TC: Reviews all over the world have been really good, and we are totally satisfied with the response that we had got so far.

PM: The new album is ‘untitled’, any particular reason for this?

DB: That was Matti’s (Vocals) Idea; he normally comes up with the album titles. We just thought it should stay that way, not even refer to it as a self-titled album.

PM: The lyrics, who normally writes those?

TC: Usually Matti; but on this current album Martin (Guitars) wrote the lyrics from one track (‘Death Conquers All’), and I have helped Matti with one track (‘Under A Blood Red Sky’). Apart from that, Matti writes everything lyrically.

PM: Is there a particular theme to your lyrics? Famously ‘Skin Her Alive’ was banned in the UK for its content.

DB: Usually it’s about war through Matti. He likes to read a lot and takes inspiration from that.

TC: He knows a lot about it too, he should teach some time!

PM: ‘The God That Never Was’ had a lot of melodic guitar interludes, this new album has also these melodic sections, but in general the new album is more brutal “in your face”. Was this a conscious effort or a natural progression?

DB: I think it is a bit of both actually; I am the one who writes most of the melodic stuff, the twin guitar harmonies. It should always be a part of the ‘Dismember’ sound, but we feel that we should not have too much of it and still show that we are a death metal band, that’s for sure and what we are about.

TC: I remember you David saying when recording this album that he wants to cut down on the melodic stuff, but still there are the parts of our ‘Iron Maiden’ hearts that shine through.

PM: For the actual recording of the album, I read somewhere that you used analogue equipment on this new album, is this true and is this something you guys prefer?

DB & TC: Yes

PM: It has a lot of “depth” and a warmer feel to the recording

DB: For me I can compare the feel with the depth that you get from listening to vinyl. With everything nowadays mostly digital, the production all sounds the same. We are still vinyl freaks!

TC: Yeah I agree, if a band plays grindcore or heavy metal, the production all sounds the same. We were looking for warmer acoustical live sound. It should be 100% in your face death metal.

DB: I don’t think that it would suit me to sit in a fucking studio and “fix” a guitar solo or the vocals to try to get it note perfect.

PM: With the recording of the album, do you record live as a band or separately?

TC & DB: Separately

TC: We rehearse and play together, but record separately to the drum track.

PM: I have to ask you David, how do you get your guitar sound? Is there a special set up on your pedals?

DB: an old “Boss Heavy metal” pedal from the 1990’s, everything on full, and plug into a Marshall amp! Its no big secret, I just use the distortion channel on the amp to greater effect!

PM: I always thought you did not need all the fancy technology to get the sound that you produce! Good to know!

DB: No, it’s that simple!

PM: Moving onto the current tour, how is it going for you guys so far?

TC & DB: Great

PM: I read on your myspace blog that you did one soundcheck at the beginning of the tour, and that’s it, no sound checks from then onwards?

TC: Yeah that’s true, we don’t like to do them to be honest, we have the same sound guy on the tour so if you know what sound you want, it should be the same every night.

DB: And another thing, when we play the kind of music that we do, if it sounds bad on stage, just play the fucking show and don’t whine about it! You see drummers from some bands for example with these fucking headphones on checking the levels etc. These guys are good musicians, but then the soundcheck can take up to 2.5 hours you know. I would much prefer to sit on the bus and watch a movie or check out the local area where the show is. Thomas (Drums) and myself like to scout out the local record stores for wherever we play.

TC: We had a walk around town (Camden) today and stuff. I just bought a record today actually ‘Onslaught’s – In Search of Sanity’ (classic stuff – PM).

PM: It looked like from early shows on the tour, you were doing a different set list each night? Is this true? And what are the reasons behind this?

TC: Yeah we like to do that, we have tracks that we will play every night, but then we have other tracks that we like to change around. It becomes more of a challenge to change things around, especially if we play a show every night.

DB: You definitely need variety. I find it interesting that some bands will print out their set list on a computer before each tour.

TC: I couldn’t do that each night; I would get kinda bored by that

TC: We often write the set list on paper plates or toilet roll, it’s just a thing we do. We are not serious about it, unlike some bands.

DB: You have to vary things; you can’t just live for the “classics” that you have you know. We will play 4 or 5 new tracks tonight.

PM: Do ‘Dismember’ have a choice of the support bands for the tour? Or is it a label decision?

DB: it is not like we choose the bands that we like to come on tour

TC: it’s more the PR/Promoters who put on the bands. We do not generally have a say.

DB: Yeah the bands that we had on tour in Europe were because it was through a different agency, so we have different bands now in the UK with this organiser.

TC: I think it is good that these tours have different kinda bands on the tour, because this also attracts people that would not necessarily come to our own shows, so it’s good to have a mix.

PM: In London, and the UK for that matter, there are a lot of shows each week. Do you find that in Europe?

DB: Yeah we do. I feel there are lots of bands now and people are spoilt for choice.

TC: I see here at “the underworld” that there are shows nearly every night, it gets hard for the kids to come to every show you know, I understand that, it’s expensive and hard to choose.

PM: Going onto to previous tours, the Masters of Death tour last year with ‘Entombed’, ‘Grave’ and ‘Unleashed’ had a rotating bill each night. How did you all decide on who was the play first etc...?

DB: We kinda drew “lots” sort to speak, no real thought process, it started out in Holland I think. We have known each other for a long time (all the bands) and we are all about the same age, there is no competition between us all you know.

TC: The only problem is some night, people would come up to you and say “when are you gonna be on stage”, and we would have to say that we have already played!

PM: For the current tour, is there any gig that stands out for you guys?

TC: I think the Irish date in Cork, which was a good one. Those guys were great.

DB: For tour’ in general, South America for me. The passion that they have over there is unbelievable.

With the main interview over, I had a few more personal questions to ask, just out of interest!

PM: Can you tell me who your favourite bands are?

TC: ‘Black Sabbath’ and ‘Riot’ but it changes around all the time!

DB: ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Autopsy’, and then the classics like ‘Mercyful Fate’ and ‘Accept’.

DB + TC: Old death metal too! ‘Grave’ for example and all the older stuff!

PM: There are a few reformations happening this year, most notable and applicable I suppose is the ‘Carcass’ reformation for festival tours. Being as (Mike Amott – ex-‘Carnage’/’Carcass’ guitarist and current ‘Arch Enemy’ guitarist) is doing this, have you yourself (David) thought about jamming the ‘Carnage’ tunes again with Matti?

DB: Oh god no, that is in the past. I was only 15 years old when I recorded that, I still get fans shouting for ‘Carnage’ numbers at shows. But no, not for me.

PM: Thanks for that guys, a great pleasure to meet and speak to you, and good luck with the show and the remainder of the tour.

Visit the band at http://www.myspace.com/dismemberofficial
www.dismember.se
If you enjoyed this interview you might also like the following:
Dismember Live Review
Interview with Obituary
Vader Live Review

Interviewed by Paul Maddison

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