Vomitory
Wywiad przeprowadził Aleksander Krzeczkowski
15 years of existence, five longplays, and they are still getting better! This Swedish death metal monster machine impress me since their debut "Raped in their own blood". They've got their own style they improve a little on every next album. The last one is called "Primal Massacre" and I hope few people survived it to be able to read this interview with drummer Tobias.
"Primal Massacre" was recorded at Kuling Studio and mixed and mastered at Berno Studio - the place you recorded "Redemption", "Revelation Nausea" and "Blood rapture". Haven't you been afraid about the final effect as you were going to use Kuling for the first time?
"No, we never had any doubts about using a new studio for the recording of "Primal Massacre". We still worked with our now longtime producer, Henrik Larsson, who we knew would give us a killer production as always. It's more in the fingers and ears of the producer than it's in the studio and its equipment. If we had worked with an new producer instead, I would have been a lot more worried. However, we knew Studio Kuling is a killer studio and is well equipped so we had no worries at all."
Your producer, Henrik, rented studio equipment for this session. Is this a common situation for you not to use amps, drums etc from the studio you record your music at?
"Well, he ordered the stuff from the rental company, but they never arrived because the rental company had sent it to the wrong part of the country. The stuff he had rented was some vintage microphone pre-amps, which we were going to use for the drums, but we did good without them. No, it's not really a common situation for us. But we always use our own guitar- and bass amplifiers and I usually use my own drumkit. Part from that we usually use the studio equipment that is available."
As far as "Primal Massacre" is concerned - there is a great, slow part in the middle of "Gore Apocalypse" - it sounds VERY 'bolt throwerish' to me. Looks like you refered to UK gods consciously at this part! Is that true? :)
"Haha, yeah, it sounds very Bolt Thrower and we're 100% aware of it. Bolt Thrower fuckin' rules! I wrote that riff several years ago and when I was listening through some old tapes last year, I re-discovered this riff. It was a little different from the beginning and had more of a Slayer vibe to it. But I changed the feel of it a bit and it turned out completely Blot Thrower-ish, so then I thought, "yeah, this is the shit!!!"."
I guess you're the main songwriter in Vomitory. Do you create most of riffs too? Are you multiinstrumentalist as i.e. Dave Suzuki from Vital Remains?
"Yes, I am the main composer in Vomitory. I write 90% of all the music - riffs, arrangements etc. I also play guitar beside the drums, but I don't know if I would consider myself a guitarist. I can play basic metal stuff i.e. good enough to write my own songs. I mainly compose on the guitar but I also come up with lots of stuff while playing the drums. By the way, Dave Suzuki is a badass musician (and a cool guy)!"
Tobias, you also play drums in a side-project - God Among Insects. You are there together with Lord K Philipson from The Project Hate, Emperor Magus Caligula from Dark Funeral and Sanctification's bassplayer Tomas Elofsson. With this dream-team you announced you're going to play old school swedish death metal. I've already heard the soundclips from the upcoming full-length album recorded in Abyss studio. It sounds really great but it's definately NOT death metal in old Entombed, Grave or Dismember style. Lot of blast-beats, modern vocals and many other diffrences - would you agree it's not an "old school Swedish" we usually think about? Give us also some details about this band - how important is it for you all? Are you going to continue the story?
"Well, that's your opinion. There are not lots of blast beats, only two songs on the album have a few blast parts and that's it. The production is quite modern, but the songs are totally old-school in my opinion. There are some parts on it that easily could have been on "Into The Grave" with Grave! Wait until you hear the album - then you'll get the whole picture. You've already told about the members, so I can tell you that the debut (and probably only) album, "World Wide Death", will be released through Threeman Recording on September 6th in Europe and on the 7th in the rest of the world. Check the official insects website: www.godamonginsects.se. The plan with this band was from the beginning to release one album, do one show and then split up because we all have our main bands. We did the one show a month ago at a Swedish metal festival, but we are actually going to do one more - at our release party for "World Wide Death" in September. We're sticking to our plan so far, but we'll see what happens in the future. Maybe we'll do another album. I am doing this only to have fun and to play with other people for a change."
There is also Bloodbath - another Swedish super project that recurrects best times of Scandinavian death metal in their music - what's your opinion about them? I think it's great when people, who really know what this music was like and what it should always be, get us to the past and create such pieces of art. Would you agree that many years were needed to go by to make fans hungry for this music again?
"Honestly, I've only heard a few soundclips from the internet from Bloodbath, but the little I've heard is really good. The musical climate is constantly changing and along with that also peoples opinion on what's hot or not. Even within death metal. I guess it's necessary that many years had to pass by to make fans interested in this kind of music again."
Few years ago you complained a little about Swedish fans - as you said, you arouse enthusiasm in the rest of Europe much stronger then you do in Sweden. I guess you cannot hold this opinion nowadays?
"Yes, I think I can. It has become a little better in Sweden the last couple of years though, but I still think that the interest is greater outside Scandinavia. Both the overall enthusiasm and turning up at shows."
Back in Semptember '03 you announced vocalist searching as a result of Erik Rundqvist's decision to focus solely on his bass-playing duties. Is that still up-to-date information? Any serious candidates since this time?
"No, not really. The interest in the vocal position has been great, but there has been only a few guys that have seemed interesting enough for us. We've tried only one guy and he wasn't what we were looking for. But now we have reconsidered this situation and looked upon it from different perspectives and come to the conclusion that we are not going to get a new vocalist, but continue as a four-piece with Erik as vocalist/bass player. This is a decision we've made together, all four of us, and we're sure this is the best thing to do."
You've just came back from No Mercy tour. I read in few interviews and concert reviews it was a really great experience for you. Was there any interesting or funny event on this tour you might tell Masterful readers now about?
"Yeah, the No Mercy festivals were great! There are funny and stupid shit happening all the time when you're on tour, so there's difficult to point at something in particular. But we had some great parties on our bus along with our colleagues in Spawn Of Possession and Exhumed. George Fisher of Cannibal 
Corpse and Peter Tägtgren of Hypocrisy also joined us a couple of nights. Dennis, the drummer of Spawn Of Possession, got so fucking drunk he had to be carried on board the bus a couple of times. Another funny thing was in Paris when Vomitory, Spawn Of Possession and Matt Harvey of Exhumed hung out at a bar after our show. It proved to be a karaoke bar and Matt got really excited and did a few songs for us, the Lionel Richie song "Hello" for example! What a sight!"
There are loads of great concerts ahead of you in August - Summer Breeze, Party-San in Germany and Braindead Open Air in France. Anything else this summer? Do you like playing such big fests?
"Well, it's only those three festivals that we have ahead this summer. We'll also do the warm-up show for Summer Breeze together with Gorerotted and Fleshcrawl and some more bands. Yes, we like doing festivals 'cause there's a lot of people there that wouldn't come and see us if we played a regular club-show. You play in front of a bigger audience and it's nice to play outdoors on big stages. Then there's the party-factor that also is very important, haha! The atmosphere between the bands is always cool on big festivals and everyone is always in a good mood. It's also cool to get the chance to see other good bands."
Is it a gossip of is it true you are going to US with Cannibal Corpse in Autumn? I think it is high time for Vomitory to show it's strenght there. And by the way - what is the response of American press to your music?
"We had the chance to do that tour with Cannibal Corpse, but we didn't get the economical support we needed from Metal Blade US to be able to do it. Maybe if I sold my car we could have afford it... It sucks 'cause it was a great opportunity for us. Cannibal Corpse still have lots of people on their shows in the US so it really would have made sense for us to tour with them. We've already done several tours with them here in Europe, and we get along real well with them. They really wanted us as support on their tour and the timing felt right for us as well since we have the new album out and the response from the US has increased noticeably. But what can we do? Money rules - even within death metal. I agree that it's about time for us to show ourselves in the states. We've just released our fifth album and the band has been around for 15 fucking years now and as I said, the interest in Vomitory has grown a lot bigger in the US with "Primal Massacre", so it's a shame that we can't do that tour."
I'm sure you remember your shows in Poland. What's your opinion about our scene, fans (and beer of course hehe)? Are you going to come back to Poland to promote "Primal Massacre"? I hope you've already forgot this shitty story with your car hi-fi that some assholes stolen during your gig in 1995? Let me remind you few words you said in an interview for 'Global Domination' - "Polish bands are faster than Swedish - that's a fact" hehe - nice to hear that!
"Of course I remember our Polish shows. The scene seems pretty good there and the fans are very dedicated, which of course is very cool! And the Polish beer is among my favourite beers, and I can tell you that I've tried a lot of different beers in my days, haha! Lech is one of your best. There are no plans for shows in Poland at this moment. That story with the car stereo is since long time forgotten. But when it happened it was really fucking annoying 'cause this incident delayed us so much we had to cancel the show the day after. I have friends in Poland who actually know who the guy who did it is, but I don't care anymore. Polish bands are faster than Swedish - that's still a fact."
"Primal Massacre" is your third album for Metal Blade. Do you think they're already pleased with this collaboration? Did they ever insist that you be 'more progressive', 'modern' or shit like that?
"I believe Metal Blade are pleased with Vomitory. I know the guys at the European office love our music and I guess it's simply the reason why they signed us. They have never interfered with our way of writing music and they will probably never do that either. Of course they have opinions and they should, but it stays with that. They knew what they signed and if there were things they wanted to change I don't believe they would have signed us at all in the first place."
And how do you imagine an improvement of your music on the next releases? In my opinion it will not be possible without putting more 'experimental' parts. Do you think that even without such parts your 'pure' death metal might be even better than what you did on "Primal Massacre"?
"Maybe it's necessary to try some new things that we've never tried before, but we will not go "experimental" just for the sake of development. I think we're really good at what we're doing now, and I think the next Vomitory album will definitely sound like us but with a little more progress and improvement. As always. It's getting more difficult after every album to get better and come up with new ideas, but that's part of the fun and a challenge that keeps us going. With every new album we always have the attitude 
that it will become our best album to date and I believe that when it's time for us to record our sixth album, we will have that attitude again, even though it feels now that "Primal Massacre" is the best we ever could achieve."
OK - last question - Is there any special practice you do while training blast-beats? Could you please give some basic instruction for the beginning drummers.
I have no special exercises. I actually never practice playing blast-beats. But what's important is to warm up and stretch properly before playing drums. I never did that when I was younger, but as I've grown older and got more experience, I've learned about the importance of doing it. Now I do it before every show and ever rehearsal. Also when playing fast, it's really important to be relaxed. Hold the sticks with a loose grip and let the fingers and wrist do the work, not the entire arm. Start slowly and work on the co-ordination and to play tight at a slow tempo. When you're comfortable with that, gradually go faster. It's more important to have a solid and tight blast-beat that isn't ultra fast, than an ultra fast one that is sloppy. And never listen to the people who claim that blasting with two feet are cheaters. That's complete bullshit! Do what you feel most comfortable with. In my opinion it's more honest to play powerful full-strokes with both feet than "feathering" the bassdrum with one foot and have a trig module cranked to the maximum to get it to sound powerful. Who are the cheaters?
Thanks for your time!!
"Thanks for the opportunity."
