Interviews

Interviews: Dismember

Jeremy Coulson: Tell us about "Hate Campaign".

Magnus Sahlgren: What can I say? It's the same story as always with Dismember-pure Death Metal, total aggression. A little bit more back to the basics maybe. We decided with this album that we wanted to do what we did back in '91 with this raw aggression, without too much influences from other styles.

JC: I like how every song goes right into the next. It keeps the energy level up.

MS: That was the whole idea. We wanted to make it as intense as possible. NO breaks between the songs, just total fuckin' pure hatred.

JC: Who does most of the songwriting?

MS: We try to do it in a democratic way. We all write riffs and then we get together at rehearsal and we just put the songs together, so I guess we all do equal amount of songwriting.

JC: Dismember's sound is one of the most brutal, yet melodic at the same time. Where do you draw that influence?

MS: The Death Metal influences are quite obvious I think. You know, the first Death Metal bands like Autopsy, Possessed, Death, Slayer of course. Then, of course we listen to old Heavy Metal bands like Judas Priest, Accept, Iron Maiden. It's a mixture of old school Death Metal and old school Heavy Metal.

JC: I noticed the rawer vocal approach.

MS: It's the same thing there. We just wanted to make it as intense and as aggressive as possible. I think the vocals tend to be more aggressive that way.

JC: How long did you spend in the studio?

MS: We did it in parts, but all in all, maybe one month.

JC: How does it feel to know that you're one of the oldest Death Metal bands still playing the same style?

MS: Dismember is about Death Metal and nothing else. For us, it's natural. For us, it's more surprising that those bands that started out at the same time we did started going in different directions or stopped playing or something. Death Metal is supposed to be an underground thing and you have to stay true to the scene.

JC: How have things with Dismember and the scene changed since 1991?

MS: Well, with the band, I'm a new member in the band. I've been in the band for two years. We have another bass player right now as well. Richard left the band. Two members switched. As far as the scene, it sort of exploded in '92 or '93 and there were like tens of millions of bands playing Death Metal. In '94 or so, it was overcrowded. I think today the scene is getting stronger. There is coming new bands and people are turning up for the shows. I think the scene is coming along strong today.

JC: It's so easy in Death Metal to fall into the trap of sounding like everybody else. How foes Dismember keep it so original and fresh, yet so Death Metal?

MS: I don't think it's about creating new and fresh material. I think it's about doing the stuff that you're supposed to do with a Death Metal band. We're not trying to progress musical-wise. We're just trying to do what we do best in a more and more refined way.

JC: Do you think there's there anything more progressive than "Dreaming in Red" in the Dismember catalog?

MS: No. I think that maybe the "Massive Killing Capacity" album was the most Heavy Metal style album with most of the influences from Heavy Metal. A bit slower, and a bit different production as well, but Dismember's always Death Metal. The changes in style are very small.

JC: Who produced "Hate Campaign?"

MS: It's Fred, the drummer.

JC: What was it like to have him produce the album?

MS: It's the best solution for everyone because he works as a producer as well, so he knows all the technical parts and being a member of the band, he knows what kind of sound we want, so it's the best solution.

JC: I know Death Metal is probably the hardest thing to produce.

MS: You want this raw feeling as well. It's a hard line between overproducing and underproducing.

JC: Are there any tours planned with the new album?

MS: Right now, we're doing a lot of promotion work, but were going to tour or at least do a few shows in Scandinavia, Great Britain and stuff like that until the summer. Then, in the summer we're going to do all the festivals in the summertime and after that like in the fall we're going to tour Europe and hopefully also the States.

JC: Please?

MS: We'll try, I promise you.

JC: What's the best show you can remember playing with Dismember?

MS: That's a tough one. I don't know. It tends to be so many shows and half of them are really good and half of them really suck. It's a tricky question to answer. Hopefully, we have the best show ahead of us.

JC: How do you see the scene of Death Metal? Where do you see it progressing?

MS: I don't really see it progressing at all. Maybe that it will come back to the early 90's in that it will be more like an underground thing and people trading tapes and don't care about this trendy stuff. I think that Death Metal should be an underground movement.

JC: What do you think the worst and most non-underground thing is right now?

MS: There is so many things going on in the music business. All this hybrid Metal stuff. I think this mixture with Rap with hard Metal, I think that is so fucking disgusting.

JC: It really is. I don't understand most of it.

MS: It's annoying shit.

JC: What are some of your personal influences?

MS: I listen to so much stuff. I don't really listen to Metal anymore, because the Metal I like is like the old school Metal like Possessed and Slayer and Celtic Frost and stuff like that. I listen to a lot of classical stuff and Nick Cave and stuff like that as well.

JC: Do you think that plays in at all in your songwriting?

MS: I don't think so, no. The influences when I write songs, I think of that as mainly Possessed and Slayer and then perhaps being a guitar player, of course I'm influenced by Yngwie Malmsteen and stuff like that, so maybe you could hear some of that as well.

JC: What kind of equipment do you use?

MS: Of course we use Marshall amplifiers and I play Ibanez guitars.

JC: I love Ibanez!

MS: I use the Ibanez EX series. It's not manufactured anymore, but it's the coolest guitar in the world.

JC: Yeah, I have an old EX like that. It gets killer tone.

MS: It's awesome. Make some noise!