After The Crown disbanded, Johan Lindstrand wrote a bunch of music on his own before putting together a new band, One Man Army and The Undead Quartet. They released their debut album 21st Century Killing Machine in 2006. Bassist Valle Adzic left the band after that album was recorded, but produced it and the group’s latest effort, Error In Evolution. I spoke with Lindstrand about One Man Army’s new album.

Chad Bowar: How has One Man Army’s sound evolved from 21st Century Killing Machine to Error In Evolution?
Johan Lindstrand: First of all, it’s more easily listenable. I wrote most of the material for the debut album. I was doing stuff on my own for six months. Now the band has been together for two years and everyone was involved in the songwriting process. We have much wider influences coming from all directions. The songs have more melody and catchiness. At the same time I tried out different stuff with the vocals.

Since you didn’t do much songwriting with The Crown, is it rewarding to be able to do more of it with your own band?
Yes, definitely. I wrote only one complete song with The Crown. It’s a great thing to do it with this new band. First of all, I have to do it because The Crown decided to split up. I had to do something. So I picked up the guitar and started to play, and here we are two albums later. It’s pretty cool to get to know yourself music wise and to know you can write music.

I couldn’t do it before because I had good songwriters surrounding me and didn’t think I could beat them. I’m very happy with my own result. I’m also happy with the other guys who have taken a step forward and brought some inspiration to this band.

How did you decide to cover Alice Cooper’s “He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)”?
I’m not a huge Alice Cooper fan, but when I first saw the movie Friday the 13th Part VI in 1986 the song got stuck in my head and wouldn’t come out. It felt special to me because Sweden had censorship problems at the time and we didn’t get the real horror movies. We had them, but they took out all the good parts. I got the movie on the black market and it was low-quality and that was pretty special back in those days. Nowadays everything is allowed, but it was more special when you had to sneak away to watch it with your friends. I’m very proud of the song. We made it a One Man Army song.

How did you decide on the title Error in Evolution?
A couple of lyrics on the album dealt with what’s going on in the modern world. You have a lot of school massacres in your country as well as terrorism in the world and a lot of Swedish criminal stories that have happened these last few years. Therefore I felt like there was an error in the evolution of this world because people don’t seem to learn from past mistakes. It should be the opposite. It should be a better world, but it’s becoming worse and worse, even in my country. That’s why we chose the title.

Valle Adzic produced the album, but is no longer an official member of the band. Do you anticipate working with him again in the future?
He has his own studio now, which is taking a lot of his time. He’s a studio guy and will work at his studio for the rest of his life. We are very good friends with him. He quit the band at the end of 2005 and we have had Robert Axelsson as our bass player for about a year and a half. It worked out great. As far as Valle is concerned, I think we will work with him again on the next album. He’s very good to work with. He’s a friend of ours and we can easily work with him.

One Man Army is playing several festivals this summer. Is there any one in particular you’re looking forward to playing?
With Full Force in Germany is probably the biggest thing we have done so far. It’s in June. It will be great. We have a spot early in the day, but it is still on the main stage and it’s the second biggest festival in Germany after Wacken. We also have Metal Camp in Slovenia. It’s really cool because the stage is between two mountains and right near the water. It’s really cool to be there and I really recommend people go see it. It will be a blast to play there.

Do you anticipate playing in the US this year?
Hopefully. After these festivals we have a tour in October and November for a few weeks. I really hope in between there we can do it US tour because I know this new album deserves to be played live everywhere, and I know the American fans will like this one. People are saying very good things about it. Hopefully Nuclear Blast will see that and bring us over there. I really hope they think it’s worth it to bring us over there.

Has One Man Army ever played in the US?
No. I love to play in Europe, we have a very loyal audience there, but I’d love to come over and play in the US. I was there with The Crown and really loved it. I think it’s time to go back.

What is your all time favorite heavy metal album?
I always say Master of Puppets by Metallica, because that album is the ultimate album in my opinion. It has everything. It has that roller coaster feeling I’m looking for what I’m writing music. You have the fast guitars, you have the groovy parts and you have the slow parts, everything combined into one. Everything works together. They don’t do those kinds of albums anymore. That’s the best album. I still listen to it on a daily basis. I never get bored with it.

Who do you think are the best Swedish heavy metal bands?
That’s a hard question because I’m not a guy that checks all the bands that are coming out. Everybody says that we have millions of great bands in Sweden. Yes we have great bands, but I have always been more into the American scene than the Swedish scene. I do like In Flames. They deserve all the attention they have gotten, because they have worked really hard and are a great band.