First tell us little about band history:We were formed in 1996 by Joel (guitar) and Micke (drums) in Stockholm,Sweden. Glenn (vocals) joined a little later. The year after Tommy (guitar)and Stange (bass) completed the line-up and in December the debut demo , "Whenthe night betrays the light", was recorded. It wasn't printed in many copies or spread very much. I doubt that anyone outside Stockholm has it. Stangestopped coming to rehearsals so the band decided to replace him. So, I became the new bassplayer and we started working on some new songs. When we had six ready we entered Sunlight Studio and recorded "Laughter of destruction", with Jocke Pettersson (THY PRIMORDIAL, NIDEN DIV. 187, ex
DAWN, ex CRANIUM) as our soundnengineer.

1.Who are the bandmembers?-Glenn - vocals, Tommy - guitar, Joel - guitar, Micke - drums and finally I,Robin, - bass.

2. How did you got your name and what does it mean?-We wanted kind of a simple name, which BLOODSHED definitely is. But we had no special meaning to it, even though one could inflict a meaning to it if one wanted to (I just thought about it and I came up with a couple of meanings in just a few minutes). And the name also suites our lyrics (which are more or less about death in one way or another) very well.Now, how we got it. When we recorded "When the night betrays the light" the band was called SCYTHE, but we found out that there was an English band called the very same thing. So we started thinking of a new name and we had two suggestions, BLOODSHED and RETALIATION, but we discovered that both were also taken, by bands that Jocke was playing in. When we entered the studio to record "Laughter of destruction" we had no name. But Jocke told us that they weren't going to continue with their BLOODSHED (which was quite good by the way). So, we kind of inherited the name from them.

3. What music style do you play and compare it to some similar bands?-I would say that we play intense Death/Black Metal. It's a bit hard for us to compare our own music with other bands, but other people have compared us with MARDUK, MERCILESS, MAYHEM and LORD BELIAL among others.

4. Some of your favorite bands?-First some that the whole band likes: MAYHEM, MARDUK, VADER, SLAYER, MORBID ANGEL, HYPOCRISY, DISSECTION, CANNIBAL CORPSE, DEICIDE, GORGOROTH and IMMORTAL. And some of my personal favorites: TWISTED SISTER, IRON MAIDEN, BATHORY, AT THE GATES, DISMEMBER, ENTOMBED (not the new album), ARCTURUS, BLACK SABBATH, DARKTHRONE, OTYG, EMPEROR, AMORPHIS, FUNERAL MIST, METALLICA,SATYRICON and STORM.

5. Your opinion about underground and commercial music scene?-Well, making music that one doesn't ‘"’t even like just to make some money seems very fucked up to me. Music, especially Metal, should be more than just a quick buck. I feel that the underground is very important and probably always will be. Bands and labels that don’t have money as their ultimate
goal are an important part that makes the scene evolve. But I see nothing wrong in a band selling allot of albums, if they don’t have to compromise. I don't think we would ever sign to a label that would tell us to add somekeyboards, what to we "•

6. What was the biggest success or your band?-Eh, don’t know. Probably the good response we’ve got on the new demo. That or our marketing by making BLOODSHED-beer and spreading the bottles (after we’d drank the contents) all over the Wacken Open Air camping.

7. How many concerts did you play and by your opinion was the best?-Actually, we haven’t played any concerts yet. We are rehearsing right now so that we’ll get ready to do that soon. We have had some people that wanted us to play-I’ll get back to you about which one was the best when we’ve done a couple of shows.

8. The favorite songs you made and why.-Impossible to answer. Everytime I try to figure out which song is the best
on the demo I always end up with that I like them all. But to at least give you kind of an answer - I like "Once a future might" since it got raw, fast parts, heavy parts, calm parts etc. But once again I like all songs.

9. Where you on some local radio show:-Nope, not here in Sweden. We haven’t sent the demo to any Swedish radiostations yet. But we’ve sent it to stations in USA, Spain, Belgium and France among others. So far I know that an American radioshow that broadcasts over the internet has played on of our songs ("Without a reason") and a Belgian radioshow had played some song too.

10. Do you think that underground music needs more attention of media and what is your opinion about big music television and radiostations (such as MTV, Viva…)? It’s strange when you think about that a band like THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES plays at a place like M?nbryggeriet (that holds maybe a crowd up to 500-1000) when they play in Sweden and they get played on lots of radiostations and MTV all the time. But a band like IRON MAIDEN, that filled the globe (which holds 13 850 persons) last time they played here, is never played anywhere!!! That truly sucks! I definitely think that bands like IRON MAIDEN MANOWAR, MOT?HEAD, SLAYER and HALLOWEEN should be played regularly on radio and TV, and that there should be extreme Metal shows that would play MAYHEM, DEICIDE, DERANGED, MARDUK and DISSECTION for example, for the simple reason that I would like to hear it. To sum it up - underground music doesn’t really need more room in media, but it would be nice. And MTV and all radio in Sweden suck big time!

11. Does your band have a support of local metal fans?-Well, all have been nice and seem positive about the demo. So one could say that.

12. Plans for the future?-To rehearse and play live. We are also working on some new songs (we have material for about 3-4 songs) and we have talked a bit about recording a 7"-single, but nothing for sure. We don't know if we should release it
ourselves or if we should try to get a label to release it. But right now we're just rehearsing to get tight enough to play some concerts. The sooner the better.

13. Say something for the end!-OK. Thanks for the interview Ivan! We wish you all luck with the 'zine. If anyone is interested in our demo "Laughter of destruction" it is available for 4 dollars (in Europe), but I guess that is hell of a lot money for people in your country (sorry, but this is just to cover our expenses). But check out our website (which is not really finished yet), where you can download one song from the demo. If anyone feels like writing to us - do so (preferably by e-mail, but if by ordinary mail we would appreciate an IRC).

E-mail: bloodshed@post.com

website: http://listen.to/bloodshed

Send a mail:
Bloodshed
c/o Augustsson
Oxelv. 5
138 31 Alta
Sweden