Hi Ola, it’s the 2nd time for you to get interviewed from me and Voices From The Darkside, how does this feel?
“Oh, you like me! You really like me! Um… with that little Sally Field moment out of the way I can say that I am very honored that you find that much interest in a bum like me. It’s a great site and I have to be honest that I’m also damn happy about that some people that would never know about the show will do that thanks to you and Voices From The Darkside. So, I’m honored and grateful.”

What are you up to these days? Anything special to mention?
“To be honest, I am not doing that much these days… never did that back in the day either. Spending a lot of time working on the shows and the station and my band. As I’m a damn lazy bastard this is of course the only way for me to live… taking it damn easy and do some fun stuff now and then.”

Not all of the readers will be familiar with your name so please introduce yourself to the Voices readers and tell some introducing words about your current projects DARKNESS DESCENDS and MONDO KAOS on www.solarfall.com!
“Well, my name is Ola Sjöberg and I am a dumb Swede who’s managed to stay alive for 34 years on this planet. I used to play in a band called GOD MACABRE (MACABRE END) back in 1988 to 1992 and since 1993 I am singing and playing guitar in a garage rock band called SPACE PROBE TAURUS. DARKNESS DESCENDS is my way of going back in time and play the stuff I was so heavily into in the 80s and early 90s. I used to be a Thrash Metal kid and when I first heard Death Metal my love moved over to that as well… so, the show is about the wonderful Thrash of the 80s and Death Metal of the late 80s and early 90s. With some Black Metal from the same era thrown in there as well… not so much though. MONDO KAOS is a must for a Swede as it’s all about Crust Punk and Grindcore. I don’t think you can call yourself a Swede if you don’t love Crust Punk… and back in my Death Metal days, Crust Punk was always there as well and even GOD MACABRE were in a way influenced by that scene as well. We played what I call D-Beat Death Metal as the D-Beat was always important. And the biggest local following we had were among the Punks, so this is a genre that is close to my heart.”

Let’s start with some words about www.solarfall.com. Since when is this station working? What about their other shows and what’s your profession there besides your 2 shows and how does this arrangement look like?
“The station is on its 12th season now (I’ve been part of it since February 2006), so it’s a station that has been around for a long time. At the moment we have circa 10-15 shows with just as many different DJs and although most of the shows concentrate on Death, Thrash and Black Metal you can hear a lot of other different extreme Metal genres there as well. At the moment we have shows running 4 days a week, with a music mix / show requests on the other three days. The thing I do besides my shows for the station is being the contact person for the DJs, the one who manages the myspace site and the one who is in contact with bands and labels for the station. I am not sure what title I have; I do know I have one though ; -). If someone writes Solarfall the chance is big that it’s me who will answer them.”

Is www.solarfall.com a professional radio station or is this just for the fun of it?
“Well, I would say that it’s a station that does this for the love of the music, but does so professionally. It’s not a station that gets money from labels, adverts or something like that though… we don’t earn any money on this and all of us DJs are working on the station as we love music. Spar, who started the station and is the DJ of the show “Aural Onslaught”, started it all because of her love for this kind of music and she has then been lucky enough to find likeminded people to join her on the station.”

Considering all shows on www.solarfall.com which is the most popular one?
“This is hard to say as all of the shows have their core of listeners and all of the shows get regular requests from the listeners. But, I would think that METALENEMA is a very popular show as it mixed music with two DJs doing a lot of talking in between the music… Lots of weirdness and craziness and it’s just damn fun to listen to.”

One of the 2 shows you’re responsible for is called MONDO KAOS. Please tell what it is all about! Sorry for keeping MONDO KAOS aside, but the focus should be here on your Death Metal show, but still take the opportunity to praise this one.
“Oh, MONDO KAOS should be put aside in an interview on this webzine anyway ; -). MONDO KAOS is my way of being able to play one hour of Crust Punk, D-Beat, Grindcore and fast Hardcore every week. As I only play stuff from the 80s and early 90s in Darkness Descends I can never have any new music to play as everything I play on that show has been released. But, on MONDO KAOS I am able to keep up with the latest releases and play a lot of brand new stuff for the listeners. At times I am able to play stuff that hasn’t been release yet and I love doing that. The first plans for me doing radio shows on Solarfall was just me doing one called MONDO KAOS that would contain what both MONDO KAOS and DARKNESS DESCENDS now contains. But, I felt it would be weird mixing all these genres so I split the show up in two making one Punk and one Metal one… and I think it all worked out for the best.”

Your other show DARKNESS DESCENDS, and the one this interview will deal about, is all about oldschool Death, Black and Thrash Metal from the 80s and early 90s. Please explain why you decided to set yourself these limits!
“The thing about the music only being from the 80s and early 90s is because those are the only years I really know about when it comes to these genres. I started listening to Thrash Metal in the mid 80s and then Death Metal in the late 80s and up until I left it all behind me for some years in 1993. So, I decided to stick with what I know and I have the feeling that more people than me dig that I only stay within these time limits. The reason I decided to go with Death, Thrash and Black Metal is that I used to be a Thrash metal kid, then a Death Metal dude and Black Metal was always there as well starting with VENOM and later with BATHORY. So, this is what I know and I felt that there are a lot of other shows on the station that play more recent music and I wanted to do something that stuck out a little among the other shows.”

How does it feel to have an own radio show?
“It feels great as I was always the kind of person who wanted my friends to hear this or that record or demo… I mean, I probably bored them so much by always bringing new music on tapes to play wherever we were. And to have these shows it’s the same thing, really… just in a bigger scale. I still get to pester people with the music I love so damn much and it’s even more fun when I see that people dig what I do.”

Imagine we were still in the year 1990 and someone tells you to have 15-17 years later a radio show playing Death Metal from these days. What would you tell this person?
”I would probably wonder what he smoked earlier that day… but, the thought would probably have been very intriguing and I wouldn’t have written it off totally. But, back then you never thought something like this could ever happen… internet wasn’t around in the way it is today and I would probably never have thought that anyone could do radio shows (which I am a good example of).”

Who came up with the idea of the show? And why do you think you are predestined for this job (knowing that you won’t like to hear something like that, but you know what I mean)?
“I was asked by the station’s owner Spar at myspace as she had seen a list of my favorite music and she liked what she saw. She didn’t know if I even could do a radio show, but she had faith in me and wanted me to do this. I was extremely hesitant at first as I thought that I could never do something like this and it probably took 4-5 months after she first asked me before I started making the shows. Ok, I won’t huff and puff about not feeling like I am predestined about anything then… what I can say is that I feel that maybe my love for this music and me being an extreme music geek was what was needed for me to be able to do this.”

Why did you choose the name DARKNESS DESCENDS? Your show deals from what I can judge mostly with Scandinavian Death Metal so wouldn’t a name like “CONSUMED BY DARKNESS” more suitable? Got the hint?
“Well, first the show was meant to be called MONDO KAOS and contain oldschool Death, Thrash and Black Metal PLUS Crust Punk, Grindcore etc etc etc. But, as I felt I didn’t want to mix those genres I left the MONDO KAOS name for the Punk show and had to think like an idiot about a name for the Metal show… I have always loved the DARK ANGEL album “Darkness Descends” and I felt it would be a good name of the show as it tells what will happen… Darkness will come with the show ; -). My initial thought about the show was that it would contain circa a third Death Metal, a third Thrash Metal and a third Black Metal, so it was never meant to be the almost exclusive Death Metal show it is today. It’s just that my main love took over everything. DARKNESS DESCENDS was also a tribute to my old Thrash Metal days and that it was the first more extreme Metal music I got into back when I was like 12 years old. Oh, and I would never use anything from my old band like that.”

The show will be broadcasted at Sunday – 10:00 PM to 12:00 AM plus a rebroadcast on Friday – 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. I need to say that we are talking about the Central American time zone. This might for sure not be really suitable for persons living in Europe. Are there plans to make it available for other time regions, too?
“Well, as I am such a slow person to reply to interviews this has happened while you waited for the interview to come back. The show airs twice on Sundays now and four times on Fridays so people in different time zones will be able to listen to the show when it airs on the station.”

For all out there who are not able to listen to the shows live and also for the others the shows are now available as free download at www.myspace.com/mondodarkness or on www.solarfall.com pretty close after the broadcasting. I’m sure this increased the interest in your show a lot? How is the response so far and where are most of your listeners located? From where do you get the most feedback?
”Yeah, the downloading has increased interest in the shows a lot as it gives more people the means to be able to listen to the shows, and more importantly, whenever they want and wherever they want. I noticed that after the shows were put up on the pages so people could download them I started to get a lot more response from people, so that’s great. The response is really good, I am blown away at how many that are being so damn positive about the shows… I mean, sure… I play some damn great music and all, but some are even mentioning my DJ’ing and that’s just weird. The feedback is from all over the world so there is not one special country or anything, but most of the feeback comes from Europe.”

DARKNESS DESCENDS is (your words) “120 minutes filled to the brim with Death, Thrash and Black Metal, though mainly Death Metal”. Please explain which type of songs will be played on your show? What is the criteria to be broadcasted?
”Well, first of all it’s all about oldschool Death, Thrash and Black Metal so the first criteria is that the recordings should be from the 80s and the early 90s. I’ve made 1993 the last year I play from mostly because that was the year I left the scene behind me. I don’t know that much about bands and recordings that came after that to be honest, so I am taking the safe route. Now and then I do break my own rules, but where’s the fun being the dictator of my own show if I can’t break my own rules now and then? I’m playing anything from demo tracks, 7” EPs, 12” EPs, albums etc… I am not too picky when it comes to sound quality as long as you can hear that it’s music… This might be me being damaged from my years as a tapetrader as I can enjoy good music even with a crappy quality. Although I don’t think I have played anything with a bad sound quality yet.”

Where do you get all these recordings from? Many of the demos are available on CD now, but what about the other demo recordings from bands as NIRVANA 2002, CREMATORY or UNCANNY just to mention a few? Do you have to sort out some of the stuff you got because of the sound quality?
“I have gotten a couple of demo recordings from friends, some I have the originals of from the good old days… But, a lot of the guys in these old bands have put up their music on webpages for people to download from and I have done a lot of that. I also download a lot of these old demos from Direct Connect, which is more like the old tape trading thing. I’ve been in touch with traders and have traded for demos with old GOD MACABRE / MACABRE END rehearsals and live recordings and stuff like that… There is always a way to find these old demo recordings. There have been a couple of demos that I haven’t played due to the sound quality. The “Rot In Hell” rehearsal demo with the Norwegian band VOMIT is one of those… even though I have a remastered version of this reh. / demo the sound quality is too bad for me to use. There are some like that, but I am always on the lookout for better quality versions.”

I wonder how you manage that the sound quality of this old demo stuff is in this amazingly good soundquality? As an old tape trader I can remember that some of the stuff back then was hardly possible to listen to (which was called “cult” back then, haha)…
“As I said in the last answer… a lot of these old bands have put up their old demos on webpages for people to download and those are taken from the original tape, so the quality is always great on those. Then I’ve been lucky to trade or get from friends recordings with a good quality… yeah, and found some on DC++”

I wonder if there are some bands and songs left which you want to play but can’t because you don’t have the songs in your collection or with a sound quality which makes it impossible to play. Could you name some of these?
“There are probably a lot, but I have probably forgotten most of them by now… The only demo I can think of at the moment that I really would love to play tracks from (except for the VOMIT reh. / demo) would be the “God Died On His Knees” demo by INCUBUS from Florida… A great demo, but the version I have is barely listenable and I wouldn’t play it on the show.”

How’s the interest in your show from the printing media? How many interviews did you answer before this one?
“Well… you are the only one who has shown this kind of interest… I think the show mostly cater to the oldschool fanatics that just listen to the music and don’t work with it in any way. I have a good following for the show, but it’s not THAT big. I mean, I’m no internet radio star ; -)).”

Do you think you run out of songs in the future – the situation is clear, there won’t be any new songs, haha!
“That was one of my reasons why I felt that this show couldn’t be on the air more than maybe a year when I started doing it. The thing is that there are so many great recordings from this time that I think I will never run out of songs… even if there will never be any new songs. And hell, I can play a song more than once as well, you know. Since the change from 90 to 120 minutes I play circa 23 songs in each show, and that’s just 92 songs per month. Not that much considering that at the moment I have circa 750 recordings (demos / records) in the DD database. And if my math doesn’t suck too much (which I know it does), that means I could make the show for 8 months before even having to go back and play a second song from one of the recordings. And I always find out new bands from the time that I either have forgotten about or never knew existed, so the database with songs are growing still.”

From time to time you also play songs from newer releases like songs from EVOCATION’s new album “Tales From The Tomb” (which truly deserves it) and others. Why do you play these bands and why not stuff from the newer releases of other oldschool bands like DISMEMBER, UNLEASHED, ENTOMBED, MORBID ANGEL or OBITUARY to mention just a few?
“I decided to play songs from the new EVOCATION album because it was their first album and the first recordings since the good old days. Those other bands you mentioned have released albums all through the years (well, OBITUARY took a break) and have never been gone from the scene. EVOCATION was such a great demo band that sadly quit much too early and I felt it was a good reason to play new songs with them. I love some of those other bands, but in all honesty I don’t think it’s such a big deal when they release a new album compared to a band like EVOCATION.”

Where’s the limit of your show?
“If you mean when I think it’s time to quit as there just are no more songs to play I am not sure… I could go on for a long time with this as I just love going through all these old recordings and get a whiff of yesterday so to speak… I hope I will do this for many years more.”

In this case do you get annoyed with a lot of free promo stuff which you should play? What do you think about that?
”I do get a bunch of that, but it doesn’t annoys me. As I’m part of a radio station that has a whole bunch of other shows I can give that stuff to the shows that cater to those bands instead. So, both the bands get happy and the other DJ’s get happy. I can get annoyed though when there are bands that keep writing and asking me why I won’t play them on my show even though I have told them over and over that it’s only about oldschool stuff. And I am not that much into a band today saying that they play “Swedish oldschool Death Metal” and mean that it should make me want to play them…”

How’s the response at all, how many listeners / downloads do you have per show and do you think it’s successful?
“The response has been quite overwhelming considering what I think of what I do myself. I am pretty much blown away at how positive people are when it comes to the show… of course it’s because I do play some damn great music on it, but some mention my DJ parts as well and that’s just not right… : -). I’m not sure how many listeners I have for each show, but it’s a whole bunch. The main thing is the downloads though, which I don’t know how many it is either. Most people download the show and I get a lot of mail from people appreciating what I do. I hear about people who download the show and then burn it on CD-Rs and spread those among their friends… I love stuff like that and it reminds me a little bit of the old tape trading scene. Spreading the music to friends like that.”

How do you see the future of DARKNESS DESCENDS?
“I think it will be around for quite some time still… I just made show number 62 and I am right now shooting for show number 100 (which will be sometime next summer) and after that I will just shoot for the next big number. That’s a big thing for me who never thought it would survive show number 5 or something. I also hope to have some friends doing specials for the show, something that was planned for early this year but had to be postponed for later. I’m also planning for some other specials coming up… There’s still so much to do.”

Since number 26 you are also moderating the show. What was the reason for it to start telling stuff about the songs, bands or any strange underground-behavior?
“Well, the reason it took me so long was that I was DJ:ing on Mondo Kaos from day one (and the shows have been made together from the start) and I just felt it was too much talking there in the beginning as this was all so new to me. My self esteem when it comes to talking on the shows aren’t that big and two shows at the same time was just too damn much… but, after a while I felt that I wanted to do something more with DD as that was really my baby of the two shows (I know you’re not supposed to have a favorite child, but I have… ; -)). I mostly just go through what I just played and stuff like that, so it’s not like I’m this real radio DJ going on about things for 10 minutes at the time. But, I felt it was needed to have something that broke off between the songs now and then.”

As far as I know you had 4 special-feature-shows so far, one where Per Boder chose the songs (#28), one Thrash Metal show (#51), one Black Metal show (#52) and one about EVOCATION (#53). Did I miss something? What plans like this do you have for the future?
“The Thrash and Black Metal shows were part of a trio of specials that started with show number 50 being a pure Death Metal show… not that it could be noticed as I mostly play Death Metal in all of my shows. I made a Thrash Metal only show earlier as well (before I started to talk on the show) and it got a lot of great response so that was the reason to make those one genre at the time there around show number 50. The plans for the future is more specials with friends choosing the songs and hopefully even doing their own DJ:ing. I’m also working on a special with only new bands that has that oldschool sound we all love so much… I’ve thought about doing a Finland special as I am so much in love with the old Finnish scene. Then I don’t know at the moment, but there will sure be more specials coming up than that.”

You often ask the listeners about requesting songs. How’s the response about it so far?
“It’s ok… I’m not getting loads and loads of requests for each show, but that’s now how I would want it anyway as I want to pick the songs I like as much as possible. But, now and then I do get a bunch and it’s cool as I at times get requests for bands that I had never thought of playing on the show. The reason I often ask people to request stuff is that I want everyone to know that they can do so and it’s of course a help for me if they request bands that I didn’t know about or just forgot existed (shame on me!).”

How do you see the topic ‘copyright’ in your situation? Many recordings back then which you play now didn’t have copyright at all. Do you have to pay anyway?
”I think that the copyright should be followed, but with a lot of the old demos it’s a tricky situation. The station pays royalty for what we air, so everything about that is done right.”

I think your show is quite unique in the entire Death Metal scene, still I think there is a huge interest now again in this oldschool sound. Do you think this is a risk of loosing interest soon again like you did back in ´93?
“No, I don’t think I will lose any interest in this again. And the reason I lost interest back then was mostly because I had played Death Metal for a couple of years, most of the music I listened to was Death Metal and I reached a point where I wanted something more. So, back in ’93 we started a new band playing something completely different, I started to listen to a lot more different music and I just felt that I had to go forward to evolve with my taste in music… Nowadays I listen to a lot of different genres and that helps making this feel all fresh for me. So, no… the risk that I will lose interest is very, very small.”

Did you get reactions about your show from any guys known in the underground, like e. g. Nicke from DEATH BREATH (NIHILIST, ENTOMBED, THE HELLACOPTERS), or Metalion from SLAYER Mag, Fred from DISMEMBER or probably Dead calling from beyond?
“No, only from oldschool nerds and geeks like you… Hahahahaha! Sorry! I hardly think that those you mentioned even know the show exists (maybe Metalion as he is a friend of a friend) and even if they did, I don’t think they would be that much interested in letting me know about it. I have to wait until I get sued for saying the wrong thing about someone to see who listens to the show of these oldschool people.”

Again I think myspace took huge part of spreading the name of the show around, what is your personal opinion about this whole myspace-community?
“Yeah, Myspace was more or less crucial when it came to spreading the word about the show. I had playlists and some info on a blogger page in the beginning, but after the move to myspace I have gotten in touch with A LOT more people who have heard of the show thanks to me being on there. My opinion about the Myspace community is divided… When it comes to finding people and bands that I knew from the old days it’s great. Also meeting cool new people on there is great. But, when it comes to the cyber high school that place can be I just hate it… People being there only to have as much friends as possible and things like that are just retarded.”

Loosing some words about the underground. What was so great back then, what made this time so great that you go back in time with DARKNESS DESCENDS?
“First of all I think that as everything was kinda new bands experimented and found their own ways of doing this. Everything felt very fresh compared to today when everything has already been done hundreds of times already. The reason I go back to this time is that I prefer the music from these years; I just think it’s better than anything that are around today. And for me it’s also nostalgic… I was involved in the scene and I have a lot of wonderful memories and feelings from this time.”

Back in ´93 you stopped your underground activities and also your interested in Death Metal disappeared. Was it some kind of a floating movement and why did it happen? Reasons?
”I think it came gradually. There was a lot I started to get tired of in the Death Metal scene at the time. It was a lot easier to be involved and stay in the scene while being in GOD MACABRE as all of us were heavily involved in writing people, doing our zines, tapetrading and all that, but after we split up I felt I wanted to do something else. To let my eyes open up to something else beyond Death Metal… I almost only listened to Death Metal 24/7 between 1988 and 1993 and I just wanted to let my horizons grow… It’s hard to explain, this will be such a blasphemy, but I just got tired of it all. And when I look back at all this I am happy I took that pause of almost 7 years as my love for Death Metal is probably greater now than back then.”

Did you regret leaving the scene left behind?
“No, not at all. I think I needed to grow a little and find out that there are more things in life than Death Metal. There are people in the scene I miss though, but that’s life. You grow up and lose contact with old friends.”

Now that you are a fan again, do you think you missed something during these approximately 13 years?
“Well, I missed out on being there watching some of those bands that are around today and that are actually good, like we did with the bands back in the day. I remember all those demos we got our hands on of totally unknown bands that later became big shots in the Death Metal scene. I always find it interesting to be able to follow bands from the start and see how they progress instead of finding out about them later. One thing I don’t miss is some old friends who used to be very much down to earth and nowadays are playing “rockstars”. It just makes me laugh how people can let this get to their heads…”

How do you consider your underground-days? Some say it were the best times of their life. What about you?
“Yeah, I think they were the best days of my life. You were part of something so new back then and you got to experience the whole thing growing with other people that were just like you. The Swedish scene were like a big hippie community (well, at least the part of the scene we were involved in with GOD MACABRE) and you became friends with people in other bands so easily. I think a lot of that has to do with that the members in these great old bands were so damn young at the time. It’s weird to think that most of the most classic demos and albums were made by kids who were 15 to 18 years old or something.”

Now let’s go on with some questions from fan to fan: which country had the best scene: Sweden, Finland, USA / Tampa?
“Oh, I just have to say Sweden here… Sure, the USA / Tampa scene was good, the scene in Finland was awesome, but nothing could beat the Swedish scene. I’ve always preferred the Swedish sound to any of the other countries… It’s hard to explain why I feel it’s such a difference. And of course, a lot of this is pure nostalgia as I lived and breathed this stuff back then.”

What about the Norwegian one?
“The Norwegian scene was ok. Sadly it got overrun by arrogant Black Metal morons later on and destroyed a lot of what was good with it. But, even when the Black Metal dudes started to believe their own hype, the Death Metal people were always great people.”

What do you think about these old Norwegian bands like CADAVER, EMBRYONIC, DARKTHRONE or THYABHORRENT?
“I love old CADAVER, I think that they were one of the best Death Metal bands that came out of Norway back in the day. EMBRYONIC I don’t really remember if I have to be honest… I did have the demo, but I just don’t remember anything about it. DARKTHRONE were really great in the beginning when they were a Death Metal band, and “A Blaze In The Northern Sky” is also good… but, that’s probably because I love CELTIC FROST and they pretty much “loaned” some riffs from them on that record. THYABHORRENT were also a good band from what I remember, I do prefer Stian’s older band PERDITION HEARSE over THYABHORRENT though.”

I think it’s great that you play songs from DARKTHRONE’s "Soulside Journey" as this is a classic but no one really talks about how great this album is nowadays!
“Well, today it seems that everyone believes that DARKTHRONE was always a Black Metal band and that is so annoying… before they dove into that genre they used to be a great Death Metal band (and I wish they would have kept playing Death Metal instead as they were better at that than Black Metal if you ask me – totally agree here, Thomas!) and I just love playing tracks from the “Soulside Journey” album as it really had some of the best Norwegian Death Metal tracks ever on it.”

NIRVANA 2002
”One of the most underrated bands ever in the Death Metal scene back then and now. The “Disembodied Spirits” demo is one of the best damn recordings ever released. Period!”

CARNAGE (with Johan on vocals)
“Best. Band. Ever! No band has even come close to CARNAGE back in the “Johan Days”. The “Torn Apart” demo might be the best thing ever recorded.”

CARNAGE (with Matti on vocals)
“Great music and all, but I feel so damn cheated that when CARNAGE finally got to do an album they didn’t have Johan on vocals (who we kinda worshipped). I think that took out a lot of the pleasure of listening to the album as it was so hard to not think “what if Johan had sung instead”. Matti is a great vocalist, but I don’t want him in CARNAGE.“

CREMATORY (SWE – for sure…)
”Also a band that I feel is just too damn underrated… A brilliant band (with one of the most beautiful logos of this era) that needs to have all of their old demos and the 12” released on a CD… NOW!”

MACABRE END / GOD MACABRE (the only band/s from the list which wasn’t broadcasted yet)
“Hm… this is harder. To talk about the band I played in myself is hard as I can’t look at it from the outside. I can say that I think we did some great music and hope that I don’t sound like I am too damn full of myself. The reason I haven’t played any GOD MACABRE / MACABRE END is that I feel it’s tacky to play a band that you were part of yourself… I have gotten some requests to do it though, so I might do it though.”

AUTOPSY
”One of the best bands that has ever been around. Their first album “Severed Survival” is my favorite Death Metal album through all times. Many complain about the sound quality being too weird with the bass being louder than the guitars, but I just think it adds to the sloppy tone the album have. I love it!”

DARKTHRONE
”A band that were good back in the beginning and gradually went worse and worse… I really don’t like what they do today. I mean, the music might be good if I listen to it, but that they just crank out records with that shitty sound quality just pisses me off.”

MAYHEM
”A band that was great up until the death of Euronymous, after that I wish they would have let the band rest. MAYHEM was Euronymous and what they do now is just fucked up. The “Deathcrush” mini LP is among my favorite Black Metal releases, and the tracks they had on the “Projections Of A Stained Mind” were the best they ever did.”

GROTESQUE
“Another incredible Swedish band… I love the way they mixed Death Metal and Black Metal in their music. The “Incantation” EP is a favorite…”

SAMAEL
“I like their first album, but then I fast lose interest, I’m afraid. But, the first album has that old Black Metal sound that I do love even today. It’s not about playing 666 mph or anything, it’s raw and evil.”

CARCASS
“One of the bands that got me into Death Metal back in 1988 when they released their first album. Even though it was more or less a Goregrind album it opened my eyes to certain things. And they were important for MACABRE END starting to move away from pure Grindcore as well back in the day. I think that their second album “Symphonies Of Sickness” is their best as the mix of Goregrind and Death Metal on that one is just perfect.”

FURBOWL
“Well, with Johan on vocals it couldn’t go wrong ; -). I really love the first album, but the second isn’t really my cup of tea. I really love the really long songs on the album as it shows off some really great songwriting.”

DISMEMBER
“A band that I have loved from the start with the first demos… and DISMEMBER is one of those few bands that I think is almost as good today as back in the day. They really stayed true to their music and didn’t start to add a lot of other crap into it… respect!”

NIHILIST / ENTOMBED
“Oh, NIHILIST were together with CARNAGE the best bands that were around in the day and also responsible for a lot of other great bands getting together and start playing. It was easy to be inspired of these guys. The second demo “Only Shreds Remain” is my favorite, but you could choose any of the three demos as they are just so fucking great. ENTOMBED were great in the beginning, but god damn I have lost interest in them nowadays… Was never a fan of the “Death’N’Roll” thing…”

DEVASTATION (Tx or Ill)?
“Both DEVASTATION were great bands, although I prefer the Chicago band as they played some truly oldschool Death Metal. The demo “A Creation Of Ripping Death” with Troy Dixler on vocals is among the best of the early American Death Metal recordings if you ask me.”

SINDROME
“Well, again Troy Dixler is giving me goosebumps with this band… especially on the first demo and the title track “Into The Halls Of Extermination”. It’s such a pity that the band held out waiting to be signed to a big label and ending up breaking up instead. I mean, they should have signed to a smaller label and released one album and then used that to attract bigger labels… The band was just too good to never go further than the demo stage.”

REPULSION
“Shit, man! You are giving me all the classics here! Another of those bands that inspired the hell out of us in MACABRE END in the beginning. This is one of those bands I go back to if I sit and don’t know what to play on the show. Hell, I could play the entire “Horrified” album straight on the show if I was allowed… It’s so damn great!”

HELLHAMMER / CELTIC FROST
“Oh… here we come to one of the earliest bands that I became a fanatic about: CELTIC FROST. No band has meant so much to me back in the day than these guys… There were something very special in their sound that got me hooked on them and I still love them just as much to this day. I should play them more on the show… HELLHAMMER were also great, more primitive of course, but I love that… I do love CELTIC FROST more though. The “Morbid Tales “ Mini-LP was the first record I had with them (a x-mas present back in 85/86) and it still gives me goosebumps when I put it on.”

VENOM
”You gotta love these weirdos! People talked about them not being able to play their instruments and all that shit, but I just loved them (and still do). Their first two albums are so good it’s insane and it wipes away all of these “panda bears” who play Black Metal today. I couldn’t care less if the guys weren’t “real” Satanists or whatever, they knew what would offend people and they did it good. ‘In League With Satan’ and ‘Countess Bathory’ are among the best songs from the 80s.”

FUNEBRE
“ A truly great band from Finland that also seemed to get that CARNAGE vibe like us in GOD MACABRE. Their demos were brilliant and their sadly only album is a must in everyone’s collection. Just like so many other Finnish Death Metal bands they split up much too early… “

‘Into Nowhere’ I feel kinda ‘Lost’ and have ‘Teardrops’ in my eyes and all ‘Lamentations’ and ‘In Grief’ and ‘Consumed By Darkness’ I wonder whenever you are going to play some GOD MACABRE or MACABRE END songs in your show? Should everything ‘Cease To Be’, should the ‘Spawn Of Flesh’ turn into the ‘Ashes Of Mourning Life’ or what do you want us to do until we here some of these classics?
“Well, I might play some GOD MACABRE / MACABRE END… It would have to be requests though as I just find it too damn tacky if I would sit there and play my own damn band… “And next up is one of the best damn bands in the world: my old band!” ; -)” (ok, here’s my official request: I wish to hear at least the songs ‘Consumed By Darkness’ and ‘In Grief’ in one of your next shows – Thomas)

That’s it again, Ola. I really would like to thank you for the time spending answering this interview. I’m looking forward to sending you the 3rd interview sometime in the future, haha. Any last messages you want to loose?
”Well, I would like to thank you for being so damn patient with me as I took even longer time to answer this interview than the first one. I need to do something about that ; -). The only message I have is a BIG thank you Thomas for being interested enough in my crappy little show to make an interview like this. And also a big thank you to those who have gotten in touch with me about the shows.”

www.solarfall.com, www.myspace.com/mondodarkness

Thomas Ehrmann