Bloodbath: Tales Of Sickness
It has been twenty years since BLOODBATH first emerged with their debut album Resurrection Through Carnage and while the band have undergone a myriad of lineup changes in that time, the one thing that that has been a constant is that their blood soaked melding of those classic Swedish and Florida death metal sounds is still sound as brutal as ever. With their new album Survival Of The Sickest continuing the aural killing spree and celebrating another new beginning for the band and all that is glorious about death metal, BLOODBATH have a fresh lineup on the record and we spoke to their newest member, guitarist Tomas Åkvik, who told us all about it and life in BLOODBATH.
Survival Of The Sickest marks Tomas’ full-length debut on a BLOODBATH album which is a razor sharp display of that classic death metal sound that BLOODBATH deliver each and every time. It transpires that this new lineup worked well in creating the full length album, and after having worked so well on the Survival Of The Sickest EP teaser that preceded the full-length, the recording of the record was a pleasant experience for the guitarist and he is very happy with the album and being able to play on it as he tells us. “The new songs are really fun to play. I’m super proud of the new album, which turned out really cool. I’m happy.”
The frenzied Zombie Inferno kicks off Survival Of The Sickest and acts as a perfect opener for the album with its fast pace and brutal approach and Tomas explains just why it was the perfect choice to open up the new record. “That’s the track that stands out most from the album by itself. It was to stir up something to make people talk about it even more.”
Alongside Zombie Inferno, the Survival Of The Sickest EP also features a selection of live tracks (from Wacken and Bloodstock which shows off the range of BLOODBATH‘s history) and a brilliant cover of DM classic Mutilation by DEATH which Tomas enthused about covering such an iconic track. “It was really cool, it’s a great track and was cool to do because it turned out so good.”
When it comes to the topic of the biggest influence on the sound of Survival Of The Sickest, Tomas reeled off a selection of death metal’s biggest names and one listen to the album, you can definitely see where he is coming from. “Morrisound Studios was the biggest influence. For me and the things I’ve done it’s always MORBID ANGEL. Lots of MORBID ANGEL, AUTOPSY, some CANNIBAL CORPSE but mostly MORBID ANGEL.”
The reaction to the new material has been nothing but positive and Tomas is pleased with the reaction so far. “I think this album is gonna have a good impact in the death metal scene for BLOODBATH and I think it’s going in a good direction.”
Survival Of The Sickest also features some guest appearances from some of metal’s most celebrated vocalists including Luc Lemay from GORGUTS, who Tomas was quick to prise for this contribution to album tracks Carved and Born Infernal. “The vocal performance is super amazing, that’s the only thing I can say!”
Barney Greenway from NAPALM DEATH who features on the track Putrefying Corpse and his performance also rates highly with Tomas. “It’s really cool, having Barney do his vocals on the chorus was insane, he did his part very well!” Not content with having the vocalists of GORGUTS and NAPALM DEATH featured on Survival Of The Sickets (as well as Marc Grewe of MORGOTH/INSIDIOUS DISEASE who features on album cut To Die), talk turns to who Tomas would love to feature on a BLOODBATH track in the future and he plumps for another titan of metal and as a dream guest he chooses someone else every familiar. “Corpsegrinder from CANNIBAL CORPSE, that would be cool. In a dream world, Chuck Schuldiner would have been amazing!”
The amount of brutality that abounds on Survival Of The Sickest is immense, and with tracks on the album like Tales Of Melting Flesh, Malignant Maggot Therapy and of course Zombie Inferno, the subject of horror films comes to mind and how much of an influence they are on both BLOODBATH and the new album and told us some of his all time favourite horror films. “For my part, they are a big influence of course, if you look at the lyrics and the album cover. A lot of our artwork is 70s/80s horror movie inspired.” That time period is well represented in his choices as Tomas names them. “I think The Evil Dead trilogy, of course. Halloween is a really good movie, and also like stuff like the Gremlins and Critters if that’s considered horror. I like that stuff. Alien. Predator. There always has to be some mix between evil and fun.”
We finish the chat with Tomas as he regales us about a pair of favourite moments of his time in BLOODBATH since joining the band which includes a new guitar technique for him and the thrill of hearing the new material. “Learning to play the whammy bar on the guitar. I’ve never done that before. I’m a Gibson guy, and of course there are guitars that have them but I’ve never played with the bar, so one of the highlights was actually learning to play the whammy bar, which is fun, and the first time I heard Martin‘s drumming on the track Born Infernal was really cool because that was one of the ones I wrote. I sent it to him and said play whatever you want and when it came back with what he had played and I listened back, oh shit! It was amazing!”
Survival Of The Sickest is out now via Napalm Records.
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