eFolket is a local online magazine from the town Eskilstuna in Sweden. Here translated to English for you.
Local Music History: Chronic Decay (1985-1994)
Photos: Chronic Decay and Jeff Hausel
Jeff Hausel is back with another piece of local music history. This time he has had a chat with Chronic Decay who were active for nine chaotic years between 1985-1994. Get settled because here comes the long story about the band that is described as “alcohol metal at 190 km/h”.
Chronic Decay (formerly Armageddon / Altered States) from Eskilstuna was one of the first Swedish bands to play fast metal with influences from German and Anglo-Saxon bands such as Kreator, Destruction and Possessed.
In an issue of the fanzine Immortal Mag from 1993, Chronic Decay is described as “alcohol metal at 190 kilometers per hour”. The band’s sound image brings to mind British hardcore punk with bands such as Discharge, Doom and Extreme Noise Terror.When the downbeat and slow death metal swept across Sweden in the late 1980s, Chronic Decay tuned up their instruments and played even faster. In the following years, Chronic Decay made several studio recordings and live performances. The following article is based on a conversation with members Gunko, Jocke and Pettan and the band's managers SOD-Jocke and Glenning at Pizzeria Verona in Eskilstuna on Saturday, February 8, 2020.
Chronic Decay was formed in 1985 under the name Armageddon. The first line-up consisted of Michael “Micke” Sjöstrand (TT-Task), Gunnar “Gunko” Norgren (Heavy Noice) and Joakim “Jocke” Hammar (TT-Task).
Gunko had recently moved to Eskilstuna from Vindeln outside Umeå where he had played Judas Priest songs and other hard rock with the cover band Heavy Noice. One rainy afternoon in the fall of 1985, Gunko ran into Micke at a bus stop outside Rekarnegymnasiet in Eskilstuna. Gunko and Micke had heard about each other through Gunko's classmate Jallu (Svin-Lars, No Security, Dyngvev). After a short chat, Micke and Gunko realized that they had common interests such as metal, folk beer and truancy.
A few days after meeting at the bus stop, Micke and Gunko headed to Studiefrämjandet's music manager Hasse Lindell and arranged a rehearsal space at Balsta Musikslott. The planned lineup consisted of Micke on guitar, Gunko on bass and "a big guy named Tommy" on drums. When Micke and Gunko came to the rehearsal space to set up the equipment, Gunko spotted Jocke Hammar. Gunko turned to Micke and asked “what the hell is that fucking idiot doing here?”. Gunko and Jocke had not spoken to each other before, contenting themselves with staring menacingly at each other at school.Poster from a gig under the name Altered States at Ultrahuset in Stockholm in 1987.Eventually it emerged that Micke had “forgot” to tell them that he had recruited both Gunko and Jocke to the band. Gunko and Jocke continued to look at each other strangely until Jocke pulled a couple of smuggled beer bottles out of his bass case. When the mood had eased, the band began rehearsing their first songs Song of the Dead and Moon.
Micke and Jocke had recently left the raw punk band TT-Task because they wanted to “get away from punk” and had grown tired of the other band members’ attempts to focus on the music and cut back on the beer drinking. Micke and Jocke thought the beer drinking was going well. There was nothing more to it. They were eager to play even faster music with influences from Slayer and Kreator. Stor-Tommy had never played drums before and hit so hard that there were deep holes in the drum heads. Tommy left the band after a couple of rehearsals.
When Stor-Tommy had dropped out, the band started with “flying set”, which meant that the members took turns playing drums depending on who had a new riff to show off. Jocke and Gunko did most of the riffing and put the songs together by arguing with each other about what was good and what was bad. The lyrics were mostly about death and destruction. Micke thought it was fun to play and didn’t really care much about any song arrangements.
Over the next few years, Chronic Decay continued to rehearse as a trio under different names such as Altered State and Morbid Sin. The band auditioned with several drummers such as Stefan “Stipen” Karlsson (Merciless). It was difficult to find a drummer who could stand the band’s chaotic lifestyle with constant drunkenness, internal conflicts and occasional member defections.
Gunnar, Stor-Karlsson and Jocke. In the spring of 1987, Micke “Stor-Karlsson” Karlsson (Hellfire), also known as “Två meter porr” (Two Meter Porn) joined as the band’s new drummer. Stor-Karlsson was usually dressed in blue and white striped underwear and a red tank top and laughed at everything and everyone. The other members thought that Stor-Karlsson fit perfectly in the band as he came in as both an aesthetic and mental splash of color in the black sea. In the summer of 1987, Roger “Torro” Pettersson (Cruelty, No security, Dyngvev) was added as the band’s new bassist. In November of the same year, Torro left the band and founded the death metal band Macrodex.
When Torro had left Chronic Decay Gunko started playing bass full-time while Micke continued on guitar and Jocke combined guitar and vocals. Songwriting began to pick up speed in earnest and the members decided on the final band name Chronic Decay. The name came from another project that Stor-Karlsson had had together with Roger “Rogga” Pettersson (Merciless) in Strängnäs.
Living with Chronic Decay was just as much about blaring (drinking) as it was about rehearsing or arranging gigs and studio time. Due to the alcohol ban at Balsta Musikslott, the band was forced to develop advanced methods to secure access to store-cooled rehearsal room beer. Jocke used to bring an empty bass case with him, which he loaded with 35 beer bottles at a nearby neighborhood store and smuggled past the music hall reception. As a complement to the bass case, the band made a hoisting device from old microphone cables that was used to haul beer crates up through the rehearsal room window.
In addition to rapping and drinking beer, the band engaged in various experiments and pranks. Sometimes Jocke would bring a surprise bag to the rehearsal room. On one occasion, the bag contained a trumpet from the Hammar clan's own music store. On another occasion, it contained a chainsaw that the band used to saw holes in the wall and destroy the equipment of a pop band that was rehearsing in the room next door.
Chronic Decay rehearsed three days a week and recorded six demo cassettes in local music studios such as Kvickstudion, Studio Skyline and Studio Underground. During a recording at Studio Skyline, the studio engineers would sneak in and turn down the distortion on the amplifiers as soon as the band members turned their backs. The demo had a hollow and stripped-down sound that made the band stand out more than they could have ever dreamed of.Over time, Chronic Decay built up a literally magnificent management department in the form of Joakim “SOD-Jocke” Andersson (Asmodeus), Clas “Randy” Glenning (Death Ripper, Asmodeus) and Jari “Finn-Fan” Juho (Skitdålers, Finn Records). The management department’s main task was to secure the supply of “finnvinet”, a homemade and turbo-fermented apricot wine that was produced in 25-liter buckets at Finn-Fan’s home. The management department also managed to book a handful of gigs in Eskilstuna, Västerås and at Ultrahuset in Stockholm.Jocke and Micke
On a couple of occasions, the band members themselves managed to book a gig. One evening Micke came to the rehearsal room with a staring look and told me that he had arranged a “big gig” at something called Svalanhallen in Upplands Väsby. When the band arrived at the gig and fell out of the car, it turned out that the audience consisted of about ten middle school students and that it was Svalans Fritidsgård that was responsible for the arrangement. Chronic Decay was already informed at the entrance that the gig was alcohol-free.
When the band took the stage later in the evening, the farm’s elderly manager threatened to call the police if the band members continued to drink beer in the premises of the farm. Gunnar replied “okay, we understand”, threw away his beer can and pulled a wine glass from the band backpack that was standing by the stage. The whole thing ended with Chronic Decay being given an alcohol exemption and able to complete the gig despite Svalans’ alcohol restrictions.
In 1989, Chronic Decay recorded the seven-inch Ecstasy in Pain, which consists of the three songs Ecstasy in Pain, 1st of September and Dark Before Dawn. The recording was done in Studio Underground with the help of sound engineer Stefan Dahlström. When Jocke insisted on adding church choirs to the song Dark Before Dawn, the whole recording almost went off the rails. Fortunately, Jocke finally gave up and called his older brother Jonas, who was allowed to come and add the choirs with a synthesizer from the family's music store Hammar Musik.
Later that year, Ecstasy in Pain was pressed in 500 copies with the help of study circle support from Hasse Lindell at Studiefrämjandet. The song 1st of September was also included on the now legendary death metal compilation Projections of a Stained Mind, which was released on Chickenbrain Records (CBR) in 1991. In connection with the album release, a gig was arranged with Chronic Decay and several of the other participating bands at K13 (KFUM) in Eskilstuna.
After the recording of Ecstasy in Pain, Stor-Karlsson met “a girlfriend from hell” and began to prioritize other activities than rehearsing. In 1991, Stor-Karlsson left Chronic Decay, whereupon Micke took the drums and left the guitar playing to Jocke. In January 1992, former bassist Torro returned to the band as a guitarist after having disbanded his own band Macrodex. The line-up now consisted of Micke on drums, Gunko on bass and backing vocals, Jocke on guitar and vocals and Torro on guitar. On leap year day, February 29, 1992, Chronic Decay performed a gig with Merciless, Morpheus and Dismember at the local black club Klubb Max 500.In March 1993, Chronic Decay once again entered Studio Underground to record the songs Return to Heaven, Silent Prayer and Visions of a Madman for a split CD with the local death metal band Exanthema. Later that year, the album was released with support from Studiefrämjandet. Today, the split with Exanthema is a rarity that is sought after by chronic fans and record collectors in Sweden and abroad.
Later in 1993, Chronic Decay appeared on the metal compilation Grindcore, released by the German record label Nuclear Blast. The compilation album featured the mouthwatering songs Taste for Blood and Arbeit Macht Frei from a demo that the band had previously recorded with Tomas Skogsberg at Studio Sunlight in Stockholm.
After recording the split CD with Exanthema, Gunko decided to leave the band. Shortly afterwards, Peter “Pettan” Pettersson (Macrodex, Crypt of Kerberos) was recruited as the band’s new bassist. Peter was a Chronic freak from the old days. He thought it was “a blast to be in a band where you didn’t have to ‘sit in the driver’s seat’ and ‘put the bee away as soon as it was time to rehearse’”.
During the autumn of 1994, Chronic Decay began recording the band’s full-length Justify Your Existence with Stefan Dahlström in Studio Underground. During the recording, Gunko visited the studio and felt satisfied and proud of the newly recorded versions of the band's old songs. When it was time for the final touches, the band was reached by the news that Micke had taken his own life. After Micke's death, the air went out of Chronic Decay and the band disbanded. Torro went on to join the metal band Tears of Grief. Peter and Jocke continued to jam together in the Discharge-influenced punk band Dischange/Meanwhile.
In 2010, the album Justify Your Existence was released in 500 copies on vinyl by the newly founded British record label Me Saco Un Ojo Records. Since then, the record label has reissued, among other things, the seven-inch Ecstacy in Pain and a vinyl version of the split CD with Exanthema. Recently, there have been rumors that Gunko is working on new Chronic riffs and that parts of the band have met to drink draft beer and tequila at Eskilstuna's finest neighborhood bar.This article will be included in an English-language bookabout metal and raw punk in Eskilstuna between 1982-1992.
Original article here!