[IMGLEFT]http://www.russell.ultimatemetal.com/Interview/bloodbathlogo.JPG[/IMGLEFT]By Philip Whitehouse
With their latest full-length release, Nightmares Made Flesh, Bloodbath are fast becoming modern death metal's most celebrated band - even though they're using resolutely old-school influences as their springboard. Although at first the attention garnered by the band's stellar line up could have accounted for their popularity, one listen to any of their releases shows that Bloodbath is more than the sum of its parts - and Nightmares in particular moves away from the band's earlier tribute-esque focues towards cementing Bloodbath as a true, individual entity. I had a natter with Blakkheim through the wizardry of the internet, and in the process discussed modern death metal need to return to rockier climes, Dan Swano's indecisiveness, and cash-hungry record labels.
The first, and possibly most pressing order of business to attend to in interviewing Bloodbath, is to find out what happened to Mikael Akerfeldt - near-legendary Opeth singer and responsible for the guttural growls on Breeding Death and Ressurection Through Carnage. "The official line is that Mike didn't have the time and effort to commit to Bloodbath anymore," comes Blakkheim's reply. "The "unofficial" line is that his label MFN (Music For Nations - Phil) were also charging a smaller fortune just to let him in on the project, something we didnt find acceptable, since the rest of us were also in the same situation as him, with seperate deals under our own labels that the rest of us succeded to agree in making this happen without a drama." A sad situation then, but one thankfully that didn't stop Bloodbath's progress, as Hypocrisy vocalist Pete Tagtren stepped up to the mic, and performed admirably well.
Another thing that has changed with the new release isn't just related to the new talent behind the mic - Martin Axenrot was also recruited as a drummer, allowing Dan Swano to move to second guitar duties. The resulting record moved away from celebrating the old mid-90s death metal sounds towards a more identifiably unique sound.
Bloodbath's Anders and Dan
"That's what naturally happened as we brought in the new members. Our new drummer, Axe, has some skills that allowed us to take the music really anywhere we wanted. Swanö was never too confident about playing fast double bass drums or blast beats, for Axe this was like breathing the air, what he knew inside out. So me and Jonas definately had this aspect in the back of our minds when we wrote the songs." This increased songwriting scope shows itself in the more brutalising moments of the new album, opening up levels of dynamism that were previously untouched by the group. However, the line-up changes alone didn't precipitate Bloodbath's more 'serious' approach this time round;
"Another point was that we didnt wanna make a copy of RTC, since that album was very very old school oriented and more seen as a tribute than a real album of our own. You just cant make such albums twice in a row without losing the honor of both of the albums. You'd end up washed out. Right now, I'm very confident Bloodbath can stand on its own, delivering the goods and not just solely waving the flag of old school tribute although that's of course where our hearts are."
Bloodbath's Jonas and Martin
Ah, playing true to your heart - a concept close to any metaller, if ever there was one. So can we see Bloodbath's music as a clarion call for a return to death metal's old simplicity and brutality? "Yes, at the time of birth for Bloodbath, it seemed nobody was playing old school death (especially not with the Sunlight sound) anymore. It seemed everyone had moved on, which isnt a bad thing, but I cant stand hyper melodic twin guitar death, nor grind blast death only which was very popular." A fair point, since the death metal scene nowadays seems dominated by Gothenburg melo-death or ultra-brutal Origin clones... "For us it was always about that classic drive of the 2/4 beat and with blasts and double bass drums as an "overdrive". We missed hearing nobody would bring that shit on, so we brought it back and injected that genuine sound we all used to love. We did the scene a favour and the ball is rolling."
Vocailist Peter
Indeed it is - Bloodbath's popularity continues to snowball, with a rabid fanbase growing seemingly by the minute, and rave reviews coming in from all major metal publications (including this one, of course). Is it all becoming a bit much to handle yet?
"I think it has suprised each and everyone of us. We knew we were gonna come up with some high quality material backed up by skilled efforts, but at the same time we gotta take into account this was a project which started out as a joke. So, more than anything, I think the line-up has had a lot to do with the attention Bloodbath gotten even from the beginning. People were always excited to see what us guys could pull off together and I know some believed a miracle band would come out of it, but I always stressed that no matter who we are and come from, Bloodbath will not be traced back to our own bands and what we're known doing in those. It was all about death metal from day one, the day of joking around. Currently, we take Bloodbath 100% serious though, but that doesnt mean it has eliminated the entertainment factor. We're walkin the fine line of balancing those two, and as long as we are, there's no stop to this madness!"
So, if Bloodbath is an entirely 100% serious project now, what are the chances that we're going to get a chance to experience some ass-kicking in the live environment? "It would be stupid for me to dissapoint people if it didnt happen, so I wont announce anything as of yet," replies Blakkheim cautiously, "but let me tell you that we ARE working on getting the band up on the stage in 2005. I'm afraid the line-up on NMF will 90% be altered again though due to the busy schedules of other endeavours. Who's in and who's out remains to be declared."
From this, it's fair to assume that more Bloodbath releases are to be expected in the near future - something this particular scribe found fairly surprising, considering that I heard reports just after the release of Resurrection Through Carnage that Mr. Swano in particular was fairly averse to the idea of taking Bloodbath further after Breeding Death, thinking that there wasn't the call for it at all...
"First of all, you gotta learn that Mr Swanö is a man of a constant changing mind and consequently hard to keep up with," answers Blakkheim with admirable candidness. "He's very energetic and imaginative and has a strong mind that allows him to often lose himself in his own reflections. As I said, those reflections, too often change direction. I'm not even sure if he's aware of all this. He might have a hint about it though. I mean, we all read on his website that he was saying goodbye to death metal and would go strictly symph/prog/rock from now on. That statement didnt last for long. He had to eat that up." Yep, after worrying fans that he was going all widdly and symphonic for good, Swano was back in Bloobath before you could say "U-turn". "Swanö was probably in and out 10 times between RTC and NMF before he settled to continue," reveals Blakkheim. "I'm glad to have done all the Bloodbath albums with him, since we share this stuff. Its pointless denying what a big role death metal has in our lives, after all."
That last statement probably resonates quite deeply with most people reading this article - whatever area of metal you tend to listen to most, there are precious few who can claim that death metal in it's multifarious forms haven't informed their listening preferences at some point or another. Whether it lie the encroachment of double-kicks and growls into the romantic sensibilities of doom metal, or in emo's gradual drive towards chugging rhythms and growled vocals leading to screamo/metalcore bands sounding more and more like death metal acts, death metal touches on most genres eventually. As a final message to the Ultimate Metal masses, we leave Blakkheim on this note.
"Enjoy it while it lasts... and stay metal!!!"
With their latest full-length release, Nightmares Made Flesh, Bloodbath are fast becoming modern death metal's most celebrated band - even though they're using resolutely old-school influences as their springboard. Although at first the attention garnered by the band's stellar line up could have accounted for their popularity, one listen to any of their releases shows that Bloodbath is more than the sum of its parts - and Nightmares in particular moves away from the band's earlier tribute-esque focues towards cementing Bloodbath as a true, individual entity. I had a natter with Blakkheim through the wizardry of the internet, and in the process discussed modern death metal need to return to rockier climes, Dan Swano's indecisiveness, and cash-hungry record labels.
The first, and possibly most pressing order of business to attend to in interviewing Bloodbath, is to find out what happened to Mikael Akerfeldt - near-legendary Opeth singer and responsible for the guttural growls on Breeding Death and Ressurection Through Carnage. "The official line is that Mike didn't have the time and effort to commit to Bloodbath anymore," comes Blakkheim's reply. "The "unofficial" line is that his label MFN (Music For Nations - Phil) were also charging a smaller fortune just to let him in on the project, something we didnt find acceptable, since the rest of us were also in the same situation as him, with seperate deals under our own labels that the rest of us succeded to agree in making this happen without a drama." A sad situation then, but one thankfully that didn't stop Bloodbath's progress, as Hypocrisy vocalist Pete Tagtren stepped up to the mic, and performed admirably well.
Another thing that has changed with the new release isn't just related to the new talent behind the mic - Martin Axenrot was also recruited as a drummer, allowing Dan Swano to move to second guitar duties. The resulting record moved away from celebrating the old mid-90s death metal sounds towards a more identifiably unique sound.
Bloodbath's Anders and Dan
"That's what naturally happened as we brought in the new members. Our new drummer, Axe, has some skills that allowed us to take the music really anywhere we wanted. Swanö was never too confident about playing fast double bass drums or blast beats, for Axe this was like breathing the air, what he knew inside out. So me and Jonas definately had this aspect in the back of our minds when we wrote the songs." This increased songwriting scope shows itself in the more brutalising moments of the new album, opening up levels of dynamism that were previously untouched by the group. However, the line-up changes alone didn't precipitate Bloodbath's more 'serious' approach this time round;
"Another point was that we didnt wanna make a copy of RTC, since that album was very very old school oriented and more seen as a tribute than a real album of our own. You just cant make such albums twice in a row without losing the honor of both of the albums. You'd end up washed out. Right now, I'm very confident Bloodbath can stand on its own, delivering the goods and not just solely waving the flag of old school tribute although that's of course where our hearts are."
Bloodbath's Jonas and Martin
Ah, playing true to your heart - a concept close to any metaller, if ever there was one. So can we see Bloodbath's music as a clarion call for a return to death metal's old simplicity and brutality? "Yes, at the time of birth for Bloodbath, it seemed nobody was playing old school death (especially not with the Sunlight sound) anymore. It seemed everyone had moved on, which isnt a bad thing, but I cant stand hyper melodic twin guitar death, nor grind blast death only which was very popular." A fair point, since the death metal scene nowadays seems dominated by Gothenburg melo-death or ultra-brutal Origin clones... "For us it was always about that classic drive of the 2/4 beat and with blasts and double bass drums as an "overdrive". We missed hearing nobody would bring that shit on, so we brought it back and injected that genuine sound we all used to love. We did the scene a favour and the ball is rolling."
Vocailist Peter
Indeed it is - Bloodbath's popularity continues to snowball, with a rabid fanbase growing seemingly by the minute, and rave reviews coming in from all major metal publications (including this one, of course). Is it all becoming a bit much to handle yet?
"I think it has suprised each and everyone of us. We knew we were gonna come up with some high quality material backed up by skilled efforts, but at the same time we gotta take into account this was a project which started out as a joke. So, more than anything, I think the line-up has had a lot to do with the attention Bloodbath gotten even from the beginning. People were always excited to see what us guys could pull off together and I know some believed a miracle band would come out of it, but I always stressed that no matter who we are and come from, Bloodbath will not be traced back to our own bands and what we're known doing in those. It was all about death metal from day one, the day of joking around. Currently, we take Bloodbath 100% serious though, but that doesnt mean it has eliminated the entertainment factor. We're walkin the fine line of balancing those two, and as long as we are, there's no stop to this madness!"
So, if Bloodbath is an entirely 100% serious project now, what are the chances that we're going to get a chance to experience some ass-kicking in the live environment? "It would be stupid for me to dissapoint people if it didnt happen, so I wont announce anything as of yet," replies Blakkheim cautiously, "but let me tell you that we ARE working on getting the band up on the stage in 2005. I'm afraid the line-up on NMF will 90% be altered again though due to the busy schedules of other endeavours. Who's in and who's out remains to be declared."
From this, it's fair to assume that more Bloodbath releases are to be expected in the near future - something this particular scribe found fairly surprising, considering that I heard reports just after the release of Resurrection Through Carnage that Mr. Swano in particular was fairly averse to the idea of taking Bloodbath further after Breeding Death, thinking that there wasn't the call for it at all...
"First of all, you gotta learn that Mr Swanö is a man of a constant changing mind and consequently hard to keep up with," answers Blakkheim with admirable candidness. "He's very energetic and imaginative and has a strong mind that allows him to often lose himself in his own reflections. As I said, those reflections, too often change direction. I'm not even sure if he's aware of all this. He might have a hint about it though. I mean, we all read on his website that he was saying goodbye to death metal and would go strictly symph/prog/rock from now on. That statement didnt last for long. He had to eat that up." Yep, after worrying fans that he was going all widdly and symphonic for good, Swano was back in Bloobath before you could say "U-turn". "Swanö was probably in and out 10 times between RTC and NMF before he settled to continue," reveals Blakkheim. "I'm glad to have done all the Bloodbath albums with him, since we share this stuff. Its pointless denying what a big role death metal has in our lives, after all."
That last statement probably resonates quite deeply with most people reading this article - whatever area of metal you tend to listen to most, there are precious few who can claim that death metal in it's multifarious forms haven't informed their listening preferences at some point or another. Whether it lie the encroachment of double-kicks and growls into the romantic sensibilities of doom metal, or in emo's gradual drive towards chugging rhythms and growled vocals leading to screamo/metalcore bands sounding more and more like death metal acts, death metal touches on most genres eventually. As a final message to the Ultimate Metal masses, we leave Blakkheim on this note.
"Enjoy it while it lasts... and stay metal!!!"
