TOMAS SKOGSBERG THE GODFATHER OF SWEDISH DEATH METAL
A CLOSE LOOK INSIDE THE LEGENDARY SUNLIGHT STUDIOS.
It’s just past midnight and Swedish producer, engineer, and Sunlight Studios owner Tomas Skogsberg gets me to do a final vocal take on a new track of mine, “Overload”, that we’ve been working on for the past six hours. Having already laid down drums, acoustic guitars, and now lead vocals, it’s been a marathon effort. I’m here all the way from Australia, spending two days recording at the famed birth place of Swedish death metal. Located about an hour drive north-east of Stockholm, the unassuming studio sits quietly in the Swedish forest. The converted barn cum studio has for three decades, quietly been churning out a signature sound that became the template for what is now known as the Sunlight Studio Sound.
It all started back in late 1989, when a newly formed group out of Stockholm called Entombed entered Sunlight Studios to record their debut album, LeftHandPath. Helming production and engineering duties was Skogsberg, who encouraged the band to experiment with a Boss HM-2 guitar pedal, and by cranking all the knobs to maximum they discovered a heavily distorted harsh guitar sound, which sounded like a swarm of bees. Released the following year, the record’s then new sounds proved influential, firmly establishing Skogsberg’s studio as Sweden’s death metal central.
The Boss HM-2 pedal – H and M standing for Heavy Metal – is at the core of the Swedish death metal sound, that together with the guitars (usually tuned down to C# or C and even as low as B, and plugged into either a Peavey Studio Pro 40 – used primarily on LeftHandPath – or a Peavey Bandit 50,) has come to be defined as the Sunlight ‘buzzsaw’ guitar tone template.
“For extreme metal guitar sounds, I prefer the Boss HM-2 pedal with much of the midrange in place,” reveals Skogsberg. “I also like the Marshall amp sound, too. With another type of rock’n’roll, like punk rock, I have to think in a different way, so the Marshall sound is something I will consider. But because I work with death metal and a whole lot of similar sounding stuff 90 percent of the time, that Boss HM-2 pedal is the sound I work with primarily.”
Guitar tones are of particular interest to Skosberg, who has created his own modus operandi to capture them in the studio. “I use an AKG Solid Tube but I only use it for acoustic guitars and vocals,” he explains. “I don’t use that mic for recording electric guitars though. For electric guitars I use an Audio-Technica AT41 and sometimes a Shure SM57. I will only use one microphone and I will always do a close mic position to the speaker. The AKG is a solid tube mic, which I also will use for example, on a bluesy sounding guitar part where you want to keep some reverb or something happening. That is a very good mic to use, but not for heavy metal sounds. I will use a different mic for that, but mainly my go to mic is the Audio-Technica”.
While distorted guitar sounds are usually heard emanating out of the studio, most will be surprised to hear that Skogsberg also has an ear for good acoustic guitar tones. It is something he first encountered as a teenager listening to David Bowie’s 1971 release, HunkyDory. In particular, he singles out the track “Queen Bitch” as being the holy grail of what a good acoustic guitar sound should sound like. “It is a guitar sound with a lot more brilliance and an EQ that features much more of the bass frequencies,” he affirms. “It sounds like ‘zing zing’.”
The aforementioned midrange sound is one of the key elements that characterises Skogsberg’s productions from all the others, so much so that Skogsberg has earned the nickname of Doctor Midrange. “I like midrange, so they call me Doctor Midrange,” he affirms. “I am for the EQ, the midrange and the Boss HM-2 pedal, which in itself, also helps to bring the midrange sound”.
What makes Skogsberg and his studio also unique is the fact the studio is one of the last bastions of the analogue age. His studio is filled with old school hardware, two-track tape machines and the like, with an old 1995 version of the Logic software program the only signs of modern digital technology in use. When it comes to guitars, his studio walls are lined with several guitars that are used, when needed, for recordings, such as a no-name battered old custom light blue Telecaster fitted with P–90s in the neck position, a single coil in the bridge position, and an Epiphone Gold top electric. Those wanting to use the studio’s house gear use both guitars heavily and when some tonal textures are required.
With my two recording sessions now done (the bass track is added at another session later), I depart the studio and make my way back to Stockholm, leaving the track to be mixed by Skogsberg.