Vomitory was formed already back in 1989, drawing
inspiration from back-then giants such as Sodom, Napalm Death,
Venom and Slayer. 24 years might
have passed since that day but Vomitory's still a well-oiled murder machine
with numerous blasting and dominating death metal albums in their back catalog.
Recording after recording they have constantly improved and enhanced their unique death metal formula,
always looking and thinking forward instead of backwards. As a unique formula
it is. Incorporating the infamous d-beat like no one else into a mix of
fantastically grooving blastness and brutality is the core of Vomitory's sound.
And it is a sound I have grown to love with all of my heart over the
years.
Here is there fan page
We don't think we have to say much about Vomitory .We had a bit of talk with Tobias Gustafsson the man in skin. So without wasting time here we go .
(Tobias Gustafsson)
Before we began we
would like to ask how has been the journey of Vomitory since 1989 until now.
It's been a long and mostly joyful journey. We have been
active for 24 years straight, with no breaks or hiatus. When we started back in
1989 we didn't have any high ambitions - well, we never had really - we just
played death metal because we loved it. Then one thing led to another and after
a couple of years we had released our first demo tape and our name got spread
in the DM underground scene. We have had the pleasure and privilege to release
albums and work with the legendary Metal Blade Records for over ten years.
We've also toured with many of the biggest names in death metal; Cannibal
Corpse, Deicide, Nile, Vader and Malevolent Creation to name some of them.
So until now 8 albums
have been out so far and we all know that they have been a success and suddenly
on early 2013 news was out the band will be dismantled by the end of 2013 and
declared last gig on 27th December 2013 don’t you think it will make all the
fans upset. As well as it’s a hard decision to make?
As said, we have been an active band for 24 years and
released 8 great albums. I know many fans got upset, but what can we do? We
know this decision is for the best and we feel that we have the respect and
support from the fans, even though they would prefer that we carried on
instead. This decision wasn't anything that came overnight. It had been growing
for some time and after we had a serious discussion in February about the
future of Vomitory, we collectively decided to disband after the end of 2013.
Well talking about
here in Nepal maximum Death Metal bands have taken vomitory as their role model
including myself what do you want to say them so as they get more fueled up?
That's very cool to hear! I'd say, keep doing what you
believe in, stay focused but have fun! And be cool to people, don't be an
asshole.
So Tobias tell us how
did vomitory start and how did the name vomitory came?
It was started by my brother Urban and then bassist/vocalist
Ronnie Olson. They got together because of their mutual passion for extreme and
brutal metal. They had problems with finding a suitable drummer, so I joined
them temporarily after a couple of months. I played in another band at that
time. But it worked so well and I enjoyed it so I became a permanent member. It
was me who came up with the band name. We wanted a name that represented the
extreme music we were playing. I found that one of the members of Treblinka
(pre-Tiamat) was called 'Emetic'. I looked that word up and found the
synonymous word vomitory which sounded cool and suitable. The meaning of the
word is 'something that induces vomiting' or 'puke medicine'.
So if we are not
wrong you guys are on world tour probably Italy how is the tour going?
No it's not a world tour in that meaning. But we are doing
some shows in Italy during this coming weekend, and in December we're doing a
tour in Japan. We are really looking forward to it.
Does any incident
reflect on the music you guys compose?
No nothing in particular, but what's going on in the world
around us affects us in one way or another of course. It affects everybody.
Yeah that’s for sure.
Btw we wanted to ask which bands inspire vomitory?
There are a lot of bands that have inspired us. Napalm
Death, Slayer, old Swedish scene (Entombed, Grave etc), Vader, Terrorizer, Bolt
Thower are some of the bands that always are present in our rotten death metal
minds when we write music.
So we want to know
how the Italy tour was.
It was awesome! The Italian fans are so great. We did three
shows in Pescara, Rome and Brescia. Everything went really smooth and we had a
great time together with the supporting act Hateful and the tour manager,
Marita. I hope I will play there again soon with another band.
From Torture Division
or The Project Hate MCMXCIX?
The Project Hate never plays live, so it would be with
Torture Division, God Macabre or something else that I yet don't know of.
In that case we will
be keen to know the band who will be touring. By the way Tobias you are known
for your blast drumming will you like to share your techniques with our fellow
drummers who will be reading this talk?
I'm not so much into labeling all the different styles of
blast beats there is, as many others are very keen on. I think that if it
sounds good and brutal, I don't give a shit what it's called. My blasting style
comes from grind core. I think
that's what is the coolest and most brutal. My hand technique is a combination
of "The Moeller technique" and fingers/rebound. My right hand (main) kind
of does the Moeller thing on the ride/hihat/china/crash and my left plays
mostly fingers and takes advantage of the rebound from the snare drum. I use
both feet when blasting. That gives every stroke a lot more power and your
legs/feet don't get very tired. I know a lot of people think that blasting with
one foot only is the only right way to do it, and that blasting with two feet
is cheating. I say, it's better to blast with two feet and get every stroke
really powerful than to play pussy strokes with one foot and using a trigger to
make it sound powerful. That's cheating if something...
Yeah for sure many
good drummers take triggers as cheating. By the way I was talking with a friend
and he had a question for you. What was the reason for you guys to start doing
Extreme metal and what influenced you guys to do music of such a genre?????
It all came naturally, starting by getting into heavy metal
and hard rock in the early 80's, then later the thrash, speed and black metal
came and we got into that, wanted faster and more extreme stuff, then in the
end of the 80's and early 90's we saw the birth of death metal as we know it
today. Sodom was one of the biggest reasons why Vomitory was ever started. They
were a huge influence in the beginning.
There is no question
and we all know that Vomitory is a straight up, ferocious Old School Death
Metal act, but when going through the albums we get to hear Slayer and Venoms
thrashy flavors’ here and there. Especially
in first 4 albums?
And there's no question about that either since both Slayer
and Venom have been big influences for us, especially Slayer! You still hear
obvious Slayer-inspired riffs on our last album Opus Mortis VIII. Thrash metal
and death metal are very closely related and since we like both styles, you can
also hear that in our music.
Yeah for sure. By the
way a few years back you had an injury and had to undergo some surgery there
were some rumors that you will be not be able to play for quite long time. Can
you tell us about it?
In October 2010 I underwent back surgery for a herniated
disc. This disc had caused me severe sciatica pain in my left leg during a
couple of years before this. Eventually I met the right doctor who gave me the
help I so badly needed. I had surgery done, recovered for a couple of months
and then the pain was basically gone. During the pain period it didn't affect
my drumming that much, but I couldn't play for as long periods as I did before.
Still I took painkillers all the time. Now three years after the surgery I'm
more or less fully recovered, I can play drums without any problems. But I
still have to be careful with heavy lifting and labor work for longer periods
of time. Then the pain comes sneaking back and stays for a couple of days.
We see in times that
there are really deserving bands. They are deprived from gigs and organizers
are not providing opportunity to upcoming bands and thus lead either to split
of band or band hibernating what is your view in such cases?
Well I don't know. If a band is good enough it should not be
a problem to get gigs. If not, they can arrange their own gigs. We did that a
few times ourselves during our first years.
Similar case is seen
that band themselves organize gig here in NEPAL. We are almost at the end and
we want to ask you any message to Bands, Vomitorys fan from Nepal as well as
entire people going through this talk?
To bands I want to say keep working hard, it pays off in the
end. And don't be an asshole, 'cause that will come back and bite you in the
ass in the end. That goes for everyone really, even if you're not in a band. To
our fans I want to say thank you so much for your dedication and support over
the years!!
Now a rapid answer
top 10 album one should have and a dream metal lineup you've dreamed to play
live?
Haha damn, always so hard to name 'top 5 or 10' albums...
well, here are 10 top albums (in no particular order):
Somewhere in time –Iron Maiden.
Slaughtercult - Exhumed.
Highway to hell - AC/DC.
Operation: Mindcrime - Queensryche.
Master of puppets - Metallica.
Reign in blood -
Slayer.
Black to the blind - Vader.
World downfall -
Terrorizer.
Left hand path - Entombed.
Into the grave - Grave.
A dream metal line up could look like this:
Dave Lombardo on drums,
Steve Harris on bass,
Alex Skolnick and Pat O'Brien on guitars
Phil Anselmo on
vocals.
That would be interesting!
Haha for sure. We
wish you best wishes for final tours and hope the coming generation follow Vomitorys
path. Lastly, a space for you anything we SNRMB have forgotten to ask you can
tell us here?
Thank you very much! I've got nothing more to add.
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