Bombs of Hades started out as a crust band, am I correct? What did you sound like back then? Was it the same line-up? Did you do any recordings? I must say that it’s veeeeery old school to switch from hardcore to death metal. Were you inspired by Macrodex and Filthy Christians?
I wasn’t in the band in the very beginning, the first line-up was Stålhammar, Ekman and a couple of other guys. I think the main idea was to mix crust, grind and death metal into some kind of intense cacophony of brutality. They did a demo called Apocalipsis Canibal in late 2002 which had some crusty overtones here and there but already back then it started to lean towards old school death metal. The band then was on some kind of hiatus for a couple of years until Stålhammar did a basic 3-track porta demo on his own and pretty soon hooked up with P-O and me who together with him and Ekman became Bombs Of Hades Mark II. Being the old school jokers that we are, Macrodex and Filthy Christians are always in the back of our minds… or is it perhaps even Cruelty and Gung-Ho?
BoH are often labeled an old school death metal-band, do you think that this is restricting for you? That you have to drop some
songs/ideas because they are not “old” enough, I mean? What bands do you think have influenced your music the most? Is it only old death bands or?
Nah, we wouldn’t drop a cool riff/idea just because it didn’t sound murky and “old” enough. On the contrary I think we’re starting to broaden the metal a little on some of the newer tracks, there’s some traces of Entombed-death’n roll on a track called “Burn” and a tune called “A Serpent’s Redemption” has a vibe of High On Fire’s slower, heavier moments. I think the foundation of our sound will still be classic death metal in the vein of our main influences Deathstrike/Master, Nihilist, Carnage and Autopsy but I guess stuff as Disfear, Zeke, High On Fire, Voivod and alot of classic doom have had a definite impact aswell. And don’t get us started on our favorites outside of the metal/punk genres… we’re a very openminded band.
Riffmaster Stålhammar.
You have released/will release quite a lot of 7”, why is that? Is it too much work to write and record 10-12 songs at the same time? Do you prefer to just bash out a couple of songs and then go home? Or are you planning a 2:nd LP as we speak? If so, will it be on Blood Harvest again?
We’ve done some odd releases outside of the full-length formula, that’s right but it’s mainly because it’s good fun. Since good ol’ Stålhammar is a very productive fellow we seem to have material enough to both do 7” and splits between the LP’s so why not go for it? It’s a good way to keep the interest up aswell + get to work with some very dedicated and cool labels and bands, like Doomentia and Usurpress most lately. A 2nd LP will definitely be out in 2012, we’re hoping to have it recorded and done before the spring and have the LP out on Blood Harvest before the summer. This time there will be a CD release aswell but I don’t think there’s anything carved in stone label-wise for that format quite yet.
Almost every time BoH is mentioned in writing, the band name is followed by “(feat ex-members of Macabre End/God Macabre)”, has that been beneficial for you or are you sick and tired of it?
No problems with that. It’s true and it seems to get people’s attention so that’s cool. Me personally I’m always voting for “ex-Hidden Lace” stickers on our releases but nobody cares what I think…
How do you perceive the status of BoH in the underground metal scene? Are you offered a lot of tours and high profile festival gigs? Are you at all interested in such things? Are you planning to “make it” with the band or do you want to keep it as a fun hobby thing?
I’m not really sure, I’m definitely not the man with the finger on the underground pulse these days but I think people are starting to recognize us, hopefully due to our quality and not just old merits. I think the response to that 2nd LP will give us more of a receipt on if people really are paying attention. So far no tours and no realistic festival gig-offers have been presented so I guess we’re not really hot stuff/hot shit. We’re not hoping for that big break either, all of us have been in bands for 15-20 years at least so we don’t expect overnight sensations. We’re just glad to play death metal the way we like it, do some records, play some fun gigs and hang out with old friends in the scene.
Bombenhagel!
I realize I have written “BoH” a lot now. It does not look too aesthetic in writing. What do you call the band when you talk between yourselves? In old interviews you often referred to [the true] Tribulation as “Trib” or “Tribbe”, do you have such a nick name for Bombs of Hades as well?
We just say “Bombs” between us in the band. That’s good for me since I’ve noticed that I don’t even know how to say the full name. Sometimes I say the correct (I guess) Hade-es and sometimes I say
Hades, rhyming with AIDS, just like ol’ Quorthon…
In Dannes book Swedish Death Metal you were quite praised as “Sweden’s number one tape trader” and people stressed the importance you had on the early Swedish death-scene. What was your initial reaction to this? “What the hell!?” or “Yeah, damn right, I was number one!”
It didn’t come as a surprise since guys like Nicke Andersson, Uffe Cederlund, Jörgen Sandström, Fenriz etc all have dropped my name over the years, as a guy who was somewhat like the courier providing people, especially in Sweden and Norway, with alot of those influential demos between 1986-1989. So it wasn’t a “what the hell?”-bolt from the blue, and definitiely not “I was number one” either. More like, “sure I was there in the beginning and have some kind of part in it all”. But of course, if it wouldn’t have been me making copies of the Repulsion and Insanity demos on my parents cheesy Schneider doubledeck then it would have been some other young buck the month after…
Forsberg looking about as much Västerås as you possibly could.
Well, that’s about it I guess. Feel free to end this with whatever you feel like.
Thanks for listening to an old man and the racket we make. I’m psyched to do the split 7” on Doomentia with you guys and give us a call when that release party is coming up!
Thanks a lot Forsko! This is really a band worthy of your support, contact them now and buy some of their great records. http://bombsofhades.com/
Fotnot: Hidden Lace was a glamrockband that Forsberg played stand-in drums with on one gig. I haven’t heard them.
Interview, Bombs of Hades
Interview, Bombs of Hades
Eh yeah, I think it is the first for Bombs Of Hades at least. Or maybe not, at my age it’s hard to remember. Anyway, since the first demo I played on, Infernal Return by Pentagram, was released in
1986 and I’m sure the odd interview followed that one, I’ve been doing this for 25 years now! Pimpin’ it old school I guess.
Bombs of Hades started out as a crust band, am I correct? What did you sound like back then? Was it the same line-up? Did you do any recordings? I must say that it’s veeeeery old school to switch from hardcore to death metal. Were you inspired by Macrodex and Filthy Christians?
I wasn’t in the band in the very beginning, the first line-up was Stålhammar, Ekman and a couple of other guys. I think the main idea was to mix crust, grind and death metal into some kind of intense cacophony of brutality. They did a demo called Apocalipsis Canibal in late 2002 which had some crusty overtones here and there but already back then it started to lean towards old school death metal. The band then was on some kind of hiatus for a couple of years until Stålhammar did a basic 3-track porta demo on his own and pretty soon hooked up with P-O and me who together with him and Ekman became Bombs Of Hades Mark II. Being the old school jokers that we are, Macrodex and Filthy Christians are always in the back of our minds… or is it perhaps even Cruelty and Gung-Ho?
BoH are often labeled an old school death metal-band, do you think that this is restricting for you? That you have to drop some
songs/ideas because they are not “old” enough, I mean? What bands do you think have influenced your music the most? Is it only old death bands or?
Nah, we wouldn’t drop a cool riff/idea just because it didn’t sound murky and “old” enough. On the contrary I think we’re starting to broaden the metal a little on some of the newer tracks, there’s some traces of Entombed-death’n roll on a track called “Burn” and a tune called “A Serpent’s Redemption” has a vibe of High On Fire’s slower, heavier moments. I think the foundation of our sound will still be classic death metal in the vein of our main influences Deathstrike/Master, Nihilist, Carnage and Autopsy but I guess stuff as Disfear, Zeke, High On Fire, Voivod and alot of classic doom have had a definite impact aswell. And don’t get us started on our favorites outside of the metal/punk genres… we’re a very openminded band.
Riffmaster Stålhammar.
You have released/will release quite a lot of 7”, why is that? Is it too much work to write and record 10-12 songs at the same time? Do you prefer to just bash out a couple of songs and then go home? Or are you planning a 2:nd LP as we speak? If so, will it be on Blood Harvest again?
We’ve done some odd releases outside of the full-length formula, that’s right but it’s mainly because it’s good fun. Since good ol’ Stålhammar is a very productive fellow we seem to have material enough to both do 7” and splits between the LP’s so why not go for it? It’s a good way to keep the interest up aswell + get to work with some very dedicated and cool labels and bands, like Doomentia and Usurpress most lately. A 2nd LP will definitely be out in 2012, we’re hoping to have it recorded and done before the spring and have the LP out on Blood Harvest before the summer. This time there will be a CD release aswell but I don’t think there’s anything carved in stone label-wise for that format quite yet.
Almost every time BoH is mentioned in writing, the band name is followed by “(feat ex-members of Macabre End/God Macabre)”, has that been beneficial for you or are you sick and tired of it?
No problems with that. It’s true and it seems to get people’s attention so that’s cool. Me personally I’m always voting for “ex-Hidden Lace” stickers on our releases but nobody cares what I think…
How do you perceive the status of BoH in the underground metal scene? Are you offered a lot of tours and high profile festival gigs? Are you at all interested in such things? Are you planning to “make it” with the band or do you want to keep it as a fun hobby thing?
I’m not really sure, I’m definitely not the man with the finger on the underground pulse these days but I think people are starting to recognize us, hopefully due to our quality and not just old merits. I think the response to that 2nd LP will give us more of a receipt on if people really are paying attention. So far no tours and no realistic festival gig-offers have been presented so I guess we’re not really hot stuff/hot shit. We’re not hoping for that big break either, all of us have been in bands for 15-20 years at least so we don’t expect overnight sensations. We’re just glad to play death metal the way we like it, do some records, play some fun gigs and hang out with old friends in the scene.
Bombenhagel!
I realize I have written “BoH” a lot now. It does not look too aesthetic in writing. What do you call the band when you talk between yourselves? In old interviews you often referred to [the true] Tribulation as “Trib” or “Tribbe”, do you have such a nick name for Bombs of Hades as well?
We just say “Bombs” between us in the band. That’s good for me since I’ve noticed that I don’t even know how to say the full name. Sometimes I say the correct (I guess) Hade-es and sometimes I say
Hades, rhyming with AIDS, just like ol’ Quorthon…
In Dannes book Swedish Death Metal you were quite praised as “Sweden’s number one tape trader” and people stressed the importance you had on the early Swedish death-scene. What was your initial reaction to this? “What the hell!?” or “Yeah, damn right, I was number one!”
It didn’t come as a surprise since guys like Nicke Andersson, Uffe Cederlund, Jörgen Sandström, Fenriz etc all have dropped my name over the years, as a guy who was somewhat like the courier providing people, especially in Sweden and Norway, with alot of those influential demos between 1986-1989. So it wasn’t a “what the hell?”-bolt from the blue, and definitiely not “I was number one” either. More like, “sure I was there in the beginning and have some kind of part in it all”. But of course, if it wouldn’t have been me making copies of the Repulsion and Insanity demos on my parents cheesy Schneider doubledeck then it would have been some other young buck the month after…
Forsberg looking about as much Västerås as you possibly could.
Well, that’s about it I guess. Feel free to end this with whatever you feel like.
Thanks for listening to an old man and the racket we make. I’m psyched to do the split 7” on Doomentia with you guys and give us a call when that release party is coming up!
Thanks a lot Forsko! This is really a band worthy of your support, contact them now and buy some of their great records. http://bombsofhades.com/
Fotnot: Hidden Lace was a glamrockband that Forsberg played stand-in drums with on one gig. I haven’t heard them.
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