Full Attack Mode

Feed Her To The Sharks are back and they're looking for blood. It's been three years since The Beauty Of Falling dropped, but the quintet have lost none of the agility and technicality that marked their crushing debut. In between sips of lemon water, a freshly risen Andrew Vanderzalm says that the current direction for the band is the same, but it holds an amplified focus that's tightened each and every 'Sharks trademark.

“Parts are heavier... the melodic parts, I'm singing this time around. We tried to make the choruses better, the riffs a bit [bigger] and just pushing every extreme,” he relates. “[It's] an extended version from The Beauty Of Falling, and hopefully it's better.”

Helping take things to the next level with second release, Savage Seas, is Jan Benkwitz, an incredible skinsman (and long-time fan) who the band connected with thanks to his blasting YouTube channel. “The new stuff we were writing, it was so fast, and we auditioned so many drummers in Melbourne – Australia to a point – and we couldn't really find someone that was tight enough – we had to get a guy from Germany!” Vanderzalm exclaims.

For the vocalist, personal experiences have guided the lyrical content of this release; however, the LP remains without an overarching theme. Each song addresses different issues – different moments in the frontman's life. The goal: for even more fans to connect with Feed Her To The Sharks this time around.

“I think if you've had something firsthand that happens to you then you're going to make a better song,” he reasons. “If you're going through [a situation] or something happens to you and you've got a message and want to put it out there it's gonna be that much clearer. It's hard to think of a fictional story and [send] it out there; it's so much better firsthand, when people really believe the lyrics and get into it with you.”

And who better to harness this overall progression than Fredrik Nordström, a Swedish producer who has become synonymous with Australian metalcore thanks to his work with I Killed The Prom Queen, Buried In Verona and A Breach Of Silence, in addition to big name international metal acts such as Opeth and Bring Me The Horizon. The band ventured to Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, living and recording with Nordström and running mate Henrik Udd,

“Working with those two guys there... they're characters. But when it's time to get serious and get some serious sounds they're absolute professionals,” Vanderzalm says. “I think the first time that we walked into the studio, Fredrik made a point: 'Don't be serious, let's just have some fun and make a great fucking record'. He weighed it up for us – we got in really late and he had a chat with us, and he made the whole process seem like it was just a fucking holiday.”

With “99 per cent of the tracks, backing tracks, synths, everything done before [they] got into the studio”, 'Sharks were privy to be able to really soak up the setting – a white Christmas in Gothenburg – an atmosphere Vanderzalm calls perfect for crafting a record. They slept in bunks in the studio, made their meals in-house, and lived in each other's pockets. What that allowed the band to do, though, was tighten the chemistry internally, a fact that will no doubt shine through around the nation this month. “It really [tested] the fibre of the band,” Vanderzalm concludes, “but I think we've got a great group of blokes.”