SORCERY (SWE) (CRITICAL MASS #1, 1996)

Critical Mass was a Swedish Extreme Metal fanzine in the mid 90’s. Here’s an interview with the Death Metal legends Sorcery, translated to English for you!

SORCERY

This band doesn't need any introduction so let's get started right away!
 

It's been almost 5 years since "Bloodchilling Tales", what are you doing? Are you still alive?
Of course we are still alive, but the line-up looks a bit different now than it did before. The only original members left are me, Ola Malmström on vocals and Peo Johansson on drums. Peter Hedman has been with us on guitar since the end of 1991 and we have a, at least for the time being, stand-in guitarist called Erika Wallberg from the band LONG LIZ. Right now we are without a bassist. The other members we had on the album have gone their separate ways, Mikael Jansson, bassist on the album, and I have an active doom metal band called FEAR MY SOLITUDE. Fredrik Nygren left SORCERY in 1992, he played for a while in a band called Ashram but got fired, shaved his hair and disappeared. Magnus Karlsson-Mård has a black metal band with Peo. We have of course had quite a few members of the band during this time. At the moment we have been playing a bit nearby. On Friday we have a gig in Gävle and another one is booked in early June at Parkrocken, a growing festival in Sandviken.

Do you have any new material to show? If so, how does the new material sound?
We haven't recorded anything new since we recorded 3 songs in April 1992. This demo was never released but was intended to be used to get a new record deal. Now we have enough songs to release a new album but nothing has been recorded in a real studio. The new songs are generally much heavier and a bit more complex than the old ones. The lyrics are no longer based on satanic stories but are more about real horrors.


Are there any plans to release anything new?
You always have, but of course there is a lack of money and we have no one who has shown any interest in releasing anything new. Until then, we will have to continue rehearsing and making new songs. The idea of ​​SORCERY was never that we would somehow become famous without having anything to do. If it happened that we got gigs or made an album, it was just for fun.

Are there any old SORCERY stuff left (7″, LP, T-shirts etc.)?
The only thing left are about ten singles, the album has been out of print for years and some T-shirts have never been made.


Did you earn anything from your albums?
You can't say that. The single gave us maybe 4000 kronor (about 400 USD) which we used to record the LP. We didn't get a single penny for the LP. It wouldn't be much anyway considering that only 1100 copies were made.


During the early 90s you played with several of the "biggest" death metal bands, such as MERCILESS, ENTOMBED and DISMEMBER. Do you have any favorite concert memories?
One of the best gigs has to be with ENTOMBED or DISMEMBER because quite a lot of people came and there were a lot of people who listened to death metal in the early 90s. The second time we played with Dismember was a disaster though, which led to us parting ways with our bassist.


Your LP was only released on vinyl, do you have any comments on the CD monopoly? Is vinyl dying?
Unfortunately, vinyl is probably dying. I like vinyl a lot because it's the real record. With CDs you just throw on a few songs and let it play in the background, but with an LP, on the other hand, you have the cover, the inner envelope and everything else, a completely different feeling. Sure, you have the little book with a CD, but then you have to sit with a magnifying glass to be able to see anything. You don't learn the names of the songs either, you just think that song number 4 and seven are good instead of being able to say the right titles. The musicians are a bit in the background, people are less interested in studying the records in detail and see a CD as a whole. The reason why our record was not released on CD was completely different. When it came out, the CD had not really made a splash on the German market and we had received a large pre-order from Germany who demanded vinyl. Unfortunately, it disappeared a bit here at home for the same reason.

 

Closing words?
I hope that people discover through this interview that we have not stopped but have continued all along. It has now been 10 years since we were formed and as it feels now, we will be able to continue for another 10 years.


Write to SORCERY at this address:
Ola Malmström
Smassenv. 33 A
811 51 Sandviken