MR. DEATH (Eng.)
– Hello Juck, thanks for taking the time. How’s everything going in the MR DEATH’s camp?
Thanks for listening! Everything is going great, we are getting a very good response on the new album and we are having a great time right now!
– You will soon release your second full-length album so I guess there may be some people who aren’t familiar with you yet. Could you please make some history of the band?
Mr. Death has been around since 2007 and have until now four releases in the bag. Even though this band has just been around for some years most members have been playing together in different bands before. We have been in the Swedish scene as long as it has existed and have now decided that there is time to show how we want Death Metal to evolve.
– And why such name for the band? Could you say it fits the whole band (sound, image, lyrics, etc.)?
The name is absolutely not the standard evilworded and just looked up in some dictionary. Nobody would be upset if we had a some satanic name today, time has changed and at least some people thinks that Mr. Death sounds a bit cheesy but what the F. It’s a name and Mr. Death is pure evil!
– In fact you have a quite different image from most bands in your style; how did you come up with this?
This is another thing pretty much related to the name. Back in -87 Death Metal was fresh and everybody was experimenting with image, sound, riffs and stuff. Today there is so much copying and we felt like we wanted to put something extra to the show. The zombie thing has been connected to metal lyrics for a long time but very few have done a real thing out of it, it’s time to get back to the pure and clean aggression.
– As I said, you will soon release your second album, «Descending Through the Ashes», which will be released later this month. What are your expectations?
I actually don’t have any big expectations, I’m still a bit confused about how Death Metal have grown through the years. There is people of all kind and like all ages coming to our shows or sending us mails and stuff. I think that very much of what’s coming out today have lost the raw intensity that it was all intended to have from start. Modern recording technology makes it so easy to over correct everything and polish it off until you lose the spirit. I suppose that’s why people listens to Mr. Death. We have been vary laid back when it comes to touring and I suppose this is something we gotta take care of. I expect us to get some really nice deals and the opportunity to meet fans everywhere.
– Could you please shed some light on lyrics behind this CD?
This album is more on the Armageddon road than on horror and death. In some strange way this album connects to Detached From Life but takes of where that one ended. I would say that this album is a bit darker and have a more moody feeling in it.
– I could say compared to «Detached from Life» this new effort sounds, overall, heavier. Was this something you wanted to get?
I think it’s what everybody wants 🙂 as heavy and hard as possible could never be a bad thing if done right. We wanted to get it even more aggressive and still listenable. I love the Sunlight sound but this time we wanted to get something else. This productions is ultra thick and I suppose it sounds like shit if someone tries to listen through their laptop speakers and that must be a positive thing in my world.
– I also noticed bigger atmospheres with a rocky and thick sound, something some current «retro» bands tend to fail with (or simply seem to forget about). Are those old fashioned ambients an important part of the band’s sound?
It’s always hard to get it all, you want clarity, thicknes, heavyness, live feeling, distortion, feedback and on and on and on..We have to find the perfect balance between what we want the whole sound to come out as and in some way we also wanted to have more variety on this album but still keep the aggression all the way. I don’t think the importance is and old fashioned part more the good part no matter if it’s an old school thing or something completely new. Mr. Death is more a new path taking of where death metal started to develop in a way where the pure aggression where lost. I think we will show people how aggressive metal is supposed to sound and we will do this without overspeeding or triggering and digital messing up.
– I have always loved the prominent bass in MR DEATH, giving an even thicker sound to your music. How did you approach this time your bass work?
I just tries to keep it simple, when rehearsing it’s fun to play around but while recording I always cut things down and playing everything as simple as possible, it could seem a bit boring but that is one reason why the bass gets this thick feeling. When recording Descending Through Ashes we wanted to get a very live feeling and tried to keep it ruff and honest, I usually hits the strings a bit harder than every good instrumentalist would recommend but I like the fret sound and the slammer you get out of it. The producer loved it and just wanted me to hit the strings harder and harder and I ended up worrying breaking at least one string every song. It was almost impossible to play hitting this hard but I love how the bass sound came out.
– And, from a general view, how was the song writing process? As, once more, we can find simply but effective and straight-forward compositions.
We just write songs as it feels right and when it feels right, We have no background thought of how it is supposed to sound or no thought of how the whole album will be oriented. We just do what feels right without analyzing.
– There’s also some diversity (without loosing your essence), as we can hear in tracks as “Another State of Decay”, with a quite rocker basis. What could you comment on this tune?
That is really a wild card ending up on the album. I think that particular track is really different from the others. Another State Of Decay is just going on forward in the riffing, adding something different every time a riff returns and actually there is just to riffs in the whole songs but we play one of the riffs in a different way all the time. This makes it very different and I suppose even more different the more you analyze the song.
– I mentioned those certain Rock elements I found on that track and, though you sound could be tagged as Swedish Death Metal at the old school style, I noticed certain details from Crust, Thrash… So, what are the band’s main musical influences?
The influences is always hard to put your finger on. We are three guys in the band that has been involved in the Swedish Death Metal scene since the time when there were no or very few metal influences at all. We did listen to all extreme music that we could get our hands on and in the beginning there were mostly punk and early hard core. We still have those early influences in the back but everything good we have heard since then
– I think most «metalheads» didn’t hear from you (after leaving TIAMAT) until MR DEATH was formed. What were you up to during all these years? Were you involved with any musical project?
I have been playing music almost all time since Tiamat but I was really fed up with the whole music business, and promised myself never signing a contract again. I think that music is actually my own business and I’m doing it for my own sake and only does what feels right for me and not for someone else. Death Metal is what I have grown up with and there is where my heart is, it’s my channel for cleaning out the aggressions you build up in daily life. For me Death Metal was never intended to be something you got famous from and it felt a bit strange when the Swedish and European scene exploded. From being an outsider where nobody really understood what the fuck you where playing to being respected for your music was a very strange thing. I liked the underground and still does but today I think we have a mission! To give people the pure and real Death Metal as it was supposed to be from start.
– And finally, what are your near-future plans?
Have a great time with my closest friends! Playing music and maybe have a beer or two. Hopefully some Spanish management will book us for some gigs and we’ll get the opportunity to give our Spanish supporters what they deserve.
– That’s all, thanks once more for your time. If you want to add some final words, feel free to do it.
It’s really and this time I mean REALLY great that people still pays an interest to the same music that I have always been living for. Tnx alot! And remember that everyone that have read this far is a great part of the metal scene and is worthy huge respect for what they believe in! THANX!
