The Swedish underground death metal scene and its new generation of death metal heads are continuing to make an impact on the worldwide extreme music scene, and Decomposed is one of the latest bands to really capture my attention with their dark morbid death metal and their latest release, their 2nd album ‘Devouring’ (released earlier in the year by Memento Mori) has been getting a lot of plays on my stereo, full of dread filled deathly hooks, sinister memorable riffs, grotesque growls and an overall ominous, foreboding atmosphere. These youngsters are bang on the money in my opinion when it comes to creating the right ambience and atmosphere and will appeal to people who like their death metal DARK, MORBID and EVIL. I got in touch with the band to find out more about this new horrifying Swedish death metal entity, Jesper Ekstål the band’s lead guitarist and vocalist answered my questions…
WORDS: Kat Gillham
WHO ARE THEY: Decomposed
WHERE ARE THEY FROM: Sundsvall, Sweden
FOR FANS OF: Morbid Angel, Repugnant, Possessed, Slayer, Early Entombed, Autopsy, Dismember, God Macabre, Funebrarum ,Tormented
LATEST RELEASE: ‘Devouring’ (Memento Mori)
WEBSITE: Facebook
Hails! Please give me a quick history of the band?
Jesper: “It began as a rather simple death metal project, pure death metal with a huge emphasis on the ambience and mood that the music evokes. And of course also good songwriting/structure/variation/etc. And I guess that’s still the goal to this day. But anyway, it was just intended to be like one demo, the goal was to find a drummer, record the thing and be done with it. But of course it developed into a band eventually, we recorded the demo and the two albums with a full line-up, and here we are today.”
After a very well received self titled debut album via Blood Harvest, you have recently had your punishing 2nd full length album ‘Devouring’ unleashed by Spanish deathcult Memento Mori – please tell us a little about this album in your own words and what can the readers expect from it? How did you hook with Raul and Memento Mori? Are you satisfied with how everything has turned out with the album and recording? Where can people pick it up from?
Jesper: “I see devouring as a logical step that took decomposed in the right direction. It puts even more value in the darkness of music and takes slightly more absence from drawing influence from outside sources, delving deeper into the core sound and developing it. The readers can expect dark moods and melodies expressed through death metal riffs. They can also expect a good deal of variety within the album. This is only according to me of course, listen to it with an open mind and forget about labels and classifications and decide what it might be worth to you, if anything at all.
“We needed a new label so I contacted a couple of them. Memento Mori were the first one to give us an answer, and they were also very supportive. So we agreed to release it on CD through them. I have nothing but good things to say about Raul/Memento Mori. People can pick it up from them or various distros.”
Where was the album recorded and mixed at?
Jesper: “It was recorded in the same studio as the demo and the debut: Studio Blastbeat in our hometown Sundsvall. It’s located right next to our rehearsal space, we know the guy who runs it well and we feel comfortable working there. Just as the other two recordings it was done very fast. Slightly above 24 hours I think, I don’t really remember the exact time it took. It was not hurried or anything, that’s just the way we prefer to work: very fast, effective, and to the point. And of course it provides that raw and honest feel that this album needs.”
Who designed the album cover? It is one of the band members if I am not mistaken? Same person who did the logo too?
Jesper: “I illustrated it. We originally tried working with another artist but we were, let’s say… not very pleased with the results. And the other artists were too expensive for our extremely small budget. So I had to do it myself. It was not easy at all, but totally worth it. I already had the concepts, the only thing I had to do was to figure out how to paint them fully, since I’m not really a graphic designer at all. I’m pleased with the end result though, and that’s all that matters. Basically I’m very picky and have high standards for everything regarding this band, so I took care of it myself, haha!”
Tell us a bit about the album title?
Jesper: “Slowly gnawing away from within, leaving nothing but death and decay, Ferociously clawing and tearing, Devouring life with relentless wrath.”
Lyrically where do you draw inspiration from to put pen to paper?
Jesper: “The lyrics are mostly thoughts and impressions from within and without expressed through metaphors since writing such things in a plain, ordinary language would simply not work or just come across as silly. A great deal of attention goes towards the rhythm, flow, and the mood that the words evoke. The main topic is death and everything that revolves around it. This album is more about spiritual/philosophical matters than gore or torture. And it’s heading even more in that direction.”
There have been many bands called Decomposed in the past, such as the well known UK doom/death band from early 90′s for example. Were you aware of such bands when you decided on the band name or does it not really bother you that there has been at least a few other bands playing death metal called Decomposed already? Why did you choose this name?
Jesper: “We wanted to have it as our name, nothing more than that. And also because as I said, the plans for this band in the beginning was not really enormous. But the name stuck with us and now it has a rather significant meaning in quite a lot of ways, for me at least. The only thing we’ve heard from the few active bands called Decomposed is something along the lines of “hey, cool man, another Decomposed”. We do our own thing and I hope that it should not be too hard to distinguish us from the other active bands under the same name.”
How does a typical song come together? What is the songwriting process like generally?
Jesper: “I am the one who writes everything. I do it alone in a very basic home studio. Whenever inspiration strikes I write. And how a song comes together is hard to explain since it happens quite randomly. Some songs writes themselves in a few days, some take weeks. The melody and the guitars comes first though, and with every guitar part I often have the final thing, the “whole” clearly in mind. The focus is always on the whole thing rather than separate bits and pieces. And the lyrics are almost always written after the music itself is composed.”
Which bands inspired you to play such a style of music? What bands fuel and shape the overall sound of Decomposed? What is the overall aim musically with Decomposed?
Jesper: “That’s tough to say. “Everything I listen to” would be the easy answer haha. When Decomposed started it was bands such as Slayer, Repugnant, Misfits, Mayhem, Possessed, Darkthrone, Morbid Angel, the Swedish death metal bands also, but not to such a huge extent as some people seem to think. But these days I don’t actively look for inspiration outwards, I prefer to lay the main focus towards within. Because that’s were creativity can be found. I’m not into “borrowing” riffs or you know, actively trying to write something that resembles my favourite bands. Of course you can’t escape outward influences completely and to deny having them at all would be rather insane I guess, but that is kind of the aim you should have if you want to get interesting results with music, and therefore a good principle to adhere to and I have been and will keep working towards that.
“The overall aim of Decomposed is to delve deeper and deeper into whatever this thing is. I’ve found, up to this point at least, that the more I’ve created for this band the more ideas I seem to get. It just keeps growing! The third album is completely done now and it’s very clear that it just keeps getting darker and darker for each album. It also keeps developing into something of it’s own, although in more or less subtle ways I’d say. You’ll see what I mean whenever this third album will see the light of day.”
You guys hail from Sweden which is known for it’s awesome scene and CV of bands when it comes to old school style death metal, are there any other or newer death metal bands from your local/regional scene you care to recommend playing death metal?
Jesper: “A long time favourite of mine is a demo by Graveless called “Condemned to a Nameless Death”. Especially a track from that one called “Incantations of the Gates”.
What is your opinion on the current worldwide death metal scene? Which newer bands out there do you feel a particular “affinity” with, if any?
Jesper: “I don’t really worry about it, but of course it’s nice to see quite a lot of honest and genuine death metal bands going strong and doing their thing. But my main focus is and will hopefully always be to direct this band in the way it needs to go.”
How active is Decomposed as a live entity? What can people expect from a live show by you guys? Have you played outside of Sweden yet or are there any plans to?
Jesper: “Not very active at all. No gigs planned at the moment, nor have we done that many. The ones we have done have been very good though. You can expect a pure death metal show with intense energy. Very raw and filthy. That’s it basically. We have not played outside of Sweden although we would love to, promoters just need to hit us up with a reasonable deal and we’ll be there for sure!”
Describe Decomposed in 5 words only?
Jesper: “Serious, humble, primitive, subtle, evolving.”
What are your plans now the album is out?
Jesper: “We will soon begin rehearsing the third album. Expect an album which takes a similar step as devouring did from the debut, only a much, much bigger one. More varied, more towards our true sound, massive, dark, aggressive as hell. It will fucking slay!”
Thanks for answering this short interview the last words are yours!
Jesper: “Thank you for supporting Decomposed.”
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