Once the tracks have been recorded, the members of Bloodbath discussed what could be missing, what could still be added to bring some texture or variety. This is where the ideas for collaborations hatched – and what collaborations! Nick Holmes list these luxury cameos: “I asked Barney (Greenway) to come on “Putrefying Corpse”. I thought there was something Napalm Death in the song, and that her voice would be perfect there, which it was. Then, I found that in the chorus of “To Die” there was a vibe a bit Chuck Schuldiner (vocalist of Death), et Mark Grewe of Morgoth has a high timbre, quite similar to that which had Chuck, and he did a superb job on this title. Finally, Luc Lemay of Gorgut participated in “Carved” and also let out some shouts on “Born Infernal””.
Arrived in Bloodbath in 2014, Old Nick didn’t really have time to participate in the writing of the album Grand Morbid Funeral, already largely composed. Author of the lyrics of a single piece of this opus (“Unite In Pain”), the vocalist took a little more pen to The Arrow of Satan is Drawn (2017), but participated much more on this last album in terms of writing.
The challenge was great, and the new frontman tackled the task with determination. Taking on a substantial repertoire on stage without having participated in the composition of the pieces proved to be difficult, but, as he puts it with humor and wisdom, “as long as you do your homework, everything is fine. I had to work, familiarize myself with these pieces, the way of singing, etc. And it went well, but it took me weeks and weeks of hard work. The greatest difficulty with Bloodbathit is the vocal intensity that exists in the oldest pieces.“
A place now assumed, and a talent that silences the reservations heard here and there when the announcement of his arrival after Mikael Akerfeldt as vocalist. “When I joined the band eight years ago, many thought, because of what I was doing with Paradise Lostthat there would be changes in the sound of Bloodbath : that it would become much less aggressive, with even acoustic passages, or even (how awful!) clean vocals! – which is not at all the case, it is not in the DNA of Bloodbath.“
Aside from his Yorkshire accent, Nick Holmes did not wish to bring a British identity into Bloodbath. On the contrary, he happily slipped into the shoes of the frontman of a Swedish band. “I really like Sweden and Stockholm. I regret that I don’t speak Swedish, but I think I’ll fix that soon. When they all start chatting together in Swedish, I can’t follow and I go into my thoughts!“