Szron / Kriegsmaschine - Split LP

 

SZRON / KRIEGSMASCHINE - Split LP (TODESKULT Entertainment - LP 2006)

With the Polish black metal scene getting stronger and stronger, it became a must for me to keep the eye open to watch it spawning more devastating music, hoping that I’m not going to miss anything spectacular. Here's something what may interest black metal fans, especially those, who like the split releases. Two Polish bands on piece of 12" black wax (there’s also a CD version available, while the LP is long sold out I think), delivering about 40 minutes of their hateful art. I must be honest with you, I bought it for Kriegsmaschine only, as all the stuff I’ve heard from Szron prior to this split wasn’t much convincing, but I hoped that also this band have improved and thus will finally manage to get me interested in their music.
But first one to kick off was Kriegsmaschine, although they’re on the  B, but I liked the previous album so much that I really wanted to listen to their part of the split first, especially that, as I already said, it was them the reason why I bothered to spend some money on that vinyl. Kriegsmaschine pretty much follows their style from the brilliant "Altered State of Divinity" LP. And I can't have any objections for it, as they really have found their own style on that album; even if at few parts it was reminding me some other bands they also had something unique and individual. Of course there were mainly the Marduk resemblances on the full length, which were sometimes very obvious, but I think here on the split they have been quite limited in number. If there are still some, they're usually happen when Kriegsmaschine speeds up rapidly, but such blasting parts are not dominant on this material (but they do happen like in "Annihilate Prime Factor"). Besides, usually like in "E" such wall of furious blasts is only a beginning, an introduction before something else is going to start - in this particular example it is unbelievably extreme, chaotic and intense playing, rather in the vein of Anaal Nathrakh's madness, after which Kriegsmaschine slows down very drastically, turning into almost melancholic playing, where M. again shows his great abilities as a vocalist, with clean choral singing and screams, which are not just one type of black metal shriek, but much more diverse, depending on the character of the riff. More so, "The Fall, in All Its Glory" has a lot of parts, which seems to me inspired by some of the recent Mayhem's albums. The atmosphere is similar, as well as some vocal parts and those marching rhythms, all creating just an eerie and chaotic feeling. The whole material from Kriegsmaschine turned out to be great once again, proving that this is one of the most intriguing and extreme bands around in this country. Totally recommended.
Szron from the other hand - they're actually on side A of the vinyl - is one of those bands, which I tolerate, but am not that big fan of. They're OK, I do listen to them occasionally, but there's nothing more than just mediocre that I can say about them. Probably though their material from this split is the best one I've heard from this band anyway. Musically Szron plays more traditional, very Norwegian influenced black metal, very much influenced by Darkthrone's "Panzerfaust" and "Transilvanian Hunger" LPs, as well as Gorgoroth's "Antichrist" and "Under the Sign of Hell" albums. Hmm, and maybe also Armagedda... So, only good (sorry, evil?) bands I mentioned here. It is fairly raw sounding, simple, sometimes almost primitive type of playing, but Szron luckily avoids being ridiculous at what they do and keep their music solid, with some quite memorable riffs. "Beneath the Conscious Perception" is I think the best track from this side of the vinyl, but other tracks also are fine. Szron may be missing a spark, which would ablaze the whole world (or the local church at least), but they do try hard and transfer their hateful, antihuman feeling into some decent sounds. Although I must say you don't need to bother with listening to Szron anyway, because they hate you and "the only thing you can do to satisfy us (Szron) is to die!". Sorry, I like my live, so that’s not going to happen yet hehe. But I wish you a happy funeral. I start taking a piss, but really sometimes those hateful statements – no matter how controversial or true they are – make me laugh and think where is it all going and how utopic and pointless it is, especially that probably the members of Szron love their lives anyway hehe. So I'm not going to comment it more then. All in all, I’m glad that those two guys finally have managed to put out a more solid effort, even though it is still far from the brilliant madness of Kriegsmaschine.
Final rate: Kriegsmaschine – 90/100 Szron 70/100

Verminous - Impious Sacrilege

 

VERMINOUS - Impious Sacrilege (BLOOD HARVEST - LP 2004)

You may like it or not, but the exhumation of the old school death metal corpse – all its sounds: Swedish, US, Dutch, etc - is a fact and that current trend in the metal underground is, in my honest opinion also one of the best movements I’ve witnessed in many years. But you must realize that this rise of the dead has started not two or three years ago, but way earlier, as its first necromantic rituals were practiced when Hammerheart Records has released Repugnant's "Hecatomb" MLP in 2000. Then few years later another bands (mostly from Sweden) have debuted like Necrovation, with their excellent demo tape "Ovations to Putrefaction", mighty Kaamos with "Curse of the Aeons" demo and Delve with cool "The Dead Amongst" MCD (and from the other countries there were the likes such as Dead Congregation for instance). Delve has soon changed the moniker for Verminous and released two absolutely killer materials: an EP titled "Smell the Birth of Death" and an album titled "Impious Sacrilege", both from 2003. I was already running my fanzine at that time and I remember I got the "Impious Sacrilege" promo CD from Xtreem Music when it was release and man, I was just fuckin' blown away by that death metal massacre! It truly was one of my favourite albums of that time and I remember I was full of enthusiasm for it. OK, the band never answered my interview, but I liked them a lot anyway! So yeah, I think this new wave of rotten death metal has started way earlier than with the release of Daniel Ekeroth's book. But who cares, you would say? Well, I just wanted to remind you here the fact that Verminous was one of the first bands that have started to play this old school death metal again in the 00's, also because they seem to be criminally forgotten nowadays.
And now let's write something about the "Impious Sacrilege". First of all, just look at this amazing and blasphemous front artwork. Man, this one would look just killer on a t-shirt, I would love to wear it in this catholand called Poland! Deformed, rotten, mutilated zombie of unholy whore and her son, the beast... Fuckin cool! And it all fits perfectly to the blasphemous, sort of satanic lyrics the band has, such as “Kill the father of lies, drink the blood of Christ. See him slowly turn into an empty shell, join the legions of unholy war. Find the answers that you’re looking for, nothing will remain...” (“Of Evil Blood”) or “Desecrate - the denomination of god. Eviscerate - the one upon the cross. We descent ourselves in blasphemy, we'll raise in shape of pain…” (“Impious Genocide”). Fuckin’ cool, don’t you think? These are simple, but straight forward, insulting lyrics, the way I like and which fit this kind of music totally. Of course many of you may say they’re too primitive or whatever, but this style of music doesn’t need pretentious philosophies and ambitions. Keep it simple, old school, aggressive and blasphemous and the hell awaits for you.
For the musical aspects of “Impious Sacrilege” I would need to call forth one band mainly – and it is Repugnant. I don’t want to say that Verminous has been copying their nauseating friends, but surely both bands have been mainly taking their inspirations from the good old death metal scene and the likes of Treblinka, Nihilist, Possessed or Merciless (this one mainly for the quite clear raw thrash metal influence that is present in both bands), and so what we’ve got in the end was something truly characteristic and what both Repugnant and Verminous did in pretty similar way. Both bands were great anyway and as such “Impious Sacrilege” was filling up the empty space left by Repugnant in excellently. The album is just killer. The riffs are fuckin’ razor sharp, mutilating in very fast and extreme way, the whole is like a violent force, pure mayhem and devastation. The band never really compromises and thus the whole music is based on raw, pure old school death / thrash metal. Surprisingly, with all that chaos and brutality, the songs also have quite few hooks, like the one from "Spawn of Satan`s Curse" or “Of Evil Blood” for instance. But these mainly focus on a memorable chorus part, which let you memorize the songs more, as most of the music was played in slightly chaotic, relentless way. Apart from that, there are many excellent (not necessarily Swedish sounding) riffs, properly raw and dirty production and brilliant, vomiting furious vocal lines from Pelle Piss. Hell, I cannot wish for anything more, everything that “Impious Sacrilege” is comprised of is as it should be and so I believe this album is almost perfect. What’s more, the LP version is finished with Autopsy’s “Charred Remains” cover, what suits the whole great and I could only pick up what has remained of myself and play the album all over again to start the massacre once more. Great album, really.
Standout tracks: "Spawn of Satan`s Curse", “Of Evil Blood”, “Salvation by Extermination”
Final rate: 90/100

Entrails interview

I already showed my appreciation and enthusiasm towards the Swedish ENTRAILS in the review of their debut LP “Tales From the Morgue”, so I’m not going to repeat myself here. But I just need to recommend again this band to everyone, who’s into the old school Swedish death metal sound, this is a killer band and absolutely a must to have. I’m eagerly wait for the vinyl copy of the second Entrails LP, “The Tomb Awaits” and can’t wait for it… I haven’t heard an sounds from it yet, no mp3 or whatever as I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but I’m sure it’s going to be a deadly album. But now I just want to invite everyone to read the interview I did with Mr Flesh a’ka Jimmy, leader of Entrails!

Hell-ooo Jimmy! How’s everything going? I hope you’re ready to answer few questions and don’t worry, we won’t be talking about your logo hehe!
Hello there yourself. Things are great here. Sure man, I am ready to bring some wise answers haha. And yeah. Let’s leave the shit about the Logo to the corpses.

I’ve been checking some reviews lately, of both Entrails albums. And you know what? I haven’t seen ANY negative opinions about them! Tell me, how does it feel to know that your music has found so many devotees? Do you feel pride, satisfaction or you just don’t care really he? Or maybe I’m wrong and your music actually got some negative feedback also?
Well, there are some bad reviews also but as I always say we cannot please every Justin Timberlake fans out there. Sad but true, but there are so many people that just think they know all about music and that their words are the law. But this bad shit is only a minor scale. And to me they´re dust. We have got full house on several reviews and to me personally that always read everything I can get and it’s very positive and brings me to do more and better stuff... 

What’s your secret to play this old school death metal and avoid repeating the riffs that already have been played and above all to make your music so bloody killer? Is it just a passion for that kind of playing, enthusiasm or maybe just plain fuckin luck hehe? I can see your band as sort of great tribute to one of the best death metal scenes ever, but at the same time for me it’s equally great, hmm, sometimes even better than some of the old bands.
Hmm. There are no secrets, we are not the only band that “repeats” what once have been played. Just listen to all bands using HM2 today, and also all them that says they play old school. Everyone does something from back then. In my own history I just made riffs back then in a more similar and a more heavy style than the “bands” that played faster and more brutal. In my opinion a sort of mix between good old thrash like early Metallica and Slayer among others combined with my own view in how Swedish death metal sounded, so I would say that Entrails plays a sort of simplified Swedish old school death metal with thrash influences and some other styles and with the typical classic Swedish sound. And it seems that this style have been a minor success to those that likes heavy riffing and headbanging without losing your head. And as always it’s cool that fans of music and styles find us better than the bands before, but it’s obvious that people blame us for being a tribute / clone / copy because of the more detailed sound of Sunlight sound we have and of corpse the logo - that´s the first thing you see on our stuff. And now the latest album we get blamed for copying “Left Hand Path” cover, OK the tombstone are there and the threes and the blue atmosphere. And then what??? There are many covers with tombstones and threes and blue theme. Damn, are people so fucked up in their brains that they just have to chase bands and telling them in what’s wrong and what’s right? They are like 15 years old molested retards with asphalt in their sandbox.. arggh.  

Are you personally surprised with the present resurrection of the old school death metal, of Autopsy, Incantation, Asphyx and Dismember styles and the amount of bands that play it nowadays? And also of their quality, because not just Entrails, but also Morbus Chron, Maim, Facebreaker, Revolting, Demonical, Bombs of Hades, Bastard Priest – to stay just in Sweden - and many more have unleashed just killer recordings! You know, I’ve been listening to this music since about 1991, always loved Swedish sound, so even if there was just Dismember left on the war field with their “Death Metal” and “Hate Campaign” albums, I even then loved it. But to see so many great bands nowadays, I must say I’m very happy about that. What’s your opinion on that?
No, not at all. The styles will rise once again. The same was for the 80´s music some years ago... I think it’s awesome as well that so many bands keep the Swedish steel harder than ever. There are many good upcoming bands standing to front the Swedish DM. And will bring the veins into the next era.

I was quite surprised when I’ve read that the real beginning of Entrails goes back to 1990. Tell me then what exactly happened that the band never went any further than the rehearsal room? Have you recorded anything back then or you just had few riffs, but mainly focused on drinking beers hehe? What was the line up? Are the other members from that time known to us, or they all just disappeared right after the split up of Entrails?
Yeah man, that’s a long time ago. Well, we had the songs to make a demo but no money to record it in a serious way. We were always ending up in the studio with terrible results and we never made the songs good enough in the studio because we didn’t have any time for that. We just got to borrow the studio on some spare hours for free. So in the end we all get tired of it all and some of us moved to another place and it was only I left playing, so I quit playing in 1997-98 something and did other things in almost 10 years. The guys in Entrails back then was Fredde on drums, Tobbe on guitar and Billy on bass then I did the vocals and lead guitar. It’s only Tobbe that have continued playing in different bands (Leukemia, Jigsore Terror, The Scams, Witchgrave and more).

Finally the question is how important was it for you to bring those old riffs / songs of Entrails back to the rehearsal room and play them again, eventually record them? What did you feel at first, did it feel like an unfinished chapter of some sort? Have you been playing in any bands in the meantime or just stayed close as a fan?
When I was listening to my old tapes with my riffs and the bad songs from studio I just said to myself that this shit deserves a better destiny. And with that I bought a guitar and a computer and some recording programs and began to learn how it works and record them again. And at that time I also listened much on 80´s and 90´s metal and of corpse the Swedish death metal that I thought have become worse in my ears. And also the thrash was gone. It was only Dismember that still had IT and still delivered good music, so for me I just felt that “damn I just got to record my songs to its best and see where it will lead me to”. So 100% nostalgia was the reason to bring it all back to life again..  

How big part of “Reborn” and “Human Decay” demos has been written back in the early 90’s? Have all of it been composed then or did you put also some new parts into those songs? Eventually the same question goes for the debut album of Entrails, although I know that it is composed of the chosen demo tracks, only they’ve all been recorded again (with the drummer, etc). How much have you been rearranging things during the past few years? And what about those demo songs, which haven’t end up on “Tales From the Morgue”?
That’s right; the “Tales From the Morgue” album is based on the demos without the last song that I added in last minute. I would say all songs have been made in 1990-97, when I’ve been active doing songs. And on demos I used some of them that I liked the most. The differences from back then and now are some changes on some parts and few new lyrics here and there. And those changes I did in the time I was learning them again. There are few that didn’t fit on “Tales From the Morgue” like the doomish “Depression” and “Midnight Death” and “Your Dead Dog Smile”. “Depression” will soon be on a 7” or a 10”split. The two other are on “Tomb Awaits” album but with new lyrics and new titles.

I would love to add those two demos to my collection, so tell me, do you still spread them to those, who’re interested and maybe record a CDR for them with Xeroxed booklet, or you don’t care about spreading those demos anymore? All in all, “Human Decay” was limited to 100 copies, what’s a crime! Or maybe you’re thinking about releasing them on CD, although I must admit it wouldn’t be the same, speaking of the collecting value.
You´re not the only one who wants both demos. The whole idea when I did them was to see the response out there. So for now they´re sold out but I am thinking of doing a small homemade repress in 2012. And by that they will look the same as the once I did a few years ago. And hell, why not doing them all in one CD? I haven’t had that idea. Hmm, I was also thinking of doing a remix on them because when I did them I was a rookie in how to mix but now I think I could do a better work. Maybe a special edition hehe.

Hmm, would be cool to get that re-press edition, anyway, even without the remixing etc, let me know when they’re available!
Right then… Entrails have only just released the new album, “The Tomb Awaits”. I haven’t actually heard it yet, I’m waiting for the vinyl and then I’ll slaughter it. But tell me, after the success of the debut, was it difficult for you to compose new tracks, new riffs, etc, to make sure that the new material will not only be equally good, but even better? Was it sort of a challenge for you, did you struggle or maybe everything went very smoothly? And was it more of a band’s cooperation this time, since you’ve wrote the entire music from “Tales From the Morgue” by yourself?
Not at all. The songs were sort of already done and ready but we did a more massive work to re- arrange the songs and make them more aggressive and not so long and boring. And it also inspired me to try making new songs so we have some new shit on the new one as well. A good mix between old material and new.

When I was listening to “Tales From the Morgue” I was just thrilled how great riffs you’ve made there. I mean – and I do believe that “The Tomb Awaits” will be equally great – they’ve got some killer melodies, many headbanging moments, are aggressive and have the proper dark atmosphere… and of course there’s the proper guitar sound, which reminds the Sunlight Studio recordings. For my taste, these are the ingredients necessary for a winning album. I only complained about the drums sound in my review… So, how would you compare both Entrails albums?
Yeah, that’s what I mean. Back then (and still is) my vision was to make such riffs / songs. And it was important that it has to be easy to follow what’s going on in the songs and for that you can bang your head more easily hehe. To me it’s more important to have a listenable riff instead of full speed and not be able to hear what happens. Yeah the drums sound a bit too much trigged but the drums are much better in the new one. And if I shall compare the albums it’s darker, the sound is maybe a bit more like earlier Sunlight this time. Exactly as we want it. Otherwise it’s up to the listener to decide and compare.

Since I haven’t listened to “The Tomb Awaits” yet, tell me which are the prime tracks on that album? I’m asking about those real headbanger’s favourites, like “Voices” or “Entrails” from the debut!
Well,, there are many headbanging moments in that album. “Crawling Death”, “Eaten by the Dead” for an example will get your head moving around, trust me hehe.

Oh, I do Jimmy, I do! I guess many bands would love to work with Dan Swano, so maybe you can unveil is he easy to work with or maybe too demanding sometimes or whatever? Have you knows him earlier and are you Edge of Sanity fan, especially “Crimson” album, which I think is epic, as well as “Dawn of Dreams” from Pan Thy Monium… Fuckin weird, but so sweet hehe!
Swano is a great guy and very easy to work with. I mean he just did the mix and mastering and for that I think he have to listen to the bands instead in how they want it. He didn’t give us a tip or nothing. And this time I think even Swano got in the mood when we came with such cool songs. We got massive feedback from him on the new album and with his guest vocals on a small part in one song I was really pleased. Hm, I am not a big fan (Of the albums I asked for – Astus) but hell, I listen to them, but maybe I’m more into the “Purgatory Afterglow” album.

Both intros from the debut and the second piece are amazing, both different but still good. Was it an important thing to have them at the beginning? For me it’s like some kind of announcement: "don't be afraid, we are just Entrails and we came to rip off your every limb with our grisly and horrifying tunes", haha :)
Haha, exactly that was my vision of it as well. For me an intro is important to get the listener into a mood that will bring hell when the music starts hehe.

I guess you must have been told that several times already, but the atmosphere of the music – as a whole, including the intro I’ve mentioned, lyrics, artwork, etc - of Entrails just reminds me watching some old horror movies. When I read the lyrics like “Voices” (in the head of a sadistic killer) or “Entrails” (great cannibalistic lyrics) such pictures just come to my head straight away. How big fan of those old movies then are you? Which are your favourites? Did you like also some of the remakes, like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” or “Hills Have Eyes”, these two were pretty cook I think, but some other were just bad. By the way, I do recommend watching “The Walking Dead” new TV series, really cool story!
Yepp, I’m a total horror fan, but I can’t say I watch so many movies for that reason but I got my favourites in “Braindead”, “Bad Taste”, Evil Dead” trilogy and some ““bla” of the Dead” movies like the “New Dawn of the Dead”. So, some re-makes are good. “Friday the 13th“ for an example was way better than the first two original movies. But I hate the new wave of horror like “Paranormal Activity” and such crap. When I watch a movie I want some action as well and of corpse raw and brutal humour. “The Walking Dead” series are damn good but it happens nothing too often, only talking and shit hehe.

Yeah, some may say that there’s not enough action, but that’s the thing, to show the life of people who try to escape from the dead and get somewhere safe. It would be maybe too boring also just to watch the action all the time, that would last maybe for 2-3 episodes and that’s it, everyone’s dead hehe, don’t you think?
Imagine now that you wake up one morning and notice that everybody in Vaxjo is dead… and the dead are walking on the streets! What would you do? If you would find other band members, then you could make some pictures and that would be the most horrifying and real photo session about zombies in the history hehe!
Well, they´re already dead in that town. More stupid assholes than them is impossible to find hehe. They are so fucking trendy and follow what’s hot in the radio. But I´ll see your point and doing that would have been awesome haha!

But speaking of the movie remakes… The Americans have just done the remake of the “Män som hatar kvinnor” with Daniel Craig. I must say that I’ve read the whole trilogy of Stieg Larsson and absolutely loved it; it’s one of the best thrillers I’ve read. And the Swedish movies were also very good. I wonder then whether the Swedes like the fact that Hollywood has putted their hands on “Millenium” and how famous the trilogy is in your country?
Well, I can’t answer this one because it takes a shotgun pointed at me to see a Swedish movie. They´re all silly to watch.

In “Män som hatar kvinnor” there’s a history of a wealthy Swedish family, whose some members has been active in nazi groups. I know that quite a lot of Swedes have joined the Waffen SS troops during the II World War. Sweden was not only helping the Germans, but also Finland during the Winter War in 1939. I wonder are those facts kind of a shameful part of Swedish history which no one tells about during the history lessons? Is it like in Russia, when they’d say that Stalin was good, but no one will say that during and after the war he killed millions of people or that the Russian soldiers have raped thousands of women (not just German, but also those which they’ve freed from the concentration camps, like Ravensbruck!)? You know, people usually try to forget their mistakes from the past… and Germans for example state in their history books that there are Polish concentration camps, not Nazi German camps, which is just bloody ridiculous.
I am terrible on history and especially world wars and nazis and shit so I have to pass this one as well.

Hmm, that’s bloody shame Jimmy, as these were my special questions for this interview hehe! I will need to ask those some other Swedish bands then! Wealthy countries like Sweden and Norway have a big number of immigrants coming. That always creates some misunderstandings and strong nationalistic feelings, especially among the right wing parties. I wonder then what was the reaction of Sweden on Anders Breivik’s terroristic attack in Norway? Don’t you have an impression that the same thing might have happened in Sweden?
Well, that can happen everywhere but impossible to know in advance. It’s so damn boring that it does happen. I mean, what kind of a lowlife will do such thing as kill everyone in sight. (And you call that boring hehe!!!!??? – Astus) That belongs into movies, but I think Sweden showed their compassion to Norway when it happened.

OK, back to the band. You’ve played several festivals in the recent months, tell me what are your best memories from them and what was the reaction to Entrails from the maniacs that gathered on those events? Are these some touring plans also for the 2012?
Yepp. In 2011 we played at some great festivals and we had a good feedback from the crowd and it was awesome to be there and play. For 2012 we have in this moment only one confirmed festival to play at, (Summer Breeze open air) but we are hunting more places. A tour could be done if we have someone that could handle four metalheads travelling around in a bus doing shows hehe. I think that our biggest weakness is to get us some gigs, but perhaps in 2012 will be a better year

Would you consider making a video for one of your songs and if so how would you imagine it to be, if it was for “Entrails” for instance, with all the cannibalism, or “Voices” which could be similar to Insidious Disease’s “Boundless” video?
We are talking about it and we will see what happens during this year in making a video. But I think if we will do a video there will be a video that will be easy to make hehe

What can you tell me about some other bands from Vaxjo, like Deformed, Dethronement, Devilry? I really like some other bands from your town – I always liked Hypnosia for instance (“Extreme Hatred” is brilliant), there also was Temperance, but I’ve never been fond of them that much. And Furbowl of course, they were bloody good. I wonder whether you know Johan Liiva? Tell me, how come there were so many good bands in such a small town?!
Also Carnage was from Vaxjo but they said they were from Stockholm but it was only Fred Estby that lived there. And of corpse Birdflesh and Jigsore Terror. I really don’t know why this town is so damn good in making music, must be the hate for this town. I do not have the connections to this town until now when we do Entrails, but I have heard the bands and many more demo bands. I prefer the silence away from the traffic and all shit, so that’s why I live in a small village with 800 people.

I know that “The Tomb Awaits” has only just been released, but I wonder what would be your next recording plans, maybe EP or some splits (I’ve heard some rumours about the split with Ominous Crucifix)? Are here any old riffs left or there will be new material only?
Yepp. A split is coming very soon. Don’t know when but hopefully very soon. We had 2 leftovers from the demos that we didn’t think would fit on any Entrails album so “Depression” and “Human Decay” will join that split. One song from each demo with a more fresh sound. Otherwise we will begin with album number 3 soon. The songs are made in a prototype version and from that we create the songs and even on this new one there will be old 90´s riffing hehe. And I think also that it will be even more heavy this time. Me like mucho hehe .

I should also ask now how far do you hope to go with Entrails? And I mean it not necessarily about the sales, but more in the musical aspect. Hmm, many bands in the past started to change after one or two albums… There are many such examples… Entombed, the most obvious, we’ve talked about them in e-mails and of course you’re not so fond of their death’n’roll stuff. But also Desultory, Wombbath, as well as Morgoth, Disgrace, Amorphis… Uff, so many. Would you imagine Entrails changing the style and exploring different musical directions?
That’s something I will not do. If I feel that I cannot do any songs with the old veins I will quit. And for that it’s impossible to say how long it will bring us. I mean we ain’t getting younger hehe. For those bands you mentioned they were already too big to lose that much of their fans but for us I think that would kill us. Also take Metallica for an example. They created the thrash style in 82-83 but they also killed it a few years after. Also for the Swedes Cemetary and their first album “An Evil Shade of Grey”; that was to me a damn good album but on the year after they were totally fucked up.

What was your reaction for the Dismember statement that they are done with music and they gonna hang their guitars on the stick? Be a man and confess that you cried a little when nobody could see you, haha! Seriously, beyond doubt it was a great band - do you have any relevant memories with them?
Well, I just couldn’t believe it. They still delivered good music all the way to the day they decided to quit. And it’s a big lost for Swedish death metal but you´ll never know. Morgoth have had a reunion and why not Dismember in a few years. It’s a big shame but I haven’t been able to see them live, not even once. I even missed them in my hometown Vaxjo because of other things, so the memories from and with them is their good music and that I couldn’t see them live hehe .

Uff, I guess we’re nearing towards the end of that long interview! But unlike in horrors, there will be a happy ending… and that is your music, for which as a fan I thank you a lot! But enough of ass kissing. Thanks for the answers and all the best in 2012!
Ha thanks dude. These were some hours spent to answer this one but it was fun. See ya in 2012!! Cheers!!

Graveyard - One With the Dead

GRAVEYARD - One With the Dead (BLACKSEED Productions - CD 2009)

It's amazing, but the plague called old school Swedish death metal has spread around the globe in terrifying speed, infecting many, nothing expecting maniacs. Nowadays it's not weird anymore if band from wherever else, but not from Sweden, sounds like a Sunlight Studio recording. Like from Spain for instance, where you can find such bands as Morbid Flesh, Unconsecrated and Mass Burial. This is also where Graveyard hails from. Barcelona, to be more exact. Anyway, I don't know whether it's good or not that something what used to considered as a main characteristic for one particular scene and country is so spread that everyone - wherever he lives - is able to adopt it. It's a subject for a long discussion, which would take us anywhere anyway, but the truth is that nowadays not necessarily a Greek sound must come from Greece and Swedish sound come from a Swedish band.
To me the country of origin doesn't matter, as long as the music is fine. And trust me, Graveyard does fuckin shred with their death metal and these guys do it better than many, many Swedes! I've got in my collection their debut MCD "Into the Mausoleum" and it was very OK, although musically it was slightly different, more archaic and primitive type of death metal, not necessarily Swedish sounding, as there were also many similarities to the early American scene and bands like Autopsy and Death (Mantas). With "One With the Dead" though Graveyard took a huge step forward in every aspect of the musicanship.
The production was the first of such big improvements that I've noticed on the LP. "Into the Mausoleum" pretty much sounded rough and sort of very obscure, while the album has got a nice, crispy and aggressive sound with guitars in the vein of Sunlight Studio’s HM2 distortion. I can honestly say that Graveyard is one of those bands, who took this sound into the new era and as such "One With the Dead" sounds very close to Interment's "Into the Crypts of Blasphemy" or Evocation albums for instance, which means it's aggressive, powerful, full of energy, with a slightly modern touch, but still very old school and of course with the characteristic buzzzzz of the guitars. And it's a great production, if you ask me!!!
And for the songs, well there's absolutely nothing more to demand from this band, as they've managed to compose absolutely killer ten tracks of pure Swedish school of death metal and comparing them to the "Into the Mausoleum" it feels like comparing "Left Hand Path" with "Premature Autopsy" if you know what I mean. Or maybe "Dismembered" with "Like an Ever Flowing Stream", as Graveyard is much closer stylistically to Dismember than Entombed. They have those razor sharp riffs, played with great passion and enthusiasm, they have the aggression and of course there are plenty of hooks and infectious melodic parts, which is always the most exciting part of such albums. It's pointless to mention the best songs from "One With the Dead" as I would go for the whole tracklist, but I can say that "Carven Epitaph" may be the least cool song on it (still great though), but if I really, really had to choose some of my favourites I would go for "Pantheon Vulture", "Necrology", "One with the Dead" and "The Skull", as this song is just really killer doom / death metal anthem, with amazing creepy atmosphere and even some keyboards to make it even darker. Fantastic stuff, really. Graveyard have picked up only great riffs, no fillers and boring parts, the whole album is just faultless and the whole 45 minutes go really quickly, but that's good, because once "One with the Dead" ends I play it over again.
I must also mention two more songs, which I think make "One with the Dead" even more varied. First one is the instrumental "Abandoned Churches", with some wonderful riffing and melodic leads, which remind me nothing else but the mighty Iron Maiden! And the second track is "A Tale of Creation", Candlemass' cover, which sounds fantastic. It actually reminds me Swedish band called Satariel, who did an album called "Phobos and Deimos" in 2002, which offered a cool mixture of Swedish death metal with Candlemass-like doom, and even featured Messiah Marcolin on vocals in few songs. That sounded great and "A Tale of Creation" really reminds me that album, with the mix of raspy growlings and classic Candlemass clean singing. Anyway, I love the original version of it and thought it could be a blasphemous interpretation, but no, it actually turned out to be fuckin amazing and I love it! Of course it’s more brutal and slightly faster, played with a death metal feeling and without the sorrowful atmosphere of the original, but I really like it anyway!
What else can I write? Eh, I don't know, so let’s the music speaks for itself and trust me, "One with the Dead" is just a killer album. Yes, it did take a lot of inspiration from Sweden and yes, it may lack an originality, but again, I don't care. The songs are unbelievably strong here, I've been listening to it for like 50 times in past two weeks and can honestly consider "One with the Dead" to be one of the best albums of the recent years and I'm not talking about the old school death metal only, but metal in general. Definitely a must to have!
Standout tracks: "Pantheon Vulture", "Necrology", "One with the Dead", "The Skull", "A Tale of Creation"
Final rate: 98 / 100

Kriegsmaschine - Altered State of Divinity

 

 

KRIEGSMASCHINE - Altered State of Divinity (TODESKULT - LP 2005)

I still remember when I came across Kriegsmaschine's "Altered State of Divinity", shortly after the album was released. It was recommended to me by a friend and since our musical tastes for black metal were pretty similar, I decided to buy the album. Well, I can honestly say that I don't regret that at all, as this is one of the finest Polish black metal albums I've ever heard. It's a true masterpiece of sinister and undivine art. You may probably know that Kriegsmaschine pretty much shares the line up with Mgla, another great BM band, but musically both bands try to walk different blackened paths. And thus I'm not able to pick up, which of those two bands I liked more, I can tell you though that both are fuckin' amazing. And "Altered State of Divinity" is just an excellent debut full length album.
Kriegsmaschine previous recording, "A Thousand Voices", was OK, but it's not even half as great as "Altered State of Divinity". I think there were many things to be improved and luckily with this album Kriegsmaschine did everything better. They improved much their songwriting, used better ideas and more intriguing song structures, new vocalist turned out to be just incredibly good and also the production on "Altered State of Divinity" also has been bettered. Wow, they did try hard this time! I’m impressed.

The album is opened by the furious and uncompromising riffing and blast of "Ma'aseh Bereshit", which even reminds me the likes of Marduk, but that's basically the only such mercilessly fast part here, as the rest of the side A of the vinyl is played in surprisingly slower tempos. Kriegsmaschine concentrates there more on creating a specific atmosphere, than on blowing our heads off, but that's great in my opinion, because right after "Ma'aseh Bereshit" slows down, the music just becomes more interesting. The riffing is more diverse, with plenty of breaks, there are even some sort of sorrowful parts here and there, but the effect is just awesome. Each of the three songs from side A catches the attention with something cool... "Ma'aseh Bereshit" has this great slow and as I said melancholic finish (with well audible bass parts). "Altered State of Divinity" turns out to be the best song from the whole LP, with some amazing parts, great riffing and some brilliant vocal parts from M., including a chorus part sang with a clean voice (and the lyrics in that part is Latin written, what only underlines the whole mood). M. is a new vocalist of course, as Leatherface is no more in the band, but I can only agree to this decision, as M.'s vocals are 666% more interesting, with plenty of various styles within the classic black metal shriek and with really good arrangements (sometimes his voice reminds me Mortuus from Marduk / Funeral Mist by the way). Yeah, this guy did an excellent job. Some riffs are slightly melodic, but the overall feeling of the music from side A is just dark and sinister. Meanwhile "Through the Eyes of the Blind" delivers more classic black metal riffing, in the vein of early Gorgoroth or Darkthrone, but of course with a personal touch of Kriegsmaschine.

Side B also starts with pretty fast tempos of "Beyond the Veil", with surprisingly Kampfar-esque riff in the beginning and again some agonising and unusual singing of M. ("The laughter of angels is in the continuous litany of the agonized newborn, perished in humiliation, torture and abuse..." - what a great line!). "Prism" is very close to the recent Marduk albums like "Plaguewielder", in the beginning it is just very fast riffing with furious screams of M., but later the songs turns into more diverse styles. The biggest challenge of side B comes with "Nihilation", which is 9 minutes long song and starts pretty typically, but then Kriegsmaschine putted some noisy samples, etc, what gave a slightly chaotic and disturbing effect. This idea reminds me of Gehenna's "Ad Arma Ad Arma" from "Malice", in many ways. Finally the whole LP is finished by Marduk-like blasts of "Kerigma", maybe the least interesting song from the whole album, but still solid. After listening to side B, I must underline though that I liked side A more, maybe because it was played in mid paced tempos more and it didn't have so many similarities to Marduk.

I have no doubts that if Kriegsmaschine was Swedish or Norwegian, then "Altered State of Divinity" would have been praised and called cult by all those black metal maniacs around the world, who only focus on those two scenes. Unfortunately, I have an impression that the label that released the album, Todeskult Records, didn't promote it well enough and definitely this LP didn't reach the status is was destined to and which it deserved to get. Hmm, who would care about some Polish black metallers haha? But that’s a mistake! And yeah, stupidity also, but that's fact that the underground often supports terribly mediocre Scandinavian bands, underestimating those real jewels from other countries. Fuck that anyway. Those, who maniacs were smart enough I bet know Kriegsmaschine well by now and "Altered State of Divinity" is in their collection.
This is an album worth a sin.
Standout tracks: "Altered State of Divinity", "Through the Eyes of the Blind", "Beyond the Veil"
Final rate: 90 / 100

 

Funeral - Forgotten Abominations

FUNERAL - Forgotten Abominations (MCD -  NUCLEAR WINTER Records)

I do admit that I bought this MCD just for the fact that 1. I liked the band's photo, logo and front cover and 2. because they're Swedish and were supposed to play obscure doom / death metal. I haven't really checked any music of Funeral before putting my order for "Forgotten Abominations" and just went for a hunch that it may be really good band and material. And that's something I don't do that often, to be honest. Also the fact that there are (in the line up) some guys, who used to play in Hypnosia, one of my favourite thrash metal bands, was an important detail. So in this case I decided to take the risk and can honestly say now that I don't regret doing so at all. Funeral is yet another great Swedish band, although their music is completely different from the likes of Morbus Chron, Maim or Demonical (and well, this MCD was recorded in 2004, so years before Maim and Morbus have debuted).
"Forgotten Abominations" consists of three tracks. The opening tune, "Funeral", is sort of an instrumental intro, but I just fuckin love it. The tempo in it is very slow and the riffing reminds me just one band. And it's the mighty fuckin' Asphyx!!!! Hell yeah, Funeral managed to capture here the essence of the style of my favourite Dutch crew and even the melodic guitar lead in "Funeral" can match the style of playing of Eric Daniels and Paul Baayens. Great opening really, maybe it's even sad that there are no vocals in this song, but who cares anyway, it's cool.
Then there are two "normal" songs: "Forgotten Abominations" and "Sacramental Blasphemy" (which is almost nine minutes long!) and I can honestly say that again I've been crushed by very massive and brutal riffs, played in an excellent old school way, with great dose of dark, morbid atmosphere. Funeral mixes doom and death metal, and so there are very slow parts, but also each of those two tracks speeds up at some point, so it's very energetic and aggressive tune. The doomy parts may prevail, but that may be even better, as Funeral sounds really great at this style of playing and with the church bells at two fragments for instance the mood is just really eerie.
OK, enough of that natter. Here's yet another amazing release, one of my favourites actually from the past weeks and really good buying! Mind though that this was recorded already back in 2004 and released as a demo first, so I don't know if Funeral still exists or not, I hope they do and will release something new soon, as they're very promising band. And far better than the US Funeral with Eric Cutler from Autopsy in the line up.  Actually, I like it also over the reunion Autopsy hehe.
Final rate: 90 / 100

Putrified - Neurotic Necrotic

PUTRIFIED - Neurotic Necrotic (HELLTHRASHER - CD 2012)

You would think that nowadays everything that has got a label OLD SCHOOL and comes from Sweden must be a sure shot and killer music. But no, there were few less inspiring exceptions, like Crucifyre. So far Putrified also wasn't able to convince me at all. The previous recordings from this one-man project were quite miserable to be honest and especially their sound quality was just awful. I did hope though that the new Putrified album, "Neurotic Necrotic", will bring much improvement in every aspect of obscure death metal that A.Death tries to perform, but I'm afraid I got only disappointed, as this new full length is not much better than any of the previous Putrified released.
Again I can only say that I don't like the production of "Neurotic Necrotic". It's very amateurish and too raw and primitive to my taste. Hmm, I have nothing against muddy sounds, but sometimes it's just too much, just like on "Neurotic Necrotic". The guitars may sound fine, their garage sound may lack the aggression, but makes up for that in the atmosphere. But with the annoying drum machine it all just results in the kind of production I like least, which is homemade, uninspiring and deprived of all the aggression and obscure feeling such music should have. With that, "Neurotic Necrotic" doesn't make me bang my skull, but rather think how dull such bedroom bands are.
Musically Putrified is very old school, combining some of the most ravage and morbid Swedish bands (Grotesque, Nihilist, Morbid, etc) with the Autopsy meets Repulsion meets Mantas, etc. But with all the respect, I can't hear much good riffing on "Neurotic Necrotic", Putrified is completely deprived of powerful riffs, good ideas and anything else, that usually would make the music worthy. Not that there's absolutely nothing what would be listenable, there may be few better fragments, but they all are drowned in the sea of such boredom I haven't heard in this genre for a long time. Sorry to say so, but I am not going to lie anyone, there's just absolutely nothing on "Neurotic Necrotic" I would find as decent, I can be picky on each detail of this music, even the vocals annoy me (they're sort of bad copy of Chris Reifert's)... So, in the end I think such recording doesn't deserve anything more that being released as a demo, definitely not as a CD album, but that's the mark of our times that even the most crappy recordings find their way out of the pits and get professionaly released. I think that's the first such real slip in the roster of Hellthrasher, hopefully the last one ever. Much trust me, there are far better and more superior old school death metal releases around nowadays to worry about this one, so basically "Neurotic Necrotic" can just be skipped.
Final rate: 40 / 100

 

 

The story behind „Neurotic Necrotic” (narrated by A. Death):
„The album is something as pretentious as a concept album in the sense that the lyrics tells a story rather than just the regular gore stuff that the lyrics dealt with on the first album "Spawn Of The Dead". No Worries though, it ain't a rockopera, the music is Putrified's form of Necrotic Metal Of Death & Decay as always. Anyway, the story tells of a man who starts to hear voices he cannot see. They tell him things and he can't make them stop and starts to dig up graves from where the voices come. In an attempt to make the voices stop he injects the dead with various fluids that make themc ome alive. Hence the title "Neurotic Necrotic", then the dead starts to walk and try to make their way home to the land of the pharoes etc. The story is very loosely based on the HP Lovecraft stories Herbert West - Reanimator and Under The Pyramids. Even if the story is something that has been worked on it really is the music and songs that are the most important thing. I think these songs are much stronger as an album than "Spawn Of The Dead", the songs form a strong entity. Putrified's sound has expanded and new things are incorporated, this material is more focused on groove and catchy riffs than the first one.”

Bombs of Hades - interview

BOMBS OF HADES interview!!!!!!!!!

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BOMBS OF HADES… Man, first time I’ve heard this band, it just blew my head off! If you often visit my blog, then there’s a slight chance you might have read three reviews of this band’s releases I’ve already done... none of them is negative and I can really say my enthusiasm for the music BOMBS OF HADES plays gets only bigger and bigger. So I really wanted to ask Jonas few questions and the dream came true. It was a real pleasure to be able to interview someone like him, all in all this is the guy, whose many albums / bands I’ve got in my collection and which I’ve been listening to for years. Check the interview out then, check out also those reviews… And there’s also an article about UTUMNO somewhere on the blog I posted earlier last year, which is another band Jonas sang for. Let’s start!

Hi Jonas. I must say it’s a real pleasure to have a chance to ask few question someone, who recorded and played in so many bands that have been massacring me through the years. Tell me, do you feel like a death metal legend, a person, who has inspired many others? Also, weren’t you afraid to come back to the scene with new band, after so many years since the good old days?
Hi Marcin. I can’t really say I feel like a legend. That whole thing seems strange to me. I mean I have my heroes / legends and I don’t consider myself being in their league haha. But it’s still great that the music I make inspires others. I wasn’t really afraid to come back to it. The time was right and I’m still creative enough to make some good shit.

I want to start this interview by asking you about some excellent, recent news concerning BOMBS OF HADES. First I’ve heard that the band has signed a contract with PULVERISED Records, great Asian label, which releases quite few Swedish bands! How come you’ve changed the label? Weren’t you happy with BLOOD HARVEST or maybe they’ll take care of the vinyl only, while PULVERISED will do the CDs? Finally, the news say that the title of new album is going to be "The Serpent's Redemption"! I can’t wait to hear that, but maybe there’s a chance you can unveil some secrets about the second full length, at least few details?
Yeah the deal is that PULVERISED will release and promote the CD while BLOOD HARVEST will do the vinyl. We will probably always release our full-length vinyls through BLOOD HARVEST. Great label and Rodrigo is a great guy. Yes, the new album will be called “The Serpent’s Redemption”. The titletrack is a song we’ve had for like 2 years now and we’ve played it live a couple of times. I’ve more or less built the whole new album around that song. The album will be more like half of it doomier and half fastpaced / d-beat stuff.  It will only have 8 tracks, but some are a pretty long so the album will still be around 40-45 minutes long. Just booked the studiotime and it will be recorded the last week of February and is planned to be released in May 2012.

Arghhh, can’t wait! I think 2011 was pretty good year for BOMBS OF HADES. You’ve released three fantastic new materials: a 7” „Into the Eternal Pit of Fire” and two splits: one split 7” with USURPRESS and 10” with TORMENTED. How do you estimate that year and those three releases? Where did this idea for so many singles come from? Is vinyl an important format for BOMBS? I’ve seen a photo on your facebook with a huge (!) collection of records. Seems like you’re a real maniac of them!
It’s been a pretty productive year yeah. We did those three releases and our split 10” with MORDBRAND will be out in January 2012. My vision with BOMBS OF HADES is to try and release 1 album every 18 months and fill every year up with 3-5 ep’s, splits etc. I have loads of material / riffs / ideas so there’s no problem there. Also a reason for this is that we’re not kids anymore. We are all over and almost 40 years old, so it would be great to have a good body of work when we finally call it a day you know. A huge inspiration for doing lots of EPs and splits is THE HELLACOPTERS. Their first 5 or 6 years they did around 30 of them. And all those stuff we did this year is great I think. Good progression between the first album and the next. Yeah, I’m a big record collector. Been one my whole life. Forsberg and Söderback are also big collectors. Vinyl is the only thing that counts haha.

Split with TORMENTED is a damn killer release! I absolutely love “Ice Cold Grave”, which definitely belongs to my favourite songs of BOMBS OF HADES! But I was pretty surprised with your choice of the cover! I’ve never heard LOUD PIPES earlier and I suppose you’ve made that song more death metal than the original. Do you prefer to play covers of bands, which are not death metal, because that’s not what everyone would expect?
Nice to hear you like it. LOUD PIPES are an old favourite band of ours. Pretty cool band that featured Karlén from MERCILESS, Fredrik from UNLEASHED and Peter Stjärnvind (MERCILESS, UNANIMATED, ENTOMBED, NIFELHEIM etc). Loud obnoxious punk, just the way we like it. We’ve done covers of LOUD PIPES and MOTÖRHEAD but also MASTER, SATHANAS and CARNAGE. I like mixing it up and do a bit of both you know. Keep it interesting.

If LOUD PIPES (FUCK! What a killer line up they had!!) was surprising choice for the cover, then CARNAGE’s “The Day Man Lost” from „Into the Eternal Pit of Fire” is more obvious. But it was recorded with Per Boder from GOD MACABRE on vocals, what makes it really special. How is he doing nowadays? His vocals are great on that cover, I would love to hear some more stuff with him doing the vocals! How did you decide to have him on this song?
A total obvious one. I’ve been playing this one since 1989. Per is doing great with MORDBRAND and life in general. He did an amazing job on our CARNAGE cover and his voice is better than ever. It was a nobrainer for me to have him do it. We used to play this at almost every rehearsal with MACABRE END / GOD MACABRE.

Well, I must admit I didn’t know about his new band, MORDBRAND at the time of doing those questions, but I already putted my orders for their split with EVOKE and “Necropsychotic” MCD!!! And now „Into the Eternal Pit of Fire”… Well, I like most of DETEST Records releases, but this one is one of my truly favourite ones EVER! Amazing EP with three killer songs (although “Prologue (The Ecstacy Of Blood)” is sort of an intro, with great creepy horror atmosphere!)… The title song must be bringing a pure slaughter on gigs, I think, it’s another amazing song of yours! I sometimes wonder, don’t you regret using such excellent songs on singles, instead on the full lengths hehe? From the other hand I hope that once they’re on EPs, they won’t be re-recorded for the album, because it would make the EP pretty much worthless hehe.
Thanks. We often open our shows with this one nowdays. Great song to begin the slaughter with. I write most songs with a purpose. All of the EP or split songs are written for this particular reason, not an album. The only track that we ever might re-record is “Burn” from the forthcoming split with MORDBRAND. This one was meant for the next album and if I don’t come up with one that can replace it on the album, it will be recorded again for it.

Then the split with USURPRESS… Well, first of all, I love the artwork for it! Secondly, I never heard of USURPRESS earlier, but I was surprised this band features Daniel Ekeroth, although to be honest their music didn't convince me 100%. How did you end up sharing a 7” with them?
Yeah, Rafal does some amazing artwork! And USURPRESS, they are old friends of ours and we love doing stuff with our friends. As simple as that.

I know that BOMBS OF HADES has started as crust / punk band, which at first was kind of surprise for me, but after listening to your music I’ve found out that there are still some traces of this kind of playing in your music, only everything is spices with great dose of classic old school death metal in the vein of MANTAS, MASTER, AUTOPSY or NIHILIST. How did it happen that your music has evolved from crust into what we can hear on “Chambers of Annihilation” and other BOMBS recent recordings? I wonder how did “Apocalipsis Canibal” demo sound?
The Crust/D-beat influence has been with me ever since the ABHOTH / GOD MACABRE days. DISCHARGE was always quite big with the Death metal heads in Sweden in those days. And when me and Ekman formed BOMBS OF HADES it was in the beginning just meant for us to get drunk and play aggressive crust. That first demo isn’t at all the way we sound nowdays. Also I play drums on it and I’m not as good as Forsberg is. The way I see our music now is that is has some Crust, a lot of old school Death and some progressive elements and also some doom touches.

The break between BOMBS first official release, “Carnivores” and the previous bands you played in, like UTUMNO was really long. When you’ve left UTUMNO and GOD MACABRE, did you simply feel bored with death metal or what? I know you’ve played in some bands in the meantime, but they didn’t have anything to do with what you’ve been doing in the past! I’ve read somewhere that GOD MACABRE basically had enough material to do the album, if that so is true haven’t you thought about using some of it nowadays?
I was totally fed up with the death metal scene after GOD MACABRE and UTUMNO folded. I had become obsessed with progressive rock like KING CRIMSON, VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR and GENTLE GIANT and wanted to explore that more. It took me about 3 years to find a suitable drummer. He and I rehearsed a lot between 1997-98 and a lot of times we where joined by bassplayer Gustaf Hielm who also played with MESHUGGAH at the time. We started to record an album in 1998 but it was never finished for a lot of reasons. I actually plan to finish this album this year. Then I played organ and guitar in a psychedelic garage band between 2001-2007 called THE COLOMBOS. Well, I had almost enough finished songs for a second album with GOD MACABRE. Around 6 songs were finished and I had riffs / ideas for maybe 4-5 songs more. I’ve used some of those ideas for BOMBS OF HADES songs like “Godless”, “One With Hell” and “Corpse Holocaust” and for some new stuff coming. I have A LOT of ideas left from those days that I plan to use in BOMBS OF HADES.

“Chambers of Abomination” is an excellent album. "Bombs of Hades", "Corpse Holocaust", "Master Builder" and "Funeral" are definitely my favourite songs from it! But it all sounds awesome and just shreds with killer riffs and great, rotten atmosphere. From the recent bands, I put this album together with DEATH BREATH and BASTARD PRIEST – similar music and great performance in each! How do you personally see “Chambers of Abomination” now, so many months after the recording? Are you all happy with that album?
Thanks a lot. I’m pleased with it, but there is always stuff you would wanna change with a recording afterwards. I would wish the production to be a bit heavier and louder just.

I wonder whether you’re familiar with the recent DARKTHRONE albums? I ask about that, because they kind of started to take influences from similar bands as BOMBS OF HADES and there are parts of “Chambers of Abomination”, which do remind me the Norwegian band, like in "Corpse Holocaust" and “Funeral”.
I’m a big DARKTHRONE fan, yeah. Love all their stuff. Really like the way they have turned almost into a punkband nowdays. I guess you could say they’ve influenced me. Not as much as say AUTOPSY or ENTOMBED or TROUBLE, but yeah.

The B side of the vinyl seems to be a conceptual four track story… Would you mind telling me something more about it and about the Master Builder, whoever he is (Satan??)?
The whole B-side is based around CLIVE BARKER’s shortstory “Down Satan” about a rich man who builts hell on earth to make Satan show himself, but turns into Satan himself in the process. The Master Builder is the man who builds this hell on earth and goes mad doing it. The title was “stolen” from an old song by the British / French progband GONG.

In the old days you’ve been visiting (with your bands) SUNLIGHT Studio. Nowadays the BOMBS are recording all their releases in your hometown, Vasteras. So, two questions – how do you remember Skogsberg and the work in SUNLIGHT and two – are you happy with the sound you’ve been achieving with BOMBS and this kind of organic, but rotten and raw production, which feels like you’ve been playing 100% live?
Skogsberg was a great guy to work with. Very relaxed and worked fast. I really enjoyed recording with him back in those days. He taught me a lot. It’s been convenient and cheap for us to record here in Västerås now. We record one guitar and the drums “live” and the rest is overdubbed later. The next album though will be recorded in Gothenburg at a good friend’s studio. 

Magnus said in the interview that “we wouldn’t drop a cool riff / idea just because it didn’t sound murky and “old” enough”. Would you agree with him and if so, do you often come up with completely not death metal sounding riffs and ideas?
Some riffs are maybe not considered Death Metal when I first come up with them but they sort of always become it anyway after you put it in it’s right context.

Quite few old bands have returned recently, like DESULTORY who did absolutely amazing record, also EVOCATION, THE CROWN and GODDEFIED, and from the other countries there are ASPHYX, PESTILENCE, etc. Sooo many hehe. And few more like EXCRUCIATE and CRYPT OF KERBEROS have been announcing their come backs. How do you feel about that? Have you been tempted to resurrect GOD MACABRE or UTUMNO? Or maybe ABHOTH, although this band never got as much attention as the other bands you’ve played with in the past and you left them pretty quickly, but since you play with Butch Ekman…?
It’s great that a lot of bands / musicians come back to their roots and still deliver quality stuff. But the chance of getting any of my old bands back together is pretty slim. None of us are interested in doing it. Rather do the new stuff. Let the past stay in the past.

I absolutely love THE CROWN’s “Doomsday King” album you did with them (the best one in their discography, in my opinion!), but recently I’ve found out you left the band! How come and what’s the reason? Have you enjoyed the gigs and everything you did with THE CROWN? I know that Johan Lindstrand has returned to them, what makes me laugh a bit, but I do hope they won’t re-do the album with him on vocals, just as they did that with “Crowned In Terror” hehe!
Glad you like the album. I think I did a good job on it. The reason I’m not with THE CROWN anymore is pretty simple. Johan wanted to return to the band (why is up for speculation) and I can’t really stand in the way of that. I bet most of the fans prefer to see Johan at the front. I knew it would happen eventually, but it makes me laugh a bit too since the guy has been in and out of THE CROWN so many times haha. I have a very good relationship with all of them (including Johan) and we still talk all the time. Great guys. And I’ve told them that if they ever re-record “Doomsday King” with Johan I will hunt them down haha. They truly think that the re-recording of “Crowned in terror” was a big mistake.

I need to ask you one thing. Well, I wonder is something like an image for metal band – either for death metal or black metal – something important for you? I ask about that, because I remember UTUMNO had as un-death metal photos as it’s only possible! That must have annoyed a lot of orthodox maniacs, I think, especially that Madonna t-shirt one of you wore on the EP! And nowadays also BOMBS pretty much doesn’t have an image, you’re just four guys, who’re there to play some killer riffs and who doesn’t try to look either evil or like zombies or whatever else, but are just dudes from the neighbourhood…
Yeah, I’ve never been interested in having an image. I mean, the music should do the talking not what you wear or look like. The UTUMNO thing came more or less as a response to the brewing black metal scene back in 1991-92. We all liked a lot of the black metal that was coming out but none of us really cared for all of those trying to out-do each other with who was most satanic or evil etc. That’s why Dan wore a MADONNA shirt and we more or less just looked like normal dudes. With BOMBS OF HADES it’s the same thing. We wear just cool t-shirts, jeans and the occasional Bandoleer belts. Don’t need much more.

Ufff, we’re getting close to end of this interview… I just watched some raw sounding videos of BOMBS live performances and I must say you shred live also! How often do you have a chance to play? How does it feel to be on the scene again? I guess you see many things which have changed since the old days, but I hope it’s still a lot of fun for you?
I think we’re getting better and better live. We don’t do that many gigs, maybe around 5 a year. It looks like we’re finally doing our first gigs abroad next year also which will be great fun. It feels great to be back in the scene again. But none of us are strangers to playing live. Söderback and Forsberg did many European tours with their old band PUFFBALL.  And yeah, it’s a lot of fun.

And finally last question... but I don’t want it to be an easy one for you, so… maybe you’ll give us a list of your favourite death metal albums and demos? Ha, that will give you a headache! Take care Jonas and keep the great job with BOMBS OF HADES! It was a great pleasure to do this interview!
Ahh, OK. My fave demos are still the classic ones: CARNAGE (Swe): both demos, all the NIHILIST / ENTOMBED demos, DISMEMBER “Last Blasphemies”, the AUTOPSY demos, MORBID ANGEL “Thy Kingdom Come”, SATHANAS “Ripping Evil”, NECROVORE “Divus de Mortus”, IMMOLATION “Demo II”, INCUBUS “Demo 87”, POISON “Awakening of the dead”, DEVASTATION (Chicago) “A Creation of a Ripping Death”, SARCOFAGO “Black Vomit”, DARKTHRONE “Thulcandra” and lots lots more. Albums: everything by AUTOPSY, DARKTHRONE and ENTOMBED. MORBID ANGEL “Abominations of Desolation”. First two PARADISE LOST, both BASTARD PRIEST LP’s and tons more. Thanks for the interview and stay heavy!