"We recycle the stuff!"
So jokes vocalist Matti Karki when asked about the Swedish Dethsters' writing process. We're sitting on a fire escape at the rear of Fraser's pub in Dublin, tonight's venue, trying to make ourselves heard above the chaos of Desecration's soundcheck...
Matti continues
"I would say it's (new album, 'Hate Campaign'- Ed) a mixture between going back to the roots and coming up with new stuff. When we do a 'next album' we always tend to go back an listen to the previous one, more or less taking all the good parts from the old one and trying to make new, interesting songs"
Dismember's sound has been described as many things by many people... Terrorizer's Greg Whalen has recently described it as a mix of 'Slayer, Maiden and Autopsy'... I myself am reminded of Gorefest, Entombed etc... what's the worst description you've heard, what do you really hate?
"None of the descriptions annoy me, but the most-used one is that we're Entombed-clones..."
It's inevitable that people pick up on this comparison... let's face it, with THAT guitar sound...
 "Yeah... we've had that since the beginning of the Dismember career. It doesn't annoy me, but I think it's strange that people can't hear the difference between Entombed and Dismember... Ok, of course the guitar sound is almost the same, but we just like to use that sound because it's the best"
Tomas Skogsberg and Sunlight Studios would've been a factor in that... this was THE studio to record at in the early 90's, giving rise to the oft copied 'Sunlight Sound', and was effectively a Metalik Mecca equivalent to that of Scott Burn's Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida... however, Matti's obviously heard this line of attack all too often, and has his attack ready...
"Yeah, but the new album was not recorded at Sunlight, but Das Boot, and the cool thing about the recording there was that we noticed that the sound came with us… that we still have the same sound as we did in Sunlight... so it's not because of the studio that we sound the way we do"
As Metal bands evolve and mature, they often feel compelled to try and tackle their denigrators by seeking to prove that they can reach beyond their perceived limitations... and this doesn't always make for positive results. Take, for example, Metallica, who's 'Justice For All...' opus entered the realms of the labyrinthine and lost a great deal of immediacy as a consequence. There doesn't seem to be any danger of Dismember falling into this particular trap. 'Mutual Animosity', for instance, has an almost Discharge-like simplicity, that same vitality... for me personally, it's the most effective song on album. And it also suggests that these Swedes retain a good ol'fashioned approach to Death Metal...
"I think you should keep the songs short and simple" concurs Matti. "Personally, I just hate it when bands keep on going for like six minutes with the same song... it gets boring. Preferably it should be simple, and than you can arrange the song in an interesting way. Instead of having complex riffs, you make the song build complex... like when it comes down to rhythm, tempo changes and stuff like that... that's more interesting than pain-in-the-ass riffs"
Matti, you're a big Autopsy fan... I've often seen interviews where you rave about 'Mental Funeral'... what of pioneers such as Deathstrike/ Master, Repulsion et al... would I be correct in assuming that American Deathsters had a bigger influence on you than any European equivalents?
"Yeah, I guess more or less. When I got into the music scene and started playing in bands, the bands we were listening to were mainly from the States, like Repulsion, Master, the old demos, Death and later on came Autopsy, Immolation and all those bands. So of course it has a big impact on the Swedish scene... I haven't listened to that much European Death Metal. Of course, there was Paradise Lost which was excellent, Carcass... I don't count Napalm Death as Death Metal... the European bands were not as much 'Death Metal' as the American ones were. But that type of music has died down in the States, instead every band now sound like Cannibal Corpse, going fast with blast beats, and in Sweden we prefer to go the 'old-style'".
What do you make of recent tends in Sweden towards a more 'melodic' approach to Deth... In Flames, Amon Amarth et al... it seems to lack the aggression and honesty that makes Death so viable and exciting... it seems too self-conscious or something...
"I don't know why they play so melodic, I guess they're into old Metal like Iron Maiden and stuff, or maybe Power Metal, but wanting to do it a little more brutal. Personally, I don't enjoy those twiddly songs. It's personal taste"
Dismember have been fighting against increasing odds of late... what with media apathy, even in Metal circles, to Death Metal and all the hassles you've faced (such as bassist Richard's temporary departure, with his presence for full tours still being somewhat vague), hassles with Nuclear Blast and so forth... little wonder you considered calling it a day a while back...
"Yeah, we did a European tour that was totally fucked up, the Belgian agency Metalysee... we had over 20 dates... in the end we only did 10 of them... on the next tour, we fund out that Metalysee hadn't booked all the shows, only 10, they ripped us off. We came home, we'd lost a lot of money, everyone was pissed off, and at that point we felt like 'fuck this, let's split the band, we cant take this anymore'. Richard left, went on to Satyricon to play bass there, but I would talk to Fred and say we can't quit cos of this, let's take a small vacation and see how things go. After that we decided to keep on doing the music".
Interestingly, both bands on tonight's bill have fallen foul of the UK's arcane 'obscenity/ public decency' laws... Dismember had a shipment of their 'Like an Ever-Flowing Stream' debut album seized by UK Customs back in 1991on the back of the track 'Skin Her Alive', whilst Desecration had the master tapes to their debut platter of taste and restraint, 'Gore and Perversion', seized under antiquated Victorian statute (the music being deemed to be likely to unhinge common decency). Both actions were ultimately dropped, but it is a potent reminder of the force wielded by the 'moral majority'. It could well seem that Dismember are spoiling for a similar fight with 'Thanatology' which deals with the Holocaust... though it's purely an account of that most infamous genocidal chapter in recent history, it's the sort of issue that remains likely to stir up a hornet's nest of outrage and ill-informed opinion as to the band's motivations to write about it (a la Slayer's 'Angel of Death')... especially given the recent high-profile legal proceedings involving revisionist historian David Irving. Why choose this subject matter, and any hassles yet?
 "Nothing so far, no, I guess this time they actually read the lyrics and thought about them and realised it's not a neo-nazi song or anything.. .it just deals with the Holocaust, tries to explain what happened. Nothing else. I just found it interesting, I'm reading a lot about the second world war, and always wanted to do a song about it. So 'Thanatology' was the result, but no problems so far, we just to wait and see!" he laughs.
Dismember's history is typically convoluted. Originally formed in 1988, with a three piece line-up (drummer Fred Estby, guitarist David Blomqvist, and bassist/ vocalist Robert Senneback), Dismember would release two demos ('Dismembered' and 'Last Blasphemies') in the space of eighteen months before suddenly imploding as members left to join other acts. Fred joined Michael Amott's Carnage, which featured the good Mr Karki on vocals, David had a brief stint with fellow Swedes Entombed before himself joining Carnage... which itself folded when Michael left to join Carcass (today, of course, Mr Amott's to be seen strutting his stuff with Spiritual Beggars and Arch Enemy)... paving the way for the resurrection of Dismember and demo number three, 'Reborn in Blasphemy'. Oh aye, and somewhere along the way, Robert rejoined after a period with Unleashed. Add to this mix Richard Cabeza, from Carbonized, and Dismember were once again on the roll. Confused? Not 'arf!
Within the next few years, it's a fair argument that Sweden was firmly at the epicentre of a truly global Death Metal phenomenon, with an amazingly strong underground scene spewing forth such other Necrophile notables as Unleashed, Entombed, Grave, Therion, At The Gates, Tiamat, Desultory.
Do you reckon new bands have it easier today? Or worse? After all, today's audiences are more 'sophisticated', labels more cynical and the Metal press much smaller (at least in the UK... anyone else remember the days of Metal Forces, Raw, Hard Rock, Ultrakill, Thrash'n'Burn or Metal Hammer's 'Extra Thrash'?).
"Actually, I don't know, I have no clue. There's a couple of band that share rehearsal rooms with us, they just got signed. I guess it depends on whether the band's good, if their label believe in them, but I think it's real hard to get big with this type of music... a band playing Death Metal is never going to be Metallica-big, it's never going to happen"
Though I've heard that State-assistance for nascent musicians is actually quite good in Sweden...
 "Yeah, we have a kind of fund for that, but it's more in the way of providing rehearsal rooms and PA systems that most people can't otherwise afford. If you start what they would call a 'study circle', you have to fill out papers and stuff every month, and then you get this government help."
For valuable cultural exports such as yerselves...
"Yeah!"
Last one... you're happy with yer sound, know what you do best... ever reckon you'll see yerselves become the granddaddies of Death... a Death metal AC/DC?!! The idea clearly appeals to the wind-up merchant that lurks within Matti...
"That might happen you never know! I guess we'll keep on doing this until we get to the point where we feel that we've done everything. It's better to bury the band before we do something stupid with it, try and keep our name clean. Dismember were always Death Metal, it's always going to stay Death Metal"
Finally, as for those people who say 'Death Metal is dead'...
"Nah... I don't believe it, it's crap. As long as we keep playing, I don't consider Death Metal to be dead"
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