Then Comes Silence: ‘Conformity Will Always Be the Enemy of Creativity’
Then Comes Silence discuss identity, conformity and their eighth album, “Requiem Ballroom,” due 20 November 2026 on Metropolis Records.
Photo: Karo Kratochwil
Then Comes Silence have reached a point where the more interesting question is no longer whether they have an identifiable sound, but what they are prepared to do with an identity that has become so clearly their own. Formed in Stockholm in 2012 and operating since 2022 as the trio of Alex Svenson, Hugo Zombie and Jonas Fransson, the band are now approaching their eighth album, “Requiem Ballroom,” due on 20 November 2026 via Metropolis Records. Conceived as a diptych, the record divides itself between Requiem and Ballroom, darkness and light, while recent singles “Judgement Day” and “Remaker Redeemer” have already begun to expose the contrast between those two halves.
When I spoke with the band in 2024, our conversation touched on originality, conformity and the peculiar conservatism that can develop inside a scene supposedly built around difference. Two years later, those questions have become even more relevant. Rather than discussing “Requiem Ballroom” track by track, we returned to the larger tensions around it: how a band changes without performing reinvention for its own sake, when identity becomes formula, whether nostalgia can disguise itself as tradition, what happens when a trio becomes more focused by becoming smaller, and why sustaining a life in music may now be a harder problem than sustaining an artistic identity.
Then Comes Silence interview
Karo: When we spoke in 2024, Alex, you said the dark scene develops slowly and needs more originality. Two years later, Then Comes Silence are still immediately recognisable. How do you distinguish a strong identity from a language that has simply become comfortable?
Alex: I still think the dark scene is developing very slowly. Can you honestly hear much of a difference between 2019 and 2026? The sound is basically the same, and most of the melodies still follow the same structures.
I don’t know what others say about us, but I do think we distinguish ourselves from much of the scene by focusing more on the songs than on the sound. In that sense, we work in a rather traditional way: intro, verse, bridge and chorus. But who am I to judge? If people want to hear the same snare drum, synth pads and chorus-soaked guitars over and over again, maybe that’s what makes them feel good.
I just know that we, Then Comes Silence, don’t really think that way.
Karo: Your music has never depended on radical stylistic reinvention. Do you think artistic development can happen through changes in proportion, tension and emphasis rather than through introducing obviously new genres or sounds?
Hugo: I think it can be a bit of everything you mention. We mix elements of different genres, such as that euro disco synth on “Judgement Day,” and this time we even tried new, exotic instruments in the recording. Both act as new ingredients in the Then Comes Silence sound. But just like a pizza, you can add different toppings and it will still be a pizza.
Karo: “Requiem Ballroom” is built around opposites: darkness and light, ending and renewal. Yet Then Comes Silence have often been most interesting in the spaces between opposites: melody and severity, electronics and physical rock instrumentation, melancholy and momentum. Is the album’s binary structure something you actually believe in, or something you wanted to test and complicate?
Alex: We believe in everything we do. There’s no theatre. This album is an experiment and a game. Team this vs team that.
Karo: The two halves were mixed separately, by Tom van Heesch and Jon Bordon, but still have to exist as one Then Comes Silence record. Where does the identity of the band ultimately reside if the same material can be viewed through two different sonic perspectives?
Hugo: The two halves were mixed separately, and recorded differently: different drums, amps, guitars. We wanted them both to have a distinct sound, but at the same time we didn’t want the album to feel like a compilation, so there’s still a sense of coherence between them. The identity of the band is there because it’s the same band using different approaches.
Karo: Since becoming a trio, the band has sounded increasingly focused rather than reduced. Has having fewer people in the room actually widened the musical possibilities because the core identity became clearer?
Hugo: It’s easier to work with a smaller team of totally focused people than a bigger team that includes distracted people with other priorities. That will only slow you down. Our roles in the band are totally clear; we are all focused on what we are doing, and that allows us to be more effective.
Karo: You have now reached your eighth album. At this stage, is reinvention still a useful ambition, or does it become more interesting to understand more precisely what Then Comes Silence should never lose?
Alex: We have been constantly active for years and haven’t really taken a break from each other or from music. The soul of Then Comes Silence will always stay the same, no matter how many times we reinvent ourselves.
Karo: In our previous conversation, you spoke very positively about the Goth and Post-Punk community but also criticised its tendency towards conformity. Now that Then Comes Silence themselves are an established part of that scene, is it harder to criticise its conventions from the inside?
Hugo: We all love the Goth and Post-Punk community. It’s our home. But I don’t think it matters how established you are; conformity will always be the enemy of creativity, which is meant to be at the core of this scene.
For me, there are a lot of bands using the same formula, and it feels boring. But then again, others could think that we are doing the same, so in the end it doesn’t really matter. It’s just about what you enjoy listening to and what you don’t.
Karo: You also mentioned then that younger audiences in the US gave you hope for the future of the scene. Two years and a great deal of touring later, do you still see a generational difference in how people approach Goth and Post-Punk, or has that picture become more complicated?
Hugo: We are starting to notice more youngsters in the audience in Europe too. And that’s amazing. Precisely here in Stockholm we have a really nice and growing scene of young people making music, DJing, going to shows, and that’s great to see.
Karo: A band with a long catalogue eventually develops an unwritten contract with its audience: there are sounds, songs and emotional qualities people expect. Do those expectations ever become creatively restrictive, or can they provide a useful resistance to work against?
Alex: We’re always prepared to get caked by disappointed fans. We still get comments from people who miss a fourth member to fill the void of a second guitar. Thankfully, we’re in good company. The large majority of our followers are right there with us. Wherever we go, they follow. And wherever they point, we go.
Karo: Then Comes Silence have always drawn from older Goth and Post-Punk traditions without sounding like a historical reconstruction. As that original musical history moves further into the past, what makes the difference between inheritance and nostalgia for you?
Hugo: I think that we’re definitely not a nostalgia band. We don’t try to sound retro. But we listen to a lot of different genres, and most of the music we listen to is old. I mean, we are not trying to sound like Sisters of Mercy, The Mission or Lords of the New Church, but we probably have the same influences they had back then.
Karo: The imagery surrounding “Requiem Ballroom” revolves around symbolic death, transformation and renewal. After more than a decade as a band, does the idea of renewal mean something different now than it would have when Then Comes Silence began in 2012?
Alex: No, the only differences would be practical ones. A new instrument, new effects pedals, or a new producer behind the mix. The artistic renewal will always come from within.
Karo: Looking beyond this album, what question about Then Comes Silence remains unresolved for you? What are you still trying to understand about this band that eight albums have not answered yet?
Alex: Artistically, I have no comments and no expectations about what’s to come. I feel no anxiety about the music, and I don’t really care what other people say. But on the other hand, I’m trying to understand why we can’t make a living from what we do, and why it’s so difficult to reach a wider audience.
The inflation affecting everyone on this planet doesn’t seem to apply to artists. People still don’t want to pay more for a show ticket, while they seem willing to pay twice as much for gas, milk or eggs in the store.
Touring artists are facing higher and higher expenses, and many of them would probably need to cancel shows just to make ends meet. But they don’t, because there simply aren’t any realistic alternatives for live music. It must be even harder for the new young generation of musicians. I can’t see why it wouldn’t be.
I’m trying to understand it, but I still haven’t found a good answer.
About Then Comes Silence
Then Comes Silence were formed in Stockholm in 2012 by vocalist, bassist and keyboard player Alex Svenson. Drummer Jonas Fransson joined in 2015, followed by guitarist Hugo Zombie in 2018; since 2022, the band have operated as a three-piece. Their discography has moved through labels including Novoton, Nuclear Blast, SPV and Metropolis Records, while extensive touring has taken them across Europe, North America and, in 2026, Latin America.
Their eighth studio album, “Requiem Ballroom,” will be released on 20 November 2026 via Metropolis Records. Structured as two contrasting halves, Requiem and Ballroom, the album uses darkness and light not simply as visual motifs but as different approaches to arrangement and production. The current singles are “Judgement Day” and “Remaker Redeemer,” with the latter introducing the Ballroom side and its themes of rebirth, cleansing and beginning again.
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Based in WrocΕaw, I work as a music journalist and photographer covering electro, industrial, EBM, gothic, and darkwave. My work includes features and live coverage, as well as concert, portrait, promo, and theater photography. What interests me most is the connection between artistic intention, what the work communicates, and what unfolds live on stage, all in pursuit of the bigger picture behind the music.
