Touching Eternity: No More Lies from The City Warlock!

For those unaware, Melodic Meltdown are back after a 20-year vacation. These four tracks on their brand new EP entitled Touching Eternity show the old Danish band with a brand-new line-up and with new energy. This time around the line-up includes English drummer and producer Joe Clancy from the legendary Vardis.

The band is now: Joe Clancy (Vardis, ex- Adrian Smith Blues band), Michael Søbygge, Lasse W. Wehner (Fears Unfolding) and Jacob Froberg (Guppyfish).

The four tracks on this EP are two songs and two instrumental tracks, which once again tells the old story of the band. The music is a bit of both worlds. The genre is rock/metal, the virtue is melody and balance, a steady groove, pounding drums, wailing guitars and a powerful voice.

I recently spoke with Michael Søbygge, Lasse W. Wehner and Joe Clancy about their upcoming new EP, what went into making it, how some of the tracks came to be, and, oh yeah, penguins!

Being that Touching Eternity contains four new songs brought to life after twenty years of being on hiatus, how did your creative sound differ here on this new recording as opposed to your previous outputs?

Michael Søbygge – “I hope we have discovered the value of pauses in music by now.”

Joe Clancy – “With this EP the drums were recorded in two different acoustic spaces. The vocal songs were recorded in an isolated sound booth, and the instrumentals were recorded in a large reverberant room.”

Indeed, what were some of the biggest obstacles along the way to bringing this new EP to fruition and how did you overcome them?

Michael - “That we live in different countries, and that we were not in the studio together. That in my opinion was some of the biggest obstacles along the way. It is easier to agree or disagree when you are in the same room.”

Joe - “The drums were recorded at two different points in time and two different spaces and two different pieces of music. Subsequently Michael then recorded to the drum tracks with his own music. There was no influence from the previous music. It’s a different way of working where the musicians work from scratch to write music to accompany drums.”

As for the EP, I understand that it was one created by, and I quote an old Danish band but with a brand-new line-up, why didn’t the original band come back together and where were the new band members found? Michael - “Melodic Meltdown has been through quite a few line-ups during the past. Joe, Lasse and Jacob have all been part of Melodic Meltdown before, just not at the same time.”

Containing four tracks - two songs and two instrumentals - and given that this EP was twenty years in the making, were any of the tracks conceived years before this 2025 release and reworked for now?

Michael - “This EP was not 20 years in the making. My kids grew up and after 20 years of it collecting dust, I picked up the guitar again, when Joe got in contact with me after these 20+ years. The two songs were written years back, yes – the two instrumentals are brand new.”

And given the origins of the band are Danish, and yet the two sung songs sound very American, are there actually some thematic Danish flourishes within your artistry here that maybe we don’t hear upon first listen?

Michael - “No. I don’t think so. I am not even sure what Danish flourishes would sound like. Joe is English, Jacob lives in Greenland, and I guess slap bass is international as well, ha-ha.”

Lasse W. Wehner - “Yeah, there’s no folk metal inspiration. This time round at least, ha-ha.”

Indeed, a lot of words and terms have already been used to describe your music over the years, but how would you yourself sum up your sound on this new EP ... and in just five (5) words?

Michael - “TOUCHING ETERNITY re-creates MELODIC MELTDOWN.”

Lasse - “Brutally honest free-flowing fun. Does free-flowing count as two words?”

Joe - “If you are having a meltdown then you’ll need a Melodic Meltdown!”

Please tell us (in a few sentences or less) a little more about what these tracks Touching Eternity - The Lie - Warlock - City – mean to you and how they came to be:

Michael - “These tracks might be the very last hope or try to break through to the big music scene. The two songs mean a lot to me, as they were written in both sadness and hope for the future. The two instrumental tracks are a playground, where you can feed your inner monster.”

Lasse - “I really put all my bass techniques to work in this. Fretless, slapping, tapping. Oh, and fingerstyle!”

And was Touching Eternity always going to be the EP’s name or was there another that nearly won the race come the time to take your hands off the project?

Michael - “I think the name is good, remembering our age. We are all 50+ and this being the last try and all. The title is good also because the first song starts without an intro with these exact words… Getting to the point immediately.”

Being that we’re not called Exclusive Magazine for nothing, is there a hidden message, a secret notation or an easter egg to be found amongst the four tracks assembled for this recording?

Michael - “Nope. Not in my case at least. Sorry about that. I am making rock music – not art. Well, if anything… I think that less is more. Is think that imperfection is a virtue, modern times are missing. It´s the small wrinkles in your wife´s face, which makes her beautiful, right?”

And given it has taken twenty years to get this EP put together I’m wondering why you guys didn’t put out a full-length album instead?

Michael - “We hope to do so, when we “land on the Moon”.”

Lasse “Actually, that’s 19½ years of hiatus and half a year to make the EP.”

Michael - “Well, we played our last gig in Copenhagen in May 2005, and I went to pick up the guitar and went to the studio again in April 2025.”

What would you like all the readers of this interview to know about the new EP and what to expect?

Michael - “I would like the readers to know, that these four tracks will rock your car, when you drive back and forth from work every day… and you´ll get some singing along and some slightly funny head moves along the way.”

We here at Exclusive Magazine love Penguins and so we were wondering if you had any love for them and/or had a story of one (soft toy, zoo, chocolate bar, relative, etc.) that you could share with us?

Michael: “Ok. I don´t know about that, but here is a joke: What´s Beethoven’s favorite fruit? … Ba-na-na-naaaa… He-he.”

And finally, we asked the guys to kindly take a never-before-seen selfie of themselves. One that perfectly personified their readiness for the world to hear their new musical endeavor. For better or for worse, they went into A.I. and came up with this!