Not too long ago Anders Jakobson of Sweden's NASUM contacted us, to find out whether "Shit" was just a spelling error or our honest opinion on the new NASUM album "Shift"... Well, this embarassing little mistake was corrected right away of course (as we definitely do not consinder the album as shitty), but at the same time we both decided on a fresh interview about his time in NECRONY (not knowing about the Poserslaughter "Classic Remasters" series at the time yet), which in the end took a little longer than expected, but here's the result, which should easily make up for the delay! To stop possible rumors right from the start, NECRONY have not reformed or anything, this is just a tribute to another excellent band that in our opinion ceased to exist way too early! In order not to ask some of the historical questions twice, yet to come up with as many information as possible anyway, we simply added our classic NECRONY interview from VOICES FROM THE DARKSIDE's 7th print issue at the end of this feature as well. Enjoy!
 
What have you been up to since our last interview, way back in 1996? Keeping yourself busy with NASUM exclusively or have there also been times in which you felt the desire to play the old NECRONY material again?
"Well, it was more or less 100% NASUM for me from 1997 - 98 and to this day following the deal with Relapse and proper album recordings and tours. I confess I have thought of NECRONY sometimes – quite a lot a couple of years ago when I got in touch with Dr Fairbanks of THE COUNTRY MEDICAL EXAMINERS and he paid his respect to NECRONY as an inspiration and I listened to their stuff and liked it and was inspired to get together with Rickard again and do something, but we never came to it. Maybe one day?"
Have you ever regretted your decision to split up the band so early? What actually were the exact reasons to throw in the towel back then?
"I am sad that we never came to record a second album because I think it would have been great. I speak more about the songs we had later in this interview. The split up was mainly a matter of all of us losing the energy at the same time, which probably had to do with our bad experiences from the tour and the lack of interest from bigger record labels after the promo tape. We probably gave up too early with the record label thing, but at that point all the energy just slipped away. Too bad. I know the other members started a new Metal band without me shortly there after, which felt really strange then, but nothing came out of that band."
Your old company, Poserslaughter Records, has just released a NECRONY retrospective CD entitled "Poserslaughter Classic Remasters", that features the "Pathological Performances" album, the "Necronycism: Distorting The Originals" cover CD, the "Mucu-Purulent Miscarriage" 7" EP and two songs off your "Severe Malignant Pustule" demo... How do you feel about this whole project? Do you think it came out good, especially when it comes to the remastering...? You haven't been involved in the whole process, have you?
"I’ve been asked over the years about a NECRONY discography CD and I have always said that I didn’t see that as a possibility, mainly because most of our stuff has a pretty low standard. We were very young when we did the demo (15 - 17 years old) and compared to what the guys in ENTOMBED did at the same age it was like different worlds. I was frankly ashamed of our stuff. It felt old and tired and should stay underground. I thought of the idea of putting everything up on the internet for a free download. In the end of July 2005 I got an email from Poserslaughter which basically said: "We need your address to send some free copies of a new NECRONY press. We heard that a Brazilian label was planing a bootleg so we did a small press of 500 copies.“ Allright, I thought, people have been bugging me for copies of the album for years so it might be good to have a small press for those who want it. Little did I know that a few days later I would get a package with a completely new NECRONY disc with more stuff than the album on it! I was very disappointed to see this abuse of my stuff, because I was not asked about this project or involved in it in any way. If I had been asked in advance I would probably had said no because that has been my general standpoint for a long time (and I guess Poserslaughter knew this), but maybe I could have been persuaded to do it and contribute with lots of stuff to make a better product. It’s pretty obvious that the point with the collection is to cram 90 minutes of music on the disc, since Poserslaughter have used material they don’t own or have the rights to. Poserslaughter paid for the studio recordings of the CD and the MCD, so I guess they have the rights to those recordings. They released the 7“ but did not pay for the recording so that one is ours and the demo is DEFINITELY ours. I think it’s pretty bad that they have put the demosongs on it. Poserslaughter acted to beat some bootleggers and they ended up with bootlegging stuff themselves. It could have been a pretty cool double disc with the complete demo, the promo demo, the CARCASS cover, a DISCHARGE cover we recorded at the same time as the CD which until now only have appeared on a comp tape, and a remix of 'Multilocular...' that Dan Swanö did many years ago. All that stuff would have been the "ultimate collection", but the NECRONY fans will never see that. Instead they will have this unsatisfying product. I realise now, after recieving a few copies of the DEAD collection which has the exact same type of cover and same type of features, that it is a series of releases (I wonder if there will be a REGURGITATE collection – they would not like that!) and that actually put the whole thing in another perspective. I am not that upset anymore, but I am disappointed of how this collection came together behind my back."
How did you actually end up having a flute (!) on some of the songs on the "Pathological Performances"? Were you trying to break boundaries, just like AT THE GATES did with a violine in the early days? In retrospect: do you think it worked?
"The flute totally works, the jazzguitar doesn’t! The guy who played the flute was in another band I was playing with at the time so I guessed it could be a nice addition to the album. There’s flute in two songs – the intro to 'Accumulation Of Exudate' has a backwards flute and 'Acute Pyencephalus And Cerebral Decomposure' has a flute playing the melody. I think it sounds really cool when the "real“ instruments join the melody and when the flute plays over the doublebass drums it sounds really, really cool."
Do you know what happened to Ola Larsson? Is he still doing artwork these days?
"We lost contact after the NECRONY years. Later I met someone who knows him and he told me the Ola had gotten a lenghty comic published in a Swedish comicbook called "Swedish Comics“ and a while later I actually found that book and read the story. According to the book it was the longest story they had ever published and apparently they had asked Ola to cut it down with 15 pages or something! I don’t know what Ola does today but I guess he still got a steady grip on his pens!"
Tell us a bit more about the original idea to name the cover CD "Flesh Ripping Carcass Rip Off" and why you went for a different title and artwork in the end...
"I think it started with a CARCASS sticker that I had gotten somewhere. It had the classic artwork from CARCASS’s demo "Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment“ with the title written at the bottom. I guess I had some time to kill so I managed to put the NECRONY logo over the CARCASS logo and then change "Sonic Torment“ to "CARCASS Rip-off“ just for the fun of it. It turned out pretty good and we thought it was artwork for a cover 7“ EP. I can’t remember if we made the art before we had the idea of doing a cover 7“ EP or after, but never mind. We had been in touch with a German label called Slaughter Records who was run by some really young guy, so young that his mother had to sign the contract for some release he did. The guy was very excited about everything and promised this and that. I remember he wanted to sign us for an album but I think we kind of decided to start with the 7“ EP and see what would happen. A lot of people, among others members of DARK TRANQUILLITY who he had released an 7“ EP with, recommended us not to work with him, and in the end we decided to go with Poserslaughter instead and upgraded the cover EP to a MCD since we had so many songs to cover. I don’t remember how we ended up with the "Necronycism: Distorting The Originals“ idea, but it was better and the cover became funnier and quite well executed I think."
What I found pretty unusual was the fact that you never ever recorded ANY of your songs twice... I mean, most bands are re-recording their demo and / or EP tracks for albums in order to please the demand of the fans or simply to show how those songs have improved ever since their first recordings... Why didn't you do so? I doubt that people did NOT ask you for that, so...
"I remember that when we started writing songs for "Pathological Performances“ we were thinking of re-recording the B-side of the 7“ – 'Multilocular Morphea-Sarcoblasters', but as we begun writing we soon had enough new material to fill the album. I also remember that we asked Poserslaughter to release a 7“ from the album with a remixed version of 'Gynopathological Excav-eater' (due to a simple mistake that didn’t make a difference to the song) and suggested to have a re-recording of 'Multilocular...' on the B-side. We never came to do this since Dan Swanö already had erased the master tapes and I can’t remember what Poserslaughter thought about this suggestion. In hindsight it probably was best that it didn’t happen – it could have been really strange to have the same song as a B-side (although different recordings) on two singles! I also remember that when we were planning the "Flesh Ripping CARCASS Rip-off“ 7“ the original idea was to have a few covers, one new song and a re-recording of 'Pus Bonum...' from the demo, but the same thing happened there – we found too many covers to do instead of re-recordings."
Are you aware of the fact that there's also a NECRONY bootleg CD(-R) around, entitled "Under The Mucu-Purulent Pustule", that features the two-song promo demo from 1993 / '94, the 7" EP, the complete 1991 demo and your contribution to the CARCASS tribute CD? What do you think of this and bootlegs in general?
"I’m not aware of it, but the title is fucking marvelous! Haha! Well, I would have been surprised that there wasn’t a bootleg of some sort available, but seriously speaking: a CD-R is hardly a "real“ bootleg! Anyone can burn a CD these days! Regarding bootlegs in general – I have my share of ANTHRAX and CARCASS bootlegs in my collection and sometimes when I go through my collection I stop to wonder why the hell I spent so much money on stuff that is more or less bad (haha, same experiences here - Frank). The problem with bootlegs is that the quality of everything is so bad – the sound, the artwork, the tracklists (that often are completely wrong) and so on. I’ve been fearing NASUM bootlegs over the years just because of the reasons above. And I think the idea of someone doing money on crappy products is kind of irritating. Bootlegs – if anything – should be free of charge, and with the age of the internet it is. That’s much better!"
Talking of the CARCASS tribute... Did you exclusively get together again to be able to record a track for that? Tell us a bit more about how it all came together...
"Yes, it was a two day reunion – one day for rehearsals and one day in the studio! It started with an invitation to the tribute sent to NASUM and I think I talked to Matt of EXHUMED who really wanted to include one of the NECRONY recordings and when I talked to Rickard he thought it would be fun to do a new recording, so we did it. The interesting thing with this recording is that I play the drums and Rickard does all the guitars and vocals (although it says something else in the booklet) – just the opposite from the old days. We picked out the song together and just recorded it without being 100% serious so the result is a little bit sloppy, but that goes very well with how NECRONY sounded in the 90s. It was fun to dig up the corpse for a little while."
The two songs off your promo tape were also released as a picture disc shortly after... Tell us a bit more about that and how it all came together, ok?
"Oh man... OK – it was like this: one day I got a phone call from Volkmar Weber (now at Rock Hard) who said that he wanted to release our old promo tape as a picture 7“ EP in 500 copies. I guess I talked to Rickard about it, but it felt like a cool thing, since the songs were good and I had never released a picture disc with any of my bands, so it was a nice addition to the personal collection. I took our old DAT master to Mieszko and we polished the sound slightly, and I went to my artistic friend Robert who helped me with the artwork for the two sides of the disc and sent the stuff to Volkmar. I can’t remember exactly what happened but a while later I was going by the ferry to Germany to play at Fuck The Commerce III (in 2000) and a guy on the ferry walks up to me and says he’s Volkmar’s partner and that the disc is finished and waiting at his home. Before that I’ve learned that they decided to do a 10“ instead of a 7“ which was totally fine – 10“ EPs are a cool format, and we had also decided that they should send 25 of the 50 free copies to Relapse because I felt that it would be hard to sell 50 copies. As I’m getting home I’m pretty sure that the nice German fellow is going to mail me our free copies soon, but nothing happens. One day I am visiting Dan Swanö who says he got our picture 10“ and shows it to me. My first reaction is that they have fucked up one of the artworks by adding – in a really bad way – the NECRONY logo without asking me about it. The whole idea with the artwork was to have two completely different sides where the NECRONY logo was substituteted with fonts that suited the feeling of the artwork. And my second reaction was of course – why has Dan Swanö a copy when I have none? I tried to contact Volkmar to ask him about these two issues and he replied in an email that he first of all wasn’t involved in the record label anymore, that it was the other guy (whose name escapes me) that was running the show. He also said that they had changed the artwork without having any thought of asking if it was OK and finally Volkmar promised to speak with the other guy about the free copies. Now the story gets nasty and I’m not remembering all the details but I guess the other guy claimed he had sent the copies to me and Relapse and bla bla bla. It got pretty rough between us and finally one day I got 12 copies, which he claimed was the last copies and there was an angry note saying something like "Go ahead and call me a rip off it that makes your pathetic life any better...“ Nice guy indeed. This was probably early 2001 because during the summer that year I went to the US to play at Milwaukee Metalfest with NASUM and I talked to Tom from Relapse who was their mailorder boss at that time and I asked him if he ever got those 25 copies, and Tom said "No, and I even paid for them in advance“ (which wasn’t the deal). So in conclusion – what started as a cool thing ended as a big fucking rip-off. It’s as plain and simple as that. The story is probably different if you talk to Volkmar (who I’m not blaming for what it became) and the other guy, but from my point of view it’s simple: someone fucked up the artwork and sent only 12 of 50 free copies and managed to steal some money from Relapse at the same time."
You often mentioned that Germany had been the country in which NECRONY was most successful / popular in... Do you have any idea why? Do you still get any mail regarding NECRONY these days?
"Well, the obvious answer is because all the four NECRONY records were released by German record labels and many of those 752 demos went directly to Germany. I think I shipped a total of 200 demos to Poserslaughter records for retail so there’s a lot of NECRONY stuff in circulation in Germany.  don’t know what it was, but maybe it was something in the sound that appealed to the German Death / Grind freaks. I think the first encounter I had that made me think of it was when a guy asked to sing a song with us during that little tour we did in Germany 1994. But what really hit me was the first time NASUM played "for real“ (not counting the 1995 gig in Berlin) in Germany at Fuck The Commerce in 2000 and we met a guy who very loudly explained that NECRONY was his favorite band in the world. I couldn’t understand that it was possible. Then followed the first European tour for NASUM where I met a lot of NECRONY freaks with self made merchandise and everything. I wasn’t really interested in being an ex-member of NECRONY at that time – I was a now-member of NASUM and that was what I wanted to be. I remember meeting someone from HAEMORRHAGE in Spain who gave me their cover CD and said to me "Maybe next time we’ll do a NECRONY cover“ and I adviced him not to do it. He was very disappointed and in retrospect I feel really bad about this, but there are times in your life when you are more concerned about the present than the past. Since then I’ve seen NECRONY pins and stuff in distros and every now and then there’s a record out on eBay. The NECRONY-letters stopped coming to me a couple of years ago. I might have gotten an email asking for merchandise on occation but it’s been quite quiet lately."
In our last interview you asked people to send video tapes of the five shows you played in Germany in 1994... Have you ever got any response on that?
"Nope. Nothing actually. I know the Berlin gig was videotaped because that show came in circulation back in the 90s but I don’t even know if the other shows was videotaped."
Tell us a bit about the very early days of the band... How did everything start for you guys? Had you already been playing in other bands before you started NECRONY? Any names you can reveal? Don't hesitate to share your probably embarassing first musical steps with us here ;-)
"It was the golden year of 1990. I was playing the drums in a band called F.R.M.T. which was a crossover band with strange and funny lyrics in Sweden. One day a band moved in to our rehearsal room. My old friend from my skateboarding years Dan Wall was in the band along with Richard Alriksson. I think they called themselves DEATHMATIZED – some kind of made up word in English. Anyway, one day I was about to order some records from a mailorder and I talked to Dan if he would join in and he said that Rickard might be interested in ordering some stuff, so I called him and we made an order and stayed in touch. We realised that we shared an interest in Death Metal that my fellow musicians in F.R.M.T. didn’t have (and the band had split up at this point) so we decided to form a band. I had been forced to learn how to play the guitar to save a very bad grade in music in school so I became the bassplayer in this band which became NECRONY."
Who came up with the band's name and was there a deeper meaning in it for you?
"We decided early on for a "necro“ name and the first choise was NECROTOMY, but there was a magazine called that (and another band I guess) so we went for NECROGENIC instead but that wasn’t catchy enough. I then discoverd the word "crony“ and merged it with "necro“ thus getting NECRONY. The word could be interpretated as "deal companions“ – not that deep, right?"
Which other bands had the biggest impact on you at the time? Who are to blame for the existence of NECRONY and the style you came up with?
"Well, obviousy CARCASS was the biggest influence when it comes to the whole concept with medical lyrics and different voices, but we really never got hang of CARCASS’s style musically. Many people accused us for being CARCASS rip-offs ("NECRONY sounds exactly as CARCASS!“) and I always felt that wasn’t flattering for CARCASS... hehe! But we picked inspiration from all the Earache bands, the Florida bands and of course the Scandinavian bands. I liked CADAVER and BOLT THROWER alot. I don’t think it’s easy to compare NECRONY with any other band because we didn’t sound like the bands we picked inspiration from. I’m not telling you that I consider NECRONY being an original band, but the sound was a bit different in the scene."
In another interview you mentioned that 752 official copies of the first demo were made... How come you knew about the exact number and why didn't you do, for example 700, 750 or 1000?
"That is an odd number! The thing is – the demo was printed at a print firm for cassettes somewhere up north in Sweden. I have the reciepts somewhere so I could give you the exact editions. Anyway we started of with maybe 150 tapes or something and then did reprints and at some point they happened to send two extra copies. We have paid for 750 in total but got 752, so that’s how I know!"
How did you end up working with Dan Swanö as the producer of your stuff? Did you know each other before already? Was he the type of guy that you had in mind when you figured that Colin Richardson was probably not affordable? Or had there been other options as well maybe?
"We really wanted to be the first Swedish band that recorded something with Colin Richardson, but that was maybe a possibility for our third album or something. We did all our recording with Dan Swanö simply because we hadn’t any other options. Dan Swanö is actually responsible for us getting a "deal“ with Poserslaughter in the first place. I remember talking to him after he had been on some kind of promo trip for EDGE OF SANITY in Germany and he had talked with Peter Neuber who had told Dan that he had started a label and was looking for really brutal bands and Dan suggested NECRONY. I sent them a tape and we got the 7“ deal at once. It was almost too easy..."
Are there any NECRONY songs left, that you didn't release anymore due to the split-up? If so, tell us more about them (working titles and how they differed to the wellknown material)...
"Including the two songs on the promo (which was supposed to be a four song demo at first) I think we were working on maybe 10 songs in total. I can’t remember all of them now, but some I actually have rehearsal versions of. I think most people can judge by the stuff on the promo tape that NECRONY took a different direction both musically and lyrically after the cover MCD. That release put an end to the "gore“ era for NECRONY and we turned towards darked subjects in our lyrics and the music was not the old CARCASS thing anymore. Richard picked inspiration from Black Metal in his songwriting which didn’t appeal to me at the time, but it added something to the music that made it more of an own sound and some of the stuff that we wrote felt quite original in our view. I remember that 'Spawn Of The Infested' and 'In The Dark Closets Of Secrecy' where the titles to the two songs we were suppposed to record at the same time. I don’t remember the other titles, if there were any. One of our songs was an instrumental bit, quite PARADISE LOST inspirered (when PARADISE LOST played Death-Doom and not mainstream stuff like they do today) and I think we even played that one on the tour. Anyway, we had some really good stuff that would have been a good record. After the split up I had serious plans of getting some of my friends in the Swedish scene together and record my songs, but it never got further than to just plans."
Do you still have any NECRONY material available for sale, if people are interested?
"Well, I have the new collection for sale at a very decent price and I will give away free NECRONY stickers and posters with every order, so go to www.nasum.com for details!"

Here's the second part, which was originally published way back in 1996...

At the time when your debut album came out I was a little bit surprised that there's no old songs on it... Was it just because people can still get ahold of your demo and 7" or don't you like your older material anymore?
"Well both. At the time we didn't think the old material was good enough to be on the CD and besides that we also had alot of new songs. We felt that there was a 'night and day' difference between the old and new material. I don't know how big the difference is for a normal listener but for us playing that old stuff it's just too embarrasing! The music is so simple and the riffs suck big time and so on... We had big plans to include a re-recording of the B-side track of the 7" since it was our best track at that time but we were too productive and wrote so many new songs! Our oldest material is still available as you wrote, and if people wanna hear that stuff they are free to check it out, but I advice you to buy the CD instead..."
With the release of your 7" you had started to work with Poserslaughter Records and also with Ola Larsson as an artist... Did you get in touch with him through Poserslaughter or was it your own choice to work with him?
"No, we got in touch with him by ourselves. We had seen some of his stuff and thought that his style would suit our music, so I got ahold of his phone number and called him up. He was of course very interested in working with us and I told him that we wanted a picture of a doctor holding a not particulary fresh baby and a sort of ringformation for the backcover. My description of the doctor was very brief so when the stuff arrived I almost died by surprise! It vas so good! I don't regret working with Ola!"
He's got an incredible style and his artwork is amazing, so could you imagine to work with him on a permanent base, like (for example) MAIDEN did with Derek Riggs? Has he done stuff besides NECRONY?
"The first thing I saw drawn by Ola was the cover of TRAUMATIC's demo which was a cool but simple picture. Then I saw the cover picture of TRAUMATIC's 7" and then I knew he was the right artist for NECRONY! Besides NECRONY and TRAUMATIC he has vorked with FUNERAL FEAST (Ola played the drums for them on their first demo), LEUKEMIA (demo cover), CRIPPLE and INVERTED (t-shirt designs) and some stuff for a Swedish magazine called CLOSE-UP. Also I've seen alot of other stuff he's made, for example a science fiction comic that was really cool and an unbelievable cool draving of a middle age mortician's lab! Our work with Ola ended with the CD cover since the stuff we produced after it demanded another kind of artwork, but I'm pretty sure I will work vith him in the future although it was quite a long time since I spoke to him... Besides, Derek Riggs stopped working with IRON HAlDEN after the "Seventh Son..." album!"
Another person who's pretty heavy involved in the NECRONY work is Dan Swanö, who created a brilliant production on all of your releases... Could you imagine to work with someone else or is Dan the 3rd (real) member of NECRONY?
"Brilliant productions... well, I don't consider the production of the 7" having anything to do vith the word 'brilliant'! The production of the demo was ok, since it was recorded on a 4-tracker, but the 8-track recording of the 7" could have been much better. The CD is ok, I'd prefered much heavier guitars and the whole production of the MCD could have been heavier and better. The promo tape we recorded in December '93 is the only NECRONY recording I'm totally satisfied with. Our goal was to be the first Swedish band to record an album with the producer god Colin Richardson, but it was quite impossible. I think he is the only person we would have liked to record something with, but Dan Swanö is the producer for this kind of music in Sweden!"
As your music and lyrics are totally inspired by the almighty CARCASS, I was wondering if you were happy about them changing their style or do you miss the "Symphonies..." period... I mean, a lot of old CARCASS fans might be buying your stuff now instead, so...
"One thing I've learned during my time in the scene is to accept progression. I adore all the stuff CARCASS have ever produced, from the "Die In Pain" demo '85 to the "Heartwork EP" (although I sincerly hope that the new songs on the EP not show the style of CARCASS 5th album...). Honestly speaking, would it really been so great if CARCASS re-made "Symphonies..." on the 3rd and 4th album?! I don't think so. I think that all the people who complain about CARCASS' progression should listen to "Symphonies..." again, if it's the stuff you wanna hear. That's what I do when I miss that stuff. We've heard from time to time that our CD continued where "Symphonies..." ended and that is pretty hard for us to agree with since I don't consider our CD being compareable with a true masterpiece like "Symphonies..."."
When did you get the idea to record a cover CD and were you able to include all your favourite tracks on it or will there be a "Part II" sometime?
"The idea came up before the "Pathological..." CD was recorded. We were dealing with Slaughter / Exhumed Records about a MC / LP / CD and also about a 7" including some covers an old song and one specially written song. But we decided to do the CD with Poserslaughter and still doing the coverthing with Exhumed. Chris wanted it to be a MCD instead with 21 minutes of playing time and we agreed on that. But when it was time to think serious about the MCD we decided to do it on Poserslaughter since Exhumed was kind of 'untrustable' at the moment. So we did it and think it came out ok. We did think of making another cover MCD with 4 old Swedish Death Metal tracks, but it won't be done..."
Which songs would you have recorded?
"We thought of recording 'Torn Apart' (of course!), GRAVE's 'Extremely Rotten Flesh' and a NIHILIST track... maybe 'Severe Burns' in the "Drowned" version. And the 4th track? Not decided. It could have been a cool CD don't you think?" (it could for SURE! - Frank)
To get back to the first cover CD I'd like to know a little bit more about the origin of the cover and title, which was a really cool idea...
"From the beginning it was meant to be called "Flesh Ripping CARCASS Rip Off" and the cover was a wellknovn CARCASS picture that we'd re-arranged a bit, but when the thing developed into a MCD we threw that idea away. I don't remember exactly when and how we came up vith the idea of doing a parody of the "Necroticism..." concept, but firstly we thought of only having two of the four pictures. But at the time of shooting the pic, we decided to do all four. The 'Bill','Ken' and 'Jeff' pictures were taken outside our rehearsal place and the 'Mike' picture was taken at Rickard's home. That picture is almost TOO look-alike! The guy who printed the photos really thought it was the same picture as on the CARCASS sleeve! Anyway, we arranged the four photos on a steelbed at the local hospitals animal department where Rickard works from time to time and with alot of scissors, ketchup and weird body positions we managed to get ONE good picture out of 24! Really unbelievable! I hope everybody thinks the cover is as good as we do..."
Would you like to comment on each of the tracks and why you decided to include them instead of others?
"Eh... okay! 'Fermenting Innards' - this was the first track I managed to pick out in my entire life and I really thank the unreleased second PEEL SESSION of CARCASS for that. Since the tones were a bit easier to hear on that version. It's probably the best track on "Reek Of Putrefaction" and it has alvays meant a lot to us. 'Swarming Vulgar Mass...' - it's the only track on "Symphonies..." that hasn't got a guitarsolo (!) and besides it's a great song with awesome lyrics. Stevo of IMPETIGO helped me to pick this one out and he actually wrote it down on paper for me! The last melody isn't completely right though... it was a bit too tricky for my ears but I think it came out good anyway, especially the vocals. 'Die In Pain' - it's a classic what else can I say?! 'Mucupurulence Excretor' - also known as 'Face Meltaaargh' on the first demo. It's one of the anonymous tracks on "Reek..." since it was excluded on the "Symphonies..." CD. Also it has the most advanced and extreme lyrics on "Reek..." and it totally rules! 'Dis-organ-ized' - a classic, so simple but yet so great! Stevo wrote this down for me as well and even though IMPETIGO didn't inspire us so much, we did the song 100%! 'Bodily Dismemberment' - REPULSION are truely the most legendary Gorecore band and excluding them on a NECRONY cover record would have been a catastrophy! 'Festering Boils' - the original recording of this track is so extreme. A pounding bass just grinds and you don't have a clue if it's a fast or slov song until the drum, begins. This kind of effect inspired us in the song 'Gynopathological...' on our CD. This song also includes the best vocals Rickard ever had done in NECRONY! 'Cenotaph' - BOLT THROWER meant a lot to me during the time after our 7" and this track is exactly like 'Dis-organ-ized', simple yet great. I just wished we had heavier guitars... 'Lucid Fairytale', 'The Kill' and 'Deceiver' - old NAPALM DEATH is the leading band when it comes down to true Grindcore. A big inspiration. 'The Day Man Lost' - imagine how nice the Death Metal scene would have been if the true CARNAGE had continued after the "Infestation Of Evil" demo, recorded an album with Johan on vocals and Mike on guitars and NOT developed into DISMEMBER? Wow, I'd like to see that..."
Was it a pleasure for you to work with Johan (and Stevo) finally? It seems you admire both people alot... 
"Working with Johan on the CD was kind of a dream come true actually. At that time he was our favourite Death Metal vocalist - just listen to the live-7" with CARHAGE - it rules! Can you imagine that Fred Estby didn't want him to sing so deep on the "Infestation..." demo? Fred wanted more light vocals like L.G. - horrible! Johan was as nice as we'd wished and he worked with us on totally idealistic basis, we only paid his travelling expences. It was great. It's just so sad, that he's so nice that he kicked himself out of FURBOWL a while ago. Too bad! Stevo is one of the greatest underground persons around and I'm happy knowing him, although it was a REALLY long time since he wrote me (where are you?). I'm very thankful for the stuff he helped us
with for the MCD."
Tell us a little bit about the Germany tour you did and which other members you brought along for it...
"The line-up was not temporary and the new members we had were: Daniel Andersson (bass), maybe to some known as the bassplayer in a techno Death band from Orebro called MANIFREST and Johan Brandt (guitar) - previously unknown in the underground. The tour was arranged by Stefan Hanus of FLESHCRAWL and big thanks to him for all the good work. The first NECRONY gig EVER(!) was at a sort of youth place in Verden outside Bremen. On the soundcheck I broke one of my strings so I couldn't tune my guitar properly during the gig. The sound was awful and the audience was lame so the first NECRONY gig ever turned out as a total mistake. I'm so embarrased that you Frank have been there... but as Leif told me: "At least you played 'The Day Man Lost'!" The second gig vas in a really rough place in Eastern Germany, in Senftenberg to be exact. That gig we played more relaxed even though we were totally out of tune. We also met Peter Neuber (Poserslaughter Records) for the first time and that was fun. The people were very nice and we got alot of things for free. Next day we drove a really long way down to Illertissen and met the FLESHCRAWL guys who were really nice (by the way Leif, I remembered to say 'Weißwurst' to them!). The gig was in Bad Wörichshofen at a really cool Rock Club called U2. The gig went well and we sold alot of stuff. It was cool. Next day we could finally rest for a while, before we went to a little place called Stetten which was also a cool place. Unfortunately the PA arrived too late so we had to play a shortened gig as the second act, which was bad because we performed at our best this evening. Finally, we went to Berlin and performed at the Knaack Club. Like the first gig, the sound was terrible and I broke a string again, so we had to stop the gig. The tour could have ended a more better way... Anyway, looking back on those intense 5 days we really had a good time and most of the people we met were nice and I don't regret doing the tour. I hope we didn't disappoint all the German 'fans'! I would also like to say that all of you who took pictures of us or videotaped us to send copies of the stuff or at least contact us so we can buy the stuff from you - it would mean alot to us!"
As NECRONY is a band that's heavily connected to the oldschool of Death Metal, I would like to hear your comments on the new and 'improved' styles within the scene such as Gothic, Industrial or melodic Death...
"It's so strange that when a new branch on the Death Metal tree emerges EVERYBODY has to climb it! Some years ago, AT THE GATES introduced a new kind of guitar oriented Death Metal and at once all new bands in Sweden played the stuff. Now, all new bands play this stuff with a little touch of Black Metal and the oldschool type of bands are easily counted. The bigger bands (ENTOMBED, GRAVE, AT THE GATES etc.) develop their stuff but the small bands just follow the trend. Sadly, NECRONY was influenced by the movements in the scene which lead into a difference in our musical direction and into the death of the band. I'm afraid that if we'd continued people had been really confused hearing our stuff. Onto your question then: I'm of course open for development in the Death Metal scene and it's always interesting to hear something new, but I just wished that smaller bands not always followed the bigger bands in their footsteps. I hope it'll survive for some more years!"
What can we expect from you guys in the future?
"As far as NECRONY goes... nothing since we split! But I'm sure you will see our names here and there in the future anyway. Me and Rickard are still involved in the Grindcore band NASUM whose goal is to save the dying Grindcore scene. Our first releases, a split 7" with AGATHOCLES and REALLY FAST Vol. 9 (a Swedish HC compilation LP where we perform 9 tracks!) were released last autumn / winter. The 1st of September we were in Unisound and recorded 16 tracks for a new split - 7" (this time with PSYCHO) and for a compilation MCD. Both releases will be out now. In November '94 we visited another studio and recorded a demo but it didn't turn out so good and some weeks ago we recorded an 18 track MCD in Unisound to be released by Poserslaughter. It became very good. It's called "Industrislaven" and I advice all you true oldschool Grindcore fans to check it out (and all our other stuff as well). Me and Rickard have also plans to start playing real oldschool Death Metal (à la GRAVE, CARNAGE...) but who knows if we will?! I will probably record my last 4 NECRONY songs with Dan Swanö sometime this year! I will do the stuff by myself with programmed drums. If it will be released it will not be under the name NECRONY, that's for sure! The reason I do this is because I don't wanna waste songs! Otherwise I don't knov what you'll hear from us..." (there's also a project of Anders and Dan Swanö called ROUTE NINE. They have recorded a 7" and two demos so far... check 'em out! - Frank) 
Anything else you'd like to express?
"Yes, I'd like to state out my thanks to all those in this scene who have supported us during the years of our existing. All the zine editors, comp. tape guys (although we can't say we're satisfied with your work - too many rip offs in that scene), all the normal people who bought our stuff. We hope we've given you some entertainment with our music! I'd also like to thank all the 'fans' in Germany (which out of the question is the country that we are most popular in) for the great support. All of you who came to our gigs on the tour and the gig organizers. You've meant alot to us and we have learned a lot bv being in the scene for those four years. You are always free to write us and your letters will always be answered if there's an IRC in the envelope. If you want our last recording, the promo '93 / '94, just send me a blank tape and 2 IRC's. Big thanks to you Frank (and Leif) for this interview which I will see as the last official NECRONY interview - thanks for everything!"

Frank Stöver

Back