I) Hail man! How are you currently doing ? 

I’m fine, thanks. I’m listening to Iniquity’s Serenadium, great album. 

II) First, can you briefly introduce DEVIANT to French metalheads ? 

Well we’re a Swedish band playing death metal. We formed in early 2002 and started rehearsing the same summer. The first incarnation of Deviant consisted of me (Johan) on guitars, Magnus on guitars and EB on drums. We wrote a song together and recorded a rehearsal tape with that song plus two covers. We were pleased with the result (and some people actually liked it!!) so we recruited Alex on vocals and played some shows. In August 2003 we recorded the debut demo and released it in November, I think. Right now we’re trying a new session bassist out and he’s been fucking great so far !! 

III) I attended your gig at the Grand in Uppsala on the 04/01/16. What did you guy think about your own performance ? 

In one word: horrible, hahaha. We didn’t have the time to rehearse before the show and the sound sucked (at least on the stage)… Well, just put on a good face and shred. I guess we played well under the circumstances but we’re sure to destroy a lot more in the future! I’m happy the other bands played well though so at least the audience got something worthwhile. 

IV) When you invaded the stage, I was quite surprised – you look so young and play so fast! So how old are you and how long have you been into Death-Metal ? 

We’re 18 all of us except Erik, the bassist who’s 20. Magnus and me have been into death metal since we were 12 or 13 when we first got Deicide’s Legion. We also pulled EB down into the swamp when he was… 15, I think. So we’ve been into it for five or six years, more or less. 

V) Let’s talk about music right now. When you played the first riff, I immediately recognized a main influence: CRYPTOPSY. Am I right? Do you have some other influences ? 

I could sit here forever and talk good bands that may have had a possible influence on us but yeah, Cryptopsy is an influence but I wouldn’t say a main influence. I think almost anything I listen to end up having an influence on the music but you know we try not to rip too many bands off haha. I’d say, since I’m the only one who has written music so far, that I get my inspiration from almost all kinds of death metal, everything from Death, Autopsy and Possessed to Dismember, Entombed and Carnage to Immolation, Deeds of Flesh and, as mentioned above, Cryptopsy.

VI) What about your lyrics? Do they deal with criticism towards the Swedish society ? 

Not really. They’re written by a guy called Adam Conrad who’s from the US so I guess he couldn’t write much about the Swedish society heh. None of us in the band wants to write lyrics and I don’t think we could either so we didn’t hesitate when he offered himself to write lyrics for us. They’re mainly about death, doom, mental possessions, hell and that stuff. 

VII) Are you planning to record a new demo or a real full-length album ? 

We’ve just started writing new material for the first time since we recorded the demo and as it looks now, we’re probably going to record a full-length album. So far we’ve only completed one new song (yet to be named) and we haven’t decided on how many songs we’re rerecording for a possible full-length from the demo. We’re aiming at writing an additional 5 or 6 songs though. 

VIII) Now let’s talk about Sweden. I heard there were numerous Death-Metal & Black-Metal bands here in Uppsala. Can you tell us more about them ? 

In Uppsala? No. I know there are some bands but most of them are not worth mentioning. Of course, we have Defleshed, but other than that there are no good death metal bands, except Deviant of course hehe. Inception are pretty cool too but they’ve taken a break or something. I’m not too involved in the black metal business so I don’t know really but Watain are originally from Uppsala and so are Sportlov. Two bands that are not playing death or black metal worthy of mentioning are Penile Suffocation (death/grind) and Imperial Domain. 

IX) For a first gig in Sweden, I was really astonished by the apathetic behaviour of people when the 4 bands performed their show. There was nobody head-banging or moving around. Are Swedish fans always so calm and asleep ? 

It depends on the bands, the audience, the venue and the amounts of alcohol really. I’ve seen shows with Entombed for an example where the audience went totally crazy and the other time there was no movement at all. It differs a lot. Usually though when a good band comes here the crowd goes banging. 

X) Well, it’s up to you to conclude. DO you have something to add to the French fans ? 

Thanks for the interview and for the support. I didn’t know we had any French fans but tell everyone you don’t like to visit our website at www.deviantmetal.tk and check us out or order a demo before they sell out, it’s limited to 200 copies and we don’t have that many left. Cheers !!

Johan of Deviant