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.