“T

he little person, the little thing, can be something really important. I want that message to come out. You can be small or oppressed or the ‘wrong’ sex or race, but you’re still important and you should sing your own song.”

The last time Swedish post-everything crew Agrimonia conjured a new album, vocalist and lyricist Christina Blom was recovering after being laid brutally low by a pitiless bout of endometriosis that had been exacerbated by a botched surgical procedure. The resultant record, Rites Of Separation, was self-evidently and forgivably driven by a profound sense of emotional and physical distress, Christina’s feral roar providing her with a welcome outlet for all that real-life anguish. Five years on, Agrimonia have finally pieced together another album, but from the opening slow-motion rush of A World Unseen onwards, Awaken is unmistakably singing a very different and far less introspective song of its own. Although musically more diverse, dynamic and, at times, laidback than any of its predecessors, the band’s incensed dismay at the state of the world in 2018 comes across loud and clear.

“I agree,” Christina nods. “This album isn’t about anything specific that happened in my life. It’s more about the unfairness that happens to people in the world. Maybe there were things happening around me that had an impact, but if I’m honest I should’ve been angrier on the last album because the stuff that happened to me when I was sick was truly awful. Those lyrics were more like a healing process. This time? I don’t know. It’s still a dark record. I know it sounds dark but I wanted there to be a light at the end of the tunnel, too.”