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CHRONIC TORMENT:
'Our
Music Should Sound Dark, Dirty, Evil.'
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As
a huge fan of the Swedish death metal movement that emerged in
the early 90's I felt that it was necessary to give proper
coverage to this resurgent new wave of Swedish bands that are
hammering it the old way. Enter Gothenburg's Chronic Torment, an
active band that lived through the first period in a different
incarnation and that currently are pushing their new recording
Demons of Chaos. Read on and spread the word...
- Chronic Torment have an interesting story in that you guys
were originally formed in 1991, but you changed you name to
Sacretomia. What was the motivation behind reforming Chronic
Torment so many years later?
Chronic Torment was formed in early 1991 By Tom A, Mika and
Joppe. At first we played thrash death. Also Mirko Hangover (
Miika Von Silli’s Brother ) joined to play the bass. Chronic
Torment released a demo in ‘92 Altar of Sin but under the
name Sacretomia. The band split up in 1995 due to lack of
interest.
A decade later after Tom and Mika started to play together in a
studio environment and Doomed became the result 06/07 Joppe and
Mirko were more or less involved in these productions. In 2007 I
had a vision to get a complete line up and play live and stuff
instead of just rotting away in a studio, so I asked Mirko and
Joppe if they were interested but the answer was no for various
reasons. So there I sat all alone rotting…..So I got my shit
together and contacted Pasi who wrote one of the tracks on the
album Dream of the Dead to see if he was interested and
he was so we started the production of Wind of infections.
A couple of months later I contacted the former bass player of
My old band Rotting Flesh to see if he was willing to play and
he liked our stuff.
After releasing Wind of Infection a intense hunt for a second
guitar player begun and after searching for a while we found Jimi R Corps, the guitar player of Rotten Corps (1992-1998). Now
the circle was complete and we got a line up of old men with a
common vision to create evil, dirty and brutal death metal!
- Having been part of the early wave of Swedish death metal,
what is it that you remember the most about those days? Is there
anything you miss?
It was a lot of
great bands in Gothenburg in the early 90s. There was a club
called Valvet that was perfect for death metal. A lot of good
bands played there for example, Bolt Thrower, Massacre,
Grotesque, Carcass, Afflicted, Dark Tranquillity and Unleashed.
But it was also a stage for the lesser known demo bands. We
really miss a place like that, like an underground HQ in
Gotheburg for the death metal people to gather. And we also miss
that there were more bands back then and almost some kind of gig
every weekend where you had a chance to tape trade demos and so
on.
- How does the current Swedish death metal scene differs from
the old death metal scene?
Of course the biggest diffrence today is the digital progress.
Most bands with just a little know how can with today’s
equipment get a real professional sound that just the biggest
bands could get like 10 years ago. The internet is a big
difference as well. It’s good because you can get in touch with
everyone easy and also promote your band in a different way, but
in another way it also made the local music scene less personal.
On the downside there are less gigs with fewer people trading
cassettes. Those days are long gone
- Around 2006 Chronic Torment gets back together. How has the
response been at home and abroad to your first three recordings,
Doomed, Dream of the Dead and Wind of Infections?
Well, we have gotten a fanbase trough the years I guess, and we
have gotten a lot of good reviews on our records which has kept
the spark going.
- Do you believe that having been part of the early Swedish
death metal scene gives you an advantage?
Yes, we know many of the old school people and many of those are
running clubs and stuff now. And when we started out everything
was harder. For example, getting a good sound, so we have more
of a work hard attitude I think than the younger guys. We don’t
expect to get anything for free. And of course we have the old
school death metal running trough our veins, it’s in our blood.
- How come Chronic Torment is not signed yet? Especially
considering that everyone now seems to be aware of this
revivalist wave of death metal?
We decided to do the recordings ourselves in our own studio, and
got stuck in our convenience, I guess being satisfied to just be
unsigned and do as we please. We also pay for the printing
ourselves and give away all the records for free, but lately we
have discussed to maybe start looking for a label to reach a
broader audience and not having to pay for everything ourselves,
but we don’t feel that we are in any hurry. But if there are any
labels interested reading this interview please contact us with
your contract offer and we will take it under consideration.
- Demons of Chaos is your fourth album in four years. How
does Demons of Chaos improve over previous offerings?
It offers some new stuff because more of us been active in
writing songs for this album. It’s still Chronic Torment but
with some twist. Maybe there are a little more trash influences
in this record compared to the others.
- Chronic Torment’s sound is very loyal to the old Swedish
sound. Do you think your band is confined to that sound or do
you have any plans of altering your sound in the near future?
Chronic Torment has some ground rules when making songs. For
example, when we make a riff and record it we ask ourselves
afterwards, ‘does it sound evil enough?’ We also try to
avoid making to modern riffs so the ground rule really is that
it should sound dark, dirty and evil and not have any
resemblance with either Bon Jovi or In Flames, but of course we
try to develop our sound and find and use new ideas
- Please cite your favorite Swedish death metal albums?
Bloodbath’s Nightmares made Flesh, Incantation with
Grotesque Consumed by Darkness (ep) Macabre End all At
The Gates albums.
- Which one do you believe was the greatest Swedish death metal
band not to attain any success?
Success or not but one of our favorites is Macabre End
- Are there any new Swedish death metal bands that you’d
recommend?
I recommend
Karnarium, they formed in 1998. All bands formed after 1995 are
new for me .
- What’s next for Chronic Torment?
Next for Chronic Torment.....Getting more gigs continue to
deliver old school death metal and having loads of fun doing so
successful or not we are having fun anyway.
MySpace
Read the Deaf Sparrow review
of Demons of Chaos
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