<![CDATA[Page Title (RSS 0.91)]]> http://nasum.com/blog/ RSS feed of Page Title en-us <![CDATA[Sample of the new Coldworker album]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=163 coldworker.com.

Check it out and let us know what you think in the forum!]]> <![CDATA[R.I.P. Vitek of Decapitated]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=162
As a fellow metal drummer I feel the need to express my deepest condolences to his fellow band members, family and fans all over the world. The Polish metal scene has lost another great drummer.

Personally I am not a huge fan of Decapitated. I've listened to their current album and enjoyed it, but there was no doubt that Vitek was a talented drummer who had a promising future ahead of him.

It's always sad when people die and even more so when they are so young. And that it happened during a tour is quite scary. Week after week, people that I know - and every now and then myself - is out on the roads, driving long distances during uncomfortable hours, and anything can happen. A couple of years ago, my friends in the local punkband The Accidents rolled of the ferry from Sweden to Germany in the early hours and crashed their tourbus on the Autobahn just a few minutes later (yes, their bandmonicker is ironic).

The Accidents were lucky. No injuries or fractures, just a few bruises, a totally smashed tourbus and a cancelled tour. Vitek and his fellow bandmate Covan (singer) weren't.

Let's all hope that Covan will recover and can comeback to the metal scene together with the rest of Decapitated in a new band or under the same name.

Again: my deepest condolences. ]]> <![CDATA[Important message to Nasum fans in the Ö]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=161
Rocks Records på Marieberg har total utförsäljning av allt med 30% rabatt. De har två ex av "Grind Finale" som man nu kan få köpa för under 200 kr.

Bara ett tips.]]> <![CDATA[Grindwork copy on eBay]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=160
Link to the auction

The seller is a friend of mine and 100% reliable. Now you have a chance to get one of the rarest Nasum releases out there!]]> <![CDATA[The new drums]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=159
Anyway, here's my new set up. A Pearl Reference set {10", 12", 16,", 22"}, my old Mapex Black Panther snare, and a shit load of cymbals.

Enjoy!

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http://nasum.com/blog/upload/trums_IMG_7458.jpg]]> <![CDATA[Masterblasters #2: Interview with Ove of]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=158 Sayyadina, an old friend of mine. Now, Ove is quite a different drummer from Tobben who I interviewed last time (although they are from the same part of Sweden), but that's what this series is all about - getting to know different drummers in the scene who all know how to blast. So, let's go for the second time:

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(Photo from www.returntothepit.com)

My first contact with you was in the 90's when I got a compilation tape with a bunch of bands from the small village of Torsby (internationally known for being the home village of soccer coach Sven-Göran Eriksson). Now, you are known under the nickname "Grind-Ove" - how did you first come to enjoy and ultimately play grind?

- I guess it was early 1991 I first got in touch with you, ordering Hymen [my old fanzine (1990-1994) - Anders], then sending the SMM comp tape in December maybe.
- Well, my first encounter with grindcore was not very pleasant at all. In 1989 I borrowed some Napalm Death vinyls ("Scum", "FETO" and "Peel Sessions" ) from my friend Blom, who said it was his new favorite band, and honestly I thought it pretty much sucked. I was into thrash metal, hardcore and crossover like Assassin, DRI, Nuclear Assault, Protes Bengt, SOD and Wehrmacht, but Napalm Death's stuff was a bit too chaotic and noisy for me, like they didn't play together, not keeping pace, or something. Later that year another friend of mine got the "Grindcrusher" comp lp from his uncle and I immediately fell for Morbid Angel, Intense Degree and Filthy Christians, and soon realized that the rest on there was great as well, so I had to borrow Blom's ND records again and this time I enjoyed them. (What appears as a mystery is that I thought Terrorizer were just avarage on that comp, until I heard their whole album, then they were The Best!)
- As for playing grind myself... It started 1990 with Gula Kulor - a recording project consisting of the four persons out of Torsby's population who liked somewhat extreme music. Two of them could actually play instruments (the already mentioned Blom being one) and I wanted to be a drummer and knew only a little more than how to hold the sticks. The recordings Gula Kulor made (three sessions 1990-1991 - no rehearsing) turned out to be some sort of hardcore/death metal crossover. Then me and Blom wanted to go grind, so we recorded a bunch of spontaneously created compositions under the name Purgative Klyster, New Year's 1991/1992, but of course the result was more noise than grind because I still had close to zero clue about how to play drums. We tried it again in 1993 with slightly better result.
- In November 1994 I became the drummer of local hardcore act Scamp (that Blom also figured here) and borrowed a drum kit (from the guy I replaced, actually) so I could practise. I bought a double pedal and learned how to blast, and realised "being a drummer" was more fun than I'd thought.
- I don't know when the nick "GrindOve" appeared or who it was that came up with it, but I first heard it in Kristinehamn and those Burst guys Linus and Jesper called their friends, going "Hey, GrindOve is here for a visit, come over and have some pizza and beer with us", mid-90s, something.

For me you don't seem like the tech guy who are concerned about your gear, am I right? What's your set-up?

- I suppose you got it right there! I haven't even learnt how to mention drum sizes correctly, so I only go for the circular diameter (skin sizes)...

White Yamaha RC 9000 (I think):
24" bass drum
13" and 15" toms

14" Pearl snare

14" Ufip hihat
18" Zildjian crash
20" Ufip ride
16" Samatya (Istanbul) crash
18" East China (for rehearsals)
(15" Sabian China on the album, and for gigs because it fits into my cymbal case.)

Tama Iron Cobra Power Glide double pedals

(That's my normal, grindcore, set-up. No China or left foot bass drum pedal for my punk rock set-up.)

Vater Manhattan 7A sticks with nylon tip (wooden tips are broken within a couple of songs, not because I hit hard, but because my precision is bad so I hit rims or other things around the kit)

- I bought the drums used in 1995 - my first kit (my oldest cymbal is the ride, bought in 2001). Shortly after, I bought a 14" tom as well (because I found it difficult doing fills with the huge gap between the 13" and 15" toms) but I didn't bring it with me when moving from Torsby to Stockholm in 1998. This, of course, destroyed my dream of learning cool fills but allowed me to get a compact set-up, with the ride very close to the snare, which I now see as important when playing, as well as having the China and crash on my right close to the ride.

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You are one of the few drummers I know who actually suffered injuries partly in regards to the drumming, and for a while you had to stop playing the drums. Tell me about it. What are your injuries and how did they appear? Are they drum related or work related?

- Yes, a three year hiatus from drumming. I suppose it was a combination of an intense period at work (lots of lifting, carrying and throwing stuff) and rehearsing without warming up, so the injury was related to both. I got problems with my right shoulder. It appeared to be chronical inflammation ("Supraspinatus tendinitis", as one doctor concluded, while another doc said "Tendonitis? No, that's VERY unusual nowadays, you're so young" ).
- When my shoulder had been sore for a couple of weeks, in April 2002, I went to a doctor who gave me a cortisone shot which gave no result, so seven weeks later he gave me another one and still nothing happened. When he wanted to give me a third dose I thoght he was sponsored by the cortisone manufacturer and said "hold it!" and left. He was scary - took only 20 seconds to decide where to put the needle! ("Arms up! Bend back! Arms down! Lift 'em up! It hurts? Ok, you need cortisone! Was it the left one? No? Ok, the right then. There you go, good luck and goodbye!" )
- I went to see a professional sports doctor, and instead of just guessing he used a very logical and thorough method and took 20 minutes to find exactly where the sore point was situated before the cortisone injection (and it appeared NOT to be where the first doc had guessed).
- Then I was mostly sick-listed and had a surgery in September 2003, followed by physiotherapy at a sports injury clinic.
- In February 2005 I tried drumming again and it worked, but only a couple of times a week and not two days in a row. By June I quit going to the gym because my left shoulder started to hurt...

How do you feel today? You are back as a drummer in Sayyadina and also in the fairly new band Nice Idiot. To what extent can you play today?

- Sadly I'm not that much better now than two years ago and I still haven't tried grinding the drums two consecutive days. I was almost up for that last year when we rehearsed quite a lot for a while so my muscles got built up, but then we stopped practising to concentrate on finishing the new Sayyadina album. With Nice Idiot I think I can play again the following day as it's just punk/hardcore and pretty relaxed.

Back to the drumming - what drummers do you see as inspirations for your style?

- This is difficult. Some I see as great drummers but they haven't exactly influenced me while others have, but it probably won't show in my playing anyway because I'm not good enough. If keeping it short I think the most obvious are Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth), Hoccy (G-anx), Scott Lewis (Brutal Truth), Rob Proctor (Assück), Pete Sandoval (on "World Downfall", that is), Sveden (Raped Teenagers) and Max Ward (Spazz).
- To extend the list I'd also like to mention Pete Fratta (Hail Of Rage), Steve "Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford (Poison Idea), Anders Jakobson (Nasum/Coldworker), Keule (Cyness), Adde Mitroulis (Birdflesh/General Surgery/Jigsore Terror/Sayyadina), Randy Odierno (Disrupt), DH Peligro (Dead Kennedys), Bruce "Ted" Slesinger (Dead Kennedys), Neal Smith (Alice Cooper Group), Glenn Sundell (Monster/I Quit!) and Phil Taylor (Motörhead) as sources of inspiration for my drumming in one way or another.
- Other excellent drummers I really admire are Nicke Andersson (Entombed), Clive Burr (Iron Maiden), Brann Dailor (Today Is The Day/Mastodon), Doc (Vader), Tobben Gustafsson (Vomitory), Kai Hahto (Rotten Sound), David Sandström (Refused), Josh Sinder (The Accüsed) and Dave Witte (Discordance Axis/Municipal Waste/Melt-Banana). I love listening to those but what they do is so far away from what I can do. If I sit down and try some of their stuff I only get frustrated (although I did try to copy a Doc fill and a Kai thing on the new Sayyadina album - risky!).

What are your strengths/weaknessess in your opinion? What do you need to work on to develop your drumming? One strength as I see it is that you probably are the fastest blaster in the Swedish grindcore scene. Comments on that?

- Thanks! I'm not so sure I'm the fastest, but yes, my blasting speed may be a strength. Probably my only one, sadly...
- I'm useless when it comes to double bass. I was about to start controlling it by 1996 and had my peak when recording the Scamp mini CD, August that year. Then I had sort of a break from drumming for a year and I still can't get my feet going like back in 1996.
- I'm also having problems with my d-beat. I kind of lost it in 2001, between the first and second Sayyadina recording. If I play slower it's ok, but I want it to match my blast beat tempo, and to reach that I've now learnt to play d-beat using both feet. It's a bit tricky to control and on the new Sayya album I only dared to do it on one track.
- I'm no good at fills or using the toms - a short snare roll in the middle of a grind part here and there is what I do. Practising fills is the most boring thing to do, so I never do it. (That's the correct attitude, right?)
- Technique is also a big weakness for me. That goes for hands and feet. I don't even hit the same way with both my hands, and my left foot/leg is like a stiff piece of wood compared to my right.
- Unfortunately I don't do much practising at all. Sometimes I go to the rehearsal place myself but instead of trying to get better at double bass or fills I just run through the songs which are to be recorded, or the current setlist if there's gig approaching.

Sayyadina has a new full-length "Mouring the unknown" slated for release in April. It's been a work in progress for quite some time. Why has it taken so long time to finish the album? How does it differ from your previous album?

- We started recording the drums in March last year and didn't do the last vocals until November or December. We realized that with my shoulder condition the only way we could do it was by ourselves at the rehearsal place with bassist/vocalist Andreas engineering, allowing me to do a few songs one evening and then rest for a couple of days before next session. Going to recordings on week days also gave us short sessions as Andreas gets off work at 5 in the evening, then one hour drive and probably some food before even reaching the rehearsal room. And having no deadline made us excessively picky with things - redoing a certain part thousands of times and in the end not even being sure it's better than it was on the first take.
- Also, Jon was away on tour with Victims all of May and Andreas recorded an album with Sunday Morning Einsteins during the summer and went touring with them in September then taking a couple of weeks off from all things music.
- The major differences between "Fear gave us Wings" and "Mourning the Unknown" must be the drumming and the vocals. Me and Adde are quite different as drummers. He's great at d-beat and fills while I'm blasting a little bit faster than him - so less d-beat and more speed on the new one. As for the vocals, I probably did 90% or so of them on "Fear..." but not a single word on "Mourning..." - it's split between Andreas and Jon again, as on our early recordings.

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"Mourning the unknown" is also the first full-length that you play the drums on - how frustrating was it not to play on the first album "Fear gave us wings"?

- Not that much, actually. I'd almost gotten quite accustomed to being the singer, and watching Adde nail the 19 songs for the album in just one day - including some tracks he was introduced to the previous evening - was pure pleasure! I'm not sure but maybe Adde had some concerns about the speed, but we learned that if we only annoyed him a couple of times between takes he got a bit sulky, went "Fuck you, fuckers!" and sped up prominently. My only frustration was "If I'm ever getting back to drumming I can't do any of those fills or play d-beat that fast..."

And going back to the theme of drum injuries for the final question - what do you do today to avoid feeling sore and all that after a rehearsal or a show? What have you learned about dealing with your situation?

- I'm warming up, and that's what I recommend every drummer of this kind of music to do. It is quite physically demanding, and why do sportsmen warm up? Yes, to perform better AND to avoid injuries. It's easy before rehearsing - I just let my feet go pretty slow/midtempo and do the same with my hands on the snare for several minutes. I don't blast or hit cymbals until I start to sweat. (During this Andreas and Jon do some freeform jamming.) At shows I get sweaty by just rigging my stuff and adjusting the kit before it's our turn to play, then I try to get my hands, wrists, arms and shoulders going by just drumming on something backstage until we go on stage.
- My playing is slightly different now compared to before the hiatus/surgery. I think one can hear it if listening closely to the details and only concentrate on what my right hand is doing. It's all about adjusting my playing to what my shoulder can take.
- I've definitely learnt that I'm a better/nicer/more friendly person when I'm able to play drums, and that's exactly what all of my friends deserve - a better Ove.

Thanks a lot for the answers, Ove. Check out Sayyadina at MySpace to hear some stuff from the upcoming album.]]> <![CDATA[Masterblasters #1: Interview with Tobben]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=157
I don't know how many parts of this series I will do, but I know that I will speak to four drummers (all Swedish) as a start and then we'll see what happens. First off is Tobias (Tobben) Gustafsson of death metal killers Vomitory, soon to release their new album "Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize". This is a great interview, I hope you'll enjoy it!

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Vomitory will soon release a new album. In your studio diary over at the Global Domination forum you wrote that you managed to record all the drums in one day LESS than expected. What do you see was the reason for this rapid recording? Did you prepare yourself more than before regarding rehearsals or was just a matter of being in a good mood?

- I guess it was a combination of both. Obviously, I was in very good drumming shape when we began the recordings and we had rehearsed all the songs quite a lot before we entered the studio. There were never really any “critical” parts in any of the songs, so overall, everything went very smooth.

How much editing is involved in the drum recordings? (No editing is mentioned in the studio diary.) Do you aim to put down the song in its entirety or do you repair little mistakes and such stuff if most part of the take is great? What's your general opinion about editing?

- Man, this is a very sensitive subject for drummers… I always aim to put down every song in its entirety, of course, and sometimes I manage to do so and sometimes I don’t. When I don’t, I repair the little mistakes if the rest of the take is really good. Or if the first half of a take is killer and the other half isn’t as good, we punch-in the drums from there and I make a killer second half of that track.
- I’m not the one who, at any cost, has to put down every song flawlessly in one take. Fuck that. Have you ever seen or heard of a guitarist that puts down his guitar tracks without punch-ins, cutting, editing etc? Every guitarist does it, so why can’t drummers do it as well? Or vocalists, or bassists, or keyboard players etc…?
- When you’re in the studio doing an album, you’re there doing an album. It’s not live, ‘cause that is something totally different. Where does one draw the line when it comes to recording? If you look at it from a very strict perspective, the whole way of recording in a studio is cheating. No band on earth sounds like they do in the studio when they play live.
- My view on editing and computer recording has changed during the last, say, five years. When the computers made its entrance into the world of recording for real, I was really sceptical about everything about it, not to mention that one also was able to edit the drums, cut and paste as much as one liked! What the fuck was that all about!!?? But now I see everything as very helpful, time- and money-saving tools.
- You can’t deny that the technology constantly develops, so instead of being a stubborn bullhead, I am open to the possibilities of utilizing the advantages of what today’s recording technology has to offer. That’s what they’re designed for. But of course it has to be used with certain moderation. It should definitely not cover up the fact that one can’t play for shit!

Vomitory has been around for quite a long time now. How has your style developed over the last, let's say 10 years, and what do you feel that you still can work on for future development?

- I am definitely a more solid drummer now than I was ten years ago. I hit harder, more consistent and more distinct. I am also much more aware of what I am playing. Earlier I used to tend to play just a little above my ability limit but I think I’ve managed to play just under that limit instead nowadays. That limit, however, is a lot higher these days.
- My hand technique has improved a lot but I haven’t quite kept up with my feet though. My foot work has always been my main issue when it comes to death metal drumming. During certain periods I play better with my feet than I’ve ever done before, but maybe half a year later I totally suck.
- For example, during the period when we rehearsed the songs and recorded our previous album “Primal Massacre”, I played double bass really fucken good, but just a few months later when we got out on tour I wasn’t even close to what I could do with my feet when we recorded the album. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m not the only drummer with this problem. The drumming-shape comes and goes.
- The thing is that I suck at practicing. I don’t practice as much as I should or want to but I think it’s difficult to find the time. I also miss the kind of self-discipline one need to practice on a constant level. Right now I play really good (for being me) so it’s really fun to play drums now!
- What I need to work on for my future development is definitely my double bass technique – the consistency and endurance. I have no intention to become as hyper-fast as Derek Roddy, Inferno, Daray, Pete Sandoval and those guys (only “fast” will do it for me), but I want to be able to pull off my own stuff flawlessly every time without hesitation or getting the cramps.
- I’ve never been a tech-freak when it comes to fills etc, but it would be nice to develop that side of my drumming as well. I try to come up with new ideas that I can bring into my drumming but it’s difficult. But I guess that’s also why it’s fun!

Are you self-taught or did you go to the infamous Swedish "Musikskolan" or something similar? How much effort do you put on using good techniques, ergonomics and such?

- I am completely self-taught from the beginning. I got my first drum kit when I had just turned 13 and I almost instantly began playing with a friend of mine who was playing the guitar. I also practiced a lot by playing along to my favourite bands and that has taught me a lot of how to play and how to write music.
- I played for three years before I actually did go to “Musikskolan” to learn drum-notes. I learned a little, but I knew pretty much right away that sight-reading wasn’t for me. I was a metal drummer for fucks sake and I was going to be a rock star with my band! No need for drum-notes there. But that’s something I kind of regret today. It would be great to be able to play after notes. I played in a couple of marching bands during these years too and that was quite cool and interesting. That was so totally different from what I used to do but it was still drumming.
- Once I joined my first band, I almost never practiced by myself. I was mostly playing in several bands so I got my fair share of drumming anyway. I never thought of improving my technique or ergonomics especially much. That’s something that I’ve become more aware of during the last years. Especially since I started to feel pain in my left wrist, which was sometime around 1998-99. I also had some back problems a couple of years ago. I mounted a backrest on my drum throne and that improved my posture instantly and now I almost never have any problems with my back when I’m drumming. The backrest kind of “forces” you to sit more straight, which is a very good thing in every aspect of drumming.
- Unfortunately, I don’t spend as much time practicing as I wish I should. I’m a bit lazy and I’m not enough disciplined when it comes to that. But of course there are periods when I’m pretty good at practicing. The only bad thing is that they mostly don’t last so long…

What drummers would you say have had the most impact on you, either as a general source of inspiration or as a direct defining influence of your sound? What drummers are pushing death metal drumming forwards these days?

- Some of my favourite drummers are Nicko McBrain, Mikkey Dee, Ian Paice, Doc, Dave Lombardo, Nicke Andersson, Nicke Sigevall and Kai Hahto and these have influenced me my drumming a lot, in one way or another. I especially want to hold Doc very high, ‘cause when I discovered Vader, I was totally blown away by Doc’s drumming! I think one can hear quite clearly the impact he had on my drumming when you compare the Vomitory albums “Redemption” and “Revelation Nausea”. May he rest in peace…
- Kai Hahto’s drumming in Rotten Sound has also influenced me quite a lot. His innovative style is sweet ear-candy for any death metal –and grindcore drummer. It is because of him I started using splash cymbals in my setup!
- I am not into those hyper-fast drummers that much actually. Of course it’s impressive to see and hear those guys blast away double bass at 250 bpm, but I think that most of those drummers tend to sound very stiff and monotonous. That simply doesn’t do it for me. Give me Nicke Andersson instead! That guy plays death metal with a swing! And that’s something that most of those guys probably couldn’t do!
- I think we have reached the point where the speed has become more of a sport than a musical ingredient. If it goes too fast, it just sounds ridiculous. It’s not musical, you know, nor brutal. Death metal has taken the speed thing to its limit, more or less, so I think what the genre calls for now is more diversity and feel. I won’t be the one taking the lead there though! I just want to play D-takt all night long, haha!
- Some drummers that definitely have meant a lot to the development of modern death metal drumming are (of course) Derek Roddy, who not only is hyper-fast, but also talks a lot about other aspects of drumming, which I think is really cool ‘cause I think a lot of young drummers don’t think those things are important. They just stare themselves blind on achieving the same speed as Derek can play, so I think what he does is great. Flo Mounier is another name that automatically comes up in my head when thinking of this. I’m honestly not into Cryptopsy that much – not at all in fact – but I know for sure that Flo is a killer drummer.

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What's your current set up and how did you end up with this particular set up?

- My current kit is a brand new Tama Starclassic Performer Birch/Bubinga in Dark Mocha Fade. I’ve just had it for two months now and I absolutely love it! It sounds and looks just awesome! I’ve played Tama for almost 20 years now. I don’t have an endorsement though, but I just think Tama is the shit!
- The specs are:
18”x22” kick drums (x2)
8”x10”, 9”x12”, 10”x13” rack toms
14”x16” floor tom
5½”x14” snare
My main snare, though, is a Tama Starclassic Maple 5½”x14”. I also have a Pearl Free floating Brass 5”x14” which I use at live shows.
- My cymbals are (L to R, from “drivers seat”):
14" Paiste 2002 Sound Edge Hi-hat
10" Wuhan splash
14" Wuhan china
17" Zildjian A Custom Fast crash
10" Meinl Classics splash
18" Paiste 2002 Crash
18" Zildjian A Custom Crash
20" Paiste Signature Dry heavy Ride
20" Paiste Signature Thin China
- Hardware etc:
Tama Camco pedals
Tama Iron Cobra hi-hat stand
Tama cymbal arms and tom holders
Gibraltar snare stand
Tama drum throne
Gibraltar rack
ddrum trig mikes for the kickdrums
Alesis D4 sound module
- Before I got my first decent kit in 1989 (which was a Tama Rockstar Pro), I always dreamed of a huge metal kit with double bass drums and four rack toms and shitloads of cymbals. And when I got that Tama Rockstar Pro with two kicks and four rack toms, I just felt that it was right. But after time I took away the 14” tom from that particular kit, partly because it always sounded dead and I never managed to tune it properly and partly because I thought that 14” was a little too big for a rack tom.
- Once I did that, I felt a lot more comfortable with only three toms in front of me. Less clumsy. That way I could also position the cymbals a lot better than I could with four toms. Since I’m a bit of an equipment nerd, I could easily have created a huge monster kit over the years with lots and lots of toms, double or triple floor toms, 50 splash cymbals, auxiliary snares, gongs, octabans, electronics etc, but for practical (and partly economical) reasons I have chosen not to.
- I am playing live on a somewhat regular basis and every time it’s a different drum kit, since I almost never bring my own kit due to financial and practical reasons. If I had that huge monster kit and had created my drum parts on that kit, it would be pretty fucken difficult to play everything on a quite “normal” metal drum kit setup, with two kicks, two or three rack toms, one floor tom and four cymbal stands, which is mostly what it looks like when we go on tour, play festivals or one-off shows. So that’s why my setup looks like it does. I have two splash cymbals and a small china beside the regular crashes, ride and china in my setup now, and sometimes I feel even that is too much!

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What are your rituals before a show or a rehearsal? Do you do any warm up exercises and if so what do you do?

- I always warm up in one way or another before a show and at rehearsals. I have had some problems with my left wrist for a number of years now, and if I begin playing without warming up I feel pain in my wrist after only a few songs. Not to mention how the pain is after the show/rehearsal. I have to warm up before or else I cannot play properly throughout a whole show. It’s difficult already as it is!
- Well, what do I do then? Nothing fancy at all, I just take my sticks and I put a folded towel on my knee and just play single strokes at a slow tempo first and then increase the speed as I feel my limbs get warmer and more relaxed. With my feet, I just keep them going on the floor to get them warm and to loosen up. I don’t play any special rudiments or exercises, just anything that crosses my mind.
- I do this for at least 20-30 minutes before a show or rehearsal. It’s not much but it definitely makes a world of difference for me.

Ever since I was a little dude and started looking at song credits at albums I have been fascinated with the often quite big part in the song writing drummers have, whether it be lyrics or music. How large part of the song writing do you have in Vomitory?

- I am actually the main composer in Vomitory. I write like 95% of the music. I also play the guitar beside the drums so I guess it comes quite naturally for me. I wouldn’t call myself a guitarist, but I can play pretty decent and good enough to write and play my own songs and a few metal classics if the situation calls for it, haha.
- It’s a great advantage of being able to play both drums and guitar since I quite often come up with riffs when I’m playing the drums, just fooling around. That’s when it’s very handy to have my guitar next to the kit so I instantly can work the riff out on the guitar. I usually finish a song completely with arrangements and everything before I play it to the other guys. If they like it, it’s cool. If they don’t or if there is a special part that someone doesn’t like, we’ll work it out together. Then when it’s finished, Erik (Rundqvist – bass & vocals) starts working on the lyrics.
- On the new album though, our new guitar player, Peter Östlund, has contributed with three songs – one of them both music and lyrics - which is great since it takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders. I’ve also written my first Vomitory lyric ever for the new album, the title track “Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize”.

Although there are a lot of kids growing up inspired by these insane blasters in the metal world today and rarely need any advice how to do it, what would your best word of advice for a brand new drummer be?

- Don’t go for speed – go for power and consistency first. Listen to Mikkey Dee, Ed Warby, Nicke Andersson and Dave Lombardo and listen to how they do it before you listen to all the speedfreaks out there. If you don’t, it can seriously fuck up your drumming for life! And practice, practice, practice with patience, patience, patience.

Thanks for the killer answers, Tobben! Next time you'll read about a completely different drummer, but still a masterblaster...]]> <![CDATA[More drums: five months of waiting is ov]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=156
The funny thing was that the seller was a fellow blaster - Tobben from Vomitory. So we exchanged a few emails until I finally paid for the pedal via PayPal. This is very exciting and I hope the pedal gets here faster than a shark...

I might be a little naive but I really hope that my pedal work will improve with this somewhat ugly but superfast pedal. All the fast blasters uses this pedal and I hope that it will be the missing piece I've been looking for, for a long time.

Guess I'll share the development of my drumming another day. With or without the Axis pedal...]]> <![CDATA[I'm getting new drums]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=155
So I'm getting a new one, a Pearl Reference kit. It will be ordered today and in my hands, perhaps next week. I will update you all with info and pictures once it's set up and ready for grind.

Anyway - if there's anyone interested in buying the DW kit, now is the time to get in touch and give me a good offer. Right now it's part of the payment for the new drums, but I rather sell it to someone else who I know will enjoy them.

What I'm selling is:
One (1) 12" rack tom with tom holder clamp
One (1) 16" floor tom with tom holder clamp
One (1) 24" kick drum with hardcase

That's it - no stands, no snare, no cymbals, no pedals, nothing but the three drums with two clamps and one hardcase for the kick drum.

This offer is mainly for Swedish drummers, because it will cost too much to ship them elsewhere.

So, if someone is interested, get in touch at once.]]> <![CDATA[Mieszko tribute by Matte]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=154
Well, obviously Soundlab is not a studio in the same active way it was today, it's more of Millencolin's headquarters and from time to time recordings are made.

Later this month Matte is releasing his soloproject/new band Franky Lee's debut album "Cutting Edge" on Burning Heart. The first singel/video "The world just stopped" is his tribute to Mieszko. I didn't realise this until I read the lyrics and got tears in my eyes.

I think it's safe to say that it wasn't just the former Nasum members who lost someone, a lot of friends in Örebro and elsewhere are missing Mieszko, and Matte who was such a close friend to him, may be missing him more than others. I remember having a phone call with Matte close after the Tsunami and he was a wreck not knowing what to do with the company and all the booked recordings and the bills and all that.

I'm glad that it all sorted itself out in the end and that Matte could make this album and get his feeling out of the system and write his "Mieszko lyrics".

I've known Matte for soon 20 years and he's always been a nice guy, from the days we used to skate together outside his house until these days when I always can rely on him when I need to borrow some mikes and shit for my recordings.

So this is the way that I honor you, Matte. Thanks for everything.

Here's the video for "The world just stopped". More info at http://frankylee.com
]]> <![CDATA[Happy new year!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=153
I hope the holidays have been good for each and everyone of you and that 2007 looks like a good year for you, it certainly does for me.

2006 has been an exciting year for me, especially compared to 2005 which more or less sucked big time. Enough about that! 2006 was the year when I released two new album, created a new band and did 18 shows. Not much perhaps, but at least it's something.

First of: Krigshot. We recorded the "Till vilket pris som helst" album in December of 2005 and January 2006 and it was released by Communichaos Media in April, in which we also had a little release party show at Kafé 44 in Stockholm. I am quite pleased with the album. It was the first real thing I recorded on my equipment and I also mixed the album and did the cover - a real ego trip for sure.

And the show was good as well. We also did a second show at the Augustibuller festival which was sort of interesting in many ways. On my way to the festival I was apparently speeding (hm...) so the cops, of the "slaniga snutar" as we say in Krigshot, arrested me and gave me a ticket of huge proportions. As I was already late for the festival I sent a textmessage to the other guys saying that I was running late because I had to drive according to the rules.

When I got to the festival I was very late and during this time a rumour had started that the entire band had gotten arrested for drug possession! Rumours! Anyway, that show went well also but since then Krigshot has lain low. There were talk about a Stockholm show but it never happened.

Right now I don't know what's in the future of the band. I'd really like to do a 7" or something just quite sponteaneously but we'll see.

If you haven't heard "Till vilket pris som helst" I suggest you buy a copy at once! More info about Krigshot at krigshot.com.

I also did a show with Regurgitate during the summer. Jocke was expecting another child and couldn't leave the country to do the Grind your mother festival in Italy so I was asked to help. I did a few shows with Regurgitate in 2004 when Jocke was ill so it wasn't that surprising that I would do it again.

It was a fun trip with Rugge, Urban and Glenn, especially to get down in Europe again and meet some cool people. Napalm Death was at the festival too so it was great meeting these friends again.

The biggest thing for me 2006 was of course starting a new band, getting a record deal, recording an album, releasing the album and touring in less than a year. You should know what I'm talking about because everything happened here in the blog.

It was in January that I first explained my wish for a new band and I even announced for members in the blog. I found Anders B and Oskar and in February we had our first rehearsals and then the ball was rolling. In two months the band was completed by André and Joel and through our multitrack rehearsals we were able to get a deal with Relapse Records. Two months later we had our first show with Gadget and then recorded what became our debut album "The Contaminated Void".

Everything went very fast for this band and I am so happy about this achievement during 2006. Not in my wildest dreams could I have expected something like this to happen.

The future for Coldworker - as the name of the band is - is very bright and I hope that the band will grow during this coming year.

Do buy "The Contaminated Void" if you haven't heard it yet, and check out coldworker.com for more info.

What else has happened? Well, in December I had two sessions with Regurgitate as a recording engineer putting 16 songs to disc, to be used on splits and whatever. The recording is in the mixing stage right now and I think it sounds pretty cool. I guess you'll hear samples of it in time.

And - of course - how could I forget, "Grind Finale" was released on both CD and 4xLP during the year!

And finally, for the drummers: Just before New Year's I got a late Christmas gift in the shape of a custom-made cymbal! The truth is perhaps not as exciting as I made it out to be, but I currently have a pretty unique cymbal in my set up that I choose to call "the 11,5" custom-made bellsplash"!

The story: Earlier this year I discovered a crack in my ride cymbal, a 21" handhammered Sabian ride. I took the cymbal to the store where I bought it to see if I could get a new one on the guarentee, but too much time had passed. I didn't bother bringing the cymbal back from the store so it's been there for a couple of months.

The 27th of December I got a call from Peter Damin, a drummer extraordinaire that works there from time to time who asked me to come and get it. When I went there I asked Peter if it was possible to do something with it as I knew he experimented a lot with broken cymbals. We agreed to saw it down to a much smaller size to hopefully get an interesting effect cymbal out of it as the bell part of the cymbal was very distinct and cool.

Peter said that he would look into it after the New Year's, but just two days later as I was riding with Coldworker to Borlänge for the last show of the year, I got a phone call which started with: "Listen to this!" and then a cymbal was hit in my ear. Peter was very excited about the result and asked me to come right away, but as I was heading for a show I couldn't make it. I got it the day after and today, on the first day of the new year, I went to the rehearsal place and tried it out.

It certainly is a nice addition to my set up and I'm eager to work it into my playing. After being a four cymbal guy for about ten years I think that I will do a few additions to my set up during 2007.

Anyways, here are a few picture of my set up and the new cymbal:

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/IMG_7434.jpg

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/IMG_7435.jpg

And if you want to hear the new guy, just listen to this.

While being in the rehearsal room I wrote down everything I have as people seem to ask about it from time to time. Now I have it in print, so here it is:

Cymbals:
14" Zildjian K Custom dark hi hats
18" Zildjian Z Custom medium crash
20" Zidjian A Custom crash
22" Zildjian K Custom ride (this will be exchanged to a 20" Earth ride tomorrow hopefully)
20" Sabian AAX chinese

Drums:
14" Mapex Black Panther snare
12", 16", 24" DW drums

Pedals:
DW 5000 (which I have been trying to exchange to a pair of Axis A Longboards during since September without luck...)

So there you have it, and there you have my sum up of 2006!]]> <![CDATA[Another piece of Nasum disappeared]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=152
And today it was brought out for the last time. The bass amp has been stored away lately so I haven't really had it in my sight during rehearsals, but in a little, little way I feel some sort of sadness that it disappeared. It's a little bit of Nasum going away from me.

I still have Mieszko's set up facing me each rehearsal (as it is in use) so his "Shift" sign is looking at me, and I have my "Shift" sign stuck on the bassdrum so there's a little piece of Nasum still left in my surroundings.]]> <![CDATA[Grind Finale 4xLP mailing December 4]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=151 Zemtsov Dmitrii Georgievitch, Russia
Terry Bassan, Canada
Nisa Bayindir, Turkey
Christoph Klein, Austria
Maarten Van Marle, Netherlands]]> <![CDATA[Weekend in the studio]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=150 Regurgitate came bright and early and tracked about 15 tracks for multiple use. Rugge and Urban really enjoyed the multitrack rehearsal we recorded earlier this year when I did a session with them for the "Grind your mother" festival in Italy (RGTE feat. Anders Jakobson doing Napalm Death's "Lucid Fairytale") and decided they wanted to record a few songs with me (as a producer, not drummer!).

So we did it. Unfortunately we ran out of time before we could track the vocals but we'll do that in a couple of weeks. I have yet not started mixing the songs, but I think the basic sound is pretty cool. A little rough in the edges but that was the whole point.

On Sunday I did half of a recording with my fellow Coldworker Anders B and his Ruin. We tracked drums, bass and vocals. The guitars will be recorded in another studio and the ultimately mixed by Dan Swanö in the end. This was a lot of fun, we spend quite a lot more time getting the drum sound going compared to the RGTE session, and as Ruin has a fucking solid drummer in Tobbe whipping out fast 2/2 beats and blast and double kick mayhem everything went surprisingly fast (both the music and recording).

I think it can turn out as a killer demo in the end.]]> <![CDATA[Grind Finale 4xLP mailing November 30]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=149
Christoffer Sandström, Norway
Drew Volker, USA
Kamil Kuder, Poland
Daniel Rauscher, Germany
Patrick Fogler, Austria
Christoph Albert, Germany
Seitse Oberman, Netherlands
Sven Nowotnik, Germany
Martin De Bruyn, Netherlands
Christian Casar, Germany
Markus Klotz, Germany
David Kälin, Switzerland
Otto Sparrer, Sweden
Martin Wilckens, Germany]]> <![CDATA[Grind Finale 4xLP mailing November 28]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=148 Tomas Lundström, Sweden
Jonas, Sweden
Alexander Borg, Sweden
Niklas Wejsfelt, Sweden
Per Bengtsson, Sweden
Jon Deagle, Canada
Susan Wheeler, Australia
Sascha Grau, Austria
Andy Williams, Australia
Misha Stecyk, Canada
Derek Rennels, USA
Mathias Krogh, Sweden
Andreas Hedberg, Sweden
Stefan Åkerberg, Sweden]]> <![CDATA[Grind Finale 4xLP mailing November 22]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=147 Markus Buggert, Germany
Daniel Kegelmann, Germany
Jordi Balague I Linares, Spain
Erik Minnen, Belgium
Daniel Blage, Germany
Constantin Neumeister, Germany
Alan Beningfield, UK
Pierre VD Zande, Netherlands
Stefan Löfgren, Sweden
Johan Suikki, Sweden
Anders Rosvall, Sweden
Pierre Andersson Ek, Sweden
Pär Johansson, Sweden
Jonas Stjernström, Sweden
Henrik Ingelsten, Sweden
Marcus Hardt, Sweden
Jimmy Nilsson, Sweden
Attila Lazslo, Slovak Republic
Richard Nykvist, Sweden]]> <![CDATA[Excuses, recommendations and pleads]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=146
Anyway, thought I'd grace your days with some record recommendations of recent stuff that has passed through my ears...

THE HAUNTED - The dead eye

This record was torn to pieces when it leaked a couple of MONTHS ago (please stop this madness!) and I heard a few choice cuts and thought it sounded really weird to say the least. Now when I have the album I can't understand what was weird. I probably heard all the less thrashy songs early on.

In my opinion "The dead eye" isn't that much different from the last album. The production is more luxurious to pick an interesting word, which probably help the less thrashy parts to sound even weirder than they actually are.

It's a really good album and since I really, really love Dolvings non-Haunted stuff, I enjoy his diverse vocals on this album.

CONVERGE - No heroes

Yeah, I hyped this a couple of weeks ago and now I got it. Actually, that album overview didn't really do it for me. It's an abbreviation of the album that doesn't work in my opinion. The actual songs are much better.

So far I've only listened to it three, four times, but I feel that it's a strong album. Not as ultra dark as "You fail me", but heavy as hell. Awesome cover art by Mr Bannon as always...

ISIS - In the absence of truth

To tell you the truth (hoho...) my first impression of this new Isis album wasn't all that positive. It really sounds like pretty much everything else they've done the recent years. For me, early Isis is the shit. The crushingly heavy "The red sea" and the magnificient "Celestial" is their best releases in my mind.

But "In the absence of truth" is very good. Very Isis, and very good. And there's some double bass kicking on the album! How about that?

MADE OUT OF BABIES - Coward

Really cool and great noise rock band on Neurot Recording. It's like a mix of PJ Harvey and Neurosis. Or something. It's weird and good and interesting.

WOLF - The black flame

Local heavy metal heroes. Always good, always 150% metal! This band need to break through now. I mean, they already have four great albums out... Check it out if you need a fix of 80's metal!

That'll do for now.

Finally, something for the Swedish readers - I recently launched a new website called DVDKritik.se and I need to spread the name and URL. Check it out, and post about it in all your forums and that shit.

Non-Swedish readers can check it out aswell (that'll kick up the hits) but you won't understand much... :cool:]]> <![CDATA[Possibly one of the albums of the year]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=145

A new album from one of my favorite bands are coming up soon. Very soon. This might be the album of the year, as Converge's last one "You fail me" was totally outstanding (yes, "Jane Doe" is great too).

Best album this year so far is the new Mastodon though. Check it out if you haven't heard it yet.

Download the "No heroes" overview at Epitaph:
http://www.epitaph.com/artists/album/499]]> <![CDATA[RIP Jesse Pintado]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=144
Jesse was - obviously for his work in Terrorizer, Napalm Death and Lock-up - a real character in the grindcore world.

On stage he was sort of a dark and mysterious person who didn't really do much than just stand on his side of the stage, headbanging himself sweaty while bashing out one cool riff after the other.

Off stage he was a warm and funny person with a big heart and great knowledge in most subjects, be it food or extreme music.

He also snored like a fucking saw mill.

We did that long, long tour back in 2000 and I remember that on the second day of the tour Jesse brought us Swedes on a tour of Paris, walking up the hills to the Sacré Coeur. I was totally not prepared for that sort of hospitality from that dark and mysterious person.

A few hours later Jesse showed us how to play "Dead shall rise", but it wasn't until close to seven weeks later we played on stage with Jesse.

These are memories I will cherish forever.

http://nasum.com/images/gallery/euro00people/deadshallrise.jpg

In January I wrote a blog about the rumours regarding the musical content on Terrorizers long awaited second album. I was not happy about the talk about 13 minutes tracks, chants and classical piano parts. As a Terrorizer fan all I wanted to hear was that classic grindcore sound that did such a huge impact on me back in the late 80's that I wanted to play it myself. Terrorizer wasn't an original band back then, taking lots of inspiration from Repulsion, Discharge and probably even Napalm Death, and I didn't see the point in changing something that was perfect.

That was what I wrote. This blog was recently wrongfully used by a writer for Sweden's Close-up Magazine who twisted this into how angry and bitter I was about the new Terrorizer, and used that as a big part of an interview with Jesse. The result is almost a constructed beef between Jesse and I which I felt was totally uncalled for. I loved Jesse.

I bought the magazine last Saturday and read it properly during the Sunday thinking about meeting Jesse to set things straight. To know now that Jesse was on his death bed at this time sends shivers down my spine.

I've listened to "Darker days ahead" a couple of times and I am even supposed to review it for the paper where I work. I can't say that I've liked it so far, but I will certainly listen to is in a totally different way now. It will remain Jesse Pintados grindcore legacy for years to come.

My thoughts are with all the people who have played with him and of course his family in L.A.. Rest in peace.]]> <![CDATA[More merch or no more merch?]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=143
The biggest reason why I decided not to do more merch has been that I am very tired of having half my home as some sort of merch warehouse with boxes and boxes of t-shirts and hoods (they are the worst space consumers there is!). I am - or should I say I was - very tired of spending so much of my time packing things and going to the post office and all that stuff.

Also, it sort of felt like I was "milking" Nasum by continuing doing merch for such a long time. I mean - the band disbanded over 18 months ago.

Never the less, I can't ignore the vibe I get from people. You want more t-shirts, that's pretty obvious. So I am leaning towards doing some more, perhaps even a new design. I am sort of into the idea of doing a "Grind Finale" type of t-shirt in time for the 4LP release (which should be soonish), and if I'll do that - well, I should do something else.

Consider this a survey of some sort. Let me know in the comments which prints you like and I'll base the order on that. Not that any print made before the "Grind" design is not available and I am very reluctant towards hoods!]]> <![CDATA[Weekend with Regurgitate]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=142
The setlist was generally speaking the same one that I learned back in 2004 apart from a few songs that were changed to some old “Carnivorous Erection” and “Effortless Regurgitation of Bright Red Blood” songs that I hadn’t played before and also two songs from their upcoming album “Sickening Bliss”.

We rehearsed three times before the trip to Italy and we were sort of prepared for this show.

We went by Ryan Air from the Skavsta airport, which is called “Stockholm Skavsta” in the Ryan Air world. If you’ve traveled by Ryan Air you’ll know by now that in Ryan Air world the airports are nowhere near the city of which they are named, so both me and them had to go for a while to get there.

After mongoloiding around a while (see photos below), we boarded the plane, only to find out that we had to wait one hour (!) for the take off due to some very stupid reason. Only on Ryan Air, kids…

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/7149.jpg
Two mongoloids...

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/R_5788.jpg
...and two more.

Once in Italy Giovanni from The Spew Records, who arranged the festival, met us. In true Italian fashion he broke a few traffic laws taking us to the venue in Cologne. The club was really cool, of the type that I wished there would be more of in Sweden and in Örebro in particular.

This was on the Friday and our show was on Saturday so this evening all we could do was enjoy the company and the music, which wasn’t too hard for me as Napalm Death was playing. After hanging around in the hot backstage area for a while Napalm Death showed up and the hug-o-rama begun. I haven’t seen these guys since August last year so as always it’s a pleasure meeting four of the nicest people in the business.

Although Shane and I had “talked” via emails a few weeks ago he had totally forgotten that I would be there so was a little bit pissed that he hadn’t brought the new Napalm Death album with him so I could hear it. I, on the other hand, played a few rough mixes from the Coldworker album for Mitch and Shane who both gave it thumbs up. Shane proved to me why he is the grind god that he is by singing along one of the most complicated blast riffs on the Coldworker album after just hearing one round… I can’t understand that guy!

Eventually Napalm Death went on stage and shredded as always. The set was very similar to last year’s. Barney dedicated “The World Keeps Turning” to me (which I think is the first time ever that someone dedicates a song to me!) and of course asked the classic “Har du duschat?” question from stage. Very funny, and very tour of 2000!

They played a new track called “Fatalist”. It started of with a few quite rhythmical parts that reminded me of the late 90’s Napalm Death until it started blasting for a while, ending with a break down part. Both Mitch and Shane described the song as pretty “basic” and I was too – for lack of better word – “shaken” by the intro riffs to understand what they actually meant by basic.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/7157.jpg
One very happy Italian guy digging Napalm Death.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/7166.jpg
Old school type of photo of Barney.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/7168.jpg
Very sweaty Mitch after the show.

Short video from Napalm Death's show. (DivX)

At some point when I discussed riffs and songs with Mitch he said something that was the most flattering thing I have never heard in my life. He said: “I said to Shane during the recording ‘I wonder what Anders will think of the album’”. Imagine that: one of the bands that you like the most in the world values YOUR opinion that much that they discuss it in the studio?! I have never felt so proud and important at the same time. An amazing feeling!

Unfortunately they had to leave and we had to leave to the apartment we were sleeping in, which was a 30-40 minute ride away to the town of Sulzano. Our driver this time was a fucking maniac that basically risked our lives driving like a madman. I didn’t think that was funny. Round-abouts are called that because you go ROUND them, not OVER them.

In the darkness of Sulzano this night we couldn’t understand much of the location where the apartment was but in the morning it was almost like we had traveled to a little paradise. The apartment was just next to a lake in which there was a mountain island, about 600 meters high. Amazing! We went for a walk in the surroundings taking photos and looking for possible places to eat and found a nice restaurant next to the lake. As it was too early for a meal we went back to the apartment for a few hours of just slacking and talking. And just when we getting ready to go to the restaurant Giovanni came and picked us up and drew us to Cologne and the venue again.

A little bit grumpy we went to look for another place to eat. A restaurant next to the venue was closed at this time so we walked a little more and found a café where we at least could have a sandwich and stay away from the heat for a few hours.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/7173.jpg
The bed where I slept.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/7179.jpg
The mountain island.

Back at the venue we put up the Regurgitate merch and looked at some bands like Fleshless, Machetazo and Avulsed. Machetazo really stood out with their old school grindcore. It was really cool and the guys looked bad ass on stage. I liked it!

At some point we actually went to eat at the restaurant. Giulio the Bastard from Crippled Bastards went along. I ordered what I though was a pizza with mozzarella, tomato sauce and oregano, and it sure looked like it, but it taste like salty fish. I couldn’t understand why and although I wasn’t satisfied I ate it anyway.

After that it was almost time to get on stage and play some grind. A guy called Jacopo had brought a great set of cymbals for me to use. Jacopo went on and on about how it was such a honor for him to lend them to me, which was a little bit embarrassing… I mean, I was the guy who should thank him and not the other way around.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/7228.jpg
Best. Home-made. T-shirt. Ever. "In my life I want only fuck and listen grind" (sic)

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/7231.jpg
Machetazo rocking.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/R_5891.jpg
Glenn and Jacopo.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/R_5922.jpg
Me at the merch stand.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/R_5925.jpg
At the restaurant with Giulio the Bastard

So we played our set and the crowd, albeit being quite fewer than on the Friday, seemed to like it. I fucked up one song good because I couldn’t hear the guitar and in another one I did a few mistakes that perhaps wasn’t that obvious but anyway… But it felt quite good to play outside of Sweden again and I hope to return with Coldworker soon!

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/R_5987.jpg
Playing live.

Almost still drenched in sweat we had to go back to the apartment basically at once after the show so we got there, talked for a while before we went to sleep. Some sooner than the other – Glenn basically just have to close his eyes before he starts snoring like a sawmill. Urban recorded the snoring with his cell phone and I shot a little video of said recording.

Glenn snoring, Urban recording. (DivX)

On Sunday we had almost the entire day off until we needed to go to the airport and ultimately back to Sweden. Our main plan this day was to go to that restaurant next to the lake that we had spotted the day before. Said and done we got there so early that they hadn’t opened yet, but we could sit in the sun looking at the menu anyway. I noticed that they had the same pizza that I ate the day before, but that the ingredients now included anchovies and capers… No wonder it tasted like salt fish then… Yuk!

However pizza was not on the menu this time and all of us ordered different food and were very pleased with the dishes. Italian food rules (unless you order something that tastes like salt fish…)!

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/R_6006.jpg
Regurgitate and their new drummer.

After the meal we more or less when straight back to the apartment. It was very hot and we were really tired and after slacking and sleeping for a few hours Giovanni came again and took us to the airport. And eventually we got back to Sweden.]]> <![CDATA[Black Zeppelin? Led Sabbath? Wolfmother!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=141
Imagine the exact mix of both bands and you got Wolfmother. Toss in some early Rush and some more modern stuff like White Stripes and you got Wolfmother.

As it says on their webpage: "Please experience Wolfmother".

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/wm_album.jpg]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Thursday 15th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=140 Pär Augustin, Sweden
Marcus Hardt, Sweden
Alliocha Krieger, Germany
Niclas Boman, Sweden
Robert Nilsson, Sweden
Norhafisza Ramli, Malaysia]]> <![CDATA[Coldworker in recording mode and website]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=139 coldworker.com.

So go there. Now!]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Thursday 8th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=138 Victor Hemström, Sweden.
Mikael Nilsson, Sweden.
Jukka Koskinen, Finland.
Pär Augustin, Umeå.
Galland Romain, Belgium.
Carl Olsson, Sweden.
Marcus Hardt, Sweden.
Daniel Löfquist, Sweden.]]> <![CDATA[Coldworker behind bars!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=137
Yes, the stage at Club Monster was behind bars Blues Brothers style. It's sorta hard to believe so here is a photo to prove it:

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/IMG_7004.jpg

Anyway, it was tight, it was very hot and we did OK for a first gig. As the opening act we didn't really have that many people looking at us, but they applauded politely and we did our best considering the conditions (playing live is of course a bit different from playing the songs in your rehearsal environment).

It's nice to have done the first show though (by the way, it was videotaped so something might show up online one day), so now we're ready to take the next step, which is to start recording our first full length album starting Tuesday (06/06/06...)! Things has gone so fast for us so it's almost hard to comprehend, but to say the least - we are on a row so why not go with the creative flow?

Most likely, a more developed version of coldworker.com will be launched with the start of the recording with a studiodiary and such stuff so take a peak if you want to follow the recording process.

Huge thanks to Radioskugga and Gadget who of course kicked our asses with their blistering blasts, for sharing this important evening with us! See you on another stage!]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Tuesday 30th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=136 S Paulaeck, Germany
Jindrich Brejcha, Czech
Mikael Gillefalk, Sweden
Anders Nilsson, Sweden
Sebastian Jääskeläinen, Sweden
Frédéric Montin, France
Jeremie & Jonas Koch, Switzerland]]> <![CDATA[Coldworker preparing for the big time]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=135
Apart from that we are preparing to start recording a full length album during June. Yes, four months after the first rehearsal we're taping our first album. Kinda crazy, don't you think? I would love to speak more about this, but there will be more details (especially regarding record label and release dates) further on.

What I can say is that we have finished 15 tracks in all. Some of the songs have been sliced and diced and reassembled a couple of times to find its final form. It's actually quite interesting to see the different shapes a song can take before it settles. We've done rehearsal recordings on a weekly basis which has helped a lot.

Some more songtitles:
- Flammable
- Waiting for buildings to collapse
- Antidote
- Heart shaped violence
- Death smiles at me
- An unforgiving season
- A custom-made hell
- The contaminated void
- The interloper
- They crawl inside me uninvited

Today, me and Joel recorded some vocals and it's quite nice to hear the songs take shape with another "instrument" in the mix. One of the songs we recorded today we've had for a while so it was great to finally hear it with vocals.

As I've already said - there will be more album info soon, but for now this little report will have to do.

Finally - I've noticed that my blog posts often are turned into newsarticles at the metal webzines, and for the record - who ever rewrites this as a newsarticle - I was the DRUMMER of Nasum, NOTthe guitarplayer. OK? :cool:]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 21th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=134 Luke Eller, Australia
Ben Gansert, Germany
Robin Brolin, Sweden
Alliocha Krieger, Germany
Patrick Rottner, Germany
Gareth Payne, UK]]> <![CDATA[Regurgitate rehearsal (with clip!)]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=133
As you might or might not know I will be doing one show with Regurgitate in July at the "Grind your mother" festival in Italy. Jocke is having another child with his girl so he left the drum stool for me again. I did a number of shows with the band back in 2004 when he was injured, so the major work with rehearsing the songs was done back then.

It was great fun meeting up with Urban, Rikard and Glenn again and playing some plain old grind. As Coldworker is doing something completely different it was kinda nice to just hammer out blasts and d-beats in the old fashion.

The first round of the setlist was sort of rusty. We haven't played these songs together in two years and the other guys have been busy playing their new shit lately. But the second round was much better and I did a multitrack rehearsal with the complete set. It turned out pretty neat so here is a sample for you:

Regurgitate feat. Anders Jakobson: Lucid Fairytale (Napalm Death cover)

Regurgitate might put up something else from the rehearsal on their site, I don't know that yet.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 14th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=132 Frederico Rainho, Lisboa, Portugal
Jason Sopko, Schererville, USA
Chris Peake, Helsinki, Finland
Mathias Krogh, Arvika, Sweden
Christoph Klein, Graz, Austria
Lac Du, North York, Canada
Patrik Wikström, Göteborg, Sweden
Matthias Gutehall, Borås, Sweden
Anders Karlsson, Skällinge, Sweden
Dirk Stephen, Werther, Germany
Marie Hellström, Göteborg, Sweden
Christoph Wilken, Stuttgart, Germany]]> <![CDATA[Coldworker has a logo now]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=131
Once upon a time people sent real letters and in these letters people used to put flyers (that's old school spam... almost...) marketing demos, zines and all sorts of things for sale.

One time the Swedish death/thrash band Desultory printed a flyer exclaiming their new logo. I remember that flyer to be particulary funny because it felt so weird at that time when everyone just wanted to sell stuff through their flyers.

The headline I just wrote for this blog reminded me of that flyer.

Anyway - annecdotes aside - following the last blog Coldworker now has a logo (finally). Who is the person who will be honered with free stuff and such for creating this piece of art? Actually, no one. The result of the blog didn't turn into the rain of artwork we had hoped for, so semi-desperate we designed it ourselves.

The logo is available at coldworker.com.

With that out of the way it's time for another update. We are still in creative more on many levels. We are writing new stuff, we are refining old stuff and we are writing lyrics and adding vocals, so there are pretty much going on at the moment. We are on a three rehearsals/week schedule right now and all is going very well.

The refining part of it all is my little baby. I practically think of the songs all of the time and share suggestions for slight changes - nothing major, just details and such - to the other guys, and so far all the changes we've done have improved the songs. As I've explained earlier, the writing style in the band has changed during these three months the band has been around so to connect the old and new songs better we had to do some changes instead of just leaving the old songs and not use them.

Last Saturday we did a "for our ears only" rehearsal with just two mikes in the middle of the room (you'd be surprised how good it sounds with only two mikes a little compression...) and when I got home and listened to the stuff I felt an enormous amount of pride and positive energy from the songs. I really, really, really love what we're doing with Coldworker right now and it feels so great to hear what five guys who never had played together or hardly knew eachother a couple of months ago can accomplish. It's really amazing!

From a personal point of view - like everything above isn't personal enough! - I'm enjoying drumming more than ever. It's been a real challenge going from the hardcore/grindcore drumming of Nasum to the full blasting death metal drumming of Coldworker. I'm really developing my style a lot playing in this band and I'm becoming a better drummer each rehearsal doing stuff I have never done before.

And the joy of playing with Oskar, Anders, André and Joel is really great. As I have explained in other situations I felt that Mieszko and I had some sort of musical bond when we played together and a year ago I was pretty certain that I would never have that again. And now I have it, and it feels so great.

So life is great right now, and it will be even better soon. You'll see...]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 30th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=130 Riku Meriläinen, Muijala, Finland
John Paul Wooltorton, Norwich, UK
Anders Karlsson, Skällinge, Sweden
Anders Svensson, Deje, Sweden
Erik Henriksson, Vetlanda, Sweden]]> <![CDATA[Coldworker needs your help!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=129
We've also added a few solos to our tracks. It so appeared that André is gifted with fast fingers, as you can see in this little video clip of track #9, shot by Joel on the digital camera (slightly out of sync as always):

Roughly played version of track #9

We have also started revisiting our earliest material (which in this case mean stuff we wrote 2-3 months ago...) and made some slight changes as the earliest stuff sounds pretty different from the latest songs we've done that seems to be more "together". The changes includes less of the hardcore edge and more death metal as that is the sound we're going for.

The spirit is very good in the band and we are working hard with our stuff. We will do our first proper recording in June, but more details will come later regarding this.

We also have a MySpace page. We're not really doing anything with it yet, but if you have a MySpace account go there and add us.

myspace.com/coldworker

So with that little report our of the way, it's time for us to beg for help. We are in need of a good logo for the band. We have some people working for us with the design but we think that the more designs we have to choose between the better. So we are open for any suggestions really.

Some "rules":

1. You can submit your suggestion (or suggestions if you are really creative) as a 800px wide JPG, but the final logo - if we chose to use it - must be a vectorized EPS.
2. The logo should work in both small sizes (like the spine of a CD cover) and very large sizes (think a really huge backdrop), i.e. the letters can't be too thick or too thin.
3. The songs in this blog and the descriptions regarding the lyrical theme and such should be enough to give you a picture of what we want, i.e. not the average metal logo. There are some detailed descriptions of what we sort of want for those who need it, but we rather see that you do your designs without any further instructions.
4. We are into the idea of having some sort of symbol in our graphic approach (like Opeth's ”O”). However you don't have to do both a logo and a symbol, only a logo is fine.
5. There are NO MONEY involved in this. Your only reward is that it will be used. However, once the logo is used on CD covers, t-shirts and so on you will get some free stuff for sure.

Logos can be mailed to coldworker@gmail.com.

Good luck!]]> <![CDATA[Monday funday]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=128
My past weekend included a Bolt Thrower show. Yes, Bolt Thrower came to my town and played... a lot of new stuff. If they had played something more from their classic catalogue than 33% of "World eater" and "Cenotaph" I would have enjoyed it a lot more...

Next weekend might include a Cannibal Corpse show in Stockholm... haven't decided on that one yet.

Anyway - my mission right now it to provide you with something fun to help you to survive the dreary Monday.

First of - and this is for the Swedes mostly - a blast from the past: A video of Barney talking Swedish. I shot this with my digital camera on the morning of the last day together in Japan 2004 and edited the best parts to one short but sweet movie. Barney is basically saying a lot of animal names along with some odd phrases that he has picked up from all the Swedish bands he's hung out with during the years.

Last time I posted this someone asked "Who is Barney?" and if you don't know who Barney is you should probably withdraw from all things brutal...

Barney speaks...

Second - here's a funny sound clip with a really good prankcall. Some kid has placed an add looking for members for his black metal band. Well, he probably didn't expect this specific caller... Listen closely when the kid names all his sources of inspiration.

True black metal...

Alright - this should help you make it through the day. Enjoy!

]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Tuesday 18th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=127 Damien Puyau, Soorts Hossegor, France
Fabio Bier, Krommenie, The Netherlands
Audrey Andrews, New York, USA]]> <![CDATA[Coldworker: Now a five piece]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=126
http://nasum.com/blog/upload/joel3.jpg

Joel has not played with any of the members before and is known locally for his singing in among others Phobos, now defunct. Joel has a strong, good, dark voice in the sort of articulate style that we want. He's now working on getting the song rhythms right. As soon as we're getting some vocal stuff finished we will record another rehearsal with vocals.

Having a separate singer is a very good development for the band musically as we can now use all those "great but impossible to sing and play at the same time"-riffs for verses and choruses. This may already be noticeble in the last new songs we've written. We completed song #9 today and got a long way on #10, both in a more death metalish style, which is what we're heading for. Full blasting death metal.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/coldworker9.jpg

We are talking to several record labels already and aim to do our first proper recording this summer. We have lots of ideas for the sound and production, so hopefully we'll have something real this coming fall. We are also hoping to get some more shows done, right now it's only two booked but it might be some more.]]> <![CDATA[My first gig in 16 months!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=125
As you probably know it's the release party for the new Krigshot album "Till vilket pris som helst". The album came from the printers earlier this week and I am excited to see the final result since this is an album where I've done most of the stuff myself (apart from the music of course!). I recorded it and I did the layout for the cover. I wasn't trying to be all egoistic, it just happened because we wanted to do things fast and cheap.

Anyway enough about that. The show! Last Sunday, Jallo and I went to Nyköping to do the first rehearsal ever with this line up of Krigshot. We went to the Disfear HQ's obviously and went through the setlist three times. It felt really good. Jallo and I have done two rehearsals on our own during the last couple of weeks but it was nice to get together the whole band and realise that things worked out fine. I feel confident in the band as an unit and can now focus on doing my thing as good as possible not worrying about the overall appearence.

I can tell you that the last months of Coldworker rehearsals has improved my playing quite a lot. It wasn't as hard to go through a complete set without any longer pauses as I had imagined due to my 16 month abscence from the stage, so that feels good too.

I hope to do some sort of report when we return. There will be cameras and videocameras present so hopefully there will be something visual aswell.

Right now I'm just very excited about going to Stockholm and meet up with a lot of friends and hopefully do a killer show.

The real version of krigshot.com will be online very soon, so check it out.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Saturday 8th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=124 Anton Martinsen, Varberg, Sweden
Torsten Kaluza, Dresden, Germany
Kristoffer Larsson, Falkenberg, Sweden
Fredrik Löfgren, Tyresö, Sweden
Thomas Eberleh, Braunschweig, Germany
]]> <![CDATA[Announcing: Coldworker (with free songs)]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=123
Track 05
Track 06
Track 07
Track 08

These songs were recorded (multitrack) at a rehearsal last Thursday (March 30). As you can see by the numbering there are at least four other tracks in our repertoar so far, but those four you have already heard or seen in the first blog with the videos, although track 2 has been totally reworked since that session and track 4 is slightly different.

Coldworker's progression - it is about two months since we started the band now - has moved forward rapidly these past weeks. The stuff we currently are writing is far more advanced than what we did in the "early days" (!), so I guess that really means that we are trying to find our own style.

The main plan right now is to put some vocals to these songs, perhaps make a few more and get ready to do our first live appearence at Gadget's releaseparty in Gävle in about two months, and then do our first proper recording during the summer.

Anyway, feel free to comment on these songs, and more info about this band will be published on coldworker.com soon.
]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 2nd]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=122 Ed Baker, Gilbert, AZ, USA
Mario Gonzalez, Älvsjö, Sweden
Timo Karhunen, Vaasa, Finland
Travis Bacon, New York, NY, USA
Niklas Holm, Hägersten, Sweden
Patrik Stacke, Jönköping, Sweden
Isak Kristola, Umeå, Sweden
Tim Reinfrank, Hannover, Germany
Ilkka Maljanen, Savonlinna, Finland
Morgan Neyland, Boston, MA, USA
]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Friday 24th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=121 Christoffer Sandström, Tønsberg, Norway
Ken Dulce, Apopka, FL, USA
Gustav Elowson, Göteborg, Sweden
Jason Carter, Louisville, KY, USA
Alex Ruthrauff, Howell, NJ, USA
Ben Scutt, Crookes, UK
Jan-Ola Olofsson, Älvsjö, Sweden
Sergei Petsalo, Kiuruvesi, Finland
]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 19th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=120 Martin Gustafsson, Johanneshov, Sweden.
Fritjof Olsson, Rottne, Sweden.
Michael Kern, Biel, Switzerland.
John Haglund, Malmö, Sweden.
Jonis Westling, Björnlunda, Sweden.
Niclas Wejsfelt, Värmdö, Sweden.
Stefan Wesche, Wedemark, Germany.]]> <![CDATA[More about the new band]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=119
First of all, thanks for the overwhelming support we got for our video rehearsals! Lots of kind words have been posted and we're of course very happy about this.

As mentioned in the last post the songs were likely to change after that recording and two of them have. Two remains intact and the others have been slightly rewritten. We have also completed three more songs and work on a few more so we are on a roll right now. The current idea is to complete ten songs and then do some sort of demo recording, mostly for our own sake and to present the band for certain people. There are already a few labels that has shown interest in the band, which in all honesty is a little bit strange since all they've heard is four rehearsal songs with 75% drums and 25% guitarnoise.

Also in the current plans is a few live shows. There are two shows in particular that we are aiming for right now. One before the summer and one at the end of it. More info about that once the details are settled.

A few important questions that emerged in the comments last time were: Do you have a name and who will sing?

First of all: the name - we have a suggestion for a name that seems to be "unique" (at least in the sense that there is no band registered at MySpace with this name!) and has a quite good meaning which goes along with the music and the lyrical direction we want. But there is no need to rush things, we will let this suggestion stay in the band for a while longer and just see how it feels, if it grows or not.

Second: the vocals - the idea is that Anders B will handle the vocals. He wants to do it and he's into it, so now it's just a matter of trying it out. He's been doing a few trys at rehearsals already so we are getting there. The lyrical approach is to be much darker compared to Nasum. We're thinking of exploring the dark sides of the human nature, trying to understand how certain people think and understand why the act as they do. It's a challenge for me personally after 150+ political lyrics. I am more or less drained on that subject.

Last time we wrote about the wish to add a second guitarplayer and that has actually happened. The fourth member of the band is André Alvinzi from Arboga, 30 minutes from Örebro. André is currently a member of Carnal Grief and has so far done two rehearsals with the band. Things are working out fine and the band now has four songwriters, which of course is extremely exciting when it comes to songwriting.

Here are some shots of the members from the Monday March 13th rehearsal:

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/P1010873.jpg
Finally a shot that captures the movement of grindcore drumming.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/P1011010.jpg
New guy André.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/P1011032.jpg
Anders B and Oskar spotting a Bender t-shirt.

The direction of the latest songs can be descibed as more intense and slightly complex. We are pushing the limits right now just to see what we can do and not do. I feel much more confident in my drumming gaining more and more speed each time, so it feels quite good playing grind on a regular basis again!

Next time there might be some new video clips and hopefully an announcement of the name of the band...]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 12th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=118 Pär Johansson, Malmö, Sweden.
Olof Öberg, Knivsta, Sweden.
Axel Bache-Wiig, Eivindvik, Norway.
Antti Kauri, Turku, Finland.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Thursday 9th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=117 Magnus Andreasson, Göteborg, Sweden.
Chris Grunwaldt, Howrah, Australia.
Alex Högbom, Ludvika, Sweden.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 5th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=116 Max Bergman, Timrå, Sweden
Panos Agoros, Kontaopefko, Greece
Armonie Lesobre, Gouvieux, France
Emetic Records, Flint, MI, USA]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 26th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=115 Anton Franzén, Gammelstad, Sweden.
Carlos Pauls Babiloni, Castellon, Spain.
Sean Scott, Oswego, NY, USA.
Johan Green, Kallinge, Sweden.]]> <![CDATA[Huge announcement: I have a new band!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=114
Yes, a new band has emerged after my hiatus from playing during 2005 (apart from Krigshot's session of course), and I'll tell you the whole story.

In my blog dated January 9 I expressed my wishes for a new grindcore band, more or less looking for people in the Örebro area, and following that blog I got a few emails. One was from Anders Bertilsson from local deaththrashers Ruin who I've sort of known since a few years back. Knowing Anders can play the guitar and is a grindfan I added him to my list of possible members.

Around the same time I got an email from Oskar Pålsson from the death metal band Relentless asking me if I could help him out with the drums for a solodemo. I had just breifly talked to Oskar before but I told him about my plans and suggested we should merge our ideas to one.

So I had a guitarist and a bassplayer - I had the members for a new band!

The following weeks the three of us emailed riffs and ideas back and forth, talking alot on the net about what we wanted to do and not. This is a completely new way of creating music for me. Basically, we had about 15-20 riffs written before we even got down to the rehearsal room and met eachother for the first time as a group! I am used to bringing complete songs to rehearsals and not do so much afterwork on them, so this is really something new.

February 2 we had our first rehearsal. We wrote two songs and worked on a few skeletons for some more songs. It felt great to be grinding again, although I am very rusty and will probably be for a while, but it gets better with each rehearsal.

Since the initial rehearsal we have rehearsed three more times, and this past Friday we did a video rehearsal with Anders B's digital camera. Do you wanna see it? Here you go:

Song 1
Song 2
Song 3
Song 4

Some comments:
• The sound is slightly out of sync, but that's how it is when you use a digital camera...
• These are the very first four songs that we have completed, but they will probably change slightly until the next time we record them in some way...
• This was recorded late on a Friday, after a whole workweek and a lot of after work activities (I was away every day the past week) so the playing is so so, but what the hell - it's grind!

Feel free to post you comments about these videos - we need some encouragement to move on...

We are probably looking for a second guitarist so if you are in the Örebro area and likes this - get in touch!]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 19th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=113 Emil Olofsson, Umeå, Sweden
Jessica Pair, Tacoma, WA, USA
Daniel Mason, Baltimore, MD, USA
Paul Timms, Wye, Kent, UK
Jukka Koskinen, Helsinki, Finland
Marco Mastropietro, München, Germany
Emil Rehnberg, Årsta, Sweden
Dave Shotton, Gateshead, Tyne and wear, UK
Daniel Lax, Sundsvall, Sweden
Jason Edwards, Glasgow, UK
Menno Reitsma, Dokkum, Netherlands
Adam Åkesson, Malung, Sweden
]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 12th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=112 Andreas Larsen, Halmstad, Sweden.
Glenn Low, Singapore.
Daniel Andersson, Mölndal, Sweden.
Jonas Arvidsson, Kisa, Sweden.
Shamir Ullah, Joroinen, Finland.
Anton Höghäll, Linköping, Sweden.
Björn Ahlqvizt, Malmö, Sweden.
Leigh Schiller, Petersborough, Canada.
Kevin Mouton, Austin, TX, USA.
Martihn Koevoets, Tilburg, Netherlands.
]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 5th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=111 Edorta García, Vizcaya, Spain.
Stefan Englund, Sandviken, Sweden.
Axel Johansson, Söderköping, Sweden.
Mattias Hager, Landvetter, Sweden.
Alexander Ehringer, Salzburg, Austria.
Rafael Fernandez Melero, Mostoles, Spain.
Jussi Miettola, Helsinki, Finland.
Alexander Estelle, Stockholm, Sweden.
Matti Romppainen, Helsinki, Finland.
André Johan, Paris, France.
Adam Eriksson, Skogås, Sweden.
Lisa Hultgren, Rolfstorp, Sweden.]]> <![CDATA[Punks unite and help a nice guy!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=110
The other day Jack Control was stabbed badly (perhaps all stabbings are bad...) while trying to break up a fight outside a show. The knife missed Jack's heart with as little as 1 cm (to illustrate this [____] is about a cm)... so in a way it was a "good" stabbing...

The guy who stabbed him was arrested and will be charged with attempted murder and hopefully rot in some bad ass American prison.

And what about Jack? Well, he survived after four hours of surgery, but is now facing the music as the hospital wants around 80 000 US dollars for the treatment. 80 000 dollars! Now, this kind of money is absurd in so many ways, and we really need to do something to help.

Now who is Jack Control and why should I care, you might ask yourself. Well, Jack Control is "someone" in the punk community as the singer of such bands as Severed Head Of State and World Burns To Death. He's also been releasing records through his label Mind Control, for example the "Iron Columns" 2xLP which includes three rare Krigshot tracks (see the discography at the Krigshot site for more info).

Why should you care? Well, this is a guy that was a victim of violence trying to prevent violence by breaking up a fight. Most people would not go in between people fighting - I probably wouldn't, but I admire people that show "civil courage" (if that is the expression in English).

And bad things always happen to good people - the medical system in the USA seems quite sick if you excuse the pun, because something like this would never happen in Sweden. A guy being stabbed and then charged with 80 000 dollars (that's half a million Swedish crowns!)...

So, you should care and you should donate some money to help Jack Control to pay his hospital bills. Think about the money you will spend this weekend on cigarettes, drinks and greasy food and tell me that you can't spend half of them on something good, like helping a guy in need?

I have donated 100 US dollars on behalf of Nasum and Krigshot. It's not much, it's still 79 900 dollars left, but at least it's something.

Read more about the stabbing of Jack Control and how to help.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 29th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=109 Galland Romain, Aulnois, Belgium
Nuno Ribeiro, London, UK
Henrik Elsberg, Nyköping, Sweden
Loic Beyet, Chilly Mazarin, France
Markus Pettersson, Östersund, Sweden
Justin Essenpries, Gurnee, IL, USA
Ada Taraszkiewicz, Heinola, Finland
Mikko Männistö, Vedenoja, Finland (sorry, no dots on the package...)
Misty Horten, Everett, MA, USA
Dimitri van Heumen, Göteborg, Sweden
Josef Zetterquist, Göteborg, Sweden
Dusart Ghislain, Liège, Belgium
Andreas Larsen, Halmstad, Sweden]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Monday 23rd]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=108 David White, Täby, Sweden.
Anders Einarsson, Nynäshamn, Sweden.
Norhafisza Binti Ramli, Kuala Lumpur.
Uwe Moellers, Oberndorf, Austria.
Daniel Rauscher, Tegernheim, Germany.
Christian Mailwald, Berlin, Germany.
David Calvo Vivas, Mondragon, Spain.
Sebastian Jääskeläinen, Eskilstuna, Sweden.
Andrew Brent, Crawley, UK.
Harri Linnera, Mikkeli, Finland.]]> <![CDATA[Krigshot recording complete]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=107
Then Poffen and I got working with the vocals. A few hours later, the 17 Krigshot songs was blessed with a classic Swedish hardcore voice. The stuff takes a punkier approached now compaired with previous material as Poffen's voice is much more punk than Mieszko's hardcore voice. Both great of course, but this is a real development for Krigshot. Some might be surprised when they will hear it, but this is exactly the type of vocals we want. Pure classic Swedish hardcore.

Björn then plugged the Fender bass straight into the computer, as I am adding distortion and stuff during the mix. While guitar pretty sounds like crap lined into the computer, bass sounds really good and of course it helps that Björn's Fender sounds really, really good.

I shot a few short video clips with my digital camera during the bass takes. The videos has been encoded with DivX, so you need that to see it.

Clip 1: Björn records a very strange bass part
Clip 2: Jallo shows the rhythm for Björn

Since I have no monitors you will not hear any of the recorded music, which especially makes the second clip hilarious.

This upcoming week we will work on the mix and artwork as Communichaos wan't to start the production as soon as possible (a late March release is to be expected), and - news since last time - Profane Existance will do the US version of the LP. Nice one.

Finally, here are some shots from this second day of recording. Enjoy!

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/poff_lyrics.jpg
Poffen going through the lyrics.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/poff_sings.jpg
Poffen sings.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/bj_bass.jpg
Björn plays the Fender.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/bj_jallo_instructing.jpg
Jallo shows a riff from a really strange angle.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/poff_waiting.jpg
Poffen awaits the end of the bass takes.]]> <![CDATA[Super rare shit on the way]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=106
Among the discs was a show taped in Belgium December 10th 2000 and if you really know your Nasum history you might remember that Jesper had to leave the tour with three shows left due to some important exam he had to take. Those three last shows included somw very rare Nasum shows with a line up consisting of Mieszko and I, Shane Embury, Jesse Pintado and Mitch Dickinson (of Hersey and Unseen Terror fame, then working with odds and ends on the tour) in a few different formations.

This is really rare shit and it was quite fun listening to the show and remembering that we never rehearsed properly with Shane and Mitch (who shared bass duties), just going through the songs "unplugged" in dressing rooms and on the bus. Quite amazing that we managed to compile a short but sweet setlist during those conditions.

Anyway, allthough the sound is far from good on this recording I will do my best to share it with you all in a few weeks or so.

There might be more rare stuff coming along, like a few exclusive rehearsal tracks and so forth, something that might be considered as companion material to "Grind Finale". ]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Wednesday 18th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=105 Jonas Hedström, Malmö, Sweden.
Johan Bruhn, Bandhagen, Sweden.
Johan Öström, Hägersten, Sweden.
Timo Karhunen, Vaasa, Finland.
Christoph Nordmann, Urefeld, Germany.
Elis Olandersson, Mölnlycke, Sweden.]]> <![CDATA[Krigshot excitement all over!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=104
We will then try to finish the mix and artwork as soon as possible because the record label is swinging the whip since this 12" is their next release. Sounds good - chances are that the 12" actually comes out sooner than anything I've recorded before!

We will also shoot the first official Krigshot photos ever on Saturday. My friend Robert who shot the last three rounds of Nasum promo photos and also did the collage in the "Shift" cover will bring his camera and magic, I guess.

Also the first Krigshot show is booked. I can't speak about it yet but I guess Swedish crust punks can figure it out since it's at the festival they most often visit...

More Krigshot news on Saturday. Wish us good luck!]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 15th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=103 Sebastian Wiedemann, Tuchenbach, Germany.
Martin Harris, Leeds, UK.
Michael Schimmer, Fuerstenzell, Germany.
Jonas Färm, Johanneshov, Sweden.
William Morgan, Worchester, UK.
Rafael Fernandez, Móstoles, Spain.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Wednesday 11th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=102 Somkiat Klamtong, Ayutthaya, Thailand.
Per Eriksson, Oxelösund, Sweden.
Philip Simonsson, Kristianstad, Sweden.
Andreas Sinigalias, Patra, Greece.
Antti Lahenius, Vantaa, Finland.
Wolfgang Kalies, Hannover, Germany.
Aleksi Ahonen, Helsinki, Finland.]]> <![CDATA[Digging the scene]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=101
Terrorizer promises "fastest drumming ever" on their new album

Last week Century Media announced that they have signed Terrorizer. I guess most of you are aware of the talk of a reunion of Terrorizer that has been going on the last 10 (?) years. Well, now it's really in the works and we can expect a follup to the classic "World downfall". But after reading the news post at Blabbermouth I get very worried:

"There are reportedly talks of introducing classical piano parts, industrial noise parts and chants on the new record. A 13-minute-plus song is in the works as well as some of the fastest drumming ever put to tape. "

Classical piano? Chants? 13-minute-plus song? Fuck that - just give us the classic ripping Terrorizer grindcore that we want and don't fuck up the sound with attempts to be original. The demotrack at Terrorizer's mySpace page sounds too much like death metal with really downtuned guitars. I don't want that!

You know that I've spent seven weeks of my life with Jesse Pintado back in 2000 and I can't say that we bonded for life (like I did with Shane) but we've talked a lot and Jesse shared his ideas of grindcore and this description of the new Terrorizer is sort of going against that.

I am totally speaking as a fan here... Obviously!

And regarding the "fastest drumming ever" remark... No offense, Pete Sandoval, but you have got a lot to prove there. I totally love Pete's style of blasting which has been a huge inspiration for my drumming, but there are a lot of drummers that beats Pete when it comes to speed. As far as I know drumming can't be much faster than those inhuman short blasts that Flo bangs out on the latest Cryptopsy album.

Skitsystem previews "Blodskam" and it rules

The first preview from Skitsystems new album "Stigmata" is available at their website. You have to suffer a very boring and long flash intro to get to the song, but I guess it's worth it. There's a little text about the theme of the song and I heard about this a long time ago and I admire Skitsystem's sense of lyric writing. They are very good at describing the dark and gritty side of Sweden.

I'm looking forward to hear the rest of the album. Unfortunately the rest of the Skitsystem website is fucked up due to some strange javascript error in the menu. Hope that gets fixed soon.

William writes lyrics and shoots pictures of himself in the studio

Last night I finally talked to William about the new Gadget recording and he had just sat down with a cup of tea to write some lyrics. Now THAT'S grindcore! Ha!

Anyway I'm looking forward to hear some songs once they are finished. I think they will rule. Go to their website to read a studio diary and see some photos.

Oh yeah, yesterday I happened to see a sketch for the record cover and that looks really cool aswell. Orion at Relapse is very talented indeed.

Support my local scene

Finally, I'd like to point you metal heads towards a free local demo available at this address. It's a new local act called Ruin that bashes out some hardhitting thrash/death. I especially recommend the second track "Insomnia" that sounds almost too much like Pestilence in their glory days... It's like Martin van Drunen walked into the studio! Great!

]]> <![CDATA[Monday report]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=100
I did some more mixing of the guitars and drums this past weekend and I think it sounds pretty cool. I can't wait to get the bass recorded to get the full spectrum of sound in place.

I'm also eager to finish this recording as I plan to do some sort of solo recording of a song/idea I have been fooling around with for a long time. I have some sort of vision in my head that I want to try to get down on disc (new expression?), mostly just to try out some soundscapes that I've run across while mixing which doesn't fit the Krigshot recording. Let's see what happens.

I hope 2006 has a lot of music coming in my direction because I really miss playing in a proper band. I have been approached by a local band that I most likely will meet and play with to see what it feels like. It's not a metal or punk band, but the style of the band is a style that I like very much which suits my style of drumming very well. I've heard seven demo tracks and it sounds really good in my ears so I'm looking forward to see what happens when I play with these guys. Two in the band I sort of know since before but the others are more or less strangers so it can be interesting to see what the chemisty is like in this band.

I still very much want to put together a new grindcore band. Ex-Nasum isn't really enough. Ex-Nasum is old school and very Nasumesque in its sound, so I'm looking for something new. I have a few song ideas already. So if there are some people in the Örebroarea interested in playing some grind with me, get in touch by mail.

Last Friday I went to Mieszko's parents to give them their copy of "Grind Finale" and to catch up. I haven't seen them since the funeral. 2005 has been a crazy year so it's been hard to tie up all the lose threads Mieszko's death left.

Anyway, it was very nice meeting Ewa and Janusz again and drinking some Chinese tea and just talking about this and that.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/talarczyk.jpg

Janusz gave me a couple of bags with tapes that was Mieszkos. Most of the stuff hasn't got any value but I found a couple of mini discs with Nasum shows recorded during the 2000 tour. I will borrow a mini disc player by someone, listen to them and perhaps transfer a few into my computer and mix and release on nasum.com. Most likely the stuff is crappy sounding, but there might be something good there.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 8th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=99 Thomas Levenson, Amesbury, MA, USA.
Ricky Godinez, Lakeland, FL, USA.
Michael Morrell, Chesterfield, UK.
Toby Calvert, Spreydon, New Zealand.
Markus Kraushofer, Sasendorf, Austria.
J. Pitkänen, Hyvinkää, Finland.
Micheal Stebbings, Petersborough, UK.
Peter Herneheim, Södertälje, Sweden.
Örjan Persson, Eskilstuna, Sweden.
Jere Aalto, Espoo, Finland.
Gabriel Kihlman, Helsinki, Finland.
Markus Klotz, Aken/Elbe, Germany.
Markus Davidsson, Ulricehamn, Sweden.
Craig Schmidt, Mokena, IL, USA.
Andrea Olivato, Torino, Italy.
Katrin Eckert, Helsingborg, Sweden.
Micke Österberg, Borlänge, Sweden.
Calle Andersson, Uppsala, Sweden.
Georg Reinsch, Geringswalde, Germany.

]]> <![CDATA[Two thousand fucking six]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=98
I've been sort of lazy with the merch mailings the last weeks due to the holidays and the freezing cold weather that we have in Sweden right now... I'll tell you - I'm not leaving the house unless it's absolutely neccessary! Anyway, I have a lot of packages ready to be shipped so I will have a date with a mailbox during this coming weekend.

What else? Well, I've started doing some promotion for "Grind Finale" (due in a couple of weeks - finally!). I had a long, long talk with Oliver from Hard N Heavy/Terrorizer yesterday and a sum up of that conversation should be published in said papers shortly. I also answered a short interview for a French grindcore/hardcore message board, named after a Krigshot LP... Check it out here.

Other than that not much is happening right now. I had a chat with Urban on the 26th and he told me that Regurgitate will record a new album in February. It's not posted on regurgitate.net yet so I guess I'm breaking the news here. That means that the next Ex-Nasum session will be in March at earliest.

Also Jon is out on the roads right now in the grindcore knock out package Sayyadina/Rotten Sound. They are in Scandinavia at the moment but will head on down Europe on the second half of January and you should really check them out when they get to your area. Check out sayyadina.com for tour dates.

And speaking about Swedish grind... I believe Gadget are about to enter the studio, or perhaps there already, recording their second album which should be interesting. I am good friends with their drummer/songwriter William and expect to hear a few samples very soon... And this piece of news is not at gadgetgrindcore.com yet so again I'm breaking news like a low class Blabbermouth clone! Hehe!

Well, that's it I guess.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Wednesday 28th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=97 Armonie Lesobre, Gouvieux, France (2 packages)
Maarten van Marle, BR De Rijp, Netherlands
Saana Sormunen, Jyväskylä, Finland
Markus Ljungberg, Älvsjö, Sweden
Papanikolaou Leonidas, Thessaloniki, Greece
Stefan Müller, Floss, Germany
Christophe Stacke, Jönköping, Sweden
Claudia Eisert, Aschaffenburg, Germany
Aaron Lafontaine, Winfield, IL, USA
Eetu Latula, Seinäjoki, Finland
Anders Grännsjö, Mora, Sweden
Anton Wanstadius, Kristianstad, Sweden
Emil Landin, Krokom, Sweden]]> <![CDATA["The Black Swarm" cover now online]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=96
If there ever will be a Nasum tribute (for the record: I'm not against the idea but I will never work to get one done) this track should definitively be featured!

Download the track here.

My best of luck to Sam and Jonas and thanks for the heads up!]]> <![CDATA[Glenn Sykes appreciation blog]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=95
So what's weird about it? Well, honestly nothing - I just wanted a reason to post this weird picture of Glenn adding some backing vocals, but I think it's weird that the song sounds kinda Regurgitatish and it lacks blast beats! Almost a red card for that - a preview without grind!

Nah - just rambling shit, the track is great, very Carcass-crust à la some of the punkier bits on "Reek of Putrefaction" - you should check it out. The "gag" solo towards the end is very entertaining.

Download "Capricious Provisional Cadaver Grater"

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/img044.jpg
And I'd also like to publicly thank Glenn for his proof reading abilities this past spring when I wrote the texts for "Grind Finale". Thanks a lot and have a very nice first Christmas with your son and wife!]]> <![CDATA[No more Krigshot this year]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=94
So it's the end of the year from the Krigshot camp. Thanks for showing interest in the blog comments!]]> <![CDATA[Mieszko - the candy?]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=93
If you note the little crown above the name it's related to another Mieszko from the Polish history. I am not 100% sure who this fellow was, as I heard that he was of some sort of royalty (which would explain the crown) but that's not exactly how Mieszko's father described the historic Mieszko at the funeral.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/mieszko-candy.jpg

Our Finnish friends might find it hilarious that "Vitto" is written in very large letters on the candy wrapper, but never mind that! Hehe!]]> <![CDATA[Death metal office drumming]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=92
Check it out!]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 18th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=91 Alice Löfgren, Vänersborg, Sweden.
Erik Avenbok, Örebro, Sweden.
Oula Kerkelä, Lappeenrauta, Finland.
Christopher Andersen, Sorø, Denmark.
Fredrik Backlund, Segeltorp, Sweden.
Mike Carlson, Villa Park, IL, USA.
Kompakt Disk, Kristianstad, Sweden.
Markus Johnsson, Älvsjö, Sweden.
Cory Roberts, Peekskill, NY, USA.
Mikael Soilevaara, Lahti, Finland.
U.S, Stockholm, Sweden. (2 packages)
Constantin Neumeister, Bondorf, Germany.
Alksanteri Petsalo, Oulo, Finland.
Jonathan Edmondson, Kingston, WA, USA.
Joni Haarvisto, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Carol Holod, Las Vegas, NY, USA.
Karl Thelander, Askim, Sweden.
Mikael Rantala, Köping, Sweden.
]]> <![CDATA[No Krigshot session today]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=90
Next Friday Björn will come and record the bass. It will actually happen on Mieszko's birthday (23rd) so I see that as good omen. Björn will probably record the bass in a Godly fashion so that will be great.

So next update in this category will be in less than a week!

Here are some shots from last weekend's recording:

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/IMG_6833.jpg
My "studio".

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/IMG_6835.jpg
Me.

http://nasum.com/blog/upload/IMG_6838.jpg
Jallo in a Team Slan t-shirt.]]> <![CDATA["The Black Swarm" covered by a doom band]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=89
Every now and then we fooled around in the rehearsal room or on soundchecks with different versions of our songs. Most developed was a doom/sludge take on "I hate people" that we even recorded during the "Shift" session to use on a 7" EP or something, but when it came down to recording the vocals Mieszko ended the project as it became "nu metal", as he put it himself.

But now this take on "The Black Swarm" will show what a Nasum song could sound like.

The song will be made public soon, but in the meantime check out Sepia Dreamer at http://myspace.com/sepiadreamer]]> <![CDATA[Damnation!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=88
Yes, December 11 2004 we played our very last show as Nasum in Cremona, Italy. It was a very nice weekend together with Regurgitate and some new friends. I have lots of photos from that weekend and the plan was to share these on the day of the aniversary. But I missed the date!

I can't figure out why I thought it was the 14th and not the 11th, but never mind. The sharing have to wait though. I'm preparing a massive update in the photogalleries during the holidays. There are lots of photos to be sorted out for this update.

As a preparation for this I have redone the programming for the photogallery. Publicly (what you see) there's no difference, but behind the scenes changes has been made that will make it easier for me once I decide to do the update.

Also, I have other surprises lined up for you guys during the remainder of the month. Check in from time to time...]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 11th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=87 Robin Westlund, Solna, Sweden.
Adam Eriksson, Skogås, Sweden.
Jens Rasmussen, Växjö, Sweden.
Martin Hederström, Rydebäck, Sweden.
Tommy Köhl, Hallstavik, Sweden.
R.J.M. van Drunen, TP's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Stefan Åkerberg, Helsingborg, Sweden.
Kris Coon, Trollhättan, Sweden.
Mohamad Rama, Como, Australia.
Kristoffer Björk, Stenungsund, Sweden.
Johan Olstorpe, Norrköping, Sweden. (2 packages)]]> <![CDATA[Seventh Krigshot session: Recording!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=86
The recording sort of commenced on Friday night when Dan Swanö and I did a proper soundcheck. The DW snare I borrowed from Soundlab sounded much better than my usual snare so that was a huge step forward soundwise. We also found a nice round and punchy kickdrum sound that sounds well both on the slower parts (when I hit it harder) and the fast ones (when I hit it less harder... eh?). So the drums sounded great on Friday.

On Saturday we started at 11 in the morning. We used Mieszko's Mesa Boogie preamp pedal for the rough guitar take since we were able to line that one straight into Cubase with an OK distorted sound. Very convinient instead of using a proper amp that would leak into the drums.

The drums were recorded in just under two hours. Some multiple takes and edits, but in general the recording when smooth and nice. It so great recording in your rehearsal environment - no stress or tention as you might get in the studio.

For the first guitar we moved Mieszko's Fender Dual Reverb + cabinet into the rehearsal room next to ours so we could crank it. I used two mik's for the sound, one close to the membrane in the cabinet and one a little bit away from it. The second mik added a buzzing sound that we liked.

For the second guitar we decided to try a little Peavey Classic amp that the popband we share rehearsal room with owns (if you read this, Dick Tiger, thanks for the amp). The amp is really small and I imagined that I had to crank it a lot to get some good stuff from it, but to my surprise we only had to touch the volume button to get some amazing output. Unfortunately we didn't move the amp out of the room so the second guitar takes were very loud...

The second guitar sounded kind of old and went along very well with the first guitar. We also used the same sound for a couple of solos and noises.

Of course the sound is not finished yet, but the basic sound is pretty cool so with a lot of work for an amateur like me...

Next weekend the legendary Poffen will come and record the vocals! Amazing! I have never met or talked to him so that will be interesting. Also I have to write some lyrics so we have enough to choose from.

Hopefully we'll manage to make Björn come here during the week to record his bassparts. Let's hope that is possible...]]> <![CDATA[Sixth Krigshot session: Final rehearsal]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=85
We went through the 17 songs twice in a quite rapid tempo. It's the closest thing to playing live I've been in a year and it was very exhausting for me and I even got a fucking blister at a weird place. This is reaccuring problem for me that I never seem to get rid off. When I play and feel weakness in my right arm (never the left) or in my grip I tend to move the drumstick from the normal grip to between the indexfinger and the middlefinger, resulting in a blister on the upper right part of the indexfinger. I told you it was a weird place!

Let's hope that Saturday's recording will be done in a slightly less hectic tempo so I will avoid changing grip...

Tomorrow night I will do a drumsoundcheck with Dan Swanö. I have borrowed a DW snare from Soundlab that we used to use on the Nasum recordings so I hope it will sound better in the kit than the Mapex snare I have. Hopefully it will. And then we'll start bright and early on Saturday with the drums followed by the guitars. I have no idea when the other members will record their parts, but hopefully everything will be recorded this year.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Wednesday 7th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=84 Marie Ekman, Alvesta, Sweden.
Raffaele Sironi, Sulbiate, Italy.
Alexander Klich, Bautzen, Germany. (2 packages)
Chris Vaill, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
Kyla Kinley, Lincoln, NE, USA.
Kai Suurhasko, Linköping, Sweden.
Matt Evans, Delavan, WI, USA.
Christian Kelder, Nijverdal, Netherlands.
Johannes Johansson, Borås, Sweden.
Martin Svensson, Karlskrona, Sweden.
Jakub Radomski, Cornwall, UK.
Serge Coenders, Oirlo, Netherlands.
Ben Terror, Hazelbrook, Australia.
Karol Prussak, Izabelin, Poland.
Richard Nykvist, Hultsfred, Sweden.
Mats Ingvarsson, Skoghall, Sweden.
Martin Keppert, Trondheim, Norge.
Wayne Sopko, Schererville, IN, USA.
Andreas Lundkvist, Finspång, Sweden.
Attilla László, Matúskovo, Slovakia.
Bengt Norlander, Sundsvall, Sweden.
]]> <![CDATA[Mountain of orders]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=83
I've gotten some responses on the "Grind Finale" packages from some key persons (i.e. other ex-Nasum members and people involved in the release) and everyone is all psyched about the release and package, so I'm just waiting for your reactions once it's released.

I am also still in a little bit of a shock since the sudden, but unfortunately not alarming news about the suicide of Swedish comedian Micke Dubois. I think most of the (mainly male) Swedes in my generation enjoyed Micke's sense of comedy - his loud and absurd comedy. He will be missed.

Fuck, backtrack one year (December 2004 to December 2005) and think of how many sad deaths that has passed. Let's hope that next cycle of 12 months will be better. It must be.]]> <![CDATA[Out of town]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=82
I am telling you this just because I will not be able to answer any mails (mainly merch orders) during the weekend. I mentioned this in last night's newspost, but I figured it was worth repeating: I will deal with all merch orders on Monday and ship things on Wednesday (I am in need of more stamps and tape for the packages).

Alright, that's it. I will soon prepare for a 9,5 hour long trainride... But don't worry, it's a night train and I have a bed, and I have my Laptop and I have the unseen DVD-boxset of "Extras!" to entertain myself with, so I'm all set.

I will likely check the page and answer questions during the weekend so it's not like I will be totally gone. The message above is for the merch buyers.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Wednesday 30th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=81 Sara Jansson, Ronneby, Sweden.
Pontus Jonsson, Göteborg, Sweden.
Kim Signell, Örebro, Sweden.
Johan Bernström, Örebro, Sweden.
Mike Barone, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Maria Ericsson, Jönköping, Sweden.
Stefan Olofsson, Västerås, Sweden.
Henric Rehnmark, Norrköping, Sweden.
Marcus Rosenqvist, S.Sandby, Sweden.
Mikael Geerberg, Västerås, Sweden.
Nisa Bayindir, Malmö, Sweden.
Andrew Block, Shawnee, OK, USA.
Jonas Dahl, Åtvidaberg, Sweden.
Ville Silvast, Jyväskylä, Sweden.
Timo Karhunen, Vaasa, Finland.
Stephan Korthoff, Ahaus, Germany.
Jonas Arvidsson, Kisa, Sweden.]]> <![CDATA[Fifth Krigshot session with samples!]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=80
In roughly four hours we rehearsed and recorded all the 17 songs we have and overdubed it with a second guitar and bass. Kind of funny - we played songs we recorded two years ago (and never played since) like we wrote them yesterday...

Anyway - I'll keep this short for once. Just read the other blogs in this category to see the plan for the future.

And as promised: here are two samples from the upcoming recording session.

Preproduction track 12
Preproduction track 14]]> <![CDATA[Fourth (and non-musical) Krigshot sessio]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=79
Did we fight?
Were the equipment broken?
Is Krigshot history?

The answer to all questions is NO! If you have followed this section of the blog (if not, just click "Krigshot news" under Categories and read all previous blogs) you know that we have a plan to record 18 songs for a 12" EP soon and that we during last session had a total of 21 songs to choose between.

Since the third session we have considered doing a full album since our two albums had 24 and 25 tracks and with 21 songs written we are not far from an album, but we have reconsidered the album plan and will do a 12" EP plain and simple, and it will include less than 18 songs. Confusing?

Today we spent our time in the rehearsal room listening to the songs we recorded in November 2003 and the rehearsals recorded during session 1 and 3 just to see what we have. Before this listening session I had canned one of the old songs and combined two from session 1 in a nice little edit so we had 19 to pick from, and after the listening session we decided to can two more songs from the November 2003 recording, ending with a total of 17 songs, 5 old and 12 new ones.

On Sunday we'll do a preproduction recording all the 17 songs on my Laptop, overdub the guitars and maybe add a basstrack if possible to have something to show the other members and the label. And then we will try to start recording the 12" EP the second weekend of December, but - again - if you have followed this section of the blog you know that keeping dates and such has never been easy for Krigshot.

Also, since last session I have put together a cover suggestion with a possible title for the 12" EP and Jallo liked them both so perhaps we have that covered.

Next blog in this section should come on Sunday... Maybe with a sample from our preproduction? Who knows...]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Wednesday 23rd]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=78 Johan Helmersson, Västerås, Sweden.
William Andersson, Asarum, Sweden.
Sami Keränen, Laxå, Sweden.
Jörgen Nilsson, Kristianstad, Sweden.
David Griffiths, Fakenham, UK.
Shane Hawco, Edmonton, Canada.
William Walbridge, Grass Lake, MI, USA.
]]> <![CDATA[Merch-o-rama]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=77
So, you can pretty much order any size (S-XL) of the t-shirts (excluding the Napalm Death, Helvete and Cog Pocket designs, which will not be reprinted at this point).]]> <![CDATA[Mieszko on top of the world]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=76 this link submitted by Janne and Nadine who have been to the highest mountain in South America.

The captions are in Swedish, but here is my translation:

"A SHORTSTORY IN PICTURES

1. At the highest peak in South America, Acouncaga, 6962 meters above ground, you leave something by tradition. It can be anything, but usually a dedication to something or someone.

2. At the peak there is also a "logbook of the peak".

3. Since it's no easy task climbing up to 7000 meters you need something to get the energy. Our "energybar for the ears" was the "Helvete" album. It was one of the factors that pushed us onwards and towards the top. Mieszko's name and another litle dedication will always be up there.

4. The views over South America aren't bad. What can be better than standing on an unique spot and enjoy great music?

Greetings, Janne Corax & Nadine Saulnier"

Thanks guys!
]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Wednesday 16th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=75 Marin Scmidt, Berlin, Germany.
Carl Thörner, Göteborg, Sweden.
Hampus Henningsson, Olofström, Sweden.
Thorsten Hahn, Neuwied, Germany.
Akihiro Nakagawa, Yokohama, Japan.
Fabián E. Corral B., Quito, Ecuador.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 13th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=74 Jonas Tollefsen, Malmö, Sweden.
Johannes Henke, Bonn, Germany.
Luke Soroko, Aurora, CO, USA.
Moritz Schreiner, Cologne, Germany.
James Willett, Gaithersburg, MD, USA.
Doug Capper, Lakeland, FL, USA.
Stuart White, Täby, Sweden.
Andre Matias, Amadora, Portugal.]]> <![CDATA[R.I.P. Derrick]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=73
Last Friday I learned that Derrick, former drummer of Lag Wagon, died earlier this year. I was really saddened by this news because Derrick was a really influential drummer for me.

During the early-mid 90's I played melodic hardcore. Nasum/Necrony was sharing a rehearsal place with a local punkband who had the songs but a lousy drummer. The drummer was also the singer and the main songwriter in the band, and I thought it was stupid to have that guy playing drums badly when he should front the band, so I offered my favors and became at first a session drummer and later a full member.

My version of punk/hardcore playing was at that time to just follow the original drumming but just make it tighter and in time I started to add "my" sound to the drumming. And then I discovered Derrick.

I was handed Lag Wagon's "Duh" and Propagandhi's "How to clean everything" by someone and the Lag Wagon CD immediately became a favorite of mine because it had the most amazing hardcore drumming that I had heard in my life. This was how it was supposed to be done and I started mimicking the drummer Derrick’s style. A whole new world of drumming appeared in front of me and I enjoyed it a lot.

Some months later Lag Wagon came to Sweden to do an one-off gig at the classic Bergslagsrocken Festival. It was May 28th 1994. This was amazing – I would see Derrick do his magic in real life! The show was great. Somehow I ended up on stage right having a view of the show from the stage. My eyes were mostly focused at Derrick, of course. The drummer from No Fun At All was also on stage with his eyes in the same direction as mine.

When the last song was over, I thought: Well, it’s now or never, I gotta speak to Derrick. So I rushed at the drums and said: Derrick? I really want to talk to you. To my surprise he said: OK, I just need to get my stuff.

Today – 11 years later - I know that you are not really up to speaking to people the minute after you’ve finished your show, so I am frankly amazed of Derrick’s generosity at this point. He was sweaty as hell, probably under a slight stress since it was a festival and another band was waiting to get on stage, and this weird looking Swede is right up in his face…

As he was putting down his cymbals I offered to help and did so. He then brought me backstage, which actually was down in a basement if I remember correctly. We then sat down and talked and talked and talked – for two hours! I can’t remember what we talked about, I guess it was a lot of music talk because Derrick wrote down a few recommendations (Tool for instance, and that Propagandhi/I Spy split 10” that really ignited my appreciation of Propagandhi), but it was all in all an insanely nice experience for me. I was talking for two hours to a guy that really had inspired my drumming.

Half a year later, Lag Wagon returned to Sweden and played at Millencolin’s release party for their debutalbum. I had prepared for another meeting with Derrick because I was at that time doing a fanzine and had 50 (literally) questions to ask. I had also made a mix tape with my favorite Zappa tunes, because we had talked about that too.

When I got to the venue I was looking for him when one of my friends came to tell me that he was at the merch stand and when I got there Derrick remembered me and that was a really great feeling for me. I got someone at the venue to lend me an office room to do the interview and we did. I asked all of the 50 questions and I still have the interview on tape somewhere. It never got published because I put the fanzine to rest, but I still have it just for me.

Derrick did three albums with Lag Wagon and then he left the band, or he was sacked, I can’t remember. I think he had some sort of drug problem. Lag Wagon wasn’t the same after he left, I didn’t really follow them although I think I have most of the albums. And now I got their new one – “Resolve” – which of course is dedicated to Derrick and very much inspired by his passing. The lyrics are really dark and sad. I recognize a lot of the singer and main songwriter Joey’s feelings in his lyrics, although there probably is a bit of backhistory to everything since Derrick just didn’t die, he committed suicide, which of course makes everything even sadder.

I am glad that I persuaded the drummer of No Fun At All to take the picture of Derrick and I on the picture above (although I look like a dork…). It’s a nice memory of a very special two hours of my life, and a very special musician that has influenced me a lot for the last 11-12 years.

I hope you’ve found peace now, Derrick.]]> <![CDATA[Third Krigshot session]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=72
The stuff sounds really cool, I am totally satisfied with the stuff Jallo and I have come up with so far. As I've said before - it's classic Krigshot but with a twist. I think that we've done our share of songs that sounds the same in the past, but this new batch has a lot of variety and cool shit to keep me entertained to say the least.

We now have 13 new songs and 8 old songs = a total of 21 songs. We need 18 for the 12" so now it's time to sort out the bad ones. Personally I think that some of the old songs will be cut because they didn't really feel 100% for me even back in November 2003 so unless we "pimp" them slightly they are bound to be thrown away.

Fourth session will be next Thursday and during the weekend we'll do some sort of preproduction on my Laptop to get an overview of the stuff and to send all songs to the other non-Örebro members. Then I guess that the principal recording will be done last weekend of November or the first in December, something like that.

I'll keep you posted.]]> <![CDATA[Led Zeppelin appreciation blog]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=71
I'm all in favour of this because Led Zeppelin happens to be one of my favorite bands. It was a couple of years ago, maybe as much as 10, or maybe even more that I decided that I would have to check them out. I got their "Remasters" double CD as a Christmas gift and the band immidiately became my favorite band. I loved them simple because of those two hours worth of music.

I now have all the albums and a couple of DVD's and I still love them. Not all of their songs are great, but the major bulk of their stuff is amazing in so many ways. The songwriting, the playing, the sound and the power of those four people. If you're a fan of the band you should check out the "Stairway to heaven" book written by Led Zeppelin's road manager - a book that tells storys sometimes worse than those in "The Dirt"...

(The writer later managed Crazy Town, but let's not talk about that...)

I'll write more about my love for the Zep another day, because I feel a hype coming. I guess I know what to play in my iPod tomorrow...]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 6th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=70 Lasse Myllys, Vaasa, Finland.
Martin Persson, Karlshamn, Sweden.
Mike Holley, Fremont, CA, USA.
Stefan Hegwein, Ippesheim. Germany.
Mario Kofler, Vienna, Austria.
Jesper Löfgren, Solna, Sweden.
Tim Needham, Brighton, UK.
Patryk Bugajski, Warszawa, Poland.
Tony Englund, Sandared, Sweden.
Gerard Ponchon, Pont Saint Esprit, France.
]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 30th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=69 Matthew Walley, Gales Ferry, CT, USA.
Jeannette Lehmann, Bad Camberg, Germany.
Mikael Soilevaara, Lahti, Finland.
Joel Nilsson, Mora, Sweden.
Tommie Sundqvist, Karis, Finland.
William Hartley, Apo, AE, USA.
Mathieu Cazaban, Paris, France.
Christian Vigneault, Cal-d'Or, Canada.
Antti Dunder, Rovaniemi, Finland.
Micke Nordström, Göteborg, Sweden.
Alexander Estelle, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mick Flynn, Co.Cork, Ireland.
Kyle Childers, Ravenna, OH, USA.
]]> <![CDATA[Second Krigshot session]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=68
Currently we have eight new songs and eight semi-old songs from the November 2003 session and our goal is to record 18 songs for the 12" so we are almost there. The third session will be on Monday and we will probably have another round of four new songs by then so we'll have some sort of selection to choose between. I think that I promised one song to the Evigt Lidande guys for a comp 7" and if there is any other label out there looking for exclusive songs for a comp now is the time to get in touch!

I'm thinking of doing some kind of Krigshot zip hood since the cold season is here, any interest in that?]]> <![CDATA[Follow up on the weekend]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=67
Jon came to Örebro at noon on Friday to continue a tattoo theme he began months ago. When he was done with that he came to my office and we hung out for a while before we went to the rehearsal room and started to write some songs as we were waiting for Urban.

Urban's train came at 8 so we started of with a meal and then headed to the rehearsal room again and begun playing for real. It was such fun playing with these two guys again - I've missed it a lot and I think the feeling was mutual. Smiling faces all of the time and Jon headbanged so hard that his hat flew away (as usual).

We wrote five songs and recorded a quick rehearsal on a normal tape deck before we called it the quits at midnight. We headed towards my place and I entertained the guys with some excerpts of my live mix and the artwork for "Grind Finale". At this point I had recieved the terrible news from Relapse so it was kinda sad to go through the artwork knowing that it'll be another couple of months until it's released.

I had also recieved the first split 7" offer for this new project! HAHA! Imagine that - coming home from the first rehearsal and already have a record offer! And the email was even sent and recieved BEFORE we started the rehearsal! Crazy!

On Saturday morning we had a date with Mieszko's girlfriend who joined us for breakfast at a café. It was great for all of us to get together and talk about almost everything. Emma shared some of her stories from her experiences during and after the Tsunami, and eventhough I have heard them before it's such a moving story that you can't really help but wonder how the hell she survived.

After breakfast we went to the cemetery so Jon could visit Mieszko's grave for the first time:
http://nasum.com/blog/upload/jon.jpg

Emma brought her little puppy that was cute as hell:
http://nasum.com/blog/upload/emmasdog.jpg

Then we went to the rehearsal room again. I brought my laptop and harddrive and pluged it into my recording equipment and we recorded a "professional", multitrack rehearsal, and we even recorded a bass track to bring forth the massive sound! We wrote a sixth track too, so all in all six tracks were recorded (about 7-8 minutes of music). Once I'm done mixing the stuff I will share a track or two.

We then had a not very nutricious meal at the infamous Bagdad:
http://nasum.com/blog/upload/jonurban.jpg

And then Jon and Urban went back to Stockholm. Next session might happen in December, hopefully with the fourth member Jesper. We have discussed adding Rickard Alriksson to the band aswell, making it an all ex-Nasum members project, and I happened to meet him at the store after I had left Jon and Urban at the trainstation and he was a little bit interested in it. We'll see...

During the Saturday evening I went to a Millencolin show, their first one in Örebro for three years, and during the show Larzon the drummer wore the "Mieszko" t-shirt, which actually was the first time I saw it on anyone. It was quite a strong feeling to see that. After the show I told a guy from work that I had been playing with Jon and Urban and he asked me how it felt to play without Mieszko.

The truth is that I didn't think much about it. I was so high on the great feeling of playing music that I love with people that I love playing music with and there was no room for depressing feelings. I hope that Mieszko saw us from grindcore heaven and liked that we were continuing everything in some way. ]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Sunday 23rd]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=66 Norhafisza Binti Ramli, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Anton Wanstadius, Kristianstad, Sweden.
Jaime Raposo, Lisboa, Portugal.
Anders Grännsjö, Mora, Sweden.
Ruben Antonio Martell Collins, Hermosillo, Mexico.
Slawek Purzynski, Bialystok, Poland.
Rickard, Linköping, Sweden.]]> <![CDATA[The best weekend this year]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=65
Yes, it's all ex-Nasum members in this project, and yes, there will be a great amount of grinding done, but no - this is not Nasum part 2, this is just a couple of friends who happen to like playing together catching up and making some music at the same time.

I'll tell you more when there is something more to tell, this weekend we'll just write some songs I guess and see what happens. A recording is planed sometime, but nothing more than that.

I've been looking forward to this weekend many many weeks now so I am very excited about all this.]]> <![CDATA[Merch mailing Wednesday 19th]]> http://nasum.com/blog/blog.php?id=64 John Schmidt, Falkenberg, Sweden.
Johan Suikki, Vännäs, Sweden.
Thorsten Klar, Dortmund, Germany.
Walti Hösli, Skara, Sweden.
Wayne Donovan, Victoria, Australia.
Kathrine Schaefer, Leipzig, Germany.
Juha Somero, Kemi, Finland.
Per Boder, Karlstad, Sweden.
Adam Eriksson, Skogås, Sweden.
Ulf Blomberg, Jönköping, Sweden.
Christian Blücker, Västerås, Sweden.
Göran Gustafsson, Färjestaden, Sweden.
Tomas Salonen, Vetlanda, Sweden.
Francisco Ramirez, Oxnard, CA, USA.
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