An Interview with Jimmy Lundqvist of Entrails
The story of Swedish death-metallers, Entrails, is all too fitting of a band whose songs are drenched in a thick layer or horror fiction and undead imagery. The band came together in 1990 in the village of Linneryd, but ended only eight years later with only a handful of demos to show for it.
In 2008 guitarist Jimmy Lundqvist brought Entrails back from the dead, and since then the band has unleashed three full length albums of relentless, gut-churning old school death. 2015 is about to get a lot more gruesome, as the band has announced the arrival of album number four, “Obliteration”. Lundqvist graciously agreed to answer a few questions about the new album and what the future holds for Entrails.
Derek: Hi Jimmy! Thank you for taking the time to chat with me! Entrails have a new album, “Obliteration”, due to arrive on May 15th. The album was recorded in your own Bloodshed studio. How did the recording of this release compare to previous recording sessions?
Jimmy: Hi there Derek, time ain’t the thing I have plenty of but I made some time for this, yep. New album out soon, and about the recording sessions it was almost the same as before beside we now recorded all things in one studio. Earlier we had to hire a studio for the drum recordings and then we did the rest in different places and where I had my recording equipment. But now it’s all in one place. Very much more smoothly.
Derek: This is your first album with Penki, your new guitarist. Did he contribute any songs for “Obliteration”?
Jimmy: Yep, it’s the first full length with him. He joined us for the 7″ single we released last year with the Berzerk song and a cover so he was pretty much into it already back then.
Derek: I see that you have shows scheduled for the Netherlands and Germany. Any chance you’ll be adding some North American dates, soon?
Jimmy: That’s right. We have put together 3 weekends in a row to be out and play on different locations and countries, not for promote the new album, just playing the older stuff. And America was really cool when we played MDF last year so why not coming back for more? Though someone needs to book us and fix all things around it, etc.
Derek: Entrails formed in 1990. The music industry has gone through tremendous change over the last 25 years. What are your thoughts on digital downloads and music streaming versus physical albums?
Jimmy: Well yeah, it has been a lot of changes along the way. When CDs came it was a big thing but the prices was getting too high around here rather fast and therefore I think the downloading became more and more obvious. And the music industry was more or less bleeding. But now the vinyl is coming back more and more and that’s good. To me the best sound appears on a vinyl, dynamic and more airy compared to the cd and all those even more compressed mp3s. I’m not against downloading if the artists get something for the big work they do to have it out for listeners.
Derek: Entrails albums always have killer artwork and “Obliteration” is no exception! Who is the artist? Do you tend to have visual concepts for the album art or do you let the artists render at will?
Jimmy: The name is Daniel Devilish, he is a really talented artist and a really big horror fan like myself so working with him ain’t so difficult so to speak. So when it comes to making something I usually get a sketch and from there my ideas pop up and I tell him what to do and so on. And sometimes I just tell him to do whatever he wants. It’s always good so it’s good working with him.
Derek: Now it’s time for The Marvelous Three Round of Questions! What’s your favorite breakfast cereal? Most metalheads have large concert t-shirt collections. What’s your favorite band t-shirt? And last but not least, are you a cat person or a dog person?
Jimmy: I’m not a fan of eating breakfast but some toasted bread works fine. I used to have a large collection of shirts but as time goes by and I become bigger the closet ends up empty in some way, but I have some Grave and Entombed shirts along with our own designs though not any favorite shirt. Absolutely a cat person, we have both but the cat we have is really brutal!
Derek: Thank you so much for you time! I can’t wait to hear “Obliteration” and I hope I’ll be watching you from the pit in the near future!
Jimmy: I hope this album will give us an extra boost so we can explore new places and play at bigger venues, much more to do! So maybe I can look at you in that pit from the stage somewhere. :)
Check out “Beyond the Flesh”, from “Obliteration”, which arrives on May 15th.
