Here's a short interview I did with Anders about Bloodbath very recently for my webzine (www.urkraft.tk). I thought perhaps you'd like to read it...
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Questions by Stefan Lejon, Urkraft Webzine
Answers by Anders Nyström, Bloodbath
1 Congrats to an excellent album first and foremost! Are you happy with the final product?
- Thanks! I'm absolutely happy! The Sound - we're talking about a journey in time back to Skogsbergs best days in Sunlight when the Stockholm death scene was rolling!! The cover - the ugly mugs of 4 members murdered and resurrected as rotting corpses!! The lyrics - sickening crazy dark gore!! We're talking 100% death metal the old way, just like we want it to be.
2 Bloodbath consists of four rather well renowned personalities in Swedish metal. How id you all get to know each other? Childhood friends perhaps?
- Nah, not really. Me and Jonas have known each other since we were local youngsters and turning teens. Mike is also from Stockholm so we come from the same scene and it didn't take long before we started hanging out in the earliy nineties. I remember Mike was called "Brallan" (= "pants") back then because he was the only one in Stockholm who wore wide-legged jeans ala the 70's at that time, hahaha! We met Danne for the first time when we recorded the first Katatonia demo in his Unisound (then called Gorysound) studio during the summer of '92. Mike also went there to record Opeth's first album in '94, so we all became loving friends and have gotten together for many nights of sowing together ever since, muhahahaha!
3 How did the idea of forming Bloodbath arise from the beginning. Who took the initiative?
- Well the idea was born back in '93 when me and Jonas were fooling around with some death riffs, waiting for the other members to turn up for Katatonia rehearsals. So a death metal project was born back then, even if we had like 100 projects more than never left the rehearsal room, hahaha. The year after, during a Katatonia session in Unisound, we told Danne that we had started to jam with some brutal death metal riffs and that we would come around one day and record it under the name Bloodbath. Fastforward to the year 1998. Danne called one day and said he had upgraded lots of shit in the studio for digital stuff and suggested that now was a great time for me, Jonas and Mike to come down for a jam and get that old Bloodbath corpse up and running. To record a classic old school death metal demo and release it as an underground cassette, just like it was back in the beginning of the death era. So we went there and started jamming like a real rehearsal and after a few hours we had the songs "Breeding Death" and "Omnious Bloodvomit" created. There was magic in the air, everything ran smooth and it was damn fun! We had a fucking blast and got dead drunk! A couple of weeks later Dan calls up and says the recordings have vanished. Some hard drive had went nuts and erased everything, so he threw out the fucking thing, took in an ADAT and we set up another jam session. We went down and recorded everything AGAIN, but decided to add yet another song - "Furnace Funeral". It wasn't as magic as the first session but everything sounded a little better so it was probably all for the best. After this I put on the recording on maximum volume and I was blown away by what we had done! I decided to look for a minicd deal for a label instead of releasing a demo. Century Media was the fastest at putting their claws into it and that was it. Stockholm bloodbath revisited!
4 What is the purpose of Bloodbath? Many are talking about Bloodbath as the saviours of good old death metal. Are you thinking along those lines like - "Now we'll fucking show them how this should be done!!!"
Or do you just feel like crushing again?
- I would say it is a combination of all the things you say. Personally I feel it far to much melody and up tuned stuff within the brutal scene of today. I obviously have nothing against melodies and harmonies, but there is a limit to what you can do if you still want to be brutal. I want my death metal dark, evil and simple. With simple I don't mean amateuristic, but catchy. Everyone in Bloodbath loves the 1989-92 era of death metal and that's the only era we all worship and has experienced as FANS. So when we set the ball rolling and wanted to crush we thought at the same that that "Now we're gonna show them how real death metal should sound". We've dug up a profiled sound which has been buried for 10 years. I think many young fans will get their eyes opened and go back to check up these early albums due to our little Bloodbath adventure. Bloodbath doing death metal a favour?!? Hahahahaha!
5 The new album sounds very "old school" as you have already said. Where do dig up your inspiration? Who are your gods so to speak?
- I can name many, but if I think about it I only want to say...Entombed "Left Hand Path"!!! Probably the greatest death metal album of all time! I can't begin to explain the feelings that album evokes. It's dark as hell. Go to 'Skogskyrkogården' in Stockholm and stand there by yourself; in the pitch-black night; in heavy snowfall; with that album in your headphones; under the cross which can be seen on the band photo on that album! Witness the domain of death around you. Perhaps then you can get close to what I'm feeling.
6 On your last album you utilised keyboards, something you have not done this time. A choice you made or something that came naturally?
- The keyboard parts on the minicd was only there to flirt with Entombed's "Phantasm" part. We do actually have some discrete keyboard parts on the new album as well though. "Ahhhhh" choirs was a typical death element and you can find that at the beginning of "The Soulcollector" for example.
7 How has the response from the death fans and the media been so far?
- Amazing! Since Bloodbath isn't our main band it feels fucking amazing to get such overwhealming response. It's fun as hell, as long as it doesn't overshadow our other bands now...hmmmm
8 To what extent do you put your energy on Bloodabth? Is it an active band or just something to do when you get some freetime on your hands?
- Bloodbath has up until now been a pure studio-project. We have had to struggle hard to get everything together because of all of our jampacked schedueles. It took us 2 years after "Breeding Death" to get some time to finally work at it with full force. Bloodbath began as a non-demanding drunken thing and has now advanced to a sort of "all star death metal gathering". Of course it is serious and with that the demands get bigger, so it can be a bit confusing.
9 Are you going out on the road at all to promote the album? I mean, Opeth has just released "Deliverance", you Katatonia guys are recording a new album at the time and Dan is coming out with his Nightingale album. Is there time for any gigs?
- It couldn't be worse with the timing really. Mike is busy as hell with Opeth and will be out on the road the whole winter/spring. Katatonia is in the studio and we will release an album this spring and then a tour will follow. And the same with Nightingale I presume. It would be EXTREMELY nice to play some festivals with Bloodbath this summer and to actually do a real tour. I wish everything was less complicated and that we could just head on out on the road, because I really want to get up on the stage with Bloodbath.
10 Will there be more from Bloodbath in the future or is this the only full-lenght we ca expect?
- That depends on
Demand ; do people want another album?
Time ; We must find time where we are all free from other obligations.
Magic ; It has to be in the air. It has to be fun or else we will leave it be.
11 Bloody thanx for taking the time out to answer my questions! Final words?
- Thank you! Hope the album will continue to spin in your stereo! Classic underground Bloodbath shirts are now available at www.bloodbath.biz!
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Questions by Stefan Lejon, Urkraft Webzine
Answers by Anders Nyström, Bloodbath
1 Congrats to an excellent album first and foremost! Are you happy with the final product?
- Thanks! I'm absolutely happy! The Sound - we're talking about a journey in time back to Skogsbergs best days in Sunlight when the Stockholm death scene was rolling!! The cover - the ugly mugs of 4 members murdered and resurrected as rotting corpses!! The lyrics - sickening crazy dark gore!! We're talking 100% death metal the old way, just like we want it to be.
2 Bloodbath consists of four rather well renowned personalities in Swedish metal. How id you all get to know each other? Childhood friends perhaps?
- Nah, not really. Me and Jonas have known each other since we were local youngsters and turning teens. Mike is also from Stockholm so we come from the same scene and it didn't take long before we started hanging out in the earliy nineties. I remember Mike was called "Brallan" (= "pants") back then because he was the only one in Stockholm who wore wide-legged jeans ala the 70's at that time, hahaha! We met Danne for the first time when we recorded the first Katatonia demo in his Unisound (then called Gorysound) studio during the summer of '92. Mike also went there to record Opeth's first album in '94, so we all became loving friends and have gotten together for many nights of sowing together ever since, muhahahaha!
3 How did the idea of forming Bloodbath arise from the beginning. Who took the initiative?
- Well the idea was born back in '93 when me and Jonas were fooling around with some death riffs, waiting for the other members to turn up for Katatonia rehearsals. So a death metal project was born back then, even if we had like 100 projects more than never left the rehearsal room, hahaha. The year after, during a Katatonia session in Unisound, we told Danne that we had started to jam with some brutal death metal riffs and that we would come around one day and record it under the name Bloodbath. Fastforward to the year 1998. Danne called one day and said he had upgraded lots of shit in the studio for digital stuff and suggested that now was a great time for me, Jonas and Mike to come down for a jam and get that old Bloodbath corpse up and running. To record a classic old school death metal demo and release it as an underground cassette, just like it was back in the beginning of the death era. So we went there and started jamming like a real rehearsal and after a few hours we had the songs "Breeding Death" and "Omnious Bloodvomit" created. There was magic in the air, everything ran smooth and it was damn fun! We had a fucking blast and got dead drunk! A couple of weeks later Dan calls up and says the recordings have vanished. Some hard drive had went nuts and erased everything, so he threw out the fucking thing, took in an ADAT and we set up another jam session. We went down and recorded everything AGAIN, but decided to add yet another song - "Furnace Funeral". It wasn't as magic as the first session but everything sounded a little better so it was probably all for the best. After this I put on the recording on maximum volume and I was blown away by what we had done! I decided to look for a minicd deal for a label instead of releasing a demo. Century Media was the fastest at putting their claws into it and that was it. Stockholm bloodbath revisited!
4 What is the purpose of Bloodbath? Many are talking about Bloodbath as the saviours of good old death metal. Are you thinking along those lines like - "Now we'll fucking show them how this should be done!!!"
Or do you just feel like crushing again? - I would say it is a combination of all the things you say. Personally I feel it far to much melody and up tuned stuff within the brutal scene of today. I obviously have nothing against melodies and harmonies, but there is a limit to what you can do if you still want to be brutal. I want my death metal dark, evil and simple. With simple I don't mean amateuristic, but catchy. Everyone in Bloodbath loves the 1989-92 era of death metal and that's the only era we all worship and has experienced as FANS. So when we set the ball rolling and wanted to crush we thought at the same that that "Now we're gonna show them how real death metal should sound". We've dug up a profiled sound which has been buried for 10 years. I think many young fans will get their eyes opened and go back to check up these early albums due to our little Bloodbath adventure. Bloodbath doing death metal a favour?!? Hahahahaha!
5 The new album sounds very "old school" as you have already said. Where do dig up your inspiration? Who are your gods so to speak?
- I can name many, but if I think about it I only want to say...Entombed "Left Hand Path"!!! Probably the greatest death metal album of all time! I can't begin to explain the feelings that album evokes. It's dark as hell. Go to 'Skogskyrkogården' in Stockholm and stand there by yourself; in the pitch-black night; in heavy snowfall; with that album in your headphones; under the cross which can be seen on the band photo on that album! Witness the domain of death around you. Perhaps then you can get close to what I'm feeling.
6 On your last album you utilised keyboards, something you have not done this time. A choice you made or something that came naturally?
- The keyboard parts on the minicd was only there to flirt with Entombed's "Phantasm" part. We do actually have some discrete keyboard parts on the new album as well though. "Ahhhhh" choirs was a typical death element and you can find that at the beginning of "The Soulcollector" for example.
7 How has the response from the death fans and the media been so far?
- Amazing! Since Bloodbath isn't our main band it feels fucking amazing to get such overwhealming response. It's fun as hell, as long as it doesn't overshadow our other bands now...hmmmm
8 To what extent do you put your energy on Bloodabth? Is it an active band or just something to do when you get some freetime on your hands?
- Bloodbath has up until now been a pure studio-project. We have had to struggle hard to get everything together because of all of our jampacked schedueles. It took us 2 years after "Breeding Death" to get some time to finally work at it with full force. Bloodbath began as a non-demanding drunken thing and has now advanced to a sort of "all star death metal gathering". Of course it is serious and with that the demands get bigger, so it can be a bit confusing.
9 Are you going out on the road at all to promote the album? I mean, Opeth has just released "Deliverance", you Katatonia guys are recording a new album at the time and Dan is coming out with his Nightingale album. Is there time for any gigs?
- It couldn't be worse with the timing really. Mike is busy as hell with Opeth and will be out on the road the whole winter/spring. Katatonia is in the studio and we will release an album this spring and then a tour will follow. And the same with Nightingale I presume. It would be EXTREMELY nice to play some festivals with Bloodbath this summer and to actually do a real tour. I wish everything was less complicated and that we could just head on out on the road, because I really want to get up on the stage with Bloodbath.
10 Will there be more from Bloodbath in the future or is this the only full-lenght we ca expect?
- That depends on
Demand ; do people want another album?
Time ; We must find time where we are all free from other obligations.
Magic ; It has to be in the air. It has to be fun or else we will leave it be.
11 Bloody thanx for taking the time out to answer my questions! Final words?
- Thank you! Hope the album will continue to spin in your stereo! Classic underground Bloodbath shirts are now available at www.bloodbath.biz!
