BEASTIALITY
Swedish firebrands riff on the remains of their ancestors
According to band founders guitarist Heinrich and bassist E.von, Sweden’s Beastiality have “picked up the gauntlet from where Sepultura went political and Quorthon left for Valhalla”. However, there’s another lineage, one closer to home, that the four-piece seem determined to follow through – that of short-lived late 00’s Swedish underground acts such as Putrid, Eviscerated, Lamentation or Veternus. What those young bands all had in common was an obsession for their mid-80s forefathers, lo-fi production values and an irresistible desire to accumulate projects. Most, at best, released one EP before biting the dust but Beastiality are the new standard bearers of that DIY approach.
“The true origin of extreme metal will always be more relevant than later expressions,” say the two members collectively, “and it’s possible to have your own expression of darkness by taking this path without being retro, losing relevance or making a mockery of the scene and its history. We are not a band for the masses and I’d rather walk back into the cave we came from than explore something new and polished!”
Beastiality were spawned in Gothenburg in 2011, but according to the duo, it was a dying scene. “We couldn’t put together a band out of the blasphemers at hand in order to bring forth the beast of our visions,” they proclaim. Both musicians, along with their original drummer, moved up to Stockholm, but their problems didn’t end there. Upon finalising the recording of their debut, Worshippers Of Unearthly Perversions, they realised they had to re-record the vocals and thus fired their vocalist, leading the album to be delayed for two years. While they’re officially “on the hunt for a new frontman”, the album was ultimately completed with Daniel Desecrator from
Chilean warmongers Slaughtbbath on all tracks, bar the only one with Swedish lyrics penned and sung by former Morbid Insulter and current The Third Eye Rapists mainman P. Penetrator. As for the future? “You never know… Jail time, fights, fornication, death?”