URSUT INTERVIEW - RAW BULLDOZER KÄNG PUNK FROM SWEDEN!

WHO ARE THEY - URSUT
WHERE ARE THEY FROM - Malmö, Sweden
FOR FANS OF - State Of Fear, Genocide Superstars, Disrupt, Wolfpack
LATEST RELEASE -  "Dårarnas Paradis" (self released (CD) / La Familia (Vinyl)
WEBSITES - info@ursut.se

This band came to my attention completely out of the blue after their
CD was sent to me in a package, I put it on and on first listen I was
instantly hooked and must have repeated the album 3 times in a row
that morning. The band in question is URSUT from Sweden who describe
themselves as a " Raw bulldozer käng punk detonation". The production
on their album is well produced, crisp and powerful but still has a
raw and feral edge and attitude to it and will appeal to those who
like their crust and käng punk with a metallic sharpness to it. I
interrogated Oskar and Mattias to find out more about this new and
exciting band:-

Please give me a quick background history on the band and introduce
the current line up.

O: Started out as a recording session a couple of years ago when me (Oskar) and Rodrigo had Mattias to record 6 songs a sunday in August just before I moved to Portugal for a couple of months. All these were picked up when Mattias asked me what do do with it all and then I said that he should be playing guitar together with me and he had Simon to be part on bass. We managed to get the songs all together and start to play some live shows to begin with a show at the Malmö Hardcore fest 2010. After this we managed to get some more shows done and songs enough for our fullength album "Dårarnas Paradis" which our friend Stachel recently released on his label La Familia releases. We are Mattias, Oskar, Rodrigo and Simon.

M: Yeah I did the recording in 2008, 2 years later I asked why it was just going to collect dust and i wanted to finish it. I added guitars and ideas.

Your debut demo "Dåranas Paradis" was released a little while ago, I must say on first listen it blew me away, very powerful sounding debut album, please tell the readers what they can expect from this album and the music in your own words.

M: Yes, but no. Our demo was released in 2010, this is our debut album. Released on vinyl by La Familia releases (http://www.lafamiliareleases.com/) and on CD by ourselves (http://www.ursut.se).

O:Thank you, powerful is a good word I think. To get you a hint of what we're doing, we got back in time a couple of years and managed to record a raw d-beat punk album sung and written in Swedish 90:ies style.

Are you totally satisifed with how it turned out looking back or is
there anything you feel you could have done better, I must say
everything from the drumming to the vocals just sounds furious! How
has the response been to it so far overall?

O: I must say that I'm stoked about the result, really love it raw and furious is the game for sure! As for reading the reviews we've gotten so I must say that the response has been really good. We didn't really know what to expect from this but I'm happy that people are enjoying the record, live wise it's been good as well. Think that we couldn't really ask for any better.

M: I am never satisfied. My vision initially was unpolished, fucked up and angry, maybe it turned out a bit more polished than I thought it would. The response has been great!

Have you got much feedback from outside of Sweden regarding the album/band? How have the reviews been overall?

O: As said before, the reviews has been really good, but since we haven't been able to go touring much so far I can't really say when it comes to the response from abroad. The ones writing about the record has been really nice I think.

M: 99% great reviews. The only bad things I've read is "…to clear sound" "…to polished" "…to much metal" a.s.o.

How did you hook up with the record label? Are you happy with the work they have done for the band thus far? Is a vinyl release planned? How can the readers get hold of your debut album?

O: I know Stachel from Lafamilia releases some from before, and gave him our demo and asked him if he could be interested in releasing the LP, then we released the CD version our selves. As far as this it's been really good with the work, we hope to be able to go to Germany soem more soon which will help the promotion for the record as well, so I think that's good. To get a hold of this you can go to Punkdistro.de or order from us at eigther our webpage or through Notenough.se

The production is very good, every instrument cuts through perfectly and it is a very crisp and sharp sound, who produced the album and why did you choose that particular studio and producer? Do you plan to collaborate with this studio/producer on the next Ursut release?
O: Thank you very much for the nice words about the sounds and all. The "producer" is Mattias and when recording anything new we will definitely work like this again. Then we have everything done within the band. I think Mattias is amazing with the sound so there's no need to get anyone else doing this. Great I say!

M: Thanx. Great with nice words, I free lance as engineer/producer and I work around in different studios. My studio in Lund is cheap and small. So we never discussed the possibilities to record somewhere else.

Have you written much new material since recording the album? Any
plans for another release yet or is it to early to say?

O: There's not been much new written, but we have new material in our heads for sure. We're planning to do a 7" sometime this year. Would be really nice to follow up with some more new material.

M: Well some new songs are written, these will crush!

Why the name Ursut? Please explain the band name and its meaning to the readers! Your songtitles/lyrics are also totally in Swedish - are you worried that this could possibly limit your audience or does that not concern you? Will you continue to sing totally in Swedish or do you think you might bring in some English lyrics at some point?

O: The name Ursut comes from a famous criminal person who managed to do a lot of spectacular prison break outs in Sweden. This is just a name that we took, and no more to be connected with us or our music or our lyrics. Our songs are written in Swedish only so far, and that might limit our listerners, at the same I think that the music says enough for some listeners, but definitely something in mind. We've been discussing the fact of having some English lyrics as well. Maybe there will be on the following songs we're planning to do.

M: Ioan Ursut crawled out the small ventilation shaft greased in butter. Ioan Ursut was a complete asshole. In our Swedish dialect "Skånska" the name "Ursut" sound really harsh and raw. URRSUT.

How active is Ursut as a live band, do you play live much locally and within Sweden? Have you played outside of the country yet or do you have any plans to play live in other countries/do a tour of somekind? What can people expect from an Ursut live show?

O: We're as active as we can be when being a band consiting of four parents with seven kids in total. We've been on a short Germany trip and will try and get some more shows done, as far as this we've been playing mostly in Sweden, some in Denmark. There will be more for sure! What to expect from a live set from us, most likely that we will try to deliver as much energy as possible. I've enjoyed it all at lot so far and will definitely keep doing so!

What bands shape and influence the sound of Ursut - which bands inspired you to pick up instruments and play this kind of music?

O: Ohh for me I'd say State of fear, Disrupt and Wolfpack. I relly love the raw and brutal stuff like these bands been delivering, I guess there's some more but these to begin with.

M: State of fear, Disrupt, Bastard, Anti Cimex, Bolt Thrower and Eddie Meduza

Lyrically where do you find inspiration to put pen to paper - what are some of the lyrical concepts on the album? And what does the album title mean?

O: Well, there's loads of different things in life giving inspiration of writing lyrics, many of our songs deal with the fact of being parents and how to deal with the responsability you get when having someone else to put all of your focus on instead of only yourself. As the song title "Dårarnas Paradis" kind of "the Fools Paradise" is about sexist men in a consisting society built up on a sick and twisted way of seing them selves as a moral standard and living by the rules cemented on a way of thinking that's only for them. Got some of these ideas by my daily work colleagues, or some of them to be honest. That's just some things that we've been screaming about.

Have any of you been in or currently in other bands/musical projects? If so please tell the readers about them. Your drummer Rodrigo is also in Necrovation if I am not wrong?!!.

O: Well yes we've been playing in a load of other bands before and some still active. Rodrigo who's drumming has a long list of great bands that he's been part of during the years of playing music.

M: Rodrigo is no longer on Necrovation. He is in loads of different bands though, and he is running the fantastic record company, BLOOD HARVEST. Don't miss Necrovation´s latest album "s/t" - Fantastic album; recorded in my studio by the young master GG

Describe Ursut in 5 words only!!.

O: Raw bulldozer käng punk detonation

M: MANY IDEAS - TO LITTLE TIME

What is your local scene like? Are there many cool venues to play, what other local bands would you recommend to the readers out there?

O: In Malmö we haven't had a proper venue for D.I.Y. shows for a while, there's some more club like venues but no proper punk places. Have a pizza/pub where we can host shows but there's not been to much of a place that we could call our own in a while. Know there's something on it's way but can't really say what's going on with that. In Lund we have Hemgården, where Mattias works and have the studio, where there's a lot of harrcore shows going. Also a bigger venue but not really a place for us to play that often. Band wise there's loads of great bands, seems like the history of our cities been really good producing good punk music. That's really cool. To mention some there's Lautstürmer, Rhino surgery, Infernöh, Symptom, Terrible Feelings, Atlas Loosing grip and also my other projects Avfart 33 and Crutches. There's a shit load of other great bands for sure!

M: Malmö/Lund just keeps on growing. LOADS of bands, but to few venues. PYRAMIDO, HERÄTYS, INFERNÖH and PRIMITIVE RITES are occupying my ears these days.

What is your current opinion on the Swedish extreme music scene, what other bands do you fell an "affinity" with and also which other
Swedish bands are currently amongst your personal faves?

M: Sweden is a small country, but large music wise. Right now i listen a lot to PYRAMIDO, WATAIN, FREDDIE WADLING and NECROVATION.

What is your current opinion on the Swedish crust/punk/HC scene -how is it locally? Sweden has a rich history of producing some world class punk bands, which Swedish HC/Punk bands are amongst your all time faves?

O: I totally agree with you, we have a really fuckign nice history of making good music in this country, kind of spoiled here I think. get a lot for free jsut for being from here sometimes I can feel. I'd say my fave would be Totalitär. No doubt about it.

M: TOTALITÄR, DISCHANGE, DISFEAR and NO SECURITY

What plans do you have for the rest of 2012 and into next year?

O: As said before, we plan to get soem new songs recorded and hopefully released and some more shows done. Other from that there's loads of great things that we'll be able to do with our families which is really great. Summer's here and that's a great time to actually get soem mroe energy and feel good about the whole of all.

the last words are yours -thanks for answering this small interview, please let the readers know what merch you currently have available and where they can check out the bands music or get more info/contact
details?

O: Thank you soo much for taking your time for us! Totally appreciated! And thanx for reading, hope there might be something that got you's interested in us some. We do have our fullength LP/CD Dårarnas Paradis available through our web page www.ursut.se or though my distro www.notenough.se where you also can find out t-shirts and patches/Backpatches, badges and some more small stuff. contact us via info@ursut.se
Oskar

M: THANK YOU - Have a great late summer!

Mattias

info@ursut.se

http://www.ursut.se
http://ursut.bandcamp.com
http://facebook.com/ursut.hardcorepunk

http://www.sceleris.se
http://www.studiobengt.com
http://www.notenough.se
http://www.bloodharvest.se

MORDBRAND INTERVIEW WITH PER BODER

NAME: Mordbrand
THEY ARE:  Death Metal
FROM: Sweden
FOR FANS OF: God Macabre, Autopsy, Nihilist
LATEST RELEASE: Mordbrand / Bombs Of Hades "No Life" Split 10" (Bifrost Records)
WEBSITE http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mordbrand/121721747901195

Mordbrand may be a fairly new name on the death metal scene but they
are fronted by none other than Per Boder who is most well known for
his fierce death growl fronting the legendary Swedish death metallers
Macabre End / God Macabre back in the early 1990's. Per had taken a 20
year hiatus from death metal but in that time he hasn't lost any of
his ability to growl with the best of them, his very recogniseable
roar still very much in tact and sounds just as potent as it did on
the sole God Macabre album "The Winterlong". Anyway Mordbrand are a
great band in their own right and they have made their own mark on the
death metal scene with a string of quality releases one of the latest
being a split with Bombs Of Hades who also feature an ex God Macabre
member in the shape of Jonas Ståhlhammar. A new EP is set to be
unleashed via Deathgasm Records in the near future (note:- since this interview was done and posted up in an edited form via the Terrorizer Magazine website a new 7" has been released titled "Kolumbarium" - check it out!!).  I sent some
questions to Per:-

Please if you would be so kind give a quick background history on the band and the current line up? 

The band has been around since 2006, I joined in late 2010. We’re a three piece and the members are: Björn (guitars/bass), Rudberg (drums) and me, Per on vocals. The other guys plays together in a thrash band called The Law and have been doing music together in various projects for long.


I will get this question out of the way with early on, many people know you as the ex vocalist of legendary Swedish death mrtallers Macabre End and God Macabre but you had been "inactive" at the microphone for quite a few years and had went into some kind of death metal vocalist retirement before Mordbrand came into existence, what made you decide to form another death metal band after so many years and unleash those potent death growls of yours again? When did you feel that "fire" and urge to play death metal again?

I was approached by Björn (guitars) at a local gig and he told me about this band that he had which recorded a demo a couple years earlier that now was going to be released as a split 12” with fellow deathsters Evoke (UK). He
wanted to continue work on this band and asked if I might be interested since it was along the lines with what I did in God Macabre. I was a bit hesitant (and drunk) but I said I would check up on them. After that nothing was heard of in a while and I thought nothing more about it. I didn’t really have any urge to get in any band; it was quite a while since I left Space Probe Taurus which was the last band I ever played in. Death Metal I had not done in 20 years and had not even considered doing again. But Björn called up (or contacted me via internet most probably) and I decided to be a man of my words and try it. I rewrote some lyrics for a track, tried out and the ball was rolling. The primarily goal with Mordbrand is to play music and enjoy it, no high flying plans at all. So, I joined Mordbrand who’s been in existence since 2006, I’m not the founder.

The bands debut release was a split with UK death metal band Evoke, how did that split come about? Is it still available?.

I'm not sure if it's available still. Perhaps there are distros that still can provide it, but I'd guess it's sold out by now. It was recorded and released before I joined the band, so Björn did the vocals. The moniker was invented because it was needed for this release – and they weren't a fully functional band back then. But after that 12" was released, it gave the guys a will to continue which later lead to my involvement. Björn (L)ars(s)on (strings) is an old friend of John Redfern's (EVOKE's vocalist), and he had sent him the MORDBRAND tracks back when they were recorded and John then asked if he could release them as a split with his old band. Well, it happened!


You followed up that release with a 6 song EP called "Necropsychotic" which was released by American label Deathgasm Records, how did that deal come about? Are you satisfied with the work they have done for the band so far? Please tell the readers abit about this EP in your own words and what they can expect from it? What are your feelings on this recording now you have had some time to reflect on it?

Initially it was to be released by another company but that fell through and we sent out some promotion to different labels and Deathgasm was quick to offer us a deal. Since it was apparent that they knew what they were doing, we jumped aboard straight away. In terms of how I view the band, this was probably a bigger deal than I expected.    Deathgasm has been around for a while and we’re such an unknown band. I’d figure we might get some offers from smaller labels with one or two releases in their catalogue. Evan of Deathgasm laid out some plans and a timeline over how this would be done, and this has been followed straight through with perfection. So we are very pleased with how they handled our release to say the least. The EP contains all the work that I had done with Mordbrand up to that point, the two last tracks were the ones we recorded first so there is some sound issues with those and therefore should be viewed as “bonus-tracks”. Other than that we’re very pleased about Necropsychotic, it contains the blueprint of what we wanna do, old school Death Metal with some bits that maybe wouldn’t been there if the band were around 20 years ago.

 Have you got much new material in the pipeline? Are you planning on doing a full length for Deathgasm? Any new titles etc you can share with us?

We have new material coming and were working on ideas the whole time. We have no desire to make a full length at this point, but we will work with Deathgasm in the future and got some plans surrounding that right now. If we were to release a full album, Deathgasm obviously would be our first choice.


I know you have hooked up with another fellow ex God Macabre member Jonas from Bombs of Hades to collaborate on a Mordbrand/Bombs of Hades split, please tell us about this split, when will it be released etc.. How many tracks from both yourselves and BOH? What will this split be called? I heard one track "The Eternal Feast of Annihilation" and I must say it sounds devastatingly awesome!

It’s a split 10” that has just been  released as collaboration between new founded label Bifrost Rec. and Carnal Rec. (Arckanum, Craft etc). It contains three new tracks from us and 2 new tracks from BoH. We wanted to do a split of some sorts and given the history I have with Jonas of BoH it was an obvious choice. The 10” is called “No Life” and features old school DM and great artwork by Juanjo Castellano who also did the Necropsychotic cover. 

What does the name "Mordbrand" mean and why did you settle upon this name when deciding what to call the band?

It’s Swedish for arson and the guys had problems finding a good name for the band when they started out. They thought of calling it plain arson but went for the Swedish translation instead. It packs more punch in Swedish, mord = murder and brand = fire. Murderfire would have been a lousy idea though.

Lyrically what inspires you to put pen to paper?

That’s a hard one and something that’s been a bit of a challenge. I haven’t done this in a long time, but nightmare scenarios, world downfall and the bleak apocalyptic future that’s creeping up on mankind is what I tend to concentrate on. The regular DM-themes about ancient shit that’s about to return and annihilate I guess.

What bands shape and influence the sound of Mordbrand?!

Pretty much the same stuff I was listening to back in the early 90’s, Autopsy, Nihilist, Candlemass etc. There are new bands that are great as well which probably serves more as an inspiration than influence. We are all on the same page about how Mordbrand should sound, it’s a mix of what we have done in the past and maybe some new stimulus from whatever gets the shit done in an interesting way. The main concept is clear though, old school DM.

The current underground death metal scene seems VERY healthy right now, what is your personal opinion on it, any bands out there you feel an affinity with and who you would also recommend to the readers out there? How would you compare today’s scene to when you first started out in the death metal underground all those years ago when it is all fresh, new and just kicking off? What do you miss about those days? Are there any aspects of the modern scene that you do not like? 

There are a lot of commons with the scene today and that of yesterday. Loads of great bands doing basic DM picking up on the early days. I guess today bands will more be judged by the actual music since there is no media hype surrounding DM, back then there seemed to be more interest of bullet belts, black clothing, stage diving and violent lyrics.
I don’t miss anything back from then except maybe the usual hanging out and being hellbent on talking death metal all the time. Everything is based on internet these days, which in a way works very well for a band. Back then when you went to a gig it didn’t really matter where in Sweden it was, the same people had a tendency to show up whether in Strömstad or Stockholm. So you kinda belonged to a “scene” where you actually met people and traded your zines, demos whatnot. This might happen even today, but as an old geezer I miss out on that if that’s the case. I don’t feel that I belong to a scene nowadays, so I really can’t comment on that.

Have you guys started playing live yet? Or do you have any or many plans to play live, if so what can people expect from a Mordbrand live show?!

We got one show together with BoH planned, other than that we have nothing in the works. There is a logistic problem with this; we live far apart in different places in Sweden so we really have to plan how rehearsing and adding live members will come together. Everyday life is a bit more complicated today vs. 20 years ago. There are other obligations that need to be prioritized,  like it or not.

Who would you consider to be some of your personal vocal influences? At what age did you first realise you had the ability to death growl like you do?! How does it feel personally to you being active vocally again with death metal? A lot of time has passed since you left the microphone at God Macabre. You did continue with another band called Snake Machine for a while playing more fuzzrock style stuff, but you were not in that band for long, so what happened inbetween the mid 90s and forming Mordbrand? Were you involved with any musical projects worth mentioning?

I like growls that are comprehensible and not too over the top/low end. Nick Holmes from the early Paradise Lost days is always on my mind and so is Troy and Duane from Devastation. That’s what I’m aiming for when I do my stuff. My growling simple evolved through the early days with GM when we were more of a grind/noise band and my voice had to stylistically match the music when we headid into the Death realm. I was 19 when we recorded the Winterlong album, and that’s pretty much how I sound today as well.
As for Snake Machine; that band soon turned into Space Probe Taurus and I played with them (alongside Ola Sjöberg ex-GM) for about 10 years so I’d say I was with them for a very long time. The only record I did with SPT was the Insect City 7”, where also Jonas Stålhammar (again, ex-GM) was included in the line up for a short time. I had a lay-off from music for about 10 years before joining Mordbrand, didn’t do anything musically during those years. I hade no motivation at all, that’s why I left SPT.

What other bands are the members of Mordbrand currently involved with?

Björn and Rudberg has some projects, most notable the thrash-outfit The Law. Also Karensdag is a project that plays live from time to time. More grind/hardcore oriented that one.
I’m not involved in anything else than Mordbrand.


Apart from the upcoming split with Bombs of Hades what else doe the band have in the pipeline? I read something about a 7"? What are the plans for 2012 and beyond....?

Plans are to continue to churn out some quality brutality, there are some offers we’re considering and as it looks right now we’ll soon start working on a 7”. We want to do every format that is out there, so who’s up for a flexi?

I know you also teamed up with Bombs of Hades to do some guest growls on their cover of the Carnage classic - "The Day Man Lost", is this the closest we can expect to a God Macabre reunion anytime soon?! Have you even considered reforming the band at any point or do you think it is best to just let "sleeping dogs lie" and just focus on current projects/bands? Would you not rule out the possibility of a GM reunion at some point or is it definetly never going to happen ( I know Ola has always ruled it out!).

No GM reunion, we have all agreed on that. There’s no need for it. Some of the past members is involved in new bands and others have left the music scene long behind. I don’t wanna ruin all the great memories I have of what it was.. Jonas asked me if I wanted to that cover with BoH and of course I did. We used to play that one with God Macabre, so there’s somewhat of a reunion for ya!

Thanks for the interview and support, people interested in our stuff can check it out on: http://www.myspace.com/mordbranddeath http://www.reverbnation.com/mordbrand 
Buy merch/records: http://www.bifrostrecords.se/ http://www.deathgasm.com/ 
We’re on facebook and youtube as well, google it!

No life!