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Got tired of Gothenburg over-used death metal scene? What would you say about a band that revives the Swedish death metal scene with its personal touch? Time for some SOULREAPER life erazing action!
Necromantic Art: Hello from Romania, guys! I am so excited to finally be able to catch you for an interview. My first question is referring to your band's initial activity. Why did DISSECTION cease existence? And what fueled you to start another band?
Mikael L�ng: Hello from Sweden! I was never a member of DISSECTION but I think it is quite obvious that the band split up when Jon ended up in jail. We started SOULREAPER in 1997 when Johan Norman and Tobias Kellgren got in contact with Mattias Elliasson and me. We wanted to start a pure death metal band with no influences of the so called Gothenburg Sound, but instead towards a much darker form and even some US-death metal influences. After a while vocalist Cristoffer Hjerten joined us and the setting was complete.
Necromantic Art: There were many line-up changes during these years since you formed the band SOULREAPER. It's becoming a common tendency in the actual metal scene, and especially in the Scandinavian one. Do you have an explanation regarding this subject?
Mikael L�ng: Yes! We had some problems with our lead-guitarists the first years but that is not a problem anymore with Stefan Karlsson. He has stayed in the band for four years now and I don't think he will leave us. Sorry I don't have any good explanation concerning the line-up changes in the Scandinavian scene. Maybe people have too many personal problems to carry. That was the case with SOULREAPERs first two lead-guitarists.
Necromantic Art: Your first album was released by NUCLEAR BLAST. DISSECTION was a constant appearance in the German label catalogue. Why did you want to continue the collaboration with them after DISSECTION split-up?
Mikael L�ng: That is easy: we had already the connection to them and they offered us the best record-deal.
Necromantic Art: Tell me some interesting stuff about your first album "Written in Blood", released in 2000. How do you see it now, compared to what you're performing nowadays?
Mikael L�ng: We recorded the album in January 1999 in a studio called Gain Productions. The recordings took about a month to complete. In that time we were supposed to call the band Reaper but NUCLEAR BLAST called us in the middle of the recording and told us that the name was already taken. So we just added Soul to once Reaper and SOULREAPER was born. Personally I am very satisfied with our debut album though the sound could have been a little bit better, but the tracks are real killer death metal tracks. The music today is not quite as chaotic as it was then. The arrangements are far better and the sound on our new record, "Life Erazer", is perfect I think. The music is also faster and heavier today and it will increase in brutality in the future.
Necromantic Art: Why did you leave NUCLEAR BLAST for HAMMERHEART RECORDS? And why HAMMERHEART RECORDS?
Mikael L�ng: We could not work with NUCLEAR BLAST anymore. They thought that we did not sell enough records and they did not believe in our music. The promotion of "Written in Blood" suffered a lot from this and there were more and more argue between the band and the label. In the end we just asked NUCLEAR BLAST to ditch the contract which was the very best way to solve things out. After that we started to look for a new label and HAMMERHEART simply offered us the best deal so contracts were soon signed.
Necromantic Art: In your biography it is written that you wanted to impose your vision over the "over-used" Gothenburg death metal style? Can you describe in what way? What are the bands that influenced you most in spawning SOULREAPER?
Mikael L�ng: We are influenced by bands like MORBID ANGEL, CANDLEMASS, KING DIAMOND, SLAYER, etc. But I don't think that you could compare our style directly to any other band, I think that our style of death metal is very personal. The fact that we did not wanted to add some Gothenburg sound to our music is just that it is too lame and boring.
Necromantic Art: Your style in my opinion is a mixture of speedy death metal with some modern death elements. In fact, your style reminds me more of American death metal, especially regarding the vocal performance. What do you say?
Mikael L�ng: Yes! As I mentioned above, we are quite inspired by the American death metal scene but we have added much more darkness to our music. In the beginning we sounded much more like a black metal band with that kind of screaming vocals. (This you can hear on our earlier demos if they will be released sometime). But after a while we started to use seven-stringed guitars and the sound became much heavier so we felt that we needed to add a lot of growl vocals to support the heaviness of the music. But still there is some screaming between the growling parts of course.
Necromantic Art: Another interesting aspect that could reveal your interest in American death metal is the MORBID ANGEL cover - "Fall from Grace", present on your latest album's digipack edition. Why MORBID ANGEL, and why this particular track? I also believe that they are the best death metal band of all times, but not only me, as I see that more and more bands claim them as biggest influence and more and more cover-tracks are being issued each year. There have been also some tribute albums paid to these gods, but I must admit that your performance is marvelous!
Mikael L�ng: We have always been fans of MORBID ANGEL and their kind of death metal, so when Blackmoon asked us to do a cover-version of one of their songs, it was a great opportunity for us to hail them. "Fall from Grace" was perfect for us. It is a very technical track and both very fast and heavy.
Necromantic Art: I also consider that you have kept some DISSECTION elements in your music as well; did you intend SOULREAPER to be a successor of DISSECTION?
Mikael L�ng: We have never intended to be a successor of DISSECTION. We are a totally different band but of course there are two former members of DISSECTION in SOULREAPER and that affects the music. Johan Norman, who is one of the most important song-writer in SOULREAPER, did also write some songs and parts for DISSECTION. That explains a lot I think.
Necromantic Art: What has inspired you for the creation of your last album, entitled "Life Erazer"? The cover also seems very horror-inspired and I also bet the lyrics follow the same trend.
Mikael L�ng: The lyrics are very self-destructive and hateful. I don't think that there is any certain inspiration we used to create this album. It is just the result of years of hard work. We really wanted everything to be perfect this time and it turned out great. We recorded it in Los Angered studios with Andy La Roque (KING DIAMOND) and Terror (RUNEMAGICK) as sound-engineers. They helped us very much to create that kind of brutal death metal album "Life Erazer" turned out to be.
Necromantic Art: To be honest, a more than noticeable element of your music is the solos section. What inspires you to write such perfect solos?
Mikael L�ng: We have always had very talented lead-guitarists which of course had affected the music. I don't think that our solos are typical death metal solos. They are more like the usual heavy metal solos with lots of melodies and stuff like that. The lead-guitarist we have today, Stefan Karlsson, is also a member of a thrash/heavy metal band called BRUTALIATOR, which I think that you can hear in some parts of his solos for "Life Erazer".
Necromantic Art: How do you see your creation among the other releases in the scene? What would be your wildcard in order to convince younger metallers to give your album a chance?
Mikael L�ng: Just go to the next record store and pick it up. You will not regret it. If you don't have the cash, you will have to steal it. SOULREAPER performs powerful death metal with a lot of violence and darkness. There are very fast parts but also extremely heavy parts that remain in the very lower sections of Hell. Support the life erasing death of the SOULREAPER.
Necromantic Art: How's the Scandinavian scene right now in your vision? Should we still expect a revival of quality death metal in the near future?
Mikael L�ng: I do not really know if there will be any new wave of Scandinavian death metal, but still there are a few bands that are in for it and have not lost the sense for extreme death metal.
Necromantic Art: What death metal issues managed to capture your attention lately?
Mikael L�ng: I listen to Nile a lot nowadays although their music is more grind-core than death metal, but it is very good and I like it a lot. The latest MORBID ANGEL album "Heretic" is of course continuously repeated in the CD-player. [Mine too... Ed.]
Necromantic Art: How do you intend to promote your album? Is HAMMERHEART RECORDS helping you somehow with this job?
Mikael L�ng: HAMMERHEART is taking care of the promotion for our albums. There will be a new wave of promotion for "Life Erazer" in the end of this year when we release the remastered version.
Necromantic Art: The final words belong to you. Thank you for taking your time to answer my questions and good luck with your new band!
Mikael L�ng: New band? SOULREAPER has existed for over six years now, but thanx anyway. Maybe we will appear somewhere in Romania for a live performance in the future. Until then, watch out for the life erasing death of SOULREAPER.
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