Denmark’s Cabal have unleashed a brutal full length effort earlier this month with Drag Me Down via Long Branch Records (order here). We caught up with frontman Andreas Bjulver Paarup to discuss their new album and remaining optimistic as best as possible throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

How has the reception been so far with the new album, Drag Me Down?

It’s been surprisingly really good, actually. Every review we’ve received have been really good and constructive. We’re really happy with the reception.

What was it like getting Trivium’s Matt Heafy involved for “Bitter Friend?”

It was kind of surreal. I think most of us in the band have been listening to Trivium at some point in our lives. Like informative years, if you listen to metalcore, of course you listen to Trivium. So actually getting to do something with Matt Heavy was wild. Looking back, playing World of Warcraft and listening to Trivium when I was fourteen or something like that. 

What are some things you’ve done differently with this album compared to your debut?

I think we focused more on writing more choruses. We also tried to make the songs have more of an individual sound and try to be less repetitive and work on new things in the songs. So it would be more like a dynamic listening experience.

The record has a lot of intensity from beginning to end, what songs were more challenging for you to put together?

I think it was the Danish song, “Sjælebrand.” It was different because we did most of the song in Danish and I’ve never written a song in my own language before. That felt  more like a challenge and a cool thing to try out.

Since we’re living in a time of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has there been any talks about your upcoming tour in September?

Not anything else that it should be happening. Obviously, everything could happen but I think we’re staying optimistic. There’s still a long time before that but yeah, we’re staying optimistic.

It’s a good mentality to have right now, staying optimistic. We need more of that these days. What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this time of quarantine?

I have been doing a lot of digital marketing for the new album. I’ve been playing Nintendo a lot.

What games have you been playing on Nintendo? 

I’ve been playing this indie game from Nintendo Switch called Blasphemous, it’s really really good. It’s kind of like those old 80s arcade games. I think it was 16bit or something like that but it’s well thought through and super dated.

When do you think touring in general will resume and what our new normal will look like once this pandemic is over?

I hope it will resume sometime after the summer or at least start again. The new normal, I don’t even know. I see different scenarios that can play out. Maybe we will end up in a situation where everybody’s touring at the same time, which will be nobody can attend everything and too many bands touring and competing for the same audience. Or every show will be packed out because everybody’s just dying to go out and do stuff again. I’m not sure but I hope it’s the latter one.

Both in a way are optimistic outlooks. Hopefully, this will bring more people to shows and less use of their cellphones during shows as well. Finding a new sense of appreciation. Is there anything else you wanted to say about the new album?

I hope everyone likes the album and continues listening to it and comes out to our shows once we are available to play again…or allowed.