Bloodshed
Wywiad przeprowadził Bart DonarskiYes, it's time to shed your blood in the name of metal! Their new output is just spinning in me stereo and I'm wondering what to write and not to be trite. Maybe I simply say that "Inhabitants of Dis" is the album all metal die-hards should be aware of. This is good music, slightly balancing on the edge of both black and death, even tough they want to call it 
bloodshed one. Alright, let it be like that, for blood is definitely what your speakers will be gushing out with, while they slay you by their instruments of audible torments. Beware the uninvited inhabitants from Sweden!For a kick-off, are you pleased with how the debut full-length came out? Has your expectations on particular levels been fulfilled? At last are you happy bastards or not?
Tommy: Generally, yes. We got the kind of sound that we wanted and so on. ...and yes, we are circus-performers.
"Inhabitants of Dis" was recorded in renown Sunlight with Tomas Skogsberg at the controls. You seem to be bonded to the place like a boy to his first beloved. How to comprehend that? To the best of my knowledge apart from the very first demo, all your further material have been done down there.
Tommy: You're right. Everything except the "When the night..."-demo has been recorded at Sunlight. Well, u tend to stick with the things that work. When we recorded "Laughter of destruction" with Jocke Pettersson everything went smoothly, without any complications or gruffs; total co-operation on all parts from start to finish. The demo also ended up having an awesome final sound and production. As we say, first impressions last... until now. We'll probably try out different studios for our next release.
Formerly you recorded along with Jocke Pettersson. Is Skogeberg better for a full-length?
Tommy: I have no idea. Jocke had quit Sunlight earlier and there was no-one else but Skogsberg to choose from. Also we didn't want to take a chance on a different studio for the full-length.
I sort of do not get the mastering issue of the new album. Was that really mastered in NY? Man, the matter sounds very exotic as for a Swedish band. Or was it re-mastered or something? Set the record straight here please.
Robin: Yes, we first did a pre-master here in Sweden, and then thy did the real mastering in New York (without us present though). The reason we first did a pre-master was that we wanted to be able to control everything about the album as much as possible, and we had to do some fades, cross-fades and so on. But the pre-master managed to get overcompressed. The 
mastering studio in New York did a good job in spite of that, except for one thing; the instrumental part in the beginning of "Kiss of cruelty" was supposed to be separated from the rest of the song.
As I read you kind of toured Finland frequently. Do you have any significant connections to the scene, fellow-bands, whatsoever?
Robin: Well, four of five persons in the band are of or partly of Finnish descent. We haven't realy frequently played in Finland, we did two gigs there last year. But I sure wouldn't mind going back to do some more gigs. We know a bunch of people and bands over there, like FINNTROLL, MOONSORROW, THYRANE, IMPALED NAZARENE, THE SEVENTH PLANET, SOTAJUMALA, WOODS OF BELIAL and so on.
Your newest album is out via code666. Has everything been going well as far as the deal/promotion is concerned as yet?
Robin: Yes, I think so. Michele at code666's promotion department is doing a good work. I feel satisfied with signing with them. But maybe I shouldn't just be positve and let them feel good about themselves. They might settle with what they have done and don't continue to struggle to spread our music. GET WORKING YOU LAZY BASTARDS!!!
"Inhabitants of Dis" has been also released through other labels and is planned to be out in the US and Japan. Could you shed a bit light on that intricate matter?
Robin: "Inhabitants..." has been licensed to CD-Maximum in Russia, who released it in the former Soviet union countries, and code666 are negotiating licenses in North America and Japan (I can't reveal with which labels yet). I think it's a good way of working. Instead of having one label working to spread our music we'd then have one label in Europe, one in Russia, one in North America and one in Japan.
Are you really into national history of nature? The NRM appears to be a very odd place for a metal band to take photos. I haven't been there unfortunately, even though I guess it has nothing to do with gazing at growing rocks, smiling plants or stuffed animals, has it?
Robin: Nature history in interesting, yes. The reason we decided to take the photos there was that when I did a job for one of the exibitions at the museum I was told about their storages with fetuses in jars, stuffed animals and the grand hall of bones, and we thought that this would fit the visual concept we had for the album. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos of the fetus-jars because they contain alcohol (to preserve the fetuses) and there would be a big risk that the 
flash from the camera would cause the whole storage to explode! The photos that we used from the NRM-session (the indivudual photos of the bandmembers and the monkey skeleton) were all taken in the bone hall, but we also got a couple of photos of rats, a wolf, bears and all sorts of interesting animals.
I haven't listened to your previous materials, sadly. Could you briefly compare them to the new one in terms of music-wise? Do they differ a lot? Reportedly the very first achievements of yours were more into primitive black metal, what's unbelievable considering the new proficient album.
Tommy: The first demo, "When the night betrays the light", is totally primitive black metal with raw vocals (Glenn) and has a generally weird sound-production. Material-wise it pretty much sounds like a first demo... *s*. The second demo, "Laughter of Destruction", was our first recording in Sunlight. Still in the same vein, black metal, yet a lot more evolved if you compare the material to the first. More experimentation concerning vocals, also a great general soundproduction.
For the recording of the "Skullcrusher" MCD, we wanted to get a more death-like sound, as the material at that time leaned more towards death metal. Jocke Pettersson did a great job once again; he managed to punch out a totally different production that suited the material perfectly.
"Inhabitants of Dis" according to me has more of a black metal feeling to it, than death. This first album feels like a test just to see if older and newer material work together on one recording. Some of the songs on the album were made already in '98, and some in early 2002. It's a big time-span, but I think the final result shows that the combination did work; it gave the total package more versatility. Production-wise, mr Skogsberg did a good job. The clear, yet raw sound fits the material.
Are you black or death, or maybe something in between? Just kidding, but undoubtedly your style comprises not only one influence - so to speak.
Tommy: We have been experimenting with both styles for many years. None of the two would give the music it's true name. Also, I don't think that you can label us and state that we sound exactly like some other band. I'd call it Bloodshed-metal.
Maybe I'm mistaken, although I think that "Inhabitants of Dis" is sort of akin to my favorite Dissection. I mean, the darkness and rawness your material definitely teems with. Agree or disagree with the subjective viewpoint of mine?
Tommy: DISSECTION is a great band, and maybe they have some kind of subconsious influence in the creation... but it's nothing that I think about. Consious influences are drawn from elsewhere, art is one of them.
Do you contribute to any other bands/projects as a decent Swede should do as a rule?
Tommy: Hehe, it's pretty common isn't it? ...well, KINGDOM DECAYED is one band that should have something out this year, hopefully. It includes three members of BLOODSHED.
I heard that some line-up problems occurred to you some time ago. Is everything settled at the moment in this weighty issue?
Robin: The only line-up change we have had was in 1998 when I replaced the old bass player, Stange. Since then things have been stabile, with the exception of us using a session drummer (Dennis Ekdahl from RAISE HELL) on two concerts when Mikael was away on vacation.
Your another album is schemed to be more chaotic and aggressive. Am I correct? Any details on the next record?
Tommy: That's right. More chaos and destruction planned. ...just more evolved fury.
Are the tracks on "Inhabitants of Dis" completely new ones? Isn't it kind of collection of your past and present? And 
eventually, was the album written is a short period of time, or was it a long-term, hard nut to crack undertaking going on for months?
Tommy: No and yes. As mentioned it's more of a compilation of older and newer material. The older songs didn't quite fit into the earlier releases. For example "Mark of the Cursed" could have ended up on "Skullcrusher", but the material was too different to be released on a production-carpet of death, so to speak. Therefore we waited for its release until the full-length. Same goes for "Blood Music"; as it was just too weird to exist on previous releases. This time it fit like a glove.
What's your favorite Swedish band of all times and at the moment (like newcomer)?
Tommy: Hard to pick one... I'd say SMIRGEL. The best swedish band at the moment would be BURNITUDE.
Is the name of your band drawn from Grave song? That's what I heard from Ola.
Robin: I'm very much aware of that GRAVE song, but it wasn't from there we got it. We wanted a simple and aggressive sounding name, and Glenn came up with BLOODSHED. Easy as that.
Think you go to heaven for what you do? Ha!
Robin: Absolutely not!
Bart Donarski
