{"id":23768,"date":"2014-11-18T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=23768"},"modified":"2015-02-09T02:48:33","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T02:48:33","slug":"feature-bloodbath-11-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-bloodbath-11-14\/","title":{"rendered":"BLOODBATH – Unite In Pleasure (November 2014) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

BLOODBATH – Unite In Pleasure<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nNovember 2014<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bloodbath (l-r): Anders Nystr\u00f6m, Jonas Renkse, Nick Holmes, Martin Axenrot
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On September 16th, 2014, it was revealed that death metal supergroup Bloodbath had recruited Nick Holmes \u2013 vocalist for West Yorkshire-based gothic metal outfit Paradise Lost \u2013 to step behind the microphone. The departure of previous vocalist Mikael \u00c5kerfeldt \u2013 of Stockholm, Sweden-based ensemble Opeth \u2013 had been confirmed during April 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were touring with Katatonia in America in 2011, and they asked me if I wanted to do it,\u201d Nick remembers. \u201cI was a little bit apprehensive \u2013 I actually thought that they were joking at the time. I had quite a few years to think about it. Eventually, about a year ago, a friend of mine said \u2018Well, why don\u2019t you do it? I can\u2019t believe you\u2019re kind of messing around.\u2019 I said \u2018Actually, you\u2019re right, yeah.\u2019 I thought \u2018What the hell. Why not?\u2019 So yeah, it wasn\u2019t like I auditioned or anything. We\u2019re all friends, so it was already a good start, the fact that we were good friends. We come from similar backgrounds musically, even though I\u2019m a few years older than those guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, with death metal, it\u2019s not exactly familiar territory. I was kind of passionate about it for a good eight years, from my teenage years into my twenties. For me, it\u2019s just very, very nostalgic, but it\u2019s good nostalgia. It\u2019s one of the best parts of my life, really. In the late 80s and early 90s, it was a magical time. Death metal was starting, and it\u2019s kind of bringing all that back again. It\u2019s a pleasant thing; there\u2019s certainly nothing negative about it. So yeah, all of the boxes kind of ticked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bloodbath\u2019s members explained the level of commitment required from the frontman. \u201cIt\u2019s the same with those guys, with Katatonia though,\u201d he notes. \u201cIf Bloodbath was the only band that they had, then I guess it wouldn\u2019t work. They have the same commitments that we have with Paradise Lost, so yeah. We just kind of do it when it\u2019s time to do it, in-between our main bands \u2013 which are Katatonia and Paradise Lost. Axe (Martin Axenrot, drums), he\u2019s got Opeth as well, and Opeth are super busy all the time. Yeah, it is very much a project. Everyone concerned takes it as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick hasn\u2019t followed material issued by the death metal scene in more recent years. \u201cNot at all,\u201d he admits. \u201cMe, I was very much the first wave of death metal. It was always the bands who did demos; a lot of the bands that I liked, they didn\u2019t even make it to album. I was into demos. Bands like Death and Morbid Angel, they were all in their infancy, and it was kind of before labels such as Peaceville and Earache picked up on it and released albums. It was kind of before that, and the old Florida bands. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was very much in the tape trading scene. It was like a little club of guys around each city and each area around the world that were into this. Possessed\u2019s Seven Churches<\/em> (October 1985) was like the ultimate death metal album on vinyl, but yeah, I\u2019m certainly aware of what\u2019s around now. What are we talking, though? Like tenth generation? There\u2019s some great death metal about for sure, but my heart will always be nearer the first wave, absolutely. It\u2019s like when Metallica started; I was into them when they kind of first started, so again, I always like the old Metallica stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many latter day death groups attempt to recreate the sound of the original wave of death metal. \u201cDefinitely, but every generation takes the last generation as an influence,\u201d the singer reasons. \u201cWhen you throw stuff like nu-metal into the mix, to a lot of young guys that\u2019s their idea of what extreme metal is, but that kind of skipped me because I\u2019m too old. There\u2019s a lot of different influences coming from different areas now though, whereas when we were kids, it was pretty much Venom, Slayer, and Metallica, and that was pretty much it really. The black metal thing for example, everything\u2019s based upon Bathory which again \u2013 to me \u2013 is the ultimate black metal band. Nothing could be better than that. There\u2019s a lot of bands copying that thing, but just not to the same sort of authenticity for me. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re into what you grow up with; the Behemoth album (The Satanist<\/em><\/a>, February 2014) is a fantastic album for example, but I can\u2019t get as excited about it as I would Blood Fire Death<\/em> by Bathory (October 1988), purely because it\u2019s of that time. As a 43-year-old man, I can\u2019t get as excited as I would do when I was 18 (laughs). It\u2019s impossible (laughs). You can only get so excited at my age (laughs). Everything is repeating itself. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that, because everything goes in circles anyway. It comes around again, and people just have a different jacket after ten years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tracks for November 2014 Bloodbath outing Grand Morbid Funeral<\/em> were authored for the most part by the time Nick joined the band\u2019s ranks. \u201cI worked on two songs with Anders (Nystr\u00f6m, guitars) \u2013 \u2018Beyond Cremation\u2019, and \u2018Unite In Pain\u2019 \u2013 which we wrote in the last couple of weeks before we fully recorded it,\u201d he divulges. \u201cI wasn\u2019t actually aware that I was going to get to work on anything on the album. I thought that it was all written, but those two songs kind of needed sorting. <\/p>\n

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\u201cWith \u2018Beyond Cremation\u2019, we were trying to think of how far you could go beyond where something was actually finished beyond death. We figured that when you were cremated, that\u2019s pretty much as far as you can take it. Then we thought \u2018What\u2019s beyond cremation?\u2019 It was mainly the title that we liked (laughs). Then \u2018Unite In Pain\u2019 is about as opposed to wanting to die a peaceful death, wanting to have the most violent death possible. That\u2019s of course is ridiculous, but again, it\u2019s just taking it to extremes. I just tried to out-gore everybody else, really. You can play fast and looser death metal, especially with horror-type lyrics. When you\u2019re dealing with fiction, you can go anywhere with it. My lyrics in Paradise Lost are very grounded and very much about real life, but in Bloodbath it\u2019s not about that. It\u2019s like an audio version of a horror film \u2013 you can kind of go anywhere with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt kind of the 11th hour I hopped in with those two, but yeah, they\u2019re very different to what I\u2019m used to working on \u2013 different to what I do with Paradise Lost. Again, it was quite interesting to work on those two. As for the rest of the songs, they were written. Sodo (Per \u2018Sodomizer\u2019 Eriksson, guitars), Anders, and Jonas (Renkse, bass), they write their own songs. They don\u2019t collaborate with each other; they write their own songs. With that said, the songs are pretty different, I think. Within the album, there\u2019s a lot of different styles there. Sodo is 30-years-old, so his idea of death metal is different to mine. He\u2019s very much into Deicide and bands like that, which is a band that I was never really into, so there\u2019s a different angle there. For me to sing those kinds of songs is quite a challenge, because I\u2019m not used to that kind of stuff. It\u2019s not the death metal that I grew up listening to, so it\u2019s kind of interesting really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grand Morbid Funeral<\/em> marks a return to Bloodbath\u2019s earlier death metal sound, the lyricist submits. \u201cI\u2019d just say purely as a bystander \u2013 because obviously I wasn\u2019t involved in them \u2013 I think the last couple of albums kind of got very much into the technology side of things, which they wanted to refrain from this time,\u201d he observes. \u201cThey wanted to go back to a more kind of raw, very old Swedish death metal sound. I think that was what the intention was, whereas \u2013 like I say \u2013 there was very much a kind of Florida sound at one point. I think that\u2019s kind of been shelved, and they\u2019ve gone back to the old basic, kind of early 90s Swedish sound, which I think they might\u2019ve achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to joining, Nick was \u201cvery familiar with Nightmares Made Flesh<\/em> (September 2004, Bloodbath\u2019s second outing),\u201d he recalls. \u201cThat\u2019s the one that I first heard, and I thought that that was a really good death metal album. When I listened more and more though, I started liking the early stuff more. I prefer Resurrection Through Carnage<\/em> (November 2002), in hindsight. It ticked more boxes with me after a while, so yeah. That\u2019s probably my favourite album now, which like I say, takes in more where I\u2019m from musically, but Nightmares Made Flesh<\/em> was a very good album I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resurrection Through Carnage<\/em> features the voice of Mikael \u00c5kerfeldt, while Nightmares Made Flesh<\/em> is the only Bloodbath platter to feature the voice of Peter T\u00e4gtgren \u2013 vocalist of Swedish death metal assortment Hypocrisy and industrial metal project PAIN. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even tell the difference initially, but now I can \u2013 I can now,\u201d the vocalist shares. \u201cI\u2019ve heard Mike singing death metal in Opeth, because we\u2019ve played with Opeth a lot. I prefer Mike\u2019s voice in hindsight, yeah. \u2018So You Die\u2019 is a great song; I think his voice is fantastic on that song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cutting parts for Grand Morbid Funeral<\/em>, Nick requested demo tracks, instructing the respective Bloodbath songwriters to lay down guide vocals. \u201cThey just kind of squeeked into a microphone \u2013 or did whatever they needed to do \u2013 to let me know where they wanted me to sing the lyrics etcetera,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo yeah, I knew exactly what I was doing with 90% of the stuff. I like to be prepared; I don\u2019t wanna go in there, and not know what\u2019s happening. I was pretty prepared for it all, really. There was some stuff that you might have to do in two halves, but once you\u2019ve sang on an album, you can kind of learn how to sing them properly then anyway. I always find that I don\u2019t know an album until I\u2019ve sang it, because then you\u2019re just copying what you\u2019ve done on the album. So yeah, there was some stuff that would be pretty easy to do in halves as opposed to one take, but generally speaking, there was nothing that was difficult I would say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went over to Stockholm for a week, and spent a week there tracking the vocals at the Katatonia studio where they record things (The City Of Glass). I guess the guitars and everything else were done around that time, but I wasn\u2019t there. The drums were done in February or something \u2013 they were done a long time ago, the drums. Katatonia were touring. I didn\u2019t really have anything to do with recording other than I went over there, I sang, and then I came back home, and that\u2019s it. Everything had already been recorded. The mix and everything else was sorted out elsewhere, when I had already left.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Singing predominantly death metal vocals wasn\u2019t an issue for the Bloodbath frontman. \u201cIt was fine,\u201d he reckons. \u201cI knew exactly what was expected. There was no way that I was gonna go into this, and try and change things. I know exactly what the band is about, and I knew exactly what was expected for the album. It had to be extreme, it had to be death metal \u2013 nothing but death metal. So yeah, I knew exactly what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Death metal traits within Paradise Lost and Bloodbath are vocally comparable, but not entirely similar. \u201cWhen Paradise Lost played death metal, we were always very slow, so the slower songs on the album you can probably identify with my voice,\u201d Nick critiques. \u201cWith the fast stuff you won\u2019t, because I never sang fast in Paradise Lost. I like fast songs, though \u2013 I like fast songs as much as slow songs. Paradise Lost always comes from a very kind of doom background. I love that, but I\u2019ve always been a fan of fast songs. I love fast songs. Slayer has been one of my favourite bands all my life, so yeah, I love the fast stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, with new Paradise Lost material, there\u2019s elements of death metal there, and it sounds like old Paradise Lost. It doesn\u2019t sound like Bloodbath \u2013 the Bloodbath stuff is all about extremities. Even though we are under the umbrella of heavy metal, I think musically it\u2019s far, far removed. If you\u2019re a fan of old death metal or prefer doom death, there are still elements there that might be of interest, but everything\u2019s about extremities with Bloodbath I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although passionate with respect to Paradise Lost, changing things up so to speak must\u2019ve been pleasant for the singer. \u201cWell, that\u2019s it,\u201d he replies. \u201cLike I said, if it was a project that was similar in vein to Paradise Lost, I wouldn\u2019t have seen the point in that. If it was like a gothic metal project, I just wouldn\u2019t have seen the point because I\u2019ve got that base covered. I don\u2019t need to do another of that kind of thing (laughs). So yeah, it\u2019s working within heavy music, but it\u2019s a different kind of heavy music. So yeah, it\u2019s been pretty refreshing to do it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m good friends with the guys as well, which is very important. You can\u2019t underestimate how important it is to like the people you\u2019re working with \u2013 that\u2019s really helped it as well, I think. If I hadn\u2019t known the guys and they had asked me to do it, I don\u2019t know if I would\u2019ve even gone for it, to be honest. Like I said, it\u2019s gotta be fun. If you know people and you can have a laugh with them, and have common ground there, you will have fun. If it\u2019s just about trying to be super-serious or trying to reinvent the wheel, though? It isn\u2019t about that. So yeah, so far it\u2019s been a bit of a laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

A music video was created for the track \u2018Church Of Vastitas\u2019. \u201cThere\u2019s not a great deal to say about it, really,\u201d Nick muses. \u201cWe just had to do a video, and that song was chosen. I originally felt we would do a video for \u2018Unite In Pain\u2019, but they chose that one. Again though, it was just about making the most miserable video we could do really (laughs). They just went to a graveyard. Where else are you gonna go? I don\u2019t even know where they filmed it, because we actually changed what it was being filmed about. I just sang in the Old Nick costume, which I don\u2019t think will be coming out again now. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy parts, I just did in the Paradise Lost rehearsal room, in our studio. Then the video guy, he filmed the other bits. I don\u2019t even know where the graveyard was \u2013 I couldn\u2019t tell you. I wasn\u2019t there when that happened, but he did a good job of doing it. It was only two locations, but yeah, I just did it in the Paradise Lost studio (The Chapel Studios, Lincolnshire) \u2013 in the cellar. It\u2019s a big old building. Videos, they\u2019re pretty much a promotional item. They\u2019re not like they used to be in the 80s, when it was like a mini-film. That kind of thing doesn\u2019t happen any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Record labels simply lack the capital to fund such music videos nowadays. \u201cWell, they do,\u201d the wordsmith seconds. \u201cThat\u2019s the thing. It\u2019s just another promotional tool. They have their uses for sure, but like I say, I remember the days when people used to spend a lot of money on videos. Paradise Lost has spent a lot of money on videos. Now, with so many ways to see things, it isn\u2019t necessary to spend. You can\u2019t really have an exclusive on a music channel, because you can guarantee it\u2019s probably leaked somewhere else beforehand. Like you say, you\u2019re not gonna see many \u2018November Rain\u2019s these days (Guns N\u2019 Roses, from September 1991\u2019s Use Your Illusion I<\/em>).\u201d<\/p>\n

Several live festival appearances have been earmarked for 2015. \u201cThere\u2019s quite a lot of stuff coming up,\u201d Nick tells. \u201cI think there\u2019s about ten shows booked in. There\u2019s ones that I didn\u2019t even know we were doing, so I guess I just agreed to everything. We\u2019re under the same management as Paradise Lost and Katatonia, so they just kind of slot everything in-between commitments with those bands as well. Yeah though, it would be nice to do one festival in one country maybe. Nobody\u2019s really into the idea of doing a tour. Never say never, but for now it\u2019s just nice to do some big festivals. We\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bloodbath (l-r): Per Eriksson, Jonas Renkse, Nick Holmes, Martin Axenrot and
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Paradise Lost is in the midst of recording its 14th studio effort, meanwhile. \u201cThree of the guys are in the studio now, in London,\u201d the vocalist informs. \u201cI\u2019m going down on Thursday (November 20th). With every single album you do, you try to make your best album. Also, it\u2019s our 14th album. There\u2019s definitely a difference in… You can say going back to your roots, but I don\u2019t like saying that. There\u2019s no way we\u2019re gonna sound like we did in 1991, because we don\u2019t play like that any more \u2013 people are better at playing and stuff. There\u2019s certain elements on the new album that are very, very much like the late 80s though, which I think will surprise a few people. Then there\u2019s other elements, which are very much in keeping with the last few years as well, so there\u2019s a fair bit of variation on it for sure. I think it\u2019s more varied than the last album, but after 14 albums, you\u2019ve just gotta hear it and make your own minds up. It doesn\u2019t matter what I say, because everyone always says \u2018Well, you said that last time\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Death metal-tinged\u2019 is how Paradise Lost\u2019s forthcoming opus is being touted. \u201cThere\u2019s the fact that I\u2019m gonna be singing like that,\u201d Nick cites. \u201cI\u2019m guessing that Greg (Mackintosh, lead guitars) will come up with a riff that\u2019s very reminiscent of perhaps the old days, and so you\u2019ve gotta sing in a certain style over that riff just to give it justice. If you sing kind of half-arsed over a big riff like that, it just sounds kind of crap. I want to make the most out of the music and do singing that suits the music that\u2019s underneath it, so I have kind of held back in that respect. I\u2019ve just said \u2018Well look, fuck it. If anything sounds like death metal, let\u2019s make it death metal.\u2019 We\u2019ve very much gone with our heart on that, but the songs are very catchy. Some of it\u2019s very death metal though, but it\u2019s Paradise Lost death metal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grand Morbid Funeral<\/em> was released on November 17th, 2014 in Europe and subsequently one day later in North America, all via Peaceville Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in November 2014.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BLOODBATH – Unite In Pleasure Anthony Morgan November 2014 Bloodbath (l-r): Anders Nystr\u00f6m, Jonas Renkse, Nick Holmes, Martin Axenrot and Per Eriksson On September 16th, 2014, it was revealed that death metal supergroup Bloodbath had recruited Nick Holmes \u2013 vocalist for West Yorkshire-based gothic metal outfit Paradise Lost \u2013 to step behind the microphone. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1637,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloodbath","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23768"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23780,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23768\/revisions\/23780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}