SCAREFIELD, the electrifying, horror-infused force in the world of thrash metal, SIMONE MANULI and MARKUS KRISTOFFERSSON, invites you to enter the scarefields with their debut album, A QUIET COUNTRY. This album, in vinyl, cd, and streaming formats, contains 11 songs of pure melodic, speedy, thrash madness that is sure to leave listeners awestruck. The dreaded fields await!
A QUIET COUNTRY brings to mind vast fields of corn, cabins in old forests and unlit dirt roads leading away from the light of civilization. We chose this title for its dual meaning. While it initially suggests calmness and tranquillity, it can hint at an underlying tension or mystery: beneath the peaceful exterior of a countryside setting, there could be hidden secrets or a darker side waiting to be revealed. This duality characterizes the music and the lyrics. It is like a collection of tales in a storybook where the apparent peace of the countryside masks something sinister beneath the surface, prompting exploration and uncovering mysteries within this ostensibly tranquil setting.
This, our debut album, is the result of a long process of hard work, and we are pleased to finally be able to share it with the world” – SCAREFIELD
Told through the energetic, heavy, and melodic songs throughout the album, A QUIET COUNTRY contains a wide variety of musical styles from thrash to speed/power metal. It will remind you of many metal bands: Blind Guardian, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pantera.
Accompanying the album release is a story driven music video for the single “CHILD OF THE CORN,” a song full of rage and regret made to touch our deepest emotions. Here, the intimate character of the opening melody is suddenly broken by the fury of guitars and raging vocals that evoke the lacerating memories of a past that cannot be healed.
All songs are written and recorded by Manuli / Kristoffersson, produced and mixed by Simone Manuli and mastered by Ronnie Björnström.
“This our debut album is the result of a long process of hard work, and we are pleased to finally be able to share it with the world.”
ANCIENT EVIL is a song based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft adapted from the short story ‘The Call of Cthulhu’. The song functions simultaneously as an ode to the works by the late father of cosmic horror as well as an expression of the love we share for classic horror that permeates our music.
DEAD CENTER is heavy and trashy, simply massive. The topic explored in the song is one of ambiguity, the feeling of standing on a thin line between two choices that can never be made and the chaos within that manifests as a result. What at an outside glance may appear as madness may in fact just be an attempt at release from the mundane and perpetuality of the everyday.
ALTAR OF FEAR is a melodic song inspired by a real-life event in childhood. One summer during St Lawrence night we went to watch the shooting stars when we happened upon an abandoned house in the open countryside. Within this house we saw a group of cultists worshipping the Devil. At the time we were so afraid, we didn’t speak of it in a month after! The sentences in the chorus are borrowed from John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness.
SPECTRE expands the already massive input of genres contained within the album. Groovy, low beat, and rhythm driven, this song tells the story of a person who has just died only to wake up a ghost doomed to haunt the house of a loved one. Love keeps him imprisoned in this world. And the loved one doesn’t know about his death yet, she is scary and feels something wrong.
CHILD OF THE CORN is a song of calm, regret, chaos, and the call of the fields around the rural areas. This song is the epitome of our project: the melody follows the regrets of the past and ends up colliding with the lacerating memories evoked by the furious speed of the music and the scratchy voice.
GOD OF TERROR is an analogous story based on Greek mythology and the story of Zeus and Cronos. A fast and epic song that contains much of the harsh vocals only sparsely used throughout the album.
PRIMITIVE SHADOWS is a fast, breathtaking song. It is inspired by the dramatic sequence of the founding of the Statue of Liberty from Planet of the Apes movie. To be candid, the current events are not particularly promising in the world, we imagined how it would be easy to lose civilisation, wealth, knowledge and falling in a new dark age where mankind is just like wild primitive human beings praying their idols and living in caves. The chorus is ironic and evokes the allegory of the cave by Pluto.
DREAM, the title really says it all! This song is describing a dream sequence with both lyrics and instruments designed to make the listeners imagine the scenery described. It is carefully composed to capture the strangeness and awesomeness that can only be found in our dreams.
SHIVER is a groovy song, there’s a bit of ‘Pantera’ and a bit of ‘Metallica in it. The lyrics fit perfectly the classic horror movies from the 80’s, a Nightmare on Elm Street in particular. This was also one of the first songs we worked on together, we didn’t even have the band name at that time. It was a good way to become familiar with our songwriting.
ALWAYS is a rock ballad. The acoustic guitars and the vocal lines bring the listener to an intimate atmosphere outlined by regretful tones where the present gets confused with the memories until the culmination moment and the explosion of the electric guitars. The words in the chorus play with regret in the brain of the main character who betrayed the oath of love.
GOODBYE is a fitting song to finish of the album. In this song we attempt to capture the feeling of being on the brink of death. The song is inspired by panic attacks which for some people can feel like they’re experiencing a heart attack or a stroke. Placing it at the end of the album was fitting as the last words spoken on the album rings out saying GOODBYE…
A Quiet Country Track List
1. Ancient Evil
2. Dead Center
3. Altar of Fear
4. Spectre
5. Child of the Corn
6. God of Terror
7. Primitive Shadows
8. Dream
9. Shiver
10. Always
11. Goodbye
Purchase / Stream A Quiet Country Online
SCAREFIELD is a speed/thrash metal band inspired by the horror genre, in particular by the colourful and bombastic 80’s horror movies. The music consists of many familiar themes of both speed and thrash metal with additional influences from more modern forms of metal music, such as melodic death metal, as well as classic heavy metal.
SIMONE MANULI, the founder of SCAREFIELD reached out from the plains of northern Italy to the frigid north of the arctic circle in northern Sweden where he would come in to contact with vocalist MARKUS KRISTOFFERSSON. The music, produced by Simone, was co-written and co-composed by the two members, melding their unique styles and influences into an interesting new take on the classic metal styles incorporated.
Self-produced and -written, the music contains massive atmosphere, fast riffs, melodic strings and heavy drums. The vocals are a mix of clean melody and power as well as the harsher death metal style vocals of the modern day. The lyrics contain topics such as personal stories, interesting concepts and of course the aforementioned horror theme!
