MASTER MASSIVE

Every year brings its share of musical surprises. One of the most pleasant surprises in 2026 was my encounter with Sweden’s MASTER MASSIVE, whose album “White Shadows” turned out to be a superb mixture of epic doom and classic metal featuring no less than 3 excellent vocalists.

The band’s history actually goes back decades but I don’t think they’ve ever had the visibility they enjoy now. Current label Fireflash Records deserves some thanks for that. With their help, I was able to set up this interview with Janne Strandh, the band’s longest serving member who has been with them since 1993!

Janne was one of the most informative subjects I’ve had in a while, so let’s get to it and dive right in…

WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: Greetings, Mr. Strandh, and thanks for talking to us. I have to say, I had never  heard of MASTER MASSIVE before “White Shadows” but I was blown away by  the album. I understand the band’s history goes back to the early 90’s?! Has  it been active all this time and what previous albums have you released? 

 JANNE STRANDH: Thank you for inviting me, and I'm glad you enjoyed the album.  

I've been involved in heavy metal bands since the early 1980s (ACT, AKT, ZANITY). In 1993,  the band was renamed MASTER MASSIVE.

In the mid-1990s, the music industry was moving in a direction that suited us very poorly.  In Sweden, guitar solos, falsetto screams, and everything associated with the 1980s were  completely out of fashion. We had grown rather tired of constantly being questioned and  dismissed.  Our first album, ”The Pendulum”, was really an attempt to create something different,  something that wasn't straight-up '80s music, but neither grunge nor death metal. So we  looked further back in time, to rock operas such as ”Jesus Christ Superstar” and decided  to create a heavy metal opera. 

 When the first mix was finished in 1997, I felt the album sounded rather dull. It took a couple of years before I decided to re-record some of the vocals and remix the album. It turned out better, but it still lacked that extra spark. At that point, I took a long break from heavier music and focused on studying and teaching music  instead.  It wasn't until 2014 that I seriously returned to ”The Pendulum”. By then, it had  been resting for so long that I could immediately hear what I liked about it, as well  as identify sections that needed to be cut to increase the pace and make it more listener-friendly. It has its flaws, but I think it's an incredibly vibrant and exciting album.  When ”The Pendulum” was released in 2015, I signed a deal with ViciSolum Productions  for one more album. That became ”Black Feathers on Their Graves”, which was released  in 2020. 

WC: It sounds like it was a painstaking process writing “White Shadows”. Did the  songs take a long time to put together or did things happen relatively  quickly? 

 JS:Both, actually! ”Nexus Noir” (the CD bonus track) was the first song to be completed. I  wrote it late on a Sunday evening and finished it the very same night. Most of the other  songs, however, were real struggles to complete, especially ”Noah's Cross”, which went  through many different versions. 

The biggest difference between this album and the previous one is that I now collaborate  with our bassist, Max Warnby, during the songwriting process. That has made writing  songs much more enjoyable, and the album has turned out to be more extroverted than our earlier work.  

A lot of the guitar solos also delayed the process. I like writing solos with unexpected key  changes and modal shifts, which tends to make things difficult for myself because they're  so hard to improvise over. As a result, I often have to compose the solos note by note  instead of improvising them. 

WC:The band is unique in that it features 3 full-fledged vocalists. This certainly has to give MASTER MASSIVE a unique chemistry. Do all the vocalists have the same say in how they perform?  

JS: Being a singer myself and also the songwriter, I'm the one who comes up with the initial  drafts. I tailor the vocal melodies to suit their voices and abilities. That way, the vocal  arrangements develop through a dialogue with the singers. Most of the time, they enjoy being challenged with melodies that are outside their usual comfort zone.  

WC: What was the process like trying to find the singers? Was there an audition or  were they guys that you already knew?  

JS: When ”White Shadows” had been fully composed, we realized that it had become very  dynamic and that it would be extremely demanding for a single vocalist to meet all the different shades we had envisioned. Masken (our singer since 2016) mentioned that Tony Niva (our singer from ZANITY and ”The Pendulum”) would suit certain parts, and it turned out he was eager to give it a try and come back to the band. Max then introduced us to the  singer Viktor Gustafsson, who had just moved to Skövde, our hometown. I thought he had an interesting timbre and a powerful, beefy vibrato. 

WC: Does the band have much live experience? If so, do all three vocalists appear  at a live show or just one or two? Can they do each other’s songs if  necessary? 

JS: We've performed live with the three-vocalist concept a couple of times. If one of the  singers can't make a rehearsal, someone else usually steps in to cover their parts. Having a band with three lead vocalists is still new to us, but we plan to perform all future gigs with  all three singers. 

 WC: It was a bold choice starting “White Shadows” with the longest song, “Noah’s  Cross”. Many bands would save such a track to end the album with. What  was the story behind this epic?  

JS: Our original plan was to open the album with a full-on metal banger, following the unwritten  rules of heavy metal. But we found the overture-like opening of ”Noah's Cross” simply  irresistible. The song also showcases so many different sides of the band that no other  track could have done the job as well. We've probably lost a few listeners because of that decision, but we also ended up creating a more epic album. At the same time, there are plenty of listeners who really love  that approach.

WC: Some of your influences are fairly obvious, like CANDLEMASS,  QUEENSRYCHE, HAMMERFALL. But what are some of the less obvious  influences on the band? 

 JS:Reading reviews and other reactions to our music lately has actually been quite  enlightening. For example, I hadn't really thought about the fact that my guitar playing is very thrash-oriented rather than traditional heavy metal. But it's true, I’ve gone through periods where I listened to and played a lot of bands like MEGADETH, mainly because of  the speed and intensity. It has influenced me more than I realized. 

 I'm also inspired by older music, especially Baroque music. That has led to some rather  unconventional voice leading in my guitar solos, vocal melodies, chord progressions, and  bass lines.

WC: What are your lyrical inspirations? With song titles like “Noah’s Cross” and  “Jonah And The Whale”, religion would seem to play a major part. 

JS: Sweden is one of the most secular countries in the world, and religion isn't nearly as  prominent a part of our culture as it is in places like the United States. The biblical  references are mainly there because they're such powerful stories, stories that people all  over the world recognize and can relate to. I've always enjoyed weaving biblical themes into my lyrics, though. There's a sense of mystery to them that fits the kind of music we  make. 

WC: Is there a theme running through the album or are the songs all self contained?

JS: There is a common theme running throughout the entire album: resistance and the ability  to bring about change. The songs are also arranged in a particular order to create a  dramatic arc. At the same time, we didn't want to impose an overarching narrative. We'd rather let the listener find their own path through the album.  

WC: Were there any songs that didn’t make the cut for “White Shadows” that  might appear in the future? 

 JS: The only one is ”Nexus Noir”, which appears as a bonus track on the CD edition. We've  already started looking at new songs again, so we'll see what we come up with. 

 WC: Are you involved in any other bands or projects? How about the rest of the band?

  JS: The other members of the band are involved in various other projects. Marcus ”Masken”  Karlsson (M.I.L.E.).Tony Niva (NIVA). Viktor Gustafsson (WATCHER). Max Warnby (WATCHER,  SEEDNA). Johan Björkman Hautajärvi (SEEDNA). Anders Ericson (HESTRA).  I also take on producer roles in different contexts. 

WC: If the band has any prior albums or EPs, is there a chance that Fireflash will  re-release them? I would be interested in that myself! 

JS: The following albums have been released:  

MASTER MASSIVE, ”The Pendulum” (ViciSolum Productions, 2015, CD)  MASTER MASSIVE, ”Black Feathers on their Graves” (ViciSolum Productions, 2020, CD)  ACT ”1984” (demo release) (Cult Metal Classics, 2022, Vinyl)  

ACT/AKT ”1984” (demo release) (Cult Metal Classics, 2022, CD)  

MASTER MASSIVE ”Time Out Of Mind” (demo release incl .ZANITY) (Cult Metal Classics, 2022,  Vinyl and CD)

WC: Did Fireflash contact you or did you seek them out?

JS: How we ended up signing with Fireflash is a nice story.

Back in 1987, my song “Time Out of Mind” was played on Swedish national radio on a  program that every heavy metal fan listened to at the time. One of those listeners was Uffe  Petterson of MEZZROW. He loved the song and never forgot it. Through mutual  acquaintances, I eventually learned about this, so I got in touch with him. He immediately  introduced me to Markus Wosgien and his label, Fireflash Records.

WC:If you could have dinner with any 3 people from history, who would they be?  

JS:I would invite Allan Holdsworth, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Robin Williams, for dinner.  

Johann Sebastian Bach is a unique figure who continues to fascinate so many musicians  and composers. He worked during the Baroque era and managed to create his own interpretation of the music of his time: recognizable, intricate, and far more sophisticated. Respected by his contemporaries, but celebrated to an extraordinary degree by later generations. 

Allan Holdsworth’s mind and technical abilities are something that many guitarists marvel  at. Like Bach, he created his own musical universe and a personal playing style that is  almost impossible to imitate. 

 Robin Williams, like the other two, was a genius in his own field. He understood everything  about dynamics, timing, and dedication. He is also needed in this company to lighten the  mood among these presumably rather introvert gentlemen, me included.  

WC: Have you ever had a “Spinal Tap” experience where things went wrong? This  doesn’t necessarily have to be for MASTER MASSIVE, either.

JS: A shock-rocker, a weird guy, wanted me to join his band as a guitarist for a show in  southern Europe. At the time, we lived far apart from each other, so we could only meet on  weekends, and they were few. After I had learned the entire repertoire by listening to his  records, I arrived at the first rehearsal and was met with the first unpleasant surprise: I was the only person in the band playing a tonal instrument. It was only me and the drummer  actually playing live; everything else was on tape.

To make matters worse, I was supposed to wear a mask and a top hat, and I wasn’t  allowed to play my own guitar. There were plenty of things that could go wrong, and they did.  I won’t go into every mishap that happened during the concert, but after we had played the final song, I caught a glimpse of a stripper walking onto the stage out of the corner of my  eye, and that’s when I started to get suspicious. The shock-rocker stepped up to me and  shouted into my ear: “You don’t stop playing until she’s finished!”  

The only thing I could think was that I hoped no photos of this would ever reach my wife. It  felt like the longest and worst guitar solo of my life.  No photos ever surfaced, but this weird guy was kind enough to remind people of the incident in his autobiography, many years later. He summed it all up with the words that  Jan Strandh had “lost it completely and was finished.” Hahaha! 

WC: Any last words or messages? 

 JS: To all the readers: If you're into melodic, heavy, yet creative heavy metal, you owe it to  yourself to check out MASTER MASSIVE's “White Shadows”. It just might be the hidden  treasure you've been searching for.  

MASTER MASSIVE