Dismember
- Story by Kory Grow
How Dismember have managed to keep their death metal old school with three new members
“It’s 2008, and there are not so many bands that shock the world right now,” says Dismember guitarist Martin Persson. “It seems like most of the stuff has already been done.”
It’s easy to be dismissive when you play in one of the most controversial bands in death metal history. Formed in 1988 in Stockholm, Sweden, Dismember raised eyebrows almost immediately with their debut, Like an Ever Flowing Stream. A deep cut titled “Skin Her Alive” made headlines in the U.K. for possibly violating obscenity laws, leading to a trial. There, pompous British judges in white wigs plastered their ears to stereo speakers, trying to decipher frontman Matti Kärki’s incoherent grunts. When all was said and done, they ruled that the band didn’t violate any laws, though the whole situation lent itself well to the title of their 1993 full-length follow-up, Indecent and Obscene. “It didn’t affect the band so much,” says Persson, who was in another band called Berserk during the trials. “It was like free promotion.”
Perhaps out of vindication, the group’s sound hasn’t wavered much since their debut. Despite numerous lineup changes, Dismember have maintained a high level of quality for their rapid-fire blast beats, chainsaw guitar riffing and still unintelligible lyrics. This has mostly been due to the consistency of co-founding drummer Fred Estby, who has traditionally written a large amount of the band’s music. Because of his breakneck tempos and colorful drumming, it seemed as though he was the band’s lifeblood, which made it all the more shocking when he quit last year. He left the group to their own devices to write this year’s true-to-form Regain-issued untitled album (a move for which they’re pulling the Metallica and Led Zeppelin cards… “but we still have to say it in every interview: ‘It’s not called Dismember.’”).
“I just met with Fred two hours ago and had coffee with him,” claims Persson, now at his home blaring King Diamond records in the background. “He was laughing his ass off. There’s always one question in every interview that’s the same. ‘Guess which one is in every interview, Fred?’ And, of course, he knew. For Iron Crosses Grow it was, ‘Why was it four years between Hate Campaign and Iron Crosses?’ And on the next one, ‘Where is [bassist Richard] Cabeza?’ And on this one, ‘Where is Fred?’ But it’s 19 years he played in Dismember. And he was the band’s leader. That’s hard when you have a wife and three kids.”
Surely, Dismember’s tour schedule took its toll on the family. For their last album alone, Persson estimates the band played 150 concerts. Even then, it was obvious to the group that their leader and founder was letting go of the reins. He’d already decided he didn’t want to produce their eighth album, leaving it to current Entombed bassist Nico Elgstrand, so it seemed like a natural time for a departure.
The band held a meeting to determine their future. At this point, there were two new faces since their controversial early days: Persson, who joined in 2005, and bassist Tobias Christiansson, who joined in 2006. “We spoke about it and said, ‘Let’s fucking continue,’ because we had already started writing songs for the new one,” recalls Persson. “Fred didn’t want to stand in the way. No hard feelings at all.” The next question was just how the band should continue.
Everyone chipped in where they could. Persson and Christiansson wrote some lyrics. Kärki wrote some riffs. They hired drummer Thomas Daun, who previously played with Insision and Swedish retro-deathsters Repugnant. In the end, the group made an album consistent with their past, with only subtle updates, which fits well with Dismember’s history of, um, consistency.
“Dismember, some people say, is like the AC/DC or Motörhead of death metal,” Persson says. “I guess that’s true in a sense. [The album] is not so different from the others. This is what we want to play. This is what we love. We see no reason for abandoning it and trying to do something else.”
Sticking with the tried and true, a theme emerged as the album took shape. Every song on the disc is about war, with the exception of “Death Conquers All,” which is about, quite literally, death metal conquering all. Kärki is a long-running World War II enthusiast and his home contains bookshelves clogged with material on the subject, which fits titles like “Europa Burns,” “Combat Fatigue” and “No Honour in Death.” As for the current war, though, the band would rather leave that to journalists. “Of course we follow the news, but it’s not what we write about in lyrics, not current events,” says Persson. “And Dismember is absolutely not, has never been and will never be a political band of any sort.” From the way he says it, too, it seems controversy is something best left to Dismember’s past.
The past, though, is what seems to keep them going. The finished album, recorded to analog tape, is something the band can truly be proud of and aligns with what Persson’s goal has always been: to continue to play old school death metal. Well, maybe he’s not exactly proud of it. “Proud? It’s just how it is,” he says with a hearty chuckle. “Dismember is an old school death metal band, in my opinion, and in all of the band’s opinion. If you compare it to the bands that call themselves death metal now, I think it sounds a bit different as well. I don’t see anything wrong in calling it old school when it is.”
