Yeah, we recorded the first album in 1990. Yeah, we've been together for a while. We met here in Stockholm. All the guys were going to different shows like Slayer and stuff like that. We just met at shows and all the guys started bands and they asked their friends if they wanted to be in a band. They said yeah, why not. So we started a band and have been doing this since 1990.

Have you guys kept the same lineup or have you had people come in and out?

We had some lineup changes but me, Fred, and David, the guitarist and drummer have been in the band since the beginning. We stayed together.

It's still the core group then.

Yeah, exactly.

What got you guys into doing the type of music you do and what was your vision for the band when you started out?

Well, I guess first of all we just wanted to do the things that our heroes did. When we were kids we were into the new wave of British heavy metal. It was hard to play since nobody in the band has ever taken any lessons for their instruments or anything like that. That was the main idea. Someday to play in a band. During 1986 or 1987 we started tape trading. We got a lot of this underground stuff from the States like Repulsion, Autopsy, early Morbid Angel, demos of Death, and this opened up a whole new world. We were like "oh, this is the music we all want to play." I guess that's still the general idea with the band. We do that old school death metal.

You guys have been credited with the creation of the Scandinavian death metal sound.

Yeah, we and a couple of more bands. Entombed started more or less at the same time. Unleashed came a little bit later on and Grave has been there since the beginning. This is the nucleus of the Stockholm death metal style. We were one of the bands that helped to create it.

That must be cool to know that you were part of the creation of something.

In a way. We try not to make a big deal out of it but a lot of people know that we have been there since the beginning. We do get a lot of credit for that. Of course it makes us a little bit proud but we try to keep it on a low level.

You try to make sure your heads can still fit through the front door.

Exactly.

Of course that also means that you've influenced a lot of bands that have come after you.

Yes, perhaps. I don't know. We have some people in our country, especially when we play here in Europe, some guys come up to us after the show and say that we've influenced them throughout the years and stuff like that. That's always fun to hear but I haven't actually read interviews where they state that they're really influenced by Dismember but we have heard that and yeah, that's a cool thing.

You guys came out with The God That Never Was which is your seventh record. How do you feel that this record differs from your past releases?

Well, it's a little bit faster and a little bit more technical than we have previously done. Yeah, I guess those two things are the main points. If you put on all of the old records and listen to them you will hear right away that we still kept the same style but we developed as a band and so we were able to do a little bit more technical stuff and play a little bit faster but still more blast beats and stuff like that. We just improved the overall quality of the band.

Some people say in your old age you get slower. I guess with you guys you just get faster.

Yeah, that must be the case.

I guess lyrically the topics of the record are anything from war to religion.

We're very much anti-religion and that goes for all religions. We don't agree at all so we've been writing these lyrics for quite a while now. The first albums were all horror movie influenced and all about gore and stuff like that. We got a little bit older and started to notice things around us and one thing that really hit us in the eyes was this religion. We just see it as complete madness. People are still free to believe what they believe but we can't. We don't believe in any god or anything like that because we believe that you as a person are ultimately responsible for everything you do. Religion takes that thing away. Look at the Catholics. If they've done something wrong they go to church, make a confession, and everything is cool again.

Yeah, no shit.

They can make the same mistakes over and over again. They just get something like "say five hail Marys and then you're cool again."

Yeah, that's true. I feel the same way. I feel that you're on your own and whatever fuck ups you make is what you did.

Yeah, you have to live with that and hopefully people learn from their mistakes. If you're not responsible for your mistakes then you never learn anything.

Not to mention that people always tell me that religion is this beautiful, wonderful thing. Well, people have tortured people and murdered people and shit like that in the name of a god. I feel like if you have to do that to people to get them to believe in your god, your god isn't worth having.

Yeah, we still have wars about religion today. I fail to see the good in religion.

I fail to see the good in religion or war, either one. I know in my country we're supposed to embrace war as this ultimate solution to all evil but that's evil in itself.

Yeah, of course. But then again, war is an extension of politics. Where words end war takes over unfortunately.

That's true. Tell me about The God That Never Was.

Well, as you said it's our seventh album. It was recorded here in Stockholm during six weeks last summer. It's a good album. We're very happy with it. We're just waiting for it to be released properly. It's out here now. It's going to be released in Sweden on the 20th and I guess it's going to be released in the rest of the world on the 20th of next month. It was originally supposed to be released on January 27 but it got delayed. Then we heard the 20th of February. We thought that was cool. Then I read somewhere, it was on the website of our record label and they said that was the Swedish release. The rest of the world seemed like March the 20th or 27th. I don't know. They changed it once more but it's still coming out so it's a good thing.

It will come out someday, we just don't know when. I was listening to it and a couple of the songs that I really liked on it were "The Shadows Of The Mutilated" and "Autopsy".

Ah, cool.

Those were my favorites. Do you have any favorites on it?

Yeah, I do enjoy "Shadows Of The Mutilated" and my absolute favorite on that album is "Time Heals Nothing".

Why are those two your favorites?

"Shadows Of The Mutilated" because of the pure aggression. It's really fast and it has really good riffs. "Time Heals Nothing" because the whole vibe of the song, if you take all of the Dismember history of all the good riffs in songs, it compresses everything into that song. It's one of the most perfect songs we have done in my opinion. I really like that one.

Tell me a bit about the studio that you guys recorded the record in.

It's a Stockholm based studio. In Sweden we have a kind of state financed organization that keeps track of musicians and artists' interests so they get paid properly. It's almost like a union. It's a huge institution here in Sweden and Fred our drummer was doing work for them before. He was a sound engineer because they had a small club so he was doing sound for them there. He has one foot in there so he could negotiate a nice studio price and we did the last album there as well. The whole atmosphere in the studio was very relaxed. Also it's right in the center of Stockholm so it's really close for everybody to go to the studio so we just felt comfortable and decided to use that again for the new album. It's a great studio. It's not the most high tech but that doesn't matter since we don't use any computers when we record anyway. We do it the old style with the analog recorders.

To get that really cool raw sound.

Yeah, yeah. Of course if you work with computers I would say it's much easier. If you work with analog stuff you still get that dynamic that computers can't recreate. It's just a more raw, brutal sound. It's hard to explain but you hear it. We don't use any triggers for the drums. It's all acoustic drums so it's a more pleasant sound to listen to I think.

I think it would be strange to have this brutal, aggressive death metal band with this really slick, polished sound like the Backstreet Boys have or something like that.

Yeah, that wouldn't work at all.

I can definitely understand why you guys record the way you do.

Also we always worked in that way. Since Freddy is also our producer, he hasn't learned the computer thing so we just leave the computers off and do it the old style. We're comfortable with that.

Freddy is a busy boy.

He is a very busy boy actually. We've done a new video. It's the fourth or fifth one. The new video is kind of simple. There are no special effects or anything like that. It's like a live show but we obviously shot the video without any audience. It's a cool video. It's not low budget in any way but it's nothing special either. It just shows the band more or less the way we act on stage.

I like the live video concept better than the storyline type unless it's done really well.

Yeah, we just did this. We haven't done a video for many years so the guys thought it was time to do one. I hate doing those video shoots but I think it goes with the territory so I have to just bite the bullet and do it.

Supposedly it helps promote the band better but I think people like having that visual as well.

Yeah, the reason why we haven't done any videos for a very long time is that there is no market in Europe. You haven't had channels in many, many years that showed metal. Now metal is coming back and we have big export bands here in Sweden like In Flames and Soilwork and Hammerfall and they produce videos all the time. I guess that's for the German and American markets. They're starting to show metal videos on Swedish television again so I guess there's a market for making videos again. We'll see how much use we have for this video but at least it's done.

It's a done deal. Have you guys been thinking about touring in Europe or the U.S.?

Actually we're going on tour this Tuesday. It's a short European tour since some of the guys in the band have families so they do two weeks, then go back home. Do another week, go back home so we still have time to be with our families so that's the way we tour. I guess we're going to be busy the whole year since we have a lot of stuff booked. We're trying to hit all the biggest summer festivals here in Europe hopefully. After that we'll try to do something. We're working on Australia, South America, and also on the States. We're actually coming to the States. I have to check my schedule here on the wall. We're doing the Maryland Death Fest so we're actually coming to one show. We're trying to get a couple of more shows because why not do a couple of more since we're already over in the States? I'm not the guy who takes care of the booking. It's the guitarist and Fred of course so they have all the info. It's May the 27th.

You guys have been around for over 13 years. What keeps you guys plugging away at this?

The love of the music. We love to play live. Making records is fun but getting out there and playing for the crowds is awesome. That is what Dismember is all about. We love to play live and you can actually see that when we're onstage. So many bands have this badass attitude and they look all serious and gloomy onstage but you can actually see us having fun when we play. That's the thing that has kept us in the business because we love to play live. We love to travel around and meet new people and having a good time and lots of beers.

My kind of guys. Lots of beers. I've noticed that a lot of bands look all mean and frowning. I guess that makes them cool. I like seeing smiles on people's faces occasionally.

All the promotion photos have frowns and are evil looking but when we get up onstage we just feel so happy and it's wonderful to play live. We love it.

You guys have gone through a few lineup changes. Who are your latest additions?

When we recorded the last album we had a new guitarist named Marten. He didn't actually participate on the album but he joined the band shortly after. We auditioned him during the recording and shortly after the recording we went on tour and did a mini tour of Italy, Holland, and Belgium. He's been a permanent member since then. Just a while ago we lost one of our old bass players and we also auditioned a new bass player of the new album. He's been a part of the band since. His name is Tobias and the old bass player was Johann.

Any other thoughts or comments?

The weekend is beginning here and I'm waiting. This is the last interview for this week and I have the fridge filled with beer. I'm going to start drinking beer and rest my ear because I'm getting a sore ear from talking so much on the phone.

Enjoy your beers.