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Mikko Mattila
with Janne Sarna and Professor Black
Isten Fanzine: Don’t Break the Ghost
by Mikko Mattila with Janne Sarna and Professor Black
with vital contributions from Damhair, Kola Krauze and Dominique Poulain
Copyright © 2014 Isten Fanzine
All rights reserved
ghost@isten.net
www.isten.net
Thank you to everyone who wears the Isten imp close to their heart.
Cover by Mikko Mattila
Back cover drawing by Timo Ketola
Layout and design by Mikko Mattila with Janne Sarna
Typeset in Pentagramme, Moyenage and ABC Green by František Štorm and BlackBeard by Fonthead
Isten imp and logo mk 1987 by Jorma Mattila
Isten Fanzine logo by Mikko Mattila and Timo Ketola
All photographs presented herein not from the Isten family albums were
provided for promotional use by the bands and/or their record labels.
Svart Records
Puutarhakatu 49
20100 Turku
Finland
www.svartrecords.com
Printed and bound in Tallinna Raamatutrükikoda
ISBN 978-952-93-4496-3
This book is dedicated.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD TO OBLIVION........................................................6
IN NOMINE..................................................................................10
MEIN GOTT................................................................................. 12
Demo Issues.......................................................................... 15
UNBORN AGAIN.........................................................................22
Issue #1.................................................................................26
DEATH IN SOLITUDE................................................................ 36
Issue #2.................................................................................40
DIGGIN’ THAT GRAVE............................................................... 54
Issue #3................................................................................. 58
GLOBAL VERMIN........................................................................ 78
Issue #4.................................................................................82
DEADLY GAME............................................................................134
Issue #5.................................................................................138
THE SKULL HARP..................................................................... 228
Kalloharppu........................................................................ 230
DEATH MAY DIE........................................................................ 238
Issue #6: To Hell and Back.................................................. 242
REVERENCE.................................................................................334
Issue #7.................................................................................338
PAPERCUTS................................................................................ 396
Issue #7B: Playing with Fire.................................................400
YELLOW SNOW.........................................................................404
(The Return of the) Dark Lord...........................................408
JUICES LIKE WATER................................................................ 474
Cold Lake........................................................................... 478
DOLL PATROL........................................................................... 486
Mädchen..............................................................................490
SHE’S LOST CONTROL..............................................................532
Twin Sister...........................................................................536
HEAVY MESSAGE........................................................................600
Isten 100..............................................................................604
GRAVE NEW WORLD................................................................ 686
Hiatus.................................................................................690
LIFELIKE SILENCE.................................................................... 722
Disappointment Issues.......................................................... 726
INTO THE GHOST.....................................................................800
5 Contents
Foreword to Oblivion
by Professor Black
I proudly wore my Isten “imp” T-shirt on the second day
of Keep It True Festival in 2013. Unfortunately, nobody
noticed, because it was colder that day, and I hate being
cold, so over the T-shirt I was wearing a plain blue
hoodie. I had specifically reserved that shirt to wear that
day, and instead, I was walking around the festival in a
sweatshirt that fit like a shriveled boob. I guess in heavy
metal fashion terms, I am the working class.
By the time Angel Witch played, it was dark outside, and
the band was punishingly loud. I had not only blended
in but become invisible. In that crowd of humans I felt
truly alone. And it washed over me right then and there,
that my heavy metal was shooting out in all directions
and shooting back at me from all directions, concentric
spheres, crossing time and space in a single motion. My
heavy metal was in perfect harmony. Listening, watching,
collecting records, making records, reading fanzines,
making fanzines, the friends, the traveling... so many
chains are binding us to heavy metal. Standing there,
watching Angel Witch, I was perfectly centered above my
anchor. Zero tension, zero drift.
Like a flick of fire I sensed the smile of the imp on my
chest and remembered that although he was stretched,
worn, and smothered, he also helped carry me here. For
Isten is one of the hardest and shortest chains, and it
keeps me close.
We all know about the good old days, either because
we lived them or because there is no shortage of heavy
metal talking heads who did. And we all know a few of
the younger lot who frantically overcompensate for
having been born later, quilting together a custom
identity, seemingly reconstituted from the multitudes
overnight. But regardless of our judgments toward the
past, the more pressing matter is the future. Nobody is
born into heavy metal, but many of us will die in it. What
about you? Are you inseparable from heavy metal, or just
coasting in the tides? Let’s find out.
Look me in the eye. I hope you are prepared. You are
about to face one of heavy metal’s most exquisite
treasures, and surely one of its most complex. You
will witness diligence that borders on madness and
passion that borders on self-destruction. For despite
the deathless ghost that girds our guts and drives our
hands, we too are vulnerable, surrendering our lives to
obsession.
But for some, obsession is not an end in itself but a
pathway to enlightenment. And after ritually gorging
6 Don’t Break the Ghost
on the secret number of demo tapes, chanting a sacred
number of album reviews, bearing testimony to the exact
wisdom of the oracles, becoming dispossessed of all false
idols, and forming magical configurations of every icon,
rune and glyph along the way...
Then and only then will the heavens fall and the ground
open up and the gods come to collect your ultimate
sacrifice.
In 1999, after fifteen years of progressive ritual
obsession, Isten found the key. Isten opened the black
ark and became one with the molten ghost that is heavy
metal itself. Luckily, I discovered Isten just in time to
witness the spectacle and watch the portal open.
• • •
Isten began far less dramatically. It was 1984, and two
young cousins in Finland were listening to heavy metal,
chipping away at summer boredom by cutting out
their favorite images from heavy metal magazines and
reassembling them in new homemade layouts. It was a
time of few fanzines, and most of the inspiration (and
indeed, most of the content) for the earliest issues of
Isten came from the somewhat glossier selection of
Kerrang!, Metal Forces, and so on. This went on for a few
years, the cut-and-paste sessions resulting in a number of
“demo” issues of Isten.
One of those cousins, Mikko Mattila, soon noticed his
heavy metal obsession becoming irreversible, and so
the continued experiments with Isten followed quite
naturally. Mikko soon tapped into the mechanisms
and transactions of the underground fanzine: writing
reviews, interviewing bands by mail, typing and laying
out the pages by hand, then dealing with the printer and
(with some luck) filling orders. By 1988, he had released
three proper issues of Isten to a small readership built
mostly through classified ads and peer reviews but
which was growing quickly, thanks to the bustling mail
correspondence networks of the metal underground
where Mikko was on his way to becoming a full-time
participant.
The fourth issue (1990) was the first written in English,
and word of Isten’s excellence quickly spread outside of
Finland. Concurrent with the underground death metal
boom, the next several years would find Mikko Mattila
and his collaborators in a perpetual state of activity,
achieving exemplary results in every category. The
engaging prose, painstaking layout, letter-perfect English
and sheer bulk of Isten was the result of raw adolescent
energy not unlike that being channeled by bands in so
many garages and youth centers at the time. Perhaps
Isten’s reputation for having a professional touch is then
lightly ironic, but no less deserved. In Isten’s case, what
was sometimes mistaken for professionalism was simply
quality.
Issues #5 (1991) and #6 (1993) weighed in at nearly
100 pages each, and the effects of saturation began to
show. Gradually, the album and demo reviews appeared
to become less forgiving, with more frequent jolts of
black humor. The interviews began reaching for more
challenge—in the questions if not always the answers.
A hard-to-describe artist called Damhair began his
longstanding tenure with Isten around this time.
Damhair’s original drawings and photographs would
adorn Isten’s pages for many years to come, but his
offbeat humor and outlook had an almost immediate
impact on Isten’s tone and the nature of its curiosity.
In some ways a recovery from the overload of the
previous issues, #7, released in 1994, represented a
number of significant refinements. The pool of outside
contributors was down from eleven to a mere six.
The layout was as exact and economical as ever, but
the overall page count was less. At the same time, the
interviews became far more demanding in scope and
length, and a surprising number of bands seemed up to
the task. The reviews were richly-worded at every turn,
but now totally fearless, whether in loving celebration or
unforgiving condemnation. And there was plenty of both
on offer.
In the meantime, black metal sensationalism had already
proven far-reaching, the compact disc market was
escalating, and the smell of burning plastic was in the air.
Along with that came an increasing awareness of Isten’s
independence and the need to hone it further. Janne
Sarna, Isten’s longest-serving and most influential coauthor,
says it best: “Independence is worth fighting for,
even when it’s not in jeopardy.”
After issue #7B, a farcical send-up of the typical fanzines
of the day, Isten abandoned its numbering system and
instead titled its 1996 issue (The Return of the) Dark
Lord. While very much transitional in hindsight, Dark
Lord nevertheless offered a playful abundance of story
7 Foreword to Oblivion
and layout experiments, a creative proving ground for an
even heavier, more conceptual Isten. By this time, Janne
Sarna had become a vital organ in Isten life, now a main
conceptual contributor and sounding-board for a newlyrejuvenated
Mikko’s own surge of ideas. An energetic
international correspondent named Kola Krauze had also
joined the fold, completing what some readers might
consider Isten’s definitive lineup.
From 1997 to 1999, Isten held heavy metal fan journalism
at a sustained, volcanic climax, first with the longform
narrative Mädchen, then the cut-and-paste overdose
of Twin Sister, and finally, the signatory Isten 100.
With every paragraph of Mädchen, each heavyweight
page of Twin Sister, and every lash of 100’s cruel whip,
Isten took a step further into isolation and away from
an underground that was no longer familiar. The nowcharacteristic
chill of Mattila/Sarna prose was never
harsher nor more elegant than when delivering the final
incantation of Isten 100. This apocalyptic issue of Isten is
known for its vitriolic dismantling of Scene Metal, but it
also represents something of an existential crisis for Isten
when it asks why, for so many, it isn’t enough to just be
a fan. After all, Isten’s underground of the early 1990s
sowed the seeds from which Scene Metal sprang.
It was a black blaze of glory. Ritual suicide on the altar. A
universal collapse and big bang all at once.
Since then, Isten has existed in a dreamlike, transcendent
state, at times approaching oblivion, occasionally
chasing at bits of matter adrift in an infinite cosmos.
Fragments. Shells. Shrapnel. Far from shore in a sea of
details. Perhaps the occasional digital splurt and/or 16-
page “tease” issue has more in common with the demo
issues of 1984 than anything else, and perhaps again, the
bigger picture is just as big, just as hard to penetrate.
• • •
I discovered Isten in the late 1990s and found the tone
and style directly inspirational to my own heavy metal
journaling of the subsequent few years, which even
included a collaboration with former Isten contributor
Kola Krauze in 2002. Mikko made clear in our early
correspondence that he accepted this but did not
consider us colleagues. To be honest, I’m not even sure
we were friends at that point, or what exactly inspired
him to invite me a few years later to contribute to one of
Isten’s short-lived web editions. I was honored to accept,
of course, but I have been even more honored to accept
Mikko’s trust as colleague and as friend in the years that
have followed.
Naturally I was delighted to answer the call to work on
this anthology beginning in 2009. This happened only in
occasional fits until early 2012, when a more organized
and dedicated effort began to take shape. When we
announced the book later in 2012, the audience did
not appear on our doorstep so much as grumble faintly
to itself in the distance. At first I found it strange that
Mikko showed no interest whatsoever in shopping for a
publisher. Later I realized that without a publisher, we
had no creative meddling, no size limit and no deadline.
Total freedom.
Early in the process, Mikko, Janne and I debated the
broad decisions: what to include, how to organize it
all, and what kind of coordinated effort that might take.
Who wanted to read this book anyway? Well, we did, and
it was agreed early on that any reinvention or dramatic
repackaging of the original Isten canon would invariably
weaken it. Tempting as it may sometimes be to rerecord
the drums and bass guitar, we had no need to cut costs,
and more importantly, we are not revisionists. We also
agreed that perhaps unlike many of our favorite bands,
Isten’s best work was not its earliest. To reproduce the
early issues in their entirety would have weighed down
the finished product with superfluous content. Sure,
we considered historical value, but only as it applies to
Isten. If this were meant to be some kind of gallery of the
underground or worse, an encyclopedia, we might have
felt differently, but the subject of this book is a fanzine
called Isten, and not any other entity, movement, or
period. Period.
It was necessary for Mikko to write an introduction
for each issue, and it was my privilege to work closely
alongside him on this component of each chapter. I got
to know Mikko Mattila the Person like never before, at
times surprised by what he chose to reveal, also by what
he chose to keep private, but mostly by his extraordinary
poise and patience in approaching a project of such
all-encompassing personal magnitude. As the creator
of Isten, Mikko’s investment in this book is to a great
extent self-evident. He is Isten’s human counterpart.
What may not be self-evident are his hundreds of hours
spent single-handedly variously deconstructing and
reconstructing the individual pages that follow—pages
he had already spent thousands of hours laying out
8 Don’t Break the Ghost
several years earlier! The graphic elements of Isten may
at times have been overshadowed by the strength of the
writing, but they were no less essential to the overall
effect, and their preservation for this book has been a
labor of love in itself.
In the Ghost Notes sections that conclude each chapter,
you will find many previously-unpublished charms,
riddles, artifacts and other debris, sifted from the infinite
archives by Mikko, Janne and Damhair. You will also find
bits of testimony from some who have bonded with Isten
over the years in different ways, those we called upon to
help us lift this metallic monolith into the light, if only
for a moment. We are very grateful for the abundance
they gave, and from that we have chosen the very best.
It is natural to ask ourselves, at some later stage of the
project, whether we have succeeded in our goal and
constructed a book that is worthy of the Isten name.
I believe we have. We had the freedom to put our own
satisfaction first, so we did. We also had the patience to
allow the workflow to bend with the demands of “real
life”. A lot will happen in five years. So while the energy
may not have been continuous or always in equilibrium,
we worked only with the greatest of care and at the
highest levels of attention, and I believe our satisfaction
is unanimous.
I hope to live for many years to come, but I can say
confidently that it will always be one of the greatest
honors of my life to have earned my part of that
satisfaction and signed my name to this anthology, under
the name of the boy in Finland who would spend thirty
years writing these pages, all in the glow of the living
ghost that so illuminated his extraordinary passion and
talent.
From here, Mikko Mattila will be your guide, as the ghost
was his, into the void that is Isten.
All rise.
Professor Black is a professional heavy metal fan living in
Chicago. Photo by Caesar Cole.
9 Foreword to Oblivion
The mark of the beast. Photograph by Damhair, 1998.
10 Don’t Break the Ghost
In Nomine
I Am That I Am
Mikko Mattila is Finnish for John Smith. There was a
boy in my kindergarten group who had the exact same
name. I immediately disliked the kid, and I hated my
name. I must’ve felt—and it’s still the way I see it: if you
believe in something, love something, don’t give it a
bad name.
At 13, I picked the name Isten (Hungarian for God)
for my magazine, and for my existence, it turned out.
Isten est omen. I am not Isten and have never been, but
Isten is me. My own name made me anonymous, a
nobody, and this allowed Isten to prevail and thrive.
Interwoven with my heavy metal fanaticism, Isten
became omnipotent, in my head at least. It turned me
inside out, drained me of all substance, and filled me
up to the brim again with choicest bits of living chaos.
To some extent I must’ve understood and accepted
pretty early on that I’m pissing my life away. You’ve
got to realize that I’m saying that as matter-of-factly
as possible. No regrets, no dramatization. It’s simply a
fact. The level of dedication that I’ve maintained with
Isten is insane and utterly ridiculous. However, that
does not imply hard work, because I am and always
have been a lazy bastard. It just means, I guess, that
I could’ve had it so much better. I could’ve seized an
opportunity here or there. I could’ve had dreams and
ambitions.
I never did. A heavy metal fanzine ate me from the
inside out. Feeding on letterbox produce, I found a
perfect refuge in my underground isolation. These
elaborate constructions of ideal and escapism were
built on fanatic meaninglessnesses. I lived and
breathed Isten, there was nothing else.
Headbanging alone in the dark sounds about right, if
you need an analogy. Comparisons to the next batch of
hyperactive underground fellows are unfair, because
Isten was not born out of the underground, or in the
underground. It came to be without me knowing
anything about zines, tape-trading, or any of that stuff.
In 1987, Finland’s number one music magazine Rumba
reviewed the first issue of Isten:
(Transl.) “Isten (...) fumbles incomprehensibly, is
enthusiastic and super in this state—and scores full points
with these feats. AnthraX (sic), Warlock, Slayer, Mercyful
Fate and so on. An exceedingly life-affirming pamphlet.”
—Roo Ketvel in Rumba 17/1987
This remains the greatest review of Isten ever, and our
efforts remained in line with it in the 1990s and the
2000s and will stay in line now. That’s why I’ve been
puzzled to see Isten described over the years as too
cynical, too humorous, or too nasty. I always thought
there were more people who care about metal like I do.
Because I care a lot. Apparently my brand of caring is
too quirky for many people to understand.
Isten, you see, is deadly and serious. After years and
years with the heavy load of heavy metal as my best
friend, I can state that it’s also sad and passionate,
clandestine but not vain. Isten aims to manifest and do
justice to the wonders of heavy metal:
Such as the logo, the very name of Venom. Five letters,
five points of the pentagram.
And the voice of Troy Dixler: the final command of a
prophet in the wilderness.
Let Isten’s law be at once perplexing and absolute, like
Tom Angelripper’s bass solo in “Equinox”.
Let Isten be as heavy as Nihilist’s Only Shreds Remain,
sinking, sucking itself into its own abyss.
And like Gezol’s mask of eternal youth, let Isten
grimace in the face of death.
Let it be a psalm, a power chant, the infinite lost verse
of “Orgasmatron”.
For Isten is a uniform of arrogance, like Algy Ward’s
leather jacket. A life to cling to, no matter how
deteriorated.
11 In Nomine
12 Don’t Break the Ghost
Mein Gott
I Got Mine
Demo issue #1: the God of the Heavy-
Metal, 1984.
17 pages A4.
Photocopied.
Created by: Mikko Mattila and Rami
Vuorenmaa.
Contents: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Ratt,
Metallica and Mötley Crue.
Demo issue #2, 1985.
20 pages A4.
Photocopied.
Created by: Mikko Mattila and Rami
Vuorenmaa.
Contents: W.A.S.P., Kiss, Manowar,
Venom, AC/DC, Twisted Sister and
Scorpions.
Demo issue #3: Metal King, 1985.
18 pages A4.
Photocopied.
Created by: Mikko Mattila and Rami
Vuorenmaa.
Contents: Mercyful Fate, Iron Maiden,
Mötley Crue, Twisted Sister, Dio, Bon Jovi,
Zero Nine, Loudness and Accept.
Demo issue #4, 1986.
Unknown number of pages A4.
Photocopied.
Created by: Mikko Mattila and Rami
Vuorenmaa.
The lost issue. Contents? No idea, but
Iron Maiden would be a good guess.
Demo issue #5, 1987.
18 pages A4.
Photocopied.
Created by: Mikko Mattila and Rami
Vuorenmaa.
Contents: Metallica, Omen, Anthrax, Juice
Leskinen, Metal Church, Nuclear Assault
and Helloween. Plus reviews.
Human sacrifice
The hand of death
From Hell it’ll rise
With hellish breath
Prophets of steel
Preaching about fate
You know I feel
Only wrath and hate
With genuine emotion I was shrieking these lyrics,
for after all, they were mine all mine. It must be
said, however, that my focus was somewhat divided
between doing the vocals and beating the hell out of
the drums—ordinary household buckets played with
spoons.
My cousin Rami couldn’t play an instrument either,
but he had an electric guitar and a homespun amp he’d
bought for peanuts and man, did it make a terrible
noise!
Rami recollects: “Quite a guitar hero, yes! A little over
the age of ten we were recording our new album at my
home—in the middle of the night, in the living room
of an apartment house. The volume was quite loud—as
loud as we could get it. Suddenly the phone rang and
the not-so-friendly voice of my upstairs neighbour
asked me when we would finish slaughtering the pig...
It was a great album though—I still have that tape
somewhere. I also have the same guitar, but the sounds
are nowadays a little bit different.”
This “band” comprising the two of us was but one of
my many attempts to fight boredom. We were called
Sorrow at first, Sacrifice the next day, then Black
Demon and Sodium Chlorate (don’t ask!). Some
13 Mein Gott
two-and-a-half years my junior, Rami was often a
rather unwilling participant in these schemes. Killing
medium-sized mammals with the geetar was quite
okay, but I was busy drawing comics most of the time
and starting up new magazines on whatever theme.
Rami never really took an interest in that stuff. Also, my
attention span was always ridiculously short, so I never
finished anything before I came up with a new idea that
devoured me whole for the next day or two, or the next
fifteen minutes.
I had read Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the first time
around 1984, and therein I discovered the words “Isten
Szek” (“God’s Seat”). I never knew for sure whether it
was the correct basic form of the Hungarian word for
“god”, but I can’t say it troubled me much at the time. I
was too busy doodling.
Isten basically started out as the summertime
equivalent of drawing band logos in school books. I
spent the rainier days of the summers of 1984 to 1986
listening to all the exciting new records (from Iron
Maiden’s Piece of Mind to W.A.S.P.’s Winged Assassins,
Mercyful Fate’s Don’t Break the Oath to Running Wild’s
Gates to Purgatory) and cutting pictures from the pages
of magazines like Sweden’s Okej and Finland’s own
Heavy Heaven. “Writing” didn’t really play a part in
it. It was all scrawled in shorthand and littered with
glorious slogans and oneliners like “Istens of Metal!”,
“Kill with Isten!” and “And we need Isten tonight”.
Rami kept me company, although he would’ve much
preferred fishing or sport or whatnot: “Yes, during the
summers we spent at the cottage in Tottijärvi I would
have sometimes preferred table tennis, swimming or
fishing over magazine-making—especially when the
sun was shining. I was quite a fast writer and I finished
my stories way faster than Mikko—and the ping-pong
match could begin...”
The finished product was photocopied in quantities
reaching up to a dozen copies or so and sold to
relatives or given away to our friends at school,
embarrassing though it was—I had yet to embrace the
maxim “Never be ashamed of anything you love”.
With demo issue #5 we were quite shrewdly trying to
cater to our target audience’s tastes a little more: it
even contained an article on Juice Leskinen, one of the
most prominent Finnish singer-songwriters of all time.
In his heyday he was heavy all right, but not metal—
despite songs like “Heavydiggarin vuorisaarna” (which
roughly translates as “Headbanger’s Sermon on the
Mount”—the lyrics portray heavy metal fans as reckless
life-loving creatures).
Any patronizing reactions stung only a little, nowhere
nearly enough to affect how I felt listening to, say,
“Revelations” by Iron Maiden. It occurred to me
much later that my exploration of heavy metal was not
unlike trying to decipher the Finnish Civil War of 1918.
Teachers in school chose their words very carefully,
and my older relatives chose to say nothing. All the
contradicting stories and eerie details invigorated
me. I was patching together a jigsaw puzzle of blood,
frost and inhuman darkness, listening for ghosts in the
chilling winds at Kalevankangas cemetery. Likewise,
it may have been the fumes of forbidden knowledge
that lured me to the shore of heavy metal’s hot lake.
In any case, my entire consciousness was becoming
embedded in its embers.
The following pages 15—19 are from the demo issues, scanned from the
photocopied product and reduced from A4 size.
14 Don’t Break the Ghost
15 Mein Gott
16 Don’t Break the Ghost
17 Mein Gott
18 Don’t Break the Ghost
19 Mein Gott
Mikko’s many magazines. My sister Sari Laaksonen remarks: “Mikko has
always made magazines! During our childhood, we got free subscriptions
to several different magazines because of our father’s work. From the
age of 7, Mikko was already editing a summer cottage magazine, an
ornithology magazine, a car magazine and so on. Later we wrote a
summer cottage diary together—it was kind of like an early version of a
blog, with comics and various attachments.”
Isten originators (left to right) Rami Vuorenmaa and Mikko Mattila,
probably aged 3 and 6 respectively. The guitar belonged to our uncle Mauri
Nurmi, the only adult relative of mine who appreciated heavy music—I
remember receiving a cassette of Thin Lizzy’s Renegade from him for
Christmas.
Ossi: Kansainvälistä liennytystä (transl. International Détente) is one of my
many comics that I doodled during classes in upper comprehensive school
because sometimes band logos just weren’t enough. The cover drawing and
some other contributions came courtesy of my classmate Jussi Halla-aho,
who years later became a nationalist politician and was found guilty of racial
agitation and disturbing religious peace by the Supreme Court of Finland in
June 2012.
Kräppä was the one-off
humour magazine by Isten’s
founders, my cousin Rami
Vuorenmaa and me, from
1986. Strongly inspired by
the legendary Tampere-based
Pahkasika.
20 Don’t Break the Ghost
Heavy Heaven, Finland’s first heavy metal
periodical, was published by Epe Helenius in
Tampere and mostly written by a furniture
(?) salesman from Helsinki called Zeus
Mattila (no relation!). They welcomed reader
submissions, so I wrote a gushing review of
Kreator’s Endless Pain. It’s probably the only
piece of writing I’ve written using an alias. The
alias was Mayhem, believe it or not.
I also took part in the discussion of metal’s
new subgenres a couple of issues later. Some
interesting lines in there—I wish Manowar had
remained a black metal band! As for the typos,
I don’t know whether they are theirs or mine.
I was busy starting up a new magazine on
whatever theme; here’s V8 Cars from 1981
co-written with Sami Kivimäki (who would
also contribute to Isten on and off in the early
years)—I have never been interested in cars, so
you see how cunningly or desperately I lured
my friends into my world of media.
Swear the oath.
Prior to designing a
new logo for Isten,
my father drew this
version of the Don’t
Break the Oath cover
for me to use. Even
he had noticed that
Mercyful Fate had
rocked my world to
its foundations. I may
have been staring
into the greyness of
suburban Tampere
but in my heart I was
bathed in the glow of
a thousand fiery pits
of Hell itself. It felt real
good.
21 Mein Gott
The two versions of issue #1. The minimalistic original and
the commercial version.
22 Don’t Break the Ghost
Unborn Again
First and Magical
Issue #1 was little more than a collection of pictures
painstakingly cut from magazines such as Metal
Forces, Kerrang!, Okej, Crash and Metal Hammer, and
yours truly translating stuff and babbling enthusiastic
nonsense about all these great bands.
I placed classified ads in Finnish music magazines
like Rumba and Soundi, and much to my amazement,
orders came flooding in. There are in fact two versions
of this issue. After I placed the ads and sent a copy for
review in Rumba’s fanzine special, I realized it needed
more depth, more content, so I did a new and improved
version. I added Bathory and Death, and a page-long
review of Celtic Frost’s Into the Pandemonium, one of
my favourite albums of all time. I absolutely fell in
love with Frost—a band too complex for its own good.
Every quirk, every last detail added to the magick and
lure of the band, and I grew up wanting and needing
every band to be like that. Too much for my own good
sometimes. I’d been scared shitless by the previous
albums, and Into the Pandemonium blew my mind. It still
makes me want to dance. And air drum. And conquer
the world.
#1, September 1987.
32 pages A4.
Photocopied.
Approximately 100 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila and Rami
Vuorenmaa.
Contents: Kreator, Coroner, Onslaught,
Bathory, Exodus, Death, Suicidal
Tendencies, Testament, Anthrax and
Mercyful Fate/King Diamond. Plus
reviews.
I also instantly appreciated Bathory’s ability to turn
nicely-furnished rooms into Helvete. Firestorms, the
gnashing of teeth, the grovelling dead, endless showers
of blood, vomit and napalm. “Equimanthorn” from the
album Under the Sign of the Black Mark is my favourite
song. Nothing can beat that ferocity, that Satanic call
from the garage.
After issue #1, my cousin Rami and I went our separate
ways. He never understood the heavier, thrashier stuff
that I craved. Kreator, Onslaught and Voïvod were
too much for him, but it was Reign in Blood specifically
23 Unborn Again
that he singled out. He wanted absolutely nothing to
do with anything of that ilk. Incidentally, Rami and
I haven’t had much to do with each other after that
year, although we’d been very close up until then, all
through our childhood.
Rami counters: “Metal music has always been a big
part of my life. It started with bands like Kiss and Iron
Maiden that I used to listen to with Mikko. I never got
into the darker and heavier side of metal. Since then my
taste in music has evolved into more progressive metal
and rock. Nowadays I listen to bands like Queensrÿche,
Porcupine Tree and Fates Warning.”
Prior to the experience with the debut issue, I knew
next to nothing about the underground and only
vaguely understood the concept of a fanzine, but
I quickly learned about Finnish metal fanzines like
Axe, Steel Warrior, Suicidal Metal, Metalism, Epitaph
and so on. I also learned that the punk ethic was
deeply rooted in the Finnish DIY circles. If you talked
about zines, people automatically thought about
punk zines—Laama, Ulo and others. The unwritten
rules dictated a strictly non-profit, non-commercial,
left-wing approach. You can never overestimate the
importance of punk and hardcore in Finland. Many
writers in the mainstream rock press were originally
from the punk academy as well. I didn’t have a problem
with any of this, although some early readers and
reviewers dubbed Isten as a capitalist “wannabe mag”
because we probably charged one Finnish mark more
per copy than the next zine. Amusingly enough, Isten
would later on be known as one of the most noncommercial
zines ever.
Tampere, my hometown, was hardly a hotbed for heavy
metal in the Eighties, but the climate was favourable
in other ways. The town’s rock, punk and hardcore
traditions were distinguished, and the record shops
were blooming. For a heavy metal record hunter, the
situation here was better than in Helsinki. Epe’s Music
Store had been established in 1972 already, and it
quickly became a pivotal place for Finnish rock. By
the mid-Eighties main man Kari “Epe” Helenius was at
least knee-deep in heavy metal as well. His company
Unitor Oy distributed (and sometimes even did Finnish
pressings of) albums on Music For Nations, Metal
Blade and Roadrunner. Epe’s was more or less on my
school route and I popped in at least five times a week.
And then there were more short-lived record shops
like Original Records (best cut-out bins in town!),
TNT (big on US and Canada imports, Banzai Records
and all!), various second-hand shops as well as shops
like Funking and X-Dreams that specialized in almostofficial
merchandising.
In addition to this, Anttila department store had
somehow salvaged a shitload of records from the
bankruptcy estate of the Belgian-based heavy metal
label Mausoleum Records. They were selling albums
by bands like Ostrogoth, Crossfire, Blacklace, Killer
and Warhead for a pittance (one or five Finnish marks
apiece!). Happy days!
There was too much metal for me to buy everything I
wanted, but dubbing tapes was the first-aid kit. We had
no double decks at the time, just two tape recorders—
and the built-in microphone often picked up special
effects like doors closing, dogs barking or “shh… yeah,
we’ll dub Venom’s Black Metal for you next.” I had
no other interests or hobbies, so every penny I could
scrape up went into molten metal. First cassettes,
then vinyl—my sister’s boyfriend gave me an old
record player in late 1985. I spent hours at Epe’s just
browsing albums, studying the sleeves, soaking in the
smell of vinyl, printed matter and cigarette smoke, and
leafing through copies of Kerrang! Best of all, it was
possible to listen to records prior to buying them.
24 Don’t Break the Ghost
Classified ads from Finnish music periodicals Rumba and
Soundi: (transl.) “A buy-or-die kinda package of reading for
power/speer (sic)/mosh/thrash etc. metal freaks. Incl. e.g.
Anthrax, Testament, Exodus, Onslaught etc. 10 marks (incl.
postage) via mail to...”
The following pages 26—34 are from the two versions of #1, scanned from
the few remaining originals. Celtic Frost review translated for your pleasure.
25 Unborn Again
The editorial page of the revised issue #1. (Transl.) “Isten does not compete with anyone except itself, striving for better and better issues (dunno why but that
sentence reminds me of school!)”.
26 Don’t Break the Ghost
27 Unborn Again
28 Don’t Break the Ghost
A review of Celtic Frost’s Into the Pandemonium
with a score of 97 out of 100, translated:
“Swiss Celtic Frost’s previous releases have been
slightly marred by sameness; each track has been
reminiscent of the one before it. But look, things
have changed: this doom metal threesome’s third
full-length album Into the Pandemonium contains
everything that a headbanger hopes for on a
metal platter… and an enormous amount of extra
ingredients.
And it is those extra ingredients that make the
album as interesting as it is in the end. Celtic Frost
have produced the LP by themselves, because the
cooperation with Michael Wagner (who’s produced
e.g. the new Keel album) didn’t satisfy the band
members after all. And indeed, the album includes
songs like “I Won’t Dance” and “Mexican Radio” that
in the syrupy hands of Wagner would have no doubt
been transformed into something else entirely than
what is to be expected from Celtic Frost tracks.
The ambitions of Tom G. Warrior and his cohorts
are insatiable. Opera singer Claudia-Maria Mokri
who has already appeared on previous albums, is
now accompanied by several other backing vocalists,
orchestral musicians (two violinists and a cellist) as
well as conductor Lothar Krist for the classical pieces.
…and the lyrics! Some absolutely fantastic lyrics have
shot forth mainly from Mr Warrior’s quill-pen for this
album.
Opener “Mexican Radio” was originally performed
by Wall Of Voodoo. In the hands of the Celts it
steamrollers down the listeners exactly as it’s
supposed to. Second track “Mesmerized” might be a
little too much for a devoted Frost fan, but then, T.G.
Warrior’s achievements in the singing department
have never been exactly dazzling anyway. The third
track “Inner Sanctum” is a surprisingly normal Celtic
Frost tune, but there’s a reason for it: the song is
written all the way back in December 1985. The
second to last song on side one is “Sorrows of the
Moon”, which is the only song on the album (along
with “Mexican Radio”, of course) that is not even
partially written by war marshal Warrior. The track
is penned by bass player Martin E. Ain. Side one is
finished with “Babylon Fell” that deals with the main
theme of the album.
“Caress into Oblivion” kicks off side two with its
splendours, and it’s followed by the dumbest and
most monotonous track on the album “One in Their
Pride”, all electric drums, violins and inexplicable
blabbering. Fortunately next up is possibly the
greatest song of the LP, “I Won’t Dance (The Elder’s
Orient)” – without a doubt one of brightest ideas of
Warrior, the master of ceremonies. The extraordinary
contrast of the voices of Warrior and the backing
vocalist H.C. 1922 in the pre-chorus and chorus really
makes the song stand out. Next track, “Rex Irae” is
a massive metal opera, in which Warrior plays the
role of King Wrath, and who else but Claudia-Maria
Mokri steps in as the dream voice. The glorious,
unordinary, high-flying and awe-inspiring Into the
Pandemonium is finished with the instrumental
“Oriental Masquerade”, a track of perfect length
including classical flavours.
This album is masterful all the way including its
covers. Nothing like this has ever been done before.
For Frost, Into the Pandemonium is a case of “make
it or break it” but it’s not huge sales figures they’re
expecting but acceptance from the fans. This album,
as T.G. Warrior said, perplexed the band members
themselves. It is drastically different from their
previous releases. Say what you will, I say it’s better.
DOOM METAL WILL RULE, UGH!”
29 Unborn Again
30 Don’t Break the Ghost
31 Unborn Again
32 Don’t Break the Ghost
33 Unborn Again
34 Don’t Break the Ghost
My map of Tampere in the mid- to late Eighties:
1) My upper comprehensive school, Tammerkosken
yläaste
2) Epe’s Music Store (records, magazines)
3) My bus stop
4) Original Records (records)
5) Original Records (later location)
6) TNT (records) and Funking (merchandising)
7) Anttila department store (records, magazines)
8) Daddy Cool, second-hand (records, comics)
9) Juke Boss (records, magazines)
10) Juke Boss (later location)
11) Tammer-luola, second-hand (records, comics)
12) Linja-autoaseman antikva, second-hand (records,
comics)
13) Tammelan puistokatu, second-hand (records, comics)
14) Vikkula grocery store (candy)
15) Akateeminen kirjakauppa (books and magazines)
16) Musiikki Fazer (records)
17) Stockmann department store (records)
18) Klassinen lyseo (future contributors Janne Sarna and
Sami Rouhento’s school, where I also had some classes)
Guinea pig cut-out. My
cousin’s guinea pig took
a bite out of my copy of
Whiplash’s Power and Pain
in 1986. This vintage cut-out
item (VG-/VG+, Roadrunner
pressing) remains a crown
jewel in my collection,
though I later purchased
a back-up copy (EX-/EX,
Roadracer). It’s possibly the
only metal album you’ll ever
need. A definitive statement,
a genuine masterpiece
of Zeit-powerthrashinggeist,
all winners from
start to finish. You’ll never
understand heavy metal the
way I do if this doesn’t do it
for you. And heavy metal, of
course, equals life and the
universe, the works.
35 Unborn Again
36 Don’t Break the Ghost
Death in Solitude
Emblem of the Devil
My father gave me the Isten imp logo design in late
1987. Actually that’s about all he ever gave me, apart
from hereditary weaknesses, complexes and inner
demons. He worked in advertising; logos, emblems,
typography and illustrations were his specialties. He
kept saying that I should think more commercially with
Isten (and everything else), which made me dead set to
do the exact opposite for the rest of my life. The man
himself had buried all his artistic aspirations and where
did that get him? Whoring, the rat race, the bottle. His
workaholism and alcoholism collided with unresolved
childhood issues, and I never really got to know him.
But it didn’t prevent me from hating his guts.
What made things worse was my mother avoiding
responsibility and selfishly cherishing her own
suffering (“He’s a monster, I’m a saint”), making us
a very dysfunctional family. My sister (six years my
senior) left home at 17, and from then on the situation
spiralled ever-downwards until our parents’ inevitable
divorce in 1991. My father didn’t die until 2010, having
been a complete recluse, a fragile shell of a man, for
close to 15 years. I no longer hated him then.
#2, January 1988.
32 pages A4.
Printed at Tehokopiointi Ky, Tampere.
Print run 300 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Wolle "The
Megamösher" Pylkkänen, Petsu and Jussi
"The Slayer" Kummala.
Contents: Deathrow, D.R.I, Assassin,
Sacrilege, Dies Irae, Candlemass and
Sacrifice. Plus reviews.
My sister Sari Laaksonen comments: “Everyday life in
our family always revolved around the ever-worsening
alcoholism and deceitfulness of our father. Other
members of the family had to remain as invisible
as possible. To Mikko, writing must have meant
becoming visible, not only to the family but in general.
It is a calling of some kind to Mikko I guess, and a way
to vent and to share things. His style of writing verges
on black humour, and there’s always a deeper meaning
underneath it all.”
Isten was quite a bit about rebellion, and about finding
an outlet for my creativity that my parents (and their
generation and outsiders in general) could never really
decipher or evaluate. In hindsight it’s easy to say that
37 Death in Solitude
I was probably suffering from depression already at
an early age. I was never terribly unpopular in school
albeit shy and not at all athletic, but I eventually
isolated myself from nearly everyone. I decided not to
drink (again a reaction to my father’s lifestyle choices),
and in Finnish teenage culture, that’s more or less
social suicide.
But I took pride in my abstinence, my separateness, and
therefore the solitary imp with an expression that can’t
quite be decoded was a very suitable icon. It has always
worked for me, though we’ve often found it difficult
to use the symbol on our covers. Use it small, and it’s
not powerful enough; try and do a simple design with
only the logo and the imp, and it looks like a demo tape
cover!
At 16, in 1987-88, my head was still above water. My
classmates who had previously only listened to Finnish
rock were now getting into metal as well, and they
quite liked Isten.
I gradually came to understand that I knew English
pretty well. Suddenly I was getting straight A’s. I
didn’t learn it at school; most of it boils down to heavy
metal, magazines like Kerrang! and Metal Forces, but
also television and books. When necessity became a
passion, it’s hard to say, but the metal mania fuelled my
interest in languages and writing and vice versa.
Issue #2 was already a half-serious undertaking—
typeset on an electric typewriter (wow!) and
professionally printed. The first interview I conducted
was with Jasse of the Finnish heavy metal band Dies
Irae who went on to become a punk/rocker in Hybrid
Children (still going strong). Düsseldorf’s thrash
maestros Deathrow were my first international
interview. I also wrote to Holy Terror, including two
International Reply Coupons, but the letter was
returned to me. Deathrow drummer Markus Hahn’s
reply blew my mind. The debut issue had brought me in
contact with rabid tape-traders like Wolle Megamösher
Pylkkänen from the Tampere area and Jussi Kummala
from Turku, who delivered interviews with Assassin
and D.R.I. respectively. Kummala also sent his hardcore
band’s demo in for a review, but I couldn’t be bothered
to include it.
I dropped a few lines to Lena Graaf at Candlemass’
management and wrote an article using the biography
and photos they sent me. Later I received a promo
vinyl of Ancient Dreams (which is incidentally my least
favourite Candlemass album). There was an unpleasant
tinge to receiving promo copies right from the
beginning. It didn’t feel quite right to me. I have always
hated feeling like I owe something to somebody.
38 Don’t Break the Ghost
The campaign for Phantasticus
Metallicus Magazinicus consisted of
classified ads in Rumba and Soundi
plus an advert published in Axe #4 .
The following pages 40—51 are from #2,
scanned from the printed product.
39 Death in Solitude
The editorial page of issue #2. (transl.) "Issue #1 received surprisingly (too) much positive feedback, but in my opinion it was a poor pamphlet, and therefore it’s no
longer available. (...) Apparently this issue looks quite different compared to issue #1, but it’s because there has been enough time to pay attention to the layout. (...)
Yeah, issue #3 will be much much better!"
40 Don’t Break the Ghost
41 Death in Solitude
42 Don’t Break the Ghost
43 Death in Solitude
44 Don’t Break the Ghost
45 Death in Solitude
46 Don’t Break the Ghost
47 Death in Solitude
48 Don’t Break the Ghost
49 Death in Solitude
50 Don’t Break the Ghost
The Zoetrope review reappeared two pages later, only now it scored 96 out of 100. A true grower.
51 Death in Solitude
My father and his mother (with me in the car) at the
summer cottage in Tottijärvi. Two generations of
alcohol-related deaths... and who knows how many
before them. A teetotaller well into my adulthood, I
vowed never to follow suit.
Blackthorn: I tape-traded with a chap
in Spain and he photocopied this
Danish zine for me. Lots of new bands
for me to check out at the time!
This is where it escalated: my father’s
kitchen in December 2005—hundreds of milk
cartons—when my sister and I finally managed
to have him hospitalized, after our several
desperate cries for help. He always let us in
but would not let us interfere.
“The writing is pedantic,
even snobbish,” wrote Pasi
Vehmasaho of Isten #2 in Axe.
I found this funny because
in those days I had to make
a conscious effort to write
(and speak!) in a less bookish
manner than what came
naturally to me.
52 Don’t Break the Ghost
Criticism from The Plague
zine: “On the minus side,
the price is outrageous and
the zine is ridden with the
writer’s own opinions.”
The Isten imp. We call him
Nuppi—which stands for
head, knob, or pin. This is the
original version, drawn by my
father in 1987.
53 Death in Solitude
54 Don’t Break the Ghost
Diggin’ That Grave
Circling of the Tyrants
The miasma of the underground was intoxicating. I was
writing to exciting new bands, ordering hot demos
and tape-trading as well—getting entangled in the
web and loving it all. The waves of speed/thrash metal
were sweeping Finland at the time. Despite people’s
varying reasons for attendance and varying depth of
involvement, it was a rush to grab a piece of the action
locally. Apart from shows at youth centres and the like,
a string of bigger concerts with the moniker “Speed
Metal Party” gathered hundreds of young metalheads.
In my arrogant opinion however, Isten was always
more than a part of the Tampere metal scene.
Jan “Örkki” Yrlund of local thrashers Prestige
testifies: “There were a lot of cool bands popping up
everywhere. I think Isten was here right from the start,
growing together with the scene. I’m sure our fans
followed Isten too. You have to remember that back
in those days there were no commercial Finnish metal
mags, and the mainstream music mags like Soundi or
Rumba only wrote about the bands after they they had
already made a name for themselves. Especially in the
early days, underground mags were the only channel
to read about other bands, and tape-trading was the
way to hear them since no radio would play that music.
There were probably only 3-4 bands in the country that
got at least some airplay.”
#3, October 1988.
32 pages A4.
Printed at Tehokopiointi Ky, Tampere.
Print run 300 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Wolle
"The Megawimp" Pylkkänen and Sami
Kivimäki.
Contents: Dream Death, Dethrone,
Vendetta, Kazjurol, Amnesty, Prestige,
Living Death, Morbid Magazine,
Necromancer, Mekong Delta, Sadus and
Soothsayer. Plus reviews.
I was thrilled to be close to a couple of bands that
got signed to Finnish labels, although they couldn’t
match the underground splendour of my international
favourites. Ronny Eide of Norway’s Morbid Magazine
introduced me to quite a few rattling bands that had
released fantastic demos: Deadly Manover, Soothsayer,
Morbid, Yog Sothots, Tribulation… I also published my
interview with Ronny in English, a first for Isten.
In western Tampere, one Sami Rouhento also picked
up a copy of the zine: “Isten was a real eye-opener
55 Diggin’ That Grave
to me; it made me understand that there was a huge
underground metal scene out there and that you didn’t
just have to be a passive consumer of music. Even if you
didn’t play in a band, you could still contribute to the
cause. I was buzzing... I wanted to be part of it.”
And some 8 kilometres south of the Isten headquarters,
Janne Sarna had a similar experience: “I bought Isten
#3 when it came out and that issue stood head and
shoulders above the other Finnish fanzines. There was
no doubt that the editor was passionate about metal
but also about what he was doing with his publication.
The layout was neat and original plus there were
foreign bands featured I hadn’t even heard about. By
this time I had also become acquainted with Sami
Rouhento at school. He had already taken a few plunges
into the international metal underground. His skills
and interest in the English language always surpassed
mine but he encouraged me to write to bands abroad as
well.”
Meanwhile, my correspondence was already getting
out of hand. Among many others I became penpals with
Uffe Cederlund of Morbid. Per Yngve Ohlin (aka Dead)
had left for Norway to join Mayhem at that point, and
Uffe wasn’t exactly proud of the second Morbid demo.
He wrote complex stories of the Stockholm scene
and its key players like Drutten (L-G Petrov), Nicke
Andersson and Johan Edlund. I presented him with
some of my drawings but, gory messes that they were,
he found them unsuitable for Shub Niggurath, the
new dark death metal project that he was trying to get
together. I’m not sure how far removed that was from
Infuriation, his other band. Then, of course, the young
man became a full-time Nihilist after original guitarist
Leif Cuzner moved to Canada.
For the most part, however, issue #3 documents the
heyday of Finnish speed/thrash metal—outside of
the Helsinki scene. Necromancer from Hyvinkää were
probably my favourite band of the lot, but the issue
also contained no less than three local bands. I got to
know the guys from Prestige, Dethrone and Amnesty
personally thanks in large part to my friend Sami
Kivimäki who was a great networker. Sami K also got
a writing credit or two, though he was definitely not a
writer kind of guy.
Memorably, Sami K got in touch with Norway’s
Impostor and when Tommy Nemo wrote back with
a copy of their Little Hitler Illusion demo, there was
insufficient postage and Nemo’s handwriting on the
envelope was so hopeless that the local post office
couldn’t decode Sami K’s address on the envelope.
However, the word Isten was legible and it already
rang a bell—such were the quantities of mail I was
receiving—so they forwarded the package to me
instead.
Fanzine-making in the old days was a gruelling process.
Everything had to be typeset on a typewriter, reduced
to approximately 70% on a photocopier, cut into
pieces and glued into the layout. Photos needed to be
screened professionally—which, incidentally, makes
reusing them in this book difficult because of the
resulting Moiré patterns. With #3, I tried to do it all in
A3, and then it was resized to A4 in the print shop.
56 Don’t Break the Ghost
“Order before nuclear war!”, a flyer for Isten #3.
The following pages 58—76 are from #3,
scanned from the printed product.
Photographs rescanned where available.
57 Diggin’ That Grave
The editorial page of issue #3. (Transl.) "For unknown reasons, 8 months have flown by since the previous issue, but here we finally are with a new instalment.
There have been quite a few complaints about the price of the zine but hopefully this time the price makes more sense considering the amount of reading on offer.
(...) From now LP reviews must fit on one page. In future issues there will be an increasing amount of demo reviews. (...) One reason why it took so long with this
issue is that foreign bands don’t appear too keen on answering their mail, for example Napalm Death, D.B.C. and Sanctuary are apparently too busy to answer all
sorts of questions."
58 Don’t Break the Ghost
59 Diggin’ That Grave
60 Don’t Break the Ghost
61 Diggin’ That Grave
62 Don’t Break the Ghost
63 Diggin’ That Grave
64 Don’t Break the Ghost
65 Diggin’ That Grave
66 Don’t Break the Ghost
67 Diggin’ That Grave
68 Don’t Break the Ghost
69 Diggin’ That Grave
70 Don’t Break the Ghost
71 Diggin’ That Grave
72 Don’t Break the Ghost
73 Diggin’ That Grave
74 Don’t Break the Ghost
75 Diggin’ That Grave
76 Don’t Break the Ghost
Speed Metal Party posters. In Finland, the term “speed metal”
was consistently used because it’s more understandable and
easier to pronounce—whenever mentioned, “thrash” was always
spelled “trash”.
Tsürps was the comic magazine of Jan “Örkki” Yrlund of Prestige
and Niko Airaksinen and Jouni “Tissi” Rinta of Dethrone. I was
asked to edit the rag at some point in 1988, but I declined. This
was the first in a long line of refusals—along the years some
bigger magazines have asked me to contribute, both Finnish and
English metal mags, and also one Swedish magazine—although
my grasp of the Swedish language is very narrow indeed!
Nuclear Ass: Mattila in 1988. There’s an advert in issue
#3 for a band merchandise shop from Lahti, Finland. In
payment for the quarter-page I got a Nuclear Assault
T-shirt—what a sweet deal!
I remember all the hand drawn-stuff that I certainly appreciate a lot. I
think the common magazine layout rules apply to zines too with the
difference that you don’t need to polish anything, if it’s underground
it may look like that too. It’s only appreciated...
—Jan “Örkki” Yrlund, Prestige
Zeus Mattila’s review in Rumba
22/1988. (Transl.) “The clearest and
most legible fanzine that I have read.
This is the third issue and the fourth
is supposed to be done in English.
Good luck, but it will be very difficult.
The working title of this issue is
Speedeathrashicus Zinecus; mainly
focusing on foreign bands, but for
some reason Tampere (3 features)
is in the limelight when it comes to
Finland. It doesn’t matter, the writing
is not bad.”
The least successful of the three
Tampere bands featured in issue #3
was Amnesty. I designed this logo for
them.
Underground currency:
International Reply Coupons
and US dollars well-hidden
in an envelope. With Isten #3
as your guide, you could’ve
spent this loot on, for example,
Deadly Manover’s Deathology
demo, Morbid’s upcoming
second tape or Kazjurol’s 7".
Decisions, decisions!
77 Diggin’ That Grave
78 Don’t Break the Ghost
Global Vermin
Speak in Tongues
I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone about this before:
I actually suggested joining forces with Ronny Eide
of Morbid Magazine back in the day (it must’ve been
in late 1988), but by the time Ronny enthusiastically
wrote back with details—he would have generously
lent me the tapes and albums for review—I had already
given up on the idea. Ronny had made a deprecating
comment about Jon “Metalion” Kristiansen and Slayer
Magazine to a member of Mayhem (Euronymous, I
think) and that smacked of an attitude too competitive
for my tastes. Then again my decision didn’t
necessarily have a whole lot to do with that; maybe I’d
just been testing my market value.
#4, January 1990.
52 pages A4.
Printed at Tehokopiointi Ky, Tampere.
Print run 500 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Luukas
Lahtinen, Wolle “the Wimp” Pylkkänen,
Jami Lahtinen and Sami Kivimäki.
Contents: Coroner, A.R.G., Carcass,
Tribulation, Sacrosanct, Obliveon,
Anacrusis, Sadus, Autopsy, Acrophet,
Sepultura, Rytmihäiriö, Groovy Aardvark,
Doomwatch, Vio-lence, Devastation,
Lord Crucifier, Lycanthrope, Inquisition,
Protected Illusion, Necrophagia,
Bloodcum, Wench, Grave, Prestige,
Leprocy, Deathrow, Nihilist, Hellwitch,
Mutilated, Disciples Of Power, Hobbs
Angel Of Death, Armoros, Aftermath and
Terrahsphere. Greek scene report by Fotis
W. “Gore and Guts” (article on splatter
films) by Marko the Mutilated Microwave
Oven. Plus reviews.
Switching to English must have felt like a big step at
that point. But it was only logical—why do interviews
in English and then tediously translate them into
Finnish for a handful of people to read? Anyway, once
the word was out that we were switching to English,
Luukas “Luxi” Lahtinen and his brother Jami were
already busy delivering tonnes of material—interviews,
promo packs for reviews and so on—for issue #4. So
the demand was there, I s’pose!
Luxi explains his metal passion: “Besides conducting
reviews and interviews for Isten, I was hugely into
trading tapes (both audio and VHS) back in those
days. It was actually very easy to increase this circle
of ‘friends’ because there seemed to be so many
like-minded people around back then that shared
a very similar passion and interest with me. I also
drew some band logos and artwork for bands like
Cadaver, Sentenced, Asphyx, Abhorrence (Fin),
Demigod, Rottrevore, Avulsed, Purtenance, Convulse,
Incantation, Cartilage, Mind Riot, Black Dawn, Lord
Diabolus and some others too. I also did quite a lot of
promotion for many Finnish underground metal bands
back in those days, by sending their releases around
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the world for some well-selected labels, radio stations,
etc.—naturally at my own cost.”
Luxi has always been a fanatical metal enthusiast whose
tireless efforts made Isten known around the world
during the three issues he was involved in. Unlike his
brother Jami, Luxi never complained about the way
I dismantled his contributions, but the truth is that
because of his awkward sentences and long, convoluted
questions, I essentially rewrote most of his reviews and
revised his interviews considerably. His tastes were
always a little less discriminating than mine as well,
so perhaps we were not a perfect match when it came
to the direction of the zine. As for Jami, he went on to
start a fanzine of his own, called Biopsy.
After he saw #4 and was impressed, Pat Ranieri of
Hellwitch regretted not having put much effort into the
interview, which was only a half-page article without
a photo. Mind you, I also scrapped my interview
with Milwaukee death metal meisters Dr Shrinker to
make room for other stuff, mainly due to not having
a photo of them, and not a word of that interview has
survived. The front and back cover drawings were done
by Niko Karppinen of Maple Cross who later played
in Sentenced for a while and formed the short-lived
Legenda with Kimmo Luttinen of Impaled Nazarene.
Elsewhere, the issue contained an unexpected number
of my gory drawings. There was also a Deathrow ad in
#4. I’d interviewed drummer Markus Hahn again and
he asked for ad rates. He paid $25 for the half-page, and
sent me the negative printing film. I had it reproduced
with a process camera—this was still well before
desktop scanners and Photoshop (Moiré? Voilà!).
My Swedish pen pal Magnus Forsberg of Tribulation
was a big influence—he introduced me to a multitude
of great bands. We corresponded and tape-traded
for several years. I force-fed him Finnish metal but
also more offbeat favourites of mine—bands like
Deep Turtle, Circle, Isebel’s Pain and Mana Mana. Mr
Forsberg educated me (and many key players of the
Swedish scene, I’ve understood) on quality death
metal, punk, hardcore, industrial and gothic rock. The
endurance of double cassette decks was put to the test!
On my home turf, speed/thrash was the norm, so I
was pleasantly surprised when I received the tapes by
Funebre and Abhorrence. Also, as I told to Qvadrivivm
zine in 2011: “Sacred Crucifix delivered a pioneering
effort with their Realms of Darkness demo in the summer
of 1989. Hindsight and history might’ve proven
otherwise, but back then it was total death of the
darkest ilk, no question.” What we wrote in the zine
is by no means the whole picture—we were frantically
spreading the gospel of Finnish death every single day.
Dozens and dozens of people first heard about the
bands mentioned above as well as the next batch—
Amorphis, Demigod, Sentenced, Convulse—through
the Isten grapevine.
I tried my hand at wholesale trades and didn’t enjoy
the experience. Zines UnLtd in England bought 100
copies, a smooth transaction but a lot more impersonal
than orders from Juha Vuorma from Pudasjärvi, Hervé
Herbaut from Beaurainville, Bård G. Eithun from
Kvikne and so on.
Fredrik at Chickenbrain Records (or CBR) in
Stockholm also received 50 copies. As the payment was
delayed, I remember writing to Uffe Cederlund, “Would
you mind mentioning this Isten business to Fredrik?”
I then refused to accept Krixhjälters CDs as payment,
so a pile of Entombed demo tapes was agreed on.
But Life Goes On was and is fantastic, but I hated this
experience. I never intended to run a distro. I placed a
classified ad and received around 50 letters containing
cash, though I only had 25 tapes. Annoying! Trades be
damned!
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Flyer for Isten #4.
The following pages 82—131 are from #4,
scanned from the printed product.
Photographs rescanned where available.
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Uffe Cederlund’s
scribbles on my copy of
Morbid’s Last Supper
demo tape. I remember
Uffe praising AC/DC in
one of his letters and I
was thunderstruck: “that
ain’t proper! It’s got to
be dark and deadly all
the way!”
Isten was one of the first underground magazines I
discovered as I got into the underground, and I know for
a fact I heard about bands like Xysma for the first time
through Isten. I remember the layout was very impressive,
the language was very professional, great English—I
remember that. I still remember the interviews were great,
there was this one with Carcass, who were my favourite
band in 1990 bar none, and they were talking about plots
in gore movies. It was sort of cool to read stuff like that
where it went a little beyond just the music itself.
—Mortiis
Correspondence from
Coroner. Their interview
answers arrived on a tape.
Drummer Marky also
included a snippet of a
new song (“D.O.A.”)
Archangel Bizarro
(1989). Previously
unpublished.
Pittsburgh metal/core:
Doomwatch interview
answers by Daniel Klasnick.
A letter from Sami Rouhento, dated August
15, 1989. (Transl.) “Hey listen up! Every time
a new issue of Rumba comes out I check out
the classifieds hoping to find a message saying
Isten #4 has been published. In your letter dated
February 17, you said that the release date
depends on different kinds of crap. There must
have been a hell of a lot of that crap as I still don’t
have Isten #4 in my hands. (...) Morbid Mag has
been of some help while waiting. It’s a quality
zine—your praises weren’t ungrounded. Anyway,
the message is: hurry up and don’t say anything
like “I’ve found God and given it up...”.” Due to
letters like this, Sami was drafted for Isten #5.
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Interview answers from Jörgen Sandström of Grave.
When it came to Scandinavian death metal, Nihilist
and Grave were in a class of all their own for me.
Heavy and brutal, with the best songs to boot! I’m
happy I managed to interview Grave at least, while
Nihilist folded before I sent Nicke Andersson my
questions.
I was a Johnny-come-lately and only got my
hands on Isten issue #4. Its reputation preceded
it and the fanzine certainly lived up to the hype.
What made Isten stand out from all the rest
was Mikko’s more-than-decent use of English
grammar and idioms, his genuine interest in
music, intelligently formulated questions and
that dry, sarcastic undertone that appealed to
me very much back in the day, and still does.
Needless to say, all of the aforementioned
are lacking in most journalism, be it fanzines
or mainstream media, so that’s what made
the damn thing special in the first place. Yes,
Isten was sizzling hot, cutting-edge, fuckin’
happening, man! But that was over two decades
ago.
—Taneli Jarva, Sentenced
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Deadly Game
Quill ‘em All
You have to realize that what made it into print—92
pages in the case of issue #5—is only the tip of the
iceberg of an extremely time-consuming process (or
non-process, as the case may be). On an average day
there could be half a dozen promo packages in the
mail, five to ten lengthy letters from regular friends, a
zine and a couple of trade requests, or begging letters,
or both.
Issue #5, March 1991.
92 pages A4.
Pprinted at Tehokopiointi Ky, Tampere.
Print run 1,000 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Luukas
Lahtinen, Damhair, Erkki Virta, Wolle “the
Wimp” Pylkkänen, John “Exithor” Cooper
and Sami Rouhento.
Contents: Darkthrone, Therion, Paradise
Lost, Xysma, Entombed, Ripped,
Disharmonic Orchestra, Disgrace,
Deceased, Maple Cross, Baphomet,
Funebre, Acheron, Asphyx, dead horse,
Menticide, Master’s Hammer, Impetigo,
Exit-13, Sacred Crucifix, Morgoth,
Order From Chaos, Metalion of Slayer
Magazine, The Hirvi, Protected Illusion,
Kaos, Invocator, Gorefest, Seraphic Decay
Records, Afflicted, Phlegethon, Sigh,
DVC, Basilisk, Devastation, Phantasm,
Vital Remains and Korsakov. Plus reviews.
Day in day out, scrawling multi-page letters to
foreign correspondents; archiving demo tapes of the
most sordid kind; ripping, cutting and pasting with
ritualistic abandon; writing, deleting... My head a
black hole full of reviews chasing one another, I was
processing deathly drivel incessantly. In no time I had
propelled myself into a state where it was impossible
to ponder whether I could be—and in all honesty,
should be—doing something else entirely. But what’s
a lifetime of scrutiny and a human sacrifice in the
grand scheme of things? Quitting is only easy for those
who should've never started. I should know, I have a
master’s degree in quitting elsewhere.
What motivates Isten is that which motivates a
headbanger, an air guitarist, a rabid fan of the greatest
music ever. It’s also similar to the rebellion of the
troubled kid in elementary school who only uses
the black crayon. I’m in my 40s and I wear heavy
metal T-shirts to work every day. Wanna talk about
motivation with me?
One aspect to consider is Isten’s complete lack of
interest in sales figures. And I do mean complete. For
instance, Isten has never been sold hand to hand, face
to face, to people at gigs or anywhere else. We have
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never carried around copies of the zine apart from a few
rare cases in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
When leaving the house with copies of Isten, the only
destination has been the post office. The exceptions
are clear in my mind even to this day: I do remember
in 1990 taking a dozen copies of #5 with me to a metal
show in Riihimäki because the boys from Menticide
(a thrash metal band from Tampere for whom I had
drawn a seven-inch cover) gave me a ride. Disgrace
were playing, so it made sense to give vocalist/
guitarist Jukka Taskinen his copy of #5 in person, as
uncharacteristic of me as it was. A most surreal spurt
of outgoingness! Amorphis were playing too, and Esa
Holopainen approached me and suggested a trade for
a brand new Amorphis T-shirt. On the road back home
I marvelled at the three T-shirts (two times Disgrace
and the Amorphis one) I had received in return—even
though I was responsible for the Disgrace shirt design,
the math made no sense! I vowed to myself to never try
this again.
I also remember receiving a second letter from Full
Circle Distribution, “We are interested in distributing
your zine—please respond!” I never did, because
calculating wholesale rates was something I simply
couldn’t be bothered to do. At the time, Isten #5 was
sold one by one via mail exclusively. It felt as though
the 500 copies of issue #4 sold out too soon, so with
issue #5 it was double up or quit. That’s financial risk
management, Isten style! Print run 1000 copies, no
wholesale orders accepted.
I didn’t mind printing an ad for Comeback Records,
because I loved the Xysma records that Teje Caldén
released. The problem is that it turned out to be four
pages. Anyway, in trade I received Paradise Lost’s
Gothic CD and Warmaster by Bolt Thrower on vinyl.
Not bad, I thought. But four pages were admittedly a
bit much, even in a zine that was 90 pages long.
In any case, #5 turned out to be the most difficult
issue to date. What with the abundance of material,
it was very time-consuming. I tried to keep the layout
simple and quick, only using excessive amounts of the
border tapes I had gotten from my sister who worked
in the graphic industry. I had also managed to get hold
of a banged-up computer, but my dot-matrix printer
was so poor I couldn’t use it except for writing letters
and so on. For reviews I used the word processor or
pen and paper, usually both, and then had to type the
final version on my typewriter. For lines and borders,
I’d use a Rapidograph or the border tapes—it was all
handicraft in those days, more like bedroom-floor
publishing than desktop publishing.
Sami Rouhento, a reader from Tampere, wrote a letter
complaining about the delay. I sent him four demos to
review. While on the subject of recruitment, art wizard
Damhair also joined the team during the making of this
volume and provided the cover art as well as several
bits and pieces. We were united via Axe Fanzine, as
Damhair explains: “At the time I screen printed and
bootlegged some T-shirts and Jaana of Axe heard about
it. I wound up doing some scribbles and doodles for
a couple of issues of Axe. When Axe folded I’d already
made the acquaintance with Mikko. Good memories
and an easy entry to underground zinedom. Regrets?
You can’t regret most of the stuff you don’t remember.
Axe is now a major anti-perspirant brand, so at least
some have been making the right moves.”
Damhair and I have never met, although he recalls:
“Hey, we were at the same Xysma gig in 1990 or
something. And maybe during the same legendary era,
gilded in metal history annals, at some other gig at the
unholy halls of Kino Sampo, where this fuzzy dude
came talking to me about something and I asked him
half-excitedly and half-abhorred: ‘Are you Mattila?’—
but he was Arto instead! Same difference!”
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The flyers with the cover illustration
were the main ones. There were
different versions of that one—even an
edition xeroxed on red paper!
The following pages 138—223 are from #5,
scanned from the printed product.
Photographs rescanned where available.
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I associate Isten with the glorious
underground era when things were
totally different from now and when
the spirit was still alive!
—Sakis Tolis, Rotting Christ
Damhair discovered an artifact dated
November 3, 1990 in his archives:
First time I actually got hold of a physical
copy of Isten Mag was Vol 5. It still looks
and feels great to me! Being a youngster
with not too much money in my wallet,
I had to be picky about what to order.
Often, it was a risk sending out the money
to someone unknown at the other side of
the world (or Europe in this case). You
never knew for sure whether the money
would arrive safely, whether the
person was reliable enough to send you
the item you ordered, whether it
would come in one piece, and last but not
least, whether it would be up to
your expectations. Looking at Volume 5
now in December 2012, I’m still happy to
say it was damn worth the money I sent
and the time I waited for it to arrive. When
I go through its pages, it still captures the
vibe as I remember/feel it, which is a damn
good sign of course: it hasn’t aged at all.
—Wannes Gubbels, Pentacle
Too black too soon? Damhair’s
original cover design: Somehow
I thought adding a family album
picture from a visit to Skansen
open-air zoo in Stockholm in
the background would make the
boxy logos look less ugly.
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Thanks list in the making: serious business!
During the making of issue #5 I also found the
time to deliver cover art for Disgrace’s Inside the
Labyrinth of Depression demo, local thrashers
Menticide’s Enforcer 7”, and the Old Funeral 7”. The
latter featured a certain Christian Vikernes on guitar.
My good friend the border
tape—taken to extremes
in the issue. Using a pen
and a ruler would have
made more sense most of
the time.
Praise from Paw Nielsen, the Danish artist extraordinaire.
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From Damhair’s portfolio.
I sent Mikko demos and flyers of my old band Violent
Solution as well as Amorphis stuff. Isten was an
important source of information during one period
of time and so very much connected with what was
happening the underground and of course metal in
general. It was the most influential zine for the Finnish
underground scene.
—Esa Holopainen, Amorphis
I was impressed with the quality of Isten compared
to other zines of that period. It definitely was the
best zine in Finland and one of the best in the whole
world. In my opinion the underground scene in Finland
respected what they did and it was an honour getting
your band in Isten.
—Esa Lindén, Demigod
Metalion also interviewed me around this time but probably lost my answers behind his radiator or something.
Locally, Jarmo Virtanen’s
small shop Juke Boss on
Rautatienkatu was on the
pulse of underground metal
(not to mention punk and
so on). They sold zines like
Morbid Magazine and demo
tapes by bands like Afflicted
Convulsion, Grave and
Sindrome.
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Two snippets of Luxi Lahtinen’s letter dated June 11, 1991—reporting feedback for issue #5 from his contacts. I give Luxi a lot of the credit for
Isten becoming known around the world. When interviewed for this book, Luxi countered: “Wow… now that came totally out of the blue to
me! I don’t feel that my input for Isten had as much of an impact on making Isten known around the world as Mikko’s overall intelligent and
entertaining way of writing. I sincerely think that’s the thing that made Isten Isten: a legendary fanzine that will always be remembered for its
unique, sometimes provocative approach.”
At the time I also wrote a
column in Kumisaapas—
the name means Rubber
Boot—a metal bulletin
run by the guys in Maple
Cross.
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The Skull Harp
Corpse on the Loose
Annoyingly enough, mere weeks after issue #5
had come out, I received answers to my interview
questions from Carcass bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker.
They were probably my favourite band at the time, so
I wanted the interview published as soon as possible.
This one-off issue written once again in Finnish, in
half-page size, was devised mainly as a vehicle for this
belated Carcass feature. Also, the Finnish language
compelled me--I may have felt like I was cheating on a
loved one, what with my budding Anglophilia.
Sami Rouhento as well as one Kingi Ruotsalainen also
contributed, and Ike Vil (later vocalist of the Babylon
Whores) conducted an interview with Dun-delion,
a hardcore band from Helsinki. But in hindsight the
only significance of Kalloharppu is that it is the first
issue to contain anything by one Janne Sarna. We lived
only a few kilometres from each other, but we handled
everything the traditional way: via mail.
Kalloharppu, September 1991.
48 pages A5.
Printed at Tehokopiointi Ky, Tampere.
Print run 200 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Sami
Rouhento, Janne Sarna, Kingi
Ruotsalainen, Ike Vil and Damhair.
Contents: Carcass, Demigod, Disgrace,
Protected Illusion, Prestige, House Of
Usher, Supuration, Dun-delion and
reviews.
Says Janne: “Sami had already contributed to Isten
#5 and I think he mentioned Mikko’s plan to make
something more laid back, and in Finnish for a
change. At this point I ventured to write to Mikko and
volunteer to provide an interview or two for whatever
he was planning to do. Much to my surprise he
welcomed my contribution.”
Perhaps I should have limited my writing in Finnish to
letters, poems and short stories. I quickly lost interest
in Kalloharppu and made absolutely no effort to sell it.
About half of the print run remains unsold to this day.
The following pages 230—232 are from Kalloharppu, scanned from the
printed product and reduced from A5 size.
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Untitled (1991, published in Slayer Mag #9).
Border Control (by Damhair, August 14, 1991).
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Kalloharppu (by Damhair 1991).
Alien (by Damhair 1991).
Through the Never (by Damhair 1991).
Cyberdyne Systems (by Damhair July 22, 1991). Death from Above (by Damhair 1991).
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In Memoriam (1991). An Enki Bilal rip-off.
Otan osaa (1991).
God Recycler (1991). Possession & Catharsis (1991, the back cover of Slayer Mag #9).
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Jeff Walker’s answers—or what’s left of them.
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Death May Die
Darkness with Teeth
I learned nothing from issue #5’s overblown death fest.
The next issue turned into another mammoth, and I
very nearly got squashed underneath its tonnage. Also,
the printers literally ran out of black ink because the
cover was so black.
People have said over the years that Isten’s longevity
is an accomplishment in itself. Regardless, it was never
an objective, because I’ve always had a hard time
believing in things, people, myself, everything. In my
life, I haven’t really found too many things that are
worth doing, so with Isten I guess I’ve been clutching
at straws. With issue #6, the wealth of material,
the number of tapes and records to review, the
correspondence, the people, the spectacle, the delay
and my frustration with all of that became almost too
much to handle.
To Hell And Back (Vol 6), March 1993.
88 pages A4.
Printed at Tehokopiointi Ky, Tampere.
Print run 500 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Luukas
Lahtinen, Sami Rouhento, Janne Sarna,
Damhair, Wolle Pylkkänen, Sami
Kivimäki, Paw Nielsen, Kari Laakso,
Kingi Ruotsalainen and Fra Deificus (The
Hammer of God).
Contents: My Dying Bride, Mayhem,
Dark Tranquillity, Godflesh, Impaled
Nazarene, God Dethroned, Morta Skuld,
God Macabre, Benediction, Desultory,
Sentenced, Tribulation, House Of Usher,
Samael, Autopsy Torment, Severance,
Sinoath, Furbowl, Tetragon, Mordicus,
Masacre, Meshuggah, God Forsaken,
Mythic, Hybrid Children. “Gates to
Purgatory” by Fra Deificus. Plus reviews.
I didn’t think I was wasting anything important—selfexiled
in metal anarchy, Isten constituted my world. I
found out that if I can’t immerse myself in something,
if I don’t believe in it one hundred percent, then I
can’t do it. I quit a study programme mere weeks from
graduation because I lost every last shred of respect
for the American guy who headed it. I have made
seemingly mindless decisions in my “professional” life,
because making money for people who are full of shit
makes me physically sick. I’d rather starve than lose
track of my principles.
Operation To Hell and Back started smoothly enough,
however. I got to know Sami Rouhento personally
during my brief visit at the university and enjoyed
his company immensely—I’d never met anyone as
civilized, as analytical, and as open-minded (musically
and otherwise) as him. A “darker death” vision of Isten
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evolved little by little. The article “Gates to Purgatory”
was written by Sami using the alias Fra Deificus. In
other words, it was a hammer of God reviewing black/
death metal from a biblical viewpoint. (Mika Luttinen
of Impaled Nazarene took it quite seriously. He used
to call me every now and then, and he called me one
night wanting to know who the writer was. I didn’t tell
him.) I got the idea of doing some round-table album
reviews, and apart from Sami, Janne, Kingi and me,
we also had a couple of Swedish musicians on board,
namely Jonas Stålhammar of God Macabre (Macabre
End) and Niklas Sundin of Dark Tranquillity.
Sami has fond memories of this period: “Once I got
to know Mikko, I gained more of an insight into how
putting a zine together really works. I began to feel like
I actually had a stake in Isten, and then, when Janne too
got involved—I knew him from school—I was feeling
comfortable. I thought we were a good, solid team.
On a personal level, I was very pleased to get to know
Mikko. Not only did this reinforce my conviction that
he’s a totally brilliant heavy metal savant, but it also
revealed him as an all-round nice guy—not that I had
expected anything else, of course. Really nice hair,
too.”
Meanwhile, my cooperation with Luxi Lahtinen was
going sour because we had different ideas on this and
that. He loved all American death metal, and he also
offered Tarot and Warmath interviews, which I didn’t
think were suitable for Isten. On the other hand, I
had at some point suggested to Luxi that he man the
editorial helm for a while, because I knew I had to do
my national service soon. He refused.
Sure enough, things got really hectic. I was leaving
town to start this non-military service of mine, and the
print shop’s owner brought me boxes of printed matter
the night before my departure. I would probably have
kept fooling around with the issue for another year or
two had it not been for this national service business.
The eerie tones of the Jilemnický Okultista demo tape,
as well as Master’s Hammer’s earlier works, provided
the soundtrack for many an hour spent working on
this monster issue. One of the last things I wanted to
feature in this issue was a Master’s Hammer interview
with Franta Storm. He promised to do it, but somehow
most of my questions dealt with the black metal “war”
(Norway versus Finland) and how the Norwegians
reportedly hailed sodomy as the greatest thing of all. I
never heard back from Mr Storm.
Master’s Hammer’s dark genius lent itself perfectly to
the proceedings as it amplified the sense of otherness
that I dwelled in most of the time. The mail was
delivered five times a week, obviously there was
no Internet, nothing on the telly... I had the music
and I had 24 hours of night every day (to put it as
melodramatically as I can). My unholy communion
of music, words and isolation rendered time quite
irrelevant. Whenever I was told, “You’re going nowhere
with your life,” I didn’t get it, because every time I
heard “Jáma pekel” or “Mezi kopci cesta je klikatá...” I
landed in a slightly different spot than before.
I borrowed books from the library compulsively—
prose, poetry, philosophy, occult, art books, you name
it—only ever reading a fraction of them. I’ve always
been a slow reader. Words mesmerize me: I tend to
get drunk on expressions, ruminating on the tiniest
detail for ever. My inspiration shoots out in all possible
directions and I get distracted for aeons from whatever
I’m supposed to be doing. Finnish writers like Samuli
Knuuti (a music critic with a poison pen), Jyrki Lehtola
(an equally venomous columnist of current affairs), and
major names in Finnish literature like Kari Hotakainen
and Jari Tervo have been very important to me over
the years. I’ve always been a print junkie—even when
my musical diet consisted of death metal more or
less exclusively, I read pop/rock magazines like New
Musical Express and Melody Maker regularly.
Worldwide correspondence required as much of
my time and energy as ever. I was only just starting
to realize that I should emphasize quality over
quantity with fewer pen friends and lengthier letters.
Some contacts were more meaningful than others.
I corresponded with Jon “Metalion” Kristiansen for
well over ten years (from 1987 or 1988 all the way
until the late Nineties), but new long-standing quillfriendships
were also being built in 1993. Kola Krauze,
the most important of these, explains how he came
across Isten in suburban London: “It was 1993, I was
18 or 19 and spent a lot of time at the house of Hans
Stiles, the bassist of Dark Heresy. Hans had a well-paid
part-time job but as he still lived with his parents he
spent literally every penny he earned on records and
zines. You name it, he had it. Hans recommended two
zines that he’d bought, both from Finland: Diarium
Autopsia and Isten (#5 or #6, or perhaps both – I don’t
remember). I remember that Diarium Autopsia was
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written by a couple of girls which was obviously a plus
point when their passion for underground metal was as
ardent as it was, and the English was also astoundingly
good—as was Isten’s, which was clearly the more
fascinating of the two zines.”
Aubrey Beardsley’s Of a Neophyte and How
the Black Art Was Revealed Unto Him by the
Fiend Asomvel (1893) seemed like the perfect
illustration to be used in the flyers for To Hell
and Back. It spurred me on to some wild blurb
writing, too!
It is fair to say issue #6 was transitional. The critical
faculty that Isten is known for started to emerge. I
called for originality, but what I really meant and could
not express was heart, style and dignity. I mostly
listened to music with reviewing on my mind, and it
made me desperate for individual voices, for artificers
truly taking pride in their craft. Brutal death can
possibly be a perfectly nutritious breakfast, lunch,
and dinner, but if you’re expected to keep a detailed
food diary, you’ll end up either twisting the data or
modifying your diet.
The kind of fervour and spirit that is displayed in this
issue by the likes of Øystein Aarseth, Mika Luttinen
and Taneli Jarva shows what a special time this was for
underground metal. The extracurricular activities, the
mainstream coverage in magazines like Kerrang!, and
later the influence of the Internet, would soon change
metal forever—say hello to “extreme metal” (spit!)—
but there was an undeniable magick in the mist at this
point.
The Mayhem interview was conducted by one Kari
Laakso from Valkeakoski (a small town near Tampere)
who simply offered me some of his work instead of
starting a zine of his own. I never heard back from him
after I sent him his batch of copies, but that’s the usual
course of events: people come, go berserk, and then go
away. Life’s what happens after the underground, for
normal people.
The following pages 242—327 are from #6,
scanned from the originals/printed product.
Photographs rescanned where available.
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327 Death May Die
“Isten editor” by Damhair, October 1991. He
instructed me to crop this illustration, excluding
the word Isten. I complied with the direction—
until now.
I’m pretty sure it was my penpal Bill Earnshaw
from Anatomia zine that first turned me on to
Isten. He showed me issue #6, I think. I loved it
and immediately became a fan.
Isten always seemed aware of some kind of
bigger picture and was far less myopic than
most other zines at the time. The boys’ writing
was witty and stylish, with a sly sense of
humour.
Today, I guess the main thing that reminds me
of Isten is the tattoo I have on my right wrist.
—Gregory Whalen, The Crypt zine,
Terrorizer Magazine
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Burzum promo pack and
letter from Varg Vikernes
in February 1992. Sami
Rouhento was supposed
to review it, but eventually
nobody did.
My interview with My Dying
Bride came back from Aaron
along with mysterious stains and
a personal tape.
329 Death May Die
Impaled Nazarene’s original answers
in Finnish. A few of Mika Luttinen’s
swearwords were probably lost in
translation.
I’d say that Isten was an entity of its own. It really stood
out from most other underground publications in that it
was extremely initiated and informative and created by
people equipped with actual writing skills. Usually it was
either one or the other.
Just like some of the other greats like Slayer, Peardrop
and Morbid, Isten has a unique personality and sometimes
constituted a world of its own. I remembered people
borrowing the first Isten issue that I had and saying that it
really wasn’t like anything else they had read.
The layout certainly played a big role. Isten looked like
Isten and nothing else. Mikko was great at drawing and
I often wondered why he didn’t make more artwork for
bands. Most likely he had better things to do.
I first heard Darkthrone’s A Blaze in the Northern Sky on
a tape Mikko sent me, and that obviously was an album
that surprised everyone at the time. Our correspondence
was probably 99% related to metal facts, so I can’t recall
picking up anything that one wouldn’t infer from reading
the magazine itself. Tape-trading for me wasn’t that much
about getting to know people socially or exchanging
thoughts about life in general but more “You mentioned
that you like band X, so here is a cassette with bands Y
and Z.” At least that’s how I remember it. Perhaps Mikko
wrote once that he never wore metal shirts, which was
puzzling for someone from our own scene, where it was
virtually unheard of not to wear band shirts 24/7 if you
were a metalhead.
—Niklas Sundin, Dark Tranquillity
Editor David Horn of Sounds Of Death sent
a copy of his mag for a swap. I reluctantly
obliged and our dialogue wound up in the Hate
Mail section of his next issue...
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Isten set the standard that no other zine ever
met. And as artists and musicians (read: amateur
musical youth groups) it made us try harder
to meet the mark, to please the gods... so eager
to please the One God, Isten. If you happened
to get a favourable mention of your demo or
advance tape in Isten, you’d peaked. You’d
fuckin’ made it.
We were an idealistic bunch of metalhead
kids back then. We took our shit seriously.
So I suppose that’s one thing that led to our
mutual respect. I don’t remember much of the
interviews though, except that I really took
my time and great pains in giving honest and
elaborate answers (often with my Webster’s
Unabridged at hand, trying to out-anglofy
Mikko!), while most rags’ interviews I could’ve
just wiped my ass with.
—Taneli Jarva, Sentenced
Beherit in Monttu, Riihimäki, August 1992. The photos were
taken by Damhair using a cheap Russian prism lens—pretty
psyched! Spot Luxi Lahtinen videoing the events, Arto of
Crypta zine airborne, Holocaust Vengeance performing with
Kimmo Luttinen completing the duo line-up on drums… Mika
Luttinen also joined in to make an important announcement
or three.
331 Death May Die
Back cover photo by Sami Kivimäki.
Skewerer by Damhair. This sketch dates back to
September 1992, but the illustration appeared in
its final form in our 1996 issue, (The Return of the)
Dark Lord.
My band’s first demo reviews stand out, of
course! They didn’t like every aspect of our music
but the feedback was so well-thought and wellwritten
it was easy to digest. And even learn from
it.
I only knew Luxi Lahtinen personally. But
it seemed like the guys were some sort of
perfectionists. The language was always great and
I can’t remember any typos. The whole package
was well thought-out, I can’t see any “good
enough” attitude there. Their devotion to the
metal scene and making the fanzine was so deep
that it was just amazing.
I truly miss the days when that thick fucker
was pretty much the only media to learn about
underground metal. Now it’s just short tweets
and quick shit like that. Not many people read the
sort of thorough and long articles anymore that
Isten was full of.
—Tuomo Saikkonen, Mind Riot
Answers from House Of
Usher. We always adored
Mattias "Kenno" Kennhed’s
handwriting!
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A letter from one František Štorm of Prague. All
testament to the master typographer’s devotion,
the letterhead and handwriting called for rigorous
study. After my Master’s Hammer interview fell
through, Jilemnický Okultista didn’t even get a
mention. Not due to bitterness on my part, but
simply a case of prioritizing the tapes received for
review free of charge.
The original photos were pasted onto a sheet
and then screened and scaled to the right size
professionally at the print shop. Afterwards, I
pasted the screened pictures into the layout.
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Reverence
Merciless Faith
Some people who got into Isten first and then found
out about the Norwegian Slayer Magazine could
never understand why the two publications are
often mentioned in the same sentence. Of course
Slayer was always more popular and much bigger in
circulation. Isten is like a Mekong Delta to Slayer’s,
well, Slayer—the two cannot be compared, but
longevity obviously is a connecting factor. I absolutely
loved the candidness of Metalion: The Slayer Mag
Diaries (Bazillion Points, 2011) and abhorred the
commentators who criticized its downbeat tone. Jon
“Metalion” Kristiansen has said that when he looks
back on his “25 years of being a professional metal
fan,” all he sees is a void. I can identify with this. When
you monomaniacally and gratuitously dedicate your
life for a cause in this manner, there’s bound to be
some bitterness and self-pity at some point.
By the time of issue #7 the old reasons and motives
for Isten’s existence had dissolved for good. It was
clear that it was no longer about supporting the
underground, writing raves about your faves and
remaining on civil terms with the rest of the pack.
I could’ve stopped then if I could’ve stopped then.
Isten was essentially all I had. I was in too deep, and
there was precious little else in my life that kept me
going. I had dropped out from university, introverted,
antisocial, brimming with angst, and I couldn’t decide
whether I was writing a diary or a suicide note.
#7, December 1994.
56 pages A4.
Printed at Tehokopiointi Ky, Tampere.
Print run 300 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Sami
Rouhento, Janne Sarna, Wolle Pylkkänen,
Endre Begby and Damhair.
Contents: Decoryah, Beyond Dawn,
Bizarre, Divine Eve, Sabbat, Lavra,
Katatonia, The Equinox Ov The Gods,
Human Waste and Crowbar. Plus reviews.
I was, however, rather focused when it came to Isten.
I had ditched Luxi Lahtinen and wanted to streamline
the Isten team in order to get rid of meaningless metal
chit-chat with all the upcoming mind-numbingly
unoriginal acts. I never intended to accept any more
contributions from Wolle Pylkkänen either, but his
interview with Crowbar slipped in almost like an
afterthought. Wolle organized gigs locally at the
legendary I-Klubi (and later at the short-lived Sub
Club) for several years in the Nineties—without this,
we would have probably been out of touch much
sooner. These metal get-togethers were the place to be
at the time, and to see bands like Xysma, Entombed,
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Sentenced, Babylon Whores, Disgrace, Throes Of
Dawn, Pakeni, Lubricant and Inearthed (pre-Children
Of Bodom). The audience was not only comprised of
old farts from the Eighties, but also the harbingers of
the black metal scene, like this grim lad from Mänttä
with eyeliner who set out to kick all the offending
white chairs in the hall.
Some of the young Norwegian musicians who
had ordered copies of Isten earlier had reinvented
themselves as princes of darkness. Not that reinventing
oneself is necessarily wrong, and I enjoyed some of
the music and all of the gossip that I gathered from my
various contacts, but for me the new generation could
never match the black aura of Venom.
Thus, in the funeral half-light of 1994, far removed
from the glare of burning churches, we chased our own
ghosts. Janne contributed what must have been one
of the first Sabbat interviews in Europe. Isten’s first
foreign recruit Endre Begby of Norway’s Abysmal and
Carpathian Full Moon had a chat with Spanish death
metallers Human Waste. Sami Rouhento interviewed
Estonian shoegazers Bizarre while surprisingly many of
my picks had goth leanings. It was kind of coincidental,
really. We were still investigating metal, only looking
for new points of view. For example, Bizarre’s guitarist
Tristan Priimägi was, and is, a metal hound. Elsewhere,
my interview with Divine Eve from Texas was a bit of
a testament to death metal, Swedish style, and Celtic
Frost worship permeates the entire issue.
I felt there was a huge gap between what I wanted
and what most other people wanted when it came
to music and writing about music. I felt some of my
favourite bands were selling themselves short. While I
was happy that the likes of Sentenced were getting the
recognition they richly deserved, I was unsure where
that left me and Isten. There was a sense that all the
wrong things had been blown out of proportion and
what meant the world to me had been dragged through
the mud.
True envoys of the black and white arts don’t stop
when the lights go out, however. My pride of the
damned burned brighter than ever as I withdrew into
darkness, venturing further beyond mere “writing
about music”. Line after line, song after song, my
quest became one with the sonic witchcraft. I set out
to illustrate the shadows, the fevers and the ancient
alchemy, to conjure the spirits of the dead myself.
I had seen and witnessed first hand how thrash
metal challenged traditional metal only to become
overthrown by death metal a few years later. The
upsurge of black divided the underground once more,
and it was all getting a little old for me. There was a
divine current running through the best, most intense,
most profound works of metal from whence I came to
where we had gotten and I knew precisely what was
genuine and what was not. The prefixes were all wrong:
black metal—but only when it’s Satanic enough—can
cross over to the spectre of heavy metal. Death metal,
when it genuinely erupts from the bowels of the earth,
transcends the barriers.
I craved life metal. Heavy metal for life. And “heavy”,
for all you smart alecks out there, is not a prefix. Heavy
metal is not even a genre. Heavy metal is a realm. Swear
the oath. The Force is heavy metal. Mental Funeral is
heavy metal. A Blaze in the Northern Sky is heavy metal.
If it doesn’t work as heavy metal, it’s fucked, it fails, full
stop.
You commit yourself to the practise of this magic—
night after night of exaltation and ceremonial rites as
you try to decipher the coffin texts and puzzle out the
minutiae of the ceremonies. Listener or musician, it
makes very little difference. You need to be a fanatic
first and foremost.
When it came to myself, devotion and desperation
certainly walked hand in hand. I worked for twelve
months on the closed ward of a mental institution (my
non-military service). The experience was eye-opening
for reasons different to those I had expected. While I
identified with the infinite loneliness of the inmates,
I detested the attitudes of the personnel: cynical,
condescending, defined by the strict confines of their
hollow lives. I felt clocks melting as if in a Dalí painting,
and remember contemplating this whole zine insanity
long and hard. It wasn’t much, but it was better than
a dead-end job in a soon-to-be-closed small-town
hospital. It gradually dawned on me that Isten was my
canvas to paint. I was like Nosferatu doodling in his
castle.
To what extent was the underground an imaginary
world? Let’s ask instead to what extent the imaginary
substance in heavy metal is real. I’m referring to the
apparition that flickers throughout the history of this
music, in its liturgy, in its sacraments and institutions.
Is it this chimera that resonates in our chests, sets our
eyes aflame, and makes us clench our fists? Or is it, in
fact, our own merciless faith? I think they are one and
the same. Inherently interwoven, in constant upheaval,
requiring ardent practice. At least half of it is you.
If you fail, don’t blame the priest. Don’t blame the
doctor. Don’t blame the placebo.
336 Don’t Break the Ghost
The flyers for #7 didn’t turn out quite as
beautiful (or intelligent!) as I had intended.
Oh well, throw in a skull for good measure!
The following pages 338—392 are from #7
scanned from the originals/printed product.
Photographs rescanned where available.
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Issue #7 contains my last illustrations. I simply quit drawing altogether because I felt I was merely a copycat—or a copyrat, actually. This picture of a girl was stolen
from a fashion feature in The Face magazine, as Timo Ketola (Dauthus) pointed out to me some time later. The drawing was also used by A.A. Nemtheanga (of
Primordial) in his fanzine Bond of Blood.
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I didn’t receive any directions from Mikko at all,
though the sense of expectation was clear enough:
write something that’s worthy of publication in
Isten! I doubt he would have asked me if he didn’t
feel I knew the zine well enough to have a sense of
what was required. I remember wondering whether
he would exercise any kind of editorial control—in
fact, I was half-hoping he would, since he was clearly
such a master of the craft. But in the end, everything
I wrote went straight to print, so I guess I did alright
after all.
—Endre Begby
During 1994-2010,
Janne was responsible
for the official Sabbat
website (welcome.to/
sabbat or isten.net/
sabbat).
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My letter to Damhair, April 15, 1994. (Transl.) “Now then, here’s a bunch of
photocopies for you. In other words, the cover concept of Isten #7 for you to
process further... With the Dracula snippet, the bit with the words “Isten szek—
God’s seat” needs to be visible. You can add new elements, the imp head can be
modified (the transparency enclosed is so worn out that I don’t know if it can be
used). Ripping and glueing and brutal ink slingin’ business?" In the end, Damhair
apparently felt that my concept was already complete.
I regularly browse old Isten issues.
Sometimes when my own inspiration
isn’t quite there, I’ve noticed that
reading Isten makes something awake
inside of me. The greatest thing of all
is that although something like Lavra
(in Isten #7) basically means nothing
to me, the pieces are so well-written
that they grab me along no matter
what.
—Mr NorthWind, The Sinister
Flame/I Came From Darkness
They obviously had a better
typewriter than I did back in 1993.
—A.A. Nemtheanga, Primordial
An unfinished sketch by Damhair, February 1994.
394 Don’t Break the Ghost
Divine Eve’s Xan
"Xanthorvaar" Hammack
answered my questions
with passion. Typing out
the lengthy interviews was
exhausting—one of my least
favourite aspects of the
process.
The print shop’s receipt. The print
run was a measly 300 copies simply
because that was all that I could
afford at the time.
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Papercuts
Into the Pyre
Shortly after #7 was published, Mr Sarna appeared
on my doorstep having made the first batch of Isten
T-shirts ever (black imp on a white shirt). Janne had
already contributed to the previous three issues, but
I had only met him once or twice at local gigs. Soon
enough, however, we found ourselves scheming new
Isten atrocities together. I found it perplexing that
Janne took such an interest in this pursuit, but I’m glad
he did. I was in limbo at the time—as was Isten.
It all came about very naturally indeed. One
conversation led to another and what do you know,
all the issues that followed have been team efforts
between the two of us. I had never experienced that
before. Janne is quick and witty—the way he could
come up with a new angle or a summary of something
in a heartbeat was something I found very impressive.
When it came to writing, eventually in the late Nineties
we came up with a style of brainstorming things
together, spurring each other on, and I would usually
prune the pieces into their final form.
#7B: Playing with Fire, March 1995.
20 pages A5.
Printed at Tehokopiointi Ky, Tampere.
Print run 300 hand-numbered copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Janne Sarna,
Sami Rouhento and Damhair.
Contents: clippings from F.E.T.U.,
Sepulchural Noise, Slayer Mag, Z.A.S.T.
Mag, Thrashing Holocaust, Orcustus,
Phantasmogoria, Isten, Metal Forces,
Battle of Bewitchment, Dying Terror,
Putrefaction, Silent Scream, Metal Pages,
Despot, Biopsy, Peardrop, Cascade, Mega
Mag, Hypnosia, Mortuary Mag, Zelot,
Morbid Magazine, Thanatography and
The Ruptured, plus news, logos, flyers
and more.
“From early 1991 to early 1995 I was just another
contributor for Isten,” says Janne. “Despite living
less than 10 kilometres away from each other, all
communication between Mikko and me was handled
through letters. I was more than happy with the
situation, and I never ever aspired to a bigger role
or anything. Nor did I plan a fanzine of my own. I
was definitely more interested in helping the bands
to spread the word than becoming something or
somebody within the underground myself. It goes
without saying that my (time) commitment increased
vastly in early 1995, but I didn’t mind that as doing
Isten felt much more purposeful and rewarding than
my studies at the local University of Technology.”
397 Papercuts
Janne is the antithesis of my neuroses and pathological
impracticality. He doesn’t seem to worry about things
and always cuts to the chase when I’m doing what I
do best: maintaining the maximum level of chaos and
unproductiveness. I could be gluing a small picture
onto a page, fitting it here and there in the layout,
undecided and distressed, and Janne would look at
the procedure and say, laconically but amused, “The
last eleven places were all quite alright.” Me snapping
out of my stupor, time and time again, sums up our
cooperation to a T.
The way Janne sees it, the chaos was never a problem.
“On the contrary,” he explains, “it was the essence.
I was perfectly capable of being equally chaotic. I
suppose the engineer in me kicked in when it was time
to summarize and transform the lively and lengthy
discussions into doable action points.”
Sami Rouhento somewhat half-heartedly joined Janne
and me in our first joint venture, issue #7B: Playing
with Fire. The idea was to do a tribute to underground
zines, limited edition, hand-numbered, half-sized. It’s
all fanzine cuttings with frolicsome commentary—
quick snip-snap action. Contrary to a popular
misconception, we were not on a mission to dig up
the grindcore/fun bands of black metal musicians’
murky past (they were only a couple of years away
in any case!). It was not a case of wanting to dispute
their music or their prowess in the black arts. Again,
Playing With Fire is our humble tribute to underground
fanzines, constructed in mere weeks—all heart, short
on finesse. As such, it’s a load of crap.
Janne agrees: “Spot on. Considering the spirit we
wanted to capture and understanding how the majority
of the readers experienced it, it’s only fair to say #7B is
a load of crap par excellence.”
We were bidding an affectionate farewell to a metal
underground we used to know and love—nothing
more, nothing less. We are not very proud of this, but
it was in Playing with Fire that the word “penguin”
was first used to describe black metal disciples. On
22 December 1998, Finland’s biggest newspaper
Helsingin Sanomat claimed that black metallers are
called penguins “because of the colouring”. Come
on, emperor penguins aren’t even black and white!
Isten was obviously referring to their capacity for
individualism and showmanship, their tolerance for
cold, and their appeal to documentarians and small
children. Emperor Samoth actually ordered a copy
of what he called “the piss-take issue”. We tried to
interview Emperor later (we did love the music after
all), but according to Lee Barrett at their record label
Candlelight, the Emperor Horde didn’t feel like talking
to us again.
The entire underground was in a state of black metal
upheaval, and its mentality was “either you’re for us
or you’re against us”. All in all, people didn’t know
what to make of #7B, but in retrospect it must’ve
been one hell of an advertising campaign for Isten (not
that we meant it that way). People didn’t realize that
#7B was Isten at its most amicable and brotherly—
acknowledging our roots with this little pamphlet that
we flung together. It was ridiculous that people praised
it and thought we were waging a war against certain
factions of the underground metal scene. At that
particular point we weren’t. It was eye-opening but
also made us close our shutters tighter.
My interaction with fellow metalheads was always
very limited, and I suppose I was better off that
way. I was in my own vacuum most of the time. I was
participating, but my participation was too acrid and
obscure for a community that only understood black or
white, yes or no.
Scratch the surface of a compliment and usually you
realize it’s completely misguided or uttered by a
halfwit. If I were a cynic, I would conclude that with
#7B, Isten for once catered to the attention spans of
its target audience. Thank God the Internet was right
around the corner and everyone was about to get what
they deserved.
398 Don’t Break the Ghost
Rather than on the strength of this
flyer, people ordered #7B after
having heard about it through
the grapevine. We actually kept
receiving orders for a while after it
sold out and had to return people
their cash...
The following pages 400—402 are from
#7B: Playing with Fire, scanned from the
originals and reduced from A5 size.
399 Papercuts
400 Don't Don’t Break the Ghost
401 Papercuts
402 Don’t Break the Ghost
I sure remember the “penguins”! How could one
forget those? The “black metal penguin” became
a staple in Finnish (as well as international)
pop culture for all posterity, and as such a very
defining factor in the black metal lore. I still use the
expression to this day. Also, I remember how that
weary ol’ slogan “Support the Underground” was
met with a dry remark as to why the hell should
we all be so concerned with the state of the British
subway system? Very witty indeed, sir. I don’t
know whether it was Mikko et al who originally
came up with these concepts, but they certainly
were brave enough to disseminate the ideas at a
time when death threats were flying around and
young people were actually being killed for no
reason at all.
—Taneli Jarva, Sentenced
Eloquent underground
correspondence as exhibited
in #7B: this is the entire cover
letter for US black/death
metallers Impiety’s demo
tape submission.
Foundation Against Craps: we were
flabbergasted by comparisons to
this French publication—whatever
the similarities between Playing with
Fire and FAC were supposed to be,
we certainly didn’t get it.
Yours truly in Peltolammi, Tampere,
sometime in 1995: a photo for the
Swedish zine Battle Of Bewitchment.
Editor Robert Höög interviewed
Janne and me—we basically babbled
nonsense about Twin Peaks and so on.
403 Papercuts
404 Don’t Break the Ghost
Yellow Snow
Heavy Lies the Crown
(The Return of the) Dark Lord was the first issue that
was done on a computer, although still partially in cut
and paste style, using a myriad of fonts. The Xysma
interview was an exception—it had to be written on
an old typewriter for whatever reason. We also found
out that determining writing credits was becoming
troublesome: reviews in particular we often wrote
based on our discussions, and there was no way to
tell who “wrote” what. Come next issue we gave up
altogether.
Janne thinks of Dark Lord as some sort of test lab for
us: “We were experimenting with story formats, and
there was no idea too stupid to carry out. With all
the hits and misses, Dark Lord certainly was a most
liberating creative process. On some levels it was
also a new declaration of independence for Isten—
independence from the underground’s rules and
expectations.”
(The Return of the) Dark Lord, March
1996.
68 pages A4.
Printed at Tehokopiointi Ky, Tampere.
Print run 500 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Janne Sarna,
Damhair, Sami Rouhento, Kola Krauze,
Endre Begby and Istallomester.
Contents: Sentenced, Mortiis, Diaboli,
Euronymous, Empyrium, Drowned, Veil
Of Thorns/Choronzon, Darkstyle, Xysma,
Darkthrone, Kola Krauze, Beherit, Kari
Rueslåtten, Ildfrost, Rotting Christ and
Penitent. “Black Metal’s Dirty Dozen”.
“God Damnit” by Ik3 Vil. Plus reviews.
The “Black Metal—Yellow Press” slogan was born quite
late in the process. As Janne recalls: “We had most of
the stuff ready for the issue and were already starting
to design flyers. The church burnings and black metal
murders made the headlines regularly at that time,
so making a full metal tabloid was in order. We made
some screaming posters and flyers out of the material
we had, in the true yellow press fashion, and then it hit
us: ‘Black Metal—Yellow Press.’ Of course it was easy
to assume, especially for those who considered #7B a
piss-take issue, but it definitely wasn’t as if we had this
slogan in our minds from the start and then designed
the issue to live up to it.”
Dark Lord’s playfulness had a lot to do with the new
situation with Janne. This uncommon feel-good
mentality reached so far that I even felt comfortable
selling a few copies of the issue at local shops. To
tell you the truth, however, the sales effort was not
405 Yellow Snow
the main thing—it had more to do with fulfilling the
tabloid concept with headline placards.
Says Janne, “We had flyers printed perhaps in the same
amount of 500 as the magazine, plus a handful of A3
and A4-sized posters with the same material in Finnish
for the local shops. The flyer turned out pretty nice so
we decided to use it as a back cover too. Eventually we
turned the back cover upside down so it would make an
alternate cover.”
Quite frankly the final version of the front cover turned
out to be rather disappointing. As Janne explains,
“The sketches we had from Damhair almost from
the beginning of the process actually looked better,
but none of them were finished enough to be used. I
think the final version was kind of rushed. And let’s
get things straight here—I could not care less about
Star Wars. A few years ago I tried to watch one of the
original movies, but after 20 minutes I simply had to
give up. Not my turf I’m afraid, but Darth Vader is one
mean dark lord, that’s for sure.”
On the subject of dark lords, we felt we needed a
Burzum ad. I can’t remember how much Misanthropy
Records paid for that, but we also sent Tiziana some
Mana Mana, Psychoplasma and Babylon Whores
records as well as some Finnish chocolate, so who
cares? I think she sent Janne a pair of pink Scorpions
knickers, too! I also convinced her to sign Babylon
Whores although she was worried it was too far
removed from her current roster. She started up
a subsidiary label solely for this one band. Janne
suggested the name Pentagramophone, but she chose
Heroine instead.
The six-page Darkthrone extravaganza comes across
as very light-hearted. Had we done it later on in
their career, the tone would be different, but at that
time, the playfulness was in sharp contrast to how
Darkthrone were portrayed in the rest of the media
(before everybody overdosed on Fenriz). We loved
the way the band divided people’s opinions, so we
decided to look into the big question: how does one
spell the band’s name? Seriously speaking, no amount
of buffoonery (on the band’s part, or ours) will ever
rub out one single iota of the supreme Satanic majesty
of “Cromlech” and “In the Shadow of the Horns”.
The first two albums are classics—only a fool would
disagree.
We felt like joining the dots of the numerous Beherit
rumours we kept hearing from abroad. Holocaust
Vengeance returning our interview questions
unanswered, was, to us, as if he were brushing off
his metal past, saying, “Fuck off and goodbye”. The
article, as we wrote it (tongue firmly in cheek) was us
saying, “Hokay, have a nice one!” It turns out that we
gave him too much credit—but we never in a million
years imagined that he’d give a damn. We thought he
was in on the “joke”… although in hindsight there
probably wasn’t one. We heard of someone at the
Spinefarm offices throwing copies of Dark Lord in the
garbage (Ewo Meichem aka Ewo Pohjola paid for them
anyhow).
The Beherit article needs to be evaluated in the context
of Dark Lord, not separately. The issue has lots of
deliberate disinformation in it: we speak of Quorthon
in conjunction with a picture of ice-hockey player
Peter Forsberg for example! And we claim that Cold
Lake stemmed from Tom G. Warrior thinking it was
the German Poison who had hit it big in Los Angeles.
Whether it was our intention to say, “listen to the
music, pay a little less attention to all the nonsense” or
if we just wanted to add to the turmoil—it’s anyone’s
guess.
For us, Isten was all about creativity, war and
necromancy. It was frustrating to deal with bands,
labels and readers who thought we were in the business
of mutual back-patting. Our stance was: we’re not at
your service—fuck regularity, fuck conformity, fuck the
lot of you.
406 Don’t Break the Ghost
The Dark Lord flyers and headline placard for the local shops.
The following pages 408—469 are from (The Return of the) Dark Lord, scanned from
the originals/the printed product. Photographs rescanned where available.
407 Yellow Snow
408 Don’t Break the Ghost
409 Yellow Snow
410 Don’t Break the Ghost
411 Yellow Snow
412 Don’t Break the Ghost
413 Yellow Snow
414 Don’t Break the Ghost
415 Yellow Snow
416 Don’t Break the Ghost
417 Yellow Snow
418 Don’t Break the Ghost
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420 Don’t Break the Ghost
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422 Don’t Break the Ghost
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424 Don’t Break the Ghost
425 Yellow Snow
426 Don’t Break the Ghost
427 Yellow Snow
428 Don’t Break the Ghost
429 Yellow Snow
430 Don’t Break the Ghost
431 Yellow Snow
432 Don’t Break the Ghost
433 Yellow Snow
434 Don’t Break the Ghost
435 Yellow Snow
436 Don’t Break the Ghost
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438 Don’t Break the Ghost
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440 Don’t Break the Ghost
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442 Don’t Break the Ghost
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444 Don’t Break the Ghost
445 Yellow Snow
446 Don’t Break the Ghost
447 Yellow Snow
448 Don’t Break the Ghost
449 Yellow Snow
450 Don’t Break the Ghost
451 Yellow Snow
452 Don’t Break the Ghost
453 Yellow Snow
454 Don’t Break the Ghost
455 Yellow Snow
456 Don’t Break the Ghost
457 Yellow Snow
458 Don’t Break the Ghost
459 Yellow Snow
460 Don’t Break the Ghost
461 Yellow Snow
462 Don’t Break the Ghost
463 Yellow Snow
464 Don’t Break the Ghost
465 Yellow Snow
466 Don’t Break the Ghost
467 Yellow Snow
468 Don’t Break the Ghost
469 Yellow Snow
Damhair’s instructions regarding the
use of his artwork, transl. “Shit is
shit but are your readers capable of
complaining?”
The cover in the making. Says Damhair: “I had
no premonition of a new Star Wars trilogy, so
for me the choice of the cover playmate was
obvious. The shenanigans of the truest and the
darkest of the underground scene reminded
me of slapstick characters, so in all honesty
everybody should’ve bowed down to the
ultimate Dark Lord who, instead of recording
bm-fi quality albums in gloomy studios,
enslaved galaxies and destroyed civilizations.
As for why the final result differs from the sooty
sketches, I have no sane response. The pencil
draft should’ve been used on the cover instead."
One hell of a man:
Janitor of Xysma at
Tavastia, September
1995 by Damhair.
The borders of the
album review pages
were created by Janne
using an ice cream stick
and ink. We had run out
of border tape and instead
of computer-generated
lines we placed our faith in
handicraft.
Xmas card
from T. Ketola
470 Don’t Break the Ghost
Sentenced at Tavastia in 1995 with Isten
#4 cover artist Niko Karppinen on bass.
Photographed by Damhair—too bad we
didn’t have his fabulous photos at our
disposal when doing the layout for Dark
Lord’s features on Sentenced and Xysma
in particular.
Janne had a hard time stomaching the Kari Rueslåtten
spread because the layout made use of my arty
photograph of a tyre caught in mid-flight through the
air…
GoatSucker: Janne
and I got rid of some
offending demos and
other items via this
mail order catalogue of
ours. Goatsucker never
returned.
Isten became important to me around the early to
mid-Nineties, and influenced me the same way my
favorite bands would. Each issue was like getting
a new Voivod record—completely different from
the last one. A different layout, different themes,
different bands, but still Mikko’s voice. It could
be sarcastic about the scene, but it was spot on for
me. In Deceased, I wanted to make sure our records
didn’t repeat ourselves either, and I like to think
that like the mighty Isten, we accomplished that.
Isten is cult, because honestly I think it’s too smart
for the average underground scenester, and it was
often difficult to acquire! If I missed getting an issue
because it sold out, I would scour the distro world
fucking wide to track it down. But I always got it,
and the chase made it all more sweet when the zine
showed up in the mail.
—Mike Smith, Deceased
Office anno 1995: my
trusty ol’ JVC sound
system, bought in
1990 and still going
strong. The Mac
Performa was brandnew
at this point—no
more typewriters!
Kola on Kola (and Lego) in 1996.
Autkast: Kola’s one-off zine first published in
London, summer 1995. Definitely a collector's
item—there were more editions of this one than
Isten #1!
471 Yellow Snow
Gezol of Sabbat provided his comments for the
Darkthrone roundtable in his own inimitable style.
472 Don’t Break the Ghost
I used to get Isten flyers all the time through the
tape-trading scene but had never gotten hold of
it. I wasn’t much of a zine reader until I read Isten
actually. My first encounter with Isten was during a
visit to my friend Kola Krauze. I was wearing flares
and a cardigan. He said something like “Oh you’re
going for the doom look now, cool,” and then
followed with “I’m not too sure about the cardigan
though.” I think we were sitting at his place on the
rug checking out demos or albums or something
and he showed me the zine he was writing for. Now
it’s almost like a junky trying to reminisce about
his first toke on a joint. When I rolled my glazzies
around those pages it’s like a memory of a vortex
swallowing me up. I am sure that I can trace some
of my lost life back to those kind of moments. My
reaction was that this was something else. A new
kind of “yeah, this is pretty cool”.
I will always have a soft spot for (The Return of
the) Dark Lord in its entirety. That’s my favourite
issue. I still re-read it and discover new things.
The Gezol quotes are in themselves some of the
funniest things I have ever read.
—Mat McNerney, Hexvessel and Beastmilk
Out of the cellar—this is a promo (ha!)
shot of Janne taken at an abandoned
house in the Hatanpää area in Tampere.
Below, from the same session, me making
faces in front of a broken window.
It was a very tense time, in every respect. While
he did send me some trial-and-error stuff (like the
automated black metal lyrics generator kit), Mikko
never outlined to me the specific plans for [Playing
with Fire and (The Return of the) Dark Lord].
An anecdote: I remember sending him a rough
translation of a nutty interview with Gylve from
Darkthrone that had just appeared in a Norwegian
newspaper, where Gylve goes on about his favorite
cartoon characters, his new-found love for techno
music, and much else besides. I think reading that
interview was a huge relief for Mikko—finally some
bit of off-kilter humor to break the monotony. And
it certainly seemed to have inspired the absolutely
brilliant Darkthrone special in the Dark Lord issue,
one of my favorite Isten features of all time.
—Endre Begby
Overnight Elite: Janne and I devised a
special kit for aspiring lyricists. I think
Taneli Jarva promised to use it.
473 Yellow Snow
474 Don’t Break the Ghost
Juices like Water
Playing with Rhyme
“For six months the words were as one with icy waters
in the grip of Finnish winter, and then they were
rescued on June 6, 1996.”
At this point I reckon it’s safe to confess that not a
single copy of Cold Lake was fermented in icy waters
despite the promotional text in Dark Lord. But we did
drench each one in Finnish tap water for an autistic,
erm, authentic feel.
For a fanzine specializing in dark death and biblical
black it was indeed very foolish to publish a pamphlet
of poetry. #7B: Playing with Fire having sold like
hotcakes, we were probably on a backlash trip of our
own. “Expect the unexpected” was our lifeblood. First
and foremost, we needed to surprise ourselves.
Cold Lake, June 1996.
20 pages A5.
Printed at Tehokopiointi Ky, Tampere.
Print run 100 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Janne Sarna,
Sami Rouhento, Kola Krauze and Einar
Sjursjø.
Contents: The coldest words in the coldest
order.
I didn’t have the time or the guts to write for Cold
Lake myself. I was very impressed by Kola’s poetry—
obviously I was familiar with his writing prior to asking
for poetry contributions. Our correspondence was
very prolific for one thing—and has remained like that
for many many years! We share very little common
ground when it comes to musical tastes but I’m a fan
of his and will sing his praises until I die. With Einar
Sjursø, I just tried my luck and lo and behold, he had
some poetry that we could use. Discarded lyrics for
Beyond Dawn, apparently, but they were adequate for
our purposes.
Janne reveals the origins of the idea: “There we were
sitting on the train on the way to Helsinki to check out
the record shops over there. We ended up pondering
how out of proportion the reception for #7B had
gotten. It had attracted new readers who were not
familiar with any other issues but were eagerly foaming
either for or against #7B. It was quite obvious we had
475 Juices like Water
to voice our opinion on all this in our own indirect
way.”
We thought it would be a good idea to do another A5-
sized pamphlet right after Dark Lord. Only this time we
set out to disappoint, on purpose, those who thought
they had found the essence of Isten in #7B. And a
disappointment simply had to be called Cold Lake.
With that name it was obvious we’d have to drown it
in the dark waters of a frozen lake to add depth to the
marketing.
The concept really screamed for content that was as
far removed from #7B as possible. “Nothing” was
the obvious first reaction, but that would have been
too arrogant. Poetry came to mind fairly naturally. As
Janne recalls, “I think it was pretty obvious from the
start that Cold Lake would not include any writings by
us. Had neither Kola nor Einar agreed to provide the
poems we could have turned to some other people or
alternatively just pulled the plug on the whole thing.
The back door was wide open for a great escape all the
time. Any fool knows what a few months’ bath can do
to paper. It could have easily become the mythical lost
issue of Isten.”
Cold Lake was actually done after the photo session
for the blurb in Dark Lord. At that point all we had was
the cover. We made a handful of fake copies, hooked up
with Sami Rouhento after a record fair, and between
the three of us we took the photos at Lake Lahdesjärvi.
Cold Lake was the last issue for Sami (he took some of
the art photos)—the pop/rock/indie scene had already
absorbed him.
“In the early Nineties, I had felt a growing urge to
explore new types of music,” Sami states. “At the same
time, some of the developments in the world of metal
alienated me deeply. By Dark Lord, I had pretty much
turned my back on the music I’d grown up with and
sold my collection of metal albums. Well, I was young
and I needed the money. Still, in retrospect, I wish
I’d made a porno instead… or something. I had little
interest in new metal bands or releases, so I just felt
like I had nothing of relevance left to contribute. Also,
it was around this time that the Internet started to
rot my brain and gradually robbed me of my ability to
compose texts longer than a couple of sentences.”
Cold Lake was a piece of conceptual art, and we
were not only the producers, the art gallery, or the
platform—we were the idea, and the idea was the
illusion, and the illusion became the machine that made
it art. If I say so, it is so. The illusion was probably not
only the crux of the matter, it was downtown Hanoi, so
to speak.
The response to Cold Lake was puzzled more than
anything else, “What have other people said about
this?” being more or less the most expressive reaction.
476 Don’t Break the Ghost
For the Cold Lake blurb in Dark
Lord, the poem was written as
close to Kalevala metre/style as
possible by Kola.
The following pages 478—484 are selected spreads from Cold Lake, scanned from
the originals/the printed product and reduced from A5 size. Photographs rescanned where available.
477 Juices like Water
A picture of my father in
the Fifties. The location
is Pyynikki beach in
Tampere.
478 Don’t Break the Ghost
479 Juices like Water
Another picture from the
Mattila family archives.
This is Koskipuisto,
Tampere.
480 Don’t Break the Ghost
481 Juices like Water
482 Don’t Break the Ghost
483 Juices like Water
Roses photographed by
Sami Rouhento.
484 Don’t Break the Ghost
485 Juices like Water
486 Don’t Break the Ghost
Doll Patrol
Streaming Vengeance
Throughout the years, we’ve considered various
different formats, the more OTT the better: an issue
in the form of huge posters, like an ancient map of
secret archways, or an issue in the form of a collection
of flyers. Those ideas were dropped not because
they were too stupid to carry through, but because
they were either too expensive or too impractical
considering the material at hand.
It was clear to us that after the mishmash of ideas that
was (The Return of the) Dark Lord, something more
coherent was in order.
“What about crafting it all into one continuous piece?”
I can’t recall either Janne or me uttering those exact
words, but suddenly, somehow, the concept was there,
and we never considered anything different. Mädchen,
as she would be called, was written as one single piece,
although she’s not a full and rounded entity as such.
Mädchen is kind of like asking “What if ‘Dead City’, the
Violent Force song, was turned into a concept album, a
thrash metal opera? What would the stage production
be like?” In other words, a combination of things that
should not be combined. An emulsion.
Mädchen, April 1997.
40 pages A4.
Offset printed at Cityoffset Oy, Tampere.
Print run 500 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Janne Sarna
and Kola Krauze.
Contents: Opeth, Thy Serpent, Tiermes,
Persophone, Yggtyrhyrkkh Hin Dystre,
Lunar Aurora, Solefald, Cultus Sanguine,
Infernö, Sigh, Embracing, Babylon
Whores, Sear Bliss, Enochian Crescent,
Night In Gales and Drowned. Plus
reviews.
It’s an exercise driven by undying heavy metal
devotion, but also an odyssey into the various mindsets
of the people selected for interview. By this point
it should have been clear to everybody that we didn’t
necessarily pick artists solely on musical merit. In
fact, we thought many of the bands interviewed for
Mädchen were crap. Even with a band like Opeth we
found the first albums impressive but weren’t entirely
sure whether we really liked the band’s style. This did
however provide sufficient friction in our extensive
exchange with Mikael Åkerfeldt.
Mädchen could be interpreted as just another
strange mutation of metal that emerged in the mid-
487 Doll Patrol
Nineties, but it’s not that simple. Obviously, the
entire enterprise reeks of pretension. The approach is
pompous and a little artsy-fartsy, but it’s also every bit
as gleeful and adventurous. At this point, one might
wonder: Is Isten defined more by its seriousness or
by its humour? These elements are inextricable from
the whole and from one another. Isten can be silly
and profound and its humour is really quite serious.
The funniest aspect of Mädchen was the way it was
assembled in all its glory on my bedroom wall. Sadly,
we have no pictures to prove it.
During the making of Mädchen, I was out of touch with
Damhair for an unusually long time, and after I sent him
a copy of the finished product, he regretted the fact
that he hadn’t been involved. He felt his photography
at the time would’ve lent itself superbly to the concept.
Thus, the next issue, Twin Sister, had Damhair’s
photography in spades.
I had become a little less introverted by this point and
even some half-hearted studying came into the picture.
I was slowly making a comeback in the real world. The
cooperation with Janne on Isten was exhilarating—it
was essentially a life-saver for me. There were hardly
any disagreements, as Janne testifies: “I never felt
any tension. There were no clashing egos, quite the
opposite really. At one point we had to appoint Alan
Smithee as the editor-in-chief as there were no other
suitable candidates around. No matter what Mikko
says, Isten is his fanzine. Isten cannot exist without
him, and from Isten’s point of view everyone else is
expendable. This is a fact I have never had any need to
challenge. Having said that, anything and everything
we were working on was open to be challenged for
improvement at any point until it was in print. We
had brainstorming sessions a couple of times a week
and that provided us an opportunity to discuss things
thoroughly from multiple angles.”
It wasn’t just a Mattila/Sarna production, however.
Kola Krauze’s input was crucial for the issue,
although he didn’t contribute to the concept. As
Kola reminisces: “I was aware at the time that
Mädchen would be full of dolls and quotes—I actually
contributed many of the latter—but I think that’s
all.” Kola was actually the first person ever to suggest
an Isten anthology, and he even sent me his “Best
of Mädchen” picks in the summer of 1997. For this
compendium, we opted for the easy way and decided to
republish the issue in its entirety.
BlackBeard, the typeface used for Mädchen and
throughout its two successors, was part of a package of
fonts I purchased from Fonthead Design, an American
type foundry. I still like BlackBeard a lot, although it
quickly became quite popular. I remember discussing
fonts with Timo Ketola of Dauthus. Ketoladog was
obviously infamous for using Fraktur in ridiculously
miniscule point sizes, and I asked him whether he
actually used such a font while writing stuff for
Dauthus, lying through my teeth that I always used
BlackBeard while writing anything for Isten.
The name Mädchen was a tribute to Twin Peaks, but
strangely enough, that’s not a picture of Mädchen
Amick on the cover, it’s none other than Iceland’s
eclectic pop/folk/rock/dance/jazz pixie Björk
Guðmundsdóttir. Our thrash metal influences came
through in the endpapers: for the collage we shredded
various promo photos, old and new, in a tribute to the
inner sleeves of old thrash records. Without this metal
mosaic, this would’ve been the first ever issue of Isten
requiring only one tube of glue!
488 Don’t Break the Ghost
The slightly pompous Mädchen flyers. This issue marks the change of printing
houses—the zine was printed at Cityoffset, the flyers at Multiprint. We could no
longer use Tehokopiointi because their black wasn’t black enough.
The following pages 490—528 are from Mädchen, scanned from the printed product. Photographs rescanned where available.
489 Doll Patrol
490 Don't Don’t Break the Ghost
491 Doll Patrol
492 Don’t Break the Ghost
493 Doll Patrol
494 Don’t Break the Ghost
495 Doll Patrol
496 Don’t Break the Ghost
497 Doll Patrol
498 Don’t Break the Ghost
499 Doll Patrol
500 Don’t Break the Ghost
501 Doll Patrol
502 Don’t Break the Ghost
503 Doll Patrol
504 Don’t Break the Ghost
505 Doll Patrol
506 Don’t Break the Ghost
507 Doll Patrol
508 Don’t Break the Ghost
509 Doll Patrol
510 Don’t Break the Ghost
511 Doll Patrol
512 Don’t Break the Ghost
513 Doll Patrol
514 Don’t Break the Ghost
515 Doll Patrol
516 Don’t Break the Ghost
517 Doll Patrol
518 Don’t Break the Ghost
519 Doll Patrol
520 Don’t Break the Ghost
521 Doll Patrol
522 Don’t Break the Ghost
523 Doll Patrol
524 Don’t Break the Ghost
525 Doll Patrol
526 Don't Break the Ghost
527
Doll Patrol
Ugh hey! The back cover’s “coming up next” statement reeks of Celtic Frost, doesn’t it?
528 Don’t Break the Ghost
When I received Mädchen in the mail, it reeked of fish with
a slight hint of alcohol. It is possible it was my imagination,
and I was projecting what I wanted Isten to be onto the
paper, but somehow this seems very Finnish to me, and very
appropriate.
—Jason William Walton, Agalloch
I lost my Isten virginity relatively late. It happened in 1998
on a normal Saturday night when I was wasting my time with
friends, drinking beer and listening to music. Mädchen was
lying there somewhere and I had heard that it was supposed
to be something special. So I browsed it a little bit and I
was wondering how the fuck should I read that thing. It was
like a clever but messy essay or something. I remember that
I found the Enochian Crescent interview to be particularly
rude and hilarious. I liked Enochian Crescent and I was used
to reading zines featuring bands that I had never heard of
but which the editors loved. FAN zines, you know.
—Tommi Lind, Jumalhämärä
People are people but what does it mean? On Kola’s request, we gave
“who’s who on the endpapers” a try, but never sent him this sheet.
529 Doll Patrol
15 years later: revisiting the scene of the crime in 2012. Peltolammi, Tampere: Mr Sarna (right) spent the first years of his life at Peltolamminkatu 4, the apartment
building at the back, and during the latter part of the Nineties crafted six issues of Isten with Mr Mattila (left) at Peltolamminkatu 6, the apartment building in the
front.
Isten took what liberties it wanted with the format a zine
was expected to conform to, the authors’ genuine passion
for heavy metal shone through gloriously throughout, and
it actually made you think about metal in a way no other
publication I had read did. It wasn’t superficial rehashing
of the shallow, self-satisfied boilerplate you could find
in many other places when attempts to reflect on metal
were made; it actually asked questions, you thought, that
perhaps should be preying on your mind as much as they
clearly did on its authors. Amusingly, just after leafing
through Mädchen for the first time, and having a chat
about it with a mate who had done the same, we had a bit
of a row about what metal meant and was about, and also
about what heavy metal was and was not.
—Dominique Poulain
At its best, Isten managed to phrase the questions in a
manner which practically forced bands to articulate their
views coherently, and maybe in some cases to really think
them through for the first time. No mean feat. Some rose
to the occasion, and probably walked away with better
focus on their music.
—Antti Litmanen, Babylon Whores
I wish that they would have made more issues or been
more prolific. With certain issues like Mädchen I could
have read more and more like that. It was great how it was
almost like one giant conversation with different people
jumping in.
——Mat McNerney, Hexvessel and Beastmilk
Grim stuff: Damhair was not involved in the creation of Mädchen. Maybe this
pencil sketch of his from January 1997 portrays his mood at the time?
530 Don’t Break the Ghost
I’ve read quite a few books in my life but none of them, Nobel standard or not, have
come close to that graceful world-weary analysis of Mädchen.
—Mikko Kuronen, Qvadrivivm zine
“We are not homosexuals.” This is the first page of Mikael Åkerfeldt’s extensive answers, typewritten by the prog master himself.
For all our glueing needs,
Tammer glue (manufactured
by Kiilto Oy, a local
company) was our brand
of choice until availability
became an issue.
Kampen mot humør.
We resisted the urge
to use this picture
of Thy Serpent’s
Sami Tenetz, opting
instead for the one
without corpsepaint.
(Pic by Damhair.)
531 Doll Patrol
532 Don’t Break the Ghost
She’s Lost Control
Scraps of Life
A mere seven months after Mädchen raised a storm in
the teacup that was the zine scene (readers and fellow
editors alike), we unleashed her Twin Sister upon the
world. It was a flashier issue with more occult leanings.
Or mock-cult, what do I know?
Layout-wise we were influenced by the Finnish punk/
hardcore zine Deggial as well as David Carson’s work
in the American alternative rock-and-roll magazine Ray
Gun. The results didn’t really resemble either of the
two, however. We only used computers for the text;
all the textures for the layout were achieved by some
avant-garde use of copy machines and transparencies
combined with copious amounts of ink. There we
were—Lord Melancholic Ripper (Janne) and Herr
Atmospheric Gluecifer (me)—assembling heaps of,
well, stuff on each and every page, layer upon layer,
inventing a new 3D layout format in the process: some
of the original pages are thicker than the finished
product. The print shop had to call us and make sure
that we were serious about a certain page that was cut
in two, right through a block of text. We most certainly
were.
Twin Sister, November 1997.
60 pages A4.
Offset printed at Cityoffset Oy, Tampere.
Print run 500 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Janne Sarna,
Kola Krauze and Damhair.
Contents: Canaan, The Great Kat,
Agathodaimon, Brian Death Cobra,
Metalucifer, Costa Stoios of Tales Of The
Macabre, Rotting Christ, Bethel, Solstice,
Arch Enemy, Two Witches and Sup. Plus
reviews.
Janne still regrets the fact that we couldn’t carry out
our idea of doing this issue in the form of a giant folded
poster: “That format would have been just perfect for
Twin Sister but financially it was a sheer impossibility
at the time. Then again, dismembering such a thing for
this book now would ruin it entirely!”
Damhair’s photography added a pungent flavour to
the proceedings. There was no Photoshop involved;
the pictures were all shot on film and reproduced
straight from his 18 x 24 cm prints (as in photographic
paper prints, from the bygone aeon that predated
digital photography and digital retouching). No
533 She’s Lost Control
more drawings-—the inkwell had dried. As Damhair
explains, "I hadn’t really progressed or made an effort
to improve my drawings, so I felt perhaps I should have
some playtime with photography. Then I might have a
slight chance to tread a parallel path with the written
content, or at least present something other than the
same old ink doodles and unhinged pentagrams.”
There may be some truth to the notion that Isten
burned brightest in the late Nineties when it was
raging against the dying of the light. If people know
about Isten, they always know the scathing reviews
of the Nineties. Did Isten need bad metal to justify
its existence? No. There was never a time when we
wouldn’t have rather written about good stuff. For the
most part, we did write about the good stuff. The good
stuff was the reason we wrote at all.
I interviewed Solstice who’d appeared as a sound
bite in issue #7 but had taken significant leaps and
were only months away from releasing the greatest
epic doom album of the Nineties. Rich Walker is
quite a character and always good copy. As New Dark
Age loomed, we had to make do with vastly inferior
releases—a whole host of them.
The promotional CDs and tapes flowing in were
starting to take their toll on us. Also I’d come to
the conclusion that the whole reviewer/music
critic angle had damaged my perspective on music
to a considerable extent, and that was a horrible
realization. Whenever I listened to something, I
obsessed about owing the world my invaluable opinion
on it. It took me years to regain a peace of mind. For
Twin Sister, we came up with a ridiculous grading
system based on a quadratic equation and decided that
this would be the last issue to contain album/demo
reviews. Then again, I also realized that reviewing was
something that granted structure to the proceedings:
without that aspect, it was easier to let years go by
without publishing anything.
Somewhere in there, Dawnbringer’s debut album
didn’t get an especially good review, but it didn’t get
ignored, and that’s the first sign of Professor Black’s
mark, such as it is. Kola’s contributions to Twin Sister
were again essential, though the relationship was
quite turbulent. As Kola recalls, “Actually it was quite
turbulent between me and most people. That’s just
how I am I suppose. The first turbulence between
me and Isten was that Janne and I fell grievously and
permanently out over a mistake in an email. I regret it
I suppose. I was then fired during the making of Twin
Sister for briefly contributing to Terrorizer around the
same time. I then fired myself from Terrorizer in protest
at the shall we say rather inordinate ‘influence’ exerted
on it by Misanthropy Records and was promptly
reinstated.”
534 Don’t Break the Ghost
The Twin Sister flyers emphasized the Headwind
trilogy, of which Mädchen and Twin Sister were
parts one and two. Many people found it hard to
accept that Tormentor, the final chapter, would
not follow on the heels of the sisters. Tormentor
is our mythical Armageddon issue.
The following pages
536—593 are from Twin Sister,
scanned from the originals/
printed product. Photographs
rescanned where available.
535 She’s She's Lost Control
536 Don’t Break the Ghost
537 She’s Lost Control
538 Don’t Break the Ghost
539 She’s Lost Control
540 Don’t Break the Ghost
541 She’s Lost Control
542 Don’t Break the Ghost
543 She’s Lost Control
544 Don’t Break the Ghost
545 She’s Lost Control
546 Don’t Break the Ghost
547 She’s Lost Control
548 Don’t Break the Ghost
549 She’s Lost Control
550 Don’t Break the Ghost
551 She’s Lost Control
552 Don’t Break the Ghost
553 She’s Lost Control
554 Don’t Break the Ghost
555 She’s Lost Control
556 Don’t Break the Ghost
557 She’s Lost Control
558 Don’t Break the Ghost
559 She’s Lost Control
560 Don’t Break the Ghost
561 She’s Lost Control
562 Don’t Break the Ghost
563 She’s Lost Control
564 Don’t Break the Ghost
565 She’s Lost Control
566 Don’t Break the Ghost
567 She’s Lost Control
568 Don’t Break the Ghost
569 She’s Lost Control
570 Don’t Break the Ghost
571 She’s Lost Control
572 Don’t Break the Ghost
573 She’s Lost Control
574 Don’t Break the Ghost
575 She’s Lost Control
576 Don’t Break the Ghost
577 She’s Lost Control
578 Don’t Break the Ghost
579 She’s Lost Control
580 Don’t Break the Ghost
581 She’s Lost Control
582 Don’t Break the Ghost
583 She’s Lost Control
584 Don’t Break the Ghost
585 She’s Lost Control
586 Don’t Break the Ghost
587 She’s Lost Control
588 Don’t Break the Ghost
589 She’s Lost Control
590 Don’t Break the Ghost
591 She’s Lost Control
592 Don’t Break the Ghost
Tormentor: the back cover of Twin Sister makes the mythical third instalment to the Headwind saga a little more palpable.
593 She’s Lost Control
Our Tormentor challenge
in Mädchen originally
resulted in one single
submission, a tape
from Tommi Keränen’s
Daemonstraitor project
(with Antti Litmanen
of Babylon Whores on
vocals). After the second
proclamation in Twin
Sister we received a few
more tapes. A bit of a
whimper for an end of
the world?
Twin Sister is the most beautiful paper
product I’ve ever laid my eyes on. The more
paper goes by, the more I appreciate that
incredible black and white nightmare.
—Mikko Kuronen, Qvadrivivm zine
Shurely not? A mock-up
cover demonstration to
remind us what route
not to take. “Lärvis”
refers to Jack Lärvätsalo,
Esq.—one of Damhair’s
many pseudonyms.
The cover is a gem—some highbrow quote
which I don’t understand from some
philosopher I’ve never heard of—next to
a stark image of the Great Kat. Says it all.
Genius or retarded—you decide.
—Dan Tobin, Earache Records
At some point in 1997 Janne mentioned that he should
probably concentrate on finishing his studies for a while.
He graduated but I never noticed a break. A notable
feature of his master’s thesis is that he managed to
include a graph in the form of a pentagram!
594 Don’t Break the Ghost
Is this a picture of Damhair?
Ike Vil of Babylon Whores has
said of the man: “Damhair is a
unique, austere, artful creature,
whom I can’t really compare
to anybody but have been
privileged to know. From time
to time. Insofar as anybody
can ‘know’ him.” I can only
echo Ike’s sentiments. The
correspondence with Damhair
has been a world of its own
throughout the years. Above, an
assortment of postcards from
him circa Twin Sister.
A postcard from Elm Street, Oslo. (Kola was
back in the fold by the time I received this.)
595 She’s Lost Control
Behind-the-scenes footage of Damhair’s designs
for the Twin Sister photos—along with his layout
ideas. Below, an alternate version of Damhair’s
tribute to Ray Harryhausen. About his subject
matter, the artist says: “I envy those who get to
shoot hot metal chicks wrapped in damp linen
with blood pouring from every orifice, but my
mom wouldn’t like it.”
“Dust and scratches are fairly visible in some
negative scans presented in this book,”
Damhair points out. “I didn’t bother to shop
them out as I’ve felt for some time that all sorts
of digital mastering and retouching have ruined
many good things. I prefer going analog bm-fi
in the basement with the photos here.”
596 Don’t Break the Ghost
Prior to the layout fest, Janne did a prototype using some Thy Serpent flyers as well as
Mädchen prints that were still lying on the floor.
My signature, in a
letter to Damhair.
I love Isten in the same way as I’m drawn to people who
are outcasts, different and inspiring. Isten is timeless, each
issue a runestone in the history of metal. In truth my taste
in metal is not reflected in Isten but my love and passion
for metal is. Mikko’s ability to follow a calling no matter
what, is inspiring and rare... I think it takes someone who
feels for metal to create Isten, someone very intelligent,
brave and perceptive but also elusive and almost
impossible to see in real life, like a mythological creature.
—Jorun Modén, author of Samael
Metalucifer answers. A genuine sample of Gezol and Neal Tanaka’s heavy metal English.
Printed out as usual on Gezol’s fax machine and delivered by snail mail.
Internal memo: a quick guide to Twin Sister’s grading
system, as devised by Janne in the darkest hours of 1997.
As an interviewee for a change in Inner Essence #1: The Mirror of
My Longings. During the making of Twin Sister I apparently already
had a premonition of our operational environment melting away.
597 She’s Lost Control
This is a previously unpublished interview with In The Woods… from January 1998. We didn’t receive it in time for Twin Sister due to Misanthropy Records owner
Tiziana’s oversight (for which she apologized deeply). In true fanzine style, the question sheet is long lost, but at least Jan Kenneth Transeth’s answers remain.
“The process—as when looking back upon it now,
was kind of heavy. Some of the ideas for Omnio were
already written before HEart of the Ages was even
released. Back then, we knew that we were heading
towards yet another direction—both lyrically and
musically.
“When we kicked off the Omnio rehearsals during
springtime ’95, some of the band members had a hard
time coping with the new material. Fair enough to some
extent, I would say, but these differences culminated
in quite a few disagreements. After almost a year
within this ‘vacuum’, we started to work together as
a symbiosis, just like we did it on the pre-work for the
debut album.
“Personally, I am of the opinion that Omnio carries
a lot of the tension we felt at the time. Both as a band
and individually. Most of the guys were going through
a very hard period personally. Some had a horrible
mental crisis, while others had difficulties in dealing
with life in general. Things just didn’t seem to work out
at all. During such periods, most people find it hard to
communicate on a proper level. Needless to say that this
was another drawback in the process itself.
“I guess these aspects all together formed the album
as it turned out in the end. In many ways, a positive
outcome, as I believe that human beings are able to
bring forth the best and most emotional creativity
during various forms of depression. On the other hand,
I guess it can become too heavy on us if it’s a chronic
state over a longer period of time.
“A great part of ourselves will always take place in the
music, as long as we do anything that feels right at any
point of time. We don’t listen and create—we listen and
compose, and I think there’s a great difference between
the two. As we always strive for perfection, it’s hard to
look back upon an album and feel complete satisfaction.
The same goes for Omnio. To me, the album can be
classified as ‘OK’ right now. Your definition of it suits the
album at least 90 per cent, thanx!”
“Music is a media where people were supposed to
express an inner urge. I think an ancient vibe is the
whole driving force when it comes to an end. My belief
on the matter is as simple as this: as long as this primal
urge is present and you listen to what your heart has
to tell you, you will always be able to come up with
something that differs from what other people have
done before. This difference may be small on some
occasions, while in other, grand. It all depends on
various aspects. Basically, we would never have formed
In The Woods... if we had not known music as the
media it has become today. We are a product of that
media as a basic fundament. What I mentioned above
is the spice that makes us a little different. The modern,
commercial music business is all about recycling and
profit—with some exceptions—and the major intention
is to entertain. Entertainment is OK, as long as it has
something to offer mentally. If it hasn’t, it’s mentally
dead as far as I’m concerned, and therefore not worth
my attention. And to conclude: what is the point of
“composing” and releasing albums if it’s just a pale copy
of someone else’s genuine inner world?”
“Very interesting! Especially because I’ve always felt
that there’s a lack of entirety on that album. HEart of
the Ages was kind of a compilation to sum up what we
had done so far with In The Woods... That’s probably
an important thing to notice. I think most of the songs
on that album are quite OK individually, but they may
sound strange when put together. After that album, we
started to think of an album as a symbiosis. Say if you
have ten songs and two of them don’t fit in because they
will most probably ruin the harmony between the other
eight. Then we take the two away, so that we can focus
on the quality of the others. This way of working with an
album was rather present on Omnio, and I believe it will
be even more important on coming releases.
“An album for me is somehow a document of my
life during the period it was written/recorded. Maybe
that’s why we’re more concerned about this kind of
thing right now. However, as we were speaking of the
debut, my advice would be to listen to the compositions
individually. That’s just the kind of album it is.”
“Sincerely I believe that everything we do throughout
our lives should be done a hundred per cent. It’s
obvious that this is impossible to some extent, speaking
of some matters that simply cannot comprehend this
598 Don’t Break the Ghost
way of thinking. An author once wrote: ‘We find
pleasure in any kind of work as long as we do our
best, and we feel uncomfortable if not.’ Anyway,
when you do something in a best possible way, it
will always mean a great deal to you, in one way
or another. Also the fact that we touch rather
personal vibes may affect that we put just a little
more effort into it.
“Yes, the passion is essential. When the passion of
two people is gone—be it emotional, sexual or on a
friendship level—they often get divorced. When this
happens between me and music, I will probably
find another media to express myself. That is
speaking for the other “clan members” as well…”
“I think it’s a very difficult topic to discuss. Mostly
because I am of the opinion that all kinds of “art”
(I’m normally not into this description/term, but
I find it hard to come up with a substitute for the
word) is something so completely individual. An
example; when you’ve read a really sensitive and
emotional book that makes sense—and that has
the power to spellbound and enthral you—it is
often very destructive for the vibe and atmosphere
you have created, to discuss the contents with
other people. A work of art is a very personal
thing—speaking only ‘bout works that hold a total
manifestation of the artist’s world (the moment
the work is lifted above anything ‘usual’ that has
been done a dozen times before). What makes the
experience of e.g. a book so personal is that all the
individuals who read it do it from their very own
point of view, which is genuine. We all draw our
own conclusions. We all draw our own parallels.
“I’ve had several weird experiences with our
music. In the rehearsal room, at home, in a studio
and maybe especially in different live situations. It
can be explained as some sort of meditation. When
time and place become something so abstract
that they end up being ‘déjà-vu-strangers’ to you.
Like you recognize some of “their” presence even
though ‘they’ represent something completely new
to you. Like waking up in the middle of a dream,
with one foot still in it, while the rest of yourself is a
part of reality. All these happenings are impossible
for me to explain. However, the thing is that I don’t
have the urge to explain either. Humanity has this
rather bad habit of explaining this and explaining
that. I see this as one of the main reasons why
we’ve become so distanced from nature—in the
western world especially. You sit in a classroom
with sweaty hands. It’s far too hot in there,
because the ventilation is out of function. You’re
loaded with facts about this and that; standards,
norms, measures and god knows what… You’re
being stuffed with information about the fine,
balanced harmony in nature which is so sensitive
and unique. Mankind explains everything they
can get their hands on, to death, and in the end
we forget that the wind in our hair, the soil in our
hands and the sun on our faces are experiences so
undefinable that no available words are able to do
justice to any of them.
“Therefore, it doesn’t feel right for me to know
about this. The feelings of these happenings are a
thousand times more worth for me than any kind
of labelling or explanation. Hope that didn’t ruin
your plans of undressing me. After all, I think we’re
better off with this situation, he he…”
“Doubtlessly the fact that we totally overlook other
people’s opinion on what we’re doing. For us,
it’s not about glamorous celebrity or high album
sales. As long as we deal with this on our own
premises, it’s impossible for us to go commercial—or
whatever—in one way or another. While working
on Omnio, we knew for some reason that it would
probably sell less copies than the debut. We could
have done HEart of the Ages part II, but that didn’t
feel right. We’ll never do the same thing twice.
A reasoning human being will—throughout his/
her whole lifetime—change constantly. You either
expand mentally, or the opposite—depending on the
situation(s). As a lot of our selves are braided into
the compositions, it is obvious that natural changes
will show in the outcome as well. As long as we
agree on what we’re doing, and continue to do so,
this “talent” will be our most important ‘weapon’.”
“For some, I guess it’s one way or the other, while
others might ‘deal’ with music as a combination of
the two. I often think that lyrics should be about
personal exposure. Only then, you are fully able to
add a touch of nerve to the song. Of course artists
have written well-formulated lyrics through the
years—from an objective point of view—but for my
concern it has always been the ‘universal’—very
personal related—lyrics that have granted me the
right feeling and understanding. Just like with very
sensitive and emotional literature…
“An artist can often reveal and open up a new
world to an audience. If a person has a strong
desire to express a feeling with words, but cannot
because his vocabulary is hindering him, he can
often get the déjà-vu experience while reading
a lyric piece or a novel for that matter. The artist
managed to capture the moment this person was
striving to freeze, and that’s probably why we build
up such strong relations to different artists. They
might give us a feeling that makes us feel like a part
of a team. They give us feedback to whether our
thoughts are good or not. Maybe the feeling of not
being alone as well.
“Much of the same goes for the music part,
I would say. We often enjoy particular songs
because we can relate to them. Some are
reminders and memories of situation we’ve been
in, while others please us with their sound as
they strike a chord within us. For me, a brilliantly
composed song is when you can hear that
the artist(s) have been all the way “down the
basement” for the ingredients that made a hell of
a supper.”
“Well, there might be. I am of the opinion that
everything we consume with our senses will sooner
or later reveal through a creative process. Many
of us listen to sixties and seventies rock music
occasionally, and I’m sure it has some influence on
the final outcome. To me, that is a positive thing,
because I view this period as the most creative
and wave-breaking/innovative period. A lot of
bands today take their inspiration from bands that
were originally influenced by bands from this ‘era’,
which makes the whole thing turn into recycling.
I don’t intend to hold the sixties/seventies as
the one and only ‘school’ for rock music and its
subgenres—after all, innovation and total originality
is to be preferred—but I believe that we will always
have a lot to learn from acts like The Beatles, Led
Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Floyd, Dylan, David
Bowie and so on. They, among others, explored
territories in music that most musicians of today
view as “too fuckin’ weird…”
“Yes, we’re totally into being a band with a
chronic state of progression. Guess it’s all about
listening to yourself. I mean, we live our lives
and we develop as human beings. If we still had
the same sound now as we had five years ago, it
would have been unnatural. We would have had
to force ourselves to think exactly like we did back
then, something which is impossible in itself…
Maybe that’s why I’m having second thoughts
about some metalheads these days. I’m tired of
hearing about e.g. ‘Metallica’s huge sell-out’ etc.
Fuck! They change, and if people don’t like it,
don’t buy the albums—as simple as that! You can
hear that Metallica love their profession without
compromising. We should honour artists for that,
not tell them to fuck off…”
“Maybe I’ve been out on the desert road for far too
long. Or, to put it this way: my involvement with
the underground scene hasn’t been overwhelming
for the past 2-3 years. That’s why I was rather
surprised when your words flew through my
questioning brain-salad! To be honest, I must say
that it’s kind of ‘hot news’ to me, and I feel it might
be a bit of an “over the top” comment from thy
Isten camp. Nevertheless, I might be able to pick
up a little hint from your observations: as we don’t
compromise on what we do, and some do it all the
time. I guess some people would pick up our works
as a refreshing outcome from the music scene.
Individual emotions always hold some originality
within, and as long as you ‘give life’ to some of
them, the origin will always shine through in one
way or another. I never really thought of it this way
before, and I find it strange to say the least.”
“I’m not really sure. Naervaer is such a completely
different thing, because I’m not too much involved
within the creative process of that project. I might
share some of my ideas on arrangements in
general, but still I feel that Naervaer is the child of
Terje Sagen. I more or less lend my voice out when
needed, even though he holds me as one of two
original members.
“It’s a very exciting thing for me to take part it, as
the music is more open for experimenting etc. than
e.g. In The Woods… It might sound a bit weird,
but I never really considered myself a musician.
That’s maybe why it’s hard for me to understand
my involvement with three/four different projects.
Who said the world was fair?!”
“As time flies, my fascination for more introspective
lyrical themes increase. Previously, I could write
about anything almost. These days, I’m having a
hard time doing that, because it makes me feel
dishonest. The forthcoming In The Woods... album
will hold anecdotes from the past year, I guess.
There has been quite a few happenings that made
me re-evaluate my situation in general. When
situations of a more negative character take place,
I often find shelter in the writing; whether it’s music
or lyrics/poems. It’s like therapy. The thing that
often characterizes my writing is that it’s always—at
least usually—written within the more pompous
side of the scale. I like to draw the lines and make
them fit into an entirety. The consequence is often
that a finished lyric will look rather cosmic and
universal when you read through it in the first
place, while the most personal views will shine
through between the lines when it’s read more
carefully.
“Recently, I’ve been doing my own little project
being that I’m trying to consume most of the
worthy Norwegian literature. I’ve been reading
national authors like Björneboe, Björnstad, Mykle,
Saabye Christensen, Loe, Eggen, Sturlason,
Fossum etc. Most of them not too known outside
the Norwegian borders, but they are all authors
with a perspective. I believe I will cope with
Norwegian literature for at least a couple of
years more. After, I will try and pick up the most
important Nordic authors. When this project has
landed, the idea is to kick off with world literature I
hold high. The whole thing might sound a bit ‘over
the top’ but I guess it’s a nice project for a lifetime.
We’ll see how long I’m staying here for. No one
knows for sure.”
“The release schedule for the third album (Strange
in Stereo) is supposed to be autumn 1998. A
second 7” (in a series of three) will be dropped
during March/April ’98. We hope to do the third
7” together with the third album. After that, I’m
not quite sure. We’ve been talking about a year’s
break. Put the band on ice for a while and then
concentrate on other projects. I guess all of us will
benefit from that. However, nothing is settled yet.
“Misanthropy usually take care of the commercial
side of the road and we’ll let them continue with
that in the future as well, I assume. We have a lot
of interesting tracks for the coming album already,
and as usual it’s supposed to be rather different
from the second album. Strange in Stereo will be
a very demanding album to finish off, but as long
as we can do it our own way, we won’t complain
at all.”
“Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like
a stone
For the times they are a-changin’”
(Bob Dylan)
599 She’s Lost Control
600 Don’t Break the Ghost
Heavy Message
Into the Morbid Back
With 1999’s monumental 100, Isten died a beautiful
death. Once we understood that the definition
of the underground scene is “putting something
between yourself and metal”, we understood that the
underground had failed. The promo records and tapes
that we received made us physically sick. As did the
emphasis on bonding, categories, gimmicks… and the
simple fact that metal was heavy on everything and
anything except HEAVY itself.
We never thought of this issue as The End, but we did
write it that way. The floodgates were open, so we
went down in a blaze of glory, firing on all cylinders.
Talking the talk, walking the walk, knowing the
dangers of friendly fire all the way.
Isten 100, April 1999.
72 pages A4.
Offset printed at Cityoffset Oy, Tampere.
Print run 500 copies.
Created by: Mikko Mattila, Janne Sarna,
Kola Krauze, Damhair and Kristian Piililä.
Contents: Morbid Angel, Darkthrone,
The Haunted, Pentacle, Unholy, Twisted
Tower Dire, Choronzon, Future Loop
Foundation, Metalion of Slayer Magazine/
Head Not Found, Roberto Mammarella
of Avantgarde Music/Monumentum/
Cultus Sanguine, a tribute to Derek
Riggs, “Tolkien Heads” by Kola Krauze
and a board game called “The Scene“ by
Damhair.
The feedback and the conversations that followed
immediately felt more interesting than the prospect
of doing another issue. For example, Metalion wrote:
“I wonder how you will continue the saga of Isten?
What might the next step be? How can you top this?
Or do you want to top this?” My response was,
“Aaaaargh! That’s precisely what’s wrong with the
scene. Nothing’s ever definitive, everything’s just one
item in an unceasing stream of scene products, nothing
really means what it says, nothing’s ever 100 per cent.
Everybody’s terrified with the prospect of saying the
final word in something, doing something irrevocable,
making it hard or even impossible for themselves to
go on releasing more scene products. That may be a
nightmare to others, but to Isten, it’s lifeblood: speak
the truth, do or die, do and die.”
I don’t know if it was a case of metal having gone to
piss (as Dave Carlo of Razor once put it), but isolation
no longer worked. It only served to underline the
sorry state of affairs. Timo Ketola gave Isten 100
601 Heavy Message
a glowing review in the third and final issue of his
mighty Dauthus, describing the content, “The DIY
underground has turned from a healthy soil into a
stenching swamp where the respectable bands are
isolated like the general metal fan is supposed to be
isolated from mainstream music (...) It’s not only a
declaration of war but also of love...”
We never expected much in terms of response, because
it had dawned on us that the scene (and naïve as
we were, we had yet to realize, the world) is full of
people incapable of being provoked by the truth of
true believers. Everybody is too ready and too quick
to categorize anything and everything. In this case,
“a couple of old farts venting some nostalgia-driven
angst”... let’s archive it here and put a lid on it. As
Dominique Poulain—who has had a remarkable role
in Isten’s post-death efforts—put it, “The end of the
world is not a white hot maze, it’s people everywhere
being so damned happy with their meaninglessness.
Everything’s equal, anything goes.”
Layout-wise the issue was designed as a sketch, a work
in progress, complete with added notes in shorthand
and coffee stains. It was supposed to portray a
relationship with metal: living faith; constant scrutiny;
an all-engulfing, ever-evolving religious existence...
that of a metal monk, really. A weekend warrior’s
journal it is not! The printers added a quirk of their
own. After having asked us, in hushed tones, whether
we were devil worshippers, they continued to screw
up the scaling in most of Damhair’s photographs
throughout the issue. Janne thought this was only
appropriate for the overall concept, but for this
book we have decided to present the photography as
intended.
Some critics complained that the tone of 100 was
holier-than-thou and know-it-all. Sure enough—it is
the sound of excess and no return. It is metal as heavy
as death epitomized in print: personal, passionate,
unreasonable, inconsolable. Definitely too much
for most people. It’s not like we were dissecting the
scene with surgical precision, more like haphazardly
stabbing it in the dark. In many ways, this tome is a cry
of desperation, a reaction to the rude awakening, the
betrayal of my underground years.
I wasn’t ready to admit it at the time, but the ghost had
flickered for a while. There’s a certain vulnerability to
Isten 100 that many people never realized. It was not
only an exorcism but also a confession: that our own
numbers of the beast had been below One Hundred as
well. We should have probably declared Isten dead, to
make it more tangible. I think Janne and I discussed it
at the time.
People who expect us to produce a sequel to Isten
100 or, on the other hand, assume that we are
nostalgic about it, are out of their minds. I’d never
want to revisit that period of time. It was matricide,
divorce, and the burial of your baby all rolled into
one. I did nothing else in the Nineties, and certainly
accomplished nothing else—I lived and breathed that
shit, and Isten 100 is me tearing myself out of it all.
It couldn’t be pretty. And it couldn’t be done twice.
Nothing’s really changed. I still stand behind every
single word in it. To this day, we have very little, if
anything, to add when it comes to the heavy message of
Isten 100.
602 Don’t Break the Ghost
With the two-sided flyers for Isten 100 we went
glossy for the first time—and the last time, too.
The following pages 604—673 are from Isten 100, scanned from the originals/printed product. Photographs rescanned where available.
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Mannequin! Headlines! The ritual murder
of a 23-year-old man by Finnish devil
worshippers made the headlines in 1999.
The denim vest was originally mine and
Janne provided the pyramid rivets, but
Damhair did all the work: he screen-printed
the logos and took the photos. Where is the
vest now? The main culprit says: “It’s in my
closet, next to a golden CR7 track jacket.
You want it back for a school reunion?”
We had published two issues back to back in 1997, and they were well received. People felt
safe in sending us advance orders for the next one, taking wild guesses at the price. This is
the standard covering letter we sent along with the copies of Isten 100 in March 1999 plus
personal correspondence to Dominique Poulain.
674 Don’t Break the Ghost
Just another teaser. Damhair sent us sketches of the photo ideas that he was working on. Or, as he
says, “They weren’t sketches, more like renditions of photos in the making, as I was too paranoid in my
idleness to shift any material before I had managed to develop and print adequate 18-by-24 photographs
in my makeshift darkroom.”
675 Heavy Message
This is me talking about the situation with our ephemeral contributor Kristian Piililä but also about
the confusion behind the issue. (An excerpt from my letter to Dominique Poulain on February 11,
1999. The underlinings are all his, by the way.)
Metalion analyzes Isten in his
interview answer—most of which
was omitted from the article.
676 Don’t Break the Ghost
Sayeth Damhair:
Toys from the attic: the screenprinting
mesh used for the
vest on the cover shots.
677 Heavy Message
This painfully apt drawing of Mattila’s letterbox adorned
the envelope that contained the final piece in the puzzle, the
completed version of The Scene. We had discussed the game
with Damhair via email for months, but the teasers you see
on this spread and the previous page was all we had in early
1999—far from finished, but enough to convince us that Isten
100 wouldn’t be complete without it. Otherwise, the issue was
in the can.
During the wait, in February, I wrote to Dominique Poulain,
“Isten 100 (…) It seems like I have nothing to do with the whole
thing—haven’t heard from Damhair in what seems like ages (but
it’s only days, I guess) and I also gave the originals to Janne so
that I wouldn’t destroy them in a whim of rage and frustration.”
678 Don’t Break the Ghost
(Background:) Janne’s original draft for the map of the boardgame.
Isten is as Isten does.
We had the band photos
screened professionally
as usual, then decided
against it and Xeroxed
them all time and again
until they were stampsized
and the objects were
beyond recognition. Time
and money well spent!
(This is Lars Nissen’s
photo for the “XXX
Private Show” article. Mr
Nissen made me promise
to return the pic—erm
Lars, what’s your address
again?)
The triumvirate of Damhair, Sarna and Mattila
discussed the details of The Scene by email.
679 Heavy Message
It’s THE END
The Isten 100 Experience
Mikko, Isten 100 is intense, relentless, merciless. You’re either with it or against
it, yet it cries for you to take an independent, personal stance. Actually, the whole
thing came out so forceful, virulent, unremitting that I think some of the material
is a bit superfluous, in the overkill category. I don’t feel like comparing that one
to Mädchen, Twin Sister or Dark Lord. That would be most irrelevant. For to me,
Isten 100 is THE END. It doesn’t mean it’s finished, but screaming for a new life,
a rebirth that it doesn’t even hint at. Isten 100 is about death. I think that most
everybody will hate you for putting out such an iconoclastic work. There’s no
turning back from what you’ve done, and there’s no foundation for the future
either. Just the stuff of dreams to weave with.
I’m at pains to imagine a more heartfelt token of love of metal than this rag. It has
that very strange way of being arrogant without ever coming across as an ego
trip or anything on its editors’ behalf. Oh, and maybe you’re not aware of that,
but that’s true journalism, too, as in those long-gone days when that word, that
profession, meant fighting for Truth and Ideal. Every pen-pusher should read Isten
and choke on his birth warrant.
Mikko: Well, thank you for your words, but personally I expect little more than
a zombie-like non-reaction. So far it’s been something along the lines of "You’ve
got some really good points about the ‘scene metal’. It’s silly – people who hardly
can play any instruments starts up a band and think they’re a gift to the scene.
We’ll have our debut full-length album out now during June I hope – now we at
least have real drums. I’ll send you a copy when it’s out!". Like, ah sure, keep ‘em
coming...
Sure, I guess it was all predictable. You’re here, you and Janne, being old
underground fellows, coming up with issue 100, and I guess people think you’re
entitled to voicing your frustration. You’ve been there for so long, so when you
speak people don’t listen but they stop talking, and after that they can go back
once more to their talking. Nothing ever happened, right? People are so fucked
that they can’t get it. The typical reaction would be to peruse the rag, to let it fall
on some (carefully selected) out-of-reach corner of your bedroom, and to go:
“Damn, this Mikko guy, must be really pissed off. Well, I kinda understand. Metal
ain’t that healthy these days.” Or, “Well, they go too far, but well, they’re in this
since ‘84, must be kinda jaded old men.”
Seems like everybody has a great time being dead frozen in their own fossilized
excrements. Their only experience of anger is a mild temper-tantrum when
something derails off the tracks of their habits. It’s not that they don’t give a fuck,
it’s that they can’t give a fuck anymore. And doom is that, and death is this, and
let’s drink a beer at the corner bar and talk about it. “Oh yeah, there’s a problem in
metal, I think that... we should... bands nowadays... back then… I know him, he’s
true.. and did you listen to the last ...And Oceans/Dimmu Borgir/Lacuna Coil/
Immortal? My, that’s what I’d call a bomb!”
Oh yeah, let’s wallow again and again in the same normativized opinions, the
same worn out clichés, the same prejudices. No more years of the hungry wolf,
metal today is a petty bourgeois rotary club, and the music’s the wallpaper. After
all, people need an excuse to get together, don’t they? They need an identity, a
sense of purpose, of belonging. So throw in pseudo-culture, Nazi Renaissance and
ignorant, pretentious open-mindedness, too. Quite quickly you should have a nice
feeling of there being a white man’s elite. As in social sciences, the scene lives its
“post” days. Post-guts. Post-glory. Post-metal. Genuine spuriousness. The end of
the world is not a white hot maze, it’s people everywhere being so damned happy
with their meaninglessness. Everything’s equal, anything goes.
Your point with issue 100 is as good as anyone else’s, free speech for the deaf. No
wonder they tolerate Nazis or whatever. They can basically tolerate everything,
and when they try to pretend the opposite, they’ll come up with worn out
arguments and no spunk. What they don’t get is that metal’s no stable perspective,
no reassuring grind. Metal is cutting one’s own veins, laughing like a madman
when you discover what is god for the godless. It’s being alone with one’s fears
and pain, and still living on. No god, no master, no friend, no lover. No self, either.
Dominique Poulain
Spring 1999
—Damhair
Says Kola: “Actually Damhair visited me in Sweden where I’ve been living since 1999
several times and I have a very charming and moving anecdote about him which I won’t
share with you as he probably won’t appreciate it. You’ll have to buy me an ale to hear
that one. But he’s a great guy, very talented.” (Right: Kola’s thank-you card to Damhair for
something.)
680 Don’t Break the Ghost
Isten 100 is a well written and beautifully designed zine. That said, I think you are
all a bunch of jackasses, with the possible exception of Kristian. Your anti-scene is
a scene of its own, and it is more ridiculous than any real scene.
There was NEVER a time when every release was a gem. You must be forgetting
all the awful crap that came out in the 80s. The market was flooded then like it is
now, and for every release that became a classic there were a dozen that sucked
then, suck now, and will forever suck.
Many classic albums were born of a scene. Many excellent bands released records
only with the support of other like minded people.
Trendy, come-and-go metal fans are not only inevitable, they are vital to metal's
health. For every true metalhead who bought Endless Pain, In the Sign of Evil, Kill
'Em All, Iron Maiden, or Show No Mercy, there was a fly by night idiot who bought
it, and made it possible for these bands to ultimately release Pleasure to Kill,
Persecution Mania, Master of Puppets, Powerslave, and Reign in Blood. Record
sales DO matter, because if only the true fans bought those records, many of the
great bands that followed never would have happened.
I don't care what you support. I don't care what albums you buy and don't buy.
Just get the fuck off your high horse. One man's classic is another man's cutout,
and your opinions are not the catechism of metal. Two classic albums out of a
thousand releases in a year is better than one classic release out of a field of only
a hundred releases. If you ARE a true metalhead, you'll find both, no matter how
fucking awful the other 998 are.
Get your heads out of your asses.
Matt Johnsen
August 1999
I suppose I was quietly let go after Isten 100 for not
blindly praising it to the skies. I wasn’t happy with my
crappy handwritten notes being published without my
consent. Though I suppose I only have myself to blame
for not bearing in mind samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s
admonition that all letters should be good enough to
hang on the wall. Grandma Azagthoth’s “you knows”
probably should have been limited by an editor wiser
than me. On the other hand I was at pains to convey how
Grandma Azagthoth actually talks, which I don’t think
any interview before or after has managed (I suspect that
most are invented by journalists incapable of coping with
the recorded material).
“I also feel that “Tolkien Heads”, a definitive article that
really needed to be written, published and spread as far
and wide as possible, could have been handled better
(larger, clearer images, for example). I was disappointed
with the result at the time, but recognize Isten 100’s
sheer bloody genius today and am immensely proud to
have been a part of it and Isten as a whole. I think it was
the right time to be let go, too; it was 1999, and time to
move on.
—Kola Krauze
681 Heavy Message
Editor’s confessions. From yet another letter of mine to Dominique Poulain (dated November 2, 1999).
It goes without saying that it’s a narrow path for a
metal explorer to spend 15 years in the underground
and crave anything that’s new and more aggressive.
Right after Isten 100, I decidedly took a new a direction
with my expedition in metal. Instead of settling with
what was served, freshly squeezed, with sales points
on the side, by someone who wanted an immediate
reaction from me, I chose to dig ever deeper in the
dusty bins of second-hand shops, checking out
anything and everything I had missed during the past
decades.
Digging up misunderstood, forgotten, and most
obscure stuff certainly was rejuvenating. Then again,
writing about these bands was a no-no for number of
reasons. In most cases they were long disbanded, but
more importantly, Isten is not a museum.
Having your mind blown by for example
Resistencia’s Hecho en Venezuela or Arkangel’s
Rock Nacional nearly two decades after their release
is nothing short of a revelation. In comparison, the
proposition of reviewing the debut album of a new
Göteborg sensation—it’s like 40 days and 40 nights in
the wilderness. I’d rather stay home.
—Janne Sarna
Isengrim: the line-up of Isten 100
included new kid Kristian Piililä of
Isengrim Fanzine. He was a bit of
a fly-by-night—a young guy whose
style and attitude I liked, but he
only contributed a couple of short
pieces and we lost touch soon
afterwards. Before Isten 100, he
interviewed me for his issue #2.
682 Don’t Break the Ghost
Janne (left) and I in Kuopio in
September 2000 to see Sabbat for the
second time (after Turku the previous
night). I wrote to Dominique Poulain
on 21 September: “I was looking at
the crowd in both Turku and Kuopio,
and there was not a single soul in sight
that I could possibly think of writing
to. The writing-to-myself-and-myselfalone
aspect is very real in my case. I
actually said to my girl, “One of the
reasons why Isten has lived on is that I
never really used to go to these things,
only once in a blue moon.” But at this
point I don’t seem to have much of an
incentive to write for myself, or publish
for myself, rather. So where does this
leave us? Right now, I tend to agree
with Janne’s statement “I feel I’m much
more valuable for metal as a fan than
as someone on a production line.”
Arrogance in Uniform, the back cover of Isten 100. Photo by Damhair.
Pelican Brief: Janne’s email to Damhair concerning the cover photographs.
(Transl.) “Front cover = perfect. Period. The other pic doesn’t work in full size on
the back cover. One option would be to use it in a much smaller size on the back,
to do justice to the front cover and to separate it from Mädchen/Twin Sister.”
683 Heavy Message
An ex-girlfriend once asked me to do a short list of some
of my favorite pieces of literature, and I had Isten 100
there, right next to the Book of Job. She asked me about
it, and I told her that it’s pretty much the same story
told with different characters: metal as Job and the Isten
posse playing YHVH. But the big difference is that I
told her to skip the Elihu part in Job because it disturbs
the flow, while Isten 100 was pure excitement from the
beginning to the end.
—Harri Talvenmäki, Jumalhämärä
Oh, it’s still a very entertaining read and hasn’t aged at all
in any sense. The Nineties were, for a large part, a fucking
travesty when it comes to Metal. If you were into Metal
in the Eighties, then the Nineties must have appeared
like a joke.
—Ronald, Horrible Eyes zine
I am not sure if Isten 100 was a dead end of a kind. I recall
it was initially nearly too heavy to take but obviously
it has views that the authors just had to express. The
acerbic criticism of the reigning mentality was quite
unheard-of and cut deep.
This was something other than the usual scene
divergence every few years—death metal vs. speed
metal, black metal vs. death metal, etc. Sceneism has
been witnessed since the dawn of history, but the
manifestation represented in Isten 100 came specifically
from the me(n)tal climate of the mid-to-late Nineties. It
does not require a high-level abstraction to look around
a bit and see the relevance of it.
—Tommi Keränen, Testicle Hazard, Keränen et al
My ol’ Relic Shelf on its last legs. In early
2000 my girlfriend moved in with me and
I had to make room for her stuff. Good
riddance to the shelf, but I still miss some of
the stickers!
I think the words of 100 are more valid today than ever.
“Bands still need labels to get their name out there,” it
was said in one of the articles in 100. Unlike many labels,
Isten has well survived the turmoil of the Noughties’
music industry (file sharing etc.). That’s why I put Isten
right next to the very best classic albums in metal.
—Antti Korpinen, The Serpent Bearer zine
When looking through Isten 100, it still strikes me how
strong the layout is. The illustrations and the great
striking photography they used match perfectly with the
text. Although the cover is “back to where it all started”,
at the same time it was so damn original. I remember
being blown away by it! And of course, seeing our logo
used this way… magic!
—Wannes Gubbels, Pentacle
For me, Isten 100 is the pinnacle of Isten and one of the
greatest achievements in music journalism in general.
Everything that was right in Isten and wrong in the metal
scene just clicked together in that zine. The subject and
the object became one in a blinding flash of arrogance,
humour, ingenuity and pure vision. All of these qualities
were more or less visible in the earlier issues as well, but
100 was just pure yoga.
—Tommi Lind, Jumalhämärä
Mädchen, Twin Sister and Isten 100 stand above all else
when it comes to zine layout. They not only read like a
mad, informed, passionate manifesto, but they look the
part too.
—Jeff Wagner, author of Mean Deviation
684 Don’t Break the Ghost
METAL: Professor Black's
fanzine (Episode One:
Diamonds and Rust, the July
2000 issue, pictured here).
Says Jeff Wagner, “Anything
I did with Professor Black
for the METAL publication
had more of an Isten vibe
to it than anything else I’d
participated in. We were
definitely not trying to be
Isten, but I think there was
some inspiration from Isten in
that publication.”
“The demos were better.” I feel Isten’s path followed
the steps of Pestilence: at the beginning they were
promising, then they made some excellent classics
before becoming overly pretentious, and that’s when I
lost interest.
—Nalle Österman, Rumba magazine, Gandalf
Isten 100 was a bitter pill to swallow. Paradoxically
too heroic and too negative, it wasn’t for anyone
who strongly believed in the future of music. I didn’t
understand why the scene, the unworthiest of things
to think about, deserved such a monochromatic hate
jeremiad.
—Mikko Kuronen, Qvadrivivm zine
I received my copy of Isten 100 for free, essentially
Mikko’s response to my asking whether he’d like to
contribute to my new fanzine. (Laugh all you want! I
got this book for free too!) It arrived on the eve of my
university graduation, a moment when I surely had more
questions than answers. My philosophies were far from
complete, my mind at its most open, its most fanatical,
perhaps. It was a time of destroying and creating many
things great and small, but Isten 100 was one of the few
things to come along and do that to me. It picked me up
by the heart and set me down somewhere new, and from
there I experienced heavy metal differently. Isten 100
erased any remaining sense of obligation to keep current
with new releases and shut off any sympathy I had for
mediocrity. It burned away the clutter, clearing a path for
the better, lasting things to thrive, and for these reasons
it remains as prominent an influence as any of my musical
heroes.
—Professor Black
I quoted fairly extensively from Isten 100’s critique of
“scene metal”—metal that exists purely to serve the
scene, without anything original behind it. I argued
that this was an example of the display of “transgressive
subcultural capital” which is a kind of “currency”
claimed by metallers through emphasizing individuality,
eliteness and rejecting the mundanity of scenes. This is
in contrast to “mundane subcultural capital” which is
equally strong in metal culture and is “earned” through
precisely the kind of scene metal that Isten 100 attacks.
I read Isten 100 at an important time during my PhD
(which forms the basis of my book that came out a few
years later), when I was trying to think through what is
this thing called a “scene”. I loved the savagery of Isten
100’s critique and it made me think hard about the kind
of relentless overproduction that has characterized
metal in the Nineties and beyond.
—Keith Kahn-Harris, author of Extreme Metal
Isten 100 reached me right when I was reducing my
collection by half—more or less overnight—another
half of the remaining half going out the window soon
afterwards. The underground was by the late Nineties
a swamp where mediocrity was happily encouraged
and everybody and their mothers were releasing
unique masterpieces of mediocrity. It’s not a matter of
individual releases or bands, but Isten 100 focused on
the problem in a way I didn’t see any other zine do at
that time. I don’t quite even understand how one might
even have survived from then on without in some sense
agreeing with the main ideas of that issue.
There’s probably plenty of mediocrity out now too.
But I wouldn’t know, because starting from back then,
I started to see everything like layers of sediment,
and casually, automatically, started to ignore the
uppermost levels of earth, those turned by fresh winds
and promotion agencies and mags with full-colour
covers. I felt like a radio that only recognizes the lowest
frequencies, those sent out from graves below a certain
depth. Haven’t looked back in anger since then, because
by now I wouldn’t even remember any other frequencies
exist than those with a distinct buzz of soil! We have
become incorrigible walking graves. Hear us roar as the
wind blows through our skulls.
—Timo Ketola, Dauthus zine
685 Heavy Message
Between April 1999 and January 2006 Isten-in-print was on hold, on ice, under lock and key. You get the picture (by Damhair, 1998).
686 Don’t Break the Ghost
Grave New World
Death to Publishing
Isten 100 was semiofficially subtitled deathcheck.exe,
and in a way that’s exactly what it was. We wanted to
make double sure not to go though the motions ever
again with another instalment to the Isten saga. From
summer 1999 onwards, I had access to all the DTP
software that I could think of, working nine-to-five
with it, and I had connections to quite a few print
shops, so I could’ve easily gotten the zine printed at
a considerably lower rate than before. After some 15
years of cumbersome, maddening hassle, the layout
game was suddenly made “easy”. Ease, it turned out,
was interference par excellence. On top of that, in
late 1999 I met a girl, we moved in together, and got
engaged a year later. My life was suddenly very different
from the most stiff-necked underground years.
As a last will and testament, Isten 100 quite possibly
finishes on a wrong note, waging war against the
scene out there and the scene within; well, all scenes
everywhere really. After all, heavy metal, as Dominique
Poulain puts it, explodes in all directions. It’s the
Russian roulette of the Gods, and as such, it deserves a
more glorious eulogy.
Janne and I made dozens of attempts at laying out our
interviews with Entombed and Chris Reifert in the
early 2000s, only to realize that the spark was gone.
It didn’t feel right. We wanted to capture the spirit of
our old favourite, the Finnish hardcore/punk/metal/
shamanism fanzine Deggial, but lacked the means,
the focus and the vision to make it happen. The low
point was that we ended up using the Finnish family
periodical Kummit for reference—three columns with a
very clinical approach and about as far from Deggial as
you can possibly get!
xxx
The Isten website had existed on and off since early
1996. The approach was whimsical to say the least,
with designs ranging from a single straw against a
white background to more evil versions with Third
687 Grave New World
determined to go into the exact opposite direction.
And this went on for years.”
Reich eagles and so on. In the Nineties, it was mostly a
marketing tool, a digital flyer.
After Isten 100, After Isten 100, Damhair volunteered
what he calls his “DIY-cowboy-winging-it” web design
skills, and suddenly it made sense to put some real
content into the ever-growing bitstream. When Isten’s
Internet folly was at its maximum, we shot forth several
previously unpublished interviews, articles, and
reviews into the ether. Many of these are to be found
on the following pages.
As Janne describes the goings-on of this era: “During
these sabbatical years, we were doing print or web,
or both, depending on… I don’t know, air humidity or
vinyl speed or something else. We could have, like, two
interviews and be building two separate issues around
them. Or alternatively three different website designs
for only a couple of reviews. The concepts had gotten
out of hand. In fact, the concepts had taken over—they
were our main product at the time.
“We were like two windmills in perfect synchronicity
creating winds all of their own. Longwinded
discussions led to absolute determination to go into
one direction. After a fortnight, we started to feel more
The thought pattern in a very simplified form ran as
follows:
- Wow, we have this many visitors to the website
(47,187 hits from September 2004 to May 2005).
- Plenty of readers at a much cheaper rate.
- No printing costs, or insane postage rates…
- No licking of stamps!
- Come on, we still have copies of the previous issue to
be sold!
- Finishing a new one will take ages, whereas on the
web…
- We can just add new material as soon as it’s written.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- But the Internet is NOTHING.
- Print is something tangible, it’s for real.
- Reading zines by candlelight, or on the throne…
That’s the only way to go.
- The Internet is made for cheap shots, quickies, short
attention spans.
- Printed fanzines are priceless time capsules.
- It’s what we’ve always been and stood for. In print we
trust.
- But… we have this many visitors to the website…
The catchily titled Isten’s Guide to 20th Century
Finnish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal (or, the Guide)
materialized on the web in 2001. The Guide is Janne’s
baby, and he says that in the Isten system, it’s the
appendix—as long as it’s not infected, there’s no need
to operate. As he explains, “Setting a goal and striving
for it through hell and high water has never been my
game. Instead I tend to busy myself with various things
that I find interesting and sometimes things get out
of hand resulting in unforeseeable goals. The Guide is
one of these things. It was never intended to become
anything—it just happened.”
Back in the mid-Nineties Janne had started putting
together a list of Finnish hard rock and metal vinyl for
688 Don’t Break the Ghost
his personal use only. For years, he had it saved only on
a single 3.5” floppy disk.
Fast-forward to 2000, well after Isten 100. “I think we
had a new web layout or something,” Janne reminisces.
“Mikko was full of energy, writing reviews and stuff for
the web. In theory I was on board, but in reality I was
in abeyance when it came to writing. Frustrated at my
incapability to put anything on the table, I remember
uttering something like, ‘Well, I have this old list. It’s
not 100% complete but with a little work it might be
decent Internet landfill.’ I didn’t expect Mikko to
actually give an arse about the whole thing, but he did.
My estimation of ‘a little work’ turned out to be two
months of nocturnal writing sessions. But at least it
was more feasible than reviewing new stuff.”
Iron Pages of Germany was interested in publishing
The Guide in book form. Our reply to Otger of
Iron Pages ran as follows: “With reservations, we’re
interested. (…) We could offer you something quite
unlike the Swedish bible (much smaller in size, for
one thing), or any other Metal encyclopaedia, for that
matter. We’d be adamant about branching out into
interviews, focusing on key bands, with a perspective
of our own. Not trying to be objective, not going any
further than the year 2000. We’d also jealously guard
our independence and artistic freedom, with tantrums,
laziness, and general fuckwittedness thrown in.”
Otger wrote back saying the approach would need to
be complete, from the beginning to the present day. He
never heard back from us again.
In 2003 we started questionnairraiding people,
musicians and fans alike, with our heavy metal
questionnaire. What would they include among
the seven wonders of metal? What is their greatest
weakness as a metalhead? It was not about empty
chit-chat or one-upmanship, it was about fanaticism,
and, in this light, even matrix etchings on vinyl or the
non-existing debut issues of Polish fanzines can be
significant.
In February 2004, Professor Black joined the team,
writing his own blurb: “Professor Black has been
dragged out of retirement. Too volatile (or was it
‘incomprehensible and libelous’?) for Metal Maniacs,
and too fragile for his own largely-unread publications,
Professor Black’s affinity for ambiguity and proclivity
for paradox make him a curious addition to our pack of
lone wolves.”
Around the summer of 2005 we deleted all our online
interviews and reviews for good.
The following pages 690—701 were laid out for Isten 101 which was
never finished. The interviews with Chris Reifert and Jörgen Sandström
were then published on the Isten website instead.
The pages 702—715 contain material previously published on the Isten
website circa 2001-2006.
689 Grave New World
ISTEN 101
Interview and
photography by Joakim Westerlund,
February 2002.
Questions by Mikko Mattila,
Dominique Poulain and Janne Sarna 2002.
Chris Reifert? Backstage at the Royal
Opera House in Stockholm? Surely not?
But it’s true. The good old Autopsy
sicko visited his chums in the capital of
Sweden and eyeballed Unrealestate, the
opera production featuring Entombed,
and what do you know, a messenger
of Isten is there to throw a bunch of
metaltastic questions at him after the
show. Also present is Mary Ciullo of
defunct NY thrashers Prime Evil. What
ensued was a rare occurrence of the
expected.
Chris Reifert at the Royal Opera,
Stockholm, Sweden 2002.
690 Don’t Break the Ghost
AUTOPSY
So have you had a hella load of people ask
you questions about Chuck Schuldiner lately?
How’s it feel?
Chris Reifert: “Lately… a couple of people, like
old friends and stuff, but not too many. It makes me
feel like twisting my nipples in various directions.
But other than that… I feel pretty good. Not about…
well, you know. Anyway, seriously, if people wanna
ask about him that’s totally okay with me. And I stand
by that. About three people [have asked]. If you
consider three a lot then yeah. I heard from about
three people about death. Huh? Who? The Pope,
God, Satan, Jesus, Beelzebub… wait, that’s kinda
like Satan, me, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins talked to me
from the grave. He’s really a hell of a guy, I miss him.
A whole bunch. I really liked you know that song
he did everyone likes, that one, that’s a really good
song.”
Do you reckon it’s alright for me to feel like me
doing classic Autopsy on the air guitar in front of the
mirror is more essential and more cutting edge than
The Ravenous album?
C: “It really all depends on if you’re playing with a
beer can or a carrot-stick. Personally, I like to break
coffee pots over my foot. Without the coffee ‘cause
it would burn and it would leave scars and I’d really
like my feet to be sucked on. That’s just a side-note
for anyone that likes to suck on people like myself’s
feet. And there are a few of you out there, so you
know, look me up. Oh, I’m thinking about my foot now
Chris Reifert and Mary Ciullo doodling...
Peter Stjärnvind: “Are you saying that we do
Autopsy the way that Candlemass pays tribute to
Black Sabbath? Is that the question?”
Yeah, like they did on the From the 13th Sun album.
Have you heard it?
Peter Stjärnvind: “No… Yeah, I’ve heard it! The
thing with Murder Squad when we started out, we
didn’t try to actually sound like Autopsy, we tried to
capture the atmosphere and think like they did when
we write songs.”
C: “Does it sound like what Candlemass did to
Sabbath? Sure. I can’t really say it ‘cause I haven’t
How do you feel about getting these questions
about Chuck since it’s such a long time since you
played with him?
C: “I have no say in it, do I? I just get hit with these
questions like spit balls from a foreign straw. I just
roll with it like a haystack in a fucking typhoon.”
Mary Ciullo: “That can happen here tonight,
‘cause we’re in a foreign place. Any straw here is
foreign.”
C: “Well, typhoons can happen anywhere.”
M: “Isn’t that the sort of thing that never happens
in the northern hemisphere?”
C: “Details, details, unnecessary details. So, in
other words, I feel pretty good.”
What do you think about death metal, um, no,
what do you think death metal means to people
these days?
C: “Excellent show [referring to Unrealestate].
That’s how I think about death metal. Entombed was
really good. There’s a few good death metal bands, a
whole lot of shit ones but someone’s gotta do it, so…
At long as the heart’s into it, you know, that’s what
counts.”
Well, I didn’t get to finish the question... ‘Cause
back in the day death metal, it was the flesh as well
as the bones, it was you people with your specific
backgrounds and aspirations…
C: “You said ‘ass’!”
…there was a sense of drive and direction to it –
probably stemming from rock ‘n’ roll. Do you think it’s
stupid to try and start playing death metal right now,
at this point in time?
C: “It’s never stupid. It’s stupid if you try and play
it and you don’t mean it. Like a lot of bands now, they
say ‘I’m so hard and deathly’ and they’re playing
completely weak stuff, like copying something that’s
copying something that wished it was Bathory that
was copying something that wished it was Slayer.
Then you suck. But if you’re playing it, shall we say,
from your happy place, otherwise known as genitals,
then you’re in the place because that’s where it
comes from.”
and I’m getting really turned on. I have to leave for a
minute.”
M: “Man, when this gets published your phone is
never gonna stop ringing.”
C: “I know. It’s gonna be almost like it never starts
but it’s kinda like if you think about it too hard it never
stops. It’s all relative. It’s all nonsense but it really
makes a whole lot of sense. So yeah, I would say I’m
about two seventeenths erect right now. Take away
about a half a meter. Yeah.”
Do you find violence sexy? What about metal, is
metal sexy to you?
C: “Metal is very sexy, it’s the universal sexy
language. ‘Come here Tattoo, I must have you now!
Now and in many, various ways!’ For those of you
who don’t know who Tattoo is, you probably never
will ‘cause he’s dead. It’s very sad.”
Would you say that Murder Squad does to
Autopsy what Candlemass did to classic Sabbath
with From the 13th Sun?
C: “This is one for Peter. What do you say, Peter?
Peter steps in for one answer.”
heard that Candlemass. I haven’t heard it but I think
Murder Squad kicks ass.”
Do you think it’s like a tribute to your old band?
C: “It’s a tribute to death metal, anything else is for
them to say, but I think it’s top-notch death metal in
all seriousness. It definitely kicks ass.”
At this point things get a little out of hand. After
a while the interview continues and the question is
repeated.
C: “Okay, I need both hands for this. Okay,
Motörhead… visualize this if you will, I know this
is gonna be read, or maybe, we’ll see, this might
be erased by the time I’m done talking. But just
for the sake of sake, say Motörhead’s right here,
this is about three feet off the ground, right? Okay.
Backstreet Boys, they’re about… right here. Take
the time difference, take a bowl of oatmeal, no sugar
please, and it’s kinda like that.”
M: “For those of you not in the room, it’s about the
same.”
C: “Yeah. It’s total death all the way.”
691 Grave New World
ISTEN 101
Jörgen Sandström used to listen to Venom on the C: “No, it’s collective.”
headphones in his sleep. How do you keep yourself
brutal these days?
Do you think you have anything in common with
C: “How do I keep myself brutal? I would say at Lemmy? The Great Kat? Steve Harris?
least three manicures a day. At least, maybe well,
C: “Well, how many people? Lemmy, Great Kat
lunch, wait no, breakfast, mid-breakfast, mid-toearly
lunch, lunch, brunch, no wait, that’s going back that one night that no one said they would say
and Steve Harris? Well, there was that four-way
one, so take away two, strike that reverse. A couple anything about. Let’s just say that Great Kat is not as
of beers. Seven o’clock, nothing’s on TV, not a damn dominating as she’d like to say she is.”
thing, I’m so pissed.” … “Anyways, the secret to
Have you met her?
brutality, it’s kind of like a lotus when it’s fully spread C: “Well, ‘met’ is one word that you can use.
in the spring on top of the water right before it goes ‘Meat’ is another. [wicked laughter] If you know what
under and a frog eats it up. It’s a little bit like that but I mean.”
kind of a lot at the same time.”
Do you think you could possibly ever grow out of
Do you still have fun making music/records? Metal?
More or less fun than playing air guitar at home?
C: “Right now I’m just, I’m trying to think of all
C: “Ooh, I hadn’t thought about it that way. It’s these funny things to say… I would say, oh it’s going
tough. It’s tough. You can’t have one without the dirty again, I’ve got a dirty mind, I’m sorry I can’t
other can you? When you’re not playing death metal help it. I’m sorry Mary, I don’t mean to make you
you’ve got to be thinking death metal.”
uncomfortable. I was gonna go pubic but rather than
M: “Chris the prophet.”
that… what was the question?”
C: “Profit, all money, baby! All the time, you can Do you think you could ever grow out of Metal.
call me the dean of profit!”
C: “I dunno, I’m like old as the hills and the dirt
So you mean you’ve made a lot of money playing and the rocks and the the centerpiece and the
music?
spiders and the slime and the stewards and the
C: “Let me tell you, you know the amount of toilets and the closet doors, and it hasn’t happened
money I’ve made playing music you can fit in… Okay, yet. Tomorrow I think I’m probably gonna join
you take an elephant, you enlarge that by about Nickelback.”
500, you make a planet out of that, then you shrink it M: “I’m older than you are and I haven’t
down to about this bag, then you shrink that down to outgrown metal!”
about this label on this bag so I don’t lose it ‘cause C: “You haven’t joined Nickelback either! I know
it’s really not mine, I’m borrowing it.”
my way, I’ve got like an invitation like right here.”
Can metal be a collective experience?
Whom is your music intended for? For whom do
C: “What do you mean collective? [consulting you play?
Mary] I was really trying to think of something funny C: “For the spirit of Keith Moon. He was the best
to say and I’m drawing blanks here. So yes, yes it drummer in the world.”
can.”
M: “Amen.”
M: “It’s a blank experience.”
They sure love death metal at the opera!
Chris Reifert in the embrace of a Swedish admirer
C: “Yeah, he’s like the best. And I say that with
not only seriousness but seriousness. He’s like the
ultimate. So I think about Keith Moon when I play
drums. Except for when I’m not thinking about Keith
Moon, I think about the fact that I’m peace and love
amidst of all violence. It’s kinda like that. And I’m
fascinated with Ex-Girl from Japan, I’m like a little bit
obsessed so don’t worry about it too much. I don’t
know their addresses yet.”
I don’t know that band but…
C: “Oh they’re really good. Back to Mono Kero!”
That’s a new band or…?
C: “Weeell, not really but they’re really good. In a
special way.”
Would you mind being considered only as a
money-maker by your record company or is it
important for you that someone at the label actually
likes your music?
C: “Well, if someone at a label was looking at
making a whole bunch of money and they wanted
to sign us, I wouldn’t know what to fucking tell
‘em. Go pour us some damn cornflakes and forget
about it ‘cause it ain’t gonna happen. Unless you
think of some brilliant strategy to make people
realise that everything sucks except for whatever
it is we do. So it’s not in the equation, it’s just a
matter of who’s gonna understand what we play
and who’s not gonna expect you know fucking
neptune or something crazy like that out of it, ‘cause
it’s probably not gonna happen. But with the right
support who knows what could happen? We could
buy new shoes or something.”
M: “Hear hear!”
C: “Or pay our practise space rent or something
insane like that. Think big and you might get… big
big big.”
What makes heavy metal great to you?
C: “Well, that’s a deep question. You gotta just
like wanna go like eat sushi and then fuck for at
least 45 minutes, then eat some more sushi and
smoke a whole bunch of bong hits and fuck again
and get drunk, then pass out. Then wake up listening
to metal. You know, like something killer like…
something you could fuck to, like… What’s good
fuck music? I once fucked to G.G. Allin’s last album,
Brutality and Bloodshed for All, and it was so bizarre.
And the funny thing was – this is a true story, it was
like intermission and I put on you know Univers
Zero from Belgium, ever heard them? I put that on
and fucked some more. It was like such not fucking
music but that’s what made it fuckable, you just like
fucked and you weren’t thinking about fucking but
you were fucking. The next thing you know you’re
fucking some more. Then it’s over and you wanna
fuck again but then you put on Univers Zero, and
it’s like really good. They’re out of Belgium and it’s
really strange music but it’s fucking great. So it kind
of like touches you in your happy place. That’s a very
serious answer.”
692 Don’t Break the Ghost
AUTOPSY
Are there some things you don’t like in heavy
metal?
C: “Anything that’s lame. Which is most things
right now, like all that Linkin Park… wait that’s not
metal, what do they call it, nu metal… Who called it
that? I don’t know if the bands made that up or the
labels or the listening public but all that shit pisses
me off so much. I just wanna fucking kill all those
people, all that stuff, all those weakass fucking shits.
Okay, I’m getting pissed now so that’s your answer.
You hit a nerve.”
Ok, thanks.
M: “This is good, man…”
C: “Spontaneity!”
What is for you as a metal fan a musical
reference point, a band, a song or an album, and
why? Did you ever in your life as a musician try to
equal or surpass that reference point?
M: “Keith Moon?”
C: “That was later. It started off with Kiss,
and then really snowballed and avalanched and
trampolined from there. There’s no point, it’s just all
in the mind which is the only thing I have to go on
‘cause other than that I’d be lost and I’d probably
fucking suck on the end of gun or be a normal
person which I can’t be… I can’t even try. So it’s
like from the guts, that’s where it comes from, no
explanation. I could try and think of something funny
to say, or something logical perhaps, but either one
of those ain’t gonna happen…”
Just be honest.
M: “Kiss is your reference point…”
C: “Yeah, 1978 was when the fucking light bolt
struck over my head, I said ‘Okay, this is something I
can relate to’…”
M: “You were a boy, right?”
C: “This is like a third-grader talking here saying
‘Okay, this is what I wanna do’ and it really hasn’t
changed, I’m like the same.”
Do you think you as a musician have the
responsibility to uphold the metal heritage and
that to innovate? How do you think a balance can
be struck between the need to innovate and to
reproduce? Do you ever consciously think about it
when you make music?
C: “Can I go Johnny Cochran on ya? ‘You can
instigate, you can interrogate, you can flatulate, but
I like to masturbate, and then sometimes I like to
conjugate. Does that make sense? No! It does not
make sense. What am I saying? Does it make sense?
What’s it have to do with this interview? Nothin’.
Does that make sense? No. What would an eightfoot
tall wookie be doing on Endor with a two-foot
tall ewok? Nothin’. It does not make sense.”
Okay, thanks.
C: “That was all totally ripped off.”
Yeah, I know.
C: “I suck, I fucking slurred and shit. I’m sorry I’m
so embarrassed. I think I said a T instead of a D at
one point, I’m totally feeling like really small.”
Are you a big South Park fan?
C: “Yeah yeah yeah yeah, [singing] ‘Shut your
fucking face, unclefucker’…”
Don’t you think it’s gotten too commercial and…
C: “Nooo, you know because it’s like sicker
than ever. You know you always think ‘Aw, they’re
gonna mellow out’ and then you get the NAMBLA
episode or something, you just go, what the fuck, I
can’t believe I’m laughing at this but this is the best
thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like better every time. It
rules. You got like the ass-faced people, ‘We are
the Thompsons….’. It’s like the best. You seen that,
Mary?”
M: “No…”
C: “Ooh, it’s like the best. It’s so funny.”
What do you think is the cause of the current
sorry state of metal. Lack of focus, lack of dedication,
lack of perspective or lack of respect?
C: “Do you want a real answer or a bullshit one?”
Both?
C: “[burps] Okay, this is both: it’s just basically
it’s like a fucking trend. Sad to say but metal, this
that and the other thing, people like it for a certain
amount of time, then they get tired of it. But some
people like it all the time. So, at certain times
everyone loves it for some reason, they go ‘This is
the thing’, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, metal’s big’. Then all
of a sudden you know the other people that liked it
for a minute get tired of it and they go on to fucking
Linkin Park or some fucking bullshit like that. You
know it’s like a fucking wave, it goes up and down,
up and down. Rarely up, but that’s okay because
it’s not mainstream, never was, never will be. You
don’t play it because you’re gonna make a bunch of
money or be on TV or something. It’s more like ‘This
is what I have to do, otherwise I’m gonna kill myself’.
That’s pretty much it, you know, it’s sad to say but
it’s true. What else would I do besides be dead? I’m
sorry that’s not a bullshit answer, that’s actually the
true one, so enjoy it ‘cause that’s probably gonna be
the only one tonight.”
Do you find it alarming that the younger metal
generations don’t really no personal contact with the
source material. It’s like when a relay team leaves
with a huge baton as big as a log. After a while,
younger members get bored with dragging the damn
thing and settle for a toothpick instead. It’s made of
the same wood, what’s the problem?
C: “That’s a cool question, but you know what the
funny thing is about all that is? Like, you ask anybody
from this time to that, like, who played bass in the
band, who wrote that song, who sang that song, who
did that record. You ask anybody now like, ‘Oh, who’s
the bass player for Blank band’, they go, ‘I don’t
know, I just know that hit song, and they’re calling it
metal’. You ask me about any fucking band from like
the mid-Sixties until now, I can probably tell you who
every member of the band was, every song they did,
what order the song was in on what record, what
Unrealstate poster and promotional photos
693 Grave New World
ISTEN 101
year it came out, the label it was on, you know? It’s
like, you fucking live it or you can just go fuck off.”
That’s true.
M: “Dude, that’s beautiful!”
C: “Yeah, isn’t it right, though?”
M: “It’s beautiful!”
Are there any moments in particular when you’ve
felt like the metal that means the world to you was
being sold wholesale? Have you ever felt betrayed
by a fave band, on what occasion?
C: “No specific occasions but it’s happened a lot
of times, you look up to some bands and you think
they’re the greatest thing ever and you meet them
and go, ‘What a fucking wanker! That person’s so
fucking full of himself’ or something like that but it
doesn’t fucking matter, you know it’s like, whatever. If
someone’s… I’m trying to make a lot of sense in this
interview and I don’t like it! (laughs) Let me quote
the late Paul Baloff, ‘Eyeballs flying past your face!’
(laughs) ‘I’ll teach you a lesson in violence you won’t
soon forget’… That’s so disrespectful, isn’t it? Ain’t
that awful?”
Yeah.
C: “Yeah. Fuck, I don’t know, man.”
What about if a band change their musical
direction, do you feel like they’ve betrayed you in a
way?
C: “Nay, not always. I mean if, okay, if some band
was like the most undergrand… underground (grand,
whatever) band in the world and all of a sudden their
lext… next record was like, and I’m starting to get
fucked up here, you can tell by the way. Their next
record was like the biggest seller in the world, but
if they still stay true to themselves, even though
there was a change in music but they meant it, and it
wasn’t to please anybody, then I’m like, three twirling
thumbs up, that’s okay. I have no problem with that.
But if they, you know, do something different just
to sell and they don’t really like what they’re doing,
then they can suck my dick. But I probably wouldn’t
let ‘em. Depends on who it was. That has nothing to
do with this question. If you play what you mean, it’s
okay no matter what label you’re on. If you suck, you
suck. You can be on a small label and still suck. You
can be on a big label and still suck, and then go on
to suck from there and still suck, and you can never
be good again ‘cause there’s no turning back. After
a certain point there’s no forgiveness. Unless you do
something really good, but it probably won’t happen,
so forget it.”
What do you think about a band like Entombed
who try to progress from album to album, and try
different styles?
C: “I would just say I never thought tonight would
happen. And tonight referring to ballet and opera
mixed with Entombed. Kinda similar things have
been done, like say, Therion working with orchestras
or even Metallica with an orchestra which…
Metallica sucks ass.”
M: “Deep Purple…”
C: “I didn’t know about that. But anyway, let’s get
back to Metallica totally sucking stinky unwashed
ass, which they have for a long time, but, it’s not the
progression that sucks. If it’s something that works,
like Entombed with Unrealestate, for some reason
it worked because anyone involved with it had the
chance to back out and most of them didn’t, they
liked what they were doing and it’s a really bizarre
thing. I thought I was in fucking Oz a few times but it
really worked. You know, progression’s cool as long
as it’s, again, from the heart. If it sucks it sucks, you
can only work things in so many ways.”
What is the metal lifestyle, if such a thing exists
for you?
C: “There is no such thing.”
Do you think metal is a state of mind?
C: “Metal is music. You can do whatever you
want in your life, you know, whether you like pet
puppies or fucking build snowmen or fucking like
collect toenails. If you play metal you’re fucking
metal.”
In the Autopsy vinyls you had some funny matrix
texts carved next to the label… Do you remember
what those were all about?
C: “Oh, those were all inside jokes, you know,
like… just little things like… I’m going sexual again,
folks, I can’t help it. Like here in Sweden, you know,
just today or yesterday I saw a sign in a window
that said ‘Slut spurt’. And I thought that was the best
thing, ‘Oh yeah, spurt on sluts! Yeah yeah! Spurt
on sluts!’ and I told Peter [Stjärnvind] who was
driving me around, ‘What the fuck are you talking
about?’ and okay, I had that explained, like, ‘slut’ is
like ‘slut’. ‘Slut’ is like ‘slut’, ‘spurt’ is like, you know,
‘spurt’, not like ‘spurt’ – spurt on sluts. He hasn’t let
me fucking forget that for like ten minutes since we
came across that! So it’s little things like that, just
jokes you come up with that might mean nothing
to somebody else but it makes you just about piss
yourself. Sometimes you get it, most of the time
you don’t…” [In other words, ladeezungennelmen,
‘slutspurt’ is Swedish for ‘final sprint’, in this case as
in a climax of a sale or whatever – Ed.]
Were you inspired by other bands that had done
it (not spurted on sluts but carved those silly little
messages in the vinyl) or why did you pick it up?
C: “No, I don’t know why we started doing that,
just to be funny or something. Or to be lame. We
Whole lotta love!
didn’t care.”
M: “So it’s a secret for the ages…”
C: “Yeah, it’s just the way it is what it is. I can say
that about any answer: it is what it is. I feel so wise.”
You’re in Sweden now to record some material
with Murder Squad. Who came up with that idea?
C: “It was Peter. I met those guys in Milwaukee,
what, two years ago? It wasn’t last year ‘cause last
year was totally weak. They didn’t get any good
bands. Well, there was a couple. But the year before
that, ninety- 2000? 2000! Going back in history… I’d
already known some of them from earlier times.
Knew them guys from before and then got in touch
with Peter real close in Milwaukee. He didn’t say
anything about Murder Squad at the time, he was
just doing Entombed. Later they did a Murder Squad
record and I thought it was really good. And then not
too long ago they said ‘Hey we’re gonna do another
Murder Squad, do you wanna come out and do some
things on it? We’ll take you to Sweden’, of course
immediately I said ‘No that sounds horrible!’ but
then I thought about it for like half a second and said
‘Okay, let’s do it’ and here we are.”
Have you written any material for them?
694 Don’t Break the Ghost
AUTOPSY
C: “One song. Just one. They were doing good
on their own, man, they’ve come up with some good
shit.”
M: “They’re gonna use it?”
C: “Yeah, I allowed Matti the singer to come
up with a title for it. All their songs are really good,
just the way you’d fucking expect, you know if you
know about any of the bands they’ve been in. It’s just
fucking death metal, but there’s more tempos this
time, there’s like some more blast, some more just
ultra-doom, a little bit of polka, a little bit of salsa, a
little bit of waltz, but besides that just fucking, you
know, keeping it sick, keeping it real for the peeps.”
You’re doing a full-length album?
C: “Yeah. I’m only doing a couple things, mind
you, it’s their thing, but I’m gonna sit in on some stuff.
What’s that? Mary’s raising her hand very high in
the air.”
M: “In what capacity are you contributing to the
record?”
C: “I’m gonna drum on three songs, it looks like.
I’m gonna play rhythm guitar on one song, I’m gonna
play I think one or two solos on guitar and then if
they want to have me sing some things, I’ll do it.
Legend has it, word on the street is that I’m gonna do
a couple of things. Just like, if they say, ‘Bust out that
kazoo and bust out that banjo’, I’m gonna fucking do
my damnedest.”
M: “You brought them with you, right?”
C: “No, I’m spontaneity. Erm, I am spontaneity!”
M: “Alright, so you’re gonna have to go out
and borrow a banjo and a kazoo if they ask you to
contribute?”
C: “I’m gonna bust one out of the air, baby, I’ll be
like the Fonz!”
Heard anything about the vinyl versions? Like,
doing anything on vinyl?
C: “Murder Squad?”
Yeah.
C: “I don’t know. I hope so. Nothing sexier than a
vinyl set of pants that just cuts off the circulation like
a grasshopper in a rainstorm!”
I’ve noticed you always have Frank Zappa on
your thanks list. Is that for any particular reason?
C: “Just because we like Frank. I actually met
someone tonight that played with Frank right before
he died. He played drums with him.”
A Swedish guy?
C: “Yeah!”
Yes, I’ve heard of them but can’t remember their
names…
C: “Yeah, Frank Zappa rules, man! I brought
Joe’s Garage with me for the trip to listen to on the
headphones.”
That’s a good album.
C: “Any Zappa is good. I’ve got about 70, maybe
more, albums from him. There’s still about 20 I don’t
have but still, you know…”
That’s a big collection.
C: “I love Frank. I’ve listened to him since high
school.”
I just got a recording from the Czech Republic
from a friend there, when they brought down the
Iron Curtain they had a concert as a tribute of ending
the communist era…
C: “Zappa’s Universe? It’s not that was it?”
No, he was featured with a jazz artist on one
track on that album, I just got a recording of that. A
live recording. A reggae kind of song.
M: “You need that!”
He does a really nice speech before the song
and really get the whole crowd with him. A coupla
hundred thousand people there, live in Prague in ’91
I think. Anyway, that’s not for the interview… But
do you think as a metal musician that you can come
up with more original stuff when you listen to other
kinds of music than metal?
C: “Nah, it doesn’t matter as far as listening goes.
It’s just all from the bowels or whatever you wanna
call it, you know, from the feet, from the eyelids…
You just play what you play.”
A few questions about air guitar playing, is that
okay with you?
C: “What about fire? What about earth guitar
playing? What about water guitar playing? No one
talks about these things. We’re talking four elements,
not one!”
Never thought about that.
C: “Right. See I’m here to expand minds. And
bladders. See I’m like a really water sign but I have a
fire sign underneath, so I can relate to doggy paddle
and then doggy style. Not receiving end, of course.
Nevertheless…”
What kind of air guitars do you have?
C: “Can I say what’s on the tip of my mind, even
if it means nothing? I’m kinda like horny tonight, so
I would say, Fuck guitar! Which means nothing, but
there you go.”
What songs do you have in your repertoire?
C: “Definitely Jump by Van Halen. There’s
nothing like it. When I hear Jump I go…” (jumping
up’n’down) “I can’t stop. Gimme a pogo stick, quick!
Or I’ll exploooooooode…!”
What’s your air guitar tuned in? Would you
consider tuning it down when you interpret a
classic?
C: “I would definitely tune to an N, as in nothing.
N, any time. Sometimes T is good. Not drinking, but
smoking, and then you have a drink after, you know,
like TNT. TNT like AC/DC, which is…”
M: “Standard tuning.”
C: “Right. See, it all is like so relative. I realise
just now that I’m saying ‘like’ a whole lot tonight,
like Shaggy from Scoopy Doo or something. So next
time I say ‘like’, just hand me a beer and I’ll quit
immediately.”
Do you wear ear plugs when you play air guitar?
C: “Yes, but I don’t wear them in my ears. I leave
that to your imagination. I’ve been sexual enough
tonight. Let’s just say that my happy place is quite
busy these days.”
M: “It’s plugged.”
What’s your favourite air guitarring arena?
Do you prefer playing in front of the mirror, in the
shower, at the bus stop, or in the queue at the cashdesk
of a super market?
C: “Well, you put me on the spot here, you know
that. Let’s just say, this is the best time and this is the
best place. Duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh, duh-duuhduuh!
[Mary joining in] Mama talking to me/tryin’ to
tell me how to live/I don’t listen to her ‘cos my head
is like a sieve.”
And right now, backstage at the Royal opera
house…
C: “Royal opera house with the king. I bet about
fifteen from the people takes a fucking stinky dump
and he has to wipe like fifteen times, ‘I’m the king, I
still have to wipe, this suuuuucks…’.”
Sometimes there’s still some degree of shame
involved in playing the air guitar. Shouldn’t parents
and bands teach respectively their children and their
fans about these things - that it’s perfectly natural,
everybody’s doing it?
C: “I totally agree, I mean I once started a
petition amongst strictly midgets but I thought it
would work at the time. If anyone knows about air
guitar it’s midgets. We got at least twelve names,
saying ‘you’ve got to incorporate this in the public
education system. It’s gonna work, it’s gonna change
things, it’s gonna do good’. Nothing happened, I was
so let down, I was like, ‘I’m sorry people, all that
work was for nothing so let’s sniff some glue and just
forget about it’.”
I’ll be like the Fonz!”
695 Grave New World
ISTEN 101
By Mikko Mattila,
Dominique Poulain
and Janne Sarna 2002.
Photography by Grant Almén.
I don’t know what it is but it rocks like a
right bastard. As everyone knows, that can
mean the world. All you need’s make the
sign of the horns and...
Me? I’ve written like a dozen caption bits
for an Entombed feature in my head over
the years. Just on the off chance that we’d
feature them again. Last time was Isten #5
in 1991—Uffe Cederlund and Nicke Andersson
answered. It was a total Death Metal
universe we all inhabited back then.
Jörgen Sandström still played in Grave at
the time.
Jörgen Sandström in
Pub Bastun, Åland 2002.
696 Don’t Break the Ghost
ENTOMBED
Grave: at their best, ultra-heavy Death Metal
brutality stripped down to its bare essentials,
sheer overwhelming kill-them-fast power.
Originally founded in Visby on the island of Gotland,
relocated to Stockholm in the turn of the ’90s. Jörgen
Sandström called it a day after three albums.
In 1996 he joined Entombed.
Jörgen, how did you first get into metal? What was
your family like? Did you have siblings who were into
metal? Were you bullied at school?
“I got into metal pretty early. My brother and my
uncle listened to some cool stuff like Judas Priest,
Motörhead, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, etc. And
my first tape I got was when I was 5 or 6, it was
Destroyer by Kiss.
“I thought they looked cool I guess and pointed
on the tape in the store and my mom bought it. And
since then I’ve been into heavy metal! In school it
was total war between heavy metallers and synth
bastards. Almost everyday there was fist fights in
school between us and them. It was great.
“And it made me love metal even more, and
eventually it got me into more extreme metal like
thrash and death and black metal. And I still love it!
To the death!”
reason why Grave moved to Stockholm. There was
no one into metal at Gotland so we couldn’t do any
gigs etc. And that was 10 years ago. I don’t have that
many friends left on Gotland, just a few. But most of
the people I know here in Stockholm are into metal.
And have been since way back.”
I’ve always wondered what your old nickname
”Knot” stood for; care to enlighten me?
”Fuck knows, I think I was trying to be funny on
Scott Ian’s behalf! I wrote Knot on my cap once. If
you translate Knot into Swedish it turns into a man’s
name, Knut, and I thought that was funny, haha... I
don’t know·”
The awesome Grave demo trilogy and the Putrefaction
tape, how do you view ’em today?
”Shit, I still like to listen to these old demos. There’s
stuff on there that I think when I hear it: ’How the hell
did we come up with that idea? It’s fucking great!’
There’s stuff on there I probably couldn’t think of
L-G Petrov and Jörgen Sandström
hammering it down live
were bleeding for weeks! It’s an amazing album,
still! But as I said, we always knew that we weren’t
even close to what Nihilist and Entombed was about.
We wanted a more brutal sound, a more primitive
approach.”
You ended your spot with Grave on a high note with
Soulless, but it probably wasn’t the easiest of rides?
How bad did you suffer under Century Media’s tyranny?
What was the deal like exactly? How did you
squirm your way out of it, and are the other guys still
stuck with it or what?
”I think they were good for us in the beginning.
But back then they didn’t have 1000 bands signed, it
was us, Unleashed, Morgoth, Tiamat, Asphyx and
a few more. So they did support us a lot with tours,
etc. When I think back, they must have worked their
asses off to get us out on all the tours we did. But
we were quite young and didn’t have that much
experience to realise that there’s a lot of work
behind booking a tour. And considering that they are
Have you ever felt there was a cop-out side to your
relationship to metal, that the place it occupies in
your life should be filled by something else?
“Never. I have always listened to metal and will
never stop doing so. But I’m not saying that there’s
no room for other stuff either. I listen to a lot of
other music as well. And doing other stuff that’s not
music oriented, and hang around people that don’t
listen to metal etc. But when, if it comes to it, music,
especially metal, always comes first. I will never
stop, I won’t quit writing or playing or listening to
metal.
“And I’m old enough to say so, I know that it’s like
that and happy to say it.”
What’s your quirkiest metal custom at the moment,
I hear you no longer listen to Venom on the headphones
in your sleep? Is there anything else about
your past metallic excesses that you could mention?
“I had to stop using headphones in general actually.
My ears are ringing constantly and have been doing
it since Metallica’s concert here in Stockholm 1986.
Cliff Burton’s last gig is something I’ll never forget I
guess, coz my ears remind me of it every day.
”Ever since I stopped using my Walkman the
tinnitus has been better, but it’s still there. I have
special made earplugs, that only lowers the volume
and not the frequencies on stage and at rehearsals.
But I hardly ever use them.”
I’m sure you’ve had friends grow out of metal - can
you keep in touch with them or does it get too
awkward?
”Well, most of my friends from when I was living on
Gotland stopped listen to metal fairly early, that’s a
doing today, haha... And consider that 3 of them was
made on a 4-track makes me wonder if we shouldn’t
have been producers instead, haha...”
For you, how does Into the Grave compare to Left
Hand Path? Somehow the production jobs (a tad
one-dimensional, even flat at times) on Grave’s postdemo
work never really did you justice, would you
agree?
”Well, first of all, we never went into the Sunlight
studio with the intention to sound like Entombed. But
at the time it was the only cool studio we knew here
in Stockholm. And I still think that Into the Grave is a
lot more brutal than Left Hand Path. Production-wise
I mean. Left Hand Path is a total death metal classic
and I loved it since the first day when Uffe sent me
an advance tape of it. I was still living on Gotland at
the time and couldn’t believe my fucking ears. They
not a booking agency they did quite good. And we
cost them some money too, but they got the money
back and more through the record sales, that we
never saw much royalties of. WHY? Because we
were young and stupid and signed a shit deal! I
could hate them for giving us a shit deal, but at the
same time, we were not forced to sign anything. It
sounds like I’m defending them. I’m not. But I’m old
enough now to realise where I did wrong 12 years
ago. If I knew then what I know now about all this
business crap I would never ever sign a deal like
that again.”
You joined Entombed during their three-year hiatus
also resulting from record company bullshit. Lookin’
for more trouble, eh? Or were you confident of the
better times ahead? When deep in the middle of all
697 Grave New World
ISTEN 101
L-G Petrov
Knot playing some
Action in the tomb...
mean bass...
Alex Hellid and gawdforsaken scriptures...
L-G Petrov caught off guard by Peter Stjärnvind...
those record company-related hassles, did you ever
think about calling it quits?
”I actually quit Grave coz I wasn’t happy of what
we had become. 3 guys moaning in a van about
being away from home and not earning any money.
”I realised on the last American tour we did in ’94
that I couldn’t go on like this if I would like to keep on
with being in a band. We did some more European
dates after that, and all we did was moan about
everything, so I though fuck it!
”We didn’t even write any cool stuff for the new
record either because we were to miserable with
the situation we were in. So I joined Leukemia,
a band that was around back then. And when
Entombed asked if I would like to play for them, I
gave it a shot, and it was great. It was like starting
all over again. Learning new songs, playing with new
’musicians’, etc.
”The record company bullshit that was going on at
the time never really became me that much as it did
to the others. They were of course really frustrated
and wanted it over with, whilst I was just happy
being able to have fun in a band again. And during
all that hassle, we did some shows, a TV show,
recording some covers etc.
”So for me it was a perfect start, it gave me a
chance to get to know them better as musicians as
well as persons before we got the To Ride, Shoot
Straight and Speak the Truth album out and the
whole year of touring that came with it.”
Do you ever miss the days when you were cranking
it up in Visby? Are things so different for you nowadays
to what they were then?
”We were a few really good friends that were into
metal in Visby, and sometimes I kinda miss it. Like
last year I went there to see my parents, and walked
through town and passed our old rehearsal place
and many of the spots that we just sat around with a
tape deck and listened to Kreator, Death, Destruction,
Celtic Frost, etc. and drinking beer. But it’s not that
much different today, except for some of the friends
are not around.
”But we still sit around a stereo listen to all that
stuff and get drunk before we go to the bar. What
I do miss a bit is the heavy metallers vs. synth
bastards thing. It was fun. We were all so into our
thing that we were ready to beat each other up,
haha... I heard that your countrymen in HIM said in
an interview somewhere that their new album would
sound like a mix between Entombed and Annie
Lennox!? Where’s the world coming to!”
Exactly, HIM being mentioned in Isten and all!
”I don’t like HIM, just had to say what they said,
and I don’t like it! Don’t wanna be mentioned in the
same sentence as Annie Lennox.”
Well, what’s the most irksome memory of your career
so far? Is writing the lyrics to Sexual Mutilation
a particularly proud moment? Do you think that ”Hi,
I’m Jörgen ’Knot’ Sandström, the writer of Sexual
Mutilation” is a good chat-up line?
”I think ’Hi my name is Knot and I have accidentally
drunk Rick Rozz’ piss from a juice bottle when I
was hung over in Poland once’ is a hell lotta worse.
Haha...”
To you, what are the primary things that make Entombed
Entombed? And what makes Entombed great
- what did you think before you joined the band, and
now?
”I was already impressed with them back in the
Nihilist days with the way they wrote the songs.
With how they handled their instrument, that they
sounded so different from all the others. I think the
most important thing with Entombed has always
been the same, NOT afraid of trying out new stuff.
They never really stood still, always came as a
surprise. And we still trying to do that. The songwriting
abilities in this band never seem to stop.”
While writing a song or recording in the studio, does
any of you ever stop and think about guidelines to
follow in order for the end result to be distinctly, unmistakably
Entombed? Or is it more a case of things
feeling just right at some point, without any conscious
input on your side? Like, the Zen of Metal,
so to speak? Gezol of Sabbat from Japan once
put it brilliantly, ”Classic Metal is like a textbook for
us. The sound is alive, like the beating of the heart.
Leave your all to the sound”. Come to think of it, the
Entombed sound truly is something one could easily
leave his all to...
”Well, both yes and no. As I said earlier, we are not
afraid of trying out new ways of doing stuff. But there
has been songs that we had to say: Hell no, that’s
too much off! That’s not even fun how off it is! There
are of course a few guidelines that we do follow,
but that’s really nothing that holds us back when it
comes to writing a song. I can’t speak too much of
what it is here, coz then I have to kill you! Haha...”
I hear you are yourself a bit reluctant (or lazy?) when
it comes to Entombed songwriting. Why’s that?
”I wouldn’t say lazy. When I started with them
almost everything was already written for To Ride
so basically I just had to learn them. Also I always
thought that they were a lot better songwriters than I
am. So I never really got the guts to show them stuff.
”Another thing when I come to think of it, was that
when Nicke quit, Uffe wrote most of the stuff. And
we were doing stuff for the Same Difference album,
and that was a totally new way of writing riffs and
songs for me. So I got a bit lost, coz I didn’t think my
riffs and ideas I had at the time would fit the other
stuff on that album. And then I totally forgot about
them after that. And then when we started doing
stuff for Uprising if felt a bit more natural for me so I
wrote a few of them.
”And then for Morning Star, everything was just
pouring out of Uffe’s guitar like never before so
I couldn’t keep up with his tempo, so I only made
698 Don’t Break the Ghost
ENTOMBED
two of them. Another funny thing is that before we
did Morning Star, none of us knew what direction
it would take. And before we started writing the
material I came up with a great Slayerish thrash
song, so I gave it to Merciless coz they wanted it,
haha... It would have fit on Morning Star as well.
But then again, I’m proud that a band like Merciless
wanna record a song that I wrote!”
Wolverine Blues was such a masterpiece, and then
a three-year hiatus, I guess it was only natural that
DCLXVI: To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth
would disappoint a bit upon release, or what do you
reckon?
As a band you’ve always claimed that the sole
record you’re unsatisfied with is Clandestine,
although it was very well received when it came out.
Obviously, you and your fans don’t always see quite
eye-to-eye; ever feel the urge to beat on your fans
with a baseball bat?
”I know that the others think that Clandestine was
the one they like the least, and to be honest, I do as
well as a fan. There’s some really good stuff on it, but
not as good as I thought Left Hand Path was. And
with Wolverine Blues, it came as a shock for me, and
I was a bit negative for a start, but after I listened to
it again I was hooked. That’s the best album I think.
The production is amazing. And the songs are so
catchy you almost wanna puke, haha...
”Another thing that comes to mind whilst we talk
about what we think and what our fans think, haha...
Same Difference! That was an album that got very
split reviews. And a lot of fans hates us for it still.
But I have noticed lately that more and more of
those fans that rejected it when it came out begins
to understand it now, and it’s not so bad after all!
And I wanna say it now as I said before! It might not
be the Entombed you are used to, in fact it’s pretty
fucking far from what Entombed used to be! But the
album in itself is a really cool album, with really good
stuff on it.
”I remember we talked about it afterwards that
we should have released it under a different band
name, The Threeman Experience. And I still wonder
if people would have accepted it more then or not?
What do you think?”
Well, same diff - everybody would just have gone,
”Oh, it’s official, Entombed is dead”. By the way, the
cover of Same Difference... didn’t you guys say in an
interview that it’s Uffe’s dog in the picture or something?
How come Dan Baird’s CD single entitled
Younger Face (’95) has the exact same photo on the
cover?
”Don’t know about that EP. Uffe and Alx found
that pic somewhere, the dog is cute but I never
understood why they wanted to have it on an
Entombed sleeve to be honest, haha. I don’t care, I
just play bass...”
Can you and do view the music you make as a collective
experience? Is it something you can share?
”Definitely! We put the songs together in
the rehearsal room, and if someone is really
uncomfortable with some stuff we talk about it and
try to re arrange it so that it becomes something that
we can enjoy. At least 90% of it. It’s always some
stuff that someone don’t like, but we are so different
from each other when it comes to music that it’s
impossible to please all of us.”
These days most bands turn out uninspired material,
the spirit of which is ’worry about the sound - forget
about the songs’. It’s most important to be produced
at this or that studio, or to fit into this or that ludicrous
sub-category, than to deliver a genuine heartfelt
performance. Talk about the death of Rock n’ Roll.
In such a context, how hard is it to motivate yourselves
and not get all frustrated?
”We never really pay interest to which studio or
producer is hip. Or trends in general. We are doing
our thing, and only we know what we wanna sound
like. We tried out the producer thing with Daniel Rey
on Same Difference, which was a good experience.
It was mainly our management and record company
that wanted to use a producer. We accepted it after
awhile, and thought that Daniel would be the best
one to use. I mean he did Ramones and some other
cool stuff. He was a great producer, really cool guy
with good ideas and all. But in the end, we know that
we could have done it on our own without spending
all that time and money. After all, we have done this
for so long that we know what we want with our
songs. Bands that use producers can’t be really sure
of what they wanna be. A band that makes music
Jörgen Sandström in praise of the Morning Star...
699 Grave New World
ISTEN 101
for themselves and their true fans, or a product to
please the masses?”
Morning Star is very Metal. What might have led to
this? (a) Touring with Slayer and The Haunted?
”Definitely had a big influence on the record.”
(b) Hammering down golden oldies like “Revel in
Flesh”, “Blessed Be”, “Left Hand Path” et al live a
lot, with great success?
”Not so much, but it’s great to play these songs
again after such a long time.”
(c) Realising what hit like a ton of bricks on Uprising
as well the mental boost given by the (one-off?) rehabilitation
of the old logo - misinterpreted by many
as just a gimmick?
”We definitely liked to play the Uprising songs
live better than the Same Difference songs. So we
wanted more of that for sure. The logo looks great
on some designs, but not always. For Morning Star
Alx Hellid delivering the crunch...
it wouldn’t have been as good as on the Uprising
sleeve.”
(d) What about shaking off Nicke Andersson’s ghost
for good; the mental metal craziness of this line-up -
not least of all Stjärnvind - reaching a peak?
”I think most of us started to get more into metal
again after many long nights with evil Pete in the
tour bus being the tape deck dictator that he is. But
I think another thing is that Uffe and Peter finally
did the Murder Squad album as well, that made
Uffe definitely change his negative thoughts about
playing death metal again.”
What do you think about the state of Metal these
days? Does it actually concern you at all, or is
it enough for you to be able to dust off the old Dr
Shrinker tapes, or put on your favourite Trouble LP
when you feel like it or let Reign in Blood wash away
the day?
”I stayed at Peter’s flat for 8 months recently,
and he indoctrinated me with so much metal
that I have missed out over the years. For years I
have been listening to my old records and demos
and thought that the scene was dead. Funny you
mention Dr Shrinker, haha... Listened to Wedding the
Grotesque the other day, haha... As well as Exmortis’
Immortality’s End...
”Anyway, he got me into alot of stuff like Emperor,
Satyricon, Krisiun. And the most funny of all, I
thought Deathcrush with Mayhem kinda sucked
back in the days so I never gave De Mysteriis Dom
Sathanas a listen, but when he played it to me I
fucking loved it. So I started listen to more and more
to black metal and love some of it. So the latest
couple of albums I bought that I really like is Zyklon’s
World ov Worms, Rebaelliun’s Annihilation, Carnal
Forge’s Please...Die! and I’m sure that the metal
scene is alive and kicking like never before!”
Well, if the metal scene is alive it certainly smells
funny. Do you feel any responsibility for the heritage
of this music? Do you ever think about your position
in the continuum of Sabbath-Maiden-Slayer or whatever
it is for you? Does the necessity to strike a balance
between the need to reproduce and that to innovate
ever appear to you as a conundrum?
”Actually I don’t think of it. But recently Grave
started rehearse again, and there was a rumour that
I was back in the band. They played a show here
in Stockholm in Sept. and a lot of people asked me
if I was back in the band, which I’m not, but after
that I understand that I might be responsible for
influencing a lot of people with my vocals.
”And I don’t really know how to cope with that.
I’m quite shy, maybe more modest, when it comes
to speaking about myself. I don’t think I’m a better
person because I’ve had the fortune to record a
bunch of records and been touring for 12 years. Just
lucky.
”But, of course I get flattered when someone
comes up to me and give me cred for my work. I
don’t think I answered your question there, but fuck
it, I’m tired, haha...”
The death metal boom of the early ’90s heralded
the birth of a number of disastrous trends in metal:
bands always flocking to the same studios in order
to replicate a certain sound, the search of musical
”brutality” for its own sake, everyone and their grandfuckingmother
forming an outfit in a mad asphyxiating
dash of poor demo tapes and worse CDs, the enshrinement
of individuals whose only merit was that
they happened to have been there at the right moment
at the right place, etc.
At the same time, the truly great bands that
ushered in the genre, such as yourselves, Grave,
Carcass, Autopsy, Death, Carnage, etc. never quite
reached the popularity levels of their predecessors
Uffe Cederlund after the attack..
and forebears. And then of course we got black
metal junior. What was so wrong with death metal?
”There was nothing wrong with DM. The biggest
problem was all the record labels signing too many
crap bands. Bands that had nothing interesting to
come up with. So people got fed up and the whole
thing got boring. And I think that’s why the real good
bands got forgotten as well.
”The black metal scene kinda is today where death
metal scene then, too many crap bands get signed
and the true good ones don’t get the credit for it.
”It’s not as shocking as it was when the
Norwegians were killing each other and burning
churches. Fuck, Dimmu Borgir even got a Grammy
in Norway!”
Why do you think Swedish death metal has never really
been interesting on paper? Most of the people
involved were never real good as interviewees, the
line-ups were too unstable and intermingled, and
you guys never burnt too many churches either...
”We Swedes are a quite modest and silent kind of
people. I was never good in interviews, got nothing
shocking to come up with. Then again, I’d like to
keep my private life to myself and talk about the
band and music in interviews.
”Not about how I grew up and then try to get
people to feel sorry for me. I hate that kind of shit. ’I
got raped and abused bla bla bla!’... I’m in a band
coz I love to play, and I think most of us in Swedish
bands are. Not to make a fucking circus out of it.”
What’s the beef with the LP version of Uprising taking
so long? Do you have a special relationship with
vinyl yourself?
”Actually, we don’t consider Uprising as a release
until its on vinyl, or Morning Star. We will try to get
some one to release it soon. We are working on it.
But not so fast, haha...”
Ola Lindgren has planned to put out all the Grave
demos plus the Putrefaction demo on one CD. Do
you know anything about this and how do you feel
about it? I think this stuff (and Entombed’s too, obviously)
should be put on vinyl rather than on CD...
”I know he already did a CD with all that stuff. I
don’t care. I rather put on my tapes.”´
700 Don’t Break the Ghost
ENTOMBED
Do you have any plans to release But Life Goes On
demo on vinyl or CD? How about the Nihilist demos?
What do you think of the bootleg But Life Goes On 7”
that was recently released?
”There is no plans to release the demo stuff. I think
demos should be on cassette. Why release all that
old stuff, why can’t people just tape trade like in the
good old days?”
Do you ever feel Entombed’s cover of “Night of the
Vampire” is the ultimate black metal song, especially
when watching the vid? Do you feast on roasted
pengu?
”I do think that Roky Erikson has a fucked up
mind, totally possessed. When I saw the video that
Entombed did I just laughed.
”They did it for 5000 Swedish crowns and it was
better than any other video I’ve seen. Who needs
special effects for a million dollars when you got a
super eight camera, snow, a graveyard and some
sense of humor!”
Four members of Entombed, including yourself, are
also involved in side-projects. Isn’t there an inherent
contradiction between that fact and the single-minded
devotion required by a band?
”No, we have realised that we have to do other
bands on the side. Otherwise we would have to use
these ideas in Entombed and believe me, that would
be a strange fucking record, haha...
“We use the other bands as a filter of what we
don’t want to involve with Entombed. Well, some of
the stuff in other bands could be used for Entombed,
but that’s just the way it is.
There is tons of new ideas to come up with when
we write a new record, so we don’t worry to much
about it. Entombed is the number one priority for all
of us as a band but it doesn’t mean that we don’t give
100% in the other bands as well though.
It’s a matter of will and a matter of good planning
with releases etc.”
You were involved in Unrealestate, an opera production
with ballerinas and what not. What sense is that
supposed to make for a Heavy Metal band? I mean,
everything even remotely related to Classical Music,
isn’t that the enemy par excellence?
”Totally agree. It’s too fucked up. That’s why we
agreed to do it. I’m sure it will piss a lot of people off!
Be it metal fans or opera fans or ballet freaks, I’m
pretty sure we get shit for this, haha... And that’s the
whole idea behind it, from us as well as the 2 artists
that came up with the idea. They wanna stir things
up in the nice hall called The Royal Opera House.
Where time stands still, where the conservative
people hold their flag up high! We have been asked
to do what we do, to be who we are, nothing more,
nothing less. We’ll be there playing our music, in our
clothes. No one else is involved in the performance
of the music than us. For us it’s another challenge
but at the same time just another 8 gigs! But in a
very different environment.”
Would you say that you listen to metal differently
now than, say, 10 years ago? If yes, would you put
that down to aging or your experience as a musician?
Ever feel sad about it?
”Sure I do. I got a lot more selective than 10 years
ago, well maybe more like 13-14 years ago. Back
then you could get a demo with a fucking vacuum
cleaner on it and a band name and I’d love it! I
actually try harder now to find good death/black/
thrash metal bands than for many years at the
moment. I’m giving it a chance again. Back then it
was so new that almost everything you heard was
cool and fresh, now that everything has been done
twice it’s harder. But there is a bunch really cool
bands out there, keeping the metal alive. I don’t
find it sad at all. I still have all the cool demos and
records from back then to enjoy, haha... And as a
metal fan and as a musician it’s always interesting to
find new stuff.”
Well, there you have it. Heavy metal is such a good
idea. The subtle interplay of unashamedly greasy
hair and social incompetence disguised as tales
of violence and force bathed in an ecosystem of
screaming guitars - it rules, quite simply. If you had
to plump for just one metal stereotype to take on to a
desert island with you, what would it be?
”Boring answer but quite obvious for me. A flying
V of course!”
701 Grave New World
Content previously published on the Isten website.
You Know Me
“You know me, evil eye
You know me, prepare to die
You know me, the snakebite kiss
Devil’s grip, the Iron Fist”
Aah, the force of Iron Fist! Featherlight like a
mausoleum full of panzers, it’s a poignant, beautifully
observed memoir of teen uncertainty. Because that’s
what it’s all about, isn’t it, heavy metal?
In 1984 I was so full of metal I could hardly get out
of bed in the mornings. The Number of the Beast’s
crashing chords and crushing words bled into
my dreams. It anatomized my fears of failure and
rejection, of satanic loneliness. Of a regular maths
lesson turning into a portal to everlasting hell. Oh,
and of even worse spots spawned to be released.
Dickinson sang, in Harris’ words, ‘In the night the
fires burning bright/the ritual has begun Satan’s
work is done’, hiding a history of the universe in
those few words.
Sure thing! Wherever you see hair grow or a zit
ripen, you might just as well spot a flash of the
hoof and the horn. It’s the old arch steel in the
guise of the Devil tempting youngsters down the
Route Irreversible.
It was around that time that I started this magazine
with my cousin. We were probably too young and
innocent to realize that Holy Diver was actually
Ronnie James singing about the adventures of his
todger. Neither did we fully appreciate the finesse
with which Conrad Lant delved the living hell of
sexual frustration in Teachers Pet, and the sociopolitical
commentary of Blackie Lawless’ codpiece
did little more than baffle us.
But there was something about heavy metal that
was sexier than Glynis Barber in Dempsey &
Makepeace. Its gripping otherness devoured us
whole. It was the harbinger of a new weather in
our tender years. Big, wild, beautiful, gloomy,
mean and proud, it galloped into our lives and
made us aware of the world that lies south of
heaven. Or south of the navel.
Poor bastards. And we were everywhere.
“The volume was truly staggering, and
Hammersmith that night was not a place for the
faint hearted. “This one’s called Kill with Power”,
said [vocalist Eric] Adams halfway through.
“Oh my God,” said the guy who’d travelled from
Cornwall next to me, and took pride in telling
everybody. Then he proceeded to get his organ
out, I kid you not.”
Dave Ling, Metal Hammer July 1987
When my cousin sometime around ‘87 traded
the glory of living metal for something that can
only be described as ‘no metal’ - hanging out
with non-metal friends, doing normal non-metal
things, living normal non-metal life - it was a harsh
reminder that there is no common denominator
in belonging. There’s no stable perspective.
There is nothing between yourself and metal, or
there’s no metal at all. I, too, used to have that
choice between metal and no metal until the latter
decided it didn’t want me. How can you not feel
like you’re exactly in the right place at the right
time when Angel of Death is on? When you drop
your studies to the sound of Gods of Wrath?
Lose jobs to Metal Thrashing Mad? Whack off to
True As Steel? And as for Don’t Break the Oath,
how is it not like a beacon, an Olympic flame, an
undisputed grain of truth? Essential as a heartbeat
and a leather jacket.
So my cousin opted out while I took the plunge
—the dragon dragged me ever on. It taught me
everything that I need to know, little by little. For
example that there’s no one except me in the whole
wide world listening to metal with this particular set
of ears. And that it is not a phase. How could it be,
when over and over again the music plays my spine
like some unrecognisable instrument from beyond,
makes the heart skip beats, sucks out the light and
carves out something truly splendid? Or, well, at
least I readily accept a badly-drawn monster as my
icon. Now, there is no easy way of saying this. The
sound of silliness continues to speak volumes to
me. It’s nothing short of a revelation.
I’m twenty-nine going on fourteen. At least once a
year my mother makes it her business to remind
me that I should cut my hair - ‘what do you need
it for? You’re not in a band, as far as I know’.
Yeah, long hair is for musicians and homosexuals
exclusively. Who knows what she thought of
me during my years as the ultimate heavy metal
hermit. And what did she think when my girlfriendnow-fiancée
came into the picture? ‘Years of
unrequited devil worship finally paying off?’
Indeed, I never became friends with Ol’ Nick. And
never had masses of friends anyway. There’s a
reader, a ghost of a reader, here in Mattila’s head.
The heavy metal dragon put it there. It’s a much
better arrangement than putting me in direct
contact with real-life readers and non-readers.
‘Make heavy metal his tunnel, his vision and his
wheelchair,’ the dragon thought, ‘and rid him of
social contacts, so he won’t mind giving it all he’s
got for nothing.’ Contrary to popular belief, heavy
metal is not an escape. True aficionados never feel
like they had allowed metal to fill gaps that should
have been occupied by something else. Ask us, and
we’ll tell you that sometimes, at its best, life is a
pretty good metaphor for heavy metal. Except that
metal doesn’t start somewhere and end someplace
else. And metal’s infinitely more exciting, too.
True metal mania, the dedication of the diehard
metal fiend, is not a watery version of the musician’s
accomplishment. It is a celebration of our own. Vinyl
hunters going on a diet of tap water and crispbread
to nail that 200-dollar Razor debut (vg+, heavy
ring wear on cover). Traders risking life and limb
to restore Devastation’s time-worn rehearsal tapes.
Metal pilgrims going all around the globe in search
of the heaviest gigs or the coolest second hand
shops, or the school where young Bruce Dickinson
urinated in the headmaster’s dinner. Fact is that
the biggest bullheads among us are much closer
to the larger-than-life ideal of grand metal than
many of the musicians. We are the stars. We are the
defenders. We are the metal patrol.
The only reason why air guitarring skills aren’t
universally envied is that metal is continuously
mistaken for a genre of music, a form of
entertainment or a career.
Heavy metal is a realm. Between bad dreams, I
think I can understand it. At least it makes perfect
nonsense to me. This is Isten. It sings its praises of
heavy metal in a croaky little voice, plays a lot of air
guitar, burbs and farts every now and again. A bit
juvenile, but serious as hell.
Mikko Mattila
7 March 2002
Dead and Gone
“Raise your can of beer on high
And seal your fate forever
Our best years have passed us by
The golden age of leather”
Blue Öyster Cult, The Golden Age of Leather
Hi, welcome to metal 2001, a temporal neverwhere
ensconced in post-modernism, where the blood
and sweat of bygone decades is the stuff of namedropping
for vapid socialites, where extremity is
somehow equated with poor riffing and worse
songwriting, where a band such as Sabbat are
dubbed either ‘old school’ or ‘retro’ , where the
power chord has gone limpwristed.
Con-fucking-gratulations on the blunted-edge sideprojects,
the Fischer Price keyboards, the endless
stream of cunting obituaries masquerading as
‘tributes’ , the hamfisted, insulting rip-offs of music
worth living for.
“Rising to our own nadir
Reality we try to extirpate
Trying to raise a twisted smile
Similar to that silver plate
On a coffin which is joined
Hammering in each final nail
Last kill and testament
Left now intestate...”
Carcass, Symposium of Sickness
No remorse, screw the corpse! Let’s come up with
our own bullshit rules, let’s consign our raping
forgery of Heavy Metal’s legacy to posterity. Let’s
bask in the spurious glory of hindsight passed
off as insight. Heavy Metal is larger than life, it
explodes in all directions, it acknowledges no god
nor master, no friend nor lover, it’s the Russian
roulette of the Gods.
Admittedly, that’s a bit too much for you. Yes,
you, who have been busy trying to make sense
of it all, in the hope of validating your teenage
riot. What are you looking for, a secure sense of
identity? A reassuring life narrative? You won’t
find them here. Embracing Heavy Metal’s flair for
cartoons is a meaningless endeavour when you fail
to grab the punch line’s depth by the balls. As for
its underlying current of rebellion-fuelled anguish,
you missed that altogether, didn’t you ? And the
brutal lust for life, and the slap-happiness, and the
powerful sorrow, the laughter and pain, the hatred
and rage. You’ve been playing it safe, sterilized.
Instead you’ve been posturing, painting yourselves
black, waging war against the ‘posers’ and ‘untrue’,
ragging about evil from the comfort and protection
afforded by your bourgeois lifestyles. Having a
personal, intimate relationship with Heavy Metal
became secondary- just to prove the point you
dropped ‘heavy’ en route to nowhere, in the same
way you conveniently forgot that what you got into
was called Hard Rock in the first place.
But you’ve gotten old. Everything changes, though
it all stays the same. In pining memory of your
wasted years, you’re groping along for a link, a
portal to fling you a decade back. You want to
turn your memories into dogma, Heavy Metal into
history—safe, sterilized. There you are, deciding
what bands should be acknowledged as ‘cult’
or ‘seminal’, which ones should be left by the
wayside. What attitudes and demeanours should
be hallowed. You’ve sabotaged Heavy Metal’s
present, now you want to hijack its past with your
702 Don’t Break the Ghost
Digital Glue
“My mission in life is writing about metal for cardboard boxes.”
jury-rigged canons and your gullible use of tired
old clichés.
Yeah, you might even try to validate yourselves
with violence and force: kill for metal, die for
metal! So fucking what? Death is certain, life is not,
you’re only underlining that you have so little faith
in Heavy Metal that you just can’t live for it. You
turn it into a prison, whereas it’s all about being
scot-free; you wanna make it the perquisite of a
ghettoed, self-styled ‘elite’, but it will never comply.
Heavy Metal is wherever heartbeats are skipped
listening to the music, it headbangs in the streets,
air guitars at bus stops, stagedives in the mosh-pit
and fucks behind the PA. It’s fast, loud and rude,
an unstoppable force forever standing proud with
a raised middle finger at your bollocks conventions
and Rotary Club lives.
Reign in Print
I’ve Got Issues
Dominique Poulain
July 2001
My mission in life is writing about metal for
cardboard boxes. At my core, I think I’ve always
wanted to be useful and ambitious but there’s
something in my chemistry that doesn’t allow me
to be. All I can do is try and pretend there weren’t
enough boxes of unsold Istens in our wardrobe.
I mean, who could I blame? Iron Maiden for
writing “Revelations”, a song that makes the
word “heavy” in “heavy metal” sound like an
expression of hardship and profundity rather than
a proclamation of a weight problem?
Whenever I encounter shit in life I seek comfort in
the ridiculous notion that I can put it to good use in
my… erm, art. Ennobled by suffering, kind of thing.
Police report an outbreak of Weltschmerz for an
audience consisting of cardboard boxes in the
Hatanpäänkatu area. No need to panic. No need
to give a shit.
Small Print
Legendary comic artist Robert Crumb had an
older brother called Charles, whom Robert always
considered to be more talented than him. It was
just that Charles Crumb happened to be quite
insane. As his schizophrenia got from bad to
worse, his comics became increasingly text-ridden.
In the end he could no longer fit any drawings
inside the frames, they were all jam-packed with
teeny weeny print. All of it, every last word, some
real meaningful stuff brought to him by goblins at
night, apparently.
Sometimes I feel like Charles Crumb, in a way. I
mean, look at me now, waffling all this profound
nonsense when all I set out to do was writing a
simple review. To-do list for today: kill self, you
redundant tosser.
Dodo Bird
Well, one thing that’s now even more dead than
before is Dauthus, the death metal rag from
Stockholm. It would be a bit of a stretch to call the
third and final issue a reader’s delight, but it does
lend itself splendidly for frequent browsing. You
may love it or hate it, but you can’t help but admire
the deathly chic and conviction.
Timo Ketola’s journal is a coffee table book for
necrophiles obsessed with illegible font faces/sizes.
The rag comes stapled to death on all corners and
dipped in blood and urine (or just paint, perhaps).
The layout is awe-inducing, and the overwhelming
ambience of death and putrefaction makes
you kind of ignore what exactly it is that you’re
reading - with your magnifying glass - whether
it be the interview with Necrovore, or the ones
with Repugnant, Vulpecula, and Watain, or the
graveyard review section.
“6€ Europe / $7 world, no trades, available from
Hell” (that’s Haninge, Sweden, in case you were
wondering, but I hear the mag is sold out now),
says the flyer. Nuff said? Oh, and R.I.P.
Metal as a Museum Piece
On a general note, it’s not a pretty picture: fanzines
and metal magazines in the ‘00s. Who reads them?
Who needs them? If the proper definition of “metal
scene” is “people putting something between
themselves and their metal”, how should one
define “metal zine”? It’s out-and-out self-delusion
poorly disguised as a lame co-branding regime:
“The true old school spirit brought to you by me
asking some silly band what true old school spirit
means to them in 2003.” Or, “I know I’d be much
better off listening to “Piece of Mind” and “Hail to
England” but here I am, reviewing shitty promo
CDs by contemporary True Metal bands”.
When Frank Stöver first kicked Snakepit into gear
in the mid-’90s, we here at Isten towers deemed it
an exercise in heavy metal nostalgia, resembling
a prog rock magazine in spirit. That still stands.
We also concluded that without Frank at the helm,
Snakepit would be a nightmare. Well, Frank’s in a
minor role these days, but we have to admit that
Messrs Konzett, Ramadier, Coe et al are doing a
good job. You’ll have to be completely analgesic
to read it all and smile, the countless reviews and
everything, but the titbits provide lots of fun.
Jeff Wagner’s input in particular is always worth
its weight in gold. This time, his interview with
Leif Edling is the highlight of the mag. Ramadier
and Coe’s exhaustive Whiplash spectacle is a
runner-up, and then there’s Possessed, Vio-lence,
a label special with Combat Records, and so on.
Altogether, 104 pages of good times/bad times of
metal. Try and separate the new bands from the
old ones when you first flick it through.
[Contact information.]
Metaleonid & the Metal Pravda
Slayer Magazine Vol. 17 subtitled “Witching Metal”
comprises 68 pages of Metalion mania. “Bringing
you Metal aggression in print since ‘85!,” it says.
Yeah, everything about commander Kristiansen’s
family mag is so nice and familiar to avid readers
like myself - since ‘87! - that missing an issue is
not an option, even with Metalion’s new and
accelerated pace of putting out these fuckers. In
fact, here I am, trying to review this one and Vol.
18 has already hit the streets!
Slayer Mag is a brezhnevian entity. Think
parades, hoary old war horses wearing fur caps,
time standing still (but in a very nice way). You
just gotta love Jon “Leonid” Kristiansen! Hail
Metaleonid! It’s so sweet you want to give the
whole world a big hug. I also prefer these whitecovered
Slayers to the black-covered ones, for
some reason. If truth be told, it doesn’t quite
possess the same magic and addictive quality
for me than all those years ago when cows that
say ‘OIIINK!’ and the price of Dubbel Dajm were
central themes in interviews.
In Vol. 17 we have mad, bad Jon Nödtveidt
lecturing at great length about anti-cosmic
Satanism and his black alchemical process in
relation to the return of Dissection sometime
in 2004. Fortunately the interviews with Razor,
Candlemass, Exodus, Repulsion et al are more
down-to-earth. It’s good shit, and I don’t even
know why I no longer feel the urge to read my
Slayers word for word, cover to cover. Well, gonna
read what I read, put some Razor on the turntable,
and not worry too much about it. Metal and life,
they’re both better that way.
[Contact information.]
I Just Heard the
Greatest Guitar Solo
of My Fucking Life
Mikko Mattila
7 March 2003
I just heard the greatest guitar solo of my fucking
life. I played it four times in a row, and when I say
four, I mean maybe twelve. I won’t play it again
tomorrow, and probably not the next day either.
The time for this solo is now. And now. And now
again. Wait... Now.
Still, I’m quite sure I couldn’t hum it to you. In
fact, I refuse to memorize it. That would mean
taking it out of context - a spotty album by a
barely-cult band released by a minor label in 1984,
thirty minutes into a batch of material with few
discernable highlights.
Guitar solos have a way of repeating themselves.
And I’m not referring to In Flames’ use of Grip
Inc.’s “Hostage to Heaven” in “Morphing Into
Primal.” I’m more interested in short-term
repetition, like the metallic origami feast here - a
house of cards, as fragile as it is perfect. A map
unfolding and unfolding again.
Some repetition is more subtle. Rock ‘N’ Rolf’s
unending reliance on the same four-note passage
sure is cute, but only if you’re paying attention
(“Soulless”, “Kiss of Death”, “Running Blood”,
“Blazon Stone”, “Black Soul”, et al.) Jeff Wagner
once compiled a compelling tape of all the Kiss
solos that Entombed used for To Ride, Shoot
Straight, and Speak the Truth. And could it be a
coincidence that Iron Savior (“Protect the Law”),
Helloween (“Falling Higher”), and Gamma Ray
(“Somewhere Out in Space”) each stumbled onto
the same lick in 1997? Doubtful.
Perhaps, then, Alan Jones and Phil Cope were
readying to unload their own moments of genius in
1984, while an even darker guitarist stepped into
the light and executed a guitar solo whose only
source material was itself. See also: none. It nearly
plays backwards and forwards at once.
Maybe you could read some tablature, practice
up, and convince yourself you’re playing the same
thing. But you wouldn’t be fooling me. This is
unrepeatable magic of the highest order, not so
much a coincidence as a conspiracy.
Professor Black
2004?
703 Grave New World
Content previously published on the Isten website.
Dream Death
Don’t Let My Death Go to Your Head
A minor gem from 1987, except that there’s
nothing minor about it. Dream Death’s one and
only album, Journey into Mystery, is tough as nails
and downright scary, a bone-crunching monster
from a label specialised in bugbears.
Superficially Journey into Mystery is a very typical
New Renaissance Records product in that it was
done on a lunch-box budget and is adorned with
a sleeve that’s, well, very very bad. To the great
joy of anyone with a NWOBHM-heavy musical
education, the album caters with doomy tones in
abundance. It’s foreboding like early Celtic Frost,
oozing doomsday vitriol like Sabbath, Trouble, and
Candlemass on a particularly gloomy day, and it
thrashes with the best of ‘em. Brian Lawrence’s
vocal punctuation and rhythm is somewhat
exotic, its impaired brilliance closely related to
the style of one Tom Araya. It cannot work, and
while it doesn’t, it does. Bugger me if that isn’t the
definition of love!
Back in 1987 I interviewed drummer Mike Smail
for Isten 3 and questioned him, among other
important issues, on skateboarding. For the record,
I have never skated in my life and have no interest
whatsoever in the sport, and it was pretty much
the same with him. Why do these things happen?
Apart from Anthrax having a lot to answer for,
Journey into Mystery just happens to be that kind
of record - all sound, no blah-blah. You’ll want to
keep listening to it until the landlord threatens to
call the police. You don’t want to debate it, analyse
it, you’ll just want to assume foetal position and
keep very silent. Well, I do, at any rate.
Mr Smail, do you personally consider Journey into
Mystery a metal classic? What precisely are your
feelings about it some 14 years later?
“A metal classic…!? That’s a bit of a stretch for
me. Classic is such a strong word. When I think of
classic I think of things much bigger, but I do think
it was very good and still do! I think it was a bit
ahead of its time and too quick to fall away (more
due to other circumstances... i.e. label, etc.) We
still play some Dream Death songs, namely the
song Dream Death.”
That’s ‘we’ as in Penance, the drummer’s current
band - ever persevering doom vets, Sabbath
stalwarts, and essentially a direct continuation of
Dream Death.
Done in 11 hours for $800 - would Journey into
Mystery have been as fresh and unique, and
delivered with as much power and guts if you had
been allotted more time in the studio? Is the sound
we hear the sound you had in the rehearsal room?
“Well, that’s a tough one. More time in the
studio is always a good thing, but maybe it
wouldn’t have sounded as it does now, so who
knows? I like to take things just as they are... good
or bad. It was definitely a decent recording, but we
never did capture on LP what you heard live… just
a wall of fucking sound! That’s where experience
comes in and we were pretty much novices back
then.”
Do you think that the nature of the business has
changed so much that something like Journey
into Mystery couldn’t happen in this day and age?
The feel, the performance, the spirit are no longer
where it’s at?
“Yes and no. I don’t think the underground is just
that anymore… underground. Everything is so
accessible now and those days are gone. But on
the same token, with all the technology, home
studios, computers, internet etc., there is much
more of a forum for bands to do things on their
own and get their music out. I don’t know whether
I agree with your last statement though. Something
is either good or it’s not… that simple.”
The music on Journey into Mystery is idiosyncratic,
plain heavy metal played with conviction, cohesion
and flair - that’s what makes it a masterpiece. Do
you think it’s possible to be so successful with the
metal formula when you start trying to push the
envelope too much? Are you still thrashers or just
virtuosos when you’re Watchtower, for instance?
“Thanks for all the kind words! Well, yes you
can be successful if you don’t try and fix what’s
not broken, but at the end of the day- that’s still
a formula and sooner or later, formulas always
lose. I think the trick is to just play what you feel
and to Hell with everything else. Formulas are for
mathematics... I’m a fucking drummer! Ha! I see
what you are saying that the more talent you have
or get to, the more you want to display it. If you
do that in a good way for yourself and are happy
and honest about it... it becomes a NATURAL
progression - which is great! If you do it just to
do it... we’re back to that formula again... great
musicianship, but no song-writing and it usually
shows.”
In the Penance biography I was surprised with the
explanation that “the collapse of the speed and
thrash metal scene” led to your decision to bury
Dream Death. As if it had been a case of being
mere followers! Wasn’t it more to do with parting
ways with bass player Ted Williams who then
joined Eviction (urgh!) and Brian Lawrence not
being able to commit to the cause 100 per cent?
“No. It had the most to do with New Ren being
a SHIT label and not properly run which helped
lead to the 2nd LP never coming out and THEN
disenchantment started to settle in.”
Yeas, the second album Ode to Sorrow never saw
the light of day. To what extent were the songs
written, and what was it like?
“Well, we did a demo after Journey into Mystery
that had ‘The Unseen’, ‘A Wayfarer’s Tale’, and
‘Born To Suffer’ on it which were going to be on
it, but then the label folded etc... Those songs all
saw the light of day anyway, just with the name
Penance. I remember the last Dream Death show
and being very sad. I was upset that the band was
done as it was and I still wanted to play. Especially
with Brian quitting, cause it was him and I from the
very beginning. So that’s where Penance came in.
Terry [Weston, guitar - Ed.] and I kept playing and
called it Penance. Brian sang on our first demo,
Living Truth, because we couldn’t find a singer to
replace him as of that time. Everyone kind of looks
at Dream Death and Penance as two different
bands and I can see why, if they don’t know the
history etc., but they are pretty much one and the
same to me.”
The Living Truth demo remains the Penance
release that I personally am most familiar with.
I guess I’ve been a little superstitious about the
band - as if the magic that Journey into Mystery
possesses for me could somehow wear off. I
reckon I’m entitled to such silly behaviour as a fan?
As a die-hard Sabbath enthusiast you may even
understand me?
“Totally! I met both Tony and Geezer when I was
over in Birmingham rehearsing with Cathedral for
Forest of Equilibrium. They were practising in the
next room! Had lunch etc... said ‘ello when I’d pass
them in the hall...was all a bit surreal. I’m sure they
wouldn’t even remember me though!”
Well, you should’ve asked them about skateboarding,
pal!
Mikko Mattila/Dominique Poulain 2003
Slaughter
Respect the Dead
“It’s a different world today and things are different
and I’d rather let the Slaughter legacy remain as a
memory, of times past.”
Thus spake Terry Sadler (vox, guitars) when
I asked him last year about his band’s thenrumoured
reunion. Fucking ace as far as I’m
concerned, too, considering how many bands
blithely reform only to embarrass themselves - and
me. Calling it quits for good is one of those things
people are extremely loath to do, I suppose; a pity
then that most never-say-diers are in such a great
need of swift mercy killing - human dignity and all
that. Or maybe you’re thrilled at the idea of seeing
for yourself exactly in what way Thomas Gabriel
Fischer plans to rape the Frost’s legacy ? No-one’ll
ever see them fall my arse.
Anyway, back to Terry and Slaughter. On the
band’s website you state that you and the
other band members feel that “the cult, legend
of Slaughter should remain as it was and not
exploited like so many other ‘80s bands”. What
precise examples did you have in mind ?Also,
what is for you as a fan the worst such instance
of exploitation, the moment when you felt like
the music that meant the world to you was sold
wholesale?
“Some of the ‘80s bands that have reformed
that maybe shouldn’t have are Poison, The Cult,
Sodom, Exodus, etc. Although I loved these bands,
I don’t believe that they should continue. I can’t
name one big example but unless it is the exact,
same, original, band members and they succeed in
capturing their classic ‘80s sound and play it with
genuine enthusiasm, then they shouldn’t reform!”
Hmm. You’re mistaken about Sodom, mate; they
never split. They’ve been consistently excellent
over the years, too, Better Off Dead excepted.
Oh well, enough with those reuniting tossers
already; let’s talk about something cooler, like
chainsaw-wielding Punk skeletons for instance ;
the one depicted on Surrender or Die’s cover bears
a strong resemblance to the undead figuring on
some of The Exploited’s record sleeves (noticeably
on Troops of Tomorrow and Death Before
Dishonour). Did you get the idea from them or is it
just a coincidence?
“We got the idea exactly from the Exploited! It
looked cool and we just modified it slightly. I was/
am a big old school ‘70s/’80s punk rock fan!”
That makes two of us, then. Speaking of Punk, I
know that you’re a Plasmatics/Wendy O. fan (and
that you borrowed from them the great “one two
fuck you” line), you toured with GBH at some
point and on the website you claim that Slaughter
played “a mixture of speed, death and thrash
metal combined with the raw, power and noisy,
snot-nosed attitude of early punk rock music.”
How important do you think was Punk, especially
second-wave Punk, in shaping ‘80s Metal? Back
in the day, did you consider that Punk and Heavy
Metal were markedly different in sound and/or
704 Don’t Break the Ghost
Digital Glue
“No-one’ll ever see them fall my arse.”
attitude or did you think both styles shared a basic
identity?
“Many qualities from early punk rock was a
huge influence on the Slaughter sound. I loved the
brutality of the Sex Pistols, Discharge, Plasmatics,
G.B.H., Direct Action, Youth Youth Youth,
Ramones, Johnny Thunders, Wayne County and
The Electric Chairs and the new aggression of the
metal stuff like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Saxon,
Samson, early Rush, Ted Nugent, etc. I believe
that punk put the snot back into heavy metal and
gave it a more vicious,kick in the ass. Look at Paul
Di’Anno in early Iron Maiden and compare that to
pre-punk metal like Aerosmith, etc. I liked all that
shit, but wanted to combine the heaviness of Black
Sabbath with the fury and attitude of The Damned.
In the early ‘80s it was metal fans vs punk rockers
but by 1984 it began to be acceptable to love both
genres!”
If there is one thing Punk and HM share as far as
attitude’s concerned, it’s the ever-present desire
to denounce the “posers”. Isn’t such a concern
the expression of teenage insecurity and of the
burning though unadmitted desire most people
feel at that age to get an identity-by-proxy as part
of a social group? Is it really surprising, then, that
as they get older most people will opt out of HM or
Punk? When a huge emphasis is put on extraneous
bullshit (“if you don’t like this you’re a poserwimp”
etc.) how can it be possible for someone to
develop an intimate relationship with the music,
which is supposedly the point of the whole thing?
“True hardcore metal and punk fans, all seem to
be kids who never fit in with the radio, pop bullshit
that is forced down everyone’s throats by the
media. They can spot poseurs and trendies a mile
away and the true, underground fans despised
corporate, media fodder that is filling up the space
in peoples, empty hollow lives. There are two types
of music fans. Those who are totally absorbed by
the music and soak up every detail of a song and
the people who talk through music, never listen
and use it as background noise to fill up a lull in
their minds to keep them from having individual
thoughts. They use music as white-noise to drown
out any free thoughts that enter their heads. Not
only teenagers are dedicated music fans but all
people who really love their music. You either are
a true music lover or you’re not! No matter what
you’re age, if it’s too loud, you’re too old!”
Do you think that all straight people have the old
banana implant, then?
“Wise,true words from the legendary,Wendy
O.Williams! All straights have rotten fruit, wedged
firmly up the old asshole and they spend their
mediocre lives with rotten fruit on their minds...”
A pretty accurate description, I’d say. Let’s move
on to the topic of Slaughter’s notorious gigs; you
very clearly took pride in kicking the audience’s
collective arse when you played live. What bands
kicked yours? And which ones turned out to be
disappointments?
“The bands that really kicked my ass hard and
made me sweat were the live concerts by early
Judas Priest, early Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister, Kiss,
Alice Cooper, Plasmatics, early Rush, Led Zeppelin,
early Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, The Sex Pistols,
Wayne County & The Electric Chairs, Exciter, Rapid
Tears, Anvil, Slayer, Mercyful Fate, etc. Some shows
that I saw in the late 1970s and early 1980s were
legendary! I remember seeing Exciter on stage with
tons of dry ice, with their backs to the audience
and then launch into a fury of brutality. I saw The
Scorpions with Motörhead and they destroyed my
hearing for a week! I have a noticeable hearing loss
to this day from all the years, standing in the front
row and being blown completely away by many
classic, legendary bands.”
Wendy O. Williams’ arguably greatest live stunt
(from her music-playing days I mean) was when,
in 1979, she drove a Cadillac into a stage loaded
with explosives, jumping out mere seconds away
from impact; and of course she had made an
habit of blowing up cars and lighting trusses
onstage. Yourselves were no slouches in the wild
live performances department, fucking up guitars
and throwing chickens, records or mangled
dolls into the audience. If Slaughter had had as
much money to burn as WOW had, what kind of
wanton demolition act do you reckon you’d have
performed onstage?
“I have a live video of The Plasmatics playing
that show. They blew my mind. Ritchie Stotts
in a ballet dress, drooling all over himself, Wes
Beech grimacing and strumming 1,000 miles per
hour and Wendy moaning and covered in dirt,
dead flowers and shaving cream on a pier in New
York City! If I had the cash I’d think of something
similar like setting the drums on fire,blowing up
a coffin of baby dolls and filling the concert hall
with pigs guts. Imagine pig entrail falling down
from the ceiling onto an audience. Alice Cooper
used to brag about being so bizarre that people
would pay to see the show just to walk out by the
second song... Hmmmmm great idea! We used to
curse the audience out and tell them that they paid
their admission so they better enjoy it or get the
fuck out. We singled out anyone sitting down and
put the spot lights on them until they got up and
moved! Many times I ran out into the audience to
confront the slackers and get them up to the front
of the stage. Some very funny moments there! The
audience basically saw the humour in it all and
we were always very tongue in cheek about it. I
mean, with baby dolls on swords with safety pins
through their nipples and rubber chickens flying
everywhere, how could you not notice us!”
Do you think that to better encapsulate the essence
of bands like Slaughter and Plasmatics we should
coin the phrase Demolition Rock? What other
bands do you think are worthy enough to be
included under that label?
“Demolition rock = the early Who, Alice Cooper,
Kiss, Plasmatics, Slaughter, Venom and T-Rex, etc.”
Dominique Poulain 2003
Janne Stark
Strong Arm of Swedish Metal
When I first saw The Encyclopedia of Swedish
Hard Rock and Heavy Metal I couldn’t help but
gasp for air. Finally a Heavy Metal book that
emanates the same “All or nothing at all” attitude
as Heavy Metal itself. Instead of trying to be a
little bit of this and a little bit of that it was clearly
focused and dedicated.
Janne Stark is familiar for many since the early ‘80s
as the axeman of OVERDRIVE and PARADIZE, and
more currently LOCOMOTIVE BREATH. However,
these days he’s best known as the author of these
two giants of books: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 of The
Encyclopedia of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy
Metal.
The following conversation took place in
September 2001 when Vol. 2 was still in the
making.
Since you’re a settled man with everything going
okay in your life, what’s your fire and fuel as far as
Heavy Metal is concerned?
“Basically I am and have always been a music
fan. I was very big on tape trading in the 80’s and
still do trade. Whenever I get new CDs in the mail,
the first thing I do is rush in and browse through
them. It still gives me a huge kick to check out new
bands and releases. So, I guess basically, the music
itself is the fuel!”
How would you describe your relationship with
Metal?
“Hmm... well, being, as you earlier said, a
settled man (age 37, married since 16 years, 2
daughters) today I don’t LOOK metal, it’s more in
the heart. Although I do, to my wife and daughters’
great fear, love to mildly provoke, for example
by wearing “metal T-shirts” in public. I write for
Sweden Rock Magazine, whose T-shirt says in very
big letters all over the back “I LOVE HARD ROCK”.
It really interesting to see people’s reaction when
a short-haired engineer-type guy shows up at
PTA-meetings in such a shirt. I haven’t swallowed
the whole hype, but the music is a huge part of
my life.”
Many people grow out of Metal, or so they say.
Why, in your opinion? And what do they actually
grow out of?
“I think, which I’ve heard from some “friends”,
it’s not considered “grown up” to like metal. “So
you like Black Sabbath. I did too… when I was
a kid”. That sort of thing. Then when you play a
record for them, it’s like, “wow, this is great. I’ve
forgot how good it was”. It’s like trying to repress
your childhood. I don’t really care about those
types of people. It’s their loss. They don’t know
what they are missing!”
How did the idea of the Encyclopedia come about
in the first place - did you choose the subject
matter or did it choose you? And what would
you say is the point of the whole thing beyond
the obvious one which was to come up with an
exhaustive resource on Swedish Hårdrock?
“Well, thank you! It actually started way back.
I’ve always been into Swedish metal ever since the
demo-collecting stage in the late 70’s/early 80’s.
Then it was Swedish singles. Then around 1990 I
started writing for Backstage Magazine, that only
wrote about Swedish bands, from pop to metal. In
about 1994 Lennart, the editor of Backstage, asked
me to send him a list of all my Swedish records,
so he could see what he missed out. I have my
records listed in the computer, so I just edited out
all the non-Swedish. When finished I thought - It
would be pretty easy to include some more info on
each band, like members, bio and description etc.
I had “The International Encyclopedia Of Heavy
Metal” in mind and they only featured 5-6 Swedish
bands. I bounced the idea with a friend at a record
distribution company, who said - Great idea! You
write and I’ll pay for the printing.
“I then started contacting bands and almost
immediately got in touch with Roger Holegård
from Neon Rose. He worked at Premium
Publishing and they were really hot on the idea
and asked if they could take over the project and
the distribution didn’t mind, but would instead
help with distribution. I made a deal with Premium
and we made a plan and away I went. It only took
18 months from start to finish. Mind you I was
working full time, playing in the band and writing
for the magazine at the same time. I however only
need 3-5 hours sleep.”
Although there was a small separate section with
selected demo bands in Vol. 1 you’ve basically
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Content previously published on the Isten website.
chosen to deal with bands that have released
one record at least, isn’t that a bit dangerous?
Nowadays it’s very easy for a band to release, say,
a self-financed CD, whereas such was not the case
at all in the ‘80s; thus, don’t you run the risk of
seriously misrepresenting the latter decade?
“It was very easy for bands to release 7” singles
in the Eighties, too. I don’t think there’s much
of a difference in that sense. However what has
changed is that the demo-section I had in the first
book, will now be a CDR-section. The CDR had
taken over from the cassette-demo. This means for
a band to be qualified for the book the CD has to
be properly printed at a CD-plant. It doesn’t have
to be on a label or so, but NO CDRs are allowed.”
Musicians today seem to form a new project
around every new idea they come across and for
a reason or another nearly all of these projects
end up doing a record. Keeping up-to-date with
all these new releases and projects must be a
nightmare for you as encyclopedia writer, how do
you keep your sanity?
“Who said I’ve kept my sanity? Seriously, the
project-thing is another thing that has changed
dramatically since the first book. I mean now I
will have to write something like “Guitarist Nils is
also found in XX, YY, ZZ, AA, BB, NN, MM”. It’ll
be a mile-long list of bands the guys are found
in besides their original band. It’s actually sheer
hell trying to keep up with all these projects
and especially all obscure death metal bands
being released on puny Korean, Portuguese and
Singaporean labels. The web and Close-Up have
been huge help. I’m however very disappointed
at some labels and distributors who doesn’t give a
rats ass about doing promotion for the bands.”
How do you see this project situation as a metal
fan? Why do you think musicians in the ‘80s didn’t
behave the way their successors do? Even the
people forming the highly unstable early Swedish
Death Metal scene still pretty much committed to
one act only, although the line-ups seemed to be
always changing.
“I think it’s become more and more accepted.
It’s been growing all along. Even though guys are
in bands, they are in cover-bands on the side. The
cover-bands sometimes evolve into something
more. It’s a bit like the music world’s answer to the
free sex movement in the hippe-70’s where you
could sleep with anyone and it was OK (well, I was
too young...)... sometimes you get pregnant and
that’s when the problem starts (i.e. the fun-project
becomes serious). In the case of Sweden it might
also be a lack of musicians. I mean we are only 8.6
million people (same as London) and the amount
of outstanding singers does not match the amount
of bands in need of one...”
Do you find it alarming that the younger
generations of Metal musicians don’t really have
any personal contact with the source material?
Furthermore, up until the start of the ‘90s musical
education was pretty much a fuck-shit-up affair
as far as Heavy Metal was concerned. Sure, the
situation had a bit evolved since the early ‘70s,
when basically you learned all you knew either by
listening to the records or by talking with fellow
musicians, but still by and large there were no
useful schools or courses. Nowadays, budding
musicians have an instant access to relevant
knowledge, be that through institutions or by
doing a bit of browsing on the internet. To what
extent do you think that state of affairs is actually
benefiting to Heavy Metal, if at all? When you listen
to the nth teenage band hailing from Göteborg,
are you wowed by their admittedly impressive
technical level or abashed at their utter lack of
personality?
“I find it pretty amusing when younger people
treat for example “German metal” like Hammerfall
etc., as a “new” thing. Man, that’s the exact same
thing we did in the early Eighties. The same
thing with the “new” stoner bag, Black Sabbath…
anyone? On the other hand, when the younger
fans read or hear where the bands got their
influences they do mention these sources and
point the younger fans in that direction, which is
cool. I myself learned playing guitar from playing
to records way back when and I feel there’s the
danger of stereotyping when kids learn their licks
and scales from the same Yngwie/Vinnie Moore/
Tony McAlpine video. When I listen to new records
and new technical bands wherever they are from,
I can be amazed by their technical skills, but that
just like pissing your pants - it gets you warm for a
short moment. If there’s no substance in the music,
no originality and no feel, it gets a few spins and
probably becomes a dust-collector. I sometimes
get 10-15 records at a time. I immediately browse
through them all and if there are nine utterly
technical and skilled Göteborg-style bands and
one not so technically perfect, maybe even down
right simple but with feel and passion... guess
which one stays in the player. When reviewing you
however have to be careful. The people that read
my review haven’t heard the other eight Göteborgbands,
so I still have to judge the band from its
own perspective. I always listen to a record at least
three times before reviewing.”
You must have pretty good idea how many new
metal releases Swedish bands release altogether
annually? What sort of numbers are we talking
about and has the number been increasing or
decreasing during the last few years?
“In the first book there were 1.000 bands (from
1970-1996). The new book will contain bands
that have released stuff after 1996, band’s I forgot
in the first book and complete and up-dated
information on bands from the first book that have
had records released since then. I’m currently on
almost 750 bands! I haven’t counted how many
new/year or so, but it’s definitely been increasing.
However, as you pointed out before, there are also
all these project-bands.”
What are the most important Swedish records for
Heavy Metal in your opinion and why?
“Tough one... The most important generally:
November - En Ny Tid Är Här (1970) The first
real Swedish hard rock album; Europe - The
Final Countdown - Brought hard rock into the
international charts; Hammerfall - Glory To The
Brave - Resurrected heavy metal in the charts.”
What are the most important Swedish Metal
records to you personally and why?
“Neon Rose - A Dream Of Glory And Pride
(1974) This was when I discovered that a Swedish
band could play just as heavy as the English and
American ones. Then of course all the ones I’ve
played on with Overdrive, Locomotive Breath etc.
I’ve probably forgot something obvious here, but
this is what I came to think of here and now.”
Nationalism clearly is totally out of place in
a musical context, and if possible even more
so where Heavy Metal (who is not exactly
mainstream society’s favourite child, to say the
least) is concerned. In your work, which feels more
awkward, categorising music as Hårdrock/Heavy
Metal or not, or the decision to limit your research
to Swedish music only?
“As a record collector and a collector or
obscure bands and releases I’d love to write an
international encyclopedia, but the problem is I
wouldn’t know where to stop. There was a pretty
huge international encyclopedia released a while
back (an English re-worked version of a German
encyclopedia I think). I received a mail from
the author asking for track-listings for a load of
Swedish records. I sent all the material to him and
never even received a thanks or an offer to even
buy the book. A**hole. The categorising-bit is so
hard. What’s hard rock and what’s not? Where’s
the limit between hardcore and punk, AOR and
pop, heavy rock blues and blues-rock etc. I’ve had
a few people I’ve bounced ideas with and will do
so for the second edition. Speaking of nationalism,
there are actually some Swedish racist hard rock
bands, which I have excluded. I don’t think it
belongs in music and I stand for that.”
Why did you choose not to reveal Quorthon’s
real name in Vol. 1? What’s the point of secrecy?
Of course we all had a great laugh when Michael
Moynihan and Didrik Söderlind claimed in their
book Lords of Chaos that Quorthon’s real name is
Pugh Rogefeldt...
“I can’t help but respect the guy. He even
kept the fact that he even plays guitar a secret
from his girlfiend for over six months. We’ll see
what happens in the next edition. It’s actually my
intention to try to “reveal” as many of these names
as possible. Yes, Pugh Rogefelt, that’s a killer!!!”
How do you see the future of The Encyclopedia
of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal after Vol.
2? Will there be a third book or is the entire thing
possibly heading for Internet, CD-ROM or some
other format?
“I’ve received mails and calls from people who
have spotted missing or incorrect information in
the first book. Their information will be corrected
or at least commented in the second book.
Considering my mental state I will probably do like
I did after the first book was ready… immediately
start collecting information for the next. There’s
always a possibility to easily transfer the book to
CD-ROM either as in interactive thing with mp3’s
or just a simple pdf-file on the web, but there’s
always the risk of bootlegs and counterfeits when
you put it on CD. Even though this is a great
passion, my family who backs me up incredibly,
and I can at least say I have a hobby that pays for
itself.”
Janne Sarna 2003
Pagan Rites
Branded and Exiled
I had a mate on the phone yesterday, and I was
telling him how good I thought Mark of the Devil
by Pagan Rites was, when, after he had asked me
what it sounded like, I found myself somewhat in a
bind, unable to provide a straight answer.
First I told him they were a black metal band. Then
I corrected myself-nope, they’re a TRUE black
metal band, at which point I felt it sounded too
much like the idiotic ravings and empty claims of
countless scene acts, and thus, changing tack for
the second time, I went like: “well, you know, it
sounds like early Bathory, Hellhammer, Venom,
Samael, Mefisto too a little bit perhaps, though
more as regards the mood than the music itself”.
He then replied: “yeah, a true black metal band,
then”.
So much for nuance.
706 Don’t Break the Ghost
Digital Glue
“Maybe he didn’t want to get personal with a fanzine that has a devil logo.”
Yeah, into the forefatherly black with instinctive
riffs of evil! It’s an album that can lead you to
awkward situations. A bit like playing Venom to
someone who’s never heard them before but
is very familiar with modern black metal. “No,
you gotta understand… aw fuck, forget it, here’s
‘Countess Bathory’, can you dig it?”
Mark of the Devil is torture chamber metal
courtesy of Swedish underground mainstays
Devil Lee Rot (the artist formerly known as Tomas
Karlsson) and Sado Harri Juvonen, assisted by
bröderna hårdrock aka the Nifelheim twins. About
the most evocative thing to say about the music
contained therein is, “This fucking shreds! Hit me
baby one more time!”
Largely driven by the same demons as Nifelheim,
but less frantic with rage in their approach, Pagan
Rites churn out the sort of evil heavy metal that has
nearly become extinct. It’s simple and it calls for a
simple yes-or-no reaction.
Yeah, and what did Professor Black say about it?
“Metal heads trying to play music, and failing”?
So I had a mate on the phone yesterday, and I was
telling him how good I thought the latest Pagan
Rites album was.
“So far, I think it’s only gotten good responses!”
confirms vocalist Devil Lee Rot.
Mr Devil Lee Rot, if you were in the business of
releasing a single to promote Mark of the Devil,
what would you pick for the A-side and B-side?
“Ohhh, I don’t know… My favorite tracks may be
“Die Priest Die” and the classic “Return to the Lake
of Fire”.”
Are the Nifelheim twins involved permanently?
“They were just on the Mark of the Devil album. I
think it worked well. It’s only me and Sadoharri left.
Together we are a perfect team, I think. So far we
have been working together very well.
Too sad that he moved from Sweden! Lenny Blade
and Cab (of Hypnosia) and Tomas Hedlund have
now joined to complete the pagan coven. We hope
to enter the studio in winter 2004/05 to record a
new album.”
I must congratulate you on your vocal performance
on Mark of the Devil as well.
“Thanks dude. I think a lot of people like my voice.”
Is this performance the highlight of your career
so far?
“No, I did my best work so far on Devil Lee Rot’s
album Metalizer.”
And you’ve dropped the vocal style you showcased
on the Hail Victory! 7”.
“In Devil Lee Rot, I use some kind of normal
voice, not as it was on Hail Victory, and some say it
sounds very good! This is my way to sing and has
always been. It’s the voice of the Devil!”
When asked what Mark of the Devil sounds like,
I’m in something of a bind, unable to give a straight
answer.
“I think we can call Pagan Rites a ‘pagan metal’
band!”
Not ‘true black metal’?
“For me, black metal is Venom and Mercyful Fate,
and maybe even my own solo band. I do agree
that we sound like early Bathory, Venom, or Celtic
Frost, but you can also find heavy metal riffs in our
songs. The voice is the only thing I think we can
compare with the black metal of today. But I think
we’re just a great metal band, and metal for me is a
lifestyle. The only pleasure in life!”
Why do you need these three separate outlets
(Pagan Rites, Autopsy Torment, and the solo act)
for your metallic ambitions?
And exactly how boring do you find this question
to be?
“Not boring at all. Nowadays, there’s not many
zines sending interviews!
“As I told you before, metal is a lifestyle, and I
can’t grow up and be a normal person. That’s not
me! There’s no secret behind it. Just stand up and
protect your faith, which is metal! Some of my past
friends are today normal. Why do such jerks forget
what they once were? I’m not afraid to say to the
crowd: ‘I’m a heavy metal man!’
“To live, I need my bands. It’s my feeding ground.
I need metal and metal needs me [laughing.] To
be honest, the number one band for me is Devil
Lee Rot. But I hope the future will be good for all
three.”
What are your goals with Pagan Rites?
“To have fun, play gigs, write new songs, release
more cool albums, try the new line-up, and give the
fans true pagan metal! Pagan Rites just got fresh
members, so we have to start rehearsals with the
new line-up soon.”
Anything to add?
“Thanks for the interview! Don’t forget to order
cool Devil Lee Rot stuff from our labels. To all our
loyal fans… Stay hard!”
Mikko Mattila/Dominique Poulain/
Janne Sarna, interview edited by Professor Black
Jay C. Blade/OZ
Blade Runner
The man who wrote “Turn the Cross Upside
Down” is afraid of Isten. Or maybe he’s just
annoyed with us.
Be that as it may, Mr Jugi Lewis aka Jay C. Blade
first agreed to do an interview with us live. In the
end he was so elusive that email was the only
option. Maybe he was just busy. Or maybe he
didn’t want to get personal with a fanzine that
has a devil logo. Of said heavy metal anthem, Jugi
states “I guess I shouldn’t have made that song.”
Nevertheless, read on for some classic Finnish
metal tidbits. The interview was conducted in
November 2002.
You’ve led rock’n’roll life from quite early on,
haven’t you? How did you get into heavy rock in
the first place? What was your first band Masque
like?
“I got into heavy rock through Alice Cooper,
and later on I started listening to bands like Judas
Priest, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, etc. The early
band experiences are not worth mentioning,
except for Masque, which was a good learning
situation. But we didn’t have enough original
material, so it didn’t really lead anywhere. I joined
Sarcofagus around the same time, and went from
playing bass and singing to just lead vocals.”
How did you get involved in Sarcofagus? Did you
have experience on vocals at that point? What
about “Guts” Leidén, any idea why he’d left the
group?
“I put an ad in Soundi magazine, after which we
got in touch with Kimmo Kuusniemi and quickly
arranged a meeting. I had been singing, of course,
but never as a lead vocalist without an instrument.
I don’t know anything about the Leidén times.”
There are two Sarcofagus playback TV
appearances with you on vocals and wearing silver
facepaint, with lots of fire and smoke about. Please
tell us something about the shooting sessions -
how did it come about and were those two the
only ones you did?
“Those TV tapings were done at TV2, Tohloppi,
Tampere, and they were the only songs we did
there. We got paid nicely, that’s all I remember.”
How did the story of Sarcofagus end? You were
told that your services weren’t needed and the
band eventually turned into Kimmo Kuusniemi
Band/Moottorilinnut… What’s your stance on the
“Moottorilinnut” LP, by the way?
“They fired me with “extreme prejudice”, or
Kimmo did. In other words I was the last one to
know about it, call it a conspiracy if you wish. By
the way, this is the only time I’ve been sacked from
a group, and there’s been a lot of groups. I think
Moottorilinnut sucks big time, it sounds like it’s
been recorded in a big fuckin’ toilet. And I say that
with a big smile.”
How would you describe Kimmo Kuusniemi as a
person? As a band leader? As a musician?
“Well, I guess he had his moments. Good
songwriter, and he also had lots of interesting
ideas. But the albums sounded weird. He wasn’t
too great when it came to producing. I felt that
he was trying to get energy from the Dark Side,
which I admit to doing as well back then, although
minimally compared to him. My final thought
on him remains that he truly was (probably not
anymore) a “black magic hobbyist” during that
period of his life.”
It could be argued that Sarcofagus have been quite
influential - e.g. bands like Mercyful Fate and Celtic
Frost have certainly at times sounded like they’d
given “Envoy of Death” a listen or two… What do
you think?
“It’s possible, but Envoy was hardly a
widespread album back then, so I wonder how
they could have heard it.”
How did you team up with Messrs DeMartini,
Wolff, Ruffneck and Foxx, then? When exactly did
this happen?
“They heard about me through a friend, and we
tried things out at rehearsal. This was in 1982.”
OZ were the most internationally oriented heavy
metal band in Finland at the time. What was the
situation like - didn’t Masque have what it takes
to make it to the top, or after the Sarcofagus
experience, were you in a hurry to pick up the pace
as far as your career was concerned?
“I never even spared a thought on my career
back then, none of us did. We were too young.
Rock music is not like sports where you plan
things ahead. OZ was a real band compared to the
others. We fuckin’ rocked, man.”
Planning ahead or not, you sort of took over the
band straight away, or at least the song writing
dept?
“Song writing was my thing, but as far as
leadership goes, there was no leader, it was
democratic and friendly. Maybe at times I was
making decisions based on my songwriting
capabilities.”
707 Grave New World
Content previously published on the Isten website.
How much did you joining the band affect the
image et al? New stage names and no more
wearing jackets or yellow sunshades on stage...
“We started to look like the bands we listened
to - Scorpions, Accept, Priest, etc.”
What’s the story behind your stage name Jay C.
Blade? And who’s who for real in OZ? The band
went through line-up changes between the first
and second LP so could you please fill us in on
that?
“I don’t know about the first line-up, I wasn’t
there, see? There’s no story behind my stage name.
I still use it in Heavy Metal projects I’m involved in.
Also, I will not reveal anybody’s real names.”
What made the band move to Stockholm? What
was the Stockholm scene like back then?
OZ
“Ruffneck moved first, the rest soon followed. It
was hard times, no money, no food, but eventually
everyone got jobs and things started moving along.
The scene was pretty good, lots of new bands.
We were feared by them because we were ‘crazy
drinking/fighting Finns’.”
The cover of your Fire in the Brain LP was
designed by the son of your label boss Börje the
Boss, right? This father and son combination
became known as Bathory. Any fun recollections
from that period and how did all this affect the
relationship of the label and OZ? Quorthon has
claimed that the better known groups on the
“Scandinavian Metal Attack” compilation were
annoyed because suddenly it was Bathory that got
the most attention...
“No comment on those, sorry!”
Did you or any OZ members ever play on a
Bathory recording?
“No.”
Blackie Lawless of WASP has once said that
fans who take things (the show, the image) too
seriously make him quite uncomfortable. In
Scandinavia all this Bathory/Venom/Hellhammer
worship went over the top in the early ‘90s when
youngsters really started to burn churches to the
ground and boasted that “ what the old bands
only talked about, we do for real”. Fans often
tend to take bands more seriously than the bands
themselves. What’s your stance on this? You’re
a big fan of Alice Cooper, aren’t you - has it ever
gotten unhealthy?
“There are always people who take things to
extremes. I don’t like that but what can I do? I’m
not a dumb-ass, so no unhealthy stuff.”
Fire in the Brain was released under license also
in the USA, Canada and Japan which was totally
unheard of for a Finnish band back then. Where
did you play live in addition to Sweden and did you
feel the support from the label on this department
was good enough?
“The label sucked big time. They got us two gigs
and that was it. It just makes me mad every time I
think about it.”
How would you describe OZ shows in general -
you must have been one of the most spectacular
live acts in Northern Europe. Any particularly fond
memories?
“Our shows were totally crazy. A guy from
Atlantic Records (New York) saw us in Stockholm
and he wanted to sign us right away. But guess
what happened? Our own label fucked it up.”
Alongside with the LP you also released the super
sound maxi “Turn the Cross Upside Down” - how
come such a strong metal anthem didn’t end up on
any of your albums?
“I refer to the label on that, as well.”
The legend says when you got the first royalty
cheque for the 12” the number on the dotted line
was none other than six-six-six and you took this
as a sign of some sort and never wrote a “satanic”
song ever again? What’s your stance on this
decision some 20 years later?
“It’s a true story. It’s almost too corny but it did
happen. I prefer the forces of good nowadays.”
We know this guy who’s bought several copies
of the maxi single in question and has made an
upside down cross of them on his bedroom wall.
What does this sound like to you?
“Sounds like a big fan of us, right? I guess I
shouldn’t have made that song.”
What were your main influences in your opinion?
Iron Maiden and Accept perhaps?
“Accept, definitely.”
What about Third Warning, how do you feel about
the song material on that one? And especially the
production values?
“Great songs, really awful production. And that’s
a shame.”
And Decibel Storm?
“My favourite album. I can still listen to this one
and feel proud.”
Was drummer Mark Ruffneck some sort of a
dictator in the band as he was the one who
continued with OZ while others drifted away?
“He wasn’t a dictator. But he was out of control
when drunk. That’s when you had to look out.””
Have you even heard Roll the Dice yourself and
how do you like it? This line-up also used to play
ABBA’s “Money, Money, Money” live...
“Of course I’ve heard Roll the Dice. It’s ok but
the singer needed guidance on this one as well.”
Jay C Blade in Princess Pang Would you say in the
end there was some sort of contradiction between
your personal aspirations and the band’s goals?
“No contradiction. I just got offered a better deal
with Princess Pang. Who wouldn’t want to play in
the States instead of Sweden?”
The CD re-releases of OZ records look pretty
damn cheap and poor - any comments? Should the
albums be re-released on vinyl, what do you think?
“I don’t give a shit. Or actually, I would like to
see Decibel Storm released on CD.”
Do you have any idea in how many countries your
records have been released? Any sales figures?
“I would say about 50.000 units altogether,
starting the count from Fire in the Brain. And that’s
pretty damn close.”
Do you have any idea where the name OZ came
in the first place? (By the way, is it a capital “Z”?)
Who designed the logo?
“Capital Z. No idea. Wizard of Oz?”
Why do you think even prestigeous Heavy Metal
encyclopedias and magazines mistake you for a
Swedish band?
“Because we lived in Sweden.”
Were you familiar with the band Shock Tilt? The
Vaasa based band who moved to Stockholm in the
late ‘80s to seek success like you did several years
before. Their homicidal maniac of a manager killed
and dismembered guitarist Hannu Rajala in 1987...
“No.”
What do you consider your greatest achievement
in music? And the best song you have ever written?
“Those songs are still unreleased. In metal it’s
Fire in the Brain.”
What do you think about the Finnish heavy metal
of the ‘80s - Zero Nine, Riff Raff, Ironcross et al?
“I liked Riff Raff a lot.”
When you think of OZ, the band’s image was
somehow burdened with a sort of “dog is in the
details” syndrome - whether it be the smoking
jacket on the first album cover, or Ape wearing a
rather silly yellow sun shade on a TV session, or
whatever?
“Bad taste, that’s all.”
How volatile was the band’s life together in
Sweden - genuine Finnish style drinking habits and
violent encounters of the Ruffneck kind?
“That’s how it was. Blood, broken glass and lost
teeth.”
So how did it come about that you left OZ behind
for the land of milk and honey and Big Apple?
Princess Pang didn’t quite succeed in conquering
those pastures of green, although you were
marketed as “the most popular band in Sweden”?
Kind of in the wake of Europe?
“I think we did pretty good considering that we
were a new band. Two major videos on American
MTV, long tour with Mr.Big and tons of radio
interviews and magazines. They wrote about us
a lot.”
You’ve criticised American society and its values
quite heavily. How come it took you 13 years to get
fed up with it?
“ I had enough money to enjoy myself with for
those first 10 years. American people are great,
but their whole system is total complete bullshit,
no matter what Ted Nugent says. Corruption is
widespread in the whole political system, as well as
the judicial. It’s a lot worse than people know. It’s
fuckin’ scary to live there. And remember, I’m not
into politics. I just tell it like I see it.”
Princess Pang was, if I may say so, a pretty
commercial enterprise. Some might think that
your criticism stems from bitterness… How do you
plead?
“No reason to be bitter, it was my own decision.
Princess Pang was everything but commercial. You
have no idea how crazy that sounds to me.”
Nowadays you’re playing in Yö, one of Finland’s
most successful rock bands. Is it tough enough for
you or do you need projects like Heep Purple to
express your heavier side?
“Yö is the best band I have ever played in. Great
guys, good players and no bullshit attitudes. I love
it.”
Do you find it more natural to play in a mainstream
band like Yö than joining a contemporary heavy
metal band like Stratovarius or whatever?
Apparently you did not race Marco Hietala of Tarot
for the bass player/2nd vocalist spot in Nightwish?
“I have absolutely no interest in playing in
Stratovarius or Nightwish. HIM would be different.
That I might like.”
Are you in touch with the OZ chaps these days?
708 Don’t Break the Ghost
Digital Glue
“Listen, I am Heavy Metal. I have put in more hours, more years, have worked every bit as hard as any of you.”
What are they up to nowadays?
“We don’t talk often but occasionally I get in touch
with Spooky and Ape.”
So is there a new OZ album in the pipeline? What
else is in store for Mr Bassojasso in the future?
“I’d like to do the “final chapter” for OZ, but there’s
no time. I’ve tried to contact Ape about it, but he’s
gone underground or something. The songs are
ready. Maybe one day.”
Mikko Mattila/Janne Sarna/
Dominique Poulain 2003
deathvalleymarathon
an email journal of one man’s mission to survive
the unthinkable, over five hours of stratovarius in
one sitting, the equivalent of running a death valley
marathon without a backup crew
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 11:04:22
Subject: break like the wind
man, i’ve never been a stratovarius fanboy, but the
lyrics to eagleheart and especially the video (the
horror) is totally like classic stuff, so now i have to
and must listen to all strato material i can get my
hands on at the office. something like 5 hours, 18
minutes and 53 seconds - longer than a decent
time for marathon in the death valley.
uh, i feel a bowel movement... must.. put a taxi
driver’s plug in the ass, bite the bullet and rush
onwards.
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 11:59:52
Subject: Tolkki is GOD
—-
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 12:46:45
Subject: Re: break like the wind
1h 45min done, still going ok… after this, i have
to put the headphones on, vol to the max and
slaughter by @thegates straight to the cranium.
now playing babylon, damn i wish i could
singalong, but no. good effort, good going, timo
the voice of mankind kotipelto in the mood and a
tear in his eye.
i’m seriously thinking about purchasing one of
those stratoshirts - wouldn’t have thought some
of those terrible strato album covers are done by
derek riggs of all people.
the man has totally fried his brain.
can i play with madness?
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 13:16:08
http://www.tolkki.com
too bad it’s closed, well he could’ve at least left the
topics and discussions :(
still have 3h 4min to go. starting to go lactic acids,
almost too tired to continue... now playing galaxies
off of fourth dimension.
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 200313:24:48
Subject: Elements Part 2 cover posted online at
strato.com!
gods of earth and heaven, check out the title of the
bonus track (#10)!
[...10. ride like the wind] reality is stranger than
spinal tap.
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 13:41:06
Subject: 030366
[lyrics of 030366 attached]
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 14:10:35
Subject: in the valley of death
2h 11min left, wouldn’t have started if i’d known
what this is like.
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 14:48:22
Subject: Paradise
this rocks now, wow.
[lyrics of Paradise attached]
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 17:07:02
Subject: Off topic but as satisfying as scratching an
infected scab
http://www.sonataarctica.com/pics/background/
showpicture.php?dj06-0800.jpg
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 15:09:51
Subject: march or die!
[from Stratovarius.com:] Against the Wind
It’s about persistence. TT got the idea for the song
once when his car ran out of gas and he had to
walk four kilometers to home in the rain, against
the wind.
To: Mikko
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 15:30:41
Subject: march or die!
Last hour has been broken, 55min to go. in some
perverse way that made me laugh, started to think
among other things what kind of a song would be
born if TT came back to the car with a jerry can,
he fills the tank and throttles home to his liver
casserole and buttermilk. maybe something like,
Coming home again in the night/Speeding fast to
the light/Oh liver casserole and buttermilk...
To: Mikko
Date Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:10:54
Subject: death rattle
phew, only two songs to go. third from the
last is just about to end in some pseudo organ
choral floods. then it’s about time to cock up the
automatic and run world of lies to flush the ear
drums and off to boot hill to meet up a friend.
running out of humour when kotipelto is shouting
out the audience (the last one is sadly a live album)
- you can really suck up the atmosphere, fantastic.
To: Mikko
Date Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:22:52
Subject: Re: march or die!
it is done.
thank god.
a bit of good thrashing and then to home, oh
bugger, wonder what i should listen tomorrow.
// the following day
To: Mikko
Date Tue, 13 Aug 2003 08:40:44
Subject: at the gates
damn this sounds sweeter than i ever thought it
would.
damhair
17 August 2003
Scream for Me,
Neighbours!
Harmony lead: MM & JS
Listen, it’s time for air guitarists the world over
to stand proud. It’s time to take the posers by the
neck and spit the following in their faces: ‘You
make music and you find yourselves important.
Listen, I am Heavy Metal. I have put in more hours,
more years, have worked every bit as hard as any
of you. Every riff and every lead that I wield on
my air guitar is absolutely, metalliciously perfect,
while you’re trying to impress the world with your
dishwater metal. The biggest thrill at your gigs is
whether you can pull an audience with any sort of
credibility. There’s none to be found on stage.’
Lead: MM
Personally, if I had to pick just one air guitarring
moment to take on to a desert island with me, it
would have to be getting caught doing “Aces High”
half-naked on the balcony. By my old 4 th grade
teacher. Those are the kind of experiences that
put you fast asleep at night buzzing inside with the
fulfilment of it all.
Me in my teens! The eyes on that boy! Within them
a universe of shame and indistinct expectations.
And watch me now, impregnated by metal and
indistinct disillusionment and so ready to write.
Hear my knuckles crack.
Chances are that you are not as big a depositor
in the bank where awkward memories are kept.
Germany’s distinguished metal journalist Frank
Stöver, for example, is much more mundane about
his air guitarring: “As long as it’s Metal-To-The-
Bone, I like to shred the invisible strings… but I
recall that I always enjoyed the most brutal Thrash
and Death Metal tunes the best.”
Talking in past tense - always a sure-fire sign of a
veteran.
“Air guitarring is definitely HIGHLY underrated,”
Stöver reckons. “I mean, just look at all those
talentless air guitarists out there… a lot of them
definitely need to practice a lot more. But luckily
it’s still pretty easy to separate the men from the
boys in this department…”
Quite true. Wish everything else was as easy as
that. Like today, I went to the grocer’s today for
some minced meat, tomatoes, pasta and milk.
It was a quick, familiar routine, comfortable and
straightforward. I even half-smiled at the cash desk
although I’m known as the Solemn Lord of ‘Gimme
My Change and Spare Me the Pleasantries’ around
these parts. Groceries are starting to grow on me
I guess.
When I walk into a record store these days, it’s part
familiar, part alien territory. I no longer experience
709 Grave New World
Content previously published on the Isten website.
the heart-racing whoooosh that I used to. With
2nd hand vinyl, everything’s still fine. If the records
aren’t in alphabetical order, you make mental notes
like ‘Ah, gonna bump into a Krokus any sec now’
and it’ll actually feel nice when you inevitably do.
The CD racks, on the other hand, don’t beckon
me in the least. Standing there, looking at all those
shining new CDs feels like an act of slow suicide.
Playing mental air guitar to Pain, Rhapsody or
Misteltein… not exactly an option, is it?
Some old geezers seem to inhabit a hermeticallysealed
world where the annoying shenanigans of
new metal fly-by-nights rarely intrude. They know
how to indulge in the music they love undeterred
by the fact that it has turned into a rear-view
mirror. Not me. It isn’t always easy to see eye to
eye with people who don’t share your past in
metal. You can’t help feeling a little condescending
when people think Stratovarius or some new death
metal album is the bee’s pyjamas - ‘Oh, you’re
enthusing about frozen foods, canned meat. You
should’ve been there when we picked the berries
and shot the bear!’ But going apeshit over classic
metal, wielding frantic air axe to the sound of steel
- you can never underestimate that. That’s sacred,
that’s straight from the source.
Demonos of Barathrum:
“Air Guitarring Is Like Musical Masturbation!”
Demonos Sova, warmaster of jet blacksters
Barathrum, for you personally, why is heavy metal
so much better than anything else?
“Heavy Metal ain’t my hobby - it’s my way of
life. Actually Heavy Metal and Tattoos are those
two things that are the most important things in
my life.”
Is air guitarring an important part of your heavy
metal mania?
“Yes of course, especially when I’m just by
myself, I play air guitar in front of mirror, music of
Venom, Motörhead or Barathrum on background.”
What, to you, is air guitar heaven?
“Room with full body mirror, porn pics on the
walls, with 666 megawatt speakers that explode in
the rhythm of Heavy Metal Thunder.”
Any particular song that sets you and your air
instrument on fire?
“Manowar’s “Kill with Power”, because I also
like the lyrics. That’s why I decided to put it on our
lately released limited edition CD-single too. 400
copies, sold out.”
Would it be more appropriate to play air BASS to
Barathrum than air guitar?
“Both… Bass or guitar… both are fine… or
maybe air bagpipe.”
When writing music, do you ever take a song’s air
guitarring qualities into consideration? Kind of like,
‘Whooaargh, what a killer riff for the air guitar!’?
“That’s the basic idea of metal. Head banging
and air guitarring are the basic-ideas of metal.
Don’t you agree??!?”
But do you think the art of air guitarring is
underrated? You know, people can write and play
music for all the wrong reasons, but air guitarring
is always fucking TRUE.
“Lately air guitarring has become quite
widely popular form of art. Like those air guitar
competitions worldwide. Of course that is quite
bad for the fact that I am 100(+)% TRUE Metal
Man… and popular music (pop) is the opposite of
Heavy Metal.”
A couple of years ago the immensely popular Finnish
rock band Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus did
a rendition of Barathrum’s “Last Day in Heaven”.
How do you feel when you see people air guitarring
to that? Proud, awkward or what?
“I really get frustrated when I see people air
guitarring in wrong tunes… that’s really shitty
thing. And almost always people do the riffs from
the wrong tune in the cover version of “Last Day
in Heaven”, because it is played in wrong tunes by
Trio Niskalaukaus.”
Do you ever get the feeling that there’s too much
going on with the whole musicianship and business
side of things that you’re in danger of losing focus?
“Not really. Air guitarring became part of big
business too...”
Are women impressed by your air guitarring skills?
“Most women are not. And those who are
impressed are pretty easy preys to catch… ;>”
Sometimes there’s still some degree of shame
involved in playing the air guitar. Shouldn’t parents
(bands?) teach their children about these things -
that it’s perfectly natural, everybody’s doing it?
“Air guitarring is like musical masturbation. If
you can’t do it with ‘real’ instruments, you can do
it yourself with your own imagination. Runk for
Real.”
Terry Sadler of Slaughter:
“Keep It Pure!”
Terry Sadler of Slaughter, what, to you, is air guitar
heaven?
“Air guitar heaven = parents out, music full blast,
huge mirror and a strobe light! I used to love to
air guitar to Kiss ‘Alive’! I was Ace Frehley or Gene
Simmons spitting blood, breathing fire or hanging
myself like Alice Cooper.”
Do you wear earplugs when you play the air
guitar?
“No earplugs ever!!!!! You need to feel and hear
the full power, intensity and fury of the guitars,
bass and drums!”
Any particular song that sets you and your air
instrument on fire? Why?
“Hmmm... ‘She’ and ‘Deuce’ by KISS, ‘Butcher
Baby’ and ‘Tight Black Pants’ by The Plasmatics,
‘Chemical Warfare’ and ‘Captor Of Sin’ by Slayer,
‘Billion Dollar Babies’ and ‘Brutal Planet’ by Alice
Cooper, ‘Anthem’ and ‘Bytor And The Snowdog’ by
Rush and maybe ‘Dazed And Confused’ and ‘Rock
And Roll’ by Led Zeppelin. More modern stuff:
‘Rock Is Dead’ by Marilyn Manson and anything by
my friend Nelsha’s band called Helldorado!”
What would you say is Slaughter’s greatest air
guitar track?
“I would pick ‘Fuck Of Death’ and ‘Tortured
Souls’!”
Is your air guitar’s case decorated in any way?
Please describe it.
“It’s covered in band stickers, dirt, blood, snot
and cum!”
What’s your air guitar tuned in, would you
consider tuning it down when you interpret a
classic?
“It’s tuned to “open e” with only 4 strings
because I used all the others for a bondage
session...”
Do you think the art of air guitarring is underrated?
“Most defiantly!”
Sometimes there’s still some degree of shame
involved in playing the air guitar. Shouldn’t parents
and bands teach respectively their children and
their fans about these things - that it’s perfectly
natural, everybody’s doing it?
“Keep parents and everybody else away and do
what YOU feel is going to get you off by playing
air guitar. It’s not about impressing anyone but
yourself and capturing the mood and feeling of the
music! Nothing is better than a room full of your
best friends, heads down, hair flying and brain
bashing your air guitars until you faint, puke or
your parents come home and bash on your door!
Keep it pure!!!!”
We also included an online form, a questionnaire
for readers to fill in—”There’s a great many things
that we never wanted to know about your air
guitarring habits.” There was no “Send” button,
but the questions covered important things such
as:
1. What, to you, is air guitar heaven?
2. What’s your favourite arena? Do you
prefer playing in front of the mirror, in the
shower, at the bus stop or in the queue at
the cash desk of a super market?
3. Would you go to your fave guitarist to
propose him/her to air jam with you?
4. To the musos out there, do you reckon
it’s alright for me to feel like me doing
classic Maiden on the air guitar in front
of the mirror is more essential, more
cutting edge, more METAL than your new
album?
5. Is the opposite (or the same, depending
on your tastes) sex impressed with your
air guitaring skills? Have you ever scored
thanks to your air guitaring maestria?
6. Do you wear earplugs when you play the
air guitar?
7. Do you prefer light or heavy air guitar
strings?
8. What’s your air guitar tuned in, would
you consider tuning it down when you
interpret a classic?
9. Are there bands whose musical direction
you can understand, even respect, AS A
MUSICIAN but as an air guitarist you’d
just want to strangle the sorry fuckers
(with an air guitar string)?
10. Do you headbang when you air guitar or
are you the type who needs to see what
they’re doing?
11. What was your best air guitaring
performance, ever?
12. After a particularly successful gig, do you
mind signing autographs for all your fans
out there?
Bullets
Mikko Mattila / Janne Sarna /
Dominique Poulain
Abscess
Damned and Mummified LP
(Displeased, licensed from Red Stream)
Well hey, enjoy your damnation. Reading music
reviews on the Internet, I mean. You prayed for
nothing, and nothing has just hunted you down.
So what’s it gonna be? Drug-induced fever dreams
or vicious self-hate and a true morbid fascination?
Death metal from the right place hits you in all
710 Don’t Break the Ghost
Digital Glue
“Well hey, enjoy your damnation. Reading music reviews on the Internet, I mean. ”
the right places. You can feel it. It’s so organic
that once in a while you might want to check out
they haven’t stolen your organs while cranking it
up. And yes, bothering with the strenuous task of
songwriting is one telltale sign.
It’s not quite Mental Funeral, is it? Is it great or is
it brilliant? You know, Reifert visits the verges of
brilliance frequently enough for me not to rack
my brain with such questions. I didn’t like the
first couple of Abscess records but the last three
albums more than make up for that.
You want to inhale the miasma emanating from
the doom of “Twilight Bleeds”. The opening line
of the title track, “Born in a straightjacket set
on fire” (what a powerful image!) rings true,
somehow. The sickness of Abscess is not a cartoon.
It may make you smirk, but it’s never an entirely
comfortable smirk.
As far as I’m concerned, Clint Bower (guitars/
vocals) is still “that guy from Hexx”, but his “Tomb
of the Unknown Junkie” rocked on 2002’s Through
the Cracks of Death. Here, “The Dead Are Smiling
at Me” is a worthy sequel. The title track visits the
“Mourners Will Burn” territory impeccably, and as
a whole, we’re talking about an album that allows
pleasant pit stop time for my revered Autopsy
elpees. (8 bullets)
Mikko Mattila
8 March 2005
Akercocke
Choronzon CD
(Earache)
I admit to being more than apathetic about
Akercocke to this point, which is a minor credit to
their efforts. I wanted to ignore them-even tried
to-but they remained irritating. Having never
explained myself beyond “Another in that long
line of sorry British bands that only the British
could love,” I resolved to take an objective stance
in critiquing their latest. But since Akercocke
didn’t use any objective judgment while making
Choronzon, I’ve elected not to afford them any
while discussing it. I have no doubt that Akercocke
practices all the time and that their ideas are very
difficult to play. But they’re even more difficult to
listen to, and given the competition these days, I’m
not even interested in the performances.
Whatever the facts may be, the evidence at hand
points to a band with no stabilizing elements or
no bandmember(s) to enforce them. Anything
someone lifts from his Nile, Cannibal Corpse, or
untrue Mayhem CD and brings into rehearsal
ultimately finds its own awkward place in a
rambling composition. Indeed, this band has no
perceptible influences from before 1999. But
that’s trivial compared to their more damning
failures. Choronzon is nonsense, and not in an
awe-inspiring or even appealing way, and not in a
way that multiple listens assuage, and not because
I don’t know what I’m hearing.
The sentences might well be excellent, but it
doesn’t matter, because the paragraphs are
atrocious. Regardless of the quality-control issues
that persist on the riff level, Akercocke has yet
to discover a syntax to make that vocabulary
meaningful. If that syntax exists, it should have
become apparent by album number three. I’m
reminded that Akercocke makes its living selling
T-shirts, not songs, and Choronzon is a mere IOU
where songs are concerned.
For the record: I love British metal. But you really
have to admit it lost its way after Prime Evil. (5
blanks)
Professor Black
16 February 2004
Legends Of Led
Candlemass / Trouble / Force Of Evil
live at Fryshuset Klubben Stockholm
29 November 2003
“This song was written when I was 3 years old…”,
stated vocalist Martin Steene a bit hesitantly
before Force Of Evil launched into “Curse of the
Pharaohs”. Well, singer boy, thank you for sharing
that. Another fact is that your fancy leather pants
can’t quite conceal your desperate lack of stage
presence.
The Mercyful Fate classics (“…Pharaohs” and
“Evil”) lent themselves just fine to underline the
dullness of Force Of Evil’s own material. Great
guitar work, sure, some mean riffs and having Hal
Patino on bass and Bjarke Holm on drums was
probably supposed to add more credibility via their
MF/King Diamond connexxxions.
The problem was that there was no force, no evil.
It’s sadder still that they were filming this show for
a DVD release before their first album had even hit
the streets. Messrs Shermann and Denner, why not
do what every decent has-been would do and and
put a MF cover band on the road? This third rate
Judas Priest from Dullsville, Denmark simply ain’t
such a good idea.
Fallen heroes. I guess I’m a tad too ready to find
fault in whatever they’re doing now. I always found
everything from Zoser Mez through post-reunion
Mercyful Fate to Gutrix a bit lame. Well, I never
really got into King Diamond either, so maybe it’s
just me?
It would’ve been nice to like Force Of Evil, honest,
and I do think that Shermann and Denner are still
doing it for the right reasons, from the heart or
whatever. I love old Mercyful Fate to the grave,
that’s what it’s all about. We’re talking worship
eternal here. And I’m not ungrateful - I don’t expect
them to suddenly turn into alchemists again.
Since Force Of Evil had hit the stage a little after 7
pm, it was somehow hard to believe that already at
half past eight the gods from Chicago stood before
our very eyes. It’s funny how emotional seeing
Trouble was for myself and I suppose many others
gathered at Klubben.
Trouble t-shirt It was all emotion. Respect,
gratitude, the joy of doom. A blur, a haze of
greatness of which no details stick out. What I do
remember is that they were amazing, from “At the
End of My Daze” to “Psalm 9” and so on. It was a
ceremony of classic Trouble songs; tight, technical,
rocking, doomy, melodies divine. Eric Wagner in
excellent form on vocals, totally devoid of rock and
roll frontman clichés, yet every bit as much totally
in command. Dozens and dozens of people singing
along, banging their heads, fists raised, rejoicing.
The band played impeccably, Rick Wartell and
Bruce Franklin’s guitars soaring, original drummer
Jeff Olson accentuating the proceedings perfectly.
New guy Chuck Robinson on bass did ok, though
some spectators (hi Arto!) thought he looked out
of place. Can’t wait for the DVD!
The Candlemass set was also filmed, and it was
not an all-hits potpourri by any means, instead
including cuts like “A Cry from the Crypt”,
“Mourner’s Lament”, and “Black Stone Wielder”,
and omitting “Samarithan” for example. A brand
new one entitled “Witches” was showcased - a
murderously heavy tune that could well become
the next one in the long line of Edling classics.
As Janne pointed out, Messiah doom-dancing looks
like a cross-country skier on EPO aplenty. He’s
definitely one hell of an entertainer. Compared
to Trouble’s low-key stylishness, maybe even
too much so at times. The Marcolin brand of inyour-face
furore mongering and theatrics doesn’t
necessarily always add to the sheer brilliance of
Leif Edling’s song writing. I don’t know, it was just
a feeling I had for a fleeting moment. Had more to
do with the juxtaposition with Trouble, no doubt,
because in August 2002 (at Tavastia, Helsinki) I
had no such qualms.
It was a package made in doom metal heaven,
yeah yeah, all those platitudes. A case of two bands
both richly deserving of the headliner spot. Maybe
a quick breather after Trouble wasn’t quite enough,
but Candlemass truly ruled in their hometown.
Now get that damn deal done, and a new album,
pretty please please please. (9 bullets - for Trouble
and Candlemass exclusively)
Mikko Mattila
24 January 2004
Impaled Nazarene
All That You Fear CD
(Osmose)
The Black League
Man’s Ruin Revisited CD
(Spinefarm/Universal)
Impaled Nazarene’s history of lineups that fall
apart - sometimes literally, sadly enough - always
translates onto record as freshness, a constant
utilization of new human energy. It speaks to the
durability and indeed versatility of the band’s
musical values, and although back-to-back records
with the same lineup haven’t happened since Ugra-
Karma and Suomi Finland Perkele, neither has
any album in their catalog represented a recovery
period, moment of uncertainty, or lapse in quality.
All That You Fear is at once varied and focused.
Compared with Absence of War..., not only
the album but the songs themselves are more
textured and less jerky. The five-piece era of
Impaled Nazarene has now resulted in three solid
albums, each with a memorable selection of hit
tracks. Adding a second guitarist opened up the
riffier side of the band’s songwriting, while the
grindcore influences became less pronounced. Of
course, the extreme aggressions are still an option
(“Armageddon Death Squad”), and the precedent
of pyrotechnic guitar solos set down by Alexi Laiho
on Nihil has paid off bigtime on tracks like “The
Endless War”.
Elsewhere in Finland, The Black League lifts the
curtain on album number three, Man’s Ruin
Revisited, which in some places makes Entombed’s
Same Difference sound like a best-case scenario.
At the League’s helm, of course, are Impaled
Nazarene expatriates Taneli Jarva and Kimmo
Luttinen. The former can’t shake the shadow of
Amok even during the League’s fine Ichor debut,
and the latter released a pair of passable (if
half-hearted) albums of atmospheric mini-epics
as Legenda in the late 1990s. Noble credentials
from a band that now exhibits symptoms of an
unchecked producer, corporate pressure, and
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Content previously published on the Isten website.
too many Monster Magnet albums in the evening.
What isn’t dumbed-down footage from the Ichor
album is watered-down footage that should never
have gotten past the censors, a vulture’s bounty of
riffs that don’t (and aren’t) rock. The Black League
has always contended with a certain awkwardness:
that of elements not mixing, curiously, an earmark
of the albums marketed by the defunct US label
referenced in the album title.
Examples of first-album fluke are rampant a heavy
metal textbook, and the conventional wisdom
that a band has more time to write songs for a
debut than for any follow-up is probably valid.
In The Black League’s case, they had at least two
albums’ worth of strong material on the debut, and
perhaps this has quickened their arrival at Man’s
Ruin Revisited.
Impaled Nazarene burns in hell and I’m sure will
forever. The Black League, on the other hand, is
preoccupied with trying to run up a downward
escalator, too self-conscious and totally misguided.
(Listening to both albums, writing the review,
drinking beers while doing so, taking a shit this
morning... 8 bullets)
Professor Black
28 March 2004
Machine Men
Scars & Wounds
(Dynamic Arts Records)
It’s too bad no Iron Maiden or Queensrÿche
albums are available in Jyväskylä. I mean, not even
youngsters like Machine Men would have the nerve
to do this, had they actually heard the albums.
Right?
Hey, come on, it’s just a case of a young Finnish
band doing the Right Thing. Hell-bent on sounding
international. And professional. Very slick, instantly
accessible, familiar turf, can I move in and call your
record collection mine? When the first track kicks
in, it’s like, aha, so you’ve been listening to The
Chemical Wedding? So have I. Brothers in metal! I
love you, what’s your name?
For “Silver Wings” they’ve got “Silver Dreams”. And
I heard some Rage for Order in there as well. All
coincidental of course. Happy puppies, that’s what
we are, and Heavy Metal has never been as alive
as this.
In this world of two-bit tributes and half-hearted
homages, should we applaud kids who are
influenced by good music? Kids who’ve got carbon
paper and are not afraid to use it?
Sure! They’ve already been dubbed as the
newcomer of the year by the Finnish media.
People are full of praise for Antony, the vocalist.
The level of confidence in his voice, phrasing,
and pronounciation is surprising, yet all I hear is
a teenage wannabe. The songs aren’t half bad.
The musicianship, fine. And I hear they’re very
energetic live (and they even do some Maiden
covers, how’s that!), so...
It’s a world-class release! Get it, sing along, play air
guitar to it, and bask in the warmth of true metal
in your heart.
Or...
Machine Men, your potential is a whore’s promise.
Springlike rain pissing down in February. It ain’t
summer. Or winter, for that matter. (Two truths,
two bullets)
Mikko Mattila
15 February 2004
Puls
Strahaná Tvár 7”
(Monster Nation)
A heavy metal band from Brno originally founded
in 1984 now strikes back with a 7” released on
Monster Nation, a Swedish underground label.
Larger than life it is not. Funny though how it has
taken me years and years to learn and understand
that, praise be, heavy metal doesn’t always have to
be larger than life to work like a charm.
Straight ahead driving metal with a nod or two
to all things Priest and Maiden, the uptempo title
track fixes a smile of contentment right on my
face. The verses make the pyres burn bright and
the chorus rules the night. “Rázem Vládne” is
slower but only a little less invigorating, the parts
with high-pitched singing in particular cheering
me up no end. Oh yeah, admittedly the Czech
language adds a flair of all its own to these nice but
somewhat basic HM songs.
Not much else to add - maybe somebody can tell
me more about Puls. Strahaná Tvár is a release
you can live without, but purchasing a copy is not
likely to make you unhappy. In this cold world,
that’s a good deal. (Say nix, give it a six)
Mikko Mattila
8 March 2004
Black Witchery/Ares Kingdom/Scepter
live at Café Lura, Chicago
7 February 2004
Impurath of Black Witchery photo by Culggath
Immortum Opinions are like assholes, and
luckily, this show was full of both. “Quite
unheadbangable,” grumbled one guy during Black
Witchery. “This is only the second riff they’ve
played,” laughed another during their last song.
And these guys are both experts, believe me. But a
band like Black Witchery uses chord progressions,
not riffs, as currency. Nearly their entire set hung
on a searing blastbeat backbone, and the result is
a grinding black metal furiosity that far improves
on the blueprints laid out by the likes of Blasphemy
and Beherit over ten years ago. Whether you
liked it for the whole 45 minutes (including one
quickly-repaired train wreck) depends, I reckon, on
whether you tried to headbang.
Ares Kingdom photo by Culggath Immortum
Thanks to the tested talents of guitarist Chuck
Keller and a well-received demo/7” campaign,
the crowd gave Ares Kingdom an eager and
enthusiastic response right from the start. Heads
banged and fists pumped, although I came away
thinking that the band’s more elaborate material
would probably be best appreciated at home. The
accomplishments of the guitarist and drummer,
nevertheless, were obvious in real-time, and no
one argued with the appropriateness or freshness
of the Order From Chaos cuts.
Scepter gigs in any city are criminally few. The fact
that they haven’t played live in two years belies
their command of the stage, their violence and
force. Their new release, 2003’s Fucking Metal
Motherfuckers, was actually recorded in 2001 but
held at an undisclosed location while Merciless
Records dragged its feet on a release date. So
tracks like “Do Unto Others as You Wanna Do
Unto Them”, “Slaveship”, and “Metal Means
Stupid” that were relatively new to the crowd had
actually been under Scepter’s (bullet) belts for
quite a while. The result? Impossibly heavy and
damn-near perfect renditions, one after another,
the crowd hanging and banging on every massive
chord. As inspired by Master and Celtic Frost as
they are by 70s FM radio, each Scepter track is
a precisely-judged hammer-blow to the head.
The effort is in the craftsmanship and execution,
both on record and on stage. While it’s easy to
appreciate what Scepter stands for (fucking metal,
motherfucker), I’m even more impressed by their
deliberate workrate and the restraint they show
while dealing in such robust material.
At 2 a.m., I stood waiting for the bus, looking
like a loser but feeling like a king, thanks to my
roaring buzz, ringing ears, and great satisfaction.
The bands, sound, and crowd all exceeded my
expectations. This was a rare and special gig
indeed, and there probably won’t be one like it for
quite some time. (Nine bullets)
Professor Black
16 February 2004
Chaosbreed
Brutal
(Century Media)
Wait, listen. Many a listenable album of today
merely serves as a reminder of the great albums
already in your collection. How’s that for an
observation? Sharp, huh?
For analhydro-blast freaks the world over, Brutal
is probably not brutal enough. The rest of us can
decide for ourselves whether we need members of
Amorphis, Mannhai, Moonsorrow, and The Black
League to remind us of the greatness of old school
death metal. Elsewhere, state-of-the-art death
metallers are ripping off Candlemass. Members of
Dismember and Entombed are paying tribute to
Autopsy and recycling old riffs. I don’t quite know
what to make of it.
What’s “old school death metal”, anyway? There’s
death metal, and the rest - it ain’t death metal. (To
make it even more simple, there’s the METAL/
DISCO dichotomy. Hardly a choice, is it.)
Brutal has very little to add to the preceding
Carnage Unleashed demo. The demo cuts -
“Wretched Life”, “Rotting Alive”, “F/C/D/C” - hit
hardest, offering sufficient jävla dödsmetall crunch
for my purposes, at least. When the Breed rock
at their best, gleeful catchiness and easy-flowing
heavy-duty rifferama abound.
Jarva’s vocals range from Reifertian fare
(“Wretched Life”) to something akin to his
Sentenced self (“Faces of Death”). Moreover, his
titles are mighty fine (“Demon Skunk” et al) but the
lyrics are disappointingly scarce and below par.
Can’t help feeling a little let down concerning some
of the music as well. “Faces of Death” surfs the
rivers of red in Slayer ripoff mode. “Shitgrinder”
strives for the ultimate grind repulsion and goes
flat in an ‘88-style Finnish speed metal flop. “An
Evil Eye” offers lazy Lemmy-isms with a foreboding
backdrop.
All in all, nice stuff with a good vibe. A bit too much
on the safe side. Maybe they want to branch out
into something different on the inevitable album
#2? (I’d much rather listen to Autopsy, so six it is)
Mikko Mattila
20 May 2004
712 Don’t Break the Ghost
Digital Glue
“Pile on the black days and dream no dream.”
Deathchain
Deadmeat Disciples
(Dynamic Arts Records)
Thrash metal undertaker, he did a great job.
Whatever he buried, he put it down deep. Where
no dead shall rise.
You gotta remember how reckless thrash metal
always was, at its best, i.e. when it was thrash
metal instead of speed metal or something else. It
was a brute force, uncontrolled, always in danger
of running off the road into a ditch or falling flat on
its nose. “To the Death”! “Certain Death”! “Ripping
Corpse”! “Abstract War”! “Extreme Unction”!
It was always a total rush of power, of ferocity
dismissing formality.
Today, we have something like the third wave of
retro-retro-thrash going, and bands like Kreator
and Destruction rendering their own classics
unrecognisable and unlovable. It’s a whole new
ball game. Somehow it’s a lot more professional
too. Dread that word.
These Kuopio metallers deliver rapid fire deathrash
like true pros on this, their debut album. It sounds
crisp and modern rather than necro and retro.
The war machine grinds smoothly and perfectly,
making up a coherent package, so much so that it
verges on clinical (never crossing over, however).
The band’s aspirations are easy to detect and
respect. Deadmeat Disciples may not be Slaughter
of the Soul for 2003, but failing to notice how
it oozes promise and joie de metal would imply
deafness on my part.
Deathchain’s attack is more streamlined than
that of fellow compatriots Malicious Death from
Helsinki - whose Devilization lp on Rebellion
Records (2003) you might also want to check
out. That’s not to say Deadmeat Disciples wasn’t
fiercely aggressive. Full throttle workouts like
“Chaos Wartech” and “Undertaker” make you
breathless, and the no less speedy “March of the
Thousand Legions” adds catchiness to boot. The
one-track mindedness as regards speed plus the
fact that eight tracks out of nine are below the
four-minute mark (total playing time 32:53) makes
the whole a bit samey, but hey, that’s only a minor
quibble. It punches, it works. (Six bullets)
Mikko Mattila
12 October 2003
Grave
live at Säätämö,
Turku 4 January 2003
No need for me to slag off supporters Morbid
Dream and Demigod here. Maybe I’m getting soft
at my old age, suddenly a believer of the ancient
maxim, “If you have nothing good to say about it,
keep schtum”. Let’s just say that when Grave hit
the stage, Finnish death metal died another death
right there. Basta!
Neat death straight up - has it ever sounded this
good? Completely devoid of pretension and
present-day metal scene bullshit, Grave deliver
the deadly goodies and quite evidently enjoy
every second of their resurrection. Behind the
drum kit they have Chris “Piss” Barkensjö of
fellow Stockholm deathsters Kaamos doing an
outstanding job throughout. The word has it that
ol’ Jensa Paulsson, in addition to being a family
man and therefore uncomfortable with the chores
of touring, doesn’t want to play fast shit any longer,
so Mr Piss may be in the band for good.
Ditties from the new album Back from the Dead,
while a tad lifeless (erm) on record, make perfect
sense tonight and sit splendidly alongside old
hits like “Morbid Way to Die”, “Deformed”, and
“Soulless”. “Rise” constitutes a brutal call-to-arms
and “No Regrets” is an equally brilliant death metal
anthem: “Stripping flesh from the bone/Tearing
limb from limb”...
Suddenly I remember how Niklas Sundin of Dark
Tranquillity slated Grave’s debut album in Isten
#6 (1993), calling it “tedious”, “predictable”, and
“unoriginal”. I smirk and continue to enjoy the
seemingly endless flow of gems from the mortuary:
“You’ll Never See”, “Into the Grave”, “Bullets Are
Mine”… Ola Lindgren’s zombie-like presence/
charisma rules, and guitarist Jonas Torndal and
bass player Fredrik Isaksson are cheerful with
their metal antics, e.g. doing lumbering bear
impressions to the creepy-crawly heaviest-in-town
riffs.
That’s what it’s all about - a great night out with
the undead.
Mikko Mattila
8 January 2003
Krux
Live DVD
(Escapi)
Say something bad about Leif Edling and I may
have to kill you.
Some people have the gall to blame him for not
churning out epic doom with Messiah Marcolin
on vocals non-stop, year in year out. Some say it’s
too bad he couldn’t just stay on the Candlemass
mk II path, i.e. From the 13th Sun. Personally, I
could never question his ways. I like the Abstrakt
Algebra album. I *adore* Dactylis Glomerata, the
Candlemass album most people (or people most)
deem “not Candlemass”.
And Krux, although it’s the umpteenth side project
for Messrs Sandström (guitar) and Stjärnvind
(drums) of Entombed, makes perfect doomy
sense. The dirty Entombed crunch merges with
the Edling harbinger of judgement; to further
underline (as if any extra proof was needed) the
fact that this man here can turn a few simple things
into a symphony of dooooomstruction like nobody
else.
It may seem premature to release a DVD at this
point, only a year after the self-titled debut album.
But Live works so magnificently that such doubts
are immediately dismissed. It’s clear as crystal
in both sound and picture and shows a band of
inspired musicians reinventing some solid steel.
As always with Edling, Krux has real depth and
a fabulous sense of class to its melodies. True
enough, Sandström hadn’t played the guitar in a
band for a number of years before this project, but
fearlessly he hammers down the crushing chords,
in effect making Krux the most aggressive doom
act of all time. No need to worry about Knot, he’s
always worthy of trust and respect. Vocalist Mats
Levén - of Yngwie Malmsteen Band/Swedish
Erotica/Abstrakt Algebra/At Vance fame - was
someone I was wondering about, a bit sceptical
about how he’d fit together with total metal
dirtbags like Sandström and Stjärnvind. Thankfully
no white sweatsuit in sight, and Levén does a killer
job onstage.
The Abstrakt Algebra cut “Shadowplay” comes
across brilliantly, as does “Abstrakt Sun” off
Dactylis Glomerata. The pounding revelations of
“Enigma EZB” sound a great deal more urgent
than on the album. When Levén sings, “’cause
heaven is coming down/and most things are left
undone/we crumble under the sun/when heaven
is coming down”, it’s doomsday coming alive.
Other highlights include “Lunochod”, the chilling
epic about Russian space travel, as well as Edling
getting his once-in-a-lifetime shot at doing a bass
solo onstage. “Evel Rifaz” rulz!
Krux also marks the return, for Edling and Levén,
to the limbo material between Abstrakt Algebra
and Candlemass II, as heard on The Black Heart
of Candlemass - Leif Edling Demos & Outtakes
‘83-’99 2CD. “Thirst” now appears in an alternate
version as “Popocatépetl”.
Fredrik Åkesson of Talisman delivers the goods on
lead guitar and Carl Westholm operates organ,
mellotrons and moog FX.
Special features: a cosy, lightweight interview with
Edling and Sandström, the video clip of “Black
Room”, an image gallery, and you can choose from
DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, or stereo. About 80 minutes
of Edling entertainment, well worth checking out.
(Krux strikes nine darkness descends)
Mikko Mattila
15 November 2003
Nifelheim
MCMXC - MMIII: 13 Years
(I Hate Records)
Pile on the black days and dream no dream.
Metal nostalgics, awash in necrolege, as I call it
(don’t ask), cannot see the wood for the trees.
Sometimes, that’s me right there. How come
active, contemporary bands like Nifelheim and
Sabbat cause such bouts of acute nostalgy in the
first place?
Wild, fierce, frantic, and diabolically torrid by
turns, Nifelheim tracks often make me breathe out
the ever-conclusive word “FUCK!” when they draw
to a close. Then I’m hit with a bang of guilt when
I find myself thinking, “This was how metal used
to be!”
I mean, if I insist on being a martyr for self, I can
obviously convince myself that metal, like that,
does not exist in the present. But there’s no
debating with Nifelheim.
“The sound quality is mostly shit but we do not try
to impress anyone so fuck off” … “Nifelheim is not
art, Nifelheim is not atmosphere, Nifelheim is not
feeling, Nifelheim is Black Metal” - thus read the
sleeve notes. Just looking at the back cover’s live
pic renders such statements virtually unnecessary.
Do they look amazing or what! Metal incarnate!
Ditto for the music itself, it is statement in spades.
And if Nifelheim ain’t feeling with a capital F, then
what the F! This jubileum extravaganza offers
plenty of those invaluable moments where you
get goose bumps and want to listen to the stuff
over and over again. Limited to 1000 copies on
clear vinyl, 13 Years (or MCMXC-MMIII) is a true
Nifel-fan’s delight. Side A, from “Unholy Death”
to “Sacrifice to the Lord Darkness”, comprises of
material recorded at the rehearsal room. It’s evil
in the raw, with additional helpings courtesy of
Bathory’s “Reaper”, Motörhead’s “Mean Machine”
and Treblinka’s “Earwigs in Your Veins”. Quite a
few cover versions, as you can see.
713 Grave New World
Content previously published on the Isten website.
Side B offers live tracks from Sweden and Germany
2001, including Korrozia Metalla cover “Spid”.
Thoroughly enjoyable, like the eyeless serenity of
complete darkness, but what I’d really really want
is a new Nifelheim album proper. Therefore, eight
bullets will have to do. (Eight is great, Satan is
super)
Mikko Mattila
14 March 2004
Nifelheim
MCMXC - MMIII: 13 Years LP
(I Hate Records)
Know who you should be listening to? Nifelheim.
And for a second, I thought they were back on
Necropolis Records. See, MCMXC - MMIII is
precisely the kind of this-and-that release in which
said label tended to specialize and precisely the
kind of release that’s the best example of an
oversaturated (yet ironically uncompetitive) metal
mini-market.
Seeing as the last Nifelheim studio LP, Servants of
Darkness, made Swedish black metal a trilogy at
last (Bathory, Storm of the Light’s Bane), I grew
uncharacteristically eager to hear the jubileum
follow-up. Nevermind that it’s half rehearsal,
half live, one-third covers, and a total of zero
yet-unheard Nifelheim tracks. Yeah, I wanted that
yesterday, come to think of it.
As it turns out, I was more eager simply to own it
than to hear it. Studio versions, it will surprise you
to know, far outbang these rehearsal takes. And
can you believe that they fumble “Mean Machine”
and nail “Reaper”? The very idea of Nifelheim as a
live act, to see the leather and spikes, to hear their
clear-as-black rockers at an unspeakable volume...
fantastic. But pieces of gigs heard or watched
from the couch ain’t exactly being there, and if
you were, you’re not forgiven. At least not until the
band delivers the goods to the USA.
So for me, it’s the audio that’s ultimately rendered
unnecessary by the back of the sleeve. Oh well,
caught daydreaming. At your service, etc. (Five
bullets)
Professor Black
29 March 2004
Sabbat
Karmagmassacre LP
(Iron Pegasus)
In METAL #3, professor Chris “Black” Maycock
writes about Metalucifer, “here’s the greatest
Japanese heavy metal band of our time”. Chris
baby, I love you, but that’s not a faulty opinion,
that’s an outright lie. Borne of ignorance or cheeky
“well-apologies-for-being-in-the-wrong-metallicgeneration”
arrogance, it matters not. A lie is a lie.
And the greatest Japanese heavy metal band of our
time, or any time, are Sabbat.
But that’s precisely why Metalucifer troubles me.
The immediacy of their NWoBHM stylings, that
whole Metal Master Tanaka product strategy (no
matter how decidedly unforced it is), the disarming
catchiness of it all makes Sabbat seem like
Gezolucifer’s odd little side project. The crux of it is
this: there’s no talk of Sabbat without a mention of
Metalucifer, but vice versa Sabbat doesn’t really get
mentioned at all.
Why should it bother me if it doesn’t bother
Gezol? Or Temis Osmond, or Zorugelion, for
that matter. Well, because for me the reality is the
complete opposite: when I listen to Metalucifer,
or when I saw them live in Wacken 2002, I go,
“This is fun, very entertaining, raise your fist and
sing along, hey! hey! hey!… but it’s not Sabbat”.
In other words, I think of Sabbat when I listen to
Metalucifer, but never the other way round. Sabbat
takes me to another world.
Karmagmassacre, their eighth studio album, is
an enormously enjoyable work of metal genius.
Sabbat display their version of the Three Stooges
- Black Metal Style! The black thrash of “The
Answer is Hell” and “I’m Your Satan”, via “Demonic
Serenade”, gives way to the national anthemic thud
of “Brothers of Demons”. You sing along or you
die. 6 more tracks to go, you can conclude it is a
gripping study in gouging, plundering black, like
black metal junior never existed.
Venomously peerless though they are in the
context of modern metal, the uptempo spirit of
this album reminds me that Sabbat have a thing
or two in common with Nifelheim: the meistering
of speed, melody, and foolproof hooks – and the
skeleton of heavy metal beneath it all.
Gezol and Temis Osmond’s writing styles
complement each other perfectly (as do their vocal
styles!) and the latter’s lead work simply dazzles
throughout these 47 minutes. (Nine bullets)
Mikko Mattila
6 September 2003
Sabbat
Karmagmassacre LP
(Iron Pegasus)
The point about Sabbat and Metalucifer is well
made, and I’m in agreement with it. I think there
just is no comparing the two of them, really.
Sabbat are one of the very best acts ever to grace
Heavy Metal with their class and dexterity, whereas
Metalucifer is a fun side-project whose lack of
depth is both predicated upon its original premise
and very quickly obvious to the listener. The fact
that that band is a decent proposition, as opposed
to a lame and embarrassing waste of time, is
actually in itself quite a comment on the seemingly
bottomless fount of talent at the disposal of Gezol
and co.
As is, from a different perspective, that upon
hearing Sabbat one can always discern here and
there in the music parts that remind one of other
bands, but never in such a way as to detract from
the cohesiveness and integrity of their vision. What
I mean is that Sabbat is one of those rare bands
with whom similarities with other outfits do not
indicate aped “influences” but common inspiration
and a visceral artistic understanding of what Metal
is about as a music genre (I don’t care much
about what it is besides). Cases in point the Celtic
Frost-like passages on “Brothers of Demons”, or
the Destruction-sounding riff on “I’m Your Satan”.
It’s as if the spirit underpinning the music of those
bands had been evoked by Sabbat, to be ridden
for a while.
Amazing too how their music can be both dark and
heavy yet immensely uplifting at the same time.
Your comparison with Nifelheim is right on the
mark in that respect, although here I’m stretching
a bit what you actually said. And as you also wrote,
Temis Osmond’s leads are brilliant, and never
extraneous or excessive.
As for the whole Japan thing, well, Japan or
wherever else, who cares. Sabbat are in a
worldwide class of their own, so I’m willing to give
Maycock the benefit of the doubt and assume he
automatically put the band in another sphere, up
there with Amaterasu, where national boundaries,
silly as they already are, count for little :-) (Japan,
nine bullets! Japon, neuf balles!)
Dominique Poulain
? September 2003
Entombed
Inferno CD
(Threeman Recordings)
Got confidence to burn and burn’s just what I’ll
do. See, Entombed can do no wrong. That’s the
bottom line. My bottom line anyway. First track on,
“Retaliation” is the name, I’m punching the air. It’s
been one helluva ride - some have cut their hair,
some have resigned, some days might not have felt
the same – but t