A few questions - interview with death/thrash metal band from Sweden - MALIGNER.
Ave, can you introduce your band to our readers? – When was it founded and what style of music do you play , etc.?
Maligner is a power trio, death/thrash metal band from Malmö, Sweden. In 2015, at a metal gig for the band Sadism(chi). Aztiak(guitars) and Ertheb(drums) started talking about forming a new metal band. Ertheb wanted to play death metal and Aztiak wanted to play more thrashy. The musical style was set to death/thrash when Maligno(bass and vocals) joined a few months later and proved to have a raw death metal voice. Maligner’s music wants to combine aggressiveness, velocity and technique in a way that it sounds old school but at the same time trying to have its own style as well.
Where and under what conditions were you recording the new album? Who was in charge of sound, production and mastering?
Most of the recording was done by ourselves in a small studio at a youth center in Lund, Sweden, where Ertheb formerly used to work. Since all of us has a lot of studio experience, it felt natural to do it by ourselves. But we actually didn’t put much time in discussing the sound to aim for. The mixing and mastering was done by Mattias Persson, a friend of ours who has been recording a lot of bands in the area. We have great trust in him and he knows our style so we gave him quite free hands with the mixing.
How many copies were released and which medium was used for this new edition (CD, digital, vinyl, cassette)?
500 copies on vinyl, 500 copies on CD, Spotify and Bandcamp by Blood Harvest Records / Helter Skelter Productions. We will also release a special limited edition on Cassette in Chile by Underground Defenders due to Aztiak is from Chile and is very interested on the underground scene there.
Who is the author of the lyrics and how were they created and about what do the lyrics deal with?
To this date at least, Maligno writes all the lyrics. They are always done after the music of each song, and are written to mirror the feeling of the music of the songs. Most of the songs are inspired by events in our past and present world, and the experience of being a human in the middle of all this. It’s about things such as warmongering, arms races, cold wars, uprisings and crimes against humanity. The narration is often from someone's viewpoint and deal with the condition of the human mind, whether it’s sane or twisted, “good” or “evil”.
Who created the logo of the band, and who took care of the graphics and the website? What about you and social networks? Do you consider these things important?
The logo was done by Maligno at a very early stage but it works out good so we have kept it ever since. He has also done all the artwork and layout for our releases so far. We’ll see if we keep it that way or not. The social media/bandcamp/mail/facebook is mostly handled by Aztiak but we all try to make an effort now and then. Whether you like it or not, social media is very important nowadays to be seen and not forgotten in the everflowing stream of information, so we try to keep in pace with the presentday and update ourselves even though we start to get quite old and tired of it hahaha…
Which label did you choose for releasing your album and why this label? Are you satisfied by how your label represents you and takés care about you?
We released our record through the drummer’s own label, Blood Harvest Records. There are pros and cons with this solution. We know who we are working with and the risk of getting screwed or communication problems is minimal. On the other hand, maybe it can be an uncomfortable situation to release your own band on you own label? You have to be fair to all bands on the label and not prioritize your own band. Fortunately we have not had problems at all so far hehehe.
Which bands do you idolise and where do you get your inspiration?
Idolise maybe sounds too much. We have respect, like very much and get as inspiration bands like Death, Sadus, Coroner, Morbid Angel, Pentagram (Chile), among others.
Did you send your record to some Labels which are the labels? How was the response?
No, we didn't. Due to we already had worked with Blood Harvest Records and they joined with Helter Skelter Productions (All these promoted and distributed by Regain Records) we didn’t need to send the album to another labels and decided to work again with Blood Harvest and its new alliance.
How many gigs have you played? Which type of gigs do you prefer, whether it's (clubs or festivals) and which of your performances would you consider as the best?
Small gigs definitely provide the best live feeling although the sound is better on bigger gigs. Actually, we haven’t played that many gigs yet, but when this record is out we will prioritize this band and try to make some festival gigs and minitours, but two out of three in the band are parents and that makes it hard combined with duties in other bands as well.
What about your plans for the future? What do you want to achieve with the band?
In the near future we will try to play as much as we can next year and for promoting “Attraction to Annihilation”. At least playing some festivals and a mini tour in Europe. After that we can focus on a new album. We have new ideas for new songs so making more music is absolutely the future for us now.
How and where can your fans contact you? Can you provide some contact information?
We usually answer very fast on both facebook and the email, so try it!
Thanx for the interview.
