Abbas: What happened in Poland when your car stereo got ripped off? Mine was stolen out of my driveway years ago, so I can empathize. I hate that shit, I hope you find the fuck that stole it and sodomize him/her with a razor blade. Did you go nuts not having anything to listen to on the drive home?
Tobias: It all happened Slupsk in Poland when we were there in 1995. The car stereo was stolen from our mini bus on the parking lot while we were doing our gig that evening. Luckily the stupid fuck that did it didn't realise that there were stuff in the bus that were much more valuable than an ordinary car stereo! The day after it happened we had to find a new window for the car to replace the broken one and that wasn't the easiest thing to do - at least not in Poland! I had to drive (it was my turn that day) about 200 kilometres in hard wind and rain with no window on the left of me all the way to Gdynia to get a new window. It was because of this we arrived too late for one gig so we missed it. That was the most negative thing about the whole incident, 'cause it was quite a big place we were going to play at and they told us afterwards that there had been a lot of people showing up for the gig (400). Since this happened only on the second day in Poland, it was quite boring not to have a car stereo the rest of the week! If we would find the one who did it, it would be a true pleasure to introduce his teeth to our hungry fists!

What the fuck is wrong with Gothenburg?
Tobias: I don't know! I find Gothenburg a very nice city! The people there are in general very friendly and nice. I like it a lot, much better than Stockholm. But if you mean the "Gothenburg stylish" kind of music I must admit that I'm not so impressed. I'm not very fond of the typical death metal with that melodic touch combined with screamy vocals. A lot of the bands that sound like this have actually nothing to do with Gothenburg at all. They only are associated to it because of At the gates and such were the original "Gothenburg style" bands. That's one of the reasons why I love At the gates, that they were the pioneers with this style. Another important thing with them is that they are brilliant musicians and songwriters. Early stuff with Dissection is also killer!

I cannot tell you how good it felt to hear this album. It was so nice to find a DEATH metal band that still writes about DEATH and DARKNESS and does it well. It brought back feelings of old Entombed and Unleashed, etc. It's nice to know Sweden is still capable of producing quality death metal. What's kept you going for so long?
Tobias: Thanks for your compliments! The reason why we are still going strong is because we love death metal! We love to play it, listen to it, breathe it and live it. Sweden is very sensitive for trends. Not only in music but in general. Stockholm is often first with the latest and then it's spread throughout the whole country in a wink of an eye. That's one of the big reasons why all thousands of death metal bands that existed in the mid '90's now are gone. The bands changed direction when the big death metal trend was over to more melodic (Gothenburg style), hardcore or even black metal. Whatever that was trendy at that time. Vomitory doesn't care about trends - we do what we want to. Another thing is that we have been very determined to reach our goal all these years, and that was to get a deal and release an album. In November 1996 our goal was reached through the release of Raped In Their Own Blood on Fadeless records. Now we're setting new goals that we want to reach, through hard work of course. It's now when we for example get the opportunity to play outside Sweden it's starting to get fun! The seven years before the Raped... album were only the beginning...

What took so long for you to record your first album? I don't feel there is any "standard" time a band should be ready, but this material sounds like it came right out of the early 90's death metal era...
Tobias: I agree that it took long time before we recorded the first album. One of the reasons was that Vomitory became one in a million of Swedish death metal bands during The Big Trend ('91-'94 or something), so we weren't interesting enough to the labels. We didn't have that originality in our style and sound that the labels were searching for then. We had something going on with Witchhunt Records back then, right after their release of our Moribund 7", but they wanted us to change our style to something more melancholic/atmospheric shit. Since Vomitory is a brutal death metal band we turned that offer down immediately. There were some more labels that showed their interest in Vomitory back then, but they weren't so good, so we headed for a new demo instead. We play a quite traditional style of death metal and we think it should sound like this. The material on the Raped... album is very influenced by the early death metal and grind stuff like Bolt Thrower, Grave, Napalm Death, Carcass and Entombed, and the oldest song on it, Dark Grey Epoch, is written in 1992. So it's not very strange that you think that it sounds like it's from the early '90's era. In our ears - just the way death metal should sound!

How has working with Fadeless Records been? Do you think it's better being one of the earlier bands on a young record label?
Tobias: So far the work with Fadeless has turned out very good. For Vomitory I think it's better to be one of the earliest bands on a young label. At least at the time when we were about to release Raped.... We haven't had any good experiences of record labels earlier, so it felt very good to start working with Wilko, the guy who runs Fadeless. We had met him before we signed for Fadeless so it felt more like a good friend relationship than a business relationship, and it still does.

I like the drum sound on this recording. I can't tell if you're using triggers or not... the kick drum has that click of a trigger, but there is the good punch of a real kick as well. I personally do not like triggers so I am hoping it's due to your knowing how to tune a good kick drum. What kind of kit do you play on?
Tobias: No, we don't use triggers on the drums on Raped.... It's just this way they sound. In fact, we didn't have any advanced equipment at all when we recorded Raped..., 'cause we recorded it in a low budget studio which is placed in an ordinary school and is used for education. That's one of the reasons why the sound is a little bit dirty, which I actually like! I play a Firestorm red Tama Rockstar Pro kit since ten years. 2 x 22, 10", 12", 13", 14", 16" and 14"x5" are the sizes. I use Paiste and Sabian cymbals.

Are you familiar with Nasum? I notice both of you use a similar, old Napalm Death-ish sort of riffing style, like in Raped in Their Own Blood. You have the pounding blasts and then the aggressive thrash-beat follow up, and then you combine this with a lot of dark passages and melodies. How do you go about writing songs? Do Tobias and Urban practice at home a lot together?
Tobias: Of course I'm familiar with Nasum!! They are one of the few bands from Sweden that are still going strong and don't wimp out! Their Inhale/Exhale is brilliant! I really like their way of writing songs, 'cause their arrangements are really well done. They just don't put a bunch of riffs together to complete a song, and I really like that. It's not just the riffs in a song that should be good, the song must be well arranged - having a good structure, and Nasum is good at that. When we write songs one of us usually comes up with an idea or a guitar line and start working out of that. Sometimes we work it out together, but mostly I finish the songs alone. I put a lot of effort in arranging the songs so everything fits together good. I think that is one of the biggest strengths in Vomitorys songs. Jussi and Erik write the lyrics on their own. It was a while since Urban and I practised together at home, 'cause we haven't lived together for eight years, but we meet sometimes trying to write songs together.

Who wrote that slow, very dark riff in Through Sepulchral Shadows??
Tobias: Urban is responsible for that one.

What were the reasons for the lineup changes? Ronnie's vocals from Raped In Their Own Blood were very impressive...very deep, powerful and abrasive. Where did you find Jussi Linna? I'm curious to hear his style. I imagine you are going to receive comparisons, because Ronnie really does have a great voice...
Tobias: The reason why Thomas left the band was because he moved to Gothenburg to study. In the beginning it worked out for him to travel all the way from Gothenburg to Forshaga (where we rehearse), but it only lasted for a short while. His studying took more of his time and he didn't want to become a brake for the band with him not participating on the rehearsals too often. So he decided to leave the band unfortunately. We still keep in touch with Thomas 'cause he's a great guy! Luckily Thomas friend (and ours as well) Erik asked us if he could play bass in Vomitory after Thomas leaving. So it was no doubt about it - Erik became the new bass player for Vomitory! Just a couple of months after Thomas left the band, Ronnie left too. He did that because he became more interested in playing heavy metal in his other band, Gehennah. We lost a very good death metal singer ("death metal traitors die - Raped In Their Own Blood"), but since we didn't get along with him so good at the end it was the best for both parts. Actually it was Jussi who found us through our "singer wanted" ad in our local music store. He called Urban up and since we didn't know him before we wanted to try him rehearsing with us a couple of times and hang out with him before we made any decisions. We found that he had a really powerful and deep voice that was a perfect or even better replacement for Ronnies voice. Actually Jussi was the first and only singer we tried. I'm sure people will compare Jussi to Ronnie, but I don't think that they will be disappointed, 'cause Jussi is a great growler.

So what's to expect from the new album? Still a fairly raw production?
Tobias: You can expect eight fast and brutal songs of skullcrushing death metal the old school way! The whole album has a better structure than our first album, 'cause the new songs are written in a shorter period of time. The songs on Raped... is written between 1992 and 1996. This album is also faster than our debut album. We recorded it in Berno Studio in Malmoe, Sweden. Other brutal bands that have recorded their stuff there are Seance, Deranged, Driller Killer, The Crown and Defleshed. It's a very good studio and the sound is of course a lot more powerful and brutal on Redemption than on Raped.... Remember that Raped... is recorded in a low budget studio with not that much equipment, and Berno is a real professional studio. We are very satisfied with the result.

How is Max doing? Can you tell him I said, "HI"?
Tobias: Max is fine. Isn't he an ugly motherfucker, eh?

We're at a point today within metal where every moron and his mom is putting a CD out. Full lengths, mini-CDs, demos, everything. While I am all for doing your own thing, I feel a lot of this stuff is uninspired and rehashed and it's coming from everywhere. It's more or less to the point of where pressing CD's has become cheaper than tapes. Imagine someday, due to software like Cakewalk and Sound Forge, etc becoming easy to find and internet technology getting faster & such, bands will be emailing mp3's of their demos to labels and e'zines left and right. Whatever will become of tape trading and the "underground"??? I don't mean to condemn technology entirely, but I think it takes much more work and dedication to put a lot of time and money into your band/project vs. any guy with a computer making mp3's of some stuff and spreading it around online. I'm not talking about actual music, either...there are some great individuals who work in the latter respect. The main point is about all these sheep...they will follow any new trend/way to get their shit out there...
Tobias: I fully agree that there's too much shit being released these days. Look at the '70's. The guys in those bands back then had to be pretty good instrumentalists to get the labels attention. I don't claim that all bands from the '70's were good, I just mean that the average had a much higher quality than the average of today. Today you only need, as you say, a computer, enough money or very good self-confidence to put any crap on vinyl, CD or whatever! Talent has become of less importance and image plays a bigger part, and that sucks! Everybody wants quality, right? I do anyway. E-mailing music instead of trading tapes is a natural development I think. It's in this direction it's proceeding, and concerning the "underground" I can only say that in my eyes there is no "underground" anymore. What is "underground" today? I don't know. Anyway, if there's anybody who wants true death metal that has been created through blood, sweat, tears and beer, buy Vomitory's new album Redemption! And for all those that aren't familiar to Vomitory - buy our debut album Raped In Their Own Blood also!!