Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Swedish brutal death metal band MALFEITOR, was formed in 1990 and was active up till1995, then after 15 years’ break the beast was awakened in 2010. Some days ago I talked with Benny Moberg, the band’s founder, and I asked him about the past, today and about the future…

Hej Benny, Välkommen till Metal Shock Finland! Hur gör du idag?

Hej Tarja! Tack! I’m currently having an enjoyable vacation, relaxing with a few beers in the sun.

We could talk about many bands and projects where you’ve played so far, but let’s just touch the topic listing them… and tell me from which band you’ve the biggest memories (leaving out Malfeitor)… and why?

List of bands/projects that I’ve been involved with
1988-1990 – Nexus, a Punk/Death metal school band
1990-1995 – Malfeitor, Death metal
2005-2007 – A few rock and metal projects
2007-2010 – Blood Mortized, Death metal
2010- active – Malfeitor, Death metal
2010-active – Prophets of Woe, Rock/Metal project

The most memories, leaving Malfeitor out, would be the time with Blood Mortized as this was the first time I’ve actually performed and released an album. After a long break from the music scene 1995-2005, I’ve started to work with smaller Metal/Rock projects, both writing music and to learn the “basics” of mixing with the tools. These projects are not that exciting for the public, as it’s rather bad but they are in fact posted on myspace (sorry for that!!! ha ha).

Then I’ve moved back to my musical roots and started the project Corium, that quickly morphed into the band Blood Mortized together with my partner in crime, Mattias Parkkila. We wanted to recreate a little bit of the old Swedish scene, with the “sunlight-sound” on the guitars. We recorded songs for four demos, (they are only available digitally). Anders (Hansson) Biazzi (Ex Amon Amarth) and Mattias Borgh (Crypt of Kerberos) joined the band and we started to record songs for the debut.

In 2009 we released our critically acclaimed debut through Vrykoblast, unfortunately they handled the entire release bad. We were contacted by fans that weren’t able to buy through the label.

In April 2010 I decided to leave the band due to personal reasons. I had to put my focus on job and family for a while, I felt that I became a break pad for the band and their escalated progress. Of “corpse” I kept writing music, but in a smaller scale.

Now I’d like to talk about the birth of Malfeitor… infact the story starts in 1988 when you formed Nexus, as a school band… can you tell me something about those years?

We all went in the same school and shared the same interest in metal, thrash and death metal. Heavy influenced by Black Sabbath, Metallica and some old punk music, we took our first step towards the scene by playing live, in front of a whole bunch of students (with their chins down), at a graduation. We even played a song that the music teacher didn’t find appropriate, we were young and rebellious! hehe. 

However in 1990 you changed the band’s name to Malfeitor, and besides the name also the genre changed… What were the reasons for these changes?

We had some changes of band members, we got more into death metal and wanted a fresh start. It was actually Janne (Rudberg) Björkenfjäll who came up with the name for us. It is Portuguese and means “evil doer”.

But then in 1995 you suspended the band. Why’s that?

It was a blurry time, a lot of partying ha ha…. and I guess that the focus was drawn away from our creativity. We just didn’t find the inspiration anymore, and there were family things involved as well, some of us just had, and was about to have kids during this period.

What can you tell me about the highlights of your early history?

I guess the highlights were the live shows. We played with great Swedish acts such as Desultory, Morpheus and Excruciate. Receiving feedback on our material and watching the crowd go nuts. Also the late rehearsals with Pelle Ekegren on drums, never seen such a relaxed, yet fast and brutal, playing technique. I was stunned each rehearsal ha ha

From 2007 you’re also the owner of Sufficiently Studios. What activities you offer?

This is a small business with graphic design, art direction, photography and music engineering. Needed something to take care of my “need for creating” haha …I’ve done some graphical job for Konqueror records, such as layout to Thanatos “Official live tape” and Mykhorriza’s “Kingdome Lost”. Besides Malfeitor, I’ve also mixed the early demos for Blood Mortized, Birch Mountain’s debut and some other smaller projects.

Then 3 years later, in 2010, Malfeitor got back together … how you came up to this idea of reunion?

After leaving Blood Mortized, my fingers was itching too much haha …I talked to Mattias about bringing back our old beast, we wanted to go for something more brutal than what we have done recently. Then, Janne showed his interest in the idea and joined the band.

Right after, you recorded your 4-songs demo, but you decided to publish it on youtube, with great results. Was it because you wanted to test the waters first or what can you tell me about this choice?

Yes, we recorded a few songs, and instead of chasing contracts to release a demo, we put out the songs on youtube, and we got good response. We just wanted to get it out there. This resulted in a release of the demo “To hell, farewelll” as a cool old school tape on “Till you fukkin bleed”, and a contract with “Hellthrasher Productions” to release both a split CD with the demo songs plus a full-length album.

So, please present me the actual band members and pick up some of their most particular features…

Mattias Parkkila: Big beard, big voice, my partner in crime and a hell of a guy. (Blood Mortized, Stigmata, Excruciate, E.G.Y.P.T, Birch Mountain)
Janne Björkenfjäll: A multitalented, musical wonder, a great guitarist, bassist and drummer. (Mastication, Exumed, Morpheus, Excruciate, E.G.Y.P.T, Birch Mountain)
Benny Moberg: Just a stubborn guitarist ha ha. (Blood Mortized)

On your Official Facebook page you describe that you’re playing “Total Death Metal”… with other words, what does makes your sound so “total”?

Ha ha, just wording, but there is some little meaning behind it. We will not break any boundaries. Maybe there will be some fragments of influences from other genres, but in our way and without any catchy melodies and monster productions, with tight, triggered drums etc  Just pure death metal.

In couple of days, the 1st of July, comes out your first 6 recorded songs on 66 hand-numbered cassettes via Polish label “tillyoufukkinbleed”… what would you like to tell me about this unique release?

6 songs for 66 tapes, that’s enough to be a unique release ha ha …This is our first 6 songs recorded since 1995. Also, this is our first official demo, ever!! One of the songs (the pain collector) will not be released to any other media. If you don’t own it, you will never hear the track, unless you don’t copy the tape or find it as mp3 in züberspaze…

How you’re gonna support this release? touring or with some other ways?

If we were cloned… Right now we are focusing 100% at the split release, and then all the recordings that we need to do for the upcoming full length “Dum morior orior”. All band members have other things going on, so the process is slow. We are not youngsters you know ha ha

As you mentioned, soon you’ll release a split CD together with Birch Mountain -project. What do you want to tell me about this?

This split will contain the 5 first demo-tracks from Malfeitor, along with 5 tracks from Birch mountains debut “Silence is complete” that I produced back in 2010. There was a cool idea to release a split with Birch Mountain, as we all are involved in both bands, in one or other way. The split is called “Dawn of silent decay” and will be released by Hellthrasher productions in August 2011.

And now tell me about your debut full lenght “Dum morior orior” that will come out next year, how it’s proceeding?

As mentioned earlier this is our next focus, we are currently writing new songs and re-recording our demo-tracks to be included on the CD. I can tell you that the full length will be crushing! And if everything clicks, there might be some surprising collaborations included.  

By the way, how you’re organized in songwriting? and what about the influences, where they’re coming from?

For the upcoming album, I write the structure of the song, Mattias adds his flavor with lyrics and vocal-lines, Janne comes up with the brutal rhythm. The influences are coming from many things, hard to explain, believe it is easier for an outsider to point out what it resembles. It could be a mix of everything. I’d really like someone to inform me haha … I listen to everything from early 70’s rock like Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath and Captain Beyond, trough metal, thrash, death and early black metal.

And what about the future of Malfeitor, where would you like to see you in 10 years from now?

In 10 years, I hope that 46-year-old guys have as much fun as today… \m/

And just for the curiosity, what is your favourite food? and who’s cooking it at your home?

Favorite food is hot and spicy food, such as Thai, Indian and Mexican. And of course I just love a grilled bloody beef combined with a glass of blood red wine.  I’m the one that cooks the most of our food, at least for the adults ha ha

Ok Benny, now we’re on the last question… how would you like to close this interview?

First, I’d like to extend a big “thank you” to Tarja at Metal shock Finland, for taking the interest and time in interviewing me! Thanks the proliferation of brutal underground death metal!  Make sure to get one of our demo tapes “To hell, farewell”, only 66 copies out there so this will be a rare collectors item. Stay tuned to our facebook-page for updates and make sure to get the full length “Dum morior orior” next year! And last but not least: Crank it!! Metal was meant to be violently loud! Cheers!

Thanks Benny, it was veeeeeery nice talking to you! Hope to see you soon on stage \m/

Interview by Tarja Virmakari

For more information, please visit: http://www.myspace.com/malfeitorswe – http://www.facebook.com/malfeitor666

Malfeitor – And the sky turned to rage (Demo 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDF7iEJj330