Playing death metal ain’t no walk in the park. Thanks the deluge of short-haired death metal bands (Job For A Cowboy, Veil of Maya, The Faceless), the old guard of DM is now constantly on the defense. It’s no longer en vogue to keep it simple; you have to guff things up with some neato guitar sweeps, some “bree-bree” vocals, and worst of all – a beatdown. Such things would probably make Evil Chuck turn over in his grave; most likely the same way it fuels Sweden’s Nominon. The old guard will prevail.
The vanguards of Swedish death metal have remained surprisingly active and vital, with Unleashed still kicking, Grave still popping one out every two years, and Dismember doing as it pleases. (No we’re not going to mention Entombed) For Nominion, the goal is the same as its ever been: release pure, unrelenting Swedish death metal without any unnecessary additions (read: melody, keyboards). Their latest is the punishing Monumentomb and it’s every bit the savory Swedish DM that 2010 needs. On the eve of the band’s summer US tour, we caught up with drummer Perra Karlsson to discuss the aforementioned tour, line-up changes, and of course, Swedish death metal.
Blistering.com: You just announced plans for a quick North American run in June. Excited? Nervous?
Perra Karlsson: We're not really nervous or anything, we're certainly excited though to go back and tour over there. The US summer tour 2008 ended up really successful, so we definitely look forward to crush the stages over there once again. This time we will also be playing Texas and Florida that we missed out on the last tour, so we're extremely psyched about the whole thing. On this trip we'll have direct support coming from our good friends Quinta Essentia as well as our brothers of darkness Infinitum Obscure. This package is just such a wet dream for any true death metal maniac.
Blistering.com: With Monumentomb getting such a positive reaction, do you think now is the right time to come over?
Karlsson: I'd say so, yes. We're a bit frustrated though that we'll only be able to do a two week tour this time around, that's all. I mean we would really like to be playing the west coast as well, but we just couldn't be away for a longer period of time than two weeks, due to some member’s commitments at home. So we'll start in Atlanta June 24th and then do the last show on July 6th in the New York area. We're thrilled that people in general seems to be getting more and more into the new album, especially in North America. We have updated our setlist pretty much since the last time two years ago, so this time we will do at least five songs of the new album and then do probably one or two from the older ones.
Blistering.com: Your recent line-up changes, were they for the better and how are the new guys, especially Henke[Skoog] working out?
Karlsson: Henke is a very down-to-earth guy and he is easy to be around, yet when it's time to go on stage and take over as the new frontman for Nominon we're all certain that he won't disappoint anyone out there. Neck-breaking, whiplash injuries and vicious throat attacks will occur. The new bassist, Martin Petersson, has brought a whole new thundering sound to the band. He is an excellent bass player. Most probably the first REAL bassist that Nominon has ever got.
Blistering.com: In your 17 years, you’ve probably seen/heard it all, so how tough was it when [vocalist] Daniel Skoog and [bassist] Anders [Malmstrom] quit around the time of the recording for the new album?
Karlsson: Daniel left us three or four weeks prior to the recordings of Monumentomb simply because he joined an educational class in movie-making. Daniel have always been dedicated and extremely interested in the whole movie/film making thing, so when the opportunity came up it was obvious that he would grab it. Of course him leaving the band just a couple of weeks before the actual recording was kinda awkward, but after all the album turned out damn amazing, so today I don't even see it as a problem that Daniel actually left Nominon. I personally never really did, but you know, some things are just meant to happen. Since I joined the band almost ten years ago we have had four different vocalists. It's not such a big deal if someone wants to continue working with you, what can you do about it really?! It's like, well, "see you later" and then you go on searching for new freaks that are more interested, dedicated and that actually WANTS to work with you.
I have to admit, though that I felt it was a bit odd that Anders left us, since I considered him being a great friend and all that. But as I said, if people don’t want to spend their precious time writing some undeadly classics with Nominon, just get the hell out and let someone else take over that are more into it. We have changed three bassists these last ten years, so what the fuck, shit happens. All we can do is to deal with it, do things our way you know. Nominon has turned into some strange mysterious ancient entity from beyond you know. I mean, the music is what counts, who's in the band or not isn't really that important at the end of the day.
Blistering.com: Erik Sahlstrom [of General Surgery fame] does a killer job on the album. Was what it like working with such an experienced death metal vocalist?
Karlsson: You said it, he is for sure an experienced death metal vokillist. Erik is an old friend of mine and when I called him to ask if he would be interested to help us out he more or less immediately said "OK!" He came in, heard each song once or twice and then he started to lay down the vocal tracks for the album. We heard straight away that he had some really amazing things going on. At times it sounded like he had three voices in one, like three insane demons crawling in vomits. I would say that his vocal performance on our album is most likely some of THE best death metal vocals ever recorded, period.
