Finally coming out of the darkness and rejoining the music world, Deathstars have been priming themselves up for their forthcoming album "The Perfect Cult", succeeding their third outing "Night Electric Night". After five whole years of burying themselves down in the deep Swedish bunkers and playing shows across the globe including dates in Australia, the quartet (Cat Casino left the band in July, 2013) are ready to release another bout of Gothic Industrial hell as well as embark on a European tour towards the back end of 2014:- dates can be viewedhere. (more dates added soon for R.O.W.)

This album serves as a nice springboard for the band as they approach their 15th anniversary next year, so this album will be an interesting one. We believe it will gain the approval from the masses. But for now, GMA managed to catch up with front-man Whiplasher Bernadotte and ask him what the future holds, why they are not a metal band, revisiting past events such as the well known 'Blitzkrieg Boom' music video and how they 'nearly' represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest via Melodifestivalen.

Interview by Rhys Stevenson

Hi Whiplasher, how are you doing?

I am very good.


It's been five years since you released the album "Night Electric Night", so what has the band been doing during this time?

Well we started recording our fourth album around three years ago in Los Angeles and we felt like we were 'stressing' it, so after that we ended up on doing some more tours and everyone was tied up with projects, and wanted some changes and stuff, so all these things added up, so hence it took such a long time. So yeah we kind of stalled ,but we wanted to get this done, but hopefully it won't be as long next time.


Since "Night Electric Night" you have had a line-up change, Cat Casino left the band, how did this happen?

Yeah Cat left us because he was tired with all of the touring and missed his family more, he was tired of just traveling and we were all tired so, we respected that decision and he still remains our friend, but we're continuing as a four-piece now and also Ole Öhman our drummer started to have problems around like 6, 7 years ago and so he left too in time.


What is different between your new album "The Perfect Cult" and "Night Electric Night"?

I think "Night Electric Night" was more outgoing and this one is more futuristic, dark and much more massive and assuring in a nutshell. It's got pop music in it, it has more rock music in it and as such we've never been a metal band. It's more varied in that sense so, there's a darker story in "The Perfect Cult" in a bigger sense.


So you're not a metal band?

Noooo, that would be stupid. A metal band for me would be something like Darkthrone so we never claim to be a metal band, so let's just call it more of a 'Dark Rock' band.

It seems that throughout the Deathstars discography the band has changed their image in accordance to the albums, would you agree with this or not? What are your thoughts?

We never really discuss what kind of album we want to make, like we never say 'ok let's make an album that sounds like this', because Nightmare and I started playing Black Metal in the early 90's so we've been working in the same way always I guess, so we just listen to each other, so we can have an idea on what direction we're going, so when it comes to the album writing we can visualize what we may do imagery-wise AFTER the album is done, this is usually what happens. So we go in a direction as a band and not just by ourselves.


It seems that Industrial / Gothic music hasn't really been in the limelight in the last few years (that is not spoken well about), so with Deathstars do you feel that you bring something new to the table?

Yeah, I think we always have since when we started off in the underground metal scene, then we met Ole and Jonas so for us it's kind of an ongoing experiment and hopefully we brought something new to the genre (I'm not going to be the judge of that), so for us it's more like it's getting better and better as a band and looking over our career we feel we have been successful, so it's more about continuing to do what do we best.


Your original tour dates for the UK have been pushed back to November, could you perhaps shed some light on this? (Plus this won't be the first time you've played here, more like your 3rd or 4th?)

This was because the album was not done, our booking agency wanted us to go on tour without the album being released and to us that did not make sense, we felt it would be better for people to have heard the album before going on tour so that's the reason. So there was some communication problems.

Yeah I can't remember I mean we've been there so many times, I think we must do about 200 shows in a year, but with England we've been there many times. It seems that this was the best for us because for us and the UK it has always been kind of special.


With the November tour are you playing alongside bands from Sweden or bands over here?

We have a support band this year, The Dead & Living will join us for some weeks during the European tour and as for the rest of the world, I don't know as it's very different. We're going to South America and so will probably just play by ourselves and then we're going to North America, again not sure about that one and also Asia, so this year is going to be different. So I can't really comment on that, but everyone should check out the support band we have, in fact we're very happy that they are going on tour with us - they are a very good band.

Would that be your first time playing in South America? If not what was the crowd reception like?

Oh no, nope, we've been touring there before and the crowd reception was very good, we've noticed that some fans sleep outside the venues the night before, it's so different from Europe and they're so much more passionate and dedicated. You'll even find them meet you at the airports and so on, it's another thing and of course in Russia it's kind of the same thing, but we're really looking forward to going there - I just gotnews that we're probably going to be starting there with 5 shows in Mexico now, before the European tour. It's a lot of touring again...


This might be a bit of an obvious question, but does the heat really affect you guys?

Yeah I guess it's always tough even when it's hot, so we take care when out in the warm weather even though I now live in Italy and heat is not really my favorite thing, nope you know I'm from Scandinavia; I like that kind of weather (laughs) - dark and cold and permafrost.


Regarding some of the music video's you've done over the years, which one was / is your favorite?

Videos... yeah I mean it's hard with videos as I think it's something that is kind of outside to what the band is doing, in one way because it's the director, the one person putting the visual theme on a song, so it's more like kind of a spectacle (music videos).

But I think maybe, I like 'Blitzkrieg' a lot because I wanted it to be on a graveyard for airplanes - that was even my plan - and we humored on the idea of a graveyard of planes a lot, but planes from the war in Serbia but didn't seem to cut it into the final video so there was this other stuff, but yeah I'd say 'Blitzkrieg'.


And what of the meaning behind the music video?

(Laughs), people shouldn't ask me because they can look at it and place any interpretation onto it however they want and really, they should ask the director of the production company we used. In the beginning we have like screens and on the set during a couple of days, there's a lot of scenes that we kept doing, then when it was edited we wanted it to be re-edited for several times so in the end it comes out as something different that we originally was looking for. So it's more like a spectacle...

However it would be nice to direct a music video of our own sometime, maybe it would be completely different (laughs). Probably, probably when we might just get bored and then we're like 'it's a wrap, we're done' (laughs).

Now as "The Perfect Cult" is coming out in June, and you have already done one music video "All The Devil's Toys", will there be any more music videos?

We've been discussing it and this was just a couple of days ago, so probably hopefully we will do more music videos for the album, I think everyone want's that.


Now since Deathstars will be turning 15 next year, [interrupted by Whiplasher]...

OHHHHH!!!!!! YEAH! Officially 'teenager', 15? That's when people started having sex, now we will have to try even more now and that's a good thing you mentioned it - we haven't had a life of getting into girls pants (laughs)... [GMA: And that's what the delay between the last album and this album has been all about?], (laughs) yeah I mean when we started out, yeah I guess the girls... I mean you can look at it in the aspect that the girls were pedophiles because they were so young, like kids...


So with the 15th anniversary coming next year, will you be doing an anniversary release compilation?

Nah, we haven't yet thought about that, we did a compilation "The Greatest Hits On Earth" for the Rammstein tour (2011), also because it was we kind of wanted to wrap up that chapter and Ole stopped playing the drums in the band, so it was kind of wrapping up and starting fresh on this album (The Perfect Cult). But as for another compilation I haven't really thought about it, so we wish we will have more sex with the girls, that's how we will celebrate it.


Do you feel that metal and rock in Sweden is more appreciated than any other genre?

Everyone I know in Stockholm plays in a band, it's like they're in more or less famous rock bands, sometimes in metal bands so of course it's very appreciated, especially when now everyone plays it's considered a big thing. But of course we've always got a history with successful music, in Sweden there are so many people working in the music industry and I think it gets into a spiral, which is where everyone looks at each other and wants to be inspired by others so I can't it decreasing, but there's different kinds of scenes in Sweden like in Stockholm but also in different cities where there are different music styles. Like in Gothenburg for example it's all about Death Metal bands and metal music

So we wouldn't see Deathstars in the Eurovision Song Contest next year in Austria?

Well the thing is, we got asked this year to appear in the 'Melodifestivalen', which is the competition for Eurovision in Sweden and is like the biggest television show there is, I cannot believe they actually asked us, because we would never do something like that. But it was a kind offer and I said that they don't have enough blood so. [GMA: although would a rock / metal style Eurovision be appealing?]...  yeah, I can't really stand all these competitions, but yeah those getting into the finals must be quite a big thing.


Finally any hello's, thank you's, greetings you wish to express?

Well right now I'm isolating myself for a while, from everyone because I moved to the North of Italy so, I think it's nice to have a break some time and so I will say hello to everyone when I meet them again, see you in Stockholm and also on the tour.


"The Perfect Cult" is out 16th June 2014 via Nuclear Blast Records

For a list of tour dates click here.

http://www.deathstars.net
https://www.facebook.com/deathstars?fref=ts

So prior to Motionless In White's show at the Kentish Town Forum on Saturday 21st September, Global Metal Apocalypse sat down with The Defiled's keyboardist The AvD and interrogated him about how the band is feeling about the tour so far, their history and future planning and how he got into metal music and playing it, slightly tired and hungover this interview was going places...

[AvD shouting to Stitch... no reply...]


You're touring with Motionless In White and this is the first time you've toured with the band, how is the tour going so far?

It's amazing, it's our first UK tour since 'Daggers' come out and it's great to be on the road with a band that has the same look and ethos as us and also this is like.. uh, we respect them as a band and the kids coming out care about what we're doing and it's just a really fun tour actually to be honest and there's a really good mutual respect, so yeah it's quite cool.


And of course now that you're signed to Nuclear Blast, you know you released 'Daggers' through Nuclear Blast, how did the label signing come about?

We were speaking to Roadrunner before and Mark Coleman at the UK section and basically Roadrunner UK shut down and the people who worked at Roadrunner UK went to work for Nuclear Blast and we continued talking, we recorded the album ourselves funded by the fans through the PledgeMusic campaign, so then we just put it out and let people buy into it instead of getting the label first and then people take it from the reverse which I advise every band to do because then we start from a mutual respect kind-of grounding with your label and yeah then we spoke to Mark again it was kinda like 'yeah of course you know we've always grown up listening to Roadrunner bands', and we respect his work a lot and we want to work with him so we jumped at the opportunity to be honest.


And you said that your fans ploughed money into the record, so do you think that these sort of opportunities for fans to support the bands that way, they feel more personal with the release than just having a release?

Well, lets say The Defiled wouldn't be around if it wasn't for them so it is personal, we have their names in the album, we know them, we have a very hardcore group of fans that we know them by their first names and we hang out and we're very lucky to have that on a personal level.


Now as you guys are predominantly from North London, how did the band start?

Well we met each other through mutual friends and started a band really, like I think we all have the same build, there has been many different changes like the line-up has changed loads of times, we weren't a real band for ages, but we've known each other for a really, really long time. It just happened naturally, we didn't have any other talents in life so we just had to take our band seriously and make this who were are so yeah man that's how it happened.


Personally how did you get into metal music and what enticed you to play the keyboards?

(laughs), what got me into metal music? I don't know, I think I bought an Obituary album. I used to go with my father, he used to have his hair cut twice a year, once year, once a year and I was allowed two records every time he got his hair cut (laughs) and so he would lead me into the record store and I just picked out two albums I liked the cover of, so I picked up an Obituary album and it was called "Cause Of Death" and I thought it was Satan's picking, I don't know anything about Satan but it scared me in a good way and I think that's what got me into metal, I mean I was 8 and listened to other stuff like rock, but that was the first proper heavy, growling thing I ever heard, I just couldn't believe that was on the record, yeah I loved it.

As for the keyboards, I wouldn't call myself a keyboard player as such, my first instrument was the drums, I used to be the drummer in The Defiled, I went to study music technology and that was like what I wanted to study for some reason (laughs) and I studied music technology and I'm very into production and you know making weird sounds, one of my favorite bands is Nine Inch Nails and that's what they do and are all about, I find it really interesting making textures and moods with just using a cue and atmospheres and, I don't know i just like it and I think that it makes the music more interesting, that's why I looked to do that, just I could sit there for days and my girlfriend would come to the studio to get me out to eat, I would just go days without eating, malnutrition and stuff, I just like sitting there and doing it and I guess that just translates into keyboards on the stage and buttons (laughs), so yeah that's it.


So you put your music as number one in daily life?

Oh yeah yeah definitely, music is my life, and I don't think I'd be, I mean i couldn't even start to think you know what i mean, what else there could be. I remember when I was at school I'd ask kinds 'so what kinds of music are you in to?' and I remember one kid that I remember to this day, he was like 'I don't even really listen to music' and I just couldn't understand what he meant, I just could not understand that so music to me is a fact of life.


Going back to the first gig you did with The Defiled, when you came off stage did you think to yourself 'This is what I want to do in the future, this is my chosen path'?

Yeah I think music was always my personal chosen path, I used to talk about The Defiled after the first gig, yeah I think we were very serious about it after we started gigging and stuff, we believed in ourselves when no one did, so and that's what you can do. We pushed throughout for a long time and we are just I think we're just weird people, we just don't take no for an answer and in the end everyone buckled (laughs), so yeah haha it is my chosen path. Definitely.

[Chris from Glamour of the Kill drops in and says a quick hello]


Are there any thank you's to fans, friends, family, band-members, management, PR you want to thank?

(laughs) yeah hehe, no I'd like to thank everyone that's supported our music and for making our dreams come true! That's all :)

"Daggers" is out now via Nuclear Blast, major stores and through all major online retailers

https://www.facebook.com/thedefiled?fref=ts

This time the victim to fall into the GMA interrogation cell is guitarist Bizz, of whom formerly played with the American industrial metal act Genitorturers feat. David Vincent of Morbid Angel. Bizz now plays with the Australian Industrial Metal / Alternative Metal mob Our Last Enemy and it was time for GMA to get the low down behind why Our Last Enemy could be the next big Industrial metal export since the glorious days of The Berzerker (minus the grind). No musicians were harmed in the interrogation process.

By Rhys Stevenson

So Bizz, how long has Our Last Enemy been going and what would you say the band's music style is without the use of genre tagging or cliches?

Our Last Enemy was formed in 2006. Our music is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. I'd say it's 50 / 50 but it only takes moments to dream up some killer riffs, but it takes a much longer time to work out the finer details to get the most out of those cool riffs and other musical parts. In other words, inspiration comes easily. It's the arrangements and the finer details that require lots of attention. I think that's where most bands go wrong. They just slap a song together and call it 'good enough'. We don't do that. Sure, it ALWAYS starts with inspiration, but to end up with a final product that you're truly happy with, it takes a lot of work. That said, there is the occasional song that just seems to write itself, and it all comes together quickly. But even with songs like that, we like to dig deep into it and make it the absolute best it can be. I think it's called O.C.D. Haha! But seriously, after all is said and done, an artist must know when the painting is done. And that is one of the reasons we run this band as a true democracy. We vote on what stays and what goes, until the majority feel that the song is complete. From there, the songs just sort of mutate naturally somehow. Just like my answer to your question just did.

And who inspired you to become musicians and who do you idolize?

I don't remember. I've loved music since I was old enough to sing. I don't 'idolize' anyone. I think idolize is a strong word. It sounds like worshiping someone. I bow to no man. Except maybe Alice Cooper haha.
 
I like a lot of bands from different styles of music. Over the last 13 years, I've been listening to a lot of Japanese metal and Visual Kei. But my influences spread across a many different styles of music, including (but not limited to) Punk, Industrial, Metal, Goth, 80's New Wave, etc. If it's good song writing and it has a cool vibe, I probably like it. But especially if it has a bit of a dark vibe or lots of attitude. 

Focusing on New South Wales, how do the metal bands in cope during the times of wild fires?

Well, I think we all just sort of watch the news and hope the fires don't reach our own houses lol. I dunno. I've only been living in Australia for a little over 4 years. I guess I should say that we do benefit concerts or something cool to help the less fortunate. Like maybe give out free Our Last Enemy t-shirts or free dinner dates with teen heart throb and lead singer of Our Last Enemy, Oliver Fogwell. 
Seriously though, we haven't actually done any benefits for wildfire victims that I recall, but we'd certainly be happy to do so should the opportunity arise. So there you have it. Our hearts may be black, but at least we aren't heartless. Oh, wait...maybe it's not our hearts that are black. It's our........lungs. 

On a whole what would you say the trickiest thing about being an Australian Metal band would be?

Breaking out of Australia. Also, The Wiggles give us metal bands a run for the money in terms of heaviness. Those guys are really brutal with songs like Rock-a-bye Your Bear and Toot Toot Chugga Chugga. It's mindblowing. I mean, how could any of us ever compete with that sort of brutality? 

How does mainstream media cover metal in Australia?
Oh, come on. We've got to keep some air of mystery about our country!!! lol

Reverting to Our Last Enemy, what plans does the band have for 2013 and beyond?

I personally don't want to say too much just yet, but it looks like it's going to be a very big year for us, which means it will also be a big year for our fans. Lots of exciting things in the works.

What is the local town / city metal scene like?
Sydney is a great place. There are a lot of good bands and loyal fans. 

Finally any thank you's, hello's and any other messages you wish to say?

Thank you for your interest in Our Last Enemy. It's zines like yours who make a big difference to bands and music fiends alike. I'd also like to send a big thanks out to all of our fans, future fans, and to anyone else who has allowed us to pollute their minds by reading this interview. 

We hope to see you all in the UK at some point in the not-too-distant future. Until then, remember to question authority and don't forget to do whatever you want.

https://www.facebook.com/ourlastenemy

Country - SWEDEN
Genre - INDUSTRIAL METAL
Label - UNSIGNED


So Backstabber what does Perception Of Darkness personally mean to you and how did the band form?

It means everything to us. Perception Of Darkness is the way we choose to express ourselves through, it's our channel to create, discuss and hopefully influence people to think for themselves.
But it's also a brotherhood for us, the other guys in the band are some of my absolute best friends and that's also a big part of Perception Of Darkness.

The band was formed by our old singer Karl Johansson who is no longer in the band due to some different reasons.

Would you say Sweden lacks numbers in Industrial Metal vs. Melodic Death Metal?

I think Sweden has a lot good Industrial Metal bands, some good examples are Raubtier, Pain and Deathstars. But here there aren't really a lot of bands on the smaller stages that play Industrial Metal.
The only ones i know of would be Zavod, Mass Murder Agenda and Man.Machine.Industry.

And of course in comparison to the Melodic Death Metal bands we are quite outnumbered.

How would you describe your music without genre tagging or using cliches?

Since we decided to get rid of our singer we no longer have any rights to our old songs since he was our main songwriter. But we are working hard on our new album. I don't want to describe it all to much right now, but let's just say that we are taking it back to the roots of how Industrial Metal should sound.

What makes Perception Of Darkness stand out from the rest of the Swedish metal scene and have you played outside Sweden?

First of all we play in a quite small genre, as i said earlier there aren't a lot of industrial metal bands on our level. I also like to think that we are a really good band to see live. A lot of our friends play very technical metal and they miss out on the live part of being in a band. Perception of Darkness is quite the opposite. We play pretty straight-on metal and leave a lot of room for the live show.

Last year we played 2 European festivals and a boat cruise. Our first gig outside of Sweden was at "Dark Mental Festival" in Copenhagen where we got the honor to open the festival up, the second was as an headline act at "Plana Demo Fest" in Serbia, and the boat cruise went from Stockholm to Riga and featured bands like Frantic Amber, The Resistance, Man.Machine.Industry and Skitarg.

How many releases do you have to date and what is your favourite?

As i said earlier we have had to remove all our material when we decided to get rid of our singer. So we are currently working on our "first" album.

What major metal festivals are there in your area?

There are a few: Copenhell, Metaltown, Sweden Rock Festival amongst others. Last year we were actually involved in starting a new festival in our hometown of Malmö called "Faceplant Metalfest". Unfortunately, just a couple of days before the event it had to be cancelled due to problems with the economy.

Finally do you have any hello's, thank you's to send out?

Not really, would just like to thank all of the fans for being patient with us. Last year was really good for us and it feels terrible that we have to take a big part of this year to rebuild what we had worked so hard for, but we will be back strong than before.

https://www.facebook.com/PerceptionofDarkness