UN: How did the deal with Osmose Productions come about? They have always been one of the best labels as far as blackened death metal goes. Do you guys think that you fit in with the other bands on the roster well?

Warslaughter: Heilz!! Yeah, I think we fit in pretty good actually. There has been some dropouts as of lately, so some of the other more brutal bands have left I’ve heard, but I still think we fit in good.

The deal came about since we had sent the finished “Evoke the Desecrator” recording out to them. They liked it and offered a deal, and well, we went for it.

UN: You guys seem to have a revolving door as far as bass players goes. Do you think that you have a stable line-up right now?

Warslaughter: Yes, the line-up now is stable. I’d say that the revolving door is closed when it comes to bass players, and everything else for that matter. Since Rob Devilpig joined in ’99 or ’00 (whatever it was), it’s been stable. All the fuck-ups with bass players were pre-2000, when we couldn’t find anyone who fitted in well, or would come to rehearsals for that matter.

UN: I was curious to ask about the cover art for Evoke The Desecrator. You have a pretty famous artist within the underground supplying the art. Was it specifically done for the album or did you guys chose a piece that was already done? Are you guys happy with the cover art?

Warslaughter: No, it wasn’t done specifically for the album since the artist, Gustav Doré, has been dead for around a hundred years or so, haha… He lived in France in the 19th century I think. He did illustrations for Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, Dante’s “Divina Comedia”, the Bible, and stuff like that. I think most bands who have used his artwork have stolen it from the first two mentioned book illustrations. If I’m right, the cover art for “Evoke…” comes from “Paradise Lost”. We used this specific one because we thought it fitted perfectly with the title and atmosphere of the LP.

UN: You recorded the album in Fullmoon Studios with a member of Grief of Emerald. Was it easy to record with a member of a band you’ve already toured with? There must have already been a bond formed between all of you.

Warslaughter: We had a lot of fun during the tour, doing all kinds of mischief, so we had kind of a bond, yeah. It was easy to work with Robert because of that, so everything went quite smooth in the studio. We’ve never recorded with the same guy twice before, but we’ll do it again with Robert for future recordings. It actually worked better with him than I expected, since Grief of Emerald and Bestial Mockery are quite far away from each other (relatively speaking). I can’t complain about anything, really.

UN: I have a question about the actual recording process. Do you guys just set up live and record or do you do it in the normal recording style ie. record drums, and then guitars, etc. The album has a stripped down live sound that doesn’t seem to be using many tracks.

Warslaughter: The recording process worked the normal way. Drums first, then guitars, and so on… It would be cool to do it “live in studio” sometime, but ‘til now we haven’t got a chance to do it that way. Too much problems for the producer/engineer I’ve heard. It’s not a big deal, but I’d like to try it out live sometime. About how many tracks we used, I think it was 9 for drums, 4 for guitars, 1 for bass, 1 for vocals, and 1 for FX and stuff like that. 16 all in all, then. It was perfectly enough for us since we’re not sound-gays at all. The important thing is how all the shit sounds together, not how one tiny little detail sounds.

UN: Do you think it’s more important to just go on feel for music? I mean, do you guys record things over again if there is a little mistake? I think some of the best metal albums ever are a little bit rough around the edges. It makes the music sound more human if you ask me.

Warslaughter: As I said before, the important thing is how the entire thing sounds, not how the details sound. I think it’s very easy to bury yourself in your own playing and mistakes when you’re a musician, and therefore it’s important to rely on feel to get it right in the end. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect, and in the end most people won’t hear those mistakes after all. It’s just you. I agree with you when it comes to classic Metal albums being a little (or much) rough around the edges. To give some obvious examples: Venom “Welcome to Hell”, Sodom “In the Sign of Evil”, Sepultura “Bestial Devastation”, Bathory “The Return….”, NME “Unholy Death”, etc etc. The list goes on. These are all great albums, but it would be a lie to call them examples of fine musicianship. I’d say it’s ALL about the feeling, not the technique!

UN: Would you say that there was a progression between the two full length albums? The first LP was amazing, but the playing seems tighter on this new one and songwriting seems to be just a bit more memorable. Did you take longer putting the material together for this album?

Warslaughter: You’re probably right, but it’s a little hard for me to see the differences since it’s been a long procedure for me (and the band). I mean, what you see/hear is two examples of Bestial Mockery with a couple of years between, but for us it’s a long process of rehearsing and making new songs in between, so the difference is more obvious for you than for me.

We didn’t really take longer time making the new album, more so the opposite. You see, the last album’s material spans over a longer time. We just made about half of the album with new songs and took old songs for the other half. On the new one, we only used two old songs and the rest is new. The reason why it’s tighter than the old LP would be the simple reason that we had rehearsed more before the recording this time.

UN: Do you think it’s important to keep things simple and straight to the point? It seems like a lot of metal gets bogged down with too much technicality. I guess it’s nice that these guys can play their instruments but what’s the point if it’s a ten minute guitar solo. After all, when extreme metal was started it was straight forward and to the point. Venom or Bathory never wasted time with wanky riffs or solos.

Warslaughter: Yeah, it’s important to keep it straight forward and pure. I mean, it’s kinda hard not to evolve by the years, but you should always remember the roots. For us, we’ve got better on arrangement and structure of the songs, but we try to avoid unnecessary technicality. If you get too lost in that shit it’s easy to loose it. It’s also important to hold the limits of the band. If you play Black, Death or Thrash or whatever, then fucking keep it hard, heavy and aggressive! If I wanna listen to ten minute solos and spaced out shit, I listen to some weird Stoner Rock or something, not Black Metal. I’d say that in 95% of all cases, too much border crossing just fucks it up.

UN: I was surprised to read that you guys have been together since 1995. Do you think that you guys have come a long way? Are you guys happy with how the band is going in 2004? You guys have a new label behind you and an excellent record, so I’m sure you guys are excited about what this year will bring the band.

Warslaughter: We’re pretty satisfied with our situation. Maybe if we were another band we had gotten further, but since we are who we are, we’re at a place we deserve, haha! No, seriously, I don’t know man. I think we have a good position in the underground, good contacts and everything. We don’t make a living, but that’s a thing that will never happen anyway so… I never think about it in that way you know? We’ve done this for a long time now, and we just keep on going. It’s not a matter of how successful we are. If we looked on it that way, we would have bailed out a long time ago. We’re not overly excited about the new year and the future in general, I guess we have learned from the past not to put much hope in the future. We’ll see what happens.

UN: I was actually surprised when I found out you guys were from Sweden. When I heard the first disc I just assumed that you guys were an Aussie band. Do you think that too many people associate Sweden with melodic bands? Even if the first death metal from the country was raw and dirty it seems to have gone pretty melodic over the years.

Warslaughter: I think that if people associate Sweden with poofter shit bands, they probably have a reason for that. We have a lot of great bands here, but it seems that the ones who have made it big are generally lousy melodic gay bands like In Flames, Hammerfall and, I don’t know, some other crap. The Swedish underground of today is pretty good though. Can’t say that I listen to much of it, but the general impression I’ve is that the Swedish UG scene is pulling itself together. I don’t care that much.

UN: I know that you guys released the Chainsaw Execution LP which featured old demo tracks, but has any thought ever been put into releasing all of the demos, plus possibly vinyl only songs on one cd?

Warslaughter: No. No such idea. I guess it could happen in 20 years when we’re the most cult band on earth. Not really a concern of mine. If anyone is interested in doing something like that, go ahead and bootleg!

UN: I was curious to ask why you guys decided to re-record a few older songs from your past releases? If I’m not mistaken Chainsaw Demons Return and Necroslut were from older releases. Did you guys change the songs at all, or just felt like dusting off some older tunes?

Warslaughter: More like dusting them off I suppose. We didn’t really change anything with them, just put more speed in. We used them simply because we liked them. I did this interview the other day where they also asked about why we used old songs. They had the idea that it indicated that we didn’t have enough material. Well, that’s wrong. We have loads of material, but we just still like those old songs.

UN: Do you think that you’ll have the opportunity to tour more now that you are signed to Osmose? Any plans to play outside of Europe? Although the metal festivals in the US seem to mainly cater to death metal, I’m sure there would be many a Bestial Mockery fan that would love to see you guys come to North America.

Warslaughter: That’s a possibility. We sure would like to tour more than we do, and to get the chance to play outside of Europe would be cool. I think we have better chances to do tours now that we’re on Osmose, but they don’t arrange anything themselves, at least not for us. We don’t have time, energy or money to do these things ourselves, so we have to rely on other peoples interest in us. If anyone in the US is interested in arranging gigs for Bestial Mockery, just get in touch and we’ll see.

UN: What are your thoughts on the current state of metal? There seems to be a few really strong bands playing what I guess you would call a more true style of metal that doesn’t follow any trends. Do you think war metal is one of the few genres in metal to be without many trendy bands?

Warslaughter: Probably. But then again there are a lot of bands that are into this Beherit/Blasphemy direction at the moment. I don’t know if I would call it a trend, but it could come there. We’ll see. The current state of Metal? It’s ok, I guess, as it always is. There have always been shit bands around, just as well as great bands. People tend to blow things up as soon as they see something they don’t like. Don’t get me wrong here. I hate a lot of bands, I just don’t wanna make such a big deal about it anymore. To close this up, I can only say about the Metal scene: The Strong will survive!