Fulfilling The Prophecy With CHRIS ADAMS From SMASH INTO PIECES

Interview by Kris PetersAfter conquering the rest of the world on the back of their smash hit album Ghost Code in 2023, Swedish rock outfit Smash Into Pieces are turning their sights to Australia, announcing their first-ever trip to our shores next month.A band renowned for their spectacular live performances, Smash Into Pieces are bringing their new-look, latest production ArmaHeaven Prophecy here for three select shows starting in Melbourne on August 22 – a high-intensity experience of music and stunning visuals that embodies their motto: “don’t let anything stand between you and your dreams… if it does, smash it into pieces”."In the world of ArmaHeaven, a new reality is born through AI – only to be threatened by the very force that created it," so the story goes. "The prophecy has been written… but it can still be altered. This is more than a concert. It’s a message. A warning. A choice … The ninth chapter begins now. Join the movement. Alter the prophecy."With a new album in the can and the band primed for their debut Down Under performances, frontman Chris Adam sat down with HEAVY, where we grilled him from the start, demanding to know why the band have neglected Australia for 17 years."I guess we… I mean, it's a good question," he replied. "Ever since the start with Smash Into Pieces, the analytics have shown that you are in the top 10 countries for us. I guess when we were kinda new as a band, we couldn't really afford to get there, and we didn't really sell tickets. So it's a mix between those two. The interest has always been there to go there, but, as I said, that's the reasons why we couldn't get there before. But now it's time. We own our music. We own everything in the company, so now we can afford certain things. It's time. It's definitely time to go there."The ArmaHeaven Prophecy is a conceptually based production centring on AI and the threats it poses to the human race, leading us to ask if the whole show - inclusive of visuals and lyrics - is part of the concept."We have had this storytelling from the beginning," Adam measured, "and ever since we started doing the new album. So it's definitely in the lyrics, but we're also tweaking it so it's not too much singing about a computer. It's more flirting with the concept and the ideas we have. We always try, with our lyrics, to be not taken too far, so people can resonate with their own thing to it."In the full interview, Chris talks more about the upcoming tour and what to expect, how the music fits in with the conceptual idea, how it represents a "bold new era of storytelling and sound" and elaborates further on the conceptual story. He runs us through the music that makes up the live show and if it is all new or a mixture across their catalogue, the new album and what to expect, the temptation to rehash the successful formula of Ghost Code and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.