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Vice Blog

LITERARY - SWEDISH DEATH METAL

This book will be of interest to roughly 1% of all the music nerds looking at this site, but for that 1% holy shit is it a no-brainer. Despite the title's pigeon-hole, this book traces the history of pretty much all heavy music in Sweden all the way from the formation Anti-Cimex in the early 80s to whatever Xzoriath were doing just a few minutes ago. It was written by Daniel Ekeroth of Insision and Tyrant and features interviews with the major players in all the individual Swedish scenes from Boras to Finspang all the way out to Mjolby and also includes an obscenely thorough reference section to help you keep your Incisions straight from your Insisions, your late-80s thrash Infanticides from your 2000s grindcore Infanticides, and your mid-90s death metal Sundsvall Impiouses from your mid-90s death metal Trollhattan Impiouses. We asked Daniel to give us a rundown of the book's basics for those of you who'll never read it.

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Vice: OK, once and for all, what's the difference between death metal and black metal?
Daniel Ekeroth: In the 80s no one really knew. Like Possessed—is it death metal or black metal? In those days the lyrics were pretty much all that defined it. If it had satanic lyrics it was black metal. Venom, Merciful Fate, Bathory—they don't sound very much alike but through their lyrics they created that genre. Today death metal has evolved to the point that it can be almost anything. It can incorporate keyboards or like on Emperor’s latest albums. They are now more death metal than black metal. Same goes for Gorgoroth. And now, Swedish black metal bands like Nifelheim and Watain, are going for a more of an 80s sound with riffs instead of harmonies. It’s kind of weird.

Do you have a favorite story from the book?
There are many, but I like Nicke Andersson’s [drummer for Entombed, Nihlist, the Hellacopters, and a million other bands—also the book’s cover artist] story from when he auditioned to be Morbid’s drummer before he was in Nihilist. Morbid was the big underground band in Stockholm back then, together with Mephisto, and he was there for the try-outs. Even though he was the best drummer in Sweden at that time, he didn't get the job because he was wearing a white Wehrmacht t-shirt. Morbid wanted to be "true" and evil and only Venom and Bathory were kosher. Wehrmacht was a funny American speed metal band that was totally wrong, so he didn't get the job. LG, who later became the singer of Entombed, got it instead.

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What about the most boring story?
There are no boring ones. It was teenagers drinking beer and making noise. The boring times came with black metal. That’s when there were no concerts and people started talking shit. That was it for me.

This thing seems really comprehensive. Were there any bands you remembered right after sending it off to press and were like "FUUUUUUCK!"?
I missed some, but they're included the American edition. The most important one is Death Ripper, from Eskilstuna. They might be the first band in Sweden who wore corpse paint. They never made a demo but there's a video from one of their practices where you can see what they looked like.

They wore corpse paint at practices?
By the way, you have to write that the drummer in Death Ripper was Glenning. He’s having his birthday and there’s a big party tomorrow. It's Christer Glenning's son. The car tester from Trafikmagasinet!

Sounds like a good time.
Dude, we're starting right now

INTERVIEW BY FREDRIK WALLIN