30 Years of "Bloodchilling Tales" - Interview with Paul Johansson from Sorcery

 

1.Hi there Paul! This year you celebrate the 30th anniversary of Sorcery’s debut album – „Bloodchilling Tales”. It’ already a classic title in the history of Swedish death metal. How do you feel being one of the originators of the death metal scene in Sweden and do you look at this album after all these years?

Hi Przemysław! Of course I’m proud of what we have done. Our album meant a lot for some fans and maybe we have inspired some other band to create music. I’m so thankful for what people has done for us - being interested in our music, creating our band merch, records and other stuff. 

2. Let’s get back to the demos period. Your music back then, just like Merciless, was more close to the extreme thrash metal inspired by bands like Kreator. Were the any other bands that had that serious impact or you? What was the moment when you said to yourself – “yeah, we are staring our own band”?

When I and Ola first met and talked about music it was about who is the best guitarist. Iommi or Blackmore. I can’t remember if we have sorted that out yet- anyhow it led us into a deep friendship. I played Mercyful Fate for Ola on a school journey -83’, and we decided to start to play together. We started a band that we called “Acid queen”. It was like a heavy metal band but with an urge to go faster and more brutal-  but we come from a very small town and there was not a bunch of guys who want to play metal. But in the summer of 86’ we did meet a guy from a village nearby - Patrik Johansson (who had the biggest drumkit we had ever seen and, he could play on it too) and his cousin Fredrik Nygren and that’s how Sorcery was found. It was many German thrash bands that inspired me also ones like Sarcófago and Bathory. 

3.After the demos the time had come for the debut LP. How long did it take for you to create the material and record it? Do you have any memories from the studio and the recording session? The album sounds original despite being recorded at Sunlight studio which has its characteristic vibe.

I think “Lucifers legion” is the oldest song on the album and that is from 87’. So it was song from 87-90’. If I remember correct, we were at the studio for 5 days. We had to sleep on the floor in a weaving workshop which was next to the studio. We were young without money - but damn, it was fun. I was trying to play drums back then and I had a real hard time with the kit. It was D-drum kit combine with an acoustic so it was messy. Sound was leaking in the headphones and so on. We didn’t use Hm-2 pedal but I can’t remember what pedals they used and we were in a hurry so I think that made a big part for the sound.

4. “Bloodchilling Tales” was released only on vinyl back in the days. Why there was no other format available? How was it with looking for the label and finally signing with Underground Records for this release?

Cds where new to the world and expensive to print I guess. UGR was a small company with little resources so he couldn’t do it, or so I think. We didn’t have a bunch of deals to choose from so we took the first, haha.

5. The cover art of the debut LP is more in the vein of a heavy/power metal record, that’s the first impression. Its aesthetics refers more to stuff such as Blind Guardian for example, than to a pure death metal record. What is the story behind it, how was the author and how to you bring this art idea to life?

The title “Bloodchilling Tales” made us think of a creepy evil wizard reading from book. Every song from the album is a bloodchilling tale of evil and death. That was our toughts anyway. Then the artist, which I don’t know the name of interpreted our words and painted the cover as he thought we meant. It was not that we screamed with joy when we saw the cover but it had to be that way. There was no possibility then to change it.

6. What’s very unique about “Bloodchilling Tales” is the useage of keyboards in the background here and there. They fuel the sinister, evil atmosphere of the record, provides the climate that no other record from Sweden had at that time, as far as I’m concerned of course. Who came up with this idea? 

I think I have to take the responsibility for that. We used keyboards on our demos too. Creating intros, and I was very into combining metal and keyboards just as you say - to create an atmosphere. The others had to stop me many times.

7. I think you had and still have one of the best logos in death metal. Was it created by someone from the band? Where there any other projects of the logo you considered using or it was just a perfect much right from the start?

Yes, it was Fredrik Nygren, one of the guitarists who drew it. He had done some other before but he was working on new ones all the time and finally we were very pleased with one we have for over 30 years now. I think he drew logos for other bands to but I can’t remember which.

8. The album was released in 1991, so the same year as many classics of Swedish death metal. What was the response on your material and what are your reflections on that special year in Swedish metal history. How do you recall being part of it nowadays?

When we had recorded the album we lay back and waited for something. I don’t know for what, but we were lazy and a little bit naive I think, so nothing happened-  at least as we thought. But we did something for a few people which I know now, but not then. I did meet a guy who said: “It’s because of you I started to play music”, for example, and we are nowadays seen as a cult band for some people. I can say that we had a chance to work with a big management company, but a guy from the band was drunk on a gig and behaved like an idiot, and just on that evening they checked us up, so you know what happened. Anyway, with no CDs, only 1000 copies of our record and with no distribution we didn’t have a real chance.

9. Early 90s and late 80s was a period of massive tape trading around the world with Sweden in almost in a centre. I will not be wrong saying you participated in that as well. Do you still have the stuff you got those days in your collections, are you still after collecting metal stuff? How it was back then and how it looks now in your case?

I was not a big trader, I got music from my close friends. I didn’t have pals all over the world. Yes, I have boxes of cassettes in my hidings and some original demo tapes form our big Swedish bands like Mefisto, Agony, Morbid and so on. I remember a band called Deathlord, I think they were from Australia, that had a big impact on me. Hmmm, I had forgot about that band. I think I have to go down in the cellar and try to find their record.

10. Starting with the end of the 90s, already after Sorcery disbanded for several upcoming years, “Bloodchilling Tales” was re-released several times on CD, LP and even cassette (starting with No Colours Records and ending with Xtreem). Which of the reissue you like most, which you willrecommend to the people who are new to Sorcery or those who had only the 1^st press vinyl? Could you tell something more about the one with changed title – “Legacy of Blood”?

I would go for “Legacy of blood”. A great cover and you will have the 7” Rivers of the dead on it too. We change cover just to be sure that nothing could be hold at us and Xtreem in case of legal issues. That’s all.

11. Just to end with something special. Once I was going through your thanks list on the album there was something like this: “The Swedish custom service for being fooled (helpful and understanding) twice”. Can you uncover what happened here? Seems like some sort of a funny story.

Well the story behind the custom service being fooled twice was that when the first pressings of the “Rivers of the Dead” EP arrived from France, they were stuck in the hands of the custom. They thought that we somehow had imported a large amount of records to sell without paying tax for it. We came up with some other story for them and they finally let the EP’s through. Some months later the same thing happened again when the second pressing arrived. We told them the same thing again and for the second time they bought our bullshit and let the EP’s through and we never had to pay any import tax at all.

I can tell a funny history about when Ola and I met at my home and I wanted him to sing. I didn’t have a microphone but I had some headphones that were broke. They worked as a microphone, so when Ola was growling to them it sounded in my stereo. And I had a little Casio keyboard with a drums in it. If you pressed the button it played a drumbeat salsa or whatever. It had some rocks beat too, so I turned the bpm (beats per minute) to max, plugged in my guitar and we started to make a song out of it. We had to start with something.

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Interview by: Przemysław Bukowski