Gallow God Interview

Gallow God Interview

1 - First of all, I would like to thank you for the fact that you agreed in making this interview with us. It is very important for us to support new bands from the doom metal genre. So, let’s start with a typical question. How did the whole thing started? I mean how you decided to form a doom metal band?

DAN: Hi Alex, Thanks for contacting us to arrange the interview, it’s great to see people like your-self supporting new bands.

The story of how we got started actually goes back quite a few years; I have been in Doom bands since way back in 1996. But I think it was in about 2004 that Ric and I met each other while we were both working for a local record distribution company.

We got talking and Ric told me that he was producing and engineering music for various artists from his home studio. He invited the band I was in at the time, to record at his place for free, because he was trying to get a bit of experience recording heavy music.

We never actually got round to recording the stuff I had done with the previous band, So we decided to start writing together instead. We wrote about 3 or 4 songs and attempted to record them, but had a nightmare due to various computer crashes and technical difficulties so we kinda shelved the project and went our separate ways.

A couple of years passed but then in early 2009 I got an email from Ric saying that he had re worked the studio and stated writing again, so I went round for a listen and the stuff he showed me sounded really promising, so we decided it was back on, and we began writing and recording "False Mystical Prose"

RIC: We have been working together now on and off for over six years and have really bonded musically, as well as having a very strong friendship. Dan introduced me to Doom, and I have grown to love the genre.

In my youth I was really into thrash stuff like Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Nuclear Assault, as well as more traditional Metal like Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath. Once I got into the Doom stuff that was it, and I haven’t looked back since.

DAN: Yeah, there was absolutely no question that we were going to be a Doom band. We had originally been using the name Celephais for the project, a name taken from one of my favourite H.P Lovecraft stories. After a bit of research we found that there was already a band of the same name, so the name was changed to Gallow God.

We still have an unrecorded track called Celephais, so we have a little reminder of the early days. It was only toward the end of recording the EP that we decided to expand into a full band and hired our rhythm section of Doom, Jim Panlilio and Martin "Yeti" Singleton.

2 - Gallow God sounds evil, doomed but also promising. Please tell me how did you come up with this name and what is the meaning of the title of your EP “False Mystical Prose”.

DAN: The Gallow God name is a bastardisation of an Old Norse name for Odin, the actual Kenning is "Lord of the Gallows". It refers to the legend in which Odin Sacrifices himself and hangs upon the World Tree Yggdrasil for Nine days and nights to gain the wisdom of the runes.

We use a lot of tree imagery in our artwork. Tree’s being the most ancient form of Gallows, and as a nod to the Lord of the Gallows himself.

As for the EP title "False Mystical Prose", it kind of has a few meanings, it’s about the stuff I read, weird and esoteric, religious, theoretical but essentially scientifically it’s all false mumbo jumbo.

Alternatively it could be about the lyrics to the songs, stories, ideas or personal experiences wrapped up in metaphor and false mystical prose to make it interesting, majestic and other worldly.

Finally it’s just the words themselves False. Mystical. Prose. That’s why the words have been triple spaced on the artwork, so they can be viewed as individual statements.

3 - In your magnificent EP “False Mystical Prose”, we can claim that there are a lot of different influences, combined with a personal touch. I can remember when I first listened to it, the Reverend Bizarre effect! Can you please tell me what the main influences of the band are?

DAN: Sure, and thanks for the compliment. My influences are probably the same as many other guys who are in Doom metal bands; Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Reverend Bizarre, Candlemass, Pentagram, Solitude Aeturnus, Last Chapter, Solstice, Isole and the early My Dying Bride albums in particular the drumming by Rick Miah. I could go on, but to be honest I think the biggest influence on us is the stuff we have done ourselves in the past, we have just tried to keep developing our own identity.

But as you say, all of our collected influences are also a major part of our sound, and I am grateful to all of the bands who have inspired us and paved the way.

RIC: My main Influences would be Black Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maiden, While Heaven Wept, My Dying Bride and Opeth among many others, in fact pretty much the same bands Dan mentioned

We are both self taught on guitar and all the other instruments we play actually, so I think we have always tried to develop our own style. We are very conscious to try and avoid writing guitar riffs that sound too much like another bands riffs, and don’t really copy other band’s styles. I would like to think this is why we have had such a good response from people.

4 - Doom Metal, is my favorite genre of heavy metal. Very often though, I am disappointed by the fact that many bands who used to be in the underground , became mainstream probably because of a successful effort, and forgot that they are more metal fans and less professionals. Are you into doom metal and generally into metal as well?

DAN: Doom metal is pretty much the only genre of metal I’ve listened to for the past 15 years with the odd exception, so there is no chance of Gallow God going mainstream. We would not change what we are doing if we became popular; no one gets into Doom Metal to “make it big”. And I agree that a lot of bands can alienate their fans when they decide they have out grown the Doom metal tag. I know it’s pissed me off from time to time.

RIC: yeah, I mean we are all basically in our early to mid 30’s except for the Yeti, who is a young Bastard. I think that if we were going to grow out of it, it would have happened by now.

5 - England is famous for her metal scene, as well as for many skull crushing doom metal bands. Black Sabbath, Solstice, the Lamp of Thoth, Cathedral, Warning, Mourn and also more underground bands like Witchsorrow, Khthon, Iron void and Crowned In Earth. Please tell me if what the situation in England nowadays is. Are there any true supporters of doom metal? Are there people in charge to organize concerts?

DAN: Well, we can’t really be considered part of the “scene” as we don’t know any of the other bands or anything like that, so we might not be the best people to comment on this. Things do seem to be looking up for Doom Metal in England, but few years ago things weren’t going so well. A lot of the typical venues where you might go and see a Doom gig were being closed down and there wasn’t much promotion happening. However in the last year or two there are a few promoters dealing with underground metal and specifically Doom metal that seem to have secured a new crop of venues. Not to mention all the hard work done by bands in the scene to try and get things moving again.

6 - “False Mystical Prose”, came out of nowhere in the underground and was a great surprise for everyone. What are the responses from the media and generally from the people that listened to it?

RIC: The response has been incredible, and no one is more surprised by this than us! We never expected it to take off the way it has, in fact I remember a conversation we had in the studio one night where we said, we would be happy if we sold 1 copy. Another thing is the quality of the bands we have been getting compared to and mentioned alongside, it’s blown us away, and like I said, was completely unexpected.

DAN: The fact that you even asked that question blows me away!

7 - What is the “strategy” of the band? I mean are you cooperating in composing the songs, or is it a “brain” in the band that writes both lyrics and music? I would also love to know what the general lyrical content of this EP is.

RIC: Things are definitely a collaborative effort, except for the lyrics, that’s Dan’s Department.

DAN: well, not totally, if someone else comes up with a good line or has a good idea for a song then I kind of work with that. The majority of the rhythm guitar parts for False Mystical Prose were written by Ric as well as a couple of the leads, I then added my Harmonies and leads and brought in a few riffs of my own, but Ric was definitely in the Zone on this one! The credits on the EP let you know the rest of the instruments each of us played, and we collaborated on the writing of those parts.

RIC: Usually one of us will have an idea for a riff, record it, and then we get together we Jam it for a bit and refine it, I think the new album we are working on has a more of an even split in the Guitar Department, and we are looking forward to the stuff the new guys will contribute.

DAN: Lyrically the EP focuses on subjects drawn from History, Folklore, Mythology, or stories I come up with to evoke a particular mood; Although The Sin and Doom of Godless Men is a deeply personal song for us.

8 - Have you played any gigs so far? Please let us know what the plans are for Gallow God. Maybe a good promotion of the EP including live performances in and outside UK, Or to continue with a full length album? Are there any labels which are interest in your music by the way?

RIC : We haven’t played any Gigs yet, we have really only had a full line up since October so we still need to do a bit of rehearsal to get up to speed, which can be difficult to arrange because we all have Jobs and families to fit things round.

DAN: The main priority at the moment is the recording of a Full Length, we have already started work on this but it is in the very early stages. We are aiming for an October 2011 release. In the mean time we will be rehearsing and are hoping to start gigging toward the later part of the year, to coincide with the release of the new album.

We do have some Label news as well; we are happy to announce that we have signed to PsycheDOOMelic for the release of False Mystical Prose, so you should now be able to pick up a copy of the EP from either the band or the label websites or one of PsycheDOOMelic’s many distributors.

9 - I think it is a bit early for this question, but I will ask!!! Is there a possibility that you will visit Greece for a live appearance? There is an underground festival which becomes more and more popular, called “Up the Hammers” festival, which takes place in Athens every year! I would be nice to see you live there, so if you want you can ask the guy who organizes it for further information.

RIC: Yeah we would love to come to Greece, although as mentioned earlier we probably won’t be gigging until late 2011 and throughout 2012, but there are quite a few places outside of the UK we would like to play.

10 - Unfortunately, our interview has reached the end. It was very nice talking with you and I will like to thank for all these information about the band that you shared with us. I wish the best for Gallow God and each of you personally. Bands like this should be born every day. You can close this interview as you wish!

Once again we would like to thank you for contacting us to conduct the interview you are the True Preacher of Doom \m/

We would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to check out the EP and given us such great feedback, the radio shows that have played our music, and the reviewers for the brilliant response they have given to “False Mystical Prose”. Also a big thank you to Mark at PsycheDOOMelic for bringing our Music to a wider audience.

For more information on the band or to stream “False Mystical Prose” please visit www.GallowGod.co.uk here you will find links to our Shop, Facebook and MySpace

Doom Ever Onward

Gallow God 11/02/2011

Father Alex

Children Of Doom

Bobby Liebling (Pentagram) Interview and Pentagram Live Report (Zlin, Czech Republic)

The day was Thursday the 8^th of October and after our long journey from Bratislava to Zlin, we found the place were the mighty Pentagram were going to appear!! After entering the Masters Of Rock Café, where the gig was going to take place, a place in which many people where there drinking beers and the atmosphere was decorated with Manowar posters from past gigs, I saw a figure fooling around but I didn’t pay attention to who he was. After a couple of minutes though, I realized that he was the godfather of doom metal and one of the most special voices that heavy metal has shown: Bobby Liebling!!!!!!
Without wasting any time I rushed towards him for an autograph and for a picture. Then he offered me a sit in order to talk and have some coffee together. So, I found a chance to make a sort of an interview with him.

First of all I would like to mention that he is so calm and polite and his words and face provide kindness. The first question that I asked him was how come he is touring again and specially in Europe and why did he chose Zlin as a place for a show instead of Prague which is the capital of Czech Republic. He replied that he visits for first time Europe and that this is quite exciting for him and that the choice of the city wasn’t his but his manager’s. Also he told me that he visited Europe because this was a vision of the past and to prepare doom metal fans about the new forthcoming album which will se the light of day during next March!!! Then I asked him about his new line up and what happened with the old legends like Victor Griffin (1979, 1983-1988, 1993-1996) and Joe Hasselvander (1983-2002), guitar, bass (1999-2002). What he replied was that with Victor they still love each other but unfortunately Joe is a different person… About the new line up he told me that they rule, thing that I really understood few hours later at their show. The new line up consists of the following: Gary Isom – Drums, originally drummer for the US doomsters Unorthodox but he used to play for Pentagram as well back to the 1994, Mark Ammen – Bass, also from Unorthodox and Russ Strahan – Guitar. He told the best words for them and that he is quite happy to be collaborating with such musicians.

After all these, I asked him what happened back then in the 70’s what was all these bands that he was involved to, his main influences and the unfortunate and sad facts for him visiting the prison. What he replied about that was his strongest influence ever still nowadays is Blue Cheer. He also told me that he is still a huge fan and about few years ago he accomplished his dream and he met them. Now, as far as the 70’s are concerned Stone Bunny was just a moniker in order to play some rehearsals and nothing more, Bedemon was kind of more serious but only few demo tapes are saved. About that I informed him that there was a re-issue on vinyl by the Black Widow records and he disagreed totally by saying that he lever gave permission for that. Then Death Row was the first moniker that then changed into the tremendous Pentagram and the rest is history. After that, I asked him if he was influenced at all by Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath both in the singing and clothing (crosses and stuff) but also phrases that we all are keen of like Allright now!, Oh Yeah, etc. His answer was clear: Not at all!! And he continued by saying that Victor was a huge Black Sabbath fan and he did plan all these parts in their songs and he has nothing to do with that.

At the end I kept one pleasant and one sad fact. I will start with the sad first which is Bobby’s past where he was involved with drugs and jail because of them but I will continue with the most important and most pleasant of all, that he has quite all these stuff and he deeply regrets as he told me with tears in his eyes because now he can understand the real meaning of life, everyday and in every live show when he sees the people’s response his emotions grow more and more and he cries while he thanks the crowd. Also he didn’t stop saying about his new love, which according to his sayings was gift from God in order to keep him alive. He counts 3 years of relationship with her and also 3 years without any drugs.

After this short interview and while I was shaking of sitting near the god of doom, he left in order to dress himself and to prepare for the show which would start in about 45 minutes. He said goodbye and we re arranged our meeting on stage.

So, after few minutes the dream continued. The mighty Pentagram appeared on stage starting with Wheel of Fortune and continuing with Forever My Queen. What I saw was an incredible movement of Bobby, an excellent musical performance by the rhythm section of Unorthodox and an unbelievable guitar play by Russ which left me speechless. No words to describe the feeling but also the response of the people which had the same luck to be present there like me. Bobby showed his best and also his appetite to live and sing his and our favourite songs. Excellent choice of songs, including Petrified, Living in a ram’s head, All your sins and encore with The sing of the wolf!!!!!

Conclusion: Different emotions surrounded me during the whole event including the internview and the live show and many things were clearly realized like there’s not anything more important that life and joy. Hopefully this was also realized by Bobby who we hope to continue giving us the doom!! God bless him!!

Father Alex (Children Of Doom Blogspot) 2009

Interview With Christian Linderson (CHRITUS)

1.Hello Christian!! First of all we would like to say that it is an honor for us to interview you, as you were a hero for us during your career with Count Raven, Saint Vitus and now with Lord Vicar. So, let us start by asking you what happened back in the late 80’s and Count Raven were formed?

Thank You for the kind opening comment, and the pleasure is all mine, Im sure! Comments like that makes it ALL worthwhile, I feel. Its good to know that I at least seem to have been able to touch a few people out there with some of my music throughout these years. Cheers!
As it was back then, and as far as I remember it, I had been involved in several different local rockbands since mid 80s. I was a HUGE WITCHFINDER GENERAL/BLACK SABBATH-fan and still am to this day. And so I guess it was a natural progression for me to want to move more in that direction musically, as I felt it had more substance to it than what Metal media was hung up on at the time. It was dominated by the glamrock-scene, which I truly loathed. It so happened that I Some Enchanted Evening went down to a local place where most kids and teenagers can hang out in evenings and after school. They also organised concerts with different local bands mainly. That night a band called STORMWARNING played, and I was almost instantly infatuated with the crunchy sound and by all means no-bullsh*t approach they had. Got to talk with them afterwards, it was Dan, Wilbur and drummer Mikael. We hit off really good on a personal level very soon, so I started showing up at their rehearsals sometimes, or me and Dan just got together to hang out - as it turned out we lived just across the street from one another. Seeing them at rehearsals and gigs really lit a fire within me, and one day I just had to ask Dan while we sat around in my room: "Hey, why don’t we form a REALLY heavy band? Forget about STORMWARNING, man! We could do better together!" And Dan, humble as ever, replied: "Ha! Ha! I AM STORMWARNING!"... So from then on I got to sing during rehearsals, as he wanted to focus mainly on his guitar playing. It was by then lyrics started to be in English, as it felt more natural for me to sing in that language. And we just took it from there. Our very first gig must have been pretty good, As I got that nodding approval from him afterwards! Ha! We continued with that line-up for about a year or two, and played a lot of gigs and festivals throughout Sweden. What we did was to simply bring forth a phone number-catalogue and just call about EVERY DAMN PLACE there was in the country that organised gigs and put together our own tours! It was hard, expensive work but great fun in the end. But then Mikael got tired of it all, and wanted to spend his time with his family instead. So we had to find another drummer for the band. Finding him is quite a good story in itself and can be found for everyone to be read in the booklet of the re-released first album. So, Renfield then came into the band after a long and very frustrating search for a replacement. We recorded the demos, changing the name to COUNT RAVEN cause apparently there was some other band who had just bought the rights to use STORMWARNING. It was a actually a good friend of mine then, Matz Ekstroem (First CANDLEMASS drummer) who came up with COUNT RAVEN. He actually rehearsed with us on occasion aswell, but it didnt work out with his style of playing - straight double basspedalling throughout the songs! Really nice guy, though! In what must have been late 89 or so, I picked up a Metal Magazine somewhere and in it, it said that SAINT VITUS had signed to a German record label. I sent the label a demo and a letter that said something about me being a BIG fan of the band and asked them if VITUS ever came to Sweden, could we please open up for them? They replied that we could open up for them during their WHOLE UPCOMING TOUR, IF the label could release our album! Ha! Simple, huh? So we recorded the album and titled it "STORM WARNING", as a reference to the bands past history. A pretty smooth passage there. I was in seventh heaven that tour in 90, so was my friend Griff from CATHEDRAL/YEAR ZERO fame. CATHEDRAL opened up for them in England, and COUNT RAVEN throughout the rest of Europe. Good Times!

2. How did you start singing?
I opened up my mouth and went: Ghaaaaaaaa! Ha! No, it was in the Swedish version of College, or in 10th Grade if You like. A classmate of mine heard me sitting behind my desk humming a SAXON song or whatever, and he suggested I should go try out for some friends he knew, who had a band but no singer. So I did, ending up a member. We were called SAMHEIN. Then followed some other local bands; CONQUEST and later on a band who had numerous names for a while, so I have none to give You there, Im afraid! Ha! Ha! It featured Joakim Langquist on guitar, though. (The younger brother of Johan, who later on sang on the first CANDLEMASS album) Things started to lean too much towards ordinary melodic Metal towards the end there though, and by then I had seen STORMWARNING play that gig I told You about previously, that direction was what I wanted us to go in, and the others did not - so we split up. In addition I can tell You I have only had ONE good half hour worth of professional vocal coaching in my entire life, Could not afford any more. Ha! Reckon none-fans of mine would be keen to say that it shows.

3. By which artist or singers have you been inspired?
Ozzy, And Zeeb Parkes from WITCHFINDER GENERAL - believe it or not! Never purposely meant to come out sounding anything similar to them, though. It’s just the way I sound, and it’s been quite a few years now since I stopped explaining this to ignorant and narrow minded critics. I guess all that time I spent in my room singing along to these artists songs left a mark somehow, sure, but it’s not like it was a part of a plan or something. It’s been a blessing and a curse alike, but take the Death Metal genre for instance - noone is bitching over all these what must be f**king MILLIONS of bands singers growling, sounding more or less identical in their performance, Yknow?! Strange! I’m not knocking them, just stating a fact. Apart from Ozzy and Zeeb, Kate Bush has also meant a lot, as her style of vocal harmonies really hits the spot for me. Her despair at times, man. Intense! Ian Anderson of JETHRO TULL is also a big hero of mine. And I can tell You this: If it wasn’t for Johan Langqvist I probably wouldn’t be singing in the first place. I have this older cousin who always brought me to his childhood friends band rehearsals, who called themselves JONAH QUIZZ, and Johan was their singer. An excellent constellation, they sounded like a crossing between SAXON "Denim And Leather" and Judas Priest "Screaming For Vengeance" musically, really professional like. He sang in Swedish there in the beginning, and later on started to sing in English as well. Jeez,I f**king WORSHIPPED the man. I wanted to be just like him...no, I wanted to BE him! what a great voice! Initially and without a doubt, he sowed that seed in me thinking that "One Day..." Yknow?! I still consider him being the best singer EVER coming out of this country when it comes to hard rock. Him and Ulf Torkelsson from ABRAMIS BRAMA. Simply Amazing Naturally Talented vocalists both of them.


4. What were your influences in general?

I grew up with parents mainly listening to THE BEATLES, ELVIS PRESLEY, ABBA, CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL, STATUS QUO and get this: DEMIS RUOSSOS!
So, these just mentioned here is sort of rooted deep in my soul and spine, being part of my entire childhood. In mid teens I discovered KATE BUSH whom I am a big fan of. And personally, I was never really a big fan of DEEP PURPLE as a band, but GILLAN solo stuff really appealed to me in quite an early stage aswell...and Yknow, all these other 70s legends like BLACK SABBATH, JETHRO TULL, NAZARETH, URIAH HEEP, LED ZEPPELIN, BUDGIE, ROBIN TROWER, ALICE COOPER, KISS, some HAWKWIND etc. Eventually when Metal started to become a renewed sensation in early 80s, just like most other people I was into SAXON, MOTORHEAD,JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN and AC/DC. And then along came WITCHFINDER GENERAL, SAINT VITUS, PENTAGRAM and TROUBLE...at least for me.


5. The year was 1989 and suddenly 2 demos were recorded and the year after the amazing first full length album Storm Warning was recorded and released. What are your feelings about being part of such an excellent debut and how did you feel as a band after the magnificent reviews and comments that you received?

Well, we had both good and bad reviews of course. I think most underground Fanzines welcomed us with arms wide open, so to speak. As for some of the major leading Metal Zines that were around back then, I remember KERRANG! and METAL FORCES really liked us, as well as German METAL HAMMER. But If I remember correctly, UK.METAL HAMMER really HATED our guts, though! Ha! Ha! At least the guy who reviewed the album did. He stated the intro kept going throughout the whole album or something, so I suspect he must have gotten a mispressed copy! Oh, well. You cannot win them all, I guess. Oh, but we were really proud and happy about the album, of course. A bit of a leading question there, fellows! I guess It’s fully comparable to become a parent in certain ways, or having sex with ones girlfriend for the very first time, Yknow? ...That pure euphoric, sensational feeling of that the whole world changes around You, sort of! And for me personally it was a f**king dream come true to end up on a piece of plastic and paper! Thats a lifes ambition for You! And I remember we had a blast going on that tour with SAINT VITUS and the chance to go outside of Sweden and play for a foreign audience! I even got some female attention that tour, and that has NEVER happened in that situation since then! In retrospect, looking back at that album now...I don’t know, it is what it was way back when, and it was me at that certain specific time in my life, Yknow? And in true Swedish self-denying fashion I thought that was it! I had no idea there would be more to follow, really. And If I could change anything about it today, it would be some of the asspompous self-righteous Christian views I had when writing lyrics back then. It just came out like that cause I thought that was the way it was supposed to be, kinda. I can’t remember what the hell I was thinking. I was still young then and very naive, mind You. And as time flies by, one changes views when growing as a person - be it through general experience in life or contemplating or both. As for the vocals itself, well...I can’t say my ambition was to try to sound like Ozzy or Zeeb, I just hadn’t really found myself vocally yet. But my conclusion has to be this, after thinking about it for another minute here, is that there are far more worse albums out there...and some of them aren’t even debuts! And You can quote me on that one.

6.Tell us please what happened then and you left Count Raven. Where there any problems with your band mates or something like that? Rumors said that you weren’t able to continue under this hippie image any more. Is it true?

No, not at all! That is NOT what happened, and it truly
sounds like a really STUPID reason for leaving, since You ask...and rumors, Dude - who needs them?! First off, the "hippie image" of COUNT RAVEN or whatever, was NOT a gimmick. we never f**king PRETENDED to be what we were not. The poseur movement that had its origin in L.A at the time spearheaded the pretending part, not us, and if they didn’t its even worse! Read or listen to "In The Name Of Rock And Roll" once more and ask Yourself if there actually was a "hippie" image to COUNT RAVEN per say! There is not much peace and love in that one, dude. Just a pure reflection of HATRED, rather! Dan And Wilbur were the ones out of the four of us being youngsters with roses on their cheeks during that era, not me or Renfield. He has always been a Biker Viking through and through! And personally, well, Im kinda fond of the 60s movement yeah, for nostalgic reasons such as the WEED And SEXUAL liberation and the MUSIC! But it was all both for good and bad, I mean - they had the answer right there in their palm of their hand but drugged it all into NOTHING! Stupid C*nts! And on top of it all, I was born in 1967 - The Summer Of Love, Baby..."And By Peace He Shall Destroy Many"...But to be perfectly honest with You here, I can truly not quite remember what the actual reason was for finally leaving. It was bound to happen sooner or later anyway. I remember me and Dan often got into arguments about whatever towards the end there, as often happens when strong wills collide. Wilbur and Renfield were always trying to meddle between us, sometimes successfully and other times not. Being in a band is much like having a relationship with your spouse, Yknow? A cliche indeed, but oh how very true. I’m sure You know this already, so I won’t dwell on it. Boring answer, huh? Whatever, this is a long time ago now. What must be an ocean of rivers have passed under that bridge. I actually bumped into Dan only just a few weeks ago. COUNT RAVEN have recently finished recording a new album, which I’m really looking forward to hear. Quite some time after TERRA FIRMA split up, an idea came through in my head of forming another band to maybe record something. It has now been granted with a name even, which is WEEKEND BEAST. I then actually got in touch with Dan to ask him if he was interested in participating, and he was. But nothing came out of it. After quite some time he called me asking if I knew of any bassplayers...I snooped around for a bit, then Dennis Berg from ABRAMIS BRAMA suggested Fredrik Jansson, our mutual friend and ex-drummer of that band, who also is a bassplayer on occasion. And so it turns out I ended up giving Dan a bassplayer that I originally had thought of for the drumming part in the WEEKEND BEAST line-up! Im happy for Janssons sake though, as I understand he has also been a long time fan of COUNT RAVEN. Fredrik also plays drums in WITCHCRAFT nowadays aswell.


7.Many years after, you became the singer of Saint Vitus’ C.O.D. album. Tell us please about Saint Vitus. Was it a band that inspired you as a band back with Count Raven and was it something special to you? What happened and you went to sing for Saint Vitus?

I was a big SAINT VITUS fan well long before joining STORMWARNING. I discovered the first VITUS album when I was working in a local record store as part of my school education. And it was just grinning at me, sitting there in the import vinyl section, going: "Hey, Check Me Out!", and it was Love at the first listening! And as I was working there I naturally excercised my authority of ordering stuff from their SST Catalogue through other retailers, so "Hallows Victim" and "Walking Dead" and the rest of their recordings quickly followed. So anyway, what happened was that in the middle of recording the second COUNT RAVEN album, I read somewhere that Wino had left the band. I had by then gotten to know Messiah from CANDLEMASS through Matz, and Messiah and myself were the biggest fans of SAINT VITUS in Sweden at the time, that I know of anyway. I was asked through our record company to get in touch with him, to ask him if he would be interested to go over there and maybe join them, this since he was out of CANDLEMASS by then. Turns out he was not very keen on the idea for whatever reason, so they asked me to give it a go instead! I was not comfortable with the situation in COUNT RAVEN then either, even though the recording of "Destruction.." was almost done. So I just went for it. Good thing I did, cause Dan then naturally had to start singing again and record the vocals all over again and my vocals really SUCKED on that recording! If You need proof of that, just have a listen to the bonus tracks apparently included on the re-releases of their back catalogue! Anyway, going over to California to try out for VITUS, one of my favourite bands at the time, was just out of this world! Turns out I was a member of the band already before the flight even hit the airport over there. Imagine that! My sanity hung from a very thin thread, believe You me! Our very first song during rehearsal was "Prayer For The (M)asses" I remember, and how could I ever forget?! Time stood still and I truly F**KING LOVED every second of it! I was with them for some three and a half years from then on. It was a true adventure, containing both ups and downs of course. That experience itself really changed me as a person, for the better I hope. I learnt a great deal from them guys, and all in all that period gave me a lot of fun memories. However, since Dave would not have me singing the way I did naturally, because of the obvious Ozzy-comparison again,(Aaah, the curse! THE CUUURSE!) it lead me to become really distant to myself and uncomfortably insecure of myself in general. still puzzles me to this very day, mind You, since he obviously knew how I sounded like already, Yknow? And then when we did that European tour with CATHEDRAL, it was HIS suggestion we should do "Paranoid" as a cover...go figure! But this is also history by now, and I have NONE whatsoever grudge with them these days. It’s part of the business I’ve come to learn, and besides, life is too short! Recently I finally got in touch with both Armando and Mark again through my MySpace after all this time, and things seem to be cool between us. I wish them all the best of luck with that whole reunion thing and I will always treasure my time with them. I am also very grateful for the opportunity back then to go and visit the Magical Wonderful World Of Disneyland! Zipp-a-dee-doo-daah!

8.Are you still a doom metal and generally a heavy metal fan? Which bands are you listening to and how do you see the doom metal scene nowadays? Any worth checking bands?

Yes and yes indeed! I kinda lost touch with what was going on in the scene for some 4 years or so, after TERRA FIRMA was no more. Raising my Son all on my own had me more than occupied. Then about 8 months ago I finally gave in to modern technology, getting access to this here computer. Previously I would not go closer to such a device than an English mile if I could help it! So, by doing this I soon got filled in and discovered many good bands that are to my liking, so Yep - There Is Hope Still! For me though, it gets somewhat confusing with all this different labeling of musical styles these days. So Regardless of genre now, I like to rock out to HOUR OF 13, THE GATES OF SLUMBER, TALIS, INTERCOSTAL, PLANET GEMINI, LORD OF THE GRAVE, TOWER OF EVIL, THE WANDERING MIDGET, GREY and THE PURITAN to drop a few names here. Im also REALLY into GRAVEYARD, a wonderful 70s groove kinda proggressive band. And NEVER to forget: ABRAMIS BRAMA! Ah, what a high class act! They’ve always been good, but from what I heard of them as of lately their new material is getting more dark and sinister than before and that is never wrong in my book! Next album from them should be really AWESOME! Check Them Out!


9. About a year ago, we learned that Reverend Bizarre were about to split up, but Peter was planning to continue the true doom metal tradition with another band called Lord Vicar. No one though, could believe that the main singer would be you tell us please something about that. Did you know the band Reverend Bizarre from the past or you just knew Peter and you both decided to move to the creation of such a band?

I had heard of REVEREND BIZARRE earlier yes, but I did not know them personally. A good friend of mine went to a Doom Festival here in Stockholm once, where they attended. I forget why I couldn’t go that time, though. Anyway, give or take a year or so ago I got a call from Renfield saying he had met this Peter character from a band called REVEREND BIZARRE. I think they played a festival in Germany somewhere together or whatever, and Peter wanted to get in touch with me regarding forming a band. By then I had not heard so much of BIZARREs music and it wasn’t until later it dawned on me how much impact that band has had on the scene. Apparently I had been away for too long. So, after he called me he came over to my house one day, he travels a lot in his work to different countries and this was the day after some convention here in Stockholm. Anyway, he suffered somewhat of a hangover from the night before apparently. We hit off good from the start though, and so we tried to cure his hangover with plenty of beer and a bottle of Whisky that he had brought with him as a gift. Drinking out of my horn with Odins Hail, we both were in pretty good shape by the time I went with him back to the train station to wave him off! Ha! Ha! He soon after that sent me some REVEREND BIZARRE CDs and I found myself getting really smashed one evening, rocking out and headbanging to their "So Long Suckers" album. I still regard "They Used.." as my personal favourite song by them. I had not heard of CENTURIONS GHOST either previous to this, and getting to know both Milly and Jussi has been nothing other than a PURE PLEASURE! When we did our first tour in November last year, together with THE DEEP BLUE, Void came to hang out with us in Berlin. I found him being a really nice person aswell. Albert I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting just yet. I’ve seen some old BIZARRE pictures where he is wearing a COUNT RAVEN shirt though, so at least I know he has good taste! Ha! The name LORD VICAR has its origin from our personal names. LORD comes from Lord Chritus - a nickname that Freddie Eugene came up with at some point when in TERRA FIRMA. "Lord Chritus from SAINT VITUS!" was his exact phrase, the witty bastard! so it just stuck with me there for a while. I’ve skipped the "Lord" part nowadays though, or TRYING to anyway, as it seems very hard to shake it offa me! Today there are WAY too many Lord This and Lord That running around, so it has lost its appeal for me. So simply Chritus is what I prefer. VICAR, of course, is from Peter. Had Milly and Jussi been starting this band, I guess we would have been called MILLHAMMER! Tsssk. Tsssk.

*photo taken by Blackblood (GDMF)*


10. After a very good debut 7”, Fear No Pain was released, a really masterpiece of doom metal, where a lot of people including us believed that doom metal is not dead...

Well, thank You. Feels good to know that people - including Your Dear Selves here - can see some darkness at the end of the tunnel! An ironic contradiction, since REVEREND BIZARRE stated that Doom Metal IS dead! Ha! Ha! I wouldn’t know a thing about it, though. as I said, I’ve been away for too long. For me it is just about dedicating myself to what I concider being good music.



11.Who’s the main song and lyric writer? Do you participate in any composing of music or lyrics?

Well, there should be no mistake here that Peter is the main driving force in this band. Its more his baby in that sense than mine, if You know what i mean. He comes up with the general rough ideas both musically and lyrically, but we all get to have our say during rehearsals. He is very easy going as a person, and very likeable at that, and he really cares about the rest of us feeling comfortable with what comes out in the end. All in all its a very good way of thinking. I mean, him and Jussi lives in Finland, Milly in England and me over here so naturally we don’t get to rehearse as much as we would like to! Therefore it is optimal that he is at the helm of this, being the very creative person that he is. I have no problem with him writing the stuff, as I’m free to elaborate around the lyrics and vocal harmonies anyway, Yknow? He gave me a working title for a new song a while ago though, called "Endless November", which I will write from scratch. However, I’ve been really spoiled now with "Fear No Pain" getting everything served on a silverplate kinda. So we will see what comes out of that one as I haven’t been writing any
lyrics for ages, it feels like.


12. Also, you were founder and creator of the band Terra Firma. Please tell us about how this started. What were you thinking back then?

Me and "Fast" Freddie Eugene both started it, yes. The idea of forming that band had been around ever since COUNT RAVEN days, actually! Freddie had heard one of the demos back then, while he was still in UNLEASHED. I actually got to meet him in LA one time during that era. UNLEASHED toured in the States and played at the TROUBADOR or whatever that venue was called, and I went there to see him that night. I remember he bought me some shots of Whisky after the show, which I couldnt manage to hold in...so I then must have accidentally "spraypainted" every single inside wall of the venue. Oh well, it was a f**king poseurs nest anyway! But it wasnt until I came back from the USA a couple of years later after being kicked out of VITUS, that we could get together and start looking for other members. At that point in my life it was the BEST thing that could EVER happen to me. And Freddie, Izmo and myself still remain very close to this day.

13. Terra Firma is a little bit different from you previous bands. Did you wanted to play something different or was it a kind of a hobby for you in order to express some feeling that you could’t due to your previous bands’ image?

Not at all, It was a total NATURAL process. The chemistry we had in that band was nothing short of pure BLISS in that way. And that band was NO hobby at all, it was MY ENTIRE LIFE for about 6-7 years or so. It was a TOTAL soulcleansing time for me, as everything just sunk into place on a straight musical/lyrical/songwriting level, aswell as personal. Mind You, getting the boot from VITUS made me really depressed for a while there. That time I thought it was all over FOR SURE, as making the "C.O.D" album with them came out as a huge dissapointment for me personally there in the end. I wanted to pick up from the "Mournful Cries" era or "Walking Dead" even, and clearly that wasn’t what actually happened. With TERRA FIRMA something just snapped within me, as if my true nature just bursted out of its cage, sort of. I feel that the two albums we managed to release have been WAY to underrated in the scene over all. I mean, WHAT THE F**K HAPPENED?! People went totally STONE DEAF all of a sudden?! I think the musicians involved are all pure genious, not counting myself there, which I must clearify is a very Swedish thing to say. I have a good excuse using the phrase, though. In comparison to what I’d been involved in before in my career, none special mentioned here, its way beyond me why we couldn’t go further than we did. But such is Life, I reckon. Shit runs downwards.

14. Which period during your musical career was the best for you? We mean during which period and with which band you were most close and you had the best time with and the most beautiful things that you remember still?

I have probaly given the answer to this one away already! Ha! Ha! In every band I’ve been in, I’ve of course felt there have been moments of Magic on occasion. Without trying to step on anybodys toes here and also giving LORD VICAR a couple of more years; I must say TERRA FIRMA, no doubt. Although the band is a well closed chapter nowadays, I do tend to get very drunk on occasion and put the headphones on and just blast the volume, playing the albums back to back and close my eyes and watch the movie. Time well spent.
There are so many highlights during that era, it’s impossible to tell You about even half of it without writing a kinda Tolkien Trilogy...but one glimpse of it, that sometimes flashes by, is when we toured with CATHEDRAL and ORANGE GOBLIN. We were leaving GRAZ in AUSTRIA early in the morning after the show. Most of us were still heavily intoxicated since previous evening. And we stopped the "Frightliner" Bus to get some gas at this gas-station just outside of town somewhere, right, and I’m sitting by the window noticing this other huge bus also making a stop there. Apparently its full of really old people on a tourist sightseeing of some sort, most of them standing right outside. Then from the corner of my eye, in enters this guy carrying a huge paper machee pink pig under his arm, ever so casually approaching them to have a small talk. You could SMELL their confusion from miles away, eyes wide open as their jaws dropped to the ground! It was my long time good friend Lee Dorrian from CATHEDRAL who apparently decided to enrich their lives with this appearence! Im watching this whole incident and I can’t stop laughing to this day! Man, I guess it would help being there at the time, but take my word for it - that was indeed a Beautiful Thing! Pure MONTY PYTHON like! Another highlight was when we played in Stockholm halfways through the same tour. The venue, STUDION, was totally PACKED with people, and the line outside seemed to go on for miles! The reception TERRA FIRMA got that evening will always be one of the finest moments with that band for me. Ah, those were happy days indeed.

15. What are the plans for Lord Vicar in the future? A second album or some gigs maybe? I know that you played recently in Germany live where our friend FW was there and told us so.

Yeah, which brings us back to the first tour for LORD VICAR, back in November with THE DEEP BLUE again. It was a good one. Actually my first tour in f**king FIVE years! I wasn’t nervous really, just a bit bent out of shape at first. Yeah, FW is a real cool dude. I don’t know if he told You this aswell, but I had to look at the lyric sheet a bit too often, and regrettably continued to do so for the remaining gigs that week. I confess I must not have done my homework properly, but I hope people who attended the shows didn’t take it personally as It might have looked as if I didn’t care. It was quite the opposite, in fact! I dearly promise I will do much better from now on, as I’m sure it will improve with every gig we do. In past bands I’ve been in, we have been able to rehearse for a whole f**king year nonstop if we felt like it, in terms of having access to a studio and each other. but with LORD VICAR its a totally different scenario, mainly cause of the geographical distance. Right, what was the question again, please? Ha! Ha! Yeah, LORD VICAR will keep me quite occupied this year which is just fine by me! We have gigs and festivals booked almost every month until late Fall. Coming up this month, in only a week or two, we will attend the PSYCHOTROPIC CARAVAN in Helsinki, then there’s plenty more to follow: DOOM SHALL RISE, HELL IS PLEASURE etc. and I can’t wait to get out there and shake my tush on stage again! Ha! Ha!

16.Do you plan to visit Greece for a gig aswell?

Ouch! Well, that depends. Have You boys been behaving Yourselves good so far this year? I will let You know soon enough if I get to hear anything about it! Hows that?!
It would be GREAT if we did, as we seem to catch a great interest from Greece! So yeah, we would LOVE to come over there to play for You! Keep them fingers crossed!

17. What are the comments that you receive from the press and generally from the world nowadays?Are there any enthusiasm?

In LORD VICAR, as far as I know of anyway, we have recieved mostly good or at least decent enough reviews and ratings. Which of course is very nice. I think that this band has a lot of potential to become something even better then as of now aswell, given the time. So, no really bad review as of yet. But You know what they say about opinions, right? I can handle critisism aswell, as long as there is any truth in it. Otherwise its nothing but plain bullsh*t, and then I could not give a hamsters ass as of what the person in question has to share with the rest of the world.

18. You were part of the 2 most important bands in the history of doom metal. Do people still recognize that?

I’m every so often amazed by the huge response, to be honest with You. I didn’t think I was missed THAT much, and thought that, save from a few people, no one cared anymore let alone remembered! Ha! Ha! But I do hope this also has a lot to do with my dedication to LORD VICAR, and NOT solely because of my past involvement in previous bands. It was never my intention to become some sort of f**king Doom Metal Jesus or whatever.
I’m a down-to-earth person, what You see is what You get kinda, Yknow? By saying this, I still have a hard time to see myself as anything else than an active member of a rockband. If You’re into it aswell, then fine. And if not - F**k Off! Ha! Ha! No, just kidding! Its just music, Yknow? Life in general has taught me that NOTHING really matters at the end of the day, and that it all is best taken in with a HUGE scoop of salt. That goes for both the Good AND the Bad. And the Ugly.

19. Christian, first of all we would like to inform you that we have reached the end of our interview. Secondly we would like to thank you for the opportunity that gave us to interview you and learn things about your life and career. We really appreciate this. We are just doom metal fans and all we do is to support our favorite kind of music. We do nothing to earn money and glory from doom metal. All we want is to know better the bands and the artists that have inspired and changed our lives throughout these years.

Fair enough, but You got me all emotional here as I’m really touched by Your words and I could start weeping any second now. I Do Hope You Are Satisfied With This Fact! Ha! Ha! Seriously, I would very much like to thank YOU for letting me spill my guts out here like this. No doubt this is the longest interview I have ever done, Thank You Very Much!And to those of You out there who have supported me and the bands I’ve been in since the beginning or even recently; Hey, should You still happen to be awake after reading all of this - Thank You for taking Your time to do so! Hope to see You at any of the upcoming LORD VICAR shows! Praise The Tasty Forbidden Apple!

2009 Feb.
Father Alex/MitsDoom
(Children Of Doom)