Interview with death metal band from Sweden - REPUKED.
Answered Rob the Slob, thank you!
Translated Petra, thank you!
Questions prepared Jakub Asphyx.
Ave REPUKED! Greetings to Sweden. First of all, let me congratulate on your new record. I received „Dawn of Reintoxication“ from your label to write a review and during the listening, I feel like to be closed in the old chamber with the bottle of good vodka. It is a massacre, congratulations again. How the record was made? And why it took you so long – 7 years?
Yo!
Yo!
Rob the Slob here, thanks for the nice words man! That´s the way we wanted people to feel like when listening to it.
We are lazy slackers and mostly we get together on weekends to play music and drink beer. Actually we began writing songs for this album in 2014, So we wrote like 1-2 songs per year, but last year we set a deadline for 31st December 2019 to book a studio to record what we had.
Hopefully we´ll not take as long for the next album, we´ll see.
I have to say, I really like the sound of your new record. How it is possible to do the sound like this in Sweden? Sverker Widgren did a really great job. You succeeded in the preparation of the mixture sounding like an honest party, where bands like DISMEMBER, AUTOPSY and REPUGNANT were invited! In which manner did you record it? Sometimes it seems like an analog, but it must be only the feeling, don’t you? How was the cooperation with Sverker? I really feel (or I can hear it in this way) as if I was closed in the grave! Concerning the sound, the album is very dirty and I like it.
Up until this new album we have done all recordings by ourselves, with mixed results as we don’t know shit about recording stuff, it´s difficult, tedious and boring. We wanted to have full control over everything and get the sound that we wanted but it didn´t always end up that way hehe.
So, for Dawn of Reintoxication we choose Wing Studios with Sverker Widgren, who’s not only been recording metal for 20years but also been involved in various death metal bands, Demonical, Diabolical etc. So we felt confident working together with him, knowing he would bring out the heaviness and good sound and we would try and bring the filthy, nasty feeling to it. Dismember mixed with Autopsy as you say, that would be a good description at what we were trying to reach.
And Sverker didn´t mind us being mellow drunk in his studio, so that was cool.
We were in the studio every weekend during March when the Corona virus outbreak started, so it was a weird zombie vibe all along.
Let’s look at the cover art. Joe Ravager is an author, he made a cover also for my favorite CRYPTIC BROOD. I think the motif is the hell, the true honest hell. Am I right? How did you get to Joe and why his work impressed you so much?
Joe Ravager has a sick mind, and he´s super productive. Check out his Instagram and Facebook, he´s posting new art all of the time.
We have used his art on almost all of our releases actually, check out our first album, Pervertopia.
But the front cover art on this album is done by the crazy german old timer who calls himself Necromaniac, he´s right down our alley in tasteful shit. We really wanted to work with him.
Both us and Cryptic Brood has used these 2 great artists, we share the same great taste in art I guess.
I;ve been a metal fan for over thirty years and Ive always liked bands, which emanate a power, such dark energy. When I feel, the band recorded the album by that manner that they were closed in the studio, beat the album up, and then went drunk. I have such feeling from REPUKED. How do you actually compose new material? I am interested in the process of creating the new songs.
I hear you, and I totally agree. I like to get a feeling out of the music I listen to.
Us in Repuked, we mostly get together on weekends in the rehearsal space. We bring beer, wine and whatever. Just hang out, talk shit, listen to metal and then sometimes we also play some music too.
We like to hang out together and do stupid shit, not just only be in the same band together.
The songwriting process, we usually write the music at home and bring it to the rehearsal meetings, just see how it works. Sometimes rearrange something. And then I´ll write the lyrics, trying to fit it into the music. Nothing extraordinary.
God damned when I am preparing the questions I shouldn’t drink. I forgot to ask how the REPUKED was established? You are rather known in Sweden or in Germany, but you know, the Czech Republic is a small country and death metal here is not so favorite metal style. Could you please introduce us the history of the band?
Hehe, nice! I´m having myself a beer, it´s Sunday evening. It´s still weekend! Cheers!
I started Repuked back in 2007 with my friend Nicke Piss because we both really wanted to play some ugly disgusting death metal. Around that time there was mostly technical death metal and goregrind, so we were really fed up by that. We got a drummer and recorded a demo and record labels asked almost right away if we were interested in releasing a full length. We ended up signing with the dutch Soulseller Records, released 3 albums now, and we are still working with them to this date. And w have almost kept the same lineup intact since the start, at least for the last 8 or 9 years or something.
I like, when death metal bands dont forget about the good lyrics. In songs, you are talking about the booze as well as about the old cemeteries, or horrors. Where do you take inspiration? I must say, they have a great atmosphere. As I said, the old chamber, the bottle of whiskey and go for it. Or am I wrong?
Yeah, you gotta have that murky atmosphere to get into the right mood for writing lyrics. I usually bring a bottle or two and go visit public bathrooms. Mens or ladies, doesn’t matter, the warm lingering shit smell is the same. Just get in there, get comfy, and start to write down anything that comes to mind on the free toilet paper with the free brown shit ink.
At bandcamp site is written, you have already three European tours behind you. I attended one of your concerts in Germany, where you performed alongside REVEL IN FLESH and CRYPTIC BROOD. I guess, it was in Nuremberg. It is rather paradox because you play in Czech Republic very often. Despite I couldn’t drink because I was a driver, I really enjoyed the whole show. What about you and concerts, do you like to play at bigger stages on festivals too (I think you performed at Obscene Extreme)? Similar music as you play I usually more enjoy in the small clubs, where the contact between the band and fans is rather close. How do you enjoy the concert and how do you perceive them?
Yeah, three European tours so far. In 2014 we did two, one with Entombed AD and Grave and the other one was with Nekrofilth.
We are planning on going on tour next year 2021, it feels like a we should now that we have also have this new album out, but this virus chaos needs calm down a bit first.
Talking as a fan of death metal and concerts, I prefer going to shows on smaller venues. You get closer to the band playing and you can see and experience the show easier. Big concerts and if you´re far away from the stage isn´t really that much fun.
But when we play, anything will do, we´re just happy to play anywhere we´re invited.
The Nuremberg gig was a cool venue, hope to play there again someday. You should come next time we play in Czech, leave your car at home so we can share a few cold ones.
I have seen a few of yours videos at socials networks and you look like very funny people. I can feel from you such a joy and freedom, which usually I miss in the present bands. So, I would like to ask what is your favorite alcohol and which music do you like to listen to with your favorite drink? I would guess you like an old metal classic, but what about the new bands? Have you been impressed by some new stuff recently? „Dawn of Reintoxication“ will be released on CD, LP and digitally, of course. Last time, I marked a bigger interest in the cassettes in the case of the younger metal fans. Are you planning to release your music also at cassettes? Would you like to go by this direction in further releasing?
Favorite drink, man, that´s hard. We drink everything and anything. Vodka & juice is always a nice combo when you want that warm fuzzy vibe. Whiskey, wine, beer, absinthe etc. Ricard and some ice water, that´s great when trying to get drunk again.
Music to listen to while getting drunk is this Swedish guy Eddie Meduza, he´s a legend to swedes.
Also various stuff, it´s fun to mix it up a bit. Anything from Thin Lizzy, Motörhead, Kiss, Wasp, Sabbath to Pungent Stench, Entombed, Impaled Nazarene, Darkthrone, Venom, Maiden, Judas, David Allan Coe, GG, Roky and so on.
Some newer stuff that caught our ears are Viagra Boys, Snet, Karloff, Toronto, Boogie Hammer, Warthog and way too many to mention here.
We have one release on cassette, featuring our first 2 demos. Me myself have quite a lot of cassettes in my flat but no tape player, so that sucks. We are more into Vinyl actually. But we´ll see, it´s more up to our record company than to us, it might happen. It is a cool format, you get that retro feeling when from the nineties when you owned a Walkman, good times.
At the end of the interview I usually have one philosophical question. What death metal means to you? Does it present the lifestyle for you? How do you perceive it like a fan? And like a musician? I dont want from you to describe playing techniques and so on, I am much interested in how do you think about death metal?
Death metal is as damned important as life itself. It´s like a horror movie but in the shape of music. Can´t imagine living life without it, that would be so fucking boring. The horror, the horror.
A shout out to all like minded death metal hounds in the underground we gotten the pleasure to meet or connect online with, keep it sick! Death metal will never die, huhu!
It is time to finish this interview. I am going to have a beer. I have some Pilsen in the fridge. I wish you as much success as it possible, a lot of concerts and crowds of the fans, good alcohol, and many successes also in your private lives. I am going to listen to „Dawn of Reintoxication” very loudly. Cheers and thanks for the interview.
Thanks as hell for taking the time, we really appreciate it when someone shows interest in what we´re doing. See ya all down the road, I´ll have a cold one too, cheers, fuck Mondays and rot on!
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