DEMONICAL

DEMONICAL is a fresh name in the worldwide Death Metal underground, even though its former members were involved in other bands for decades now, just to mention CENTINEX above all. I've asked Martin (bass) about the formation of the band, live attacks and future plans to name just a few from the list of questions. So take a deep breath and read on this awesome interview! The servants of the unlight have been finally unleashed!!!



Hey Martin, I have to admit that DEMONICAL is a rather new band (it was 2 years old in March 2008), but already managed to release a couple of records. Please enlight us first of all what went wrong with CENTINEX and whose idea was to form a new band under such a killer name.
- CENTINEX split up in April 2006 due to musical and personal reasons. It was me who took the decision and as the only original member left, I saw my right to split-up the band.
The decision to bury the band came already some months before it actually happened and during those months I planned and draw the guidelines for DEMONICAL so everything was basically ready the day CENTINEX turned to dust.
DEMONICAL (Line-up 2008)
Your first record was a 4-song promo called "Bloodspell Divine" back in 2006 and almost half year later you've recorded your first full-length album under the name of "Servants of the Unlight". It was out in 2007 by two labels, namely German Cyclone Empire and South-American Dark Productions. Please tell us more about your co-operations with both labels + how was the reaction to your CD worldwide.
- Yeah a few months after we had started DEMONICAL we entered Necromorbus Studios in Stockholm and recorded the promo. The tracks were already written when DEMONICAL was formed so we just needed a few months to rehearse them and then record them. We sent the promo to labels, received various offers and as Cyclone Empire had the best one we signed with them. Easy as that he-he! The deal with Dark Productions is just a licensing deal for the South-American territory and this deal came up after we had signed with Cyclone Empire. However, Dark Productions seems to have vanished, they still haven't released the album (delayed for over 10 months now!!!) and they do not answer our mails. So lets see if the album will ever be out there...
The reactions on the album have been really great, a lot of top reviews in the media so we are utterly satisfied.
A bit later a split 7" EP with mighty ABSU saw the light of the day. It was released by Temple of Darkness. What should we know about this interesting alliance?
- I have known the guy behind the label for quite some time so somehow the idea just appeared, that we should release a DEMONICAL split EP. It was Temple of Darkness who found ABSU, I think he checked with several bands, and that was of course a good choice. Our side of the split - which is limited to 566 regular copies and 100 picture versions - features the track "Unholy Desecration" taken from the promo.
"Servants of the Unlight" builds up from 9 songs from which 4 were included on the promo 2006. Is there any special reason you included the promo songs as well? What is the difference between those 2 versions?
- The promo was recorded just over a weekend so we wanted to give the tracks more justice and record them more properly as they are killer tracks. But the biggest difference is that Johan, the DEMONICAL guitarist, did the vocals on the promo as at that moment we didn't yet have a permanent vocalist.
DEMONICAL (Line-up 2008)
Your style defined simply: Death Metal! Musically you aren't too far from the heritage of CENTINEX, but somehow DEMONICAL seems to be more straight with less melodies (GRAVE's name appeared in my mind) yet with more extreme touches like in the song titled as "Feeding the Armageddon" (I would also mention a strong MARDUK feeling there). What do you think about it?
- Yeah, I think you are right, you have found the core and inner essence of DEMONICAL... DEMONICAL is more straight forward death metal than CENTINEX was on their last 2–3 albums, that's actually one of the "musical reasons" that led to the split up. The style DEMONICAL represents is exactly the style I like the most, brutal and dark old school death with that typical Swedish sound, spiced up with some black metal influences.
You have an aptly named song on your full-length, i.e. "Death Metal". At first I thought it gonna be a cover of the famous POSSESSED song, but to my surprise I failed. Your version is pretty cool and represents kind of Death&Roll party song. Any comment?
- Actually "Death Metal" is a cover but not from POSSESSED, it's a cover of the old ONSLAUGHT track, originally released on their "Power From Hell" album back in 1985. (Oh, I really forgot about that old classic, shame on me, ha-ha... Thanks for reminding – Ed.) We wanted to include a cover track on our album and that tune suited us perfectly, it describes what DEMONICAL is all about. Besides that it's a great track to play live, the chorus is sing-along friendly ha-ha!!!
Tell us a little bit about your recently finished tours with NUNSLAUGHTER, NOMINON and DENIAL OF GOD. How was to play with those bands? Any road-stories you might reveal us? You've visited a bunch of European countries as well. What was the crowd's reaction there and compare it please with the fans' reactions over there in Scandinavia?
- Both those tours we did – the first with NUNSLAUGHTER and NOMINON and the second with DENIAL OF GOD – were arranged by me through my booking agency, Dreamtide Music. The NUNSLAUGHTER crusade was the bands 20th-anniversary tour and their second ever trip through Europe so it was really cool, the reactions were really great. Of course there happened a lot of crazy things, but I won't reveal them here as we have this expression "what happens on the road stays on the road" ha-ha!!! The tour with DENIAL OF GOD was also a huge success, really good. I don't know really how to compare the central-European crowds to Scandinavian ones, there are good crowds in every country, but it can differ from day to day depending on which city you are in, if it's a weekend or weekday etc.
In the middle of January you had to support DISMEMBER and DETHERA for a small Finland tour. It was some serious Death Metal campaign over there I guess! Please tell us your point of view about that tour?
- Well yeah, that tour is also already done at it was utterly great, so far the best we have done!!! It was a real death metal package who invaded Finland and everything ran really smoothly, we had a blast!!!
How's the actual line-up of DEMONICAL look like? What are you doing beside the music (jobs, interests, hobbies, etc.)?
- The DEMONICAL line-up consists of me on bass, Johan on guitars, Ronnie on drums and our new vocalist, a guy called Sverker. We kicked out our former vocalist in December because of personal reasons, we weren't really on the same wavelength so to speak so we decided to part ways with him. We tested a few new vocalists and we said that we wanna test the new front man in a live situation before we make our decision so Sverker came along on the DISMEMBER tour and everything went really great so a few weeks ago we made him a permanent member.
We all work, more or less, besides the band and have those usual hobbies like drinking, listening to metal, drinking even more and so forth... As I said earlier, I do also run this management which takes a lot of my time.
DEMONICAL (Line-up 2008)
Name us the most important metal releases in your life (at least 5) and tell us in short why they are so special to you.
- Huh, this is a hard one but I'll try... Ok so now we are talking about IMPORTANT releases, that's maybe not the same thing as GOOD releases ha-ha...
The first one is "Destroyer" by KISS as this was the first ever metal album I got. This was back in 1982, I got it from my mom as a present on my 10th birthday. Then we have the first WASP album and "Black Metal" by VENOM, I bought both these back in 1984 and they were really important for me, this was revolution-music to scare your parents with... The next important album was "Left Hand Path" by ENTOMBED. I heard NIHILIST/ENTOMBED demos when they came out back in the late 80s but when the full-length album appeared it blew my fucking mind!!! This was it, it had the sound, the tracks, the cover everything... That album made me to form CENTINEX and the rest is history as they say... If I have to pick a 5th album I would actually say it's "Servants of the Unlight" by DEMONICAL. Hard to explain but this album was and is really important for me personally, to be honest, much more important than any CENTINEX album ever was.
Now it's time for some Death Metal propaganda. Please share us the plans of DEMONICAL for 2008.
- We try to spread chaos and plague as much as ever possible!!! We have done a few shows already and more coming up for the summer, some festivals and stuff... Then we will most likely record a new album around October/November for an early 2009 release.
Do you know anything about Ukraine and its underground metal scene? If so, tell us what bands do you know/like from Ukraine as well as what is the first thing you would say if somebody mentions you the word "Ukraine".
- I do know a bit about Ukraine, about the history of the country and such, but to be honest, I can't remember any band right now... Sorry. But I'm sure there are some killer acts, like in every country. The first thing I think about when someone says Ukraine is the hottie Ruslana who won the Eurovision song contest a few years ago. Ha-ha did I destroy my "metal-image" now!? (Maybe, ha-ha... – Ed.)
At the end, I would like to thank you Martin for taking the time to answer my questions. Please send your final demonic wishes to the Ukrainian Death Metal fans.
- The thank you goes to you and all our followers for the support!!! Hopefully we are able to desecrate some stages in Ukraine as soon as possible, that would be massive!!!
Hail The Death Metal Victory!!!


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