METAL NIGHTMARE: NOMINON INTERVIEW 2005

When it comes to death metal, brutality is an often overused term. These days, it seems that a band can only be brutal if they also have a high level of technical ability and agility. This is a load of horse poop. Brutality and technical ability have nothing to do with each other. GORDIAN KNOT is technical but not brutal in any way. MORTICIAN is brutal, but certainly not technical. If you need any more evidence, check out Sweden's NOMINON. This fearsome fivesome do death metal the right way. Heavy, the right mix of speed, power, and aggression, and oh yeah... they're brutal too. Drummer Perra Karlsson has been in the scene for a long time, and NOMINON is just the latest band he's participated in, in a long line of incredible Swedish acts.

A big thanks to Goetz Vogelsang for his input on the interview questions.

What does the name "Nominon" mean exactly?

It’s a name of a Demon taken from the esoteric library of The Sacred Magic Of Abramelin The Mage. It suits our band well, because our lyrics are pretty much about the darker side of things.

How did you move from black metal with FAFNER to death metal with NOMINON?

OK, hold it now. FAFNER was a project formed after the two first NOMINON demo tapes Daemons 1 + 2. Notice that the songs that were featured on the FAFNER recordings were just leftovers from NOMINON more or less. Anyway, NOMINON started out as a black/death metal band, which some people still have a hard time to realize. Today NOMINON is more of a death metal band, for sure. But we will never deny some of our roots, which come from every form of extreme Metal as well as classic acts like MAIDEN and LIZZY, well simply everything that we label as good music.

Damn! I guess I didn't do my homework right on that one. Anyway, was it your intent to have such an old school sound, or did it just happen?

Do you mean back when NOMINON started or today? If you mean today I guess we more or less like to keep it that way. If I listen to for example the My Flesh demo from 1996 and compare it to the latest album Recremation I can sure hear that it is somewhat the same band, even though it’s only one member left in NOMINON since that period of time, Juha Sulasalmi. Some things have just become clearer and better, like the writing of the material and since then we all have matured both as humans and musicians, you know, it happens a lot in ten years.

How was your trip to the US? You guys met my friend Roberto from INFINITUM OBSCURE while you were over here.

It was alright to visit the States. It wasn’t as hard to get into the country as I thought it would be actually. It was really fucking nice to meet Roberto, Kyle and John from INCANTATION. They are all awesome freaks of Metal. Roberto and myself became good friends pretty much right there on the spot. We had the opportunity to see INCANTATION play twice in Cleveland during our stay, which was killer. They are definitely one of my fave death metal bands. Also INFINITUM OBSCURE have a lot of great stuff going, can’t wait to get that CD from Roberto. I am sure that it will destroy all that is holy on earth. Besides meeting and seeing those guys we also meet Vincent from ACHERON, who was cool even though their live show was a kind of disappointment for me. I mean, I’ve been waiting since fucking the very early 90s to see them, so I guess my expectations were a bit too big. Always cool meeting LIVIDITY too. Most of the time we hung with our buddies in MANTICORE. Brilliant death/black metal from Cleveland. So all in all the trip was cool as FUCK!! And hey, I almost forgot, visiting the headquarters of Hell’s Headbangers was amazing too.

Will you guys ever consider playing the USA for a full tour?

I guess not for a full tour, but it would be awesome to do like two weeks or so. It’s very expensive for a smaller band like NOMINON to do tours you know. Especially overseas, we all have to pay for our own flights and so on. But we are interested to do so if someone is cool enough to put something together for two weeks and just making sure that we don’t have to pay for food and transportation while we are there. So, if anyone feels like it... Keep in touch!

How was your tour with VITAL REMAINS?

The tour we did with VITAL was amazing and fucking KILLER in so many ways. For NOMINON it was a step in the right direction. We got along really well with the VR guys and they even told us that it was too bad that we couldn’t do the whole tour, instead of just those three weeks. It was also cool to go back out there on the road to meet our fans, and to tell you truth, this tour was a bigger hit for us then the previous ones. We sold more merchandise and people seemed to know more about NOMINON this time around.

If you could keep only one album of theirs would it be Let us Pray or Dechristianize?

I pretty much like all the VR albums, but their latest one, Dechristianize, is a milestone. Another personal favourite is the Forever Underground album.

Regarding tours, why did you pick the BENEDICTION tour over the DISMEMBER tour? Too many Swedes on one bus?

[laughs] No seriously, I personally had a feeling that touring the eastern block of Europe with BENEDICTION would give us a band more than doing the regular and longer tour of Europe with DISMEMBER. Plus that that tour was even more expensive, and we had to hold down the expenses a bit as it was our first tour and we had just signed our deal with Konqueror Records. I know today that we made the right decision as it was more people on the BENEDICTION tour, even though it was ten shows less than on the whole DISMEMBER tour. Maybe next time we would tour with DISMEMBER, but I don’t think so, we would rather play with international acts. OK, sorry, maybe I used the wrong words here as DISMEMBER is of course an international act. But we would rather tour with bands that come from other countries than Sweden for some reason. I know Fred of DISMEMBER a little bit, since he was studio engineer for the old SUFFER album Structures that was recorded at Sunlight when he worked there in 1994. I’ve meet him a couple of times since then, and he is cool to me, so I have nothing negative to say about him as a person. I still think that the Reborn in Blasphemy demo is one of the best death metal demos ever! Definitely better than all their albums. Worth mentioning is that we had a blast also with the BENEDICTION guys. I am still in touch with Frank [Healy] and Darren [Brookes] from time to time. The blokes of Death!

And at what point of that tour did it become clear to you that you would like to work with Bruchstein as Tourmanager?

I just asked the tour manager Jörg if there was any chance for me to work as a merchandiser on any of their coming tours, while we were on the BENEDICTION tour. And he said, "Well, maybe!" And a month later I joined the DISSECTION tour as a co-tour manager together with Jörg. That tour was a bit bigger than their previous tours, they needed two managers. That tour, by the way, is probably one of the nicest tours I have ever been working on, along with the IMPALED NAZARENE tour that I did this year in January/February.

Do you find that most of the people who listen to your music or come to your shows are younger, or are they mostly people who have been around in the scene for a while? I'm curious, since over here we seem to have a division between what the old generation and new generation of death metal heads like.

I think it’s all kind of people, a lot of young death metal heads and of course old friends that have been around forever. [laughs] So, I don’t really know what to say about it. I mean, if you don’t understand that the best death metal acts around the globe started out in the underground selling and promoting demos by themselves, then you are stupid! You should know that bands like IMMOLATION, VITAL REMAINS, MORBID ANGEL, MALEVOLENT CREATION, NIHILIST/ENTOMBED, UNLEASHED, GRAVE, DEVASTATION, MASTER, AUTOPSY, DEATH, etcetera, have all been down there in the dirt. They didn’t start directly with releasing albums or whatever, they worked hard because they believed in what they were doing whether there were any labels interested or NOT. If there are any new generation kind of death metal kids out there that don’t know or understand the point of my story, then please, don’t speak to me.

What kinds of problems do you see with metal today?

I don’t really like to talk shit or whatever one can call it, but you got me in a perfect mood now because of the last question. [laughs] I never thought I would say this when I think of speaking about Metal in any way at all...But...Most new bands suck! None mentioned, none forgotten! But I do want to mention that I like some new Swedish bands like CORRUPT and SWORN. You should check them out!! Young guys that have that special spirit of carrying the Metal flag further.

Ive noticed that your albums are short. Is that intentional and it's the way you write, or do you believe in what Glen Benton said several years ago, "Anything over 30 minutes is boring"?

Well, I personally think thirty five minutes is enough for a full-length album. That’s my opinion. Maybe forty would be OK too for a death metal band like us. But you have to keep the album interesting as well, you know, and I am pretty sure that we didn’t tire anyone out with the length or the tracks or the material of Recremation. What Mr. Benton might have said or not said in the past is nothing that I personally pay attention to at all, period.

Over here, the really brutal bands seem to also have to be very technical. Does a band have to be technical to truly be brutal?

NO! Definately not. I get bored of all new bands that think that by playing as technical as they possibly are able to, they are creators of good music. Well, fuck that. I mean, there are too many examples of bands with five extra-ordinary musicians in the band but without any GOOD songs at all, you know. Nuff said!

How does it feel to be one of the few musical drummers left in times of soulless blasting?

Uhm... is it possible for me to pass on this one?! It’s hard for me to understand or answer what you are actually saying here. First of all, by saying that I am a musical drummer, you have put my knowledge of playing drums on a much higher level than I would have the guts to do myself. Yet, I understand what you mean. I do my shit behind the kit, that’s it. And when we play live it’s fucking live. It’s hard to describe, but I don’t really look like the rest of the drummers. I’ve got a personal style that brings a more grotesque atmosphere to my playing. Besides that, I also hit much harder than the regular Death Metal drummer, plus I improvise a lot when I play, otherwise I would probably get bored pretty soon. Fresh in mind is the look of the VITAL guys when they saw me play, I mean, I might not be the fastest drummer in the world, but still I have my style and it’s fucking personal. No one can ever take that away from me. This is more important to me as a drummer then trying to sound like the rest of them, you know!

How was it that Necromorbus out of seemingly nowhere gave you THE NOMINON sound us fans always hoped for?

To make a very long story short. I knew way back that Tore of Necromorbus studio wanted and was able to produce an album with NOMINON. Plus he is a very big fan of the first album, "Diabolical Bloodshed". Some previous members of NOMINON weren't really as excited about this idea as myself, they wanted to record another album at Sunlight. Which, I wouldn’t mind at all if we had a bigger label that could afford to let us record there. I know Tomas at Sunlight very good, we’re friends. I mean, I’ve recorded there several times in the past with SUFFER, and we even mixed/mastered an album there with SERPENT. So, instead of waiting another two years or more for a bigger company to hook us up I suggested to the guys that we sign with a smaller independent label and record the album at Necromorbus instead. And believe me, I knew that I was damn right about the whole thing from the start. We’re extremely satisfied with the recording and the job that Tore did for us at his small, yet mighty studio. Even though we lost some members and got some new blood coming in, I don’t really mind that at all, because the emotions within the band were kind of stiff earlier, if you understand what I mean. Nowadays we bring all the stuff up to the surface no matter what it is, I mean we’ve not been this close to fighting before between the members. It might sound stupid to some, but we have to have that aggression. We need it, it’s good. If someone has something to say, well, for fuck's sake just spit it out and then we can all discuss it! If one can’t deal with that then you would not fit in NOMINON. That’s a fact!

What happened to the vinyl edition of Recremation that was supposed to be out on Blood Harvest Records?

It’s out there, man! It was released in May and contains of a bonustrack in the shape of a cover of a classic track by WHIPLASH... "Spit On Your Grave". It can be ordered directly from us, if you can’t get hold of it elsewhere. If you live in The States you should contact Hell’s Headbangers, they've got it

Why is it, do you think, that bands such as EPITAPH, UNCANNY, ALTAR (Sweden) and INVERTED never made it big. Just shitty luck? And did you ever get to see any Swedish DM live where you thought that those guys have "IT"-- and I don't mean Tony Särkää-- but still never made it out of their hometown?

Oh Gosh, man! Too many times. You just mentioned two of the best Swedish Death metal bands of all time, ALTAR and UNCANNY. Fucking killer shit! Other bands that I would have loved to see continue: MEGA SLAUGHTER-- The number one most underrated death metal band of all time-- GOREMENT, INFERNAL GATES, MACABRE END/GOD MACABRE, MOURNING SIGN, and others. There's too many! I had the opportunity to see most of these guys live from time to time, and I think it’s still sad that most of them gave up too early. Look at bands like VOMITORY for example, they continued and they made it.

Who is your favorite band on Thrash Records and why?

I already mentioned MEGA SLAUGHTER in the previous answer. So they are definitely number one, mostly because they were always as underrated as a band could probably be. But besides them I love the early VITAL REMAINS 7", CARBONIZED 7", REVENANT 7", SORCERY 7 ...The CARBONIZED album was brilliant! Thrash Records could have made it to the big league, but for some reason they disappeared.

What does the band plan on doing in 2006?

The plans are to go to the U.K. in January to do a week tour with some local support. Besides that we will start working on some new material and hopefully we will be able to record another album during 2006. You never know with NOMINON. [laughs] We are also negotiating for some smaller releases, like split 7" EP’s here and there in Europe and in The States. About further touring in Europe, I don’t know, maybe we just wait until the next album is out and then we will blow everyone away again. Of course some festival shows would be SUPER, but there’s a lot of bands that want to play out there, so it’s hard to compete all the time. I guess we'll just keep on rollin’ down the road and don’t give a shit about what is happening around us, as usual.

Final comments are yours!

First of all thanks to you Tom for this cool and unexpected interview. I hope you are satisfied with my answers. I answered them all in two hours in front of the fucking computer. If all you freaks are interested to find out more about NOMINON, check our shit at www.nominon.com for the latest news, merchandise, etcetera. For sound samples check www.myspace.com/nominon! If you feel like contacting me/us via email, use this address: nominon@lycos.com OK! And remember.... In the grave there’s no turning back! Thanks again Tom, you rule Metalbrother!!!