could deliver that.
Frontstage: What can fans expect from the movie that you wouldn’t necessarily understand from just listening to the album, though.
Eddie: I think if you just listen to the album, it’s not a clear story from A to B laid out for you. There’s so much open to interpretation, and even though I would say, the film is still open to interpretation, it’s a much clearer story from A to B that you can relate to on another level than by simply listening to the album.
Harald: Yeah, and I think it’s also taking sort of the feeling and the experience of what Imminence is into a whole new level. Like it’s a territory we haven’t discovered before, like, we know how to do that with our music. And we’ve done that with music videos before, but this is really something else. So I feel like it’s a really, really, it’s a whole new side of Imminence.
Frontstage: Absolutely, and we are really excited for it. Did making an actual film change the way you think about Imminence as a band or is it still like you know, this is Imminence, it’s just a band or are you diving more into cinematography in the future?
Harald: I guess we have to see, but I think at least for my part, I really feel like it expanded sort oft the limitations of what we can do
Eddie: And also it kind of forces you to dive deeper into the meaning of the album than you would normally do if you’re going to tell a story, then you need to also fully understand what you were trying to tell
Harald: Exactly, so it made us really dive deeper into the songs than ever before it was not just about, okay, let’s write an album, and then you know, you lay it out, some lyrics into this, and then we figure out a cool music video setting. I mean, this was really, really going, very, very deep in what we want to say with this album, what it’s really about, like, does it all make sense? So I feel like it was definitely a much more intense and sorrow, creative process than ever.
Frontstage: How difficult was it to translate something as personal and emotional as the album into characters, locations, mythology?
Harald: We [Eddie and I] started just writing together like a one pager. About a year ago, we were in Cloumbia. And we bounched our ideas back-and-forth for a while. And then we had a one pager of just the basic outline of what this new Film or Film idea would be like. We had never written such a thorough script because the outline that we had was pretty big. I mean in terms of what you could do with it in a timeline, in a Universe right now. I think we had already the knight we had already decided this is going to be like our album cover, and we knew it’s going to be the main character in the video universe, but we just sat there like we have a, knight where do we go from here, like what is supposed to happen? What kind of characters are there supposed to be?
Eddie: And I also remember we talked a lot about, like, if this is the main character, how can people relate to a knight that is literally trapped in its armor and doesn’t speak, doesn’t show any emotions like, how is anyone going to relate emotionally to a character like that? And that’s when the idea of introducing the companion of a dog came in. Because I think everyone can relate to that of having and showing love through something else. But obviously we also needed help to turn our idea into something of substance. So we had a screenwriter, who developed the actual script for the film and helped to bring this whole vision and story to a close
Harald: And we needed that, because we had protagonists, we had the element of the companion, and we had sort of the end goal like this is a character here who is given an opportunity to change their lives or change the direction of their lives and has to make a choice in order to change and become something new, and then we felt like we needed the input of somebody who actually works with this and got connected with the scriptwriter, who’s done a fantastic job together with us to kind of just lay everything into the right place.
Eddie: And they’re also with the experience of writing for actual film, as Harld said, we’ve never done this before. And like, of course, anyone can write a story. But how do you how do you translate that into this language?
Harald: Exactly, it’s really, really different from anything that we’ve previously had done.
Frontstage: Are you guys gonna make a behind the scenes Video? How this like whole thing came along, because I think that would be really interesting to follow.
Harald: Well, if you go watch the film on the cinema, you will watch the full BTS.
Frontstage: Oh, that’s amazing. That’s cool. What do you think will surprise fans most if they listen to the album for the first time?
Eddie: We really thought about this as not a collection of songs, but as an entity as an album to experience and when I’ve spoken to people like who have interviewed me about the album and they got to listen to it, I think they were all surprised about, like the diversity, and how it pulls you in on this journey, and I really hope that people feel that way and can feel how much time care and devotion we’ve put in to making this Entity.
Harald: Yeah, I think what will surprise people is maybe how far we decided to take things this time in every direction. I’m more so than mattered before.
Frontstage: I was in my bed with my headphones on and I cried throughout the whole album. So fair point. I also feel like the violin has an even bigger part on the record. Did you guys approach the violin any differently?
Eddie: I´m sorry. I´m sorry! I wouldnt say so. But I think actually the violin is maybe more prominent on the black, but its just in a different way. I feel like even though its maybe more frequent on the previous record, I feel it plays an even more important role on this record because its really like chossing your moments to say something with a violin instead of singing it.
Frontstage: And I mean, I am a big violin fan. And the way it works with and around everything is really emotional in my opinion. And I am really excited for everbody to listen to the record, but you also worked with people from outside of the band like Drew Fulk and Lukas Geppert. What did they bring to the record that you couldnt have achieved on your own?
Eddie: We started pretty early in the process of looking for someone to just bring in on the creative process, and we didn’t know what that would mean. We were very open to try something new. And when we finally settled on and started working with Drew, we had no idea what he would bring to the table, and the first thing that kind of struck us was that he didn’t want to change basically anything like he already thought that we had written great songs and was really interesting productions, and everything that he was like, I’m not going to try to fix something that isn’t broken. So in the end, he did some additional, layers to the songs. But I think he was more important in the role of making us realize the potential in our own songs and choosing and forming the album like he was very important in the process of choosing which songs do we put on this album and which order made us think about tracklisting, essentially in a new way.
Harald: And also, maybe shed some light tings that you can really see yourself, I mean, without Drew, there wouldn’t have been crestfallen on the album, and that song is like we had gone through and reviewed every track that we had, and then we were like, well, we had this other song that is not really finished. But we don’t know, it wasn’t called crestfallen at that time and we showed it you Drew, and it was like „this is amazing“, „really, you sure?“, and he was like, „yes, can we-, you gotta finish this one, can you please work on this and get back to me.“
Eddie: And so we did.
Harald: And and that became a single
Eddie: And when it comes to Luke, as that wasn’t planned at all, and we got introduced to each other, and at this stage, we were basically done with the entire album and with all the production, and we’re like, well. Let’s see what we can get out of this. So we asked him to completely rearrange one of the songs on the album and make an orchestral version of it. And when he sent that back to us, we were Completely mind blown, couldn’t believe what we heard. So we just said we have to involve him on the album as well. So we asked him to do additional orchestal arrangements throughout the record. So that was really, for me, like the the missing piece that I didn’t know was missing.
Frontstage: So I’m gonna guess there is another orchestra tour.
Harald: Thats in the future to discuss!
Frontstage: That would be really cool, and I think that would work very, very well with the album! But if a listener only hears the singles, what do you think they’re missing from the whole album, because I feel like the album is definitely one that you have to listen to like front to back to make the most sense and I mean, the 4 singles released are quite close together, like the bottom part is like completely missing. What twist does it bring into a listener’s mind?
Harald: In my opinion, I feel like the singles that we’ve chosen to release for this album are pretty much like pillars, you know, that are, in summary, representing big parts of the album, but then there are all those other layers and everything that connects these songs. You know, that show the full spectra of what this album is you can only get that by actually well listening to the album, you know, and I feel like these are four different pillars or puzzle pieces, and in order to connect them perfectly, you will need all the other songs, that’s how I feel.
Frontstage: Definitely, and it makes sense. But in general, with the whole production of the film and the album, did having such a big team outside of collaborators give you more creative freedom to express yourself’s creatively, or was it more new limitations that you didn’t know were there?
Eddie: I mean, I think for the songwriting, it was absolutely total freedom and we just did whatever we wanted to do, wrote the songs that we wanted to write. And There wasn’t much overlap on the film production in that way so we could once the album was finished, kind of shift our attention to really getting into the film. And of course, we have to be extremely grateful to the team who made it all possible, but you do start to see like, we’re all working on a budget, and we want to do this. And we want to tell this story, how do we do that in the best way possible with the means that we have.
Harald: Yeah, and I feel like everything that the team has been providing to us and also with their new Partners this time has essentially everyone has been very dedicated to understanding what we want to do, and it’s also sometimes helping us to understand what we want to do, because, you know, making a short film is something you can say, but you don’t know what you get at yourself into, but I feel like everybody has been so helpful in order to just understanding what are these guys trying to achieve here and how can we provide the right toolbox for this in order to to build this new element, everything else around it? And I mean, it wouldn’t have been possible without everyone.
Frontstage: How big is the team in general, like how many people have worked on this? What is the scope of Imminence.
Harald: This album or the movie
Frontstage: Both
Eddie: I mean, we’ve self-produced it together with Henrik, who is also the mixing engineer. I have a mastering engineer, and then we have the 2 code producers in Drew Fulk and Lukas Geppert.
Harald: And we have additional musicians.
Eddie: A friend Victor played cello, he’s been with us for a long time now, and a very old friend from school played the piano parts on the album. He’s a really good pianist. But yeah, the actual record production isn’t like a big team of people, like it’s very much driven and coming from us. But the film production, on the other hand that’s a very big and long list I haven’t counted, but like, if you look at a YouTube description on just a music videos, there’s a whole list and I don’t think that’s everyone that might have been everyone who was maybe involved in that certain part of the film, but I think the list is a bit longer.
Harald: So in the film development side, of course, it’s mostly you and me [Eddie] and of course, starting with Jacob or graphic designer who helped lay in down the first groundwork officials, and then Pavel our video director and Juan has been the scriptwriter, and then as you just said, Powell’s direction, like the video team and there are so many people and of course we are talking about as you know, off the camera back behind the camera working with it and also actors of course that we’ve hired for this thing so that this goes very, very big.
Frontstage: I think it’s amazing to have such a big team, but knowing that the album is still written and produced in like such a small circle, that’s what made you guys so special for me. That you guys are writing all of this by yourselves. And I’m really excited for the new scope of how this is going, where this is going. I want to know which one of those 11 songs is your favorite on Axis Mundi?
Harald: Shed your skin.
Eddie: That’s varying, but I think that if not now, when is really, really special.
Alex: Exodus.
Frontstage: I really like twisting in the wind! Okay, but last question is the question I always ask Harald, when’s your hair care routine coming?
Harald: Ooh, it’s closer than ever before.
Frontstage: Very good, we need it. Thank you guys so much for sitting down with me and talking to me. It means a lot to me as a person and I am looking forward to the album release.
Am Montag, den 28ten September erscheint unsere offizielle Review zum neuen Album Axis Mundi von Imminence. Erscheinen tut dieses am 2ten Oktober 2026 gemeinsam mit einem Kurzfilm. Zudem finden gerade exklusive Signing sessions und listening parties statt:
25.09.2026 – Leipzig
Naumanns Tanzlokal
Leider gibt es noch kein Datum oder Kino in Deutschland, weches den Imminence Kurzfilm ausstrahlen wird.
Hier findet ihr alle daten von Imminenece Headliner tour 2027:
09ter Januar 2027: Hamburg – Sporthalle
17ter Januar, 2027: Düsseldorf – Mitsubishi Electric Halle
19ter Januar, 2027: Offenbach am Main – Stadthalle
20ter Januar, 2027: Ludwigsburg – MHPArena
27ter Januar, 2027: Munich – Zenith
29ter Januar, 2027: Berlin – Columbiahalle
30ter Januar, 2027: Leipzig – Haus Auensee
Fotocredit: Offizielle Grafik/Dorota Szulc
