| Interview done by Burt Wolf with Rogga, singer, guitarist & main song writer for PAGANIZER. Interview done on November 26, 2002. |
| I'M A LITTLE FAMILIAR WITH PAGANIZER, BUT FOR MY READERS THAT ARE NEW TO YOU GUYS, COULD YOU GIVE A LITTLE OF THE BANDS HISTORY? Well, we started out back in 1998 as a whole other band with a different line up & music, etc. Back then I was only the vocalist & we played some kinda retro Thrash shit that was so popular then... After releasing our debut the band pretty much crashed due to some severe differencies within the group & as I came up with the band name I simply reformed the band after a while with new members & chose to play the music I always been into...Death fucking Metal! WHY WAS THE NAME PAGANIZER CHOSEN FOR THE BAND? When we started up the band we were concidering a bunch of names & I thought we should have a brutal name, but none of my ideas fit to the music the guys wrote. Then I just mentioned the name PAGANIZER which I thought would be appropriate for a Thrash band just as a joke & our drummer back then just loved it! So you can easily say that we wouldn't have this name today if I had gotten to choose, ha ha! Anyway, after having the name for some years I have gotten used to it & now for the first time I actually like it a bit... We will never change name though, since that is probably the most stupid thing you can do if you have released three albums under the same monicker so now we'll definetly be sticking to the name. WHO OR WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR INFLUENCES IN CREATING YOUR STYLE & SOUND? I'm totally into the old Swedish Death Metal still after so many years. i simply can't find anything I'd like more to listen to or play. Bands like GRAVE, GOD MACBRE, EDGE OF SANITY, CARNAGE, ENTOMBED, DISMEMBER, VOMITORY, etc, is exactly the way I like music to be played. However I enjoy much other music & other forms of Death Metal, but the old Swedish sound is what inspires me & makes me want to create my own music. HOW WOULD YOU BEST DESCRIBE THE STYLE OF PAGANIZER? I'd say old school Swedish Death Metal...haha! That's the only thing I can think of & actually the only style we have been compared to as well. PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT EACH OF YOUR RELEASES YOU HAVE OUT? The first album "Deadbanger" is not really a PAGANIZER album anymore, if you ask me, it's a retro Thrash album like WITCHERY or so. However it's a good album if you like that kinda shit... Our second album "Promoting Total Death" is the album I wrote after the original line up split up. This album is still very important to me as it was written & rehearsed in only weeks & then recorded in like four days. The out come still sounds fucking brutal, if you ask me, even if some songs are way better than others... My fave tracks on this album are "Brutal Way To Die", "Only Ashes Remain" & "All Hope Is Gone". These three songs are total back to the roots Death Metal as I write it. Then we of course have our new album "Dead Unburied" which we recorded in Sunlight Studios in March. This album is by far the most worked through & brutal stuff we've ever done & I'm totally amazed everytime I listen to it as I can't believe it's actually we who play...haha! HOW DID YOUR DEAL WITH PSYCHIC SCREAM RECORDS COME ABOUT FOR YOUR "DEADBANGER" CD & THEN YOUR DEAL WITH FOREVER UNDERGROUND RECORDS FOR YOUR "PROMOTING TOTAL DEATH" CD? We recorded a demo back in 1998 & sent it out to some people I was in contact with & Eric at PSYCHIC SCREAM was one of them. We got a couple of offers, but Eric was cool to work with so we decided to let him release the album. However he got into some censorship trouble later on & had to shut down his label. After the band was reformed we recorded the "Promoting..." album & just let it lay around as the label was inactive, but then we were tipped off about FOREVER U. by a friend & sent them the songs & they were happy to release it for us. Our deal was initially for two albums, so we'll see what happens in the future. THESE ARE THE ONLY TWO RELEASES OF YOURS I HAVE & I LOVE THEM BOTH. HOW WELL WERE THEY RECIEVED BY THE UNDERGROUND SCENE? So you don't have the new one? I have to send you a copy then! Anyway, both releases were recieved very well by both listeners & magazines. However the distribution wasn't really great on our first album, but for "Promoting..." we still recieve both reviews & interviews even though it was released quite a while back. The overall rating in the reviews of that album has been from good to excellent with almost no exceptions, which is great if you ask me! HOW DO YOU FEEL YOU'VE IMPROVED & PROGRESSED SINCE YOUR DEMO "STORMFIRE" TO PRESENT DAY? Haha, we are not the same band at all! The "Stormfire" demo was recorded in some hours just for fun & turned out cool enough to get us a record deal & that I'm glad for, but the music & playing on it is nothing I really like to listen to nowadays. I can only speak for myself & Dea since we are the only ones left from that time, nut we have matured of course as song writers, & back then I didn't know how to play guitar properly, but that has improved as well over the last years. However, I will never become any guitar solo master, but that isn't needed when you play basic Death Metal! WHAT PAGANIZER SONG DO YOU FEEL IS THE BEST REPRESENTATION OF WHAT THE BAND IS ALL ABOUT & WHY? Apart from the fave songs I mentioned before from the "Promoting..." album, I will have to say "Landscapes Made Of Human Skin" on the new album "Dead Unburied". This track is totally Death Metal in evry single atom & we also have the old GRAVE singer Jorgen Sandstrom on co-vocals on that song, which is totally amazing! |
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