Perfect semi-new death metal band from Sweden, country that offered some of the most aggressive death metal acts ever. Necrovation is no exception, they are more like living proof of my previous words. Amazing in all aspects – music, graphics and even their logo fuckin’ rules! To me they sound very oldschool, they don’t think so. Depends, of course, the best way for you is to check yourself. Until than, here is some talk with me and Bunger, the drummer of Necrovation.

Hi guys, so how’s the very famous death metal scene in Sweden these days? What’s worth the effort and what’s not? Are there a lot of fans of your kind of music around there?
Greetings! Well, the Swedish scene today, at this very moment, all seems to be about the past, numerous old acts getting back together for gigs for no particular reason – nostalgia perhaps? I have split opinions on this matter; the bands getting back from the grave are bands one could only dream about, it’s really bizarre in one way. As much as I like to witness these utterly rare gigs it still bugs the hell out of me. Generally I have a big problem with old bands suddenly resurrecting, if you quit the scene that is final, regardless of the original reason. Some may draw a connection between these sudden reunions and the release of the book 'Swedish Death Metal', I think it’s clear that this book brought a serious amount of stamina to the ghosts from the past; time will tell if this is good or bad. Regarding the 'real' scene in Sweden there not much to say really, of corpse there’s a hand full of great acts but nothing really refreshing. Neither Necrovation brings any real 'freshness' to the scene I guess. We have made some serious progress since the recording of 'Breed Deadness Blood' though. In retrospective I may say that maybe we hadn’t found our own identity at the time when we recorded our LP, this was in august 2006 and we are slightly heading in an other direction looking at our new material. I have nothing to say about the fans really, everyone seems to be into the latest trends as always whatever that may be at the moment… most of the people involved in the scene aren’t too original (surprise!).
Repugnant, Verminous, Kaamos… Necrovation, some people take it as some present retro oldschool death metal 'movement' in Sweden, do you see it also in that kind of way? Please, be aware I like all this bands, just asking if there is some cooperation, something like 'scene in the scene' over there?
Well, one could describe it in such way yes. It's only a handful of bands within this 'movement' and I wouldn't say it's completely retro style either, there's some new elements as well. The bands mentioned above brought fire to this 'movement' and I wouldn't call this a resurrection of the past, the feeling is old but very original at the same time. It's a damned plague, everyone MUST draw lines between these bands and the past, to be honest - I never heard any bands that sound like any of them, especially not from Sweden. I wouldn't say there's a lot of cooperation in the scene, we are pretty isolated as well here in southern Sweden. Those bands you mention are dead today, Verminous though are good friends of ours as we pretty much grew up together, at least we all lived in the same city at some point. The scene were never any good where we live, we are pretty much the only band around playing the metal of death, gig are rare as hell, most likely we have to visit some bigger cities to see good show or even play ourselves, we don't mind though.

Besides those bands above can you recommend us some new/unknown bands playing good deathmetal in Sweden nowadays?
There are many unworthy bands around I think, not that many worth the attention at all, there sure is a lot of bands releasing demos but not anything outstanding in my opinion. A band that is very fukking recommended - Tribulation, great band with a lot of dedication and spirit of right kind. They'll have a fullenght released sometime very soon. Otherwise the good (active) bands come from Greece and Germany today I think, talking about death metal, no need to mention any names here, you should know them all...

Name of your band, why Necrovation? Is there any story behind that or some special meaning, or tribute to something ... or is it just a good sounding metal cliche? Which names of other bands sound good to you?
The name represents the meaning of Death metal; it should be a celebration of deadness. Ode to the lifeless materia. The essence of death metal. The name itself didn’t come out as original I guess, but what the hell. Good names? To many to mention, if you like a band you most certainly also like the name. I could give you some names that sound fucking awful instead, most names with the Goat –moniker sound so fucking cheesy. I fucking hate all goat –related shit besides Canadian Goat Horn, well the name isn’t that good but the music is killer! All these 'super intellectual' (yeah right) pseudo black metal bands with their oh so black magic names which they have looked up in their brand new 'Words-that-no-one-really-know-the-bloody-meaning-of-but-you-will-surely-impress-some-fucking-idiot-if-you-use-them-anyway' –dictionaries. Well, what to say? Guess the scene is running out of easy choices?

I’m pretty sure everybody asks you about your influences and so will I. But except for obvious metal, to me your kind of music is also quite close to similar aggressive genres like hardcore/punk, and Sweden hardcore scene is and always been pretty good and huge ... so aren’tthere any hardcore bands you worship together with all those metal ones?
Not really no. Boring answer, but still the truth. We don’t listen to hardcore or punk in particular. I really can’t name single influential bands as source of inspiration, consciously I don’t think we work that way. I won’t bother namedrop great acts we like, if someone hear clear influences in our music so be it. I’ve heard “you sound like this or that band” many times and in most cases I won’t agree at all. Influences for us are rather a feeling than actual structures of a song.

Do you think music is only guitars and drums or it can be also something like thrash and computers? Do you like something non instrumental?
Thrash and computers, that would be just pure TRASH I suppose? Computers are in one way or another involved when producing a record now days, I wonder how things would have sound if there wasn’t any computers today, a lot more vivid and pure, things would sound more based upon musical skills than skills in using the latest effects. Something without instruments – silence, for obvious reasons, raging thunder, heavy rain, tortured moans of agony - that or the sound of a female orgasm.

Back to metal... obviously you like it raw and aggressive, but do you also like it well played not to say even technical? Like let’s say Meshuggah or Atheist? Is musicianship something really necessary for young guys starting a metal band?
Well played is much preferred yes, it should always be catchy and easily absorbed whether it’s primitive or technical. Some of the best bands often fits into that description don’t you think? The two bands mentioned above aren’t our cup of blood I think, 'Piece of time' is a good album by all means but it’s just too fucking messy to actually touch you. At some point one must reach a certain level of musicianship to make any progress I think, if not, one must have some really strong artistic qualities to create. Great skills in music and art combined would be the best and the base should be art rather than music I think. The artistic side should control the music and not the other way around. I wouldn’t say musicianship is elementary when starting a band, often it’s the will to create that is the main reason for starting a band, in our case it was.

What were your musical beginnings? Do any of you played or maybe now play in any other band besides Necrovation?
I and Seb has played together nearly ten years now, first time I sat behind the drums he was in front of me with a guitar around his neck. We weren’t too serious back then but we have played together since the beginning. We know each other personally and musically inside and out. Yes, we have all played in other bands aside Necrovation, never reached beyond demo level and none of the bands are still alive today, no need to mention any names as probably no one outside our nearest geographical region have ever heard of those bands. Today Necrovation is the only band, I do think we don’t have more time to eventually start/join yet another band. Seems like far too many bands today are side projects that disappear as fast as they were created. We don’t want that.

So do you, as Swedish involved in death metal scene, think this 'Swedish death metal' book is good, useful for us nonSwedish? I saw it for aprox. Eur60 here, which is worth a question, haha…
I wouldn't describe it as useful for hunting down obscure recordings and such, that you can do without this book, but it's all through a pleasant publication filled with A LOT of information. Perhaps useless to some but if you have the slightest interest in how the scene was born and evolved through the years this book is essential to say at least. 60 euro sure is a bit expensive but this is a book that lasts for a long time. Recommended indeed.

What band you have to see before you die and which one you missed the most? Also which one is your favorite on stage?
A few from the top of my list are; Angelcorpse, Cauldron Black Ram and Stargazer. I wish I were around at the end of the eighties, would have seen all time favorites from the early Swedish scene back then. Today you get the opportunity to witness classic acts like Possessed, Sarcófago, Carcass, Treblinka and Obscurity, have seen Possessed of those mentioned so far and it was mixed feelings really, cool in a way but could have done without it as well. The greatest gig was easily Sadistic Intent in Hamburg last summer, a true classic. Had been waiting quite a while to see them live, so it was a dear experience! Unbelievably few people in the crowd that night and the avenue were as small as it could be to fit the band on stage. Now it’s just their LP left to come, haha, I guess that one will be expected in eternity…

What’s your best drink? Is alcohol necessary for metal? I mean, I really can’t think of some good sober metal guy/band right now, but can think of ten drunken and shitty.
No, nor alcohol or any kind of drug in that matter is necessary for music, though it’s a good compliment sometimes to broad your senses when listening to get in the right mood but if the music is really good you don’t need alcohol/drugs to get high. We don’t drink that often anymore, when we do I guess beer is the shit, but we aren’t that picky so anything will do when we are in the mood of getting really pissed.

Do you have any other hobbies except for metal? Please, don’t say horror movies ... please say you collect stamps or something that uncool for metalheads.
Besides music in general there is not really any time for hobbies, we all have work to make a living you know. I try to run a small distribution company (Inexorable Rex), in fact really small. It takes a lot of time even though it’s in a small scale. We try to go to interesting gigs every now and then, sometimes abroad as well. Other than that, nothing really spectacular, guess we are a bunch of really boring people then.

Tell me more about your Inexorable Rex, what kind of music you distribute? Did you also release something?
It's exclusive for things that I worship myself, releases I can stand behind at any time. Mainly it's - yes - Death Metal. I keep a very small stock, about 10-15 releases, if there isn't anything cool released to distribute I won't bother picking it up either. If you want a list of availible item, drop a mail to inexorablerex@gmail.com. There are some loose plans for future releases, I didn't have this in mind when I came up with this so we'll see... who knows?

Now, can you say any actual info about your upcoming LP? Based on song I’ve heard on your web I’m a bit afraid it’s going to be more complicated/technical than your previous recordings. It’s that raw, hardcore sound and aggressive, direct music that is fuckin‘ perfect on your band to me, can you compare the upcoming LP to your previous recordings?
I think 'Breed Deadness Blood' (released on CD by Blood Harvest 18^th of February) is a good continuation from the EP’s we have released previously, we did of corpse evolve between our releases but it still sound Necrovation. The sound itself didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to, but I guess its okay anyway. Perhaps it’s a tad more controlled and less aggressive than before, this whole studio session were all new to us since we have recorded everything by ourselves in the past. Due to the result we will in the future handle the recording on our own again. Overall we are satisfied with the outcome now when it’s finally released, one and a half year after it was recorded. For those of you not familiar with this piece of pure Death Metal – nine tracks audibly manifesting deadness and darkness, straight forward, groovy and catchy.

Is there going to be vinyl version of your new album? And what about let’s say tape? … or do you think tape is a dead medium?
Indeed there's also going to be a vinyl version of 'Breed Deadness Blood', it will be released by Blood Harvest and release is scheduled to late March this year. We are aiming at a release when we play in Berlin 29th of March. It's quite importand for us to have this one released on vinyl as well as we prefer that format over all. No plans for a tape version right now, but we'll see! Tapes are in no way a dead format within this scene I think, not for us anyway. Unless you are into mp3 shit there's no way in hell you are going to hear some of the best demos ever produced if you think tape is a dead format.

Any future shows near Slovakia?
Not that I know of right now. We hope we’ll get some offers to play outside Sweden now that 'Breed Deadness Blood' has been released. So far we have two confirmed gigs outside Sweden in March, one in Copenhagen w/Nominon (5^th) and one in Berlin w/Asphyx, Drowned, Dead Congregation, Tribulation and Slughator (29^th). Thanks for this interview and good luck with your zine! Everything necessary for contact and essential information on Necrovation – www.necrovation.com – www.bloodharvest.se

Praise the Beast,
A. Bünger (20^th of February 2008)