Oliver (Black Lion Records) interview

It’s been a few months since I featured a label on the blog. The label being featured this month is Black Lion Records from Sweden. In the past 5 years, they have released albums from all across the board – death metal, black metal, thrash metal and even funeral doom. I was keen to know more about the label after following them for over a year.

I spoke to Oliver Dahlback about the origins of Black Lion Records, running a label and what to expect from them in the coming months.

 

 

Hi Oliver, you started Black Lion Records in 2012. How does it feel looking back at the past 5 years?

Really 5 years time flies, I am still picking up bits of 2016 it feels strange looking back, as it feels as if it was just last night it all started in my old apartment. I think I am still trying to grasp everything that has happened the last year in general really. I don’t think I ever expected things to go this way or go this far or rather explode as they did…so I don’t really know how I feel , what am I meant to feel. I feel that something has happened.

How did you decide to start a label? Why did you decide to start a label that releases only extreme metal music?

That’s an interesting question, the fun thing is I don’t know how it started, I never had any plans on turning this into a label or even making it further than my apartment door. What I do know is I had a strong vision of what i wanted to do with Black Lion as a zine, I wanted to make a difference I wanted to be able to help bands, I wanted to help other realize their value and their game in the whole cycle. that you can do what you want as long as you don’t stand in the way or deny anyone else the same.
I wanted to make a difference in the local scene I didn’t want it to die, I believed that if I could just change a small thing or do a certain small deed, it would help, and that is how the zine called Black Lion productions was started, we were no wow zine 10 people at most visiting if at all. I never in my million years thought that something i started for fun could attract a larger following. but my idea attracted others who believed what I believe. and that’s how I meet Marcos for example , he saw my passion and vision, but most importantly he saw WHY I did it.. Because in the end it doesn’t matter what you do because you’re just like anyone else no different no better, we didn’t do anything particularly different from anyone else… but it was the reason the WHY we did it that sparked interest in people and that spark spread amongst others who shared our vision. and that’s kinda where it took off, when I found Why I did it… the why is because I wanted to make a difference with helping young and upcoming bands making their way into the scene… and getting more known. It just so happens that a record label was the way for me to reach out and help bands… I don’t regret any anything.

why only extreme metal music? the reason for just releasing Extreme Music is because it was the music scene I loved and followed myself simple as that actually… no deep meaning behind it… it just fell natural. I mean why release something you can’t stand behind.

What have been the most memorable releases on your label so far?

I think all are memorable in some way, but the biggest “game changer” was indeed Hyperion a fresh local band from Stockholm, We never in a million years thought that we actually would make it far we thought maybe someone might pay attention but neither one of us could have ever dreamed of this huge massive feedback and journey that exploded in front of us. Their debut album did indeed break us.
I think still today we’re still trying to understand how it all happened and trying to make sense of it , we kinda just had to roll and grow with the bands we have now.. It’s been an amazing journey together. and it’s far from over. But we are eternally grateful to everything.

What is the biggest problem that you faced so far in running the label?

oh dear its a lot everything from trying to balance the life of working almost 24/7 with the label , being to stubborn to actually just get a day job. Actually getting an economy seem to be the most thing.
thats why its always huge delays in our releases because everything comes from my own pocket, nothing is savings or big trust fund.. its all comes down to hard work and sometimes luck with some smaller sales.
Another problem was the whole how do we go from here! what’s the next steps to take… What am I expected to deliver after this, there was a lot of questions and I think there still is. Tons of questions i still wish to have answers to but that’s something different. But in general to be honest it’s all struggle really, finding money to pay for pressing then shipping, it’s not cheap to ship cds across europe.
I think my biggest problem running a label has been understanding the whole game we are playing. that its all for nothing in the end actually if you look at it blunt.

You invest in something and you expect nothing in return. But you spend maybe 20-50.000 each time of course it leaves a mark. Passion will drive you far but sooner or later you either hit a wall or you start to think or reflect over the cause of things. WHY do I do this, it’s clear What I do but Why ,so we start of thinking about everything we do and why we do what we do. and my Why finally was clear to me years later that it’s because I want to make a difference with everything I do my goal is not to become the best or richest it’s to be better than I was last night, I lost my path when everything exploded, because I didn’t know my Why i did what I did after I had accomplished something I didn’t even expect. My Point is always start with why! ‘WHY do you do what you do.

What kind of marketing do you do?

My approach to marketing has changed so much in such short time, if i may go back to my previous talk about always start with why…and the importance of understanding marketing and the act of What Vs Why
we all fight for the same audience and we brand ourselves with various slogans to stand out but most companies fails where it should start. Because we forget why we know what we do and how but WHY, the same thing is with music marketing.

The saying goes you need to understand why you are selling it we all know what you are selling.. But why should anyone care about this band, let’s take Hyperion for example. Originally I wanted to co release it with Satanath records because I had no money to actually press CDs it was crazy huge prices sweden reserved to bands that had big fan base or at least day jobs. I asked Alekseys if he was interested but he turned me down right away… more or less didn’t think it would be any profitable nor make a huge impact.. So I thought to myself lets try and do my own way, I didn’t have much skills in marketing but I knew how to talk.

Hyperion had a great sounding album that was hidden away more or less. Because they were not known or on nuclear blast or any other major label that someone was gonna bother to pay attention to unless you showed it to them, and the whole point of this is to explain the importance of understanding why it all suddenly started to escalate. Not because of its name because if you asked someone in early 2016 nobody had heard of a Black metal band from Sweden called Hyperion, it wasn’t on the map, not because they were not good , but because nobody had bothered to check them out… Until they had a reason. Their new album came out it was getting good reviews, all over the place.

But our biggest challenge was how do we promote this amazing album for real we had no huge funds or anything like that to spend on ton of ads, etc but we had the word of mouth and a key thing We knew why we wanted to push this band because we believe they could be the next thing. so I started to tell people like hey dude check out this killer band we believe they might be the next big thing in the underground scene, and that person then listened to it and agreed and believed what I believed , he told his friend who then told two other people. and that’s how it started to escalate the album moved by word of mouth have you heard thing amazing record from a new upcoming band from sweden.

What changes have you noticed in bands/customers in the past decade?

The Importance of always freeing time to talk to your supporters, and one thing I always will know is that i never see myself as someone with high status, i am just like anyone else, who just followed my vision and took risks accepted failure.
one rule is the importance of customer service that one I take very serious , today when you have customer service it means waiting in a long cue until it’s your time or in best case you get number to call… when I grew up If I wanted to have answers it was just walk right into the store and ask the employee about the product today we have minimized that contact. we have answering machines for everything, we have ton of automatic emailing just for the sake of it… Instead of letting people feel that they are actually talking to someone real, since when is a person a luxury. that’s why I always try to be online and as quick as possible to replay to all emails.

What do you look for in a band before you sign them to your label?

There are many things to look at for example if may joke about I usually say to friend when ever he sends a new band with a landscape beautiful artwork I say – oh nice Avantgarde music ,,must be really busy, I assume that everything that looks all gracefully and landscape-ish will already be signed to avantgarde music for 100 years, lol

The most important thing is to understand is that it’s not what you offer or how, it’s why! why do you want to sign that band because you think they have great potential or because maybe you think they have a profit but that’s a result of what we do. it’s a cause of that something you worked for has expanded. What I look for is new fresh artists unknown names that nobody really know about that I can help to grow from the first steps.

Have you been in a band? What instrument do you play?

Not for a long time, I play a bit of guitar.

Do you have any advice for those planning to start a metal music record label?

My best advice is start with asking yourself Why do you want to start a label ?

What are the upcoming releases from your label?

We have a lot of upcoming albums

Legacy Of emtpiness Over the Past June 12th
Mordenial The Plauge July
Caoimhn The Age of Wolves EP
Mist of misery – Fields Of isolation
Mist of misery – Shackles of Life

And in The fall we have Defiatory’s new album
Deathmarch
Eufori. new album
Wormlight’s new album

 

Here are a few releases from Black Lion Records to check out

The Furor Interview

The metal scene in Australia is underrated. I’ve got know of more bands from the country through Transcending Obscurity who has put out releases from 3 Australian bands this year. One of the bands is The Furor, a black/thrash metal band from Australia. They have released 4 albums In the past 15 years and last month released their fifth album, ‘Cavalries of the Occult‘. The album is an intense mix of death, black and thrash metal.

I spoke to frontman Louis Rando about their latest album, writing alone and also the other bands he is involved in.

‘Cavalries of the Occult’ is your fifth album in the past 15 years. How does it feel looking back?

It feels like it’s been a long time! I’ve had a great time playing and performing metal over the last 22 years, not only with the furor, but with all my other bands, 11 of them in total. The Furor began in 2002 after the breakup of my previous band ‘Pagan’. We did 3 albums with an active lineup, performing live all around Australia, supporting some of our favorite bands and getting positive response from most people. Over time, members left for personal reasons, which inspired me to take more control of the band, writing the entirety of the last 2 albums and basically managing the band by myself, which has proven to be a difficult task. The final lineup disbanded in the last year, leaving me alone once again. I do however actively write and perform with 2 or 3 other bands, I’m always busy, so all is not lost!!!
The intention was always to go international with The Furor, touring, full promotion etc, but without a stable lineup, it’s impossible. So The Furor is now officially ‘on hold’ while I’m working with bands that have more stability.

The album is an intense mix of death, black and thrash metal. Tell us a bit more about the album.

It was written over the course of about one year, directly after the release of the last album ‘Impending Revelation’. In terms of style, it’s much like our previous albums, bombastik high speed aggressive Black/Death metal, no romantic ‘arty’ bullshit, a mish mash of my influences Morbid Angel, Mayhem, Destruction, Slayer, Angelcorpse, Immortal, Krisiun, Impiety, Nephast etc. never consciously alter the style of the music, nor do I try to get more and more brutal for the sake of it. Inevitably, things become more extreme as my playing improves. Aside from being very intense, I try to keep a good honest flow happening. There’s gotta be a good spirit to the music too. That becomes easier to achieve as I grow into myself over time.

What was the writing process for Cavalries of the Occult? Do you prefer to write alone or as part of a band?

I wrote this album, plus the 2 previous releases ‘Impending Revelation’ and ‘Sermon of Slaughter’ entirely by myself. I write the framework of the song on guitar, then I write vocals, then add drums, bass guitar and synths lastly. I started writing alone because I was the only band member left after our ‘War upon Worship’ album. I soon realised the benefits and drawbacks of writing music alone.
The upside is, I can write very quickly without compromising my ideas. The downside is, recruiting and teaching people the songs, plus expecting them to feel involved in the music is somewhat hard.

 

You also play drums for the legendary Singapore-based band Impiety. How did you become a part of the band? When can we expect a new release from the band?

I was a big fan of Impiety since I heard Asateerul Awaleen back in 1997. Their old artist (who also played in my band Pagan) introduced them to me. I eagerly followed Impiety in the years to come, and was blown away by their works. I became Facebook buddies with Shyaithan in about 2008.
I offered my drumming services to him in 2011 after I left the band Nervecell. Soon after, I flew to Singapore to prepare for our first Asian tour in Sept 2011. After that tour, we continued touring hard until 2015, doing multiple tours of Asia and Europe, plus India, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and China. We racked up A LOT of kilometers. I recorded drums on the Ravage and Conquer album in 2012, plus The Impious Crusade Ep in 2014.
Shyaithan has been hinting at a new Impiety release in the near future, but I’ll leave it to him to reveal the details. He doesn’t tell me anything till the week of recording anyway!! He’s quite secretive and IMPULSIVE!

You are also a part of Bloodlust, Depravity, and Mhorgl. How do you manage between all these bands? How are they stylistically different from each other?

You forgot to add Malignant Monster and Psychonaut hehe. All these bands happened across the period of about 10 years, so they don’t completely overlap and get in the way of each other. It’s a gradual process that’s quite manageable, although yes I’m quite busy and I’ve often wondered if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew… I’m not the sole writer in these other bands as I am in The Furor, so that makes it possible. Here in Perth, it’s very expensive to tour and hard to get exposure, so we pass the time by working with each other to keep occupied. I know everyone in town, so I’ve become the ‘go too’ drummer so to speak. It’s easy for me to join bands here.

When you’re not listening to, writing or playing metal, what are some of your favorite albums to listen to currently?

You mean metal albums? Nothing new, but the albums currently inhabiting my car are Suffocation- Pierced from Within, Nifilheim- Devil’s Force, Deicide-Once upon the Cross, Abramelin-Deadspeak, Absu-Abzu, the first Job for a cowboy album, Slayer-Hell Awaits, Marduk-Panzer Division Marduk. I don’t actively seek out new bands, but I do check out bands if people highly recommend them. I’m usually too busy with my own music and various obligations to keep up with newer releases.

Destroyer 666 are one of most well known extreme metal bands from Australia. Which are the bands from Australia that you think the readers should know about?

Ok here’s a list of old and new bands… Denouncement Pyre, Abominator, Bestial Warlust, Darklord, Nocturnal Graves.

You have toured around Europe and Asia. What have you been your favourite venues/cities to perform in?

All places have different things to offer, India has the best food I’ve tasted and offers the biggest culture shock, Malaysia has a diehard Black Metal scene and great landscape/beaches, Europe has big crowds, big bands and well organised shows, Dubai is an amazing modern city located in a harsh desert landscape, China was a rare treat with some great sightseeing, Australia is home so it’s great fun. I really enjoy the competitive nature of music in Europe, but I love the food and culture of Asia. That’s about as specific as I can be.
I love touring PERIOD!

Is The Furor going to perform live again? Do you have any shows planned this year? You have been active with Depravity of late. Is there anything we should know about that band?

Jarrod the guitarist from Depravity actually played in The Furor before, and I’ve played in previous bands with Depravity members for many years, so I’ve got a long working history with the members, even though the band is new. Like I said earlier, it’s hard to make a functional band out of The Furor when I’m the one writing all the material. People always want to perform music they have a hand in writing, which is fair enough.
Keep your eyes on Depravity because we intend on pushing the band really hard, staying together for a long time, and doing all the things that make a band great.
Check out our bandcamp page for info and download our EP ‘Reign of the Depraved’ for free.
https://depravityaustralia.bandcamp.com/

Thanks a lot for the interview, support the furor and download the entire 5 album discography here https://thefuror.bandcamp.com/

 

Listen/Download  ‘Cavalries of the Occult‘ below

 

Henry Kane

Jon Pettersson is no stranger to the Metal world, he is a member of bands like Wombbath, Ashcloud and Just Before Dawn. A couple months ago, Transcending Obscurity released their debut album Den Förstörda Människans Rike from his new project Henry Kane is newest band from and it sounds awesome. The albums combines buzzsaw grinding guitar riffs with deep growled vocals in Swedish. I spoke to Jon about the album, horror movies and the possibility of Henry Kane live shows.

Read my interview with Jon Petterson on the Everydayhate blog

Aleksey (Satanath Records) Interview

It has been a while since I have done a label profile here. Satanath Records is a record label and distribution from Russia. Similar to the labels profiles earlier, Satanath is mainly run by one person, Aleksey. I started following the label recently due to their unique releases from around the world. They have been really prolific, releasing 26 albums in 2016.

I spoke to Aleksey about the origins of the Satanath Records, the memorable moments and problems in running a label and more.

 

Hi Aleksey, you started your label in 2012. How does it feel looking back? You also have a sub label, Symbol of Domination. How did it come about?

Hello! I have two labels, Satanath Records and Symbol Of Domination. SR only for metal, founded in 2012. SOD in 2013 (founded by my colleague from Belarus), it releases unformat + music style is not suitable for the SR. There was another sub-label DeadDogSkull & HeilHellProductions, for unformat, founded in 2012 too, but he separated himself from us in 2014. There is still a distro GrimmDistribution (founded in 2011 by the same colleague from Belarus).

How did you decide to start a label? Why did you decide to start a label that releases only extreme metal music?

Back in that time I had an ambient project with the same name – Satanath (founded in 2011). Also I had another project that was more close to metal – Abigorum. One day my Belarusian mate asked me to print cover art for his band because he knew my profession is publisher (but I didn’t work by it). I printed the cover art for him and thought “Oh, it’s so easy, I can print something myself”. That was the moment when I decided to start a label. At the beginning I wanted to release only my own and my friends music, as most of the new labels. I printed my first demo and then a few other releases. Need to notice that I began printing from the CD-R editions from time to time printing CDs until the end of 2013, then since 2014 – CDs only. Now is two persons behind the label – me (boss) and my wife. But mostly I do everything by myself – design, advertising, printing.

Your first release was the self – titled demo by Abigorum. Did you plan on releasing albums by other bands then?

Of course! I on my label I release music I personally liked only. My music taste is wide, there can be not only satanic black metal, but classical thrash or avant-garde progressive metal for example. I try to keep within genres music that we release but we can provide help to anyone would need to have their release printed. We will just help to print the edition, without putting our own logo on it.

Having a record label requires a lot of commitment. How do you manage running a label? What do you look for in bands before signing them to your label? What has been your most memorable release so far? What are the problems that you have faced running the label? Do you have any advice for someone planning to start a label now?

All the money goes straight to fund new releases and keep the work of the label up, not to the iPhones and cars. Of course we have a very productive collaboration – the more people involved into release the more release will be spread worldwide. Also both label have album in their release catalog. Mostly I print everything here in Russia because price here is not that high as in Europe with the same good quality. I work like that because I have no trouble with our custom, my ‘secret friend’ works there so he can help me with parcels. Sent anything from Russia it’s always much harder that got anything from abroad so custom trouble with other countries is very rare. The latest case was about new Exterminas (italian black metal) album when parcel had been damaged by US Postal Service in United States and 200 CD copies of this album what was sent as a partake for a partner-label were broken…
Pretty interesting how people see us from abroad (probably many of them thinks that in Russia everyone drink vodka, eternal winter and white bears walking across town, through our label is from Saint Petersburg, near the Finland, so we consider ourselves as Europeans as well), but here we almost sure that we are one of the biggest labels on the CIS territory which dedicated to satanism and all black metal band can send us their demo submissions. CDs, tapes, vinyl, as everything else like books and board games slowly dying because of the progress, but people who appreciate physical formats is stays anyway, so everything seems not so bad. And yes, at nowadays is even like some kind of a ‘fashion’ to make himself individual by living in the old school way and resist digitalization. But I’d rather find here an golden mean.

I will say about the groups that have written to me, not that I found myself (there are many). To be honest – country of origin speaks for itself. For example first release with 6 bands together with the darkest corners of the Asia: Barzakh (Indonesia) / Goresluts (Malaysia) / Horrific Disease (Japan) / Savage Deity (Thailand) / Shadowmirth (Brunei) / Suicidal (Singapore). For me it’s hard to imagine what kind of life people live in Asia or what kind of metal scene they have in Brunei for example. Anyway split was good and bands participating their is serious just very small amount of bands can get to the Western market, so almost nobody knows them. With Russia almost the same and next release a bit of provocative – Ildverden, this band from Crimea and they use ukrainian language, they contacted me and asked me to release their album after the annexation of the Crimea by our criminal government so I released it as Ukrainian band as musician and we wanted. Our label apolitical, but most russian people are so stupid that could not support the musician. And third album and band that surprised be that’s Hatecrowned from Lebanon. I didn’t expected to hear any metal from there. Of course they have their own underground scene as in Iran or Iraq but it’s hard to imagine how it’s is happening in their Muslim countries. If they’re caught – they’ll be publicly executed on the square, but probably I know nothing about it and it’s just a stereotypes. Anyway music is great, so there’s a double interest to release it.

Have you been in a band? What instrument do you play?

Abigorum – everything. The group formed after the ambient project Satanath because a new style in which I wanted to try myself, did not fit into the frames of ambient. Genres of project is different and varies from many styles, so as I have broad musical tastes. No texts. music tells about deep matters as space, death, philosophy. More instrumentals. First there were session musicians such as Amezarak, Astarium, Winter Vampyr, Misanthrofeel, Dmitry Kolosov, but then project became a solo, as I’m a perfectionist and I can not work with people.

In the past 5 years, a lot of music listeners prefer streaming and downloads to buying cds. What other changes have you noticed in customers? What is next for Satanath Records and Symbol of Domination? What are the next releases from the labels?

Yes we sell digital on bandcamp too, it’s not big deal, 21st century, internet age! we’re not underground label with only physical sales. We will continue to release various bands, new or famous. Depends of life situations… Thanks for interview!

Here are some of the best releases from Satanath Records & Symbol of Domination

 

 

 

 

 

Indian readers can buy Satanath Records releases from Metal Masala

 

Jeff Loomis

Jeff Loomis is known as the guitarist for Nevermore. He has since joined death metal band Arch Enemy. He has a solo project as well as one with notable muscians such as Alex Webster and others in Conquering Dystopia. Next month,  he’s doing a multi-city tour of India, in the following cities – Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai and Bangalore. I spoke to him about his different projects and what has kept him going on for so long.

Read my interview with Jeff Loomis on Transcending Obscurity

Interview: India’s Thrash Metal Powerhouse Kryptos

Nine Circles

With just over 2 months to go for the end of the year, there’s been another killer release from the Indian metal scene; Burn up the night by heavy metal band Kryptos. The band are one of the oldest surviving metal bands in India. Over the past 18 years they have released 3 albums.

Burn up the Night released through AFM Records features a straight up 80’s heavy metal sound which will appeal particularly to “old school” metal fans. I enjoyed the album as the songwriting and production contrasts with the sterile sounds of upcoming bands

I (Peter ‘Trendcrusher‘ K.) spoke to vocalist/guitarist Nolan Lewis about their change in sound, music videos and their recent European tour.

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Mythra

NWOBHM band Mythra have been cited by Lars Ulrich of Metallica as one of his his early musical influences. The band reunited last year after 30 years and released a compilation album Warriors of Time: The Anthology via Skol Records. Mythra are now signed to High Roller Records and are heading to the studio to record a new album album titled Still Burning.

I spoke to the band about their The Death and Destiny’LP, their deal with High Roller Records and also what to expect from their upcoming album.

Read my interview with Mythra on Transcending Obscurity