Disrupted consists of pretty active metal musicians from the Swedish metal scene who also play in different styles, but Disrupted is fully dedicated to authentic, old-school Swedish death metal, delivering it in a pure and uncompromising way. When I realized that with their latest album, Stinking Death, they had taken this craft to its peak, I cornered the band’s guitarist, Thomas, on a cold February morning for an interview.
Disrupted Interview With Thomas Liljekvist
Thank you so much for accepting the interview request! How’s life treating you in these dark and doomy February days?
Thomas(Guitarist): Hi! Life is good; thanks for asking. It’s hectic with family, daily work, and trying to keep a band together all at once, but I manage to get it to work somehow, haha.
Disrupted’s new full-length album, Stinking Death, was released on January 22 via the Swedish Trust No One Recordings label. Are you satisfied with the album? How has the response been from listeners and fans?
We are very satisfied with how it turned out, actually. They say the third album is the hardest to make, but it feels like we managed to release something we’re proud of.
The response has been great. The fans seem to like it and we have got a bunch of great reviews of the record as well. And that we very greatful for.
As someone who had listened to and reviewed your previous albums, I noticed some differences in the songwriting dynamics and recording approach on Stinking Death compared to your first two full-lengths. What kind of changes did you make in the songwriting and recording techniques for this album?
The biggest change is that we now have a permanent second guitarist in Johan Kvastegård. With that addition, we also have more room for lead guitar parts that can be transferred live in a new way than before. Before, I wrote songs that would fit a live show containing just one guitarist. Now, we were able to experiment a little with leads and solos in a different way.
For the song ”Funeral Vomit”, though, we wanted to add a different atmosphere that we never have had before on a song. We did this by adding some keys/organ by Per Wiberg (Switchblade, ex-Opeth). It made a big difference on the song.
How did you record the album, and what was the recording process like? Can you share insight details about the recording process?
We haven’t used a big fancy recording studio in that sense. Both ”Stinking Death” and the previous album ” Pure Death”, were recorded in our rehearsal place. It has to be mentioned that our bass player Johan Hjelm is a studio technichian and have all the equipment required to do a proper recording. So we have been lucky in that sense.
The recording process was quite long with this one. A bit of writer’s cramp, new additions to the family and some laziness, haha. We didn’t have a deadline for the album, which gave us more time to get everything right instead of stressing about everything.
Your style is pure, uncompromising classic Swedish death metal. What drives and motivates you to stay so dedicated to this particular style?
Well, the sound of the HM-2 makes it hard not to, right? With that pedal anything sounds like the best riff ever, haha. At the same time, you don’t need to complicate things that much with this genre. You can do it very straightforwardly forward, and with this particular sound, people (that listen to metal) will instantly hear what it’s all about, and that is something I like.
How did you guys meet and decide to form Disrupted?
In the beginning, Mikael (vocals) played in a hardcore band that later became Disrupted. We wanted to change the sound by adding an HM-2 pedal, but still with the hardcore style in mind. It quickly changed, though, since that pedal made everything sound like death metal. I don’t know who we tried to fool, haha.
Now, I’d like to ask some more personal questions. How did your interest in music begin? How did you first get into metal? How did your passion for underground, extreme, and darker forms of metal develop?
Music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I have a wide taste in music, but my brother Daniel, who plays drums in Disrupted, is maybe the one who introduced me to heavier music, which was quite early I’d say. And from there I’ve explored the many different types of hardcore and metal genres. There are way too many subgenres in metal, so I might have missed a lot of them haha.
What inspired you to start playing an instrument and creating your music? How did you form your first band?
Once again, my brother Daniel. He played drums when I was a little kid, and even though I didn’t start til I was 16 years old, I have always been inspired and interested in playing music because of him.
I formed my first band in high school with a bunch of friends from class. We studied music and we would rehearse like every day during breaks and after school. Fun times!
All the band members have been active in the Swedish underground music scene for years, playing in various bands across different styles. What other active bands are you involved in these days?
I (Thomas) play guitar in a band called ”The Sigourney Weavers” which plays a form of Power Pop/Rock/Punk style of music.
Daniel plays in a few bands. For example: Grand Cadaver, Vorder, Komotio (reunion) and maybe even more?
Mikael plays in a black metal band called Kryptan, which just released their debut album.
Johan Kvastegård plays in a band called Louise Lemon. Their sound has been described as Death Gospel.
Johan Hjelm plays bass together with me in The Sigourney Weavers.
Do you have any tour plans as a band? Are there any scheduled shows coming up?
We do not have any tour plans at the moment. We do have a few shows booked, which we are looking forward to.
We just started to work with Hellbilly Tourbooking and we hope that it will help us get out playing more live shows than we’ve done in the past. So if a promoter/festival/venue wants us to play, please contact ”[email protected]”.
Which festivals and bands would you like to play at or tour with if you have a chance to do so right now? What are your favorite music festivals, and why?
There are a lot of great festivals around that would be very cool to play at. Obscene Extreme would be fun to play once. Party. San Open Air is another great festival. Hard to choose from all.
Hard to pick a band to go on tour with. But I would love to go out with our buddies in LIK. That would be a great tour in many ways, but mostly since we are close friends.
Sweden has a strong background in mainstream metal, especially considering its population size. Since the 1980s, there has been a significant interest in metal music, particularly in underground and extreme metal genres. As a Swede, how would you explain this?
That is a hard question to answer. But yeah, it’s quite impressive that we have that many metal bands, bigger and smaller acts, from Sweden. We do have a winter period that is very long, dark and cold, and that might very well play a big part in why Sweden is a ”capital” of metal music. People want to express that darkness in the form of dark music.
When planning and composing your songs, are there any artistic influences or themes that inspire you? What do you tend to focus on the most?
I write most of the music and my main influence, if you focus on death metal, is the swedish band Death Breath. Not the Swedish HM-2 sound that we play, but very catchy, well composed and filthy death metal. Pure perfection if you ask me.
But I also take inspiration from non-metal bands as well. Very much so actually, since I tend not to listen to death metal as often these days. I do love it, but when I write new music to Disrupted I do not like to listen to other death metal music that much (except for the classics). Mostly because of the ”lack” of self-confidence, haha. I hear some new songs and immediately think that my new songs don’t hold up. It might be a bad thing since I can get more inspiration from that, but that’s how it is.
What kind of topics do you explore in your lyrics? Are they purely fictional and imaginative, or do you also draw inspiration from real life and incorporate those elements into your lyrics?
Regarding themes/topics lyricwise, Mikael has the better answer. He writes the lyrics and has the main idea for it. But as far as I can tell the main themes is ”death”. Pretty obvious maybe, but true. And I really hope everything is fiction. Otherwise we have bigger issues, haha.
We do come up with the titles together though. We do this before any of the lyrics or songs is written. A great way to actually have something to write about.
As I mentioned before, the band consists of veteran musicians who have played in and are still active in bands of death metal. What drives your musical motivation to create in various styles of death metal?
I have only played in one death metal band, which is Disrupted. But other members have been in various heavy/metal bands. First of all, I think that you need to like the genre, but the community in the scene is very friendly and welcoming (let’s not mention the keyboard warriors who show the opposite). People who like metal/heavier music usually go to concerts even though the might not hhave eard of the band. That is a beautiful thing, in my opinion, and it makes me want to continue.
If you had the opportunity, what kind of band would you like to form next? Have you ever played in or wanted to play in a non-metal project?
There are lots of different music that I’d like to play, but time is limited unfortunately. I do however play in a band right now, and have done for almost 16 years, that doesn’t play metal. I mentioned earlier in this interview though.
I think your latest album is your best and most ferocious work. What are your plans for Disrupted?
Thank you very much. We plan to play more live shows than we have done before. That is the main goal. We do have plans to release more music in the future, but let’s give the new record its place in the spotlight for a while.
What would you like to say to your fans and to our readers who are discovering you for the first time now?
I would like to thank everyone for their awesome support. If it’s buying a record or merch or just listen to our music through streaming, we really appreciate it.
