OLD PAPER: L-G Petrov and Swedish Death Metal (Terrorizer #252, Sep 2014)
I mused about the past, present and future of our beloved Swedish DM scene with the much-missed L-G Petrov a few years ago.
Reading about what happened at this latest edition of Gefle Metal Festival in Sweden, where several Entombed members took to the stage with a bunch of illustrious guests (seriously, look at that line-up) as a tribute to L-G Petrov, one of metal’s most universal and beloved figures who sadly passed away last year, my heart really warmed up. Those timeless songs and those people performing them really act as a strong reminder of what is so special about this geographical brand of death metal that took a life all of its own pretty much since the beginning and basically just grew into its own genre. One that, despite the classics, still keeps developing and finding new avenues to this day.
So, I remembered that on one of the fortunately several chats that I was privileged to have with L-G throughout the years, we had the opportunity to discuss exactly that, for a cover feature on an old issue of Terrorizer magazine from 2014. We were joined by David Blomqvist, another central musician of the scene, the Dismember guitarist who also was in Carnage, and even had short stints in Entombed and Nihilist, so, you know, he’s been everywhere, man. We talked about the origins of the Swedish DM scene, how it developed and became what it is today (or was in 2014, at least), and we tried to crystal-ball the hell out of its future. The fact that L-G was taken out of it so soon will forever remain an unavoidable heartache, but as the great man himself concluded that chat eight years ago, “we get on with it, that’s what we do.” It sure is, L-G. It sure is.
As always, I’ve made the pictures good enough for you to just zoom in and read, but for your convenience, the full text is below also. Hope you like it.
SWEDISH DEATH METAL
BAPTIZED IN BLOOD
Swedish death metal is one of the iconic scenes and sounds of extreme metal, but unlike most, it is still alive. It needed a little resuscitating, but it lives and breathes again. With the help of Entombed A.D.'s L-G Petrov and former Dismember axeman David Blomqvist, Terrorizer charts the rebirth of a legend...
Words: José Carlos Santos
Something was rotten in the kingdom of, erm, Sweden. It was the late 1980s when the whiff of putrefaction first started to emanate from the capital city of Stockholm, and the air was never the same again. Obviously, we are being metaphorical about the emergence of Swedish death metal, but that last bit about its permanence is particularly true: the uncanny longevity of this very particular genre defies all expectations and general rules that have applied to mostly every other variant and subvariant of metal.
Swedish death metal, despite natural ups and downs during the quarter of a century throughout which it has existed, never really died, disappeared, went unbearably crap or even changed that much, and it has nevertheless maintained a certain freshness that feeble trends from last month wished they still had today. Hell, the very fact that scene became an actual subgenre of extreme music, as crystallised and specific as, say, Norwegian black metal or German thrash, is a feat in itself. As two of the main figures in the history of the scene have told us, no one at the time was really thinking farther ahead than the next kick-ass riff.
"Back in those days we didn't even think we might be doing something new," says David Blomqvist with a dismissive laugh. David, who is now in hard rockers The Dagger, played guitar for the seminal Carnage and even had a short stint as Entombed bassist in 1989 before assuming the axe-wielding post in Dismember for over two decades, right up until the band split up in 2011. "It was what came naturally to us, we didn't imagine all this would turn out like it has. You don't think like that when you're a teenager, you just play the stuff that you like and your influences come naturally into what you're doing."
L-G Petrov, famous Entombed vocalist (currently in the Entombed A.D. incarnation) who was also in pioneers Morbid and Nihilist, concurs with this reasoning: "We just played music and made demos," he offers with the utmost simplicity. "lt was a kind of a little bubble we lived in, looking at it now. It was only later that we came to realise we were making a mark in the history of death metal. I guess it all started when 1 was too little of a kid to realize it. At the time, we were only kids playing with a group of music."
David picks up again, saying, "none of us who were in those bands back then think like that," referring to the importance they had, and still have, in the history of death metal. "Of course we love it when we see young kids with Dismember or Carnage t-shirts or even tattoos, it means we must have done something right back then. But it's a very Swedish thing to be humble, we honestly don't think that what we did might have been so important."
This unassuming, carefree attitude might actually have contributed to the development of the main characteristics of the genre. Though heavily inspired by American death metal, the Swedish sound is looser and more open to rock-outs, so to speak. L-G even throws the word "punk" into the conversation, and we cannot help but nod in agreement. So, we asked them point blank: What exactly are the main components of the Stockholm sound? if anyone can pinpoint this one, it is the two of you.
"When we started out with Nihilist 1 listened to stuff like Iron Maiden and suchlike, we were also all into Suicidal Tendencies and all that stuff. Nicke Andersson [drums] was a huge Kiss fan and almost everyone was into Motörhead as well," L-G starts tentatively. "The American sound was quite heavy, we were particularly into Morbid Angel and Deicide, but the Swedish sound derived from that with the downtuned guitars and also the more punk attitude and sound to it too."
David nods and offers: "The main influences came from bands like Autopsy and early Death, yeah. And the heavy metal pedal as well... it gave us a very distorted guitar sound."
Ah, the pedal. Though not a new thing by any means when Nihilist/Entombed or Carnage/Dismember first started blurting out their super-downtuned warm and rough riffs that still sound and feel today like they are caressing your spine every time you hear them, with people like David Gilmour or Gary Moore among its previous users, the BOSS HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal found its true calling with this bunch of kids from Stockholm. It is at the very core of that sound, and even when it is used in other genres we all collectively and instinctively associate it with Stockholm death metal, such is the way all the bands incorporated it into their distinctive musical personality.
"Everybody talks about that guitar sound, and there are bands doing that today as well, we're also getting back to it," L-G says, talking about the current activities of Entombed A.D.. "We actually just had a rehearsal with a second guitarist, he has three of the legendary HM-2 pedals, so we cranked it up and it was fucking amazing. It sounded like twenty years ago all over again."
Which is interesting, as it shows that Swedish death metal is one of the few genres in which sounding like twenty years ago all over again is not just a nostalgia thing, it is actually an integral part of what it should be like.
"It feels that we are rediscovering it again right now," L-G says. "That rehearsal we had was damn nice, I was headbanging a lot. I always headbang, but I headbanged harder!" he says with a booming laugh.
The other man chiefly responsible for the establishment of the typical Stockholm sound was of course Tomas Skogsberg, owner of the famous Sunlight Studio. Most of the earlier classics were recorded there, and perhaps more importantly, the place became a focal point for what was a true scene, in the best sense of the word.
"There were tons of bands popping out from everywhere, and that was good," L-G says. "Sunlight was a bit of a safe zone for all of us, it was a safe house where we always knew what the deal was. Being there, we could relax, we knew Tomas Skogsberg and the sound that was going to come out of there. Even when a lot of bands, from abroad and everything, started going there, it didn't seem to water it down like it has happened in other similar situations in other scenes."
"It was crucial," David states. "That's why we used that studio for five Dismember albums. It was a very positive vibe. It was a very small studio, a typical rock studio. Everyone was talking and drinking coffee, it felt like a real old time recording studio, not like what you get these days. I have good memories of those days and I think everyone who was there in those years does too."
So far, so teary-eyed retrospective, right? Big bands, origins, twenty-plus years ago, and so forth. But there is a reason Swedish death metal is special, and that is its resilience and refusal to lie down throughout the years. While it is true that Entombed, Dismember, Grave and Unleashed have more or less carried the torch and became the names everyone thinks about when the subgenre is mentioned, it is no less true that the supporting cast has been a brilliant one, from Murder Squad to Comecon, just to name two random ones, that have poisoned minds of youths from every decade. The disease spread outside Stockholm too, giving us gems from pioneers God Macabre to Centinex or "Rogga” Johansson's unwieldy catalogue of bands, not to mention the whole Gothenburg melodic metal world which will surely be subjected to its own proper analysis when the new record of a certain returned band hits us later in the year.
Though the picture was not the most vivid one in the first years of the 21st century, the renewing power of Swedish death metal proved itself worthy there too, with the emergence of Repugnant - whose 2006 album 'Epitome Of Darkness’, which quite literally changed the Swedish DM game, sadly remains their only full-length - and the immense catalyst that was Daniel Ekeroth's 'Swedish Death Metal' book (which, besides massive renewed interest, even prompted some band reunions when it was edited in 2008) breathing new life (and death) into the old home.
"1 think it was a very important book," David considers. "He was working on it for years, and when it finally came out it was unbelievable. Everyone, even the people in the scene, were like, whoa. It's a very fun read, too, it's not just documental work. A lot of bands were even motivated to get back together, like Nirvana 2002 for example. Those were the sort of bands that cut their hair and split up too early. We carried on as if nothing had happened, and then they turned up fifteen years later with new grown hair, and we're like 'oh, hello. Where have you been?’"
"That book explained a lot in depth, it's good to read and findd out about a lot of things that were going on. lt was a complicated scene, there were a lot of bands coming out from all over the place.1 haven't read all of it, but I want to so I’ll remember things that I've forgotten because 1 was drunk at the time," L-G says with a big laugh.
A slow but sure revolution has been place since then, and in the meantime the illustrious subgenre has even managed to spawn its own subscenes. Who can deny the Swedishness of all the admittedly amazing, mostly Kurt Ballou-produced (and mostly signed to Southern Lord) bunch of Trap Them, Black Breath, Nails, All Pigs Must Die and their ilk? lt has become such a big thing that the term "Entombedcore” has been floating around and seems to be catching on.
"For me it's okay, I love it. It's aggressive, it feels genuine, so it's fine by me," L-G says of these bands. "lt helps spread the word even, and more people will find out where it came from originally."
Back at the original birthplace, the new generation shows as much promise as the previous one did back then. Interestingly, while still retaining enough basic characteristics to make them very much a part of this seemingly endless musical movement, the younger bands seem set to take Swedish death metal into the next evolutionary step by dipping more into the actual influences of their spiritual parents than into the parents themselves.
Bands like Bastard Priest, Miasmal or Vampire all have that intangible excitement factor, but not by sounding like Entombed or Dismember - if anything, they sound more like Autopsy, Repulsion or Motörhead's dirtiest moments, precisely the same bunch that kick-started the whole thing in the late 1980s. As with any scene worth its salt, there are also a couple of beautiful anomalies, and Morbus Chron really take the biscuit right now. After a relatively predictable start to their discographic career, they've taken a sharp turn into Swedish DM leftfield with their latest album `Sweven', again maintaining the unmistakable brand of the subgenre but infusing it with hitherto unheard twists, coming across as a perfect cross of Autopsy, Sweden and jazz. Swedish progressive DM, maybe? Or is that straying too close to Opeth and confusing the picture further? Whatever it is, it's awesome, and it is a proof of the scene's vitality these days.
What's more, these newer bands are not a replacement at all, because nearly everyone is still around. Despite the turbulence of the past year, Entombed are still around (as Entombed A.D., but decidedly still around) with a new album out and our L-G Petrov excited as a little kid with the latest rehearsals, as he told us back there, they are going out on tour with the still alive and kicking Grave, and Unleashed are still active as well, their latest album `Odalheim' dating from 2012. Dismember are the only one of the "big four" to have dropped along the way, but three ex-members, David Blomqvist included, are now rocking hard in The Dagger, and their death metal credentials are still intact.
"We could have made it very easy for us and just put together a Dismember band and play the same old thing," David says, with remarkable perspective for such a hardened veteran. "But we did that for 25 years. The last year the band was together we got so fed up with everything, the constant touring, the rehearsals... we needed a long break from that. I didn't want to be bored on stage, that would suck. That would betray the only reason I've ever done this for - to have fun. 1 never wanted to be a millionaire, 1 just wanted to have fun. People have told me I'm turning my back on death metal, but that's not true. It's still there, it's what 1 grew up with and it'll always be in me. What I'm doing now is just another side of it. When we played death metal, 1 was still listening to bands like Rainbow and Deep Purple, I'm still the same person and I’ll never change."
Neither will anyone else, apparently. Swedish death metal is for life, you see.
"We love the music," L-G says matter-of-factly. "Of course we can all like different styles, but we always come back to the safety of this sound. Entombed has been putting out different albums almost every time, we've confused people sometimes, but that sound is always there and it's what keeps things glued together, it's safety. I think people want to feel safe. You can always evolve, but there always has to be that element that harks back to how it used to be.”
As for the future, it seems as much forward planning is being done right now as it was by those snotty kids in the late 1980s who unwittingly invented a new kind of music.
"We get on with it, it's what we do," concludes L-G. "There's not much else to it. New bands are popping up all over the place and we love that, we're all together in this. So we keep doing what we do, release albums, headbang and go on tour. Meet new people who have been discovering it, and also the people who have been around even before we were, they're all there still enjoying the music. We carry the flag, on and on."