Swedish heavy band Imminence make their Australian live debut when they perform at Good Things Festival this December – as well as two headline sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne.
Imminence have been wanting to come to Australia for a long time, so being able to trade one week of a Swedish winter for an Australian summer is the cherry on top.Imminence have made their mark with their signature sound of classical string arrangements and Scandinavian metal, best displayed on their 2024 album 'The Black'. They're so in demand, their Melbourne sideshow sold out in presale – even though the band has never set foot in the country before.
Vocalist and violinist, Eddie Berg says it's an incredible feeling. "It's amazing, you know. As a band, you never know. You can look at your streaming numbers or whatever, but that never really translates into ticket sales and like, who's going to show up when you actually come and play. So it's kind of like what happened to us the first time we hit the [United] States, it feels incredible."
Since the release of 'The Black' in April, Imminence have been propelled to the next level. However, Eddie also thinks their recent American headline tour plays a big part in this. "I mean, I do think ['The Black'] impacted the success, but I also think that the US has played a big part in that, no?
"Like it seems a European band goes over to the US, first time as a headliner and does a great job. I think that has a ripple effect. I think the album as well, we're really proud of the work that we did and it's very rewarding to see all the response from all the fans and everyone. I think it all culminates together."
Eddie's combination of clean and screaming vocals while also playing the violin is one of distinct aspects of the band that has made them a must see live act. It took Eddie some time to realise he could incorporate the violin as a lead instrument.
"I started playing violin when I was five and I didn't get into singing until my teenage years, just for fun. I started to discover heavier music like Linkin Park and In Flames. I love to sing their songs at home and stuff like that.
"Eventually we started playing together as a group of friends, just playing covers and I really fell in love with singing. That took me on this different path of going into metal music. We incorporated the violin in terms of string arrangements pretty early on, but I never thought about it like a lead instrument. It was more a studio thing for me. It was a couple of years later for us as a band where it came to fruition."
Imminence's sound is a refreshing combination of classical and metal, which makes it feel unique compared to anything else done in the past. Although there were metal bands that Eddie grew up covering, there weren't many influences for this specific hybrid of genres.
"The only times I came across strings and metal music was maybe more like folk metal music stuff. . . maybe an Irish influence in terms of the style. I was never really a fan of that.
"So, when I brought [strings] in, I always felt like that was an extension of myself in terms of representing a certain emotion. I never feel like it needed to be flashy, it's more to make a melody or put [the music] in a place where it makes sense to evoke an emotion; it has to give something to the song."
Although Imminence have just released a full-length album this year, the songwriting well isn't close to running dry. "I will say that it's the fastest we've ever started [writing new material] after releasing an album because usually we felt like we needed some down time to reset and you know, find inspiration and be creative again.
"This time around when we wrote 'The Black', we were kind of working against a time limit. . . we booked the studio time already before the album was finished. We could always move it if we needed to, but we still set that goal for ourselves.
"Some of my favourite songs on this record were written towards the end and we were really creative, we had a really good flow and I was kind of like, 'okay, we have to stop because now we're going into the studio'. That creativity felt like it never really left us. Out of like natural causes we needed to have a little bit of a break, but we got back on the horse pretty soon and it feels great."
Imminence 2024 Tour Dates
Tue 3 Dec - Crowbar (Sydney)* selling fastThu 5 Dec - Stay Gold (Melbourne)* sold out
Good Things Festival 2024 Line-up
KornSum 41
Violent Femmes
Electric Callboy
Billy Corgan w/ The Delta Riggs
Mastodon
Kerry King
The Gaslight Anthem
Jet
The Living End
L7
Northlane
Bowling For Soup
Alpha Wolf
Sleeping With Sirens
The Butterfly Effect
311
AViVA
Destroy Boys
Dragon
Frank Turner And The Sleeping Souls
From Ashes To New
Grandson
Highly Suspect
Imminence
Killing Heidi (performing 'Reflector' in full)
Loathe
Reliqa
Taylor Acorn
Stage 666
Good Things Festival 2024 Tour Dates
Fri 6 Dec - Flemington Racecourse (Melbourne)Sat 7 Dec - Centennial Park (Sydney)
Sun 8 Dec - Brisbane Showgrounds
