Fleshcrawl – “The work and support from Black Mark was fuckin’ shitty – they just didn’t know or even want to really build the band up”

One of Germany coolest Death Metal bands released their 5th album which is a must if you like the old Swedish Death Metal style.

I know it’s a fuckin’ bore but please give us your biography, were the band members in other bands before Fleshcrawl and were there any line-up changes?
The band was founded in 1987, but existed under a couple of different names at that time. The renaming into Fleshcrawl happened in 1991 when we also released a 7″EP for Morbid Records. In 1992, we signed to Black Mark Production and released our debut album “Descend into the absurd” also in 1992. The following albums for Black Mark have been “Impurity” (1994), “Bloodsoul” (1996) and “Bloodred Massacre” (1997). Apart from a lot of single shows and mini tours, we played 2 European tours so far. The first one was in april 1995 together with Deicide, Cathedral, Brutal Truth, Sinister and Kataklysm, the second one in october 1998 together with Cannibal Corpse, Vader, Monstrosity, Dark Funeral, Infernal Majesty and Kataklysm. In fall 1998, we parted company with Black Mark because we were really unhappy with their work for a long time. Shortly after that, we signed a contract with Invasion Records which turned out to be mysterious cause the label office kinda ‘disappeared’ totally. The consequence was that we got ourselves out of this contract via lawyer. This happened shortly before our recording session for the new album “As blood rains…” We got in touch with the guys from Metal Blade Europe and they offered us a new record deal. In the meantime, we entered Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden, to record “As blood rains”. This was done in July 1999. The Metal Blade deal was signed in October 1999 and the release of the new record scheduled for January 2000. In spring 1998, we found a new bass player (Tobias Schick) after a long time playing without bass at all. Tobias also plays guitar in an underground band called “True Obsession”. Apart from that line-up change, everything is constant now for 3 years.

Your debut album “Descend into the absurd” came out in 1992. Where was it recorded, who produced it and are you still satisfied with the songs, production and artwork? How were the reactions on this one? Did you release some demos before this album?
The debut was recorded in Montezuma Studio Stockholm, Sweden. The so-called ‘producer’ was Börje Forsberg (Black Mark President) himself, but in fact Rex Gisslen, the studio engineer, did most of the productional work. Of course, we still are satisfied with the material from the debut although it does not reflect our style of nowadays. Our music became much more extreme compared to that from the beginning days. The production of the debut album is pretty clear, but flat if I listen to the album today. It lacks a bit of sound pressure, I think. We still like the artwork because it is a great painting. It was done by the same guy who now did the cover for “As blood rains…” The reactions in the metal press for our debut album really were great. Also, at that time (1992) Death Metal was still at its top. We released a demo “Festering Flesh” under the band name “Suffocation “in 1990 and one 7″EP “Lost in a grave” as Fleshcrawl in summer 1991.

Your second album “Impurity” came out in 1994, your third album “Bloodsoul” came out in 1996, your fourth album “Bloodred massacre” came out in 1997. Where were they recorded, who produced them and are you still satisfied with the songs, production and artwork? How were the reactions on them?
Impurity (1994): Recording studio: Unisound, Finspang, Sweden; engineer Dan Swanö Producer: Fleshcrawl & Dan Swanö
Bloodsoul (1996): Recording studio: Abyss, Nyhammar, Sweden; engineer Peter Tägtgren Producer: Fleshcrawl & Peter Tägtgren
Bloodred Massacre (1997): Recording studio: Abyss, Nyhammar, Sweden; engineer Peter Tägtgren Producer: Fleshcrawl & Peter Tägtgren
I still like all our albums from the past although there are some songs which we probably wouldn’t write again in the same manner. We always had a good and powerful production on these albums, I think because we only used good studios with people behind the board who exactly knew what they were doing. The ideas for the artwork differed of course. On “Impurity” we had a simple photography which fitted best to the album and the songs. “Bloodsoul” also had a photo on the cover, but we fucked around with it a lot in the computer and stuff. For “Bloodred massacre” we wanted to use a painting again and therefore got in touch with a Finnish artist called Juha Vuorma who did the cover for “Bloodred Massacre”. Most of our press in the past was really good. Of course we also had some bad reviews and stuff, but you always have that somewhere – you cannot please everybody. The best critics from the old albums received “Bloodred Massacre” which also meant album of the month in Czech “Spark” Magazine and a CD track for the famous French “HardRock Magazine”.

Your first 4 records were released by Black Mark. Were you content with their work/promotion for you? You’ve signed a contract with Invasion Records but this label apparently disappeared from the face of the planet. How did you get in contact with Metal Blade, were more labels interested in signing Fleshcrawl? For how many albums is the deal?
The work and support from Black Mark was fuckin’ shitty – they just didn’t know or even want to really build the band up. This state became worse and worse especially for “Bloodsoul”. We tried to get out of the contract at that time, but there was no chance. They even promised to do better work for the follow-up “Bloodred Massacre”; they also improved a little, but that was just like a drop in the sea. We were really happy as we got out of the contract in fall 1998 and shortly after signed to Invasion Records. Under mysterious circumstances however, the label disappeared and we were forced to search for a new label once more cause they didn’t confirm us our studio time even 3 weeks before the recording time. So we got out of the contract via lawyer. In the meantime, we also had to change the studio from the Abyss Studio to the Fredman Studio because Peter Tägtgren cancelled our already booked time. He signed a major deal with his project band “Pain” and the majorlabel forced him to record an album right away. So we started looking for a new recording studio. We couldn’t stick to May 1999 which was our preferred recording time. We got in touch with the guys from Studio Fredman and they were not booked for July, so we fixed this time at once. Shortly after we got in touch with the Metal Blade Office Europe (we know a couple of them for years already) and they wanted to help us right away. So we received the contract and signed it in October 1999 for an amount of 5 albums. Before that in July 1999, we entered the Fredman and did 14 days of recording for the new album. We also had offers from other labels, but those were far not that interesting and promising for us than the Metal Blade deal.

Recently your new album “As blood rains from the sky…” was released. Were was it recorded, who produced it and are you still satisfied with the songs, production and artwork? How were the reactions on this one? This album came out on Metal Blade, are you content with their work/ promotion for you sofar?
As blood rains: Recording Studio: Fredman, Gothenburg, Sweden; engineer: Anders Friden, Rune Johansson Mixed by: Fredrik Nordström Producer: Fleshcrawl
This album is out since a couple of days only and it is too early to tell anything about reactions and stuff. The first couple of reviews however really turned out to be the best ones we ever received. The fact that we are on Metal Blade now is the fuckin’ best what could have happened to us! They are doing a great job to support the new album – everything is just killer!

If I’m correct you’ve recorded a cover on each album sofar, on the new album there are even 2 covers: Exicter’s “Swords of darkness” and “The day man lost” from Carnage. Tell us which songs from what bands you covered and why?
That’s right! We have “Swords of Darkness” from Exciter as our regular cover song on the album. Kinda bonus track is “The day man lost” from Carnage. We fuckin’ liked the “Swords…” song and we saw that it fits great to Death Metal, even the non Death Metal vocal style from the original version was no problem to convert to our sound and transport it to Death Metal in general. The Carnage song was a little bit of a left-over from the plans Invasion Records had cause they wanted that song to be a bonus track for a possible Japan release. Well, we had the song done already (pretty easy one) and we didn’t want to just discard it, so we decided to record it anyway and wait what happens. So now it’s coming out anyway.

Who writes the lyrics, what are they about? Is there any concept in them? Are the lyrics an important aspect of the band or are they just there to guide the music?
I am writing 90% of the lyrics. There is no real concept or story behind it. It is just good sounding phrases and words which are perfectly trimmed to the music and the vocal lines. In fact, the lyrics are there to guide the music and have absolutely no priority.

How is the underground in the Germany, is everyone familiar with each other? Are you in contact with other metal bands, and bands who play different kinds of music?? What’s the band’s opinion of today’s underground- or metalscene?
It is alright, there are quite a lot of bands here, but not everybody has a deal and has the chance to reach more people by releasing albums. We know a couple of bands in our area and some more in areas which are further away from us, but the scene is not as strong as years ago.

To what bands do the band members listen to, is it mainly metal or also stuff like Jewel or jazz?? By what bands is Fleshcrawl influenced, would you agree with a description as “Swedish Death Metal from Germany”?
“Swedish Death Metal from Germany” is a pretty good description for our sound. I would call it “straight-forward-in-your-face” Death Metal. We are definitely inspired by the Swedish scene and this sound in general. That’s the music we like to play for years now and we will keep on going. Concerning the music I listen to is pretty much everything from all kinds of styles except folk and classical music. I think it is important to be open minded for different stuff also. And so far this fact didn’t keep Fleshcrawl from writing extreme music, right?

Could you give me a top 5 of your favorite albums of all-time and a top 5 of your current favorite records?
all time: 1 Obituary – Cause of Death, 2 Slayer – everything, 3 Death – Human, 4 Judas Priest – Sin after Sin, 5 Entombed – Left Hand path
current ones: 1 Slaughter – Back to Reality, 2 Stuck Mojo – Snappin’ Necks, 3 Carnal Forge – Who’s gonna burn, 4 Ozzy – No more tears, 5 Pink Cream 69 – Electrified

How many times have you played live already, tell us some tour experiences and are there plans for a tour through Europe or elsewhere? What are your expectations for Fleshcrawl in the future?
We played a lot of single shows in the past and 2 European tours, one in April 1995 with Deicide, Cathedral, Brutal Truth, Sinister and Kataklysm. The second one took place in October 1998 together with Cannibal, Dark Funeral, Vader, Monstrosity, Kataklysm and Infernal Majesty. The best show reactions and experiences we ever had have been in Paris, Kopenhagen and Slovenia. The fans there are really crazy and give everything. We will do a tour for the new album as well, but it is too early right now as there is nothing confirmed yet. We’ll see in the next weeks…

As you already had recorded the new album before you signed the deal with Metal Blade: have you already written any new songs? If so, in what way do they differ from the “old” stuff if they differ at all?
No, we don’t have any new songs ready at the moment. I think, we’ll start writing again in the next upcoming months.

What do the band members do in order to make a living? Are they studying or do they have a job?
We all have to work to make a living, of course. Stefan is doing graphical stuff (designing media things, e.g. CD booklets), Mike is supporting online services, Tobs is doing civil service, Sven is taking care of old people and I am doing administration of computer networks.

What’s your opinion on black metal? Are there bands you like and some you don’t like or do you hate them all, musically, production-wise and band-image?
I am no fan of Black Metal, so I don’t have an eye on this scene. It is just not my type of music and therefore I really cannot say anything to judge black metal bands and stuff.

A non-musical question: if you like football, please tell us who’ll win the European Champion- ship? Any favorite countries for the title?
Sorry man, I am also no football fanatic! I don’t have a clue about the teams or who is top or flop!

What’s your opinion on the Internet? It seems that many bands and labels are featured on it and have websites which anyone can visit, although there remain some bands who dislike the Internet. I think it’s great BUT only if the bands/labels update their site regularly.
Well, the internet is definitely important for the music scene to present their stuff and information all the time. Of course, the sites should be updated regularly, same with ours, but sometimes it is not that easy. We also will update our site again, but not before the middle or end of February cause the graphic designer who is doing it is unavailable before that time.

Okay, that’s all I could think of right now, here’s some space to give your best Jerry Springer final thoughts, merchandise, promotion, contact address or whatever you wanna let us know! Cheerzz, may the banana be with you!!
Thanx for the interview. If you are addicted to good, killing Death Metal, you gotta get “As blood rains…” It blasts your fuckin’ brains out…