Nicke Andresson revenant au Death metal avec DEATH BREATH, son nouveau groupe, vous vous doutez bien que nous nous devions de souligner ce petit événement par un interrogatoire du Monsieur en question. Une corvée dont il a bien voulu s’acquitter avec un flegme presque britannique.

VS - Before talking about DEATH BREATH, could you remind us the exact reason of you seizure with ENTOMBED after the album, “To ride, to shot...”. Was it just because of this new and promising career you were starting with THE HELLACOPTERS ?
Nicke - I had more than one reason to leave ENTOMBED but one of the more crucial was that I was fed up. It's easy to get fed up after 10 years of doing anything really. I did not have a promising career with THE HELLACOPTERS when I left ENTOMBED. On the contrary. Whatever we achieved with THE HELLACOPTERS we did that quite a while after my departure from ENTOMBED.

VS - I wonder if you stayed tuned with death metal scene during these eight last years. Did you follow some friends career ? What’s your point of view about death metal nowadays ?
Nicke - No, I didn't stay in tune with the metal scene. Basically ''cause I didn't like what I heard. I've followed ENTOMBED's and DISMEMBER's ''careers'' though. Both really good bands. Don't know too much about what passes for death metal these days. I like ABSCESS, CRETIN, AURA NOIR, NIIFELHEIM, SERPENT OBSCENE, DARKTHRONE and a few others.

VS - How did you realise it was time for you to be back at death metal stuff ? Did you missed these chainsaw tuned guitars ?
Nicke - A combination of a lot of things I guess. Perhaps it was just time. My holiday from metal was over and now I'm back at work.

VS - Tell me about DEATH BREATH birth. How did you come up with the band ? I’ve got the feeling that’s a story about old friendship and nostaly for the good old days. Am I wrong ?
Nicke - I wanted to record some death metal ''cause I had all these songs coming out of me and I talked to Robert who was thinking along the same lines. We share the same opinions. We decided to do it together. More fun that way. Then we got Magnus to play the bass. I haven't known Robert for that long actually. We met Magnus last year.

VS - Robert and Yourself are well known to be some swedish pioneers in death metal but could you introduce Magnus to our readers ? His name sounds familiar to me but I just can’t remember witch band he played with.
Nicke - He's played with one band called GRINDERBITCH, which was kinda like HELLHAMMER, and a band called RUTHLESS MAUSOLEUM which I haven't heard. Great name though. Very underground.

VS - How was it to be back composing some heavy stuff ? I must know that’s not a small deal to write good songs. I wonder if you worked just the same way than you do with THE HELLACOPTERS
Nicke - I always write songs the same way, it doesn't matter what style. I pick up the guitar and if I'm lucky there's something decent coming out. When I left ENTOMBED I think I had emptied my metal storage if you know what I mean. Now it's been refilled and the riffs keep on coming. Can't control it.

VS - I’ve made an interview two month ago with your old band mate LG Petrov. We talked about this festival where you joined them on stage few month ago. How was it to play some old songs with your old friends ? He also told me your fringers were painfull
Nicke - It was awesome to play guitar with ENTOMBED but really hard. And nerve wrecking. Uffe's got some big shoes to fill. Amazing guitarist. I wrote a lot of the ENTOMBED material but I never actually played it you know. Being rusty will fuck up your fingers for sure. Recording ''Stinking…'' hurt like hell. Just the way it's supposed to.

VS - Of course we can’t run this interview without talking about the guest you have on this album. Jörgen Sandström, Fred Estby and the legendary Scott Carlson. (btw, I’ve been enought lucky to see REPULSION’s very first show in Europe two years ago. I kn
Nicke - From the day we started we started we had the idea of having different singers and we'll keep doing that. I think it does the record really good. A little variety in the blur of noise. We recorded all the songs first and then we figured out who was gonna sing what. Jörgen gave a shot at Chopping Spree but it was definitely a ''Scott'' song. There's a lot of people that we'd like have on board. Chris Reifert, Jeff Becerra, Cronos, Fenriz, Erik from Serpent Obscene to name a few. If they're up for it we'll ask Jörgen and Scott again too.

VS - “Stinking up the night” is not exactly a swedish death metal act. There’s some US death metal influences from bands like AUTOPSY, REPULSION even early DEATH. A band like MURDER SQUAD has the same background but the result is totaly different than you
Nicke - DEATH BREATH pretty much have the same influences that NIHILIST did. Mostly U.S. bands + VENOM, CELTIC FROST, PENTAGRAM (Chile), BATHORY, G.B.H., DISCHARGE. Sort of. us and MURDER SQUAD just sound different I think. We're more simple I guess + they sound even more like AUTOPSY than we do. I like MURDER SQUAD a lot.

VS - While you were in studio with Robert and Magnus, did you realise you guys were working on another old school death metal patterns ? Is there some material you didn’t use ?
Nicke - I'm not exactly sure what you mean. We play in the only school we know. We call it the good school. No, we only recorded the songs that are on the album.

VS - Did you have any feedback from Jeff Becerra when he noticed you stole the POSSESSED logo for your own band ? =)
Nicke - First of all, we didn't steal no logo. If anything we borrowed their tail. A respectful nod the mighty Possessed.

VS - “Stinking up the night” promo recording was a tape. Do you have something to do with this choice ? I can’t remember the last time I get a promo tape but guess it has something to do with the tape tradin’ days. Do you miss this time where people with
Nicke - We thought a tape as a promo was a good idea. It sounds kinda nice with the compression. Looks alright too I think. There's nothing worse than plain guitar wanking just to show off. I go for bad musician/good song rather than good musician/bad song if you know what I mean. I agree, gutless is bad. More guts to the people!

VS - How do you see DEATH BREATH’s futur ? Are you thinking about some live performance ? Can we expect another album with more guest ? (I know this one is fresh but the idea you could stop after a single release is just intolarable).
Nicke - We're gonna play a show in Stockholm in October. If that goes well we might play some more.
We have material ready for at least 2 more albums so you can rest assured we'll stick around for a while. We're recording some stuff in October to begin with.

VS - As I told you few lines earlier, I’ve made an interview with Lars two month ago and asked him about these rumors telling you could be back in ENTOMBED on guitars with Alex. He just said ENTOMBED was open to any ideas but he didn’t answer precisely (e
Nicke - We did talk about me contributing some material for ENTOMBED but no, we never talked about me re-joining the band. It'd be great to open up for that tour of course but it doesn't seem very likely to happen. It will be a good tour indeed.

VS - Before giving an end to this little talk, I’d like to talk about your NIHILIST mate, Lief Cuzner who passed away few weeks ago. I guess you’ve been pretty shocked after this sad news. What kind of memories will you keep about this old friend ?
Nicke - Leif was a great guy and a great guitar player. He had a good sense of humour. I didn't know Jesse that well but he seemed like a great guy too. May he rest in peace.

VS - And now a weird question to finish : what’s your actual playlist ?
Nicke - A playlist today could look something like this perhaps. If you're talking about metal which I think you do.
ABSCESS – Mourners Will Burn
AURA NOIR – Black Deluge Night
VENOM - Rip Ride
ENTOMBED – Carnage
DEATHSTRIKE – Pay To Die
DARK ANGEL – Perish In flames

VS - That’s it, Mr Andersson, I wish we could have done this interview over the phone and talk about the good old days but I guess that would not be interesting except for an old fart like me. Thanks a lot for your answers and for this new album. You’ve b
Nicke - Thanks for the interview.