WITCHSORROW INTERVIEW WITH NECROSKULL.

NAME: Witchsorrow

THEY ARE: Heavy Denim Clad Doom Metal 

FROM: Hampshire, England

FOR FANS OF: Revelation, Saint Vitus, Reverend Bizarre

LATEST RELEASE: "Witchsorrow" (Rise Above Records)

SONGS TO CHECK OUT: The Trial Of Elizabeth Clarke, The Agony, Thou Art Cursed

WHERE TO FIND THEM: http://www.facebook.com/witchsorrowdoom

Witchsorrow are not reinventing the musical wheel and are treading a well worn and very familiar sounding musical path but they are not interested in redefining any genre or trying to be overtly original all they care about is playing HEAVY DOOM METAL, nothing more, nothing less and I personally find their no frills heads down traditional approach very endearing and just damn well done and enjoyable, they tick all the right genre boxes and their style will appeal to any serious fan of the genre and bands such as Saint Vitus, Revelation, Reverend Bizarre, early Electric Wizard, early Cathedral, their brand of Doom sounds quintessentially old school and their debut album sounds like it could have came out in the early-mid 1990's, it definetly would not have been out of place on the Rise Above roster of that time along with the debut albums by Mourn and the aforementioned Electric Wizard and they also have a certain Englishness to them, especially when it comes to some of the lyrical subjects which deal with olde english witch trials etc..the vocals of Necroskull on the debut self titled album released on Rise Above in 2010 also remind me very much of Jus Oborn back in the Eternal days or on the first Electric Wizard album, in places he sounds like a deadringer for him to my ears.

 Their debut is one of the best homegrown Doom albums since the days this country was producing the aforementioned classics aswell as the debut Solstice album and is the epitome of what I would call TRUE Doom metal, the word Doom has been bastardised and wrongly thrown about to label bands who in my opinion are not Doom and shouldn't be labelled as such so much over the past decade with any band playing slow, dirgey and sludgey being called or calling themselves Doom, to me Witchsorrow epitomise and capture everything I personally love about the Doom genre and how I think a Doom metal band should sound, they are a Doom band in the purest and truest sense of the word, clean normal sung vocals meets heavy and doomed (but not constantly slow!) riffage. The band are not afraid to up the tempo every once in a while and in my opinion all the best Doom bands both past and present injected mid paced-uptempo sections in their music.

The band haven't rested on their laurels and have already been back into Foel Studios to record their second album for Rise Above which is due for a release by the summer, the title of which is still to be revealed. The bands current line up is:- Necroskull guitar/vocals, Emily Witch bass, David Wilbrahammer drums. I thought it was a good time to interrogate Necroskull and here is what he had to say :-

Your debut album was released last year via Rise Above, what are your thoughts looking back on that debut album now? Are you satisfied with how it turned out? What has the response been like to it overall? Are you happy with it? If you could change anything about the debut recording what would it be?

NECROSKULL: I’m still massively proud of it. Listening to it now, I do think we’ve come on loads, but I still think it captured what we were trying to achieve. With the exception of The Agony we weren’t thinking of writing for an album when we wrote the songs, we just wanted songs to play live. We don’t tend to write songs that we don’t record, so these were the earliest things we’d ever written.

I wouldn’t change anything about it, though, because it is what it is, anything to be done differently can be done differently the next time we record. Otherwise you end up revising history. I wouldn’t want to hear Seven Churches re-recorded or anything, because you’d lose the spirit, and I think the same of our debut. We captured the spirit, so job done.

Please tell the readers a little bit about this debut album in your own words and what they can expect from it if they are not familiar with the music of Witchsorrow?

NECROSKULL: Heavy doom metal, in the tradition of Sabbath, Vitus, Trouble, Electric Wizard, Cathedral etc, with an emphasis on heavy metal darkness. Some of the songs are fast, most of them are slow, but they’ve all got a total downer edge. And they’re all metal.

How did you initially hook up with Rise Above? Was it a case of you sending them a demo or did they approach you?

NECROSKULL: I’m still not quite sure what happened there. I’ve known Lee and Will from Rise Above for years. They were at our first gig, and somewhere along the line we ended up working together. I think they liked that we have a total dedication to doom. Really it just boils down to them liking what they heard and wanting to release us, which is a very amazing thing.

You recently entered Foel Studios to record album number 2 which will be once again released by Rise Above, please tell us a bit about the new album, what can we expect from it? What are some of the new song titles and what will this album be called?

NECROSKULL: Titles will remain secret for the time being, but the album is total doom. It’s a lot darker and heavier than the first album, a lot more shadow. Some of it reminds me of Forest OfEquilibrium a bit, that’s a really slow, dirgy song, but then there’s also a song on there that celebrates great classic heavy metal bands the three of us love like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Accept. As I say, heavy doom metal.

Why did you choose to record there? How was the recording process for this new album? Much stress or did everything get laid down quite smoothly? Did you feel some pressure for album #2?

NECROSKULL: We loved the results from last time, and I personally just love being there. It’s miles away from anything, there’s no people, no interruptions, just your music and vast countryside. It’s a really amazing place. Emily and I aren’t really into towns and cities, so somewhere as remote as Foel is a brilliant find. The rest of the world really does vanish when you’re there, it’s wonderful.

We didn’t feel much pressure really, although we booked the studio before we’d written a lot of it, so we were aware of the clock ticking and having to get it finished before we went to record. But if we didn’t do that we’d probably still be writing it now.

Something that was different this time was that we had time to try things out while we were recording, which we didn’t get the chance for before. There’s an instrumental thing on there we pretty much made up on the spot, we just got a riff and recorded some ideas with it. That was cool.

Have you pretty much just stuck to the same formula with the new album/material? 

NECROSKULL: There’s no real formula to it, we just come up with whatever we can jamming together. We’ve tried writing songs alone and bringing them complete to the rest of the band, and it just doesn’t work – we all have to play riffs together and try and come to the next bit of a song naturally by doing that.

I do think that we aimed for the same results as we always have, though – to create metal that’s really heavy and dark.  

When will the new album be released?

NECROSKULL: Sometime within the next six full moons.

Do you plan to play live much/tour in support of this album?

NECROSKULL: We do. We haven’t got much set in stone yet, but we’ve been talking about some very cool things. And we’re playing with Wounded Kings, Serpent Venom and Cultfinder in February, which will be awesome. We’re also playing in Bournemouth an Birmingham in March, details on the web.

What bands shape and fuel the sound of Witchsorrow?

NECROSKULL: Obviously the classic doom stuff like Sabbath, Wizard, Vitus, Cathedral, Reverend Bizarre, Count Raven etc, but we’re also really inspired by bands like Bathory, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Accept. We’ve always had a side of us that’s total foot-on-the-monitor, headbanging metal madness. I’m also a massive fan of really dark death metal bands like Grave Miasma and Mortuary Drape, they inspire us as well.

Please tell us a bit about the bands name?

NECROSKULL: I have no idea where it came from, it just came into my head one night when I was just sat listening to music. I think witches are so classic in doom because if you were accused of being one, you were absolutely fucked, to me they’re these icons of complete hopelessness. They are the damned.

Lyrically you seem very influenced by the darker sinister side of anicent British history, witch trials etc..what lyrical topics do the new songs deal with?  what fascinates you about these subjects/topics? England is a perfect place for a doom metal band to originate from with its wealth of old history, creepy old graveyards, churches, hauntings and other such places/things.

NECROSKULL: The new songs have mentions of witches, magic and soforth, but that’s just the language we use to write. The meanings behind them are always something more than that, though. There’s a lot of anger, frustration, bitterness, disappointment, fear, biting your thumb at the rest of the world. At the moment the whole world feel like it’s about to collapse. I know the metal thing to do is to write about surviving and prospering and whatnot, but I just can’t do it. It’s hopeless, everything’s fucked, and I honestly think things are going to get really, really bad over the next couple of years. We’re basically waiting for the end of the world now.

What is your opinion on the current worldwide doom metal scene? What other current bands do you feel an affinity with? Which other Doom bands could you recommend to the readers out there who are searching for more Doom to listen to?

I think the doom underground’s really good at the moment. I’m excited to hear new stuff by Vitus and Solstice, and the new-ish stuff by bands like Procession, Atlantean Kodex, 40 Watt Sun, Devil has all been killer. Hopefully the Sabbath reunion will do something good for the scene getting a bit of attention as well. It’s sad that some of the older bands like Cathedral and Candlemass are bowing out, but there are plenty of killer bands to keep the flames burning.

 PIC BY ADAM W THOMAS

Describe Witchsorrow in 5 words only?

Morbidly fixated doom heavy metal

NECROSKULL: The scene in Farnborough is basically Emily and me, and one of our neighbours (who we met by chance when we supported Angel Witch and only discovered that night that we lived literally two doors away), who’s been in the doom scene for years, saw Mourn and all that back in the day. Other than that, Farnborough has nothing. No venue, no metal pub… I can’t even remember the last time I saw any kids in Bring Me The Horizon shirts in town. Mainly for gigs it’s London, I go to as many doom/black metal gigs in London as I can.

As for our own gigs, it depends where and when we’re playing and what’s appropriate. We played in a church earlier this year, and it was lit almost entirely by candlelight, which was amazing, but that wouldn’t be right to do everywhere. When we’ve played in daylight at festivals, or in venues that aren’t exactly vibe-y, we’ve managed to carry ourselves via the sheer force of our metal attack. We just try to create something dark via the medium of loud heavy metal, and add elements around that as appropriate to the surroundings.

What bands have you shared the stage with so far? If you could share the stage with ANY five bands who would they be? Who would be the ultimate band for you to go out on the road with?

NECROSKULL: We’ve played with loads of killer bands – most recently we did a couple of dates with EyeHateGod, which was pretty killer. We’ve also played with Orange Goblin, Electric Wizard, Angel Witch, Warning, Winterfylleth, The Gates Of Slumber, Blood Ceremony, Pagan Altar, The Lamp Of Thoth, Iron Void, loads. We played with Turisas once, which was weird, loads of kids in fur and warpaint ready to party, and they get half an hour of us and our misery. We did a festival in summer with The James Cleaver Quintet, I liked that. I always enjoy being on bills with bands who are different than us.

Five bands to play with…

Sabbath

Electric Wizard

Watain

Hawkwind

Iron Maiden

I think best band to go on the road with would be Maiden. That;d be perfect because they’re such an organised touring machine we could just turn up when we were told to, do our thing, then watch Maiden. You’d probably get babysat very well on tour with them.

You played Sonisphere earlier this year, what was that experience like? How was the crowd reaction?

NECROSKULL: We were on at the same time as Metallica at Sonisphere. In my head, it turned into a real us vs them thing. It was killer, though, we had loads of candles and torches onstage, we could see the moon while we were playing, it was really perfect in that respect.

What I really loved was that people gave Metallica the fuck off and came to watch us instead. It didn’t bother me that we probably lost a lot of people to them, but I felt really proud that people chose us over them. A small victory for real metal. I got a bit carried away and called Metallica cunts from the stage, but I imagine a younger Lars Ulrich would have approved of that.

I was surprised to see Metallica have the balls to come back for Download, considering how hard we handed them their arses. Download : Book us so we can blow The Four Horsemen offstage again.

Any plans for you to play Roadburn? I think that is a festival perfectly suited to Witchsorrow!.

NECROSKULL; We’d LOVE to play at Roadburn. It’s just a question of being invited to come and be part of it.

Any plans to hit the road in say USA at some point in 2012? Which fellow Rise Above bands would you most like to go out on tour with?

I’d love to tour America, Europe, anywhere. Just a matter of finding the time, the money, the promoters… RA bands I’d love to tour with are Electric Wizard, Gates Of Slumber and Blood Ceremony. They’re all really, really cool, so touring with any of them would be time well spent.

Why the nickname Necroskull? Any particular reason you chose this name or did you think it just sounded like a good doom stage name?

NECROSKULL: A friend came up with it years ago now. Say my real name really quickly when you’ve had a drink…

Whats the plans for 2012? 

We’ve got some gigs in the pipeline (see Facebook for deets), and we’ve got a few other bits we’re working on, bills we want to get on. And there’s the new album coming out, of course! Start saving your shekels for that!

UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS INTERVIEW

NAME: Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats

THEY ARE: Occult Creepy Doomrock

FROM: Cambridgeshire, England

FOR FANS OF: early Black Sabbath, Blood Ceremony, Hour Of 13

LATEST RELEASE: 'Blood Lust" (self releases/ Rise Above Records)

 SONGS TO CHECK OUT: 'Death's Door', 'I'll Cut You Down', 'Over And Over Again"

Back in late 2011 I made Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats  the feature of one of my Terrorizer Magazine website blogs, that feature contained an edited version of the interview I did, I have finally got around to posting up the full unedited interview online, so here it is enjoy!

I first came across this rather mysterious band via a doom orientated forum I post on quite regularly a few months or so ago after someone started a thread about their latest album "Blood Lust" and posted up some videos from said album, I clicked on the song "Deaths Door" and found myself instantly hooked by the bloodied musical claw of the bands very catchy brand of occult horror influenced Doomrock. This band have much in the same way as Ghost did towards the end of 2010 created quite a buzz for themselves online after initially starting out going fairly unnoticed by the wider scene, with forum hype and ebay prices soaring through the roof in recent months, the bands self releases CDs and limited edition releases have been going for hundreds of dollars, are they worth the hype? Well that is up to the individual listener to decide but they are VERY good to my ears at least that much I can vouch for the quality of this bands musical offerings and they know how to write a song which will sink its musical claws into you so deep they won't let go for the duration of each song, this is some seriously addictive music and I personally find myself continously replaying songs over and over, the aforementioned "Death's Door" being one such standout song which gets a lot of repeated plays on my stereo.

  The bands second album was initially self released by the band in small quantities and then the keen musical nose of  a certain Lee Dorrian and Rise Above picked up on the scent of this bands witchy creepy brand of retro sounding 70's Doomrock and got involved by releasing a vinyl version of the album, "Blood Lust" is like a musical equivalent to an old witchfinder film and suits their local surroundings of darkest ancient Cambridgeshire and is darkly and powerfully evocative conjuring up images of candlelit rituals and sinister witch hunts happening in the darkest shadows of the rural English countryside circa the 1600's. 

It feels VERY fitting that my find myself writing the intro to the blog piece in the middle of the night with the album as musical company in the background.

I contacted the band in more recent times to find out abit more about this much talked about but still quite mysterious musical entity and Uncle Acid was the subject of my interrogation :-

Hails please give me a quick background history on the band and who currently does what?

We formed by chance on the 40th anniversary of August 9th 1969. Our first record was released on the 40th anniversary of February 13th 1970. We have a Kat on a bass and Red on drums. Names may change subject to availability!

Your debut album "Vol 1" was released last year, is this recording still available/ please tell the readers abit about this album.

No, it's no longer available. We only put it out because we had a massive fan base of five people asking for a CD of our stuff. There wasn't much more interest than that so we just got the lowest amount of booklets printed up that we could get and released what we had. It took us about six months to sell 30 copies. Overall it's not a bad album, I just wish we spent more time on it. For example some of the arrangements could have been better and it was all recorded in standard tuning so the vocals are just ridiculous in some places. We tune down to C# now which makes things slightly easier vocal wise, but I sill end up choosing the worse possible keys to sing in! The vocal melody is the most important part of our music so I don't really have much choice, I just take whatever works best.

Your latest album "Bloodlust" seems to be creating quite a buzz for itself from what I have seen online, you initially self released it and then Rise Above wanted to get in on the action and do a vinyl release, how did they approach you? Will you be signing a full contract with the label to do a full length album soley through them? 

Mr. Dorrian liked what he heard and wanted to help us out. At the time there was no buzz going on which was fine by us, so we just went with as many copies as we thought we could sell. Rise Above were the first label to help us out when no one else wanted anything to do with us. It was kinda like when Neil Young gave Charles Manson a motorcycle. I appreciate someone reaching out to us like that.

How do you feel about the hype surrounding the album? I guess you must be very happy with the overall reaction to it so far?

Well, I don't like hype so I try to just completely ignore it. Of course, in terms of the overall reaction, it's very nice that people like the music and I hope it continues, but it doesn't really matter either way. I get the feeling some people may have the completely wrong idea about us so we may lose a few people with the next album or we may gain a few, I don't know. You can never please everybody anyway.

I don't know much about the band I must admit, I am not even sure which country you are from as I so far only got your latest album via a friend so Uncle Acid remains abit of mysterious entity to me! Care to reveal your whereabouts?!

Cambridgeshire. The middle of nowhere. The lawless flat lands of inbreeding and witchery. People are very suspicious and fearful of things round here. You can fully understand how Matthew Hopkins managed to terrorize so much of this and surrounding counties. In some dark areas of East Anglia I'm convinced it's still actually the year 1644. Terry Reid and Pink Floyd came from round here though, but those days are long gone. Just don't ever come here...

Do you plan to always shroud the band with a certain amount of mystery? Or maybes you might reveal Uncle Acid's real name at some point in the future?!

Well...maybe, but I don't think anyone really cares too much. Mystery is good for people. It makes them think and use their imaginations. Some people have forgotten how to do that. Everyone's too busy updating bullshit on twitter and filling the internet with garbage.

Why the band name Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats? Where did you get inspiration for this name from?

It's taken from Rusty Day the singer of Cactus who later had a band called Uncle Acid And The Permanent Damage Band. I hope he doesn't mind. He's dead now, but I think he'd appreciate it. It's our tribute to him.


Describe the band in 5 words

Creepy lowlife trash. We'll save the other two words for later.

which bands and influences fuel and shape the sound of Uncle Acid? Was there any particular musical direction you intentionally set out upon when forming the band? Have things progressed and ended up sounding as you had planned overall?

I think everything we listen to probably influences the sound but there wasn't really a musical direction that we set out to follow. It's just whatever comes naturally. Obviously, Black Sabbath and The Beatles are massive influences because they're the greatest two bands of all time in my book and you can't help but be influenced by them. But I hear all kinds of different influences in our music that maybe others might not pick up on. Sometimes I'll hear a certain part and think "That bit sounds like something W.A.S.P. would do" or "That melody sounds like Stevie Nicks". It's unintentional, it just seeps in. A weird mix of melody and darkness.

What about live shows? Do you have many under your belt so far? Any plans for an extensive touring to support them ost recent album?

Not many. They all ended in disaster. I can't operate in a three piece within a live setting because my brain switches off. We're trying to find more band members but as I said, we live in the middle of nowhere and its nearly impossible to get here if you don't own one of those new automobile cars. We'll be ready for next year though.

The Occult Doom/Rock thing seems to have gained momentum and popularity in recent years, with bands such as The Devils Blood, Ghost and yourselves all making quite a buzz for yourselves/ Why do you think this is? Do you feel any affinity with the bands I mentioned or any other occult doom rock acts?

I wish The Devils Blood were the biggest band on earth. They're very melodic and accessible but theres more to it. It's the old light and shade thing that draws you in. I've heard people complaining that they're not heavy enough and all this kind of shit, but then some people just miss the point with absolutely everything.
I don't really feel any affinity with anyone in that scene or in any other. I'd rather us just do whatever we want and not be dragged down by scenes or genres.

 Any new bands in a similar style you would like to recommend? What is your opinion on the Doom scene Anno 2011 in general? fave bands?

Ice Dragon are a newer band I really like. More people should listen to them. Purson are another new one I just discovered. They have a great classic sound going on. I'm really excited to hear more from them.
I think overall the doom scene is very strong, theres some really great bands out there, but I think it's always been like that. It's kinda hard to know what's classed as doom anymore, but I hate labeling music anyway. Some other favourites would be Hour Of 13, Blood Ceremony, Bongripper...and then not really doom, but Danava and Sabbath Assembly are excellent bands too.

your songtitles are very dark with plenty of occult references...where do you draw inspiration from lyrically?!

I just come up with a long story in my mind for the whole album and then I look at writing the lyrics as being like adapting the screenplay or something. Vol. 1 was more of a collection of shorts, like Hammer House of Horror, whereas Blood Lust is supposed to be like a weird, unfinished 60s witchfinder film. The next album will have some other theme and it will just go on like that. It just keeps it interesting for me to write that way.


  Please tell us abit about the artwork for the latest album, who designed it..its very striking.

I put that together. Its like an old a horror poster which ties into the overall theme again. The first run of the album came in a card wallet. I wanted to give the feel of like an old VHS box. Almost as if someone had taped this Blood Lust movie off the telly years ago and then made a cover for it. Of course, I'm well aware that now people have taped it off the internet machine and made their own cd covers and all that. Even the packaging for the second pressing was supposed to feel like one of those plastic VHS boxes. Also, the back of the booklet had a sort of LWT or BASF VHS design going on with the thick red, yellow and orange lines across it. Theres even a picture of a TV there! I did look into somehow packaging the cd in an actual VHS box, but I could never get it to work right. Plus I knew people would end up bitching about it, which always happens when you try something different.
Everything about the album was done for a specific reason, from the way it was recorded and mixed right down to the artwork and presentation. Weather people get it or not doesn't really matter but I think it's probably important that they at least know about the reasons behind certain decisions.
  
Where do you hope to take the band into 2012? immediate future plans? Where can people get ahold of your merch  and music from?

Hopefully a new album. We have some great songs written for it. We'll also get out and start playing live again seeing as the apocalypse is coming. Our CD's are getting distributed round the world now, so it should be easier for our supporters to get hold of our music. For the time being, Blood Lust is available to pre order from here: http://www.svartrecords.com/shoppe/725-uncle-acid-and-the-deadbeats-blood-lust-cd.html

the last words are yours, many thanks for answering this short interview.

Thanks!

MORBUS CHRON -FULL INTERVIEW.

NAME: Morbus Chron
THEY ARE: Twisted Old School Death Metal
FROM: Stockholm, Sweden
FOR FANS OF: Autopsy, Death Breath, Autopsy
LATEST RELEASE:"Sleepers In The Rift" (Pulverised Records)
SONGS TO CHECK OUT: Coughing In A Coffin, Creepy Creeping Creep, Red Hook Horror
WHERE TO FIND THEM: http://www.facebook.com/morbuschron 

http://www.myspace.com/morbuschronband

If you google the words Morbus Chron you will find very unpleasant pics of people suffering from an inflammatory bowel disease called "morbus chron" which has some very ugly looking symptoms, a perfect moniker for a band dealing in equally ugly death metal which sounds like the bastardised offspring of Autopsy's "Mental Funeral", Morbus Chron's sound echos the twisted atmosphere and dark humour of said classic album and it is firmly safe to say that Autopsy is the bands biggest musical influence.  As Robba the bands guitarist/vocalist said himself when asked about the bands influences

"Autopsy of course. Mentioning other bands would be unnecessary" That says it all really. 

The bands debut full length album "Sleepers In The Rift" was released on CD by long running Singapore based extreme music label Pulverised Records in 2011 and is one of the most talked about and eagerly anticipated underground death metal releases of the past year judging from what I have seen online, the band have definetly made a noticeable impact upon the scene. The album (produced by Nicke Anderson of Entombed/Death Breath fame who is also apparently related to one of the band members) comes wrapped up in gloriously striking colourful extradimensional artwork which depicts somekind of ahem pardon the old school death metal pun - tentacled lovecraftian sick bizarre defaced creation on the front courtesy of the talented hand of artist Raul Gonzalez and is a perfect accompliment to the bands twisted horror death metal. The album is due to be unleashed on vinyl this year by Belgian Death Metal label Detest Records. 

The bands current line up is 

Edde - Lead Guitar/ Vocals
Robba - Guitar/ Vocals
Dag - Bass
Adam - Drums

Robba (guitar/vocals) answered my questions. This is the full interview I did with him, an unedited version was posted up on the Terrorizer Magazine website late last year.

Hails please give me a quick background history on the band and who does what? Please tell us a little about each member, age, hobbies?

We formed in 2007, at the age of fifteen. Three guys that went to the same school. Edde, Steffe and I. When the news broke out that I had received a guitar for christmas I was asked to join their band. Rehearsals consisted of trying to play Metallica and Slayer-covers and recording as much as possible. I think we did almost three demos that we didn't release. We used a porta studio and we never really understood how to make it sound not like shit. Eventually we finally got some songs up on Myspace and was quickly asked to participate on Resurrected in Festering Slime. 

Steffe is long gone now, but at nineteen me and Edde are still doing the same thing with the help of Adam - drums and Dagge - bass. 

You have recently just had your debut album "Sleepers In The Rift" released on Pulverised Records, I must congratulate you guys on creating a stinking modern day DödsMetall classic, please tell the readers a lil about this album in your own words and what they can expect from it. Are you totally satisfied with how it turned out or would you like to change any things?

Thanks for the kind words! I would never go so far as to say we've created a modern day death metal classic, although I believe we've managed to spawn something which is honest and fulfilling to ourselfs. It is our view on how Death Metal should sound. People shouldn't expect anything else than that.

About making changes.. You know, we had the record done months before it actually got released. During that time you had more than one opportunity to listen to all the songs and finding stuff to dislike. But speculating about that is just as useless as an asshole on your forehead. 

Did the recording process go pretty smooth or was there some stress? 

First we had a week. Then it was five days. Then Nicke got sick and we ended up finishing it in three and a half days. Some bands are able to record a full album in one day. We could never do that. We're not first take guys. But somehow we did it in that short time. I remember it as a smooth process, although because of the nature of things, of course you felt the occasional stress. 

You recorded it with Nicke Andersson producing, what was it like working with him? I must say he got a killer sound. I also read he is the older brother of one of the bands members aswell. Is he cool and easy to work with?

It was a way to secure a sound that would fit our vision. On top of his knowledge, he is also very easy to work with. We had a great fun time and I think that Nicke really captured that feeling of joy, smiles and laughing babies. 

How did you hook up with Roy and Pulverised initially? Are you happy with the work they have done for the band so far?

I think they got a hold of the demo. Anyway, I received a mail where they clearly said that they wanted to sign us for an album. Right now we're very happy with their work. Of course things move slow, they almost always do with this kind of stuff. But when the wait is over and you're sitting there with your sweat and blood embodied on a record, everything is sun and flowers.

The albums artwork is very striking, how did you get involved with the artist who designed that cover? Whos idea was it for that artwork? And what do you think of it? 

All the praise to Raul Gonzalez. It's not like we had ideas that he took inspiration from. The truth is that the painting was already done and he just happened to have it for sale. So, it was not made for us in any way. What we think of it? We think so highly of it that we chose it to be the cover art. It is an insane interpretation of the Netherworld, or so we perceive it. Maybe it's the inside of an anus? Ask Raul about the specifics. 

I have only seen great responses from people about your album so far, how do you feel about the overall response and review so far?

The response has been superb and people are way too kind. We really couldn't be happier with the feed back. Some say really big things about us and while that feels weird, it's really rewarding as well. We enjoyed the writing and recording, so we're excited that people are enjoying it back. 

What bands fuel and shape the sound of Morbus Chron? I am guessing Autopsy is a main influence?! You guys are probablys the most Autopsy sounding band to crawl out of the Swedish underground since Murder Squad in my opinion! 

Autopsy of course. Mentioning other bands would be unnessecery. 

Describe Morbus Chron in 5 words only

Not, interested, in, this, question.

Is the "Creeping Creepy Creeps" 7" still available? If so where can people pick it up from?

I don't think so. We've been out of stock for a long time. You might have some luck over at Detest Records. But just google the fucker and you should find it somewhere.

I saw Morbus Chron got the Autopsy seal of approval, how does that make you feel? Have you met those guys in person? Were they cool with you? What was your first introduction to Autopsy? And what were your thoughts when you first heard their music?

I can't speak for the other guys, but they played with Autopsy at Hammer open air in Finland. I did not attend and therefore I missed out on smoking grass with Reifert hahaha. But I personally met them last year when I went to Maryland Death Fest to see the reunion gig. I flew all the way alone and had brought some demos and shit. I nervously tapped Reifert on his shoulder when he was selling merch and asked for a picture. We got out and had a quick chat and I gave him and Coralles a tape. I was basically star struck to the extent that I couldn't say anything else than "cool, awesome, sweet", and that was it. 

First time I heard Autopsy was when Edde brought a burnt CD to rehearsal. It contained various Death Metal bands. I think the second track was "Ridden with Disease" and it was easily the best of the bunch. 

Do you guys play live often? what can people expect from a Morbus Chron live show?

No we don't actually. It's been a couple of shows each year, but no tours or anything like that. People can expect to be entertained.

Are there any plans to tour in support of the album outside of Sweden and within Scandinavia? would you like to tour Europe or USA?

I think we are okey with how things are right now. But if we got an offer to tour the US, I would most likely be the only guy in the band to say no. I'm know Edde and the guys want to play more than we do, but I believe we've reached a solution that works for everyone in the band. We record and release music and play the occasional show. I like it that way and that is probably going to be our recipe for a long time. 

You recently played the Fenriz curated Live Evil festival in London, how was that experience for you overall? Which other bands did you really enjoy at the festival?

I was feeling really sick the whole trip and sang with abnormal chest pains. Half of the gig was clean shouts because my throat was so shit. I've actually been hospitalized for two weeks now since we got home and I'm writing this in a hospital bed while I'm eating way too much medication. But enough about me.. We all liked the dedicated people there, especially the guy with the home made "Creepy Creeping Creeps"-back patch. The atmosphere was great and the bands were killer. It's one of those rare festivals where you want to watch every single band play. Antichrist ruled. So did the singer of Deathhammer. 

What did you think when you were made a Fenriz band of the week? Are you guys big Dark Throne fans?

I respect the guy and there's no denying that he knows good music, so we're flattered that he enjoys our stuff.

About Darkthrone. Goatlord is amazing. I also enjoyed Soulside Journey. But I can't really give you an opinion on most of their work, because I haven't heard it. Like I said though, Goatlord is one of the finest pieces of music Death Metal has ever brought upon us. It's fucking genious. 

lyrically where do you get the inspiration from to put pen to paper?

As soon as I have a title, most of the words write themselves. Just a quick story about something detestful and disturbing. But some of the album lyrics and a vast majority of the new stuff will be about cosmology and everything that is celestial. You always write about things that interests you and at the moment I'm afraid it isn't Zombies, hehe. Maybe Space Zombies. 

The Swedish death metal underground has been producing some killer new bands in recent years apart from yourselves there is Maim, Invidious, Repuked, Miasmal, Bastard Priest, Vanhelgd etc.., which fellow Swedish bands would you recommend to the readers to check out? 

Of those you listed I would recommend each one. I like Degial and Graveless. Eviscerated as well if they're still around. The same goes for Nauseant. 

What about locally, what bands would you recommend from any style?

Ehh.. I really have no idea. Except for the death scene I don't really know so many local bands. I've given it some thought to see if I can come up with anything but the problem is that most bands, whatever their style, suck ass. All the members have other bands though and I would recommend each one of them, but that would be cheesy. I know I'm probably forgetting loads of good bands. There are just so many bad ones in the way.. 

Whats your opinion on the current worldwide death metal scene? the old school vibe and attitude seems to be back with a vengeance!

In an old interview for Terrorizer, we said that we wanted to sound like the 80's and look like the 80's because we missed it and felt we were born too late. All the metal sucked ass and we wanted to bring back the old vibe. It seems to be moving in the right direction now and maybe the young bands who were trying to revive the scene played a part in that. I'm not really interested in standing still and sounding the same though. It is time for the revival to evolve into a path of continuation instead.  

The name Morbus Chron is pretty sick, did you call yourself anything else before settling with that name?

Back in 2007, before I joined, Steffe and Edde called themselves "Lifeless". I remember their song "Eaten by the rats", it was awesome.   

How do you think Morbus Chron will be remembered in say 10 years time? Where can you see the band then and yourself musically...still creating the same kinda musical filth?

If we would play the same kinda musical filth we'd get bored pretty fast. You'll hear when we record the new songs that there is a wish of trying something slightly different from the usual. That is while still maintaining the core sound. Evolvement is the key to keeping people and especially yourself interested. Maybe we'll be remembered as the band that had it's singer killed by the other members because he wanted to play experimental black metal jazz. Or maybe we're still around ten years from now and playing punk. Who knows?

I know Dag also plays in the band PLAGUEBEARER are any of the other members involved with other bands or projects?

Like I said before, all of the members have other bands. Adam plays in the rock trio Red Strike, as well as in The Giesagöebbels with Edde. Dagge plays drums in Ho Chi Minh Howlers and bass in Plaguebearer. While I do have some projects, I quickly lose interest in things and a lot of ideas are never realised. But I'm working on something cool too!

What albums have been blasting on your stereo recently? Apart from the new Morbus Chron of course!!

I've been listening to Carbonized a lot. Their Screaming Machines album is fantastic. Interesting to say the least. Other than that I haven't really listened to much music lately. 

What are you plans for rest of 2011 and also 2012? Can we expect a return to the UK ?? what are your future goals?

Recording and releasing a new EP. The songs are done and we should begin rehearsing them soon. So I'm really excited about that. Never say never, we might see you again.

The last words are yours, many thanks for answering my questions, please plug any available merch.

My pleasure. Black Orb.