Interview: Ceremonial Execution

This is the Interview with Mattias Frisk guitar of Ceremonial Execution.

1.- Could you please introduce Ceremonial Execution to our readers, and explain your unusual name?
-Hi David, Mattias guitarist from Ceremonial Execution here, thanks for the interview. Ceremonial Execution is a death metal band which has been around since 2001. We play some kind of old school death metal with some black metal influences. The name Ceremonial Execution was taken simply because there is a lack of good band names these days, I don't think it's a unusual name for this type of music. Current lineup Robert -Vocals, Mattias - Guitars, Björn - Bass, Jimmy - Guitars.

2.- You are from Sweden, one of the best Death Metal scenes in history, what is your opinion about the actual scene in Sweden?
-We are actually from a small town in Sweden called Mjölby, there is no scene here now but it was in the early - mid 90´s with bands like Traumatic, Dawn, Retaliation, Thy Primordial and so on, in fact there are a lot of people interested in playing music but no audience. I think that the death metal scene in Sweden is centered round Stockholm and Gothenburg, Ceremonial Execution is not really connected to those scenes.

3.- How were the reactions to the Demo in 2003? How many copies were made/sold?
-I don't really know, we had some people telling us that they liked it but nothing more, we did maybe 100 copies I think.



4.- How was the contact to make the Split with Borigor?
-Me and Robert (Vocals)were/is (I´m not really sure about the status of this band) in a chaotic punk/doom/death/grind band called "The Jam Session" and were on tour in Europe with "the Apoplexy Twist Orchestra" from Germany in 2002. Some of the members also played in Borigor and we decided to a split with them which Fab, who played in Borigor, wanted to release on his label erode records.

5.- Your Full Lenght "Death Shall Set Us Free" is a self released album, why do you choose this option?
-It was actually going to be released on a "real" label but nothing happened and we decided to set it free for download instead since we had new songs around and felt not so happy with the Death Shall Set Us Free recording so we focused on the new material instead of searching for a new label.

6.- "Death Shall Set Us Free" open the gates to sign with Blood Harvest?
-Yes, Rodrigo contacted us after hearing it and wanted to do a 7" and we were heading for the studio to record 3 songs at that time so the timing was perfect.

7.- Blood Harvest have a lot of great bands. How is the relation with Blood Harvest?
-We don't have any contact with Blood Harvest for the moment I really don't know why, I just by records from them?





8.- Do you have side projects besides Ceremonial Execution? If you have tell us a little about.
-Ceremonial Execution lost our drummer David this summer, he have some kind of nerve damage in his leg and was quite unhappy with the whole metal thing and wanted to focus on buying a house and build a family, so while searching for a drummer able to play in the vein of David Ceremonial Execution has been resting since then so me and Jimmy(guitar) put together a dirtier and punk/old school Autopsy influenced band called Vanhelgd with the drummer from the Jam Session Björn who also plays guitar in the doom band Ocean Chief. So the focus has been on Vanhelgd for the last year. Our debut album "Cult of Lazarus" is out now on Crematorium Records. www.myspace.com/vanhelgd.

9.- What is the main inspiration for your lyrics, could you talk about "Black God Rising"?
-Hm, I would say that the lyrics is about the failures and flaws of mankind, the stupidity of religion, and the nothingness of death. Black God Rising is some kind of metaphor for the last days of mankind, self destruction and war.

10.- How can we stay underground with fashions which kill genres like Thrash Metal, Death Metal and Black Metal?
-I think that the underground scene is very interesting, at the same time as it is very open it is also very conservative. I am too very selective about bands, music has to be real for me, it´s not about fame, how good you are at you instrument or having a cool image. What I mean is that I think that the sensitive listener will see through trends and stuff like that and get to the core of the expression. The American abstract painter Mark Rothko said that a painting only could communicate if the observer happened "to be in tune with it and the artist" and I am convinced that this is also valid for music. The underground will take care of itself, it´s a kind of monster that you can't kill with trends, the only thing that trends do is dragging it out in the light for a while.



11.- For you what is Death Metal?
-Death Metal is facing your fears and yourself, a channel for aggression, hate, frustration and an expression and communication of that. It is a communication with the primitive in you, basic emotions. Religion does not solve anything, just blind you for the world and the lack of meaning, death metal should be a weapon against religion and help us to connect with what we truly are.

12.- Plans for this 2009?
-As I said before, we are looking for a drummer and is not able to do anything until we find one, We had plans to release an album on Nuclear Winter Records but when David left we could not do that so for the moment I don't know more than that.

13.- Anything you to add or ask?
-If you like ceremonial execution you should check out Vanhelgd and a lot of other unknown Swedish old school death metal bands. Thanks for the interview and the interest in Ceremonial Execution.



You can check Ceremonial Execution on:
www.myspace.com/ceremonialexecution
www.ceremonialexecution.com