CR: I read in your web page that you guys played for the first time and rehearsed for the first time together as a band before going to play at Wacken, are there more shows planned or it was just a one time thing? And what’s up with McDonald’s, is the breakfast there that good?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Well, it was the third time all rehearsed and was in the same room at once, the previous two times were back in 1998 when we recorded the ‘Breeding Death” ep. The Wacken show was the only appearance we agreed to do for 2005. Now the future lay open and who knows what it will bring, it all depends on the line-up and commitments.  As for the McDonald’s breakfasts, we were spellbound by the evil that is Ronald McDonald and he forced us to go there, we never wanted to… We’ve been abused! We should sue them!

CR: Did you ever think of asking another death metal trade mark singer to join Bloodbath, like for example Matti Kärki?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: In all respect, Matti Kärki is a great brutal singer and I couldn’t imagine Dismember without his voice, but he wouldn’t make it in Bloodbath; he got a style that doesn’t suit our trademark. We need someone with an extremely articulate, clear voice and also a swift tongue beside the brutality and aggression. For example, not many death metal vocalists could pull off “Bastard son of God” to the full degree of what’s expected, it would probably be easier for a rapper to nail it, see what I mean? You gotta to have that articulate fast shit going and not many can growl his way through it remaining top dog. The ineffable king of this style is David Vincent and he’s been a big, if not the biggest influence on our previous singers.

CR: I know Nightmares Made Flesh was just released last year, but are you planning a new album?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Yes indeed. Can’t speak much about release dates nor recordings yet, because nothing has been scheduled, we’re in the stage just before that.

CR: Being in a band with a line up like Bloodbath had and has, must be amusing because of all the talent and experience you guys share, but at the same time is it overwhelming to work with so many talents and still get along?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Well, we solved this by understanding it’s better if each member does his own songs, we don’t wanna fight each other and tell what or what not to do, we are all capable of producing our own material and to follow our own vision. When all these songs then come together, it’s the variety as an album that makes it a Bloodbath album. We have a few songs that I wouldn’t have come up with, and there are a few songs someone else wouldn’t even consider doing that I did, so this formula is what makes the band function and go on. No fights and no “musical differences” departures.

CR: What is the greatest strength Bloodbath has and what’s your Achilles tendon?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Our strength is that our destiny is death metal domination; our weakness is that we don’t pursue it.

CR: Are you guys (the current members of Bloodbath) focusing on Bloodbath as the most important project or is just a side project?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: It’s indeed the most important side project we got. We give it a lot of dedication when the Bloodbath phase is active and I can really see the commitment increase for the future. Let’s say, if we move up another level where we regularly start to play live and tour, then things will automatically change gear and pull ahead with the results of becoming a real band and I wouldn’t have any problems with this. The time is now, why not grab it by the throat and throw it your way…

CR: I can’t find interviews about Bloodbath in the Internet, Why is this?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: www.google.com

CR: Bloodbaths debut was with Breeding Death Ep, why an Ep? Why just three songs? It sounded to me that there was quality to make it at least a 5 piece production (or maybe I just like long Eps that resemble a full production) and why that name, Breeding death?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Breeding Death was a genius title, how much more twisted and sick can that be? You see those hideous figures rise and in the middle of it all an undead mother giving birth directly to corpses…Breeding death!!! The story with the EP goes like this… The initial idea was to record a classic old school death metal demo and even have it released as an cassette complete with the cult fashioned illegible artwork/logo, just like it was back in the days of the underground years. So, we headed down there and started jamming like a real rehearsal unit, you know, having the instruments/gear angled so we'd eye contact with each other. A few hours later, we'd busted out the songs "Breeding Death" and "Ominous Bloodvomit" by 100% improvisation.
There was a kind of magic in the air, no one demanding, and no one commanding, just damn fun! We had a fucking blast and got dead drunk! Anyways, a couple of weeks later Dan calls up again and tells me the recording have vanished. Some hard drive mysteriously fucked-up and erased the whole shit, so he threw out that fucking thing, took in an ADAT and asked us to come down again for another jam session. Sure, we drove down and recorded everything all over again and decided to add yet another song for this session - "Furnace Funeral". It wasn't as magic as the first session but everything sounded a little better and we improved the sonic department, so it was probably all for the best in the end. Some weeks later I cranked the thing on loud volume and I was blown away by the power and brutal simplicity we'd chosen to call Bloodbath! I felt a demo cassette was not gonna be enough, sure it'd be charming, but this needed to come out and be heard properly, so I decided to shop for a deal. Century Media were the fastest putting their claws on it. So the demo changed format into a mini cd affair and that was it - Stockholm bloodbath revisited!

	Pic courtesy of: Bloodbath "The McDonald’s breakfasts, we were spellbound by the evil that is Ronald McDonald and he forced us to go there, we never wanted to… We’ve been abused! We should sue them!"

CR: In that first record, who did the cover art? Because it reminds me so much of the covers made for Cannibal Corpse
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Yeah it does! I think it’s fucking sweet hahah! The cover was drawn by a German guy called Axel Hermann. It was our demand to have him on our first release, since he’d done some great classic covers in the past for bands like Morgoth, Unleashed, Grave and Asphyx etc. I guess we haven’t really gone full circle until we’ve used Dan Seagrave as well.

CR: Talking now about Resurrection through carnage your second production, the cover art was totally different, and so does the riffs on it, I have to say I love that album, it’s so different and refreshing, from the other two you guys have made, the guitars and the effects of them through out the entire record gives it a unique approach, what was the purpose of this record? What did you guys where trying to achieve?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: First of all, I think what Travis Smith did with the cover art turned out classic and one of the most different he’s done so far! The idea to have our heads on the cover was stolen from the Kiss 'Dynasty' album, but we went a little further as you can tell hahah!
While we focused on US style on the mini cd, we went for the Swedish sound for our debut full-length; I think that's pretty obvious. “Resurrection through Carnage” got this total Sunlight studio, Stockholm scene vibe to it. Bands like Entombed, Dismember and Carnage were major inspirations and we were all into that shit when we were young blokes. Now we brought it back into 2003 to show that sound shall never die! We wanted to show what real death metal sounded like in the beginning in a time before there were happy melodies + harmonies on every note + acoustic guitars and clean vocals saturating each release! Forget progression! Bloodbath, being the destined messengers of regression hahah, went back and delivered the sound that has been buried for too long. We’re talking about the old school death metal 1989-92 era; Dissonant, brutal, simple! That is a style that is to evolve with care. People who believed that the music was gonna be a progressive super classy original piece of complex metal because Mike or Dan were involved in that album were in for a huge disappointment. This record had a message about simplicity, the kind of straight forward death metal we loved as fans back in the glory days and the presence of anyone in this band were never of much importance since it has nothing to do with our mother bands.

CR: You guys are already making fans with this band (you guys already had fans on your other projects) what can you tell us of your fans, how do they behave with you, I mean do they praise you for Bloodbath or for the other bands you guys are in?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Bloodbath has gained an enormous amount of fans and I’m pleased to see what we’re doing is feeding their mouths, but I also hope they have done their home lesson and re-discovered the old scene and classic releases that Bloodbath was generated from.

	Pic courtesy of: Bloodbath "Bloodbath was born because we wanted to pay tribute to the old school scene, so if someone had the insight of those facts and wanted to hear us for the first time, then “Resurrection through Carnage” would be the album to crank!"

CR: You have a contract with Century media, how are they treating the band? Are you happy with the promotion they are giving Bloodbath?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Century Media did a good job promoting Bloodbath and they could have promoted us even more, it’s mainly us who are halting the process, since we can’t make 100% commitments to all events and ideas. However, we’re not signed to any label and we’re free to choose whoever we wanna go with. It’s a great feeling not being choked and chained to a contract that will expire in 15 years. We do this slow and step by step, giving the label one album at a time. We don’t have any negative experiences with Century Media, so it’s likely we’ll still be co-operating on the next round as well.

CR: So, if I have understand every thing until now (I hope I have) the first time you guys actually rehearsed as a band was for Wacken, how was the recording of the records being done before that? Did you guys went into the studio by pairs, or you just talk on the phone, how was it done?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: “Breeding Death” – wrote, rehearsed and recorded the material all at once and all together within 2 days at Dan’s old studio – The Sanctuary.
“Resurrection through Carnage” – wrote 3/4 songs each on our own, then I and Jonas went down to Dan’s new studio – The Room and recorded all guitar and bass tracks individually over 2 days. Swanö then took the files to a studio and put down the drums afterwards which may seem kinda weird, but it’s all possible when you rely on the wonders of the “click track”. Mike eventually came down and put down the vocals over 2 days. Dan then mixed the album over a longer period of time and we communicated by mp3’s and phone to get the results right.
“Nightmares Made Flesh” - wrote 3/4 songs each on our own. I and Jonas went down to Fascination Street and teamed up with Axe who recorded all his drums to a click track with our demos guiding him. Dan recorded all his guitars and bass at The Room and sent over the files, Peter came down and put down the vocals over 3 days. We then mixed the album together and after 2 weeks the session was over.

CR: If you had to explain the essence and the reasons why Bloodbath was born, what will you said? And what record will you recommend to someone that wants to hear you guys for the first time?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Bloodbath was born because we wanted to pay tribute to the old school scene, so if someone had the insight of those facts and wanted to hear us for the first time, then “Resurrection through Carnage” would be the album to crank!

CR: If you could pick a festival or tour to headline with Bloodbath, which one would you pick? And if you could pick a band to play with alongside all over the world, which would it be? (You can’t say Iron Maiden)
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Any major pop band would do, because we’d crush them sonically and then shock everyone with our buzz saw guitars! No, we would wanna play with the death metal elite, which probably would be Morbid Angel or Nile and the likes.

CR: Do you have any comments or a clear position on mp3 sharing software or in trading music via mp3 format with people in a non profit kind of way?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: The Internet scene has proven it has its own course, it can’t be controlled by the labels nor the band, what’s leaked is leaked and it spreads like a wildfire. Labels could stop sending out promo cd’s prior to the release, but then they wouldn’t get any generalized feedback and hype built up beforehand and that would collapse the whole promotional campaign. When an album is leaked one month prior to release, that’s pretty much what we have to live with, it can even add to the hype, people start talking about it, the buzz is on, but it would be nothing short of devastating for a band if it was already available six months or even up to a year in advance. That’s 100% unacceptable. When the album has been out for such a long amount of time, it’s already old news and will fall flat like a dead fish upon its release date. People have since then moved on, being excited about the current leaked releases and have forgotten about the release “I downed 6 months ago” since it’s already back catalogue priority. Personally, I would wanna view Internet (including the p2p tools) as a big radio station with your own freedom of choice to download songs and listen to them and if you like it, then you go buy the album (for the artwork, the real deal format and to show support to a band you love), and once you did that you probably wanna go to shows and buy a t-shirt too, so it’s all intertwined and one thing leads to another. But p2p illegal file sharing shall never ever replace an official final product, and what the final product is, is in the hands of the bands to decide… be it a digital download or a jewel case cd.

CR: What do you think about what happened to Iron Maiden in the Ozzfest, and the whole Sharon Ozzborne incident? Would you guys play in a future Ozzfest if ask to?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: I thought the whole Sharon vs. Dickinson incident was hilarious! It went well in hand with the sit-com drama they create in The Osbournes. Sharon seems to have an urge to behave like a 14 year old girl and that’s quite scary! To play on Ozzfest you have to put thousands of dollars on Osbourne’s table, so I doubt we’d even have that financial opportunity to do so.

CR: Would you guys ever consider playing in Costa Rica ? Have you heard something about our country?
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Sorry, but I don’t know much about your country, we’ve had tons of offers from Mexico and Brazil which are above and below, so who knows…

CR: Thank you again for your time, and if you would like to add something more, please do
Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström: Cheerz for the support! Stay metal and never ever forget the early years!!!