There’s a lot of bullshit in metal these days, lots of samey sounding young bands with tattooed necks and ‘complicated’ haircuts who think it’s all about screaming over recycled riffs. Either that or going all ‘hippy-witchcraft’ on us, getting the hair straighteners out chucking on some bell bottoms and blahing on about the devil over and over again.
So when Stockholm’s Smothered released their debut album ‘The Inevitable End’ last year I wasn’t expecting much but was blown away by the song writing and talent on show, not to mention respect for Sweden’s death metal heritage that was so evident on every track.
It was an absolute pleasure to catch up with Christoffer Eriksson (guitar & vocals) to chat about the new record and to find we shared opinions on a few things.
AN: Guys thanks very much for this interview and congrats on the release of the new album – it’s a belter.
CE: Hey Mark and the Ave Noctum readers. Thanks a lot! It’s a pleasure to answer your questions. We’re really happy with how the album has been received thus far.
AN: How and when did the band first get together?
CE: Well, I [Christoffer – guitar and vocals] was in a band where I wasn’t really happy with how the song writing and the overall goal of the band was in the end to “make it big and make money” and it felt like they sort of got lost in “making music with their wallets” instead of making music from the heart. I’ve always been a huge fan of extreme metal of all kinds. Mostly death, thrash and black metal so I thought why not take the stuff that I made for this other band that they thought was “too dark” or “too extreme” and make my own songs on the side. So I posted them on my own MySpace page and people who stumbled upon them sent me very positive feedback. Same thing with friends of mine who listened. They encouraged me to make something serious out of the instrumental songs and put a band together. So I did. I tried out a few people and found some really talented people real quick. After the recording of our debut album Tobias who played bass for us felt that it was a bit too overwhelming to try and do both studies and play bass in a band at the same time so he quit shortly after it was done.
AN: There’s a real ‘old school’ Swedish death metal vibe to the record and the influences would appear obvious – are there others that we might be surprised by?
CE: I think the black and thrash metal influences are pretty obvious as well as the old school Swedeath vibe but other than that we’re not trying to limit ourselves to stay “true” to one genre. We incorporate everything that we like into the songs as we see fit.
AN: What are your main inspirations musically?
CE: Apart from the obvious bands that I need not mention? Well, during the time when we wrote the album I listened a lot to bands like Watain and Marduk and that manifested itself in the dark melodic parts you can hear throughout the album. I listened to a lot of both new and old school thrash metal as well. Viktor’s drum influences come from both technical extreme metal bands and more old school ones. He’s a very versatile drummer and he knows how to find a groove to every riff I present. Martin’s influences are very much based in old school thrash like Exodus and Testament and blends that style with Anders Björling and Dimebag Darrell.
AN: There’s a heavy Lovecraft theme to the record – is that something all the band are into?
CE: Well, not really. It’s mostly me since I write the lyrics. The others are trying to get into it but I don’t know how that goes. I know some of them have bought some of the collections of novels but I don’t know if they’ve read them yet.
AN: Is the Lovecraft / Cthulhu theme something you intend to keep on the next record(s)?
CE: Lovecraft and Cthulhu will probably not have such a big presence on the next album, no. We like trying new things and there are a lot of things on our minds that we’d like to focus on for the next album but I can’t promise that there won’t be something Lovecraftesque in the next album since it’s such a huge part of literature that I like to read. We’ll see. What intrigues me in general is the human mind and how complex and fragile it is. So we’ll definitely delve deeper into that.
AN: I understand you’re looking for a full time bass player – how is that search going?
CE: By the time this interview is published we’ve picked a bass player. His name is Staffan Wensby and is a very talented and dedicated musician.
AN: Can we expect a tour / festival dates soon? And what would be your dream tour package?
CE: We’re currently looking to get booked for shows in Sweden and do a mini tour in Europe and also to get booked for some festivals this summer but nothing has been confirmed yet. But rest assured we’ll try to do as many shows as we can in 2014. It’s hard to get booked and get noticed as a death metal band just starting out without the backing of any already established bands or members. We’ve started from scratch without knowing anybody in the genre.
AN: Are there any new bands of any genre you recommend checking out?
CE: Yeah, in fact one of the bands we’ve been hanging out with are on the rise. Phidion. They’ve been around since 2003 but have had some line up problems but now have a new line up and a lot of great new songs. They’re probably heading in to the studio to record their first full length album this summer. Their demo/EP “Flesh of the Forsaken” features Martin Missy of Protector on vocals.
AN: The artwork on the new album is amazing – who’s responsible for that?
CE: His name is Olli Hihnala and he’s from Finland. We’ll definitely work with him again for future releases.
AN: What do you think of the current state of the death metal scene in general?
CE: I think it has started leaning more towards trends and has become a festering elitist hipster cesspool. And when I say festering cesspool I mean that in the worst possible way. Well you catch my drift I hope. I like how it was in the 90’s when people were more like “fuck it, fuck you, listen to death metal and turn up the volume”. Now everything is about trends and you have to look like you’re from the early seventies or something for people to pay attention to you. We’ve always let our music do the talking for us and that’s how it should be.
AN: Many thanks for this interview, any final words for us?
CE: Thanks to Ave Noctum for an awesome review of our debut album. I’ve already started my rant about elitist hipsters so I might as well finish what I started. If you support metal then support metal for the right reasons. For the music. Not for trends or what your hipster friends think is cool right now. Do it for what the music gives you as an individual and not try to fit in with a “group norm”. Fuck that. I love the underground scene for the musicians that play from their hearts and the fans that go and check out the bands they like and support them. And if you’re looking to start a band then play the music from your heart, not from your wallet. That’s how it should be. Fuck trends, fuck posers and most of all fuck all hipsters. That’s it, rant over. Support the underground.
Interviewed by Mark Eve
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