Dr. Living Dead!
Thrash 'Till Death

17.03.2015

Plaid shirts, Mike Muir-style bandanas and masks with enormous teeth – wow, what picturesque guys we are interviewing today! And their music is equally picturesque – a take on classic Bay Area thrash metal mixed with hardcore and crossover straight from the 80s. Bearing this combination in mind, you’ll be more than surprised to find out that the band is actually hailing from Sweden! It’s no wonder that Century Media Records picked Dr. Living Dead! up after two albums and released their third full-length offering, “Crush The Sublime Gods”, in February 2015. The band's drummer, Dr. Slam (everyone is a doctor in this combo) spoke to us about the origins of such a bizarre concept, as well as about its meaning...

Your new album “Crush the Sublime Gods” came out a few days ago. I heard the CD, It’s totally kicking.  You have developed your own sound over the years; you have matured on a musical and personal level too. It’s actually a bit more melodic and darker. You are obviously big fans of Bay Area Thrash and early crossover thrash, am I right? (Which are your favourite albums by Exodus and Testament, for example, since their influence is undeniable and evident in your music?)

Thank you, glad you enjoy the album. We are influenced by a lot of stuff and every member adds his touch to the shit. Favourite albums by those bands would be “Bonded By Blood” and “The Gathering”, but these are not really our main influences when we write. If you want to talk about an influential scene for this band check out the Venice crossover scene from the 80s. Great bands there like Excel and Uncle Slam etc.

Tell me about the new LP. What do we need to know about the recording process, the album title and cover?

That’s our little secret. (laugh) But it was recorded in Soundlab studios, Örebro, Sweden. We wanted a heavy but crisp and clear production and thought it would be nice to try a different studio. The album title is based on the loose concept of the lyrics on this album about breaking free from the powers in the society (or the outer space) that want to control you. The cover was designed by our old friend Andreas Sandberg, who did the previous two covers as well. It turned out great and we are really happy with it.

I have seen your new video, “Civilized To Death”. Where were you filming it? It’s very old school and has a street feeling to it.

Thank you, we filmed it at one of our live shows in Turock, Essen, Germany, with a lot of crazy stage divers and an overall fucking good vibe.

There’s an instrumental on the new album which is called “Salvation” and it has a typical Bay Area melody. There are a couple of more examples from the album, you will name them - the outro is very melodic and beautiful. I really dug it! As far as I know, you got only one guitarist in the band. What about solos then? You act like a quartet, have you thought of getting another one guitar player into the band to sound tighter and heavier live?  

We can’t afford two guitars so another guitarist is totally out of the question. Money is the problem… But seriously the stuff you mention is played by Dr. Rad (bass) and we like to have that stuff on the album, but not necessarily play it live.

You have been around for almost 10 years. What do you think about the current state of thrash and crossover? There are hundreds of new bands coming out every day but very few survive.  Why is that? What drives you personally forward as musicians?

Money, and money.

Do you like being on the road? Who have you toured with? Have you toured with the likes of DRI or Suicidal Tendencies? Have you actually met someone from the old school? (Exodus, Testament, Kreator, some death metal bands etc.)

Yes we love the road, especially if we are in a car or a bus, but not on foot. We have played two shows with Suicidal Tendencies and they were killer. We’ve met a lot of cool people over the years, who we grew up listening to, and it’s always a trip to meet them. Dave Lombardo was a really cool guy.

What are your favourite bands? What’s on your current playlist? What are your current favourite bands?

We all have a very similar and yet diverse taste within the band. Current bands that we really like are Powertrip from Texas and Angelus Apatrida from Spain.
 
Tell me about the formative years of the band. When did you start playing music? What were your influences? I guess it was mainly old school American thrash (Exodus, Testament, Anthrax, Slayer, Metallica) along with crossover thrash (DRI, Suicidal Tendencies etc). Why did you decide to play crossover thrash of all the genres?

Yeah, you are pretty spot on, and for the reason why we chose crossover thrash – we never made a masterplan or anything, we simply like it and it just happened to be what we chose to play.

I heard your first two demos and the quality is killer! (I have to say that the demos are perfect from start to finish!) I actually thought they were albums, when I first discovered your band in 2011. Do you have any plans to re-release them officially?

No, they were demos, and will not be re-released.

On those demos you did a few parodies on Slayer and Anthrax (at least in some of the lyrics and song titles, there was a lot of humour on those records). How do you look back on those tunes now? Do you currently play cover songs or planning to record one?

We like to have fun (who doesn’t) and it’s also very reflective of us as people, but on the other hand you can only repeat the same kind of joke so many times. Those songs are part of our history and nothing that we are ashamed of. Still, our new songs might be a little less about making people laugh, and focus more on making people bang their heads. We are not planning too much about anything, and if we ever feel like doing a cover – we will.

When I first heard you music, I thought you were from America. Only later I found out that you are actually from Sweden which is a bit weird.  Sweden is not the country that comes to your mind first when someone speaks about thrash metal let alone crossover thrash. What fellow countrymen would you recommend for your fans to check out, be it thrash/crossover or other genres of music?

Check out Yngwie J. Malmsteen and the first couple of Europe albums. That’s about it.

You got your own mascot whose name is Dr. Living Dead. The guy looks really cool, he looks like an alien (which he is). Where did the idea (of the mascot and illustrations) come from? And where does the name of the band actually come from? Was it inspired by some old school classic horror films from the 70’s or some comic books?

Our former singer (Dr. Ape) came up with the name and the concept as a funny thing, and for some strange reason people seemed to like it. If you want to know the inspiration behind the design check out a comic book character named The Leader. The name has no real thought behind at all, not really meant to sound overtly intelligent or anything.

I’m a big fan of old school thrash and crossover thrash and it’s amazing that you guys are bringing the spirit of the 80’s back! Why do you think people resurrected the genre which was almost dead 15 years ago now? What is so unique and fascinating about it?

All the money that we can make (like tens of Euros each year). We don’t know, but I guess that people enjoy good music, and good music came out in the 80s (and still does today). Bach and Mozart are still popular guys and that surely must have to do with the quality of the music.

It would be great to see your guys in Russia. Any plans for visiting our country?

We think so too, but unfortunately there haven’t been any real offers from Russian promoters coming through. It’s up to you guys to make it happen.

Thank you very much for the interview. We are looking forward to seeing you in Russia and having some great fucking time! Do you want to say something to your Russian fans?

Check out the new album and hope to see you soon somewhere down the road in Russia!

Dr. Living Dead! on the Internet: http://www.deathfuckingthrash.se

Special thanks to Birgit Luhmeyer (Century Media) for arranging this interview

Stanislav “ThRaSher” Tkachuk
March 16, 2015
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