So, latest news about Malign? You told that the deal with holocaust records was canelled, so what did go wrong with that? Any other deals in sight? Tou also said that your "Blod skall flöda" demo doesn´t reflect your currenr style very well, so what kind is your newer song material?
Well, we´r picking up up some Malign shirts with new motives any day soon and we hope to enter Necromorbus studio within a week to record some material of which the two tracks "Fireborn" and "Entering Timeless Halls" are to be released on single through Pounding Metal Productions. We haven´t rehearsed for three months. but I think we´ll do fine anyhow. Apart from this we are just about to have a livedemo from 96 released by German Insomnia Productions so as you see things are starting to roll after some quite hard times we have experienced lately. Holocaust said that they had been ripped off bys some distributor and couldn´t pay our studiocost so we got to choose from doing that ourselves or getting rid of the deal. Anyway, there wont be a problem for us getting another deal for the fullength. It´s just about finding a suitable label that can stand behind us to at least some extent. We´r not your average BM outfit and won´t ever be. I hear some bands have agreed to let their labels decide their "image" totally, like Abyssos (Don´t know if it´s true though.) which is something we´d ever do. We can´t adjust to fit into market. We are in a league of our own and either you´ll like it or hate it. Many do the latter but that´s just great... There have been some discussions with a very interesting swedish label but we´ll see what happens when they´v heard our new stuff. Concerning the demo (which is NOT called "Blod Skall Flöda" but simply is untitled) I can´t say that we´r ashamed of it but it wouldn´t sound the same if we recorded it today. We still play in the same vein but the material on the demo was composed between 91 and 95 so we do of course differ now. What we do now is I guess more mature- which doesn´t mean melodies or female vocals etc. and even more agressive, majestic, raw and horrific. It´s often compared to MAYHEM´s stuff before and on "De Mysteriis..." but it´s of course not a matter of cloning and I can´t say It´s that similiar personally. It´s simply Malign.

 Would you now introduce us the current Malign members?
It´s me on drums, Nord: Vocals, Fog: Bass and Vonda: Guitar. Malign is the creation of me and Nord and Fog joined sometime early 96, Vonda 97 and I belive it´s definetely the most promising and stable line up since the start. I don´t see any greater reason to say much about me or the others as persons though if that´s what you wanted...

Besides Malign you also play drums in band called werewolf, but you said that the other guy, named Robban moved to country side, so is werewolf still active band? Can we maybe await for some new release in future?
Actually we´r three in Werewolf now but anyway, that is correct. Yeah, Rob moved away almost a year ago and we were quite inactive for a while there. However we´v just recorded a couple of new tracks for the second demo which looks to be released soon. I´m not sure what´ll happen with Werewolf now, I never am. It´s up to Robban to decide. I think we´ll record the other songs we´ve done aswell. They´r actually even better than the stuff on the new demo. However it seems Robban is about to return to Stockholm so we might start working harder again. Well, as I said, I can´t say much about Werewolf, my priority isa always Malign. Werewolf is Robban´s band so to speak.

Your demo kind of resembles me of earlier albums of Burzum, Darkthrone and Mayhem maybe, so did the mentioned bands influence you in a specific way? What do you think of the fact, that very many bands claim to be influenced only by bands, like Venom, Bathory, Sodom etc., though in reality they are only influenced by bands like Emperor, Dark Throne, Satyricon etc. ?
Mayhem before the death of Euronymous (which if you like it or not is what I consider to be the true Mayhem.) would be the only one of the three that I could agree with although we may resemble the other two aswell at times. (I guess, it´s the kind of cold feeling and simplicity what brings early Burzum and DT to my mind -ed.) I don´t know, I´m not really into Burzum or Darkthrone but I like some Darkthrone albums and even some Burzum I admit. I still have his first one somewhere. I´m not saying I´m some Vikernes follower or anything but he´s done some Ok music I admit although I don´t listen to it nowadays. The phenomenon you mentioned about bands saying they sound like the old bands although they don´t, seems to be a rather usual one but I can´t say I care much. We sounded the way we do before this revival hysteria appeared and we never used it for any promotional cause to hitch a ride with  the trend so it doesn´t touch as really. I feel that the events in the underground are quite distant from Malign. We are independent and serious with what we do and don´t take too much notice of the others as they show time and time again to be nothing but idiots. Of course I think you should admit Satyricon or whatever as an influence if you know it is but so many of these bands claim to be black, true or whatecer it may be for totally the wrong reasons. It´s up to them and if they succeed in selling or whatever I can´t say I care. It does piss me off I guess but most things do. This whole "I´m so metalhead" is getting on my nerves but I guess it´s easier to mention old bands who stood more for Metal and stuff instead of Satanism as influences if you can´t stand behind the true Black Metal essence fully. Might be a reason. I don´t know. Don´t get me wrong though, we are of course metalheads ourselves.

When compared to your neighbour country, namely Norway, how do you see your metal scene in there? The situation that used to be, (that people praised Norway all the time)  seems to be changed a lot, due to many boring bands and projects popping up there all the time... What about you´r other neighbour country, Finland?! Any bands here that you do like?
The Swedish scene seems to me to be the best. With that I don´t mean because we have the msot bands but take a listen the upcoming releases of
Funeral Mist ("Deviltry" Mcd/Mip through Shadow records. Soo fucking grim!)
Ofermod ("Mysterion" 7 "ep through P.M.P)
Werewolf ("Horninern Ad Lupus", demo)
Superior (Demo)
and Malign for example and you´ll get the explanation. I can´t say I can come to think naything positive with the Norwegian scene or their bands right now but I guess they have done their share too. I don´t keep very updated with what´s going on there really. The reason they were praised was the crimes and not really because of their musical acheivements although some bands were good I guess. Finland definately seems to be on the raise by the looks of it but I haven´t heard any new bands from there so I can´t judge them. Also, the former Norwayclones in Germany have started getting places. As I said we don´t feel we have much in common with many other so called black metal bands and therefore we don´t pay much attention to them. At the moment I´m actually fed up with most of them, I have other prioritys to pay attention to so my musical interest has suffered from that a quite a bit lately...

Many black metal bands don´t do gigs, what do you think whay is that? But, as far as I´m concired it seems that you have interest in playing them, which is good! Have you done any shows outside Sweden this far? How has the audience reacted in your shows? Do you use things like, blood, pig heads, fire breathing and inverted crosses and stuff like that in your shows?
I can´t say why as I´m not in any of those bands but I guess thet can´t play or something. There must be some band who really don´t want to because of misanthropy and that´s just good and I  undestand them fully. We feel like that sometimes aswell. I have no idea why we perform live actually but I like doing it. It´s been two years since I was on stage last time and I´v changed a bit as person but we´ll of course still be playing live. Our stageshow is what we stand for so to experience us fully I  belive you should do it live. We´r banned from a lot of places and usually something fucks up our plans so that´s why we haven´t played for a while. We haven´t played outside Sweden yet although we´v been on our way numerous times. The audience have reacted differently from time to time and person to person. We´v done quite nprmal "shows" ´til now as Nord was forced to handle both guitar and vox but that´ll change.

You are also the editor of "Scriptures of Malignancy" -zine, so would you tell us something about it? What (if any!) issue(s) is/are currently available? Hmm... you told something, that the thing fucked up with the latest issue...?
Yes, Nord helps me out with it. No issues are available and I can´t say when the third one will be started on. It´ll be very different from the two first ones however. Most people love the mag but I´m not pleased with them at all nowadays. They´r almost too unserious. Another reason why we´ve lost the will to do the mag right now is also the fuck up you mentioned. We lost a whole lot of money on it which sucks totally. We´re not doing a mag to make profit but we´r sure as hell not working our asses off to lose money either.

What do you think of this "regressive" moment in black (and maybe in death) too metal? When we have bands like, Gehennah, Aura Noir, Nifelheim, Bewitched, Infernö etc. ? Some of them are more or less copies of from the bands of eighties, but others play with more an original approach... or what do you think?
I guess I´ve answered most of this question already but I´ll again say that it really doesn´t affect me. I´m not that interested in other peoples music. I almost never buy albums or anything. Gehennah (I suppose you mean the swedish ones?) (yes, of course, though I accidentally did write "Gehenna". -ed.) can be funny when you´r in the right mood perhaps, nice blokes anyway. NIfelheim are great, I recommend their new stuff, whenever that will be released. We recently discussed doing a Malign/Nifelheim show here in Stockholm soon but they didn´t have a full line up and the person who was supposed to play session guitar with them got some complications with the law. I think I´v heard one or two songs with Aura Noir but I don´t remeber if I liked it or not which probably means I didn´t. Bewitched´s live drummer is a cool guy (Hail Buffeluffe!) but I don´t like their music at all. It seems to sell though. Infernö are uninteresting if you´ve heard the originals (And maybe that goes for all the mentioned bands except for Nifelheim.) but I remeber thinking their album was ok when drinking beer. Once again, we are not really a part of that although we have a quite oldschool sound.

Black metal is usually connected with satanism, so what does satanism mean to you? Do you think that there is only one kind of "true satanism" or are you more open minded? Don´t you think that inverted christianity as an ideology is quite brainless thing? (Christianity is shit, inverted or not!) How do you see this "black metal stanism" when compared to more sophisticated forms of it, like the ideas of La Vey (R.I.P) and the other orders who did start from curch of satan for example?
Who am I to decide what is thruly orthodox Satanism and what isn´t? (No one, I think, but that wasn´t excactly what I asked -ed.) Especially in some interwiev about music. (Isn´t it quite usual to discuss these kind of things in interwievs, or what? -ed.) Surely, I belive Black Metal should be connected to Satanism and surely we consider to be a religious band but religion is religion and Malign is music. It doesn´t mean less to me because of that though but I think if you are religious when not playing music or answering an interview (which is what most Bm bands claim to.) you should not even have to think twice if you were forced to chose between the two. Malign means very much to me but religion is more important. All these fuckers who talk about being satanic bands in the same breath they say that they only want to be involved with music. In that case don´t put a label on your music that you do not stand for. Spit! As a band, music is of course the most important thing but for me as a being, it´s totally different. This is hard to explain but I hope you understand somewhat what I mean. I do not support "inverted christianity" if you mean that he ideals of La Vey is that. (I don´t. -ed.) They´r cunts. Humanists. He wanted their "satanism" to become an acclaimed world religion and that it can never be. "Inverted christianity" as an ideology (Ideology? -ed.) is something I support without a doubt if you mean doing it all in straight contradiction to the words of God and Jesus like killing for pleasure, sodomy... etc. Well, I can´t go on as it may be risky. But I´ll just say that everything which causes God and humans in general harm is great but I guess no one reading this will understand shit. La Vey and the C.O.S is about enjoying life and just obeying your human instincts. If you do that (Fucking everyone does that in our day and age.) and then claim to be a satanist you are obviously a totally brainless idiot! Their n"satanism" might be looked upon as "sophisticated" but only because the people who are into it (Rich junkies, redwine drinking bookworms and similiar assholes. Fuckign americans!) but there is no devotion. The fact that they perform black magic does not have to mean that they can be considered satanists. Black magic and Devilworsipping does not necessarily have something in common. However, the word satanist does not have it´s rightful meaning for me. That´s a title they´v stolen so I would rarther call myself a Devilworsipper if you have to give a human name to my religion. On the other hand Devilworsipper is something the so called satanists use as term for unintelligent people so that´s not excactly right. You would misunderstand me no matter what I chose to say as it has different meanings to different people. What I think you call "Black Metal Satanism" should be quite obvious. I think it sucks but I don´t care about it much. If you are a real satanist then you know that it´s not just about hating christians. They are actually no problem bigger than another, although I do hate them. I really don´t feel like discussing this now. As you can see I haven´t gotten anywhere with this answer and I don´t belive this is the time and place to do so either. You seldomly get anywhere with these discussions. I don´t care what people do they still don´t mean shit to me. This was supposed to be about Malign and not me as a person. Stuff like this only gets misinterpeted by idots but you are of course welcome to discuss "deeper" subjects with me if you get the opportunity and if the circustamnes are right. That´s it!

What do you think of all these -forest, -viking, -troll, -winter etc. metal bands? And what about nazism? Or heathen/pagan/viking thing? Or both these combined? Or both of them combined with satanism?
Once again. I do not care and I do not wish to go into the subject of nazism and Black Metal right now. I´ve done it thousands of times so snoop up another interview or something. To put it short. No political views have anything to do in Black Metal. I don´t care if people label their bands as. Black, Forest, Lake, Airplane, Pancake or whatever Metal as long as they don´t claim to be something they´r not. Fuck off! It´s up to you if you want to combine any of the thing you mentioned but remember in who´s name the Nazi act... God! Malign can therefore never be such band as we act in the name of God´s contradiction. Lately, I´v gotten the guestion from a few people why or if we have turned into a Nazi band which is rather amusing. Surely, we are very interested in the ideology, the holocaust and war but tha´s abou it. There is nothing evil about Vikings or forests. History can be interesting and inspiring and so can nature. It can be even beautiful to the eye but that´s it and it has got nothing to do with Satan.

You told that Malign members do practise darkness and obscurity, so being curious I ask you to tell a litlle more about the subject...? Have in any degree studied serious occult things?
With that I don´t think I meant magic but we do practise magic. That´s not of your or your readers business anyway! It´s nothing I´m saying to be unpleasant and it´s not an excuse like I know a lot of bands use it as and I simply don´t care what people think.

Spikes, leather, corpsepaint etc. ... what do they mean to you? Do you see all that as a trend or as a tradition? Do you think that it´s not so important anymore as everyone has these photos where band members stand in the forest with corpse paint on?
I see it as both a trend and a tardition because it is. We don´t use it because it´s trendy of course. It´s not important but it can serve a purpose. With that I mean for me personally and not for sales or other people. Actually I dare almost say it´s trendier to remove the facepaint nowadays. (Hmm... can´t really agree, after how many bands are doing that? -ed.)

Talking about 80´s metal bands, what do you like from; Venom, Destruction, Sodom,Bathory, Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, Slayer... or Manowar, Iron Maiden, King Diamond/Mercyful Fate? What about the new material of some of these bands? Do you like any early swedish death metal? Or Morbid Angel or Deicide maybe?
Damn! What a question. We appreciate many old bands and I guess some early swedish Death Metal. I haven´t heard the new Venom album and I don´t care about it either. I don´t think I need to coment later stuff from Celtic Frost, Destruction, Sodom, Slayer. Bathory has done an ok album now and then sicne their "satanic era", Slayer has done some ok stuff too, King Diamond is still good, Manowar too. Well, you know. Most of them don´t want to change their winning recepies as with many other styles of music and why should they? Shit, I don´t know what to answer. I don´t care about the music circus too much nowadays. I heard the new Deicide album and it was also their usual stuff. Bad lyrics though (yes. -ed.). I haven´t heard Morbid Angel without Vincent yet. About all this you say about people talking music. it don´t really bother me I think in one way it sucks that everyone suddenly is sooooo "metalhead" and shit, but I guess it´s better that they do their human things and stay away from the devoted people. You said yourself that you listen to what you want and that´s good for you. I don´t care (I guess you´v noticed that I don´t seem to care about much but I´m in that kind of mood.), I listen to whatever I think is good and I guess that mostly is older stuff but I know what I am and I don´t need to claim myself through paying million bucks for some cult album like I know a lot people do. However, I´d rather buy a couple of old vinyls that I know are good than some new Bm Cd from Nigeria with Norwegian  lyrics. Get my point? (I think so! -ed.) Yes,  I think there is far too much bullshit in the scene but as I said we´re not a part of it really. It´s embaressing to be connected with these idiots!

Black metal has somewhat commercialised, so do you think that it sis a totally negetive thing? In one Isten -magazine, Euronymous said something about this black metal thing, that it can´t get any worse than death metal, because black metal IS satanic and so on..., what do you think, is it all gone as worse as it did with the death metal trend? And many bands seem not have have anything to do with satanic things, yet they label themselves as black metal... Some black metal people (mostly) say, that true death metal should be dark, evil and satanaic, so what´s the difference between black and death metal then?
It is more negative than positive, that´s for damn sure but it is by no means as big as Death Metal was. Morbid Angel has sold over a million albums and that ought to be an impossibility for true Black Metal band. Well, then again orhtodox death metal is not huge, but it was bands like Cannibal Corpse, Entombed, Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower who stood for the sales and the only bands like Deicide and Morbid Angel were somewhat extreme... Trends come and go but Malign remains that is what matters to me. Ok, Black metals is far too big but actually it´s somewhat wrong to call it a trend. (and the fun thing is that now death metallers talk about how trendy and stupid assholes ALL black metal bands are... -ed.) Not even in comparence with ordinary Metal (Especially during the eightees.) does it reach the same level. Bands who claim to be black metal but aren´t is something I´v said enough about. Then again it´s the same there as with religion. It´s different from person to person what is considered Black Metal / Death Metal. Some only think it´s a matter of vocals or guitartuning and some think it´s the lyrics, the next one may think it´s about how many churches the band members have burned. It´s up to you to decide the difference between Black Metal and Death Metal. The main conception seems to be that Death Metal should have lyrics about death and Black Metal should be satanic. I don´t give much for labeling bands. Malign is black metal, but if you think we sound like pop, that´s up to you. Some say we´re Death/ Black and some say we´r purely one of the two or something different. We used to call it "Svart Jävla Metall" which is swedish for "Black Fucking Metal" (Yeah, Venom...) but then people might not have gotten the point and this other band started using something similiar... That´s another story though.

Now would you tell us something of song composing process of Malign? Do you make riffs and arragements with great care or do you make them in a more "natural" way, just coming up with songs in your rehearsal place or something like that...? About your lyrics? Who writes them and from what they mostly are about?
To date I have done most of our music and lyrics aswell. We share the ideas and I could not do it without the other´s so it´s absolutely not "my project" or anything. I could hardly continue without Nord as it wouldn´t be right except for incase of certain circustamnces and the others are very important aswell. We are unit. The riffs are carefully composed in the privacy of my home mostly and then arranged by the whole band. The lyrics might actually concidered as Death/Black depending on who you are and how you will interept them. I mean, we don´t try to squeeze as many "Satan" as possible (like Dark Funeral seems to do... -ed.) but they are satanic and still often about death. They differ form eachother you know... Armageddon, denial of life... They´r e rather cryptically written but I don´t mean in sense in a cowardly way or hidden in as difficult language as possible. It´s a matter of interpreption. It´s not always up to me to say what they´r about, if you know what I´m getting at.

There is this huge wave of melodic metal bands in sweden, like In Flames etc. So what do you think of them? Do you really see them as death metal bands, like some of them claim to be? I just wonder what makes them death metal? (Though there are some listenable bands among them)
In general I tink they suck. I like Dissection but I don´t count them to the same category as the other Gothenburg bands. I can´t say I consider In Flames to be Death Metal and it´s not at all my kind of stuff so I don´t wish to say much about it. I haven´t bothered listening to all these bands as fame not often means quality within this movement nowadays and I know I wouldn´t like them. They all sound the same. (That´s true! -ed.) Chickmusic! (You should check out the finnish HIM! It´s horrible! -ed.) I agree some of it maybe listenable but there is nothing I see makes it Death/Black. I don´t really know which bands you include in the category were talking about though. (At least it seems you got the point... Those bands which all have same kind of vocals, melodies, riffs and production... -ed.)

Could you describe Malign´s music with...hmm..say, four different adjectives?
I suppose I could. (It seems that someone did misundesrtand something here. -ed.)

Ok, now you are free to say whatever you want, since this is the end!
Forthcoming releases are Live In Uppsala (Cassette) some T-shirts and "Fireborn" (Vinyl). Write for interest in merchandise. I guess I have to apologise for some of my answers. You just caught me in that type of mood which happens quite easily. Hope I´v shed light on some subjects though. That´s about it. True may never die but those who love shall!

Well, that was Malign... Thank you Mörk for this interview! Everyone interested in the band should contact:

M.Lindskog- Stora tenstagr. 8, 163 63 Spånga, Sweden or
N. Tengner, Järingegr.19, 163 63 Spånga, Sweden